| | | | | |  | | By Erin Durkin and Anna Gronewold with Jonathan Custodio | Rep. John Katko said he will vote to impeach Donald Trump, becoming the first House Republican to formally back the president's ouster. "To allow the President of the United States to incite this attack without consequence is a direct threat to the future of our democracy," the Syracuse-area Republican said in a statement Tuesday evening, ahead of a vote expected today. "For that reason, I cannot sit by without taking action. I will vote to impeach this President." Even Sen. Mitch McConnell has indicated Trump's actions qualify him for removal from office. That's one end of the spectrum of how New York Republicans are responding to the crisis stemming from the storming of the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob last week. On the other end, there's Rep. Elise Stefanik. The Harvard Institute of Politics removed her from its senior advisory committee, citing her baseless claims of voter fraud and public misrepresentations of court actions related to the election. Stefanik, who voted to back objections to Joe Biden's Electoral College victory, is not backing down — going with the anti-elitist attack despite being a Harvard grad herself. "The Ivory Tower's march toward a monoculture of like-minded, intolerant liberal views demonstrates the sneering disdain for everyday Americans," she said. The consequences continue to trickle down for New Yorkers who took part in the insurrection, including Aaron Mostofsky, the son of a Brooklyn judge, who was hauled into (virtual) court Tuesday on a set of federal criminal charges. You may have seen the photos of Mostofsky dressed up in an outlandish fur pelt outfit, topped off with a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot shield. Well, the later two accessories were federal property valued in excess of $1,000, prosecutors say, so the judge's son may be on the hook for a felony. An MTA worker spotted at the Capitol, already suspended by his bosses after taking a bogus sick day to attend, has been arrested as well and is scheduled to appear in court today. And impeachment, of course, is meant to signal that Donald Trump — who spent months fomenting rage among his supporters and falsely telling Americans the November election was stolen right under their noses in an affront to democracy itself — can't avoid consequences either. IT'S WEDNESDAY. Got tips, suggestions or thoughts? Let us know ... By email: EDurkin@politico.com and agronewold@politico.com, or on Twitter: @erinmdurkin and @annagronewold WHERE'S ANDREW? Delivering his third State of the State address from Albany. WHERE'S BILL? Appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe and holding a media availability. ABOVE THE FOLD: "BRONX SEN. Luis Sepulveda is facing domestic violence charges for allegedly choking his wife during an argument. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) announced Tuesday that Sepulveda was immediately removed as chair of the chamber's Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee and [is] being taken off of other committee assignments. 'I take these allegations extremely seriously and will be monitoring this situation closely,' Stewart-Cousins said in a statement. Sepulveda, who joined the Senate in 2018 and is running for Bronx Borough President, turned himself in at the 48th Precinct on Tuesday and is awaiting arraignment, police said. On Jan. 9, the 56-year-old elected official allegedly got into a physical fight with his wife inside their West Farms home around 5:45 a.m., when he put his hands around her neck and choked her, according to sources familiar with the complaint." New York Daily News' Thomas Tracy and Denis Slattery | | | | HAPPENING THURSDAY - THE COVID-19 VACCINE ROLLOUT: What are the logistical challenges facing the coronavirus immunization campaign? Who is overseeing the process and working to overcome obstacles to ensure that vulnerable groups have access to the vaccine? Join POLITICO for a virtual discussion on the outgoing Trump administration's plan to prioritize lower-income, rural, and communities of color for vaccine distribution and what the Biden administration can do to streamline plans and fill in any gaps. REGISTER HERE. | | | | |
|  | WHAT CITY HALL'S READING | | "NEW YORK CITY'S top health officials weren't able to say how long it would take to vaccinate the roughly two million New Yorkers currently eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine, citing state and federal logistical issues as barriers to a smooth rollout. The testimony from top health officials, given Tuesday during a New York City Council hearing, comes as the federal government vows to ship more vaccine and broadens the group eligible for the vaccine to include people over age 65, and as the city rolls out more sites for vaccination, including a 24-hour hub at New York Mets' Citi Field ballpark. The city's vaccination effort, now almost a month in, has been fraught with confusion as more of the general population becomes eligible for the vaccine. City council members said city residents and older New Yorkers, especially, are unable to easily navigate the online process for vaccine sign-up and sometimes wait hours to reach a person on a telephone hotline." Wall Street Journal's Melanie Grayce West and Jimmy Vielkind — "The city is launching an Amazin' effort to get more New Yorkers vaccinated. Citi Field will host a '24/7' vaccination center starting later this month, Mayor de Blasio announced Tuesday alongside new Mets owner Steve Cohen...Vaccinations will be available at Citi Field starting the week of Jan. 25, de Blasio said, with 5,000 to 7,000 shots to be administered per day." New York Daily News' Shant Shahrigian — The Javits Center will turn into a vaccine distribution center. — 17,000 teachers have signed up for the vaccine. "AS VACCINATION SITES shifted into round-the-clock mode, New Yorkers found themselves in unexpected spots at odd hours . 