| | | | | |  | | By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer, Garrett Ross and Eli Okun | Presented by |  | | | HAPPY MIDWEEK. OK -- Here's why you should be a tad bit optimistic about the status of Covid relief negotiations: The two sides are talking, they are exchanging paper, and both sides say they want an agreement. We always thought that the two sides needed a must-pass deadline -- and they have one: the Dec. 11 government funding date. HERE'S WHY YOU SHOULD BE PESSIMISTIC: The two sides really haven't moved that much on the issues, and time is short. State and local funding and liability overhaul remain big, big issues. HERE ARE SOME ELEMENTS TO KEEP AN EYE ON … -- THE WHITE HOUSE AND HILL REPUBLICANS are finally on the same page. Washington's Most Eager Man, Treasury Secretary STEVEN MNUCHIN, said this morning in the Capitol that "the president will sign the McConnell proposal that he put forward yesterday." -- THAT BILL IS A NON-STARTER with Democrats, but Speaker NANCY PELOSI and Senate Minority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER sent an offer to Republicans. Republicans privately grumbled about it -- but they quietly said a little, tiny bit of progress is being made. -- SCHUMER said on the Senate floor this morning that the prospects of passing Covid relief and the National Defense Authorization Bill are a bit "murkier." SCHUMER said the GOP bill "will be even more insufficient than the previous two attempts." -- HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER STENY HOYER told reporters this morning that he wants to send lawmakers home no later than Dec. 11 because he wants them to be able to quarantine before Christmas. BTW: We are told that President DONALD TRUMP is absolutely and completely dug in on vetoing the NDAA over Section 230. -- ANDREW DESIDERIO, CONNOR O'BRIEN and MARIANNE LEVINE: "Congress shoots down Trump's threat to veto defense bill" CDC DIRECTOR ROBERT REDFIELD at a virtual Chamber of Commerce event: "December and January and February are going to be rough times. I actually believe they're going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation. Largely because of the stress that it's going to put on our health care system." The clip WHAT CLINTON WORLD IS READING … GABE SHERMAN spent a year talking to DOUG BAND, the consummate CLINTON WORLD insider and founder of TENEO, about his drifting away from BILL CLINTON … HEADLINE: "CONFESSIONS OF A CLINTONWORLD EXILE": "Clintonworld sources told me that Chelsea grew to resent Band. 'Chelsea hated Doug because he was like a son to her father,' a Clinton friend said. Band took offense that Chelsea treated him at times like hired help. It was a combustible mix that was about to explode into personal grievance. 'As a board member, Chelsea had a responsibility to ask questions about Foundation activities she didn't understand or had reservation about. For some reason, Doug seemed to resent that,' a Clinton spokesperson said. "Around the time Band launched Teneo in June 2011, Chelsea summoned Band and his cofounder Declan Kelly to the Clinton office in Harlem. Band walked in to find Bill flanked by Chelsea and her husband, financier Marc Mezvinsky. According to Band, Chelsea said Band's $2.5 million offer to put her dad on Teneo's advisory board wasn't enough. She wanted Band to give her and Mezvinsky an ownership position in Teneo. To Band, it felt like a shakedown. 'I thought she was kidding or deeply sick,' he told me. Band looked across the table at Bill, but he sided with Chelsea. Band refused to give up an equity stake. The meeting ended badly. A Clinton family spokesperson denies that Chelsea asked for equity." SPEAKING OF THE CLINTONS … JIM COMEY will teach at Columbia Law School beginning in January. His seminar will be called "Lawyers and Leaders." Info | | | | 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. | | | Good Wednesday afternoon. White House press secretary KAYLEIGH MCENANY is briefing at 1 p.m. SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL choked up on the Senate floor when talking about the retirement of Sen. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R-Tenn.), his longtime ally. 33-second clip TRUMP will award the Medal of Freedom to former college football coach LOU HOLTZ on Thursday. More from Nick Niedzwiadek HEADS UP -- "Homeland Security Watchdog to Probe Department's Use of Phone Location Data," by WSJ's Byron Tau: "The Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog said it would open an investigation into the use of mobile-phone surveillance technologies to track Americans without a warrant, the latest salvo in a debate within the U.S. government over the legality of such techniques. "The department's inspector general told five Democratic senators that his office would initiate an audit 'to determine if the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its components