News: POLITICO California Playbook: MCCARTHY in hot seat over GREENE, CHENEY — FAULCONER takes off — SHUTDOWN results

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

POLITICO California Playbook: MCCARTHY in hot seat over GREENE, CHENEY — FAULCONER takes off — SHUTDOWN results — DCC hits GARCIA in new QANON ad

Feb 02, 2021

By Jeremy B. White, Carla Marinucci, Graph Massara and Mackenzie Hawkins

THE BUZZ: California's most powerful Republican is facing a reckoning this week.

Pressure is mounting on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to repudiate Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who has trafficked in bizarre and violent conspiracy theories — including a baroque surmise in 2018 that California's devastating wildfires may have been intentionally sparked by space lasers . McCarthy has been loath to rebuke a member of his caucus, telling reporters after Greene's November victory that they had to give her a chance. He has committed to speaking with her this week after his office dinged her "deeply disturbing" comments. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, meanwhile, showed no compunctions about excoriating the metastasizing "cancer for the Republican Party" in a statement that didn't name Greene but was nonetheless clear in conveying which lawmaker is "not living in reality."

But as more of Greene's old posts surface, Democrats are looking to force McCarthy's hand. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last week that Greene should be stripped of her House Education Committee post for endorsing the theory that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged. Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) has led the charge to expel Greene from Congress, attracting dozens of cosponsors for a resolution founded on the rationale that Greene poses a threat to her colleagues, and he taunted McCarthy by saying the "QAnon caucus" led by Greene was "pulling [McCarthy's] strings." Democratic leadership delivered McCarthy an ultimatum on Monday, as POLITICO's Heather Caygle, Sarah Ferris and Melanie Zanona scooped: disempower Greene, or we will.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021. | AP Photo/Susan Walsh

As McCarthy weighs Greene's fate, the congresswoman has made sure to trumpet her allegiance to former President Donald Trump . Just as McCarthy has tried to thread the needle with the former president — faulting Trump for the Capitol riot in his most significant public break, then seeming to walk that back, then visiting Trump in Florida and proclaiming the former president would propel 2022 campaign efforts — cutting Greene loose could alienate elements of the party's Trump-aligned base. Which gets us to another critical decision McCarthy faces: what to do with Rep. Liz Cheney.

The Cheney situation is the inverse of the Greene dilemma: how to handle the rare Republican who decisively and publicly broke with Trump, voting for impeachment and casting the decision in urgent moral terms (she was joined by a single California Republican, Rep. David Valadao). Unlike the freshman Greene, Cheney (R-Wyo.) is a high-ranking member of McCarthy's leadership team; there too, McConnell has diverged from McCarthy in backing Cheney . As Melanie and Sarah report, the decision distils the larger tensions consuming the Republican Party as McCarthy tries to steer it out of the Trump presidency. The Bakersfield Republican's moves this week will substantially shape that arc — and his own.

BUENOS DÍAS, good Tuesday morning. The moment you've all been waiting for could materialize soon: House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is holding a hearing on the GameStop situation.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "If we are waiting for Kevin McCarthy to have a moral compass ... that's never going to happen." Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) on punishing Greene.

BONUS QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I was saying, 'Well, don't worry, I'm a mom, I'm calm, we can live for like a month in this office,' and she said, 'I just hope I get to be a mom. I hope I don't die today.'" Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), recounting an exchange with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) during the Jan. 6. siege of the Capitol.

TWEET OF THE DAY: California life coach and former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson @MarWilliamson: "Every time an economist shows up on television news, there should be a poet that gets equal time."

WHERE'S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.

TUNE IN TO NEW EPISODE OF 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 for Season Two, available now.

TOP TALKERS

FOOD BEAT — "California's outdoor dining ban was controversial. Did it help slow the COVID-19 surge?" by the LA Times' Soumya Karlamangla and Rong-Gong Lin: "Because of the many weeks of lag time between new infections and hospitalizations, the effects of the stay-at-home orders would only become apparent a month later, in early January, when hospitalizations finally began to decline. … California officials estimated that the state's order — which prohibited nonessential travel; banned outdoor social gatherings; and closed nail and hair salons, museums and outdoor dining — kept as many as 25,000 people from landing in the hospital with a severe case of COVID-19."

PUSHING BACK ON PROSECUTORS — "The California District Attorney Association is failing Californians," opines Assemblymember Sydney Kamlager for the Appeal: "The CDAA's misconduct is simply more evidence that the association has no interest in promoting justice, as its mission states. Instead, it lobbies to subvert the will of the voters, attacks progressive prosecutors, keeps in place the tough-on-crime laws of the past, and, evidently, misappropriates public funds to do so. It's past time that the state steps up and holds the group accountable for these actions."

TEEHEE — " Six arrested after changing Hollywood sign to 'HOLLYBOOB,'" by the LA Times' Kevin Rector.

— "Wildfire smoke may carry 'mind-bending' amounts of fungi and bacteria, scientists say," by the LA Times' Joseph Serna.

CORONAVIRUS UPDATES

SIREN — "Rapid spread of U.K. coronavirus variant in Southern California sparks alarm," by the LA Times' Luke Money and Rong-Gong Lin.

— " Bay Area counties frustrated with pace of nursing home and assisted living vaccinations," by the SF Chronicle's Sarah Ravani: "While the majority of California nursing homes have administered first doses as of Monday, most of the state's nearly 15,000 assisted care facilities — like the one Tu runs — have yet to give a first dose of the vaccine to their residents and staff."

SHELTER SPREAD — " Over 400 Homeless People Infected and One Dead from Coronavirus Outbreaks Across 17 Shelters in Orange County," by Voice of OC's Nick Gerda: "The ongoing outbreaks are prompting calls from activists for the county to reinstate a program that sheltered at-risk homeless seniors in motels, now that federal officials are agreeing to cover 100 percent of the costs."

COVID AT WORK — " L.A. and Oregon disclosing workplace outbreaks. Most Bay Area health officers won't. Why?" by the SF Chronicle's Chase DiFeliciantonio and Shwanika Narayan: "A patchwork of rumor, employee notifications and media reports have taken the place of the systematic reporting seen elsewhere."

COLLEGE CASE COUNTS — " Coronavirus cases among UC Berkeley students surge. UCLA and UC Irvine cases jump, then drop," by the LA Times' Melissa Gomez.

— "Filipino Residents Have Been Hit Hard by COVID — But No One Knows Just How Hard," by Voice of San Diego's Maya Srikrishnan.

THE 46TH

— "She exposed tech's impact on people of color. Now, she's on Biden's team," by Protocol's Emily Birnbaum: "Over the course of his campaign, President Biden promised to bring a civil rights lens to all of his administration's policies, including tech policy. Nelson, whose research has focused on the intersection of race and technology, is in many ways the embodiment of that promise."

MADAM VP

— "'Fully Erased': With Harris' Rise, There Are No Black Women In The Senate," by NPR's Juana Summers: "There are now no Black women in the Senate after an election cycle with key victories powered by Black women. It has turned a moment of triumph for many Black women thrilled to see Harris make a historic ascent to the vice presidency into something more bittersweet."

BOOK REVIEW — "How Kamala Harris Rose — and Rose," by NYT's Lisa McGirr: "[Dan] Morain paints Harris as a pragmatic, ambitious politician who 'took positions when she needed to and when those stands might help her politically,' but who was also "adept at not taking stands when doing so was not politically necessary."

GAVINLAND

RECALL REACTION — "Recall threat sharