News : POLITICO Playbook: Trump absent while Congress works around the clock

Saturday, December 12, 2020

POLITICO Playbook: Trump absent while Congress works around the clock

Dec 12, 2020

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By Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman

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DRIVING THE DAY

THIS PRESIDENCY has been filled with hard-to-believe split screens, but we're seeing perhaps the starkest display of dissonance yet. CONGRESS has been working around the clock to cut a series of end-of-year deals, and President DONALD TRUMP is on an unending tear of falsehoods, suggesting that he is the rightful winner of the election, which, of course, he's not. He's losing support -- Republicans are sick of the gripes, the Supreme Court is summarily dismissing his arguments, and the nation's governing apparatus is preparing for JOE BIDEN'S presidency.

CONGRESS, meanwhile, has spent this week and will spend next week trying to put in place a series of policies to help America bounce back from the coronavirus. It avoided a government shutdown, with the intent of giving itself more time to cut a bipartisan deal. Yet TRUMP has been absent -- a bit player in a government he's meant to be steering and a country he's meant to be leading.

6 DAYS until the end of the legislative session. … 39 days until BIDEN takes office.

BIG NEWS … SCOTUS DOOR SLAMS ON TRUMP -- NYT'S ADAM LIPTAK: "Supreme Court Rejects Texas Suit Seeking to Subvert Election": "The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a lawsuit by Texas that had asked the court to throw out the election results in four battleground states that President Trump lost in November, ending any prospect that a brazen attempt to use the courts to reverse his defeat at the polls would succeed.

"The court, in a brief unsigned order, said Texas lacked standing to pursue the case, saying it 'has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections.'

"The order, coupled with another one on Tuesday turning away a similar request from Pennsylvania Republicans, signaled that a conservative court with three justices appointed by Mr. Trump refused to be drawn into the extraordinary effort by the president and many prominent members of his party to deny his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., his victory. It was the latest and most significant setback for Mr. Trump in a litigation campaign that was rejected by courts at every turn."

FROM 30,000 FEET: "'An Indelible Stain': How the G.O.P. Tried to Topple a Pillar of Democracy," by NYT's Jim Rutenberg and Nick Corasaniti

THIS MORNING, TRUMP has been on a Twitter tear, tweeting that he agrees with a radio host that he should declassify materials, asking whether Arizona Gov. DOUG DUCEY or Georgia Gov. BRIAN KEMP is worse and ranting about both Attorney General BILL BARR and the BIDENS.

FOR THE RECORD: TRUMP has not tweeted about the pandemic.

WHILE MOST OF AMERICA and even most of Congress has moved on from the election, Sen. RON JOHNSON (R-Wis.) is continuing to back the president, saying the election isn't over. He plans to hold a controversial hearing that has been criticized by senators of both parties next week.

-- CNN'S MANU RAJU: "Ron Johnson to bring Ken Starr to testify at controversial hearing on 2020 elections"

Good Saturday morning.

THE CORONAVIRUS CONTINUES TO RAGE … 15.8 MILLION Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus. … 295,539 Americans have died.

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The coronavirus pandemic has magnified racial health disparities to deadly proportions. See how Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies are working in local communities to reduce disparities and address social determinants of health.

THE LATEST ON THE VACCINE -- AP: "U.S. allows emergency COVID-19 vaccine in bid to end pandemic," by Lauran Neergaard, Matthew Perrone and Jonathan Lemire: "The U.S. gave the final go-ahead Friday to the nation's first COVID-19 vaccine, marking what could be the beginning of the end of an outbreak that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans.

"Shots for health workers and nursing home residents are expected to begin in the coming days after the Food and Drug Administration authorized an emergency rollout of what promises to be a strongly protective vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech.

"Initial doses are scarce and rationed as the U.S. joins Britain and several other countries in scrambling to vaccinate as many people as possible ahead of a long, grim winter. It will take months of work to tamp down the coronavirus that has surged to catastrophic levels in recent weeks and already claimed 1.5 million lives globally."

