News: Playbook PM: One Moochie away

Friday, October 23, 2020

Playbook PM: One Moochie away

Oct 23, 2020

By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer, Garrett Ross and Eli Okun

THERE ARE 11 DAYS -- one Scaramucci , for those keeping track -- between now and Election Day. That's one more working week before the political dynamics on the Hill could dramatically change, depending on who takes the Senate. And despite some signs of movement, we seem little closer to a Covid relief deal than we were yesterday, or the day before that, or the day before that. Here's the latest:

SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI said she is waiting on committees to come back to her with an update on their work to craft elements of the Covid relief deal.

-- PELOSI to CRAIG MELVIN on MSNBC on a potential Covid relief deal before the election: "I would hope so. And the fact is that the president has been back and forth -- 'Stop the negotiations, oh, I want more money than Nancy, I hope she'll agree with me.' But he has to talk to the Senate Republicans."

-- SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-Texas), via ERIK WASSON of Bloomberg over the Hill pool: "I don't think Speaker Pelosi has any intention of doing a deal before the election, but hopefully we can do one shortly thereafter."

-- A FEW SOURCES TELL US that there will be some progress in committee talks in the next day or so, but state and local funding and liability -- two major components of any agreement -- are no closer to being solved.

BIG DOUGH ALERT: Senate Leadership Fund (Senate R): $5 million from Timothy Mellon, $5 million from Ken Griffin, $500,000 from Boeing, $300,000 from Chuck Schwab, $250,000 from Stan Druckenmiller. Senate Majority PAC (Senate D): $2 million each from Jeff Skoll and Jay Pritzker, $1 million from Mellody Hobson, $125,000 from Jon Corzine, $100,000 from Jonathan Tisch. Trump Victory: $275,000 from Phil Ruffin, $240,000 from Steve Wynn. House Majority PAC (House D): $1 million each from Donald Sussman, George Marcus, John Tu, SEIU COPE and UAW V-CAP.

MIDDLE EAST LATEST … AXIOS' BARAK RAVID: "Israel drops opposition to F-35 deal between U.S. and UAE"

-- ABC: "Trump lifts sanctions on Sudan as he announces deal between African nation and Israel," by Conor Finnegan: "President Donald Trump has formally notified Congress that his administration will remove Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism Friday …

"In a historic joint call afterwards, he also announced a 'very special deal' between Israel and Sudan -- marking the third Arab country to move toward normalizing relations with the Jewish state in an election-season push by his administration. It's unclear if Sudan, which had pushed back on the White House efforts, is formally recognizing Israel or ending hostilities against it."

-- THE OVAL OFFICE had a few dozen people inside together with very few wearing masks for this announcement, per pooler Michael Crowley of the NYT.

Happy Friday afternoon.

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SIREN -- THURSDAY'S NUMBER of new confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. topped 75,000 nationwide -- the second highest day on record. By another count it might have been THE RECORD. The trend lines are pointing up. THE WHITE HOUSE has no plan to contain the spread other than angling for distant herd immunity and protecting vulnerable groups. WASHINGTON has spent several months unable to pass legislation to improve testing or ameliorate the devastating economic effects.

-- "The Price for Not Wearing Masks: Perhaps 130,000 Lives," by NYT's Apoorva Mandavilli: "Universal mask use could prevent nearly 130,000 deaths from Covid-19 … in the United States through next spring, scientists reported on Friday. … The new study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, also offered a rough estimate of the pandemic's toll in the United States: perhaps 500,000 deaths by March 2021, even with social distancing mandates reinstated in most states." The study

-- NYT: "'At Capacity': Covid-19 Patients Push U.S. Hospitals to Brink," by Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio in West Allis, Wis., and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs: "More than 41,000 people are currently hospitalized with the coronavirus in the United States, a 40 percent rise in the past month, and cooler weather that pushes more people indoors is threatening to expand the outbreak still more.

"At least 14 states saw more people hospitalized for the virus on a day in the past week than on any other day in the pandemic, according to the Covid Tracking Project. Seven more states are nearing their peaks. ... Patients are now spread more broadly across the country, with troubling hot spots from North Dakota to Kentucky. More people than ever are falling critically ill in rural areas, particularly in the Midwest and the Mountain West, where they must rely on hospitals that may have only a handful of beds." NYT

PANDEMIC RIPPLE EFFECTS -- "How coronavirus is reshaping America's job market," by Eleanor Mueller: "Just two-thirds of Americans were working for the same employer in September as they were in February, with the rest either landing new jobs or unemployed … Incomes are also dropping, indicating that many of these workers are transitioning into lower-paying jobs. …

"The widespread displacement of jobs has set off a scramble among workers to find new skills and careers — a situation that also presents a challenge for the government as it seeks to keep people employed and off the relief rolls."

