| | | | | |  | | By Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer | Presented by |  | | | | | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | THIS MAY BE THE ONLY FULL WEEK both the House and Senate will be in D.C. for the lame-duck session of Congress. And the backdrop is grim: The pandemic is hitting its height, the economy is showing some signs of struggle, and society is, again, being tested. THERE ARE 11 DAYS for Congress to put together a spending bill -- either an omnibus or stopgap measure -- to avert a shutdown during the last month of DONALD TRUMP'S presidency. While Republicans and Democrats have agreed to the top-line numbers, there remain significant details to be negotiated. There is also increased pressure from lawmakers in both parties to include economic stimulus measures like the Paycheck Protection Program in the spending bill even if a broader consensus over state and local funding can't be reached. Look for lawmakers to publicly call on their leaders not to adjourn until that happens. STILL UNRESOLVED: the National Defense Authorization Act, which has passed every year for the last six decades. Most lawmakers want to allow for bases named after Confederate leaders to be renamed. TRUMP has opposed any changes to base names. TRUMP, meanwhile, hasn't been meaningfully engaged on any front. He continues to make false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election, but his involvement in legislating is near zero. AP's Andy Taylor on Congress' to-do list WHILE MUCH OF THE WORLD has moved on, TRUMP has an ever-smaller group of Republicans in the Capitol who continue to back him on his outlandish claims. Republican lawmakers can expect to get many questions this week about TRUMP, his continued quest for redemption and whether they support him. Reminder: The Electoral College will certify the results Dec. 14. WaPo's Rosalind Helderman and Amy Gardner on the Wisconsin recount confirming President-elect Joe Biden's win BIDEN has set up a number of interesting confirmation fights, and those will begin in earnest in the next few weeks. -- TONY BLINKEN -- up for secretary of State -- will get pressure from Republicans to detail who his firm -- WestExec Advisors -- consulted for. They don't lobby, so their list is private. -- NEERA TANDEN, BIDEN'S OMB director nominee, will be a brawl. Several Republican aides we spoke to Sunday night suggested even if she makes it out of committee, she will have a hard time getting confirmed by the Senate. There is a chance that Senate GOP leadership will decline to schedule her for a vote. GOP aides are already openly suggesting TANDEN will not be confirmed. JOSH HOLMES -- a former top adviser to Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL -- said TANDEN was a "sacrifice to the confirmation gods," and DREW BRANDEWIE, Sen. JOHN CORNYN'S (R-Texas) spokesperson, said TANDEN "stands zero chance of being confirmed." OF COURSE, if Democrats win in Georgia, they could tell Republicans to pound sand and confirm TANDEN on their own. Good Monday morning. HAPPENING THIS WEEK … JARED AND AVI GO TO THE MIDDLE EAST … WSJ: "White House Aide Kushner to Hold Talks in Saudi Arabia, Qatar," by Dion Nissenbaum and Summer Said: "Mr. Kushner and his team are hoping to use their dwindling political leverage to advance issues of U.S. interest, with a particular focus on resolving the three-year-old rift between Qatar and its Gulf neighbors, including Riyadh, the officials said. "The trip could mark the last time that Mr. Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law, meets as a White House official with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after a four-year relationship that brought substantive political changes in the Middle East. … A main focus of the talks will be resolving the dispute over Qatari flights flying over Saudi Arabia and the UAE, said U.S. and Gulf officials." | | | | A message from PhRMA: Today, there are several promising vaccine candidates in stage three clinical trials. These trials have tens of thousands of participants, from every walk of life. From development to robust clinical trials, and throughout manufacturing, these vaccine candidates follow the same rigorous process of other vaccines that have saved millions of lives. More. | | | ANITA KUMAR: "Behind Trump's final push to limit immigration": "Donald Trump is not done with immigration yet. "Since Election Day, the president's staffers have pushed through changes that make it easier to deny visas to immigrants, lengthened the citizenship