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1 big thing ... Charles Koch: I "screwed up"
Photo: "Axios on HBO"
In his first on-camera interview in four years, Charles Koch told "Axios on HBO" that he "screwed up by being partisan," rather than approaching his network's big-spending political action in a more nonpartisan way.
Why it matters: Koch — chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, which Forbes yesterday designated as America's largest private company — has been the left's favorite face of big-spending political action.
Koch, 85, told me at his home in Wichita that he's disillusioned with his political results, but is optimistic about what he believes will be a less divisive strategy.
Koch said he wants to elect people "who are going to be champions for ... policies that empower people so they can realize their potential and succeed by helping others succeed."
The mea culpa began with the publication last week of a new book, "Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World," written by Koch with Brian Hooks, who has worked with Koch for 20 years and is chairman and CEO of Stand Together, founded by Koch as a philanthropic umbrella.
"Boy, did we screw up. What a mess!" Koch writes. "[P]artisan politics prevented us from achieving the thing that motivated us to get involved in politics in the first place — helping people by removing barriers."
Koch admits: "I was slow to react to this fact, letting us head down the wrong road for the better part of a decade."
I asked Koch: In business, it would never have taken you so long to course-correct, so why the lag in the public square?
"I have made many mistakes in business," he said. "But business is a lot easier because the basic nature of it is not conflict. It's not divisive. ... Politics is win/lose."
Hooks told me the Koch network's new emphasis is on "social entrepreneurs":
"Teachers who are finding new and better ways to help turn their students on" ... people in "business who are empowering their employees to find their gifts ... "social entrepreneurs in communities."
And yet, the spending continues. Americans for Prosperity Action, the Koch network's super PAC, is pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into Georgia, where twin Senate runoffs Jan. 5 will determine control of the U.S. Senate.
Hooks told me that's because the network has long been a supporter of one of the candidates, Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.): "[W]e think that he can actually make a difference if he's returned to the Senate."
Koch said: "The problem with bad speech is not to shut it down, but to have more speech ... to have all different kinds so you have a chance to learn."
Koch said his "popularity contest is for one person: It's to be popular with me, because I've got to believe in myself." He said he makes no apology: "I'm not big into regrets."
"All the divisions today, we didn't create," he said. "They were there before, and they are there after."
Illustration: Biden-Harris Presidential Transition via Twitter
A President-elect Biden tweetlast night consisted of just the new URL for his transition site: buildbackbetter.gov.
The news was the .gov.
After last evening's announcement by GSA administrator Emily Murphy let the formal transition begin, the Biden team has more than just access to money, office space, classified information and secured emails.
Axios' Hans Nichols tells me that Biden's agency review teams will now be able to talk to senior civil servants and look at the books to figure out what the Trump administration has been doing in private.
Why it matters: It's the first step for reversing the rule-making and trying to align Biden's campaign promises with actual government policy.
Between the lines: Sure, there could always be some slow-walking from political appointees. But the departments and agencies are actually run by career civil servants. They will now cooperate.
And they know the bureaucratic layers, language, litigation of Trump's policies — and how to undo them.
What's next: President-elect Biden will announce his national security team(photos in the card above) in Wilmington at 1 p.m.
The picks are meant to look like America, as Biden seeks to assemble the most diverse Cabinet in American history.
🎧 Go deeper: Hans Nichols goes inside the transition with Niala Boodhoo on "Axios Today."
3. Biden's Yellen bounce
Data: FactSet; Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios
A face familiar to Wall Street is back to help steer the country out of a deep economic crisis, Courtenay Brown writes in Axios Markets.
President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate the first woman to be Treasury secretary — Obama-era Fed chair Janet Yellen.
Why it matters: The Treasury secretary wields enormous power in policy on regulations, taxes and the broad economy — actions can either reassure and spook financial markets.
"Investors shouldn't worry that [Yellen] will make off-the-cuff remarks that will spur volatility," Ian Katz, a financial policy analyst at Capital Alpha Partners, said in a note. "She's the ultimate steady hand."
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Six in 10 Americans are dialing back this year's Thanksgiving plans because of the pandemic — cutting guest lists, canceling travel or scrapping Turkey Day altogether — Margaret Talev writes from the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index.
For the first time in our poll, more than half of Americans (51%) say they're likely to take a first-generation COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it's available. College-educated and white Americans and Democrats are driving the trend.
"They have hope," said Cliff Young, president of Ipsos U.S. Public Affairs. "It's not Trump just saying something. It's credible institutions. It's more real now."
The space industry is outgrowing the billionaires who made it famous, writes Miriam Kramer, author of our weekly Axios Space newsletter.
Why it matters: Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson helped put the space industry on the map. But today, a significant amount of growth seen in the industry is propelled by smaller companies.
The narrative that the space industry is a place for the ultra-rich to throw some money around for fun is now being supplanted by the idea that space is a place for a variety of investors and companies to strike it rich.
🛰️ Sign up for Miriam Kramer's weekly Axios Space.
7. Dems' culture war
Photo: "Axios on HBO"
Rep. Tony Cárdenas, who's running for chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told "Axios on HBO" that the DCCC needs to change "overnight" and his colleagues need to be more "culturally competent" if they want to be successful in the next election.
"It's frustrating to me," Cárdenas told Alexi McCammond about Democrats' failure to better connect with Latino voters.
"If we did a better message in Spanish and English to a community that communicates in two languages, we are going to get them to nod their head and say, 'I like this Democrat. That person's fighting for me.'"
9. 🗞️ Times and Post take different digital routes
Data: Axios reporting and public filings. Chart: Axios Visuals
The New York Times and The Washington Post have very different strategies for building the subscription news company of the future, Axios media trends expert Sara Fischer writes.
Sources tell Sara that The Post is nearing 3 million digital-only subscribers, a 50% year-over-year growth in subscriptions and more than 3x the number of digital-only subscribers in 2016.
Much of that growth is attributed to back-end technology investments supported by The Post's owner, Jeff Bezos — including proprietary advertising and publishing software tools called Zeus and Arc, respectively.
The Times, by comparison, has more than 6 million digital-only subscribers —nearly 3x the number it had in 2016.
The Times has leaned heavily into its Opinion section, recruiting Kara Swisher and Ezra Klein not only to write columns, but to launch podcasts.
📡Sign up for Sara Fischer's weekly newsletter, Axios Media Trends, out later this morning.
10. New chip turns heads
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Apple's new M1 chip — fast, power-smart, and literally cool — will pave the way for new Apple devices that could bridge the divide between Mac and iPhone/iPad computing and transform the devices we use every day, Ina Fried writes.
The M1's success is a shot across the bow to Apple's competitors, and not just to Intel, whose semiconductors Apple is leaving behind after 15 years.
It's time for updated regulations to improve privacy standards
We continue to take action to build privacy into our products and give people the tools to help manage their privacy like Privacy Checkup and Off-Facebook Activity.
But there's more to do. We support updated internet regulations to improve privacy standards.