-- WSJ: "Coronavirus Deaths, Job Losses Hit Pennsylvania Hardest of 2020 Battlegrounds," by John McCormick

-- NYT: "Out of Work in America": "In March and April, as the coronavirus began tearing through the country, Americans lost as many jobs as they did during the Great Depression and the Great Recession combined — 22 million jobs that were there one minute and gone the next. For months, journalists at The Times and 11 other news outlets catalogued how the dual blows of joblessness and the pandemic were changing the lives of a dozen Americans."

WHAT THE FRACK -- "Union leaders have Biden's back on fracking. But in Pennsylvania, their members aren't so sure," by WaPo's Sean Sullivan: "When Jim DePoe pitches fellow Pennsylvania union members on Joe Biden, he tries to assure the skeptics that Biden would not ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Often, DePoe says, the members don't believe him. They tell him President Trump says the Democratic nominee would end fracking, a move many fear would kill good union jobs." WaPo

NYT'S JMART in Bangor, Maine: "Susan Collins Hasn't Changed Much, but Maine Has": "Senator Susan Collins of Maine seemed to have a challenge on her hands. A Republican running for re-election in a difficult year for her party, Ms. Collins was opposed by a well-funded Democrat with a political base in vote-rich Southern Maine who was hoping to capitalize on the unpopularity of the Republican in the White House. But in that 2008 race, even as the G.O.P. presidential nominee lost Maine by 17 percentage points, Ms. Collins won re-election by over 20 points, carrying every county in the state.

"That was then. Twelve years after what Ms. Collins thought was the most difficult re-election of her career, she is facing eerily similar circumstances — but this time she's in the fight of her political life. And it is what has changed since 2008 in Maine, the Republican Party and politics broadly that could end her career. …

"In an interview on her campaign bus, she acknowledged momentarily considering running this year as an independent — 'it crossed my mind,' she said — but was quick to note that she couldn't easily abandon 'the New England brand of Republicanism.'"

THE PLAY-BY-PLAY GUIDE TO CAPITOL HILL: With the Senate up for grabs, members of Congress are hitting the campaign trail in the final weeks of a historic election. How are the pivotal races playing out? Will control of the Senate flip? Keep up to speed on the people and politics of Capitol Hill with our Huddle newsletter, a play-by-play guide to all things Congress. Subscribe today.

MICHAEL FLYNN LATEST -- "Judge orders Justice Department to verify its filings in Flynn case," by Kyle Cheney: "The federal judge presiding over the criminal case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn has ordered the Justice Department to conduct an unusual review of its filings in the case and certify by Monday whether any have been manipulated.

"The order is a signal of intense distrust between the judge, Emmet Sullivan, and the department, whose filings are typically accepted at face value." POLITICO

WALL UPDATE -- "Trump Administration Races to Meet Border-Wall Goal," by WSJ's Alicia Caldwell and Michelle Hackman in Guadalupe Canyon, Ariz.: "The Trump administration is building new sections of a wall on the nation's southern border wherever it can and as quickly as it can to try to meet the president's goal of building 450 miles by the end of this year.

"President Trump set the goal about a year ago and, to fulfill it, contractors are building largely on land the federal government already owns, including in areas where illegal border crossings have been relatively low in recent years. In some cases, the new wall is replacing a shorter border fence installed in the late 2000s. In other locations, new stretches of wall are being built where previous administrations opted for barriers designed to stop only cars or where the rugged terrain already serves as a natural barrier." WSJ

DISINFORMATION DIGEST -- "What global elections have taught Silicon Valley about misinformation," by Steven Overly

NUCLEAR OPTION -- "Hopes dim for nuclear agreement with Russia before Election Day," by Lara Seligman and Bryan Bender: "President Donald Trump has been eager to notch a major foreign policy election-season win on arms control with Russia — and that prospect looked promising early this week when Moscow appeared to give in to a major U.S. demand. But a top Trump official, and now Russian President Vladimir Putin, are making clear there is still a serious divide between the two nuclear heavyweights. …

"At issue is Washington's requirement that an extension of the 10-year-old agreement include a temporary freeze on all nuclear weapons, including strategic weapons covered by the treaty and tactical weapons that aren't. … [A] number of experts see weakening chances to extend New START unless Russia concedes to U.S. demands or the Trump administration is willing to accept little more than a freeze on paper at this stage and a commitment to keep talking." POLITICO

AFTERNOON READ -- "The Republican Identity Crisis After Trump," by The New Yorker's Nicholas Lemann

SPOTTED on a Zoom call Thursday night to build excitement for the final stage of the campaign, hosted by Vote for Her, a coalition of female leaders that formed to fight against sexist and racist attacks on Kamala Harris: Maya Harris, Anita Hill, Hilary Rosen, Star Jones, Maria Teresa Kumar, Tina Tchen, Holli Holliday, Karen Finney, Sharon Stone, Michelle Kydd Lee, Michelle Hurd, Megan Beyer, Christina Reynolds and Cindi Leive.

MEDIAWATCH -- Clyde McGrady is joining WaPo's Style section as a features writer covering race and identity. He most recently has written for Roll Call's Heard on the Hill. Announcement

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