test and appointed new members to an immigration policy board. "Some aides even urged Trump to sign an executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants, said two people familiar with the discussions — a legally dubious tactic given that birthright citizenship is enshrined in the Constitution. A third person said the idea had recently been dismissed. "The moves amount to an 11th-hour attempt to solidify the Trump administration's legacy on immigration, which started with a sweeping ban on travel from Muslim-majority countries, swerved into scandal over family separation at the border and solidified with severe reductions on refugees and temporary foreign workers. Now, the focus is on putting a bind on President-elect Joe Biden, making it harder for him to reverse these politically fraught issues, according to half a dozen people familiar with the changes." BIDEN ANKLE UPDATE … AP: "Biden breaks foot while playing with dog, to wear a boot," by Alexandra Jaffe in Wilmington, Del.: "President-elect Joe Biden will likely wear a walking boot for the next several weeks as he recovers from breaking his right foot while playing with one of his dogs, his doctor said. Biden suffered the injury on Saturday and visited an orthopedist in Newark, Delaware, on Sunday afternoon, his office said. "'Initial x-rays did not show any obvious fracture,' but medical staff ordered a more detailed CT scan, his doctor, Kevin O'Connor, said in a statement. The subsequent scan found tiny fractures of two small bones in the middle of his right foot, O'Connor said." AP HAPPENING TODAY: BIDEN and VP-elect KAMALA HARRIS will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing for the first time. They will also meet with transition advisers. BIDEN NAMES COMMS TEAM … JEN PSAKI will serve as White House press secretary. While Psaki has been leading the confirmation team for Biden's transition, her name was not mentioned as frequently as SYMONE SANDERS or KATE BEDINGFIELD for the podium job. The decision will likely also frustrate some Democrats who had hoped BIDEN would pick a person of color for the position. HOWEVER, in many ways it makes sense: PSAKI has served as BARACK OBAMA'S White House comms director and State Department spokesperson for then-Secretary JOHN KERRY. She has great relationships with the media and will be a calming figure for a team still finding its footing in the early days of a presidency. -- MORE BIDEN SENIOR PRESS STAFF: BEDINGFIELD was named White House comms director, where she will continue to lead BIDEN'S messaging and press strategy. PHIL TOBAR will be deputy White House comms director. KARINE JEAN-PIERRE will be principal deputy press secretary. ASHLEY ETIENNE, former comms director and senior advisor to Speaker NANCY PELOSI, will be comms director for HARRIS. SANDERS will be senior adviser and chief spokesperson for the VP. ELIZABETH ALEXANDER will be comms director for the first lady. IT'S WORTH NOTING: The Biden White House will have women in all of the top slots of its comms operation. More from WaPo's Annie Linskey and Jeff Stein BIDEN STAFFING SCOOP -- BEN WHITE: "Biden will tap Deese to be top White House economic adviser": "President-elect Joe Biden has settled on senior Obama administration official and current investment executive Brian Deese as his top economic adviser in the White House, though the announcement may not come until later this week. People close to Biden's transition confirmed that Deese, an executive at investment giant BlackRock, is Biden's pick for director of the National Economic Council in the White House." -- MEGAN CASSELLA, BEN WHITE and TYLER PAGER: "Biden unveils diverse economic team as challenges to economy grow": "After facing criticism for the lack of diversity in his first round of hires, President-elect Joe Biden plans to announce three people of color for leading positions on his economic team. According to two people close to Biden's presidential transition, he is expected to name Cecilia Rouse, an African American economist at Princeton University, to lead the Council of Economic Advisers. "Adewale 'Wally' Adeyemo, a Nigerian-born attorney and former senior international economic adviser during the Obama administration, will serve as deputy Treasury secretary under former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who Biden plans to appoint to lead the Treasury Department. And as director of the Office of Management and Budget, Biden plans to nominate Neera Tanden, president of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, and