| | | | | |  | | By Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman | Presented by Facebook | | | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | FOR A GUY WHO LIKES TO WIN, and puts so much stock in not looking like a loser, President DONALD TRUMP is throwing an awful lot of weight behind two efforts that, if you're charitable, you can say he is not certain to win, but if you're realistic, you can definitively declare he is likely to lose in a publicly humiliating fashion. FIRST, TRUMP says he is going to veto the National Defense Authorization Act -- which has passed every year for 59 years. Aides and congressional allies have made it clear to TRUMP that his veto is likely to be overridden, and have tried to get him to back off, but he does not at all appear moved by their pleas. SECOND: THE PRESIDENT is spending his final days in the White House interested in a campaign to pressure members of Congress to join a futile effort to overturn the 2020 election. At the White House on Monday, his remaining congressional brain trust gathered. In attendance: GOP Reps. MO BROOKS (Ala.), JODY HICE (Ga.), MATT GAETZ (Fla.), LOUIE GOHMERT (Texas), SCOTT PERRY (Pa.), JIM JORDAN (Ohio) and ANDY BIGGS (Ariz.), and Rep.-elect MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (Ga.). RUDY GIULIANI was there, as well. Mel Zanona with details on the meeting GREENE -- a QAnon follower who was elected a few weeks ago -- tweeted a chart with Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL'S poll numbers, seeming to indicate that his standing improved in Kentucky after a TRUMP tweet. Axios' JONATHAN SWAN had an item on the chart, as well. OF COURSE, despite what the president may think, there are factors in campaigns besides his social media feed. Even so, if the president and the White House think MCCONNELL is going to be moved by this chart, they've learned nothing about the Kentucky Republican in the last four years. WaPo's Toluse Olorunnipa, Josh Dawsey, Roz Helderman and Emma Brown with more details SEN. JOHN THUNE, the No. 2 Senate Republican, told CNN's MANU RAJU the effort by the House conservatives is "going down like a shot dog." "I just don't think it makes a lot of sense to put everybody through this when you know what the ultimate outcome is going to be." Of course, logic may not sit well with this crew. BACK ON PLANET EARTH, CONGRESS cleared a $900 billion stimulus package that TRUMP was completely detached from. The measure cleared 359-53 in the House, and 92-6 in the Senate. NYT FRONT PAGE: "STIMULUS PASSES; SOME MAY RECEIVE CHECKS IN A WEEK" TICK TOCKS … -- POLITICO: "Feuds, Zoom and Italian food: How the stimulus got done," by Burgess Everett, Heather Caygle and Marianne LeVine -- NYT: "A Dinner, a Deal and Moonshine: How the Stimulus Came Together," by Nicholas Fandos, Luke Broadwater and Emily Cochrane THIS RAISED EYEBROWS ON THE HOUSE FLOOR: Reps. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.), ILHAN OMAR (D-Minn.), AYANNA PRESSLEY (D-Mass.) and RASHIDA TLAIB (D-Mich.) all voted against the rule -- a procedural motion that nearly always splits on party lines. In a world where Speaker NANCY PELOSI has a narrow majority, if this group sticks together, they can influence the direction of the House Democratic Caucus. This message was received by senior Democrats last night. THE DOWN PAYMENT … WAPO'S ANNIE LINSKEY and MIKE DEBONIS: "Biden to push for more coronavirus relief, setting up a clash with GOP": "The notion that more aid is necessary — Biden at times has said talks should start as early as January — sets up perhaps the first major legislative test for the new president and his self-proclaimed negotiating skills." NYT'S CARL HULSE, with a news analysis on A1: "Pandemic Aid Bolsters Biden and Shows Potential Path for His Agenda in Congress": "Producing it was a torturous, time-consuming affair that did nothing to improve Congress's reputation for dysfunction. But the agreement on a new pandemic aid package showed the ascendance of moderates as a new force in a divided Senate and validated President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s belief that it is still possible to make deals on Capitol Hill." Good Tuesday morning. | | | | A message from Facebook: It's time to update internet regulations