-- WAPO: "Cargo carriers are poised to begin deliveries of the coronavirus vaccine," by Lori Aratani

-- WSJ: "How Pfizer Delivered a Covid Vaccine in Record Time: Crazy Deadlines, a Pushy CEO," by Jared Hopkins

BIDEN MAKING MOVES ON VIRUS -- "Biden starts countering Trump's messaging on vaccine," by Rachel Roubein and Dan Goldberg: "President-elect Joe Biden's team is feverishly working to get a messaging plan in place to sell a skeptical public on the first FDA-backed coronavirus vaccine, believing the Trump administration has set the effort back significantly.

"Biden implied on Friday that he's not going to wait until he takes office to start counteracting Trump's mixed messaging on the vaccine, which includes downplaying the public health threat of the coronavirus while hailing the unprecedented speed at which a shot was developed. 'We're in the teeth of the crisis right now,' the president-elect said while introducing a group of Cabinet nominees and administration picks. 'This nation needs presidential leadership right now. … You know, we can wish this away, but we have to face it head on.'

"With the first shots being prepared for delivery to states next week, Biden's team is already laying the groundwork for a public education campaign by placing scientists in top posts — and promising to defer to them — and putting an intensive focus on getting the vaccine to underserved populations, according to public health experts who've spoken with the transition."

WAPO SCOOP: "Sidney Powell's secret 'military intelligence expert,' key to fraud claims in election lawsuits, never worked in military intelligence," by Emma Brown, Aaron Davis and Alice Crites: "The witness is code-named 'Spyder.' Or sometimes 'Spider.' His identity is so closely guarded that lawyer Sidney Powell has sought to keep it even from opposing counsel. And his account of vulnerability to international sabotage is a key part of Powell's failing multistate effort to invalidate President-elect Joe Biden's victory.

"Powell describes Spyder in court filings as a former 'Military Intelligence expert,' and his testimony is offered to support one of her central claims. In a declaration filed in four states, Spyder alleges that publicly available data about server traffic shows that voting systems in the United States were 'certainly compromised by rogue actors, such as Iran and China.' Spyder, it turns out, is Joshua Merritt, a 43-year-old information technology consultant in the Dallas area. Merritt confirmed his role as Powell's secret witness in phone interviews this week with The Washington Post.

"Records show that Merritt is an Army veteran and that he enrolled in a training program at the 305th Military Intelligence Battalion, the unit he cites in his declaration. But he never completed the entry-level training course, according to Meredith Mingledorff, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence, which includes the battalion. 'He kept washing out of courses,' said Mingledorff, citing his education records. 'He's not an intelligence analyst.'"

THE HUNTER PROBE -- "Material From Giuliani Spurred a Separate Justice Dept. Pursuit of Hunter Biden," by NYT's Adam Goldman, Katie Benner and Ben Protess: "As federal investigators in Delaware were examining the finances of Hunter Biden during his father's campaign for president, a similar inquiry ramped up this year in Pittsburgh, fueled by materials delivered by President Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani.

"Attorney General William P. Barr had asked the top federal prosecutor in Pittsburgh, Scott W. Brady, to accept and vet any information that Mr. Giuliani had on the Biden family, including Hunter Biden. Mr. Brady hosted Mr. Giuliani for a nearly four-hour meeting in late January to discuss his materials.

"The arrangement immediately raised alarms within the F.B.I. and the Justice Department. Mr. Giuliani had served as Mr. Trump's attack dog during the Russia investigation before becoming the face of an effort to tarnish Hunter Biden during President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s campaign. If Mr. Brady's investigation became public, the agents feared that the F.B.I. could be drawn into a politically toxic battle in the midst of the presidential election, just as it was in 2016."

MEANWHILE -- "Trump Pursues Appointing Special Counsel to Probe Election, Hunter Biden," by WSJ's Aruna Viswanatha, Rebecca Ballhaus and Sadie Gurman: "President Trump has expressed interest in pursuing the appointment of a special counsel to investigate allegations of fraud in the November elections and issues related to Hunter Biden, according to people familiar with the matter.

"In recent days, the president has directed advisers to look for people who could serve in such a position, one of the people said, as lawsuits and other efforts by Mr. Trump and his campaign to reverse the election results founder. White House officials and allies of the president on Capitol Hill and elsewhere have also pushed for the appointment of a special counsel, another person familiar with the discussions said.

"White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has told people that the president is interested in pursuing a special counsel to investigate election fraud and wants to act quickly, one of the people said."

SMART PIECE -- JOSH GERSTEIN and KYLE CHENEY: "Hunter probe complicates Joe Biden's attorney general pick": "Joe Biden's Justice Department-to-be has a Hunter Biden problem. The ongoing federal investigation into the president-elect's son is already fueling debate among DOJ veterans about extraordinary steps Joe Biden's yet-to-be-named attorney general may have to take to insulate the department from the appearance of political bias.

"In addition to the Hunter investigation, Joe Biden's attorney general will confront tricky questions about how to handle lingering probes of President Donald Trump and his associates, as well as navigate the landmines left by the outgoing administration — including a special counsel probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.

"In interviews, the former DOJ officials say not all of Biden's short-listers are equally equipped to handle that thorny dynamic. And they say Biden's pick may want to consider changes to how the department handles politically sensitive cases more broadly to reestablish the department's independence after years of erosion under Trump. And that pick has to have the credibility to do so.

"'Make believe this is Watergate,' said Nick Akerman, a former federal prosecutor involved in the Nixon-era prosecutions. 'Find the person everybody is going to agree is above reproach, no one's going to second guess their decisions or the integrity of their decisions. It's time to take the real hard politics out of the department.'"

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TRUMP'S SATURDAY -- The president will leave the White House at 12:15 p.m. en route to West Point, N.Y., for the Army-Navy football game. He will arrive at Michie Stadium at 2:25 p.m. and attend the game. Afterward, he will return to Washington. He will arrive at the White House at 7:15 p.m.

BIG SCOOPS IN TRANSITION PLAYBOOK: In the runup to Inauguration Day, president-elect Joe Biden's staffing decisions are sending clear-cut signals about his priorities. What do these signals foretell? Transition Playbook is the definitive guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, this scoop-filled newsletter is breaking big news and analyzing the appointments, people and emerging power centers of the new administration. Track the transition and the first 100 days of the incoming administration. Subscribe today.

PLAYBOOK READS

A stage being constructed outside the Capitol is pictured. | Getty Images

PHOTO DU JOUR: A stage for Joe Biden's presidential inauguration is constructed outside the U.S. Capitol on Friday | Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images

HOLLY OTTERBEIN: "Democrats call civil war cease-fire during Georgia Senate runoffs": "Progressives vowed to take on Joe Biden the minute he defeated President Donald Trump. But the unresolved Senate races in Georgia are helping to keep the peace between the party's warring factions for a few more weeks — and then it's open season. The logic behind the current cease-fire is simple: If Democrats don't take back control of the Senate, much of the progressive agenda is doomed.

"That's why the left has thrown its weight behind Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, the Democratic candidates in Georgia who do not back 'Medicare for All' — a major liberal priority. Ossoff, in particular, is not seen by progressives as one of their own. Still, top progressive elected officials and organizations are putting aside their disappointments to campaign and raise cash for the Jan. 5 races anyway.

"'All of the big-ticket items, and even some of the smaller items that I ran on in my race, are largely dependent upon having leadership of the Senate that shares my values,' said Rep.-elect Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), an incoming House progressive. 'And that requires electing Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.'"

BEYOND THE BELTWAY -- CARLA MARINUCCI in Oakland, Calif.: "Gingrich and Huckabee back Newsom recall effort": "The California activist movement to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom just got a national shot in the arm from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, two former Republican leaders who still have large conservative followings.

"The bid remains a long shot in a state where Democratic President-elect Joe Biden won 63.5 percent of the vote and Republicans have no statewide officeholders. But Newsom's attendance last month at an expensive dinner party for a top lobbyist, combined with mounting frustrations with pandemic closures, have sowed discontent among residents.