a former senior policy adviser to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaigns. Tanden is Indian American. "Biden also plans to name longtime economic aides Heather Boushey and Jared Bernstein to serve on the CEA, according to people familiar with the plans. Both Boushey and Bernstein are white." NYT, A1: "One Seat, Competing Pressures as Newsom Considers Senate Pick," by Shawn Hubler in Sacramento and Alex Burns in Rehoboth Beach, Del.: "Since Gavin Newsom's days as a young upstart running for mayor of San Francisco through more than two decades of public life, Alex Padilla has been a stalwart ally. "As president of the Los Angeles City Council, Mr. Padilla introduced Mr. Newsom to important local labor and Latino leaders. As a state senator, Mr. Padilla chaired Mr. Newsom's short-lived first campaign for governor. And as California secretary of state, Mr. Padilla conferred a key early endorsement that helped Mr. Newsom win the governor's seat in 2018. "Now Mr. Newsom is in a position to return the favor: He must appoint someone to fill the soon-to-be-vacant U.S. Senate seat of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Though many names have been floated to succeed Ms. Harris, Mr. Padilla has emerged as the front-runner, according to more than a half-dozen advisers, political consultants and fellow lawmakers familiar with the governor's thinking. Yet nearly a month after Ms. Harris's election, Mr. Newsom has not yet named a successor -- and the pressure is mounting." | | | | A message from PhRMA:   America's biopharmaceutical companies are working day and night until they defeat COVID-19. Because science is how we get back to normal. | | | THE NEW CONGRESS … "'They'll freeze them out': Democrats fear Senate Republicans will block Biden's judges," by Marianne LeVine: "It's not just the Senate majority on the line in Georgia's runoffs. It's also Joe Biden's chance to reshape the courts. Should Senate Republicans win the fight to keep their majority, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will have unilateral authority to stifle Biden's picks to the federal judiciary, weakening Democrats' hopes to make up for four years of confirming conservative judges and two years of a McConnell blockade during President Barack Obama's final years. "While an increasing number of Republicans say they're willing to work with Biden on his Cabinet nominees, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin isn't holding out much hope for GOP cooperation on judicial nominees. In an interview, Durbin, who is vying for the top spot on the Judiciary Committee, predicted Biden will have 'very little' impact on the federal judiciary if Republicans keep the Senate in January and remained skeptical they'd approve his appointments to the federal bench. 'If the last two years of the Obama administration were any indication, they'll freeze them out,' Durbin said. 'Hope springs eternal but I believe in history.'" POLITICO TRUMP'S MONDAY -- The president will have lunch with VP MIKE PENCE at 12:30 p.m. in the private dining room. PENCE will also lead a governors' video teleconference on Covid-19 at 2 p.m. in the Situation Room. | | | | TRACK THE TRANSITION: President-elect Biden has started to form a Cabinet and announce his senior White House staff. The appointments and staffing decisions made in the coming days send clear-cut signals about Biden's priorities. Transition Playbook is the definitive guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, it tracks the appointments, people, and the emerging power centers of the new administration. Track the transition and the first 100 days of the incoming Biden administration. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | | 
PHOTO DU JOUR: Medical staffers in a Houston intensive care unit set up a helmet-based ventilator for a Covid-19 patient Sunday. | Go Nakamura/Getty Images | WILD STORY … FT: "Machine guns and a hit squad: the killing of Iran's nuclear mastermind," by Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran and Mehul Srivastava in Tel Aviv: "The hit squad behind last week's deadly attack on the man long thought to be the mastermind of Iran's alleged military nuclear programme left nothing to chance. "As nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh's black Nissan sedan car approached a boulevard in the Damavand region, about 60km from the capital Tehran, an automatic machine gun, installed inside a blue pick-up truck parked under an electric transmitter, began firing. "The pick-up truck, packed