| | | | | |  | | By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer, Garrett Ross and Eli Okun | Presented by |  | | JOE BIDEN SENIOR STAFF, announced this morning: MIKE DONILON, senior adviser to Joe Biden … JEN O'MALLEY DILLON, deputy COS … STEVE RICHETTI, counselor to POTUS … DANA REMUS, counsel to Joe Biden … CEDRIC RICHMOND, senior adviser and director of public engagement … ANTHONY BERNAL, senior adviser to Jill Biden … JULISSA REYNOSO PANTALEON, COS to Jill Biden … JULIE RODRIGUEZ, director of W.H. intergovernmental affairs … ANNIE TOMASINI, director of Oval Office operations. -- THE INNER CIRCLE, per BIDEN world: chief of staff RON KLAIN, DONILON, RICHETTI, RICHMOND and O'MALLEY DILLON. Not announced: comms staff -- expect something like KATE BEDINGFIELD and SYMONE SANDERS for the top two jobs. No announcement on Treasury secretary or secretary of State. BIDEN'S COUNSEL: "Biden names former Alito clerk to top White House job," by Alice Miranda Ollstein: "Dana Remus, who most recently served as general counsel to the Biden campaign, will become counsel to the president in the new administration. Before joining the campaign, Remus worked as the General Counsel of the Obama Foundation, and as the Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel for Ethics during the Obama administration. "But it's Remus' experience clerking for Alito in 2008 that could prove especially valuable to the Biden administration as it gears up for repeated clashes with the Court's 6 to 3 conservative majority in the years ahead. … Remus defended Alito against accusations of sexism in a 2013 letter to the Washington Post, calling him 'a good man who serves every day with humility, dedication and incredible intelligence and insight.'" BIDEN TIES FOR SALE … NYT'S KEN VOGEL and ERIC LIPTON: "Corporations and Foreign Nations Pivot to Lobby Biden" TIAA CEO ROGER FERGUSON, who is rumored to be in the running for an administration job, announced he was retiring this morning, and said he would stick around the company until March. SO FAR, BIDEN'S professed mastery of the Senate isn't getting him anywhere with Covid relief -- BIDEN has said he wants a bill in the next few weeks of lame-duck legislating. Sen. RICHARD SHELBY (R-Ala.) -- the Appropriations chair with whom BIDEN served for 21 years -- said this about Covid relief: "I think right now that the Democrats would have to come a long way back to reality with us to get a bill." (h/t the Hill press pool, via The Hill's JORDAIN CARNEY) SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) told a group of us this morning he had also reached out to election officials in Arizona and Nevada about voting processes there -- GEORGIA'S secretary of state previously revealed that GRAHAM called him. -- GRAHAM said the outreach was to Gov. DOUG DUCEY in Arizona, but cannot remember who he spoke to in Nevada (h/t Igor Bobic). OF COURSE, President DONALD TRUMP lost Arizona and Nevada. -- GRAHAM said he wants to ensure that the signature verification on vote by mail is bipartisan. -- GRAHAM said this outreach was in the capacity of a "United States senator who is worried about the integrity of the election process nationally when it comes to vote by mail." ALSO … GRAHAM on when he'll consider BIDEN president-elect: "when Trump concedes or the court cases have been dismissed and the states certify." ON THE HOUSE DEM CAUCUS CALL THIS MORNING … New Democratic members were introduced by their state delegation Democratic dean. … They tested their remote voting system for House Dem leadership elections. … And BIDEN Covid adviser VIVEK MURTHY briefed Dems on Covid. NEW … HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER STENY HOYER has sent a letter to House Rules Chair JIM MCGOVERN (D-Mass.), asking to include whistleblower protection in the House rules. The proposed rule would make it a violation of House rules to disclose "the identity of an individual acting as a whistle blower under processes and protections provided by law." The rule … The letter Good Tuesday afternoon. | | A message from UnitedHealth Group: For more than 20 years, UnitedHealth Group has advocated for universal coverage. Learn more about three solutions that build on the existing system to cover 28 million more people. We're committed to leading in the development of a next-generation health care system. | | | DES MOINES REGISTER: "Sen. Chuck Grassley in quarantine following coronavirus exposure," by Stephen Gruber-Miller: "U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is in quarantine as he awaits test results following an exposure to the coronavirus, he said Tuesday morning. 'I learned today that I've been exposed to the coronavirus. I will follow my doctors' orders and immediately quarantine as I await my test results. I'm feeling well and not currently experiencing any symptoms, but it's important we all follow public health guidelines to keep each other healthy,' Grassley said in a statement. "Grassley, a Republican, plans to continue working virtually from home, according to the statement. His spokesperson, Michael Zona, said Grassley can participate in nearly all Senate business aside from voting." -- GRASSLEY IS 87, and third in line to the president (behind VP MIKE PENCE and Speaker NANCY PELOSI). -- @burgessev: "[Judy] Shelton vote for Fed could be very tight, depending on attendance. But Republicans say she's moving forward and will be confirmed this afternoon. You could see paired votes to make up for covid-exposure absences if necessary, @marianne_levine" NEW … SEN. ROB PORTMAN (R-Ohio) is expected to announce this week legislation authorizing a "large-scale public information campaign" in