| | | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza and Tara Palmeri | Presented by |  | | | | | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | Can we take a minute this morning to point out that Washington is totally preoccupied with a wonkish policy matter involving Senate procedure and the latest chatter surrounding a Cabinet nomination? What a change after four years of numbing scandals and Twitter name-calling (though some of those tweets are still making news, just not the departed president's). Here are the big stories driving today: 1) NEERA TANDEN'S nomination is still on life support. Democrats have delayed her confirmation vote, and Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL is encouraging his members to hold the line against the OMB nominee. White House chief of staff RON KLAIN said on MSNBC on Wednesday night that "we're fighting our guts out" to get her confirmed. More on Tanden's fate below. 2) Will she or won't she? Senate Parliamentarian ELIZABETH MACDONOUGH is expected to rule as soon as today on whether a $15 minimum wage can be tucked into President JOE BIDEN'S pandemic relief bill. But even if she rules it can, Democrats are hardly in the clear. Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.) told Sarah Ferris that she might vote against the entire relief bill if Democratic leaders cut the provision on their own. She also poured cold water on the idea of striking a deal with moderates for a smaller wage hike, say to $11 an hour: "It's completely unacceptable — $15 is already a compromise." 3) At the White House, Biden is set to speak with Saudi Arabia's King Salman this week. According to the NYT's David Sanger, "while the call will be full of diplomatic pleasantries, officials say, the real purpose is to warn him that the intelligence report [about the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi] is going to be declassified and published. The White House would say little about the carefully sequenced set of events, other than that no conversation between the two men had yet been scheduled — though clearly one was in the works." More here … Breaking overnight: Reuters scoops that the report is coming today and will single out MBS for approving the murder IN WHICH MURKOWSKI READS TANDEN'S MEAN TWEET ABOUT HER IN REAL TIME — It's LISA MURKOWSKI or bust for Tanden: Everyone knows it, including the Alaska GOP senator herself. What Murkowski was not aware of was that she, too, was a past target of Tanden's biting Twitter feed. Well, leave it to WaPo's Seung Min Kim to fill her in: When Murkowski stopped to chat with reporters in the Capitol on Wednesday, Kim showed her a Tanden tweet from November 2017. Murkowski had praised her party's move to cut corporate taxes, tweeting that it would enable U.S. companies to better compete. To which Tanden responded : "No offense but this sounds like you're high on your own supply. You know, we know, and everyone knows this is all garbage. Just stop." "High on my own supply? That's interesting," Murkowski said after reading the tweet, seeming almost amused . "Should I ask her? 'My own supply of what?'" Kim asked for her reaction to Tanden's putdown, but Murkowski, who hasn't decided how she'll vote on the OMB nominee, played it cool. "See, that goes to show how much homework I still have to do on her if I didn't even know that she had sent out a tweet about me!" Murkowski said she's expecting to talk to Tanden soon. WATCH: White House press secretary JEN PSAKI defends Tanden's nomination | 
| | | A message from Google: Google for Startups helps fund and support Black entrepreneurs. Although a fast-growing group of entrepreneurs, Black founders receive less than 1% of venture capital in the U.S. The Google for Startups Black Founders Fund awards up to $100,000, along with support, to selected founders. Learn more. | | | DCCC CHAIR: 'I'M NOT WORKING ON AN AUTOPSY' — We had a rather spirited conversation with DCCC Chair SEAN PATRICK MALONEY (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday for a Playbook Live event. Some takeaways: 1) Democrats lost a dozen members last year and face difficult odds in 2022, since the party that controls the White House typically loses seats in midterms. But Maloney flatly predicted Democrats will keep the House, no caveats or hedges. (Pin that; we'll return to it in a few months.) Between the GOP's ongoing civil war and the party's move to reject Covid relief, Maloney was so confident that he practically scoffed at a question about the DCCC doing its own autopsy of 2020 losses. "Democrats won the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, so if there's one party that's doing an autopsy, it should be the Republicans," he said, later adding, "I'm not working on an autopsy." 2) The leader of the campaign arm also insisted he isn't worried about the GOP's efforts to tag Democrats as the party of "defund the police" and "socialism" — and doesn't see it as his job to combat those labels. "I don't think anybody seriously disputes that when somebody lies, and caricatures your position, that that's something you need to respond to or it can hurt you." Really? We wonder what moderate Dems think of this. Pressed on whether he needs to do more to create daylight between activists calling for "defund the police" and what the party's pursuing in Congress — something centrist Democrats say the party absolutely needs to do — he added: "It is not my job to kind of chase my tail around, trying to explain what every activist or every caricature means." 