with explosives, was then detonated by remote control. Assailants then opened fire, according to Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, a nuclear scientist who survived an attempt on his life in 2010, and domestic media. Javad Mogouei, a documentary maker close to hardliners, said there were as many as 12 attackers, including those on motorbikes, in a Hyundai SUV as well as hidden snipers." -- IRAN says the assassination was conducted remotely. AP THE CORONAVIRUS CONTINUES TO RAGE … 13.3 MILLION Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus. … 266,875 Americans have died. -- "Trump administration leaves states to grapple with how to distribute scarce vaccines," by Sarah Owermohle, Rachel Roubein and Zachary Brennan: "The Trump administration is shunting to the states hard decisions about which Americans will get the limited early supplies of coronavirus vaccines — setting up a confusing patchwork of distribution plans that could create unequal access to the life-saving shots. "Federal and state officials agree that the nation's 21 million health care workers should be first in line. But there is no consensus about how to balance the needs of other high-risk groups, including the 53 million adults aged 65 or older, 87 million essential workers and more than 100 million people with medical conditions that increase their vulnerability to the virus." -- "Biden's chief of staff has battled pandemics before. Here's how he plans to beat this one," by Alice Miranda Ollstein -- "New York City Will Reopen Elementary Schools and Reduce Hybrid Learning," by NYT's Eliza Shapiro | | | | A message from PhRMA:   America's biopharmaceutical companies are working day and night to defeat COVID-19. | | | IN GEORGIA -- "Donald Trump Jr. aides launch super PAC as Georgia worries mount," by Alex Isenstadt: "Advisers to Donald Trump Jr. are launching a super PAC to prod the president's supporters to vote in the upcoming Georgia Senate runoffs, as Republicans grow concerned that Trump's backers will boycott the elections. "The group, Save the U.S. Senate PAC, will this week start airing commercials featuring Trump Jr. and aimed at mobilizing Trump backers across Georgia. A person familiar with the plans said it would be the first in a series of commercials spotlighting Donald Trump Jr. ahead of the … Jan. 5 vote, which will decide control of the Senate. "The super PAC will air its ads only on conservative radio and TV stations to reach Trump loyalists. The organization is investing six figures to run the first ads on radio stations statewide, and later this week it will begin cutting TV and digital commercials with the younger Trump." POLITICO -- AP'S ELANA SCHOR and BEN NADLER with an Atlanta dateline: "Faith takes the forefront as Georgia Senate runoffs heat up" BEN SMITH'S NYT MEDIA EQUATION COLUMN … CHRIS RUDDY … "The King of Trump TV Thinks You're Dumb Enough to Buy It" LOOKING AHEAD -- ALLY MUTNICK: "The House members already facing the redistricting chopping block": "The 2020 elections were ugly. The redistricting battles of the next two years will be even more brutal. The decennial process will produce hundreds of new congressional districts, turning safe seats into hotly contested battlegrounds, forcing colleagues into cutthroat internecine wars and spurring a cascade of early retirements. Ultimately it will determine the balance of power in Congress for the next decade, and both parties are gearing up for the fight." BUSINESS BURST -- "Black Friday Was a Bust for Many Stores, Better for Online," by WSJ's Sarah Nassauer and Suzanne Kapner: "U.S. shoppers went online to purchase holiday gifts and score Black Friday deals they once crowded into malls to grab, as the coronavirus pandemic accelerated the yearslong remaking of the U.S. retail landscape. "Roughly half as many people visited stores on Black Friday as they did last year, according to research firms that track foot traffic. Meanwhile, online spending jumped 22% from a year ago, making it the second-best online shopping day ever measured by Adobe Analytics. "It is unclear whether an early start to the holiday shopping season, the online Black Friday surge and an expected record day on Cyber Monday will be enough to offset the money lost from in-person shopping for many chains." | | | | TUNE IN TO OUR GLOBAL TRANSLATIONS PODCAST: The world has long been beset by big problems that defy political boundaries, and these issues have exploded in 2020 amid a global pandemic. Global Translations podcast, presented by Citi, unpacks the roadblocks to smart policy decisions and examines the long-term costs of the short-term thinking that drives many political and business decisions. Subscribe for Season Two, available now. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com. TRANSITIONS -- Matthew Yglesias is joining the Niskanen Center as a senior fellow. He is the author of the Slow Boring newsletter and host of "The Weeds" podcast, and most recently was at Vox. … Ken Farnaso is returning to Sen. Tim Scott's (R-S.C.) comms team. He previously was deputy national press secretary for the Trump campaign. … … Allie Owen will be finance director for Matriarch PAC, a 501(c)(4) backing progressive working women candidates. She previously was campaign board manager for the LGBTQ Victory Fund. … Eddie Evans is now director of global comms at Jenner & Block in New York. He previously was director of comms at Boies Schiller Flexner. ENGAGED -- Allison Tinsey, counsel for governmental affairs for the Senate Homeland Security Federal Spending Oversight Subcommittee Dems, and Josh Abbott, a postdoctoral fellow at NIH NCATS, got engaged Saturday. They started dating at Kalamazoo College and began living together and working from home in D.C. at the beginning of the pandemic. Pic … Another pic WEEKEND WEDDINGS -- Blake Murphy, associate general counsel at the NRCC, and Susan Webster, analyst at the Blackstone Group, got married in Tampa, Fla., on Saturday. They met at the University of Florida. Pic -- Jeremy Massey, a recent alum of Priorities USA and the campaigns of Kirsten Gillibrand and Bob Casey, and Hayley Kaplan, events manager for the National Skills Coalition, got married Sunday in a virtual ceremony at their home in D.C. They met in 2015 in New York when they were set up by a mutual friend. Pic WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Stephen Miller, assistant to the president and senior adviser, and Katie Miller, deputy assistant to the president and comms director for VP Mike Pence, welcomed Mackenzie Jay Miller on Nov. 19. Pic … Another pic BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Jodi Rudoren, editor-in-chief of The Forward. A trend she thinks doesn't get enough attention: "'Secular' religion. Like people building community or identity through Jewish food. Or creating singing groups that nourish them spiritually. Or doing meal trains for people who are going through illness or loss. Or Peloton's 'Sundays With Love,' which I just wrote this column about on Friday." Playbook Q&A BIRTHDAYS: Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) is 65 … CNN's Andrew Kaczynski, Erica Orden and Lauren Pratapas … South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is 49 … Larry Summers is 66 … Alex Clearfield, associate editor for National Journal … Sergio Gor … Scott Erickson, DHS deputy chief of staff … Michael Beschloss … Steve Haro … William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents … Amijah Townsend-Holmes … Travis Waldron, enterprise reporter for HuffPost … James Sonne … Sean Higgins (h/t Sarah Mucha) … Staci Rhoads … … Reuters' Jonathan Landay … Rudy Takala is 32 … POLITICO's Andy Glass … Jason Miner … Amy Pritchard (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Crystal Carson … Sam Jacobson … Edelman's Ben Mahler … G. Gordon Liddy … former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is 63 … Alec Ross … Tom McGean … David Bender (h/t Jon Haber) … Conor Hall … Emil Steiner is 42 … Toby Graff … Marshall "Taco" Cohen of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy is 27 (h/t Robin Reck) … Martin Kifer … Karen Hanretty … Jocelyn Quinn (h/t mom Susanna) | | | | A message from PhRMA: America's biopharmaceutical companies are making great progress against a common enemy – COVID-19. They're learning from successful vaccines for other diseases, developing new treatments and collaborating like never before.
Today, there are several promising vaccine candidates in stage three clinical trials. These trials have tens of thousands of participants, from every walk of life. From development to robust clinical trials, and throughout manufacturing, these vaccine candidates follow the same rigorous process of other vaccines that have saved millions of lives.
America's biopharmaceutical companies are working day and night until they defeat COVID-19. Because science is how we get back to normal. | | | | | | | 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 political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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