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Learn More | | | POLITICO/MORNING CONSULT POLL … 53% of Democrats want to keep PELOSI as speaker. … 48% of Republicans want KEVIN MCCARTHY to remain as House GOP leader. NEW … MCCONNELL SPEAKS ABOUT BIDEN NOMS … SCOTT JENNINGS (how'd he nab this one?!) in the LOUISVILLE COURIER JOURNAL: "Will McConnell and Biden friendship mean a calmer, more functional Washington?": "'Well, first of all, I am going to treat him a hell of a lot better than Chuck Schumer ever treated Donald Trump.' … "'They (Biden's nominees) aren't all going to pass on a voice vote, and they aren't all going to make it, but I will put them on the floor,' McConnell said. Two Biden nominees who face a tough road are Neera Tanden, a hyper-partisan Democratic operative (with detractors on the right and left) nominated for director of the White House Office of Management and Budget; and Xavier Becerra, nominated for secretary of Health and Human Services with an extremist, pro-abortion record that most Senate GOP'ers can't stomach." -- CLICKER: The 2021 Senate calendar RUDY FILES -- "Feds have discussed making a legal request for Giuliani's electronic communications, say two sources," by NBC's Julia Ainsley, Tom Winter and Lisa Ferri: "Federal prosecutors have discussed making a legal request for Rudy Giuliani's electronic communications, two sources familiar with the probe tell NBC News, a sign that the investigation into President Donald Trump's personal attorney remains active and may soon be ramping up. "Prosecutors for the Southern District of New York have been in communication with Justice Department officials in Washington about gaining access to Giuliani's emails, the two sources said. The SDNY needs Washington's approval before its prosecutors can ask a judge to sign a search warrant for materials that may be protected by attorney-client privilege, according to department policy. It is not known whether that approval has been granted by Washington to the SDNY." DEEP DIVE … NYT, A1: "Kelly Loeffler, a Wall Street Senator With a Hardscrabble Pitch," by Danny Hakim, Jo Becker and Astead Herndon: "In many ways, Ms. Loeffler, 50, appears to be a traditional business-oriented Republican whose hard right turn is a stark reflection of the ideological gymnastics many politicians in her party have performed in the populist, culture-warring Trump era. "While she is described by friends and foes alike as deeply driven, there is little evidence of a hardscrabble upbringing. She came from a prosperous farming family in central Illinois, and in her early 20s was given large tracts of some of the richest agricultural land in America. By 24, she had bought herself a duplex condo on Chicago's Gold Coast. "Even as she casts herself as an advocate for 'hard-working Georgians,' her political roots run to Wall Street, where her husband and chief financial backer, Jeffrey Sprecher, is the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, and her second-largest donor, Kenneth Griffin, is a hedge fund titan. (Businesses led by the two men have donated more than $27 million to an affiliated PAC.) Ms. Loeffler herself worked for years as a top executive at the stock exchange's parent company, Intercontinental Exchange, and now sits on the Senate committee that oversees its main regulator." | | | |   | | | THE JUICE … ALEX ISENSTADT: "Top Trump brass launch campaign firm": "Three top officials on President Donald Trump's reelection effort are going into business together to help Republicans navigate the post-Trump world. Bill Stepien, Justin Clark, and Nick Trainer are relaunching National Public Affairs, a political consulting shop that will aid the president as he decides which 2022 races to engage in, as well as bolster pro-Trump candidates and advise the party's campaign committees. "Stepien and Clark initially formed National Public Affairs in 2019, when they were serving as consultants on Trump's 2020 campaign. They stepped away from the firm in July, when Stepien was named campaign manager and Clark took on the No. 2 slot. Trainer, who oversaw the battleground states program, is being added to the firm as managing director." TRUMP'S TUESDAY -- The president has nothing on his public schedule. VP MIKE PENCE will travel to Palm Beach, Fla., where he will deliver remarks at a Turning Point USA student action summit at noon. Afterward, he'll return to Washington. PRESIDENT-ELECT JOE BIDEN and VP-Elect KAMALA HARRIS will receive the President's Daily Brief and will meet with transition advisers. Biden will also deliver remarks in Wilmington, Del. | | | | EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT TRANSITION PLAYBOOK, SUBSCRIBE TODAY: A new year is quickly approaching. Inauguration Day is right around the corner. 