3) Maloney is standing behind new senior DCCC staffer DYJUAN TATRO, who has become something of a new obsession for the GOP over his now-deleted tweets supporting rioting as a form of social protest and equating Capitol Police to white supremacists around Jan. 6. (In one of his latest missives from last November floating around GOP operative inboxes this week, he suggested centrist Democrats blaming "defund the police" for 2020 losses "reinforce" white supremacy.) But Maloney called questions about Tatro a distraction: "You're talking about deleted tweets before we hired him." WATCH: Maloney weighs in on the "defund the police" debate | 
| | | | | A message from Google:   Black-led startup Possip, which helps students succeed by connecting families with their schools, received $100,000 from the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund. More. | | | JOIN US! House Republicans mounted a comeback in November when they picked up a number of seats and defeated several Democratic freshmen who delivered the House majority in 2018. Then the Jan. 6 insurrection happened, setting off an internal war within the GOP. Join RACHAEL on Wednesday at 9 a.m. for a conversation with NRCC Chair TOM EMMER (R-Minn.) to discuss his strategy for the 2022 midterm elections, Donald Trump's role in the party and continued fallout from Jan. 6. Register to watch BIDEN'S THURSDAY — The president and VP KAMALA HARRIS will receive the President's Daily Brief at 9:50 a.m., have lunch together at 12:30 p.m. and get a Covid-19 briefing at 1:45 p.m. At 2:30 p.m., Biden will take part in an event marking the 50 millionth vaccine shot, with Harris attending. He'll take part in the National Governors Association's Winter Meeting at 4:30 p.m. Harris will also stop at a D.C. pharmacy participating in the federal program to administer vaccines at 9 a.m. — PSAKI will brief at noon. THE HOUSE returns at 10 a.m. and will begin debating the Equality Act at noon. Speaker NANCY PELOSI will have her weekly press conference at 10:45 a.m. THE SENATE returns at 11 a.m. It will resume considering JENNIFER GRANHOLM'S nomination for Energy secretary at noon and vote to invoke cloture on MIGUEL CARDONA'S nomination for Education secretary at 1:30 p.m. TV TODAY — Harris sat down with the Rev. AL SHARPTON for an interview on MSNBC, excerpts of which will air this morning on "Morning Joe." The full interview will be on "PoliticsNation" on Saturday at 5 p.m. | | | | NEW - "THE RECAST" NEWSLETTER: Power dynamics are changing. "Influence" is changing. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that all politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. "The Recast" is our new twice-weekly newsletter that breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics, policy and power in America. And POLITICO is recasting how we report on this crucial intersection, bringing you fresh insights, scoops, dispatches from across the country and new voices that challenge "business as usual." Don't miss out on this important new newsletter, SUBSCRIBE NOW. Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | | 
PHOTO OF THE DAY: Linda Thomas-Greenfield is sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. by VP Kamala Harris at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Wednesday, Feb. 24. | Alex Wong/Getty Images | THE WHITE HOUSE LITERALLY NO MARGIN FOR ERROR — Burgess Everett and Natasha Korecki explore the constant game of Whac-A-Mole the White House and Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER have to play in a 50-50 Senate: A single Democratic defection and Republicans are calling the shots. One nugget from the piece: "One potentially gettable moderate, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), is icy toward Schumer after he tried to oust her in Maine's 2020 Senate race. But her deference to Biden on some issues doesn't mean she can be a reliable lifesaver when someone like Manchin or Sinema thrusts a nomination or floor vote into peril. "[Collins is] a no on Tanden and said in an interview she's undecided on [Deb] Haaland and [Xavier] Becerra, who has contacted her for a follow-up call. Asked if she has much of a relationship with Schumer these days, she replied flatly: 'No.'" NEW ADMINISTRATION, NEW SPEECH — "The Words That Are In and Out With the Biden Administration," NYT: "At the Department of Homeland Security, the phrase 'illegal alien' is being replaced with 'noncitizen.' The Interior Department now makes sure that mentions of its stakeholders include 'Tribal' people (with a capital 'T' as preferred by Native Americans, it said). The most unpopular two words in the Trump lexicon — 'climate change' — are once again appearing on government websites and in documents; officials at the Environmental Protection Agency have even begun using the hashtag #climatecrisis on Twitter. "And across the government, L.G.B.T.Q. references are popping up everywhere. Visitors to the White House website are now asked whether they want to provide their pronouns when they fill out a contact form: she/her, he/him or they/them." Playbook aside: Republicans struggling to slow down Biden's Covid relief bill have a new phrase too: instead of "$15 minimum wage," some House GOP members are test-driving "the $15 Washington mandate." ON CAPITOL HILL X (EAR)MARKS THE SPOT — "House GOP opens fraught internal debate over earmarks," by Melanie Zanona: "The conservative House Freedom Caucus has come out swinging against the idea, voting to formally oppose any form of congressionally directed spending, 'whether in the 117th Congress or any future Congress.' … The Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus on Capitol Hill, will meet next week to discuss the issue. "But the group started circulating a memo, obtained by POLITICO, warning that 'capitulating to calls for reinstating earmarks will amplify the power' of Democratic leaders and could 'create a more hierarchical Congress.' … While the practice is still formally prohibited under current House GOP conference rules, some Republicans have argued that allowing lawmakers to ensure money for specific projects restores power to the legislative branch and could help make the institution more functional." JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH COMMISSION LATEST — "McConnell throws cold water on Dems' proposed 1/6 Commission," by Andrew Desiderio and Kyle Cheney: "McConnell rejected a draft version of Pelosi's proposed commission that would give Democrats a 7-4 majority on the panel, and he said any large-scale review of the insurrection must also include an analysis of broader political violence — a nod to GOP complaints about a wave of riots across the country last summer that followed the death of George Floyd at the hands of police." SERIOUS DAMAGE — "Capitol Riot Costs Will Exceed $30 Million, Official Tells Congress," NYT: "As staff members huddled inside, the inauguration platform they had been diligently assembling was wrecked: sound systems and photo equipment irreparably damaged or stolen, two lanterns designed and built by the eminent landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 19th century ripped from the ground, and blue paint tracked all over the stone balustrades and into the hallways. Inside, busts of former speakers of the House and a Chippewa statesman, a statue of Thomas Jefferson and paintings of James Madison and John Quincy Adams were coated in fire extinguisher and other chemicals, including yellow dye that could stain. "Outside the physical damage, the officials detailed a substantial increase in demand for mental health counseling, with an office that typically handles about 3,000 calls per year surging to more than 1,150 interactions with employees, managers and members of Congress in six weeks." | | | | A message from Google:   Google for Startups Black Founders Fund awards up to $100,000 to selected founders. More. | | | POLICY CORNER IMMIGRATION FILES — "Exclusive: Hundreds of kids held in Border Patrol stations," Axios: "More than 700 children who crossed from Mexico into the United States without their parents were in Border Patrol custody as of Sunday, according to an internal Customs and Border Protection document obtained by Axios. "The current backup is yet another sign of a brewing crisis for President Biden — and a worsening dilemma for these vulnerable children. Biden is finding it's easier to talk about preventing warehousing kids at the southern border than solving the problem." — GREEN CARD REVERSAL — "Biden lifts Trump-era ban blocking legal immigration to U.S.," AP: "President Joe Biden on Wednesday lifted a freeze on green cards issued by his predecessor during the pandemic that lawyers said was blocking most legal immigration to the United States. Former President Donald Trump last spring halted the issuance of green cards until the end of 2020 in the name of protecting the coronavirus-wracked job market … [But] Biden stated in his proclamation Wednesday that shutting the door on legal immigrants 'does not advance the interests of the United States.'" MEANWHILE, ON CAPITOL HILL — "Stephen Miller tangles with Florida GOP freshman at House immigration meeting," by Olivia Beavers and Mel Zanona: "Freshman GOP Rep. María Elvira Salazar got into a lively exchange over immigration with former Trump aide Stephen Miller… Miller, the architect of Donald Trump's hard-line immigration policies such as the separation of migrant families at the border, addressed the group alongside another former Trump administration immigration official. "Sources say the Floridian Salazar pushed for immigration policies that would broaden the GOP tent while challenging Miller on how Republicans can attract Latino voters given the ultra-conservative policies he is advocating." — Sources tell us Salazar, the daughter of Cuban exiles and a moderate Republican who flipped a heavily Latino Florida district, isn't even a member of the Republican Study Committee, which hosted the meeting. But she showed up to the conservative group's weekly gathering anyway. The talk was civil, but this won't be the end of the debate. POLITICS NEW JOHN HARRIS COLUMN: "The way to fix the Lincoln Project: Shut it down for good: Flagrant profiteering and sexual impropriety have a way of slowing momentum." 2022 WATCH — "Rep. Stephanie Murphy 'seriously considering' bid to unseat Rubio," by Marc Caputo: "Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy is seriously considering a bid to unseat Sen. Marco Rubio's 2022 reelection, announcing Wednesday that she's launching a statewide listening tour and has hired a top Democratic operative to manage the effort. "Murphy, 42, has been elected three times to one of Florida's most competitive congressional districts in Orlando, and first won the seat by knocking out 12-term incumbent GOP Rep. John Mica when few thought she could. It was a giant-killer act that Democrats hope she can repeat if she takes on Rubio, widely seen as a hard-to-beat incumbent." PANDEMIC TRACKER: The U.S. reported 2,447 Covid-19 deaths and 73,000 new coronavirus cases Wednesday. RECOVERY LAB — "How the Buffalo Bills could help reopen Broadway": New York used aggressive Covid testing to let Buffalo Bills fans attend the playoffs. Now the state thinks the approach could hold the keys to reopening the New York we all know, from Madison Square Garden to the theaters on Broadway, Shannon Young reports. If successful, New York could offer a blueprint to other states for how to safely reintroduce large-scale events and reopen major entertainment venues even before the country is fully vaccinated. It's a bridge, New York leaders say, to a post-Covid world. But it's all a big if. IN MEMORIAM — "D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's sister dies from Covid as city passes 1,000 deaths," by Matthew Choi: "Mercia Bowser was the mayor's only sister. She died just short of her 65th birthday. … Mercia Bowser had previously worked for Catholic Charities and the D.C. Office on Aging, focusing her work on children, the elderly and those with behavioral disorders, the mayor said in her statement." | | | | TUNE IN TO GLOBAL TRANSLATIONS: Our Global Translations podcast, presented by Citi, examines the long-term costs of the short-term thinking that drives many political and business decisions. The world has long been beset by big problems that defy political boundaries, and these issues have exploded over the past year amid a global pandemic. This podcast helps to identify and understand the impediments to smart policymaking. Subscribe and start listening today. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | SPOTTED: Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) having pizza at Wiseguy on Wednesday. … Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) and former Biden campaign manager Greg Schultz grabbing coffee at the M Street Starbucks on Wednesday morning. LIKE A BAD NEIGHBOR — Reps. Marie Newman (D-Ill.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), whose offices are across from one another in the Longworth Office Building, have taken their fight over transgender rights from the floor of the House to outside their office doors. Newman, who has a transgender daughter, placed the pink, blue and white flag outside her office after speaking in support of the Equality Act, which aims to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination. Newman shared a video of her putting the flag up. Greene, who decried the bill, responded by putting up a sign outside her own office saying: "There are TWO genders: MALE & FEMALE" and "Trust The Science!" Guess this is how Greene is going to spend some of the "free time on her hands" after getting booted from her House committee assignments. NEW BILL CLINTON PODCAST DROPS TODAY: The former president talks to Magic Johnson about "how to design the next act of your life." SPEAKING OF FORMER PRESIDENTS AND PODCASTS: Barack Obama's Spotify series with Bruce Springsteen has a lot of younger folks rolling their eyes and mocking the two superstars with "OK, boomer" derision. Vice called it "another empty appeal to unity." But the second episode includes a discussion on race that is worth listening to for two reasons: Obama's story about the time in his high school locker room in Hawaii when he punched someone who used a racial slur. "I remember I popped him in the face and broke his nose," the 44th president tells the Boss. Obama also comes out in favor of reparations, though with a typically Obamian caveat about the political costs. HuffPost : "Obama said [reparations] were justified in his mind due to the fact that 'the wealth of this country, the power of this country … not exclusively, maybe not even the majority of it … but a large portion of it, was built on the backs of slaves.'" But he also warned that it was "perfectly understandable why working-class white folks, middle-class white folks, folks who are having trouble paying the bills or dealing with student loans … wouldn't be thrilled with the idea of a massive program that is designed to deal with the past but isn't speaking to their future. We can't even get this country to provide decent schooling for inner-city kids … "And what I saw during my presidency was the politics of white resistance and resentment. The talk of 'welfare queens' and the talk of the 'undeserving' poor. And the backlash against affirmative action. All that made the prospect of actually proposing any kind of coherent, meaningful reparations program … not only a non-starter but potentially counterproductive." I KNOW THAT VOICE FROM SOMEWHERE — Voting technology company Dominion, which