"'The "blue wave" that the left-wing media spent months talking about disappeared in California,' Gingrich said Friday in a statement to POLITICO, referring to Republicans taking back four House seats Democrats won in 2018. 'This is a direct result of Gavin Newsom's destructive leadership that has crippled small businesses and sent billions of dollars of California COVID-19 jobless benefits to criminals across the nation.'" POLITICO

PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION -- "Pro-Trump demonstrators gather Saturday in Washington," by WaPo's Clarence Williams, Marrisa Lang, Emily Davies and Jessica Contrera: "Protesters who refuse to accept that President-elect Joe Biden won the election have begun arriving in Washington for what organizers have called a 'March for Trump.' They are expected to fan out across the city Saturday, two days before the electoral college votes to make President Trump's 306-to-232 loss official. The groups will be met by counterprotesters who hope to protect Black Lives Matter Plaza and by a police force determined to keep the two groups apart."

VALLEY TALK -- "Oracle joins HP and Elon Musk in California-to-Texas move," by Katy Murphy in Sacramento: "Another Silicon Valley software giant announced Friday it is decamping to Austin, notching a new win for Texas in its ongoing economic and political rivalry with California. Oracle reported in an SEC filing that it would move its headquarters from Redwood City to Austin, Texas, while implementing a 'more flexible employee work location policy.'

"'We believe these moves best position Oracle for growth and provide our personnel with more flexibility about where and how they work,' the company wrote. 'Depending on their role, this means that many of our employees can choose their office location as well as continue to work from home part time or all of the time.'

"The announcement is another blow to the infamously high-cost Silicon Valley — and to California, which prides itself on its powerhouse tech hub. Oracle's decision comes on the heels of a similar announcement by the iconic Hewlett Packard early this month that it was moving to the Houston area.

"Texas has attracted more tech startups and other businesses with its lower taxes and lighter regulatory touch, and many tech employees have left the San Francisco Bay Area for cheaper cities during the pandemic, taking advantage of remote work policies."

MEDIAWATCH -- "Iran executes journalist who encouraged 2017 protests," by AP's Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates: "Iran on Saturday executed a once-exiled journalist over his online work that helped inspire nationwide economic protests in 2017, authorities said, just months after he returned to Tehran under mysterious circumstances.

"Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency said that Ruhollah Zam, 47, was hanged early Saturday morning. The reports did not elaborate. In June, a court sentenced Zam to death, saying he had been convicted of 'corruption on Earth,' a charge often used in cases involving espionage or attempts to overthrow Iran's government."

-- "NY Times Assistant Who Edited Cotton's 'Send in the Troops' Column Resigns," by The Daily Beast's Maxwell Tani: "Adam Rubenstein, a young editorial assistant who previously worked at The Weekly Standard, was thrust into the media spotlight last summer after the Times itself reported that he edited the notorious June submission … His exit was announced—with little fanfare—in an internal Slack channel for Times staffers on Thursday. Neither Rubenstein nor the newspaper immediately responded to a request for comment."

CLICKER -- "The nation's cartoonists on the week in politics," edited by Matt Wuerker -- 15 keepers

GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Margy Slattery and the staff of POLITICO Magazine:

-- "She Saved Her 7-Year-Old Brother's Life. Then the Virus Threatened to Take It," by WaPo's John Woodrow Cox: "Reign Howard didn't understand what a bone marrow transplant was. But at the start of the pandemic, her brother desperately needed one." WaPo

-- "What the Chaos in Hospitals Is Doing to Doctors," by Jordan Kisner in The Atlantic's January/February issue: "Politicians' refusal to admit when hospitals are overwhelmed puts a terrible burden on healthcare providers." Atlantic

-- "The Essex Boys: How Nine Traders Hit a Gusher With Negative Oil," by Liam Vaughan, Kit Chellel and Benjamin Bain in Bloomberg Businessweek: "Over the course of a few hours on April 20, a guy called Cuddles and eight of his pals from the freewheeling world of London's commodities markets rode oil's crash to a $660 million profit." Businessweek

-- "A Tycoon's Deep-State Conspiracy Dive," by The New Yorker's Sheelah Kolhatkar: "Patrick Byrne, the former head of Overstock, had always been outspoken. Did an affair with a Russian agent push him too far?" New Yorker

-- "The Ballad of Ron and Dorinda," by David Gauvey Herbert in Esquire: "In 1986, two lovebirds busted out of a coed prison in a hijacked helicopter. They've been trying to escape ever since." Esquire