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 the new administration and one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, this scoop-filled newsletter breaks big news daily and analyzes the appointments, people and 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: President-elect Joe Biden receives his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine from nurse practitioner Tabe Mase at Christiana Hospital in Newark Del., on Monday, Dec. 21. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo | NAHAL TOOSI: "Arab states, Israel say they want in on Biden's future Iran talks": "Some of the Iran nuclear deal's fiercest opponents are urging President-elect Joe Biden to let them have a say — and maybe even a seat at the negotiating table — in future talks with Tehran. "Representatives of some Gulf Arab countries as well as Israel are raising the idea in private and public conversations in the run up to the start of the Biden administration. After all, ambassadors of three of the countries argued in interviews with POLITICO, they have more at stake than the United States or the other countries who crafted the 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran. Bringing them on board, they add, would beef up the U.S. leverage over Iran. "But it also could cause a clash with the Biden team, which has said explicitly that it would seek to revive the Iran deal, which President Donald Trump left in 2018 to emphatic cheers from Israel and some Arab states. Those same countries would prefer that Biden forget the original deal and start afresh in hopes of inking a tougher agreement that could even cover Iran's non-nuclear programs, such as its ballistic missiles and use of proxy militias. And that's to say nothing of what Iran's Islamist leaders, who have defied and baffled U.S. presidents going back four decades, will agree to do." THE CORONAVIRUS IS RAGING … 18 MILLION Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus. … 319,457 Americans have died. -- "Why Americans are numb to the staggering coronavirus death toll," by WaPo's William Wan and Brittany Shammas: "Death is now everywhere and yet nowhere in America. We track its progress in daily bar graphs. We note its latest victims among celebrities and acquaintances. Yet, in many parts of America, we carry on — debating holiday plans, the necessity of mask mandates, how seriously to take the virus, whether it's all a hoax. "In the face of one of the biggest mass casualty events in American history, we are growing increasingly numb to death, experts say — numb to the crisis and tragedy it represents and to the action it requires in response. Something happens in the brain when fatalities reach such high numbers, say psychologists who have studied genocides and mass disasters. The casualties become like a mountain of corpses that has grown so large it becomes difficult to focus on the individual bodies." -- "A surge of state aid for vaccinations may already be too late," by Brianna Ehley, Dan Goldberg and Rachel Roubein | | | | A message from Facebook: Internet regulations need an update
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Learn More | | | VALLEY TALK -- "Google, Facebook Agreed to Team Up Against Possible Antitrust Action, Draft Lawsuit Says," by WSJ's Ryan Tracy and John McKinnon: "Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google agreed to 'cooperate and assist one another' if they ever faced an investigation into their pact to work together in online advertising, according to an unredacted version of a lawsuit filed by 10 states against Google last week. "The suit, as filed, cites internal company documents that were heavily redacted. The Wall Street Journal reviewed part of a recent draft version of the suit without redactions, which elaborated on findings and allegations in the court documents. Ten Republican attorneys general, led by Texas, are alleging that the two companies cut a deal in September 2018 in which Facebook agreed not to compete with Google's online advertising tools in return