have developed, updated, and adhered to policies related to cell-phone surveillance devices,' according to a letter sent last week to Capitol Hill and shared with The Wall Street Journal." WSJ RUN RONNA RUN -- "GOP leader McDaniel to run for 3rd term with Trump's backing," by AP's Zeke Miller: "In a letter Wednesday to the 168 members of the RNC announcing her candidacy, McDaniel said she has the support of Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and House Minority Leader McCarthy of California, as well as a supermajority of committee members — all but assuring her victory." YIKES -- "North Korean Hackers Are Said to Have Targeted Companies Working on Covid-19 Vaccines," by WSJ's Andrew Jeong in Seoul: "North Korean hackers have targeted at least six pharmaceutical companies in the U.S., the U.K. and South Korea working on Covid-19 treatments, according to people familiar with the matter, as the regime seeks sensitive information it could sell or weaponize. "The firms include previously unreported targets in the U.S.: Johnson & Johnson and Maryland-based Novavax Inc., which are both working on experimental vaccines, the people said. The list also includes three South Korean companies with Covid-19 drugs in earlier clinical trials, Genexine Inc., Shin Poong Pharmaceutical Co. and Celltrion Inc., they added." WSJ | | | | 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. | | | | | IN GEORGIA -- "Democrats spend millions to hammer Perdue, Loeffler on controversial stock trades," by Marianne LeVine and James Arkin: "Super PACs run by allies of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are flooding the airwaves in the state. The Georgia Way and Georgia Honor — two newly formed super PACs affiliated with Senate Majority PAC — have spent more than $10 million so far since Nov. 3 on ads hammering Perdue and Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) over their portfolios. "And they're adding two new ads totaling another $5.5 million to their TV buys this week, the third straight week they've hit on the issue … Republicans, however, are dismissing the effectiveness of the attacks and argue that the issue has been litigated for months. New information, they say, is unlikely to sway voters in the next five weeks." POLITICO … Loeffler ad … Perdue ad -- ALEX ISENSTADT (@politicoalex): "Trump's Saturday [campaign] event in GA will be held in Valdosta, per 2 people familiar." WAPO'S JACQUELINE ALEMANY goes deep on IVANKA: "MAGA-ite in Manhattan?: Ivanka Trump's political ambitions seek new home after the White House": "[F]ormer friends, colleagues and associates of the couple believe wherever they live, the first daughter will be contemplating how to maximize her political capital — whether that means an actual run for office, or a gauzier influence in Republican circles in a world where President Trump still holds enormous political sway. … "But any whiff of legal trouble could stand as a roadblock to a political future. … Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former friend and confidante to first lady Melania Trump and a longtime Vogue executive who produced Trump's inauguration and worked in the East Wing, is a third-party witness for D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine's (D) investigation into the Trump inaugural committee. Winston Wolkoff is slated to be deposed next week by the defendants." WaPo THE COLLECTIVE SHRUG -- "As Trump Rages, Voters in a Key County Move On: 'I'm Not Sweating It,'" by NYT's Elaina Plott in Doylestown, Pa.: "[M]any Biden supporters find themselves increasingly comfortable tuning out, moving on and looking forward to January. … For many voters here, worries about the virus, coupled with an overwhelming sense of Trump fatigue, have relegated the president to little more than a postelection footnote. "Sure, these voters acknowledged, Mr. Trump may still hold the power of the presidency and may, in their estimation, have no qualms about abusing it. But when it comes to the results of the election, they've taken to viewing his message as more of a nuisance with a sell-by date than a lasting danger to democracy — the rantings of a sore loser rather than the opening act of a coup by the leader of the free world." NYT NOTABLE -- The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency tweeted out an update to RUMOR CONTROL, its fact-checking page, addressing rumors about "ballot retention and voting system testing." Rumor Control is one of the things that put former CISA Director Chris Krebs on Trump's radar to be fired. KNOWING MARY NICHOLS -- "The California Air Quality Guru Who Taught Business to Love the Environment," by Debra Kahn: "Nichols, a Yale-trained lawyer who first helmed California's air agency in the 1970s, has made a career of bringing industry on board with groundbreaking environmental policies in ways that others have struggled — and failed — to replicate. One reason is that she's better than most at negotiating with industry. Her familiarity stems in part from her 46-year marriage to her late husband, a trial attorney who represented energy firms … "Nichols' ability to convince wary policymakers and industry executives that the environment and economy are not at odds lies at the heart of her success in forging a bipartisan consensus on climate change action in California. And it may be the reason that Nichols, who is termed out as chair of the state air pollution agency at the end of the year, tops the list of Joe Biden's potential picks to head the Environmental Protection Agency." POLITICO Magazine | | | | NEXT WEEK - DON'T MISS THE MILKEN INSTITUTE FUTURE OF HEALTH SUMMIT 2020: POLITICO will feature a special edition Future Pulse newsletter at the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit. The newsletter takes readers inside one of the most influential gatherings of global health industry leaders and innovators determined to confront and conquer the most significant health challenges. Covid-19 has exposed weaknesses across our health systems, particularly in the treatment of our most vulnerable communities, driving the focus of the 2020 conference on the converging crises of public health, economic insecurity, and social justice. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage from December 7–9. | | | | | CLIMATE FILES -- "U.N.: Warmer world in 2020 busted weather records, hurt people," by AP's Seth Borenstein and Frank Jordans: "An overheating world obliterated weather records in 2020, creating an extreme year for hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves, floods, droughts and ice melt, the United Nations' weather agency reported Wednesday. "While the globe partly shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, extremes linked to human-caused climate change intensified, the World Meteorological Organization said in its State of the Global Climate report. … The U.N. is ramping up its efforts for a Dec. 12 climate summit in France on the 5th anniversary of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. The WMO report found that worsening global warming is being seen in all seven key climate indicators, but it said the problem is more than measurements and is increasing human suffering in an already bad year." AFGHANISTAN LATEST -- "Afghan government, Taliban announce breakthrough deal to pursue peace talks," by Reuters' Hamid Shalizi and Abdul Qadir Sediqi in Kabul: "Afghan government and Taliban representatives said on Wednesday they had reached a preliminary deal to press on with peace talks, their first written agreement in 19 years of war and welcomed by the United Nations and Washington." Reuters FOR YOUR RADAR -- ROBERT MUELLER has given his first full interview since leaving public life to season four of the MSNBC podcast "The Oath with Chuck Rosenberg," which launches today. The first part, airing in the premiere episode, covers his early life and career in the Marines. The second part, which will close out the season, covers his tenure as FBI director. The first episode … More from AP's David Bauder WHAT GARY COHN IS UP TO -- "Gary Cohn Plays Hardball With Goldman to Defend Millions in Pay Over 1MDB Scandal," by Bloomberg's Sridhar Natarajan MEDIAWATCH -- Delece Smith-Barrow will be education editor at POLITICO. She most recently has been a senior editor at The Hechinger Report. BOOK CLUB -- Susan Glasser and Peter Baker are already working on their next book: "A deeply reported look at Donald Trump's disruptive presidency, the first real history of it once it's over. We're thinking of it as an after-action report on Trump's war on Washington; it might also be considered a dysfunctional sequel of sorts to this current book. We thank many of you in advance for your thoughts and guidance as we dig into the reporting. We definitely won't be taking seven years on this one…" TRANSITIONS -- McKenzie Wilson is starting as comms director for Data for Progress. She most recently was press secretary for Rep. Abby Finkenauer's (D-Iowa) reelect and is a Jamaal Bowman campaign, Elizabeth Warren campaign and Patty Murray alum. … Dan Nesvet has been appointed a presidential management fellow at DOE, where he will be a congressional liaison to the Appropriations committees. He previously was a senior associate at Cornerstone Government Affairs. WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Jonathan Wolfish, director of research at Legislative Strategies Inc., and Brittany Wolfish, mental health therapist with McClintock Therapies, welcomed Isaac Harrison Wolfish on Nov. 19. He came in at 8 lbs, 3 oz, and joins big fur brother Goober. Pic … Another pic | | | | 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. | | | | | | | 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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