preparation for a vaccine release. -- "Portman reveals he's enrolled in Covid-19 vaccine trial," by Susannah Luthi: "Portman, who has broken with many of his fellow Republicans on issues like mask wearing, joined a large, late-stage trial of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine candidate almost two weeks ago. He said polls showing skepticism about an eventual Covid-19 shot convinced him that public figures need to demonstrate confidence in a vaccine. "'My hope is that people will stop criticizing the best scientists in the world who are at the FDA — who by the way are following the science — and instead encourage people to step up and be involved in these trials and to get vaccinated,' Portman told POLITICO. … The 64-year-old lawmaker said he hopes the disclosure will help tamp down the partisan fighting that's surrounded development of Covid-19 vaccines and threatens to undermine the best chance at bringing an end to the pandemic." POLITICO EVENING PERFORMANCE … House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY and the GOP leadership will brief at 5 p.m. OUR BAD! … We got some details wrong in this morning's Playbook about BARACK OBAMA'S appearance on STEPHEN COLBERT'S CBS show. They're taping next week in D.C. in person. Obama is doing JIMMY KIMMEL on ABC on Thursday -- that's a virtual appearance. PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION -- D.C. reported 245 new coronavirus cases today, tied for the second-worst day of the whole pandemic. KEY MOMENTS from Senate Judiciary's hearing with Twitter CEO JACK DORSEY and Facebook CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG: "Partisan divides on display as tech faces Round 3 on Capitol Hill," by Cristiano Lima and Steven Overly -- "Twitter: 300,000 tweets flagged over election disinformation," by AP's Marcy Gordon | | | | JOIN WEDNESDAY - CONFRONTING INEQUALITY TOWN HALL "BRIDGING THE ECONOMIC DIVIDE": Although pandemic job losses have been widespread, the economic blow has been especially devastating to Black workers and Black-owned businesses. POLITICO's third "Confronting Inequality in America" town hall will convene economists, scholars, private sector and city leaders to explore policies and strategies to deal with the disproportionate economic impact of the pandemic and the broader factors contributing to the persistent racial wealth and income gaps. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | DAILY RUDY -- "Giuliani moves to join Trump legal team challenging Pennsylvania election results," by Quint Forgey and Josh Gerstein: "Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, filed a petition in federal court on Tuesday to represent the Trump campaign in its controversial lawsuit seeking to challenge election results in Pennsylvania. "Giuliani's petition represents the latest shake-up in the case, after the Trump campaign significantly scaled back its lawsuit on Sunday by dropping legal claims stemming from observers who said they were blocked from viewing vote-counting in counties dominated by Democrats." POLITICO HMM … WAPO: "A NASA official asked Boeing if it would protest a major contract it lost. Instead, Boeing resubmitted its bid," by Christian Davenport: "Boeing's bid to build a spacecraft capable of flying NASA astronauts to the moon didn't meet NASA's requirements, and the company was going to lose out on a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But NASA was worried that the corporate giant would protest the contract award, potentially holding it up for months at a time when the space agency was trying to meet a White House mandate to get astronauts to the lunar surface by 2024. "So in February, Doug Loverro, then the head of NASA's human exploration directorate, called Jim Chilton, the senior vice president of Boeing's space and launch division, to explain that the company was going to lose the contract and to inquire whether it would file a challenge, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. "That call, which occurred during a period when the agency was to have no contact with any of the bidders, is now the subject of investigations by the NASA inspector general and the Justice Department into the integrity of the procurement, according to multiple people. It also led NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine to force Loverro to abruptly resign in May." P-P-P-PROBLEMS -- "Hundreds of Companies That Got Stimulus Aid Have Failed," by WSJ's Shane Shifflett: "About 300 companies that received as much as half a billion dollars in pandemic-related government loans have filed for bankruptcy, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of government data and court filings. "Many of the companies, which employ a total of about 23,400 workers, say the funds from the Paycheck Protection Program weren't enough to keep them going as the coronavirus and lack of additional stimulus payments weighed on their businesses. The total number of companies that failed despite getting PPP loans is likely far higher. The Journal only analyzed the big borrowers from the program, which accounted for about half of the overall loans though only about 13.5% of the total participants. And many small businesses simply liquidate when they run out of cash rather than file for bankruptcy." WSJ FOR YOUR RADAR -- "Pentagon says it shot down unarmed missile in sea-based test," by AP's Robert Burns: "In a first for the Pentagon's push to develop defenses against intercontinental-range ballistic missiles capable of striking the United States, a missile interceptor launched from a U.S. Navy ship at sea hit and destroyed a mock ICBM in flight on Tuesday, officials