for special treatment when it used them. "Google used language from 'Star Wars' as a code name for the deal, according to the lawsuit, which redacted the actual name. The draft version of the suit says it was known as 'Jedi Blue.' The lawsuit itself said Google and Facebook were aware that their agreement could trigger antitrust investigations and discussed how to deal with them, in a passage that is followed by significant redactions." MEDIAWATCH -- "Fox, Newsmax shoot down their own aired claims on election," by AP's David Bauder: "Two election technology companies whose names have come up in President Donald Trump's false charges of widespread voter fraud in the presidential election are fighting back, prompting unusual public statements from Fox News and Newsmax. "The statements, over the weekend and on Monday, came after the companies Smartmatic and Dominion raised the prospect of legal action for reporting what they said was false information about them." AP | | | | KEEP UP WITH THE PEOPLE AND POLITICS DRIVING GLOBAL HEALTH IN 2021: The pandemic revealed just how critical it is to keep up with the politics, policy and people driving global health. The Covid-19 vaccine is here — now what? What will the distribution look like globally? Our Global Pulse newsletter connects leaders, policymakers and advocates to the politics impacting our global health. Join the conversation and subscribe today. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com. SPOTTED at a Zoom launch party Monday night for "Make Peace or Die," the new memoir by Chuck Daly, the last living member of President John F. Kennedy's West Wing: host Chris Matthews, Jane Hartley, Pete McCloskey, Maj. Gen. Mike Lehnert, Steven Pressfield, Jim Copeland, Mary Hanley and Les Francis. TRANSITION -- Joe Maloney will be VP of public affairs at the Washington Football Team. He most recently has been a partner at Locust Street Group. BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Jake Perry, founder and principal of Jake Perry + Partners. How he got his start: "My first job out of college was working on Sen. Harry Reid's 1998 campaign as a field staffer in Las Vegas. The big issue on the campaign was the future of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste site. I found a silver hazmat suit at an army surplus store and rigged it up with glow sticks. I got a trash can full of dry ice and followed then-Rep. John Ensign (who was running against Sen. Reid) to campaign stops around Las Vegas. I was dubbed 'Yucca Man.' Sen. Reid loved it! We ended up winning that race by 428 votes after a recount." Playbook Q&A BIRTHDAYS: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is 5-0 … Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) is 57 … Diane Sawyer … former Energy Secretary Ernie Moniz is 76 … Jamie Kirchick … Mike Needham, COS for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), is 39 … DJ Nordquist … EEI's Rich Ward … Matt Manda … CNN's Daniella Diaz … Hank Sheinkopf … Maeve Coyle … Heather Holdridge, national director of digital content and campaigns at Planned Parenthood (h/t wife Ana Ma) … Adam Verdugo … Scott Sadler … Libby Rosenbaum, CEO of the American Council of Young Political Leaders … Cherylyn Harley LeBon … Colin Jones … Mary Kirtley Waters, director of the U.N. Information Centre … Maria Thorbourne … DOJ's Marc Raimondi … Zack Carroll is 29 … AEI's Rachel Manfredi … Beau Phillips … WaPo's Valerie Strauss … … Karen Defilippi, VP of federal and gubernatorial campaigns at EMILY's List … Roxanne Stachowski (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … NPR's Michele Kelemen (h/t Ben Chang, filing from LA) … Matthew Mazzone, creative director at Ascent Media … McGuireWoods' Mark Bowles … Paul Wolfowitz is 77 … former Rep. Bill Lipinski (D-Ill.) is 83 … Mary Baskerville … POLITICO's Kristin Longe … Matt Kaplan … Chris Austin … Patrick Lee … Simone Friedman ... Michael Huttner ... Tamara Fuhrman Spilka ... Eugene Steuerle is 74 ... Scott Pellegrino is 55 ... Andrew Egger ... Justin Duckham ... Michael Corbett ... Sam Harper is 38 ... Sonya Medina Williams ... WTOP's Matt Small … Valeria Carranza ... Nick Thomas ... Nick Moore ... David Jackson ... Shonna Smith ... Dave Stegmaier … John Kiely ... Linda Sinoway | | | | 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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