has been at the center of scurrilous false conspiracy theories since Election Day, is not just suing the people who spread lies about the company. In Louisiana, where Dominion is competing for a state contract to provide voting equipment, the company is running ads to help rehabilitate its image. As Quint Forgey reported, one radio ad features "a deep-voiced, Southern-accented narrator defending Dominion's services, which it states have 'supported Louisiana elections honorably for more than 20 years.'" Attentive listeners to the spot may have noticed the narrator's voice sounded familiar. In fact, the deep-voiced, Southern-accented man is Washington's own Michael Steel, known to many from his days working for John Boehner, Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush. What wasn't so familiar was the Cajun twang. Steel's firm, Hamilton Place Strategies, which made the ad, decided to use their own talent rather than hiring a voice actor from the Pelican State. When asked about his theatrical debut, Steel, a North Carolina native, said he was appropriately cast for the part because he was from the South. He added, "I've spent enough time in Louisiana to know that no one from elsewhere can sound like they're from Louisiana, so I just tried to sound friendly." Louisianans can listen here and judge how he did. A FIRST FOR THE FIRST — Jill Biden, the first first lady to be divorced, opened up to pop star Kelly Clarkson about the pain she felt when her first marriage ended. In an interview that airs today on "The Kelly Clarkson Show," Biden gives advice to Clarkson, who is going through her own divorce, on recovery and how she found her true love after divorce. It's Biden's first TV interview since she and her husband arrived at the White House. RYAN GOES WALL STREET — "Paul Ryan to Join Solamere Capital," WSJ: "Former House speaker Paul Ryan, who last year joined the rush of high-profile individuals launching special-purpose acquisition companies, is going to work at the private-equity firm he teamed up with in that effort. Mr. Ryan will join Solamere Capital, a private-equity firm founded by Utah Sen. Mitt Romney's son Taggart, as well as Eric Scheuermann and Spencer Zwick, as a partner." MEDIAWATCH — Roger Sollenberger is joining The Daily Beast to cover money in politics. He's currently a staff writer at Salon. … Travis Wolfe is joining Government Executive Media Group as senior producer. He previously was manager of events at Washingtonian. … Sarah Cammarata is joining Stars and Stripes to cover Congress. She most recently was a senior digital producer and defense reporter at POLITICO. — Insider's Steven Perlberg profiles Carolyn Ryan, "the most powerful woman in The New York Times newsroom." FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — The Atlantic's Edward-Isaac Dovere's new book, "Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats' Campaigns to Defeat Trump," goes on sale May 18. Pre-order for $30 — Halee Dobbins is now press secretary for Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas). She was previously press aide for second lady Karen Pence. STAFFING UP — Alicia O'Brien is now senior counsel and special assistant to the president in the White House counsel's office. She most recently was with King & Spalding, and is an Obama DOJ alum. TRANSITIONS — Democratic strategists Mindy Myers, Tracey Lewis and Sarah Callahan Zusi are launching a media consulting firm, MZL Media. Myers was the first female DSCC executive director, Lewis just worked on the Biden/runoff campaigns in Georgia, and Zusi was an ad-maker for the Biden campaign. More from CNN … Josh Jaye is now director of corporate relations at the Tax Foundation. He previously was director of corporate and nonprofit relations at the American Legislative Exchange Council. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) … Tom Nides … Mona Charen … CNN's Hadas Gold and Barbara Levin … Bob Schieffer … Andy Rosenthal (65) … U.S. Chamber's Andrew Burk … Lauren Kapp … Tyler Houlton … NFL's Jon Nabavi … Jessica Yellin … POLITICO's Matt Dixon … Steve Gutow … Greg Crist … Gina Kolata … Bridgett Frey … Facebook's Anne Kornblut … Tim Berry … Burlington, Vt., Mayor Miro Weinberger … Eric Wall … former Reps. Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.) and Bill Flores (R-Texas) … Madison Donzis … Xholina Nano ... Chris Sarcone … Sally Jessy Raphael … Jack Burns Got a document to share? A birthday coming up? What else does Murkowski not know that she probably should? Drop us a line at playbook@politico.com or individually: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Mike Zapler and producers Allie Bice, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross. | | A message from Google: New founders join Google for Startups Founders Academy. As part of Google's commitment to support underrepresented founders, Google for Startups is launching the second cohort of Founders Academy for diverse founders in the U.S. Selected founders receive six months of hands-on support from Googlers, industry experts, and investors to help them grow their startup and arm them with skills as they reach the next stage of growth. Learn more. | | | | | | | 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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