said. "Previous tests against ICBM targets had used interceptors launched from underground silos in the United States. If further, more challenging tests prove successful, the ship-based approach could add to the credibility and reliability of the Pentagon's existing missile defense system. The success of Tuesday's test is likely to draw particular interest from North Korea, whose development of intercontinental-range ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons is the main reason the Pentagon has sought to accelerate its building of missile defense systems over the past decade." AP | | | | KEEP UP WITH THE GLOBAL HEALTH AGENDA IN 2021: If nothing else, the past year has revealed how critical it is to keep up with the politics, policy, and people driving global health. A new Biden administration comes with the expectation that America will reclaim its leadership on global health. But will it be that easy? What impact could Joe Biden's presidency have on global vaccine access and the international response to the pandemic? Our Global Pulse newsletter connects leaders, policymakers, and advocates to the people, and politics impacting our global health. Join the conversation and subscribe today. | | | | | AP/BRUSSELS: "NATO chief warns of high price if troops leave Afghanistan," by Lorne Cook: "NATO has fewer than 12,000 troops from dozens of nations in Afghanistan helping to train and advise the country's national security forces. More than half are not U.S. troops, but the 30-nation alliance relies heavily on the United States for transport, air support, logistics and other assistance. It's unlikely that NATO could even wind down its operation without U.S. help. "'We now face a difficult decision. We have been in Afghanistan for almost 20 years, and no NATO ally wants to stay any longer than necessary. But at the same time, the price for leaving too soon or in an uncoordinated way could be very high,' NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement Tuesday." AP THE NEW COLD WAR -- "SEC Pursues Plan Requiring Chinese Firms to Use Auditors Overseen by U.S.," by WSJ's Dave Michaels and Alexander Osipovich: "Chinese companies with shares traded in America would be required to use auditors overseen by U.S. regulators or face being kicked off exchanges under a plan being drafted by regulators, according to people familiar with the matter. "The proposal, which is likely to be issued for public comment in December, would address the disparate treatment that applies to Chinese companies going public in the U.S. The firms have long been able to sell shares here, yet their auditors violate a key investor protection: China hasn't allowed their work to be inspected." WSJ BEYOND THE BELTWAY -- "The County With No Coronavirus Cases (and Plenty of Suspicion)," by NYT's J. David Goodman in Mentone, Texas: "Zoom in on the glowing red map of ever-escalating coronavirus cases in the continental United States and you will find one county that has been spared. Only one, from coast to coast. Like a lone house standing after a tornado has leveled a town, Loving County, in the shadeless dun plains of oil-rich West Texas, has yet to record a single positive case of the coronavirus. … "Those who live in Loving County full-time — the U.S. mainland's smallest population, with no more than 169 people stretched across 669 square miles of sand, mesquite and greasewood — credit their relative antiviral success to the landscape and the sparseness of the population. They joke that they were socially distant before it was cool." NYT AFTERNOON READ -- "Can America Restore the Rule of Law Without Prosecuting Trump?" by NYT Magazine's Jonathan Mahler: "The damage to democracy that would be caused by a failed prosecution of a former president is hard to even fathom. An acquittal could also set back future efforts at accountability, and embolden aspiring abusers of authority. Even once he's out of office, Trump is going to be a powerful force in the country's political life; putting him on trial for his conduct as president would be tantamount to putting on trial the more than 72 million Americans who voted for his re-election. "One institution that Biden will no doubt be focused on trying to rebuild is the Justice Department; prosecuting Trump could complicate any effort to restore the agency's reputation for independence and integrity. … If history is any guide, the desire to 'move on' will only grow stronger in the weeks and months ahead. But how does the country move on from a president whose disregard for the law has been so constant and pervasive?" MEDIAWATCH -- Shira Rubin is now the Israel/Palestinian Territories correspondent at WaPo. She previously has covered the region for several outlets. TRANSITIONS -- Gara LaMarche announced he'll step down as president of the Democracy Alliance, following a search process to replace him. … The R Street Institute has added Chris Riley as a senior fellow of internet governance on the technology and innovation team, Wayne Brough as a managing senior fellow on the technology and innovation team and Ashley Nunes as project director of competition policy. Riley previously led global public policy work for the Mozilla Corp. Brough previously was president at the Innovation Defense Foundation. Nunes previously led research efforts at Harvard Law School, MIT and the Department of Transportation. | | | | A message from UnitedHealth Group:   Leading in the development of a next-generation health care system that ensures all Americans have access to high-quality health care. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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