-- "The Man Who Found Forrest Fenn's Treasure," by Daniel Barbarisi in Outside magazine: "The decade-long hunt captured the world's attention, but when it finally ended in June, everyone still wanted to know: Who had solved the mystery?" Outside

-- "The Mystery of the Gatwick Drone," by Samira Shackle in The Guardian: "A drone sighting caused the airport to close for two days in 2018, but despite a lengthy police investigation, no culprit was ever found. So what exactly did people see in the Sussex sky?" Guardian

-- "Visible Men," by Mosi Secret in GQ: "We asked the fathers and father figures of Michael Brown, Terence Crutcher, Daniel Prude, Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, and Jacob Blake to reflect on the violence that forever altered their families' lives." GQ

-- "The Olive Garden Is Open, but Marilyn Hagerty Isn't Eating There," by NYT's Pete Wells: "At 94, the author of a North Dakota restaurant review that became an internet sensation is still at work. In the pandemic, though, she's had to make a few changes." NYT

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PLAYBOOKERS

Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com.

TRANSITIONS -- Jeff Billman has been named chief of staff for Rep.-elect Ronny Jackson (R-Texas). He most recently was deputy chief of staff/legislative director for Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas). … Christy Wagner has been hired as chief of staff for Rep.-elect Kai Kahele (D-Hawaii). She currently is acting chief of staff for Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.). … William Chang will work in legislative affairs for U.S. European Command. He previously was a defense fellow for Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas).

WEDDING -- Erin Mincberg and Scotty Spiegel, via NYT: "Ms. Mincberg, now the district director for Representative [Lizzie] Fletcher, and Mr. Spiegel, now the press secretary for Adrian Garcia, a county commissioner in Texas, were married Nov. 21 at the Four Seasons Hotel Houston."

BIRTHDAYS: Joe Sestak is 69 … Lanny Davis is 75 … Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist, is 4-0 … Cassidy Hutchinson, special assistant to the president for legislative affairs … Christian Martinez, VP and director of war room operations at America Rising … Targeted Victory's David Pasch is 32 … Broderick Johnson (h/t Jon Haber) … POLITICO's Taylor Miller Thomas … Andrew Platt … Katy Bachman … ABC's Becky Perlow … Nora Boustany … Peter Fenn … Charli Huddleston … former Rep. Steve Kagen (D-Wis.) is 71 … Bret Wincup … Jeff Burton … Jenna Kruse … Ed Senn … Sarah Horowitz of Lewis Global Communications ... Google's Jose Castaneda and Nick Pearson …

… Lawrence Duncan, partner at Monument Advocacy, is 53 (h/t Stewart Verdery) … Maggie Rodriguez … Liz Claman … AP's Seth Borenstein … Jeff Goldstein … BBC's Reeta Chakrabarti … Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is 72 … POLITICO Europe's Esther King … David Mays ... Rebecca Neale ... Jamie Brown Hantman … Danny Russel ... Dwight Fettig ... Jen Richer ... Bob Wood ... Ed Espinoza ... Caroline Whitehouse ... Carolyn Castore … Tina-Maria Henry ... Tanner Hishta … Angela Hernandez ... Kelly O'Brien ... Dawn Laguens … Maren Hesla … Peter Bock … Diane Welsh … Dan Schooff … Tony Winnicker (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … David Sandretti ... Erin Bottger

THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here):

NBC	"Meet the Press": NIH Director Francis Collins … Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) … Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). Panel: Matt Bai, Lanhee Chen and Kristen Welker.
ABC	"This Week": FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn … New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy … Rick Gates. Panels: Chris Christie and Rahm Emanuel … Matthew Dowd, Cecilia Vega, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser.
CBS	"Face the Nation": HHS Secretary Alex Azar … Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) … Robert Garrett … Scott Gottlieb.
FOX	"Fox News Sunday": Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) … House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.). Panel: Karl Rove, Gillian Turner and Charles Lane. Power Player: John Matze.
CNN	"State of the Union": FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn … Bill Gates … Stacey Abrams … Al Gore … Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).
Sinclair	"America This Week": Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) … Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) … Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) … Angela Masden … Ric Grenell … Austan Goolsbee … Rob Smith.
Gray TV	"Full Court Press": Rep. Donna Shalala (D-Fla.) … Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) … Adm. Brett Giroir.

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