'It wasn't my first choice to come in the middle of the night to The Bronx,' said Nina Livingston, a Nassau County middle school teacher from Sea Cliff, Long Island. 'But it was calm, it was quiet, there was nobody in there — I just wanted to get the vaccine.' After entering the Bathgate Contract Postal Station for a 12:30 a.m. appointment Tuesday, Livingston emerged an hour later, the first dose of her vaccination complete in a phase of the rollout that now includes those 65 and older, along with teachers, transit workers, firefighters, police officers and those who live and work in homeless shelters." The City's Jose Martinez — More than a quarter of the people who have gotten vaccinated against the coronavirus in New York City live outside the five boroughs. "THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT will administer an entrance exam for its gifted and talented programs to four-year-olds this spring — but it will be the last time . The city's gifted and talented programs have become a flashpoint in recent years, as Mayor de Blasio has pledged to diversify city classrooms, which are among the nation's most segregated. Like the controversial specialized high school admissions process, entrance is determined by a single, high-stakes exam — but in this case, an exam given to four-year-olds. Critics say that makes it a better determiner of privilege — some toddlers are tutored for the test — than of talent... While the test will be scrapped next year, the future of the program is less clear; the DOE plans to spend the next year determining what it might look like." NY1's Jillian Jorgensen "RAY MCGUIRE, the former Citigroup executive who's running for New York City mayor, once served as the banker for Koch Industries, the multibillion-dollar company owned by industrialists Charles and David Koch. The Koch brothers financed ultraconservative causes for years and are roundly reviled among moderate and progressive Democrats alike." Daily News' Michael Gartland — McGuire has raised just over $5 million for his campaign in the three months since he launched his candidacy. "COUNCIL SPEAKER Corey Johnson is pulling a Rodney Dangerfield — enrolling in college amid the coronavirus pandemic. Johnson, while participating in a recent virtual meeting held by Manhattan Community Board 4, revealed that he's taking online night college classes with the Columbia University School of General Studies. 'I'm a freshman and undergraduate at 38 years old! At 38 with zero college credits I'm getting a college education,' Johnson gushed during the Jan. 6 meeting." New York Post's Carl Campanile | | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | "NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday he wants to start opening restaurants, theaters and offices by launching rapid testing sites in New York City and eventually at hundreds of new sites in other city centers throughout the state. An individual could theoretically get tested and in 15 minutes go to a dinner or movie, under the Democratic governor's plan, which he said could also help get more people onto mass transit. Cuomo said he'll partner with the real estate community and work with local governments to reduce bureaucratic hurdles. Public health experts have said frequent rapid testing can help prevent COVID-19 spread by ruling out contagious individuals. But they've also warned a single rapid test can be unreliable, particularly for people without symptoms." Associated Press's Marina Villeneuve — Cuomo detailed plans to revive the arts industry, saying roughly half of artists are out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic and cities are struggling with the lack of a lively culture scene. "NEW YORK STATE expanded COVID-19 vaccine distribution Tuesday to people 65 and over, increasing access to an already short supply of doses being distributed through an overtaxed system some users have found time consuming. he state had already dramatically expanded vaccine eligibility beyond health care workers on Monday to include people 75 and older and to police officers, teachers and other key professions. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the lower age eligibility Tuesday, even as a state vaccine hotline was temporarily not accepting calls due to high call volumes. People were making inoculation appointments through a state website, which generates a list of nearby potential sites users can contact. Geneva Conway, an 88-year-old Albany resident, said she was still waiting for a vaccination appointment after using the website and making a round of calls to local pharmacies, the county and her doctor. 'I was on the phone, all told, for an hour-and-a-half to two hours by the time I'd finished,' Conway said. 'I'm 88 years old, fairly computer savvy. Another senior would not have stayed on the phone two hours, and we are the most vulnerable people.' Cuomo has blamed the short supply on the federal government, which he says is sending the state of more than 19 million people 300,000 doses a week. The Democratic governor said the state's lower age eligibility follows new federal guidance." Associated Press's Michael Hill STATE AND LOCAL law enforcement authorities in Albany are preparing for the possibility of unrest in New York's capital after the FBI warned of protests nationwide in the days leading to President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday that the state was aware of the threats and said there will be "increased security during that period of time." The state Capitol building already is closed to the public and most lawmakers and their staff are attending session — which began on Jan. 6 — virtually from the confines of their districts. But a protest last week on the Capitol's grounds resulted in a double stabbing after suspected Antifa supporters clashed with members of the right-wing Proud Boys during a rally supporting President Donald Trump. It took place the same day as the riot in the U.S. Capitol. Since then, a portion of State Street in downtown Albany, which runs adjacent to the Capitol, has been closed to traffic. Sidewalk barricades to prevent gatherings outside the entrance to the Executive Mansion, where the governor lives, have been in place for months. Dozens of state troopers — including some canine units — have been patrolling the nearly empty halls of the state Capitol. POLITICO's Anna Gronewold "A NEW PICK for state Senate Finance Committee secretary, a top Democratic staff position in state budget negotiations, has raised eyebrows among progressives concerned that the conference has poached David Friedfel, the top state policy analyst of the Citizens Budget Commission, an independent research organization that advocates conservative fiscal policy. Friedfel will play a lead role in negotiations between the Senate, Assembly and governor's Division of Budget, as well as in internal discussions among senators, according to longtime Albany observers. Friedfel's appointment comes as progressives push for a spate of tax-the-rich proposals to meet a projected $63 billion four-year deficit, while centrists, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, argue that the wealthy might flee the state if their already large tax burden increases. "Before joining the CBC in 2016 as director of state studies, Friedfel held a number of positions in government – budget examiner for the state Division of the Budget, staffer for the Assembly's Ways and Means Committee, and budget commissioner of Albany County – that even critics of his appointment say qualify him for the role. But over the past five years, Friedfel has led the CBC's opposition to several progressive proposals to raise revenue and promote economic equality. Advocates of hiking taxes on the rich say Friedfel is a surprising pick for a conference that has moved left in recent years." New York Focus's Lee Harris and Akash V. Mehta WHEN GOV. ANDREW CUOMO unveiled the glitzy $1.6 billion Moynihan Train Hall in Manhattan last month, few would have guessed that the colorful light displays and screens were paid for by the operator of the state's hydropower dams. The New York Power Authority provided $19 million in up-front funding for the color-changing ceiling lights, the digital ceiling screens with images of clouds and the wall display screens with images of the city and train information, according to public records obtained by POLITICO. It's not unusual for the governor to tap NYPA to help with high-priority infrastructure projects. And the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the Long Island Rail Road, is allowed to take advantage of NYPA's low-interest financing programs. But the money is nominally supposed to be for items that lower energy bills. In the case of the lights and screens for Moynihan , NYPA is billing the MTA $197,000 each month, or $2.4 million annually, for 10 years. The total annual energy savings, as calculated by NYPA, is $109,000 — presumably compared to less-efficient lighting options that could have been installed. "I would say this is not the purest, best use of the authority money, and this just goes to the governor's kind of method of operation of taking all of these supposedly independent public authorities and cobbling a little financing from one and a little financing from another and putting together the whole financing in the [Empire State Development Corporation]," said Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute. "In terms of good government, this is not how you would do these things." POLITICO's Marie J. French and Danielle Muoio #UpstateAmerica: News you can use! Take your valentine on a date Upstate. | | | | KEEP UP WITH THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION WITH TRANSITION PLAYBOOK: It was a dark week in American history, and a new administration will have to pick up the pieces. Transition Playbook brings you inside the last days of this crucial transfer of power, tracking the latest from President-elect Biden and his growing administration. Written for political insiders, this scoop-filled newsletter breaks big news and analyzes 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. | | | | | | | FROM THE DELEGATION | | "NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS, New York City's only Republican congresswoman, sought to distance herself on Tuesday from a longtime adviser who posted a video of herself shouting 'heil Hitler' as part of an eyebrow-raising rant against coronavirus restrictions. Malliotakis, who represents all of Staten Island and a chunk of southern Brooklyn in the House, called the Nazi remark made by Republican strategist Leticia Remauro 'shocking and wrong.' 'I strongly condemn them,' the first-term congresswoman tweeted. 'At a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise across our city and especially on Staten Island, there is no excuse for such words being uttered. People of faith and goodwill must work together as one to ensure that words of hate are removed from our vocabulary and our hearts.'Remauro, who has extensive ties to Malliotakis and worked on her successful 2020 campaign against Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.), dropped the offensive Hitler salute in a video she posted of herself on Facebook." New York Daily News' Chris Sommerfeldt — Remauro also has a history of controversial online comments. | | THE FIFTY | | JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING IN THE U.S. CORONAVIRUS response has been politicized. Now it's vaccination's turn . A successful rollout can burnish a politician, creating the Andrew Cuomo of the needle jab. A failed rollout can tarnish a leader or extinguish a would-be rising star — a threat bearing down most visibly on California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is facing a nascent but growing recall drive.
And in cities and states across the country, the blame game, between federal, state and local government, Democrats and Republicans, the old administration and the new — or, predictably, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Cuomo, the state's governor — has already begun. There will be more. The stunning development of effective vaccines in under a year has careened into a great big mess of an immunization operation in most U.S. states. POLITICO's Joanne Kenen | | AROUND NEW YORK | | — The city is objecting to a proposal to reward New Yorkers with cash for reporting illegal parking and placard abuse, saying it would lead to fights. — There's a custody battle over a bedbug-sniffing dog named Roxy. — The Vessel at Hudson Yards shut down to the public after three suicides took place there in less than a year. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo is proposing $15 monthly broadband for low-income New Yorkers. — The city of Albany paid $14K to a reverend who sued after officials refused to release body camera and dashboard camera videos. — The NYPD plans to expand an experimental Brownsville program that withdrew cops in favor of community support organizations. | | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Nate Silver is 43 … Andrew Yang … Rod Rosenstein, partner at King & Spalding, is 56 … Chris Taylor … Antony Phillipson, the U.K.'s consul-general in New York and Her Majesty's trade commissioner to North America … Deloitte's Mollie Bowman … Jason Chung, U.S. director of the Asian Development Bank … Fox News' Christina Robbins … Tim Noah … Julia Tishman … Ian Chung … Rebecca Cathcart … Sara Horowitz MAKING MOVES in the LG's office: Padma Seemangal is now senior adviser for Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul. Bryan Lesswing is now communications director and Lizzie Grams is deputy communications director. | | REAL ESTATE | | "GOV. ANDREW CUOMO is pushing a plan to get employees back in office buildings — and office landlords are on board. In the second installment of his 2021 'State of the State' address, Cuomo announced that rapid testing would be used in state-designated orange zones to open office buildings, along with restaurants and theaters. In orange zones — where the seven-day average Covid rate reaches 4 percent for 10 days and hospitals have 85 percent of capacity — there is limited outdoor dining, and some non-essential businesses can operate at reduced capacity. Cuomo said he will work with the real estate community to open hundreds of new 'pop-up' rapid testing sites, where people can be tested before engaging in a social activity or patronizing a business. He said that major commercial operators with space totaling more than 100 million square feet have already agreed to offer regularly scheduled Covid tests to all tenants in their buildings, although he did not offer specifics on who has committed to such a testing program." The Real Deal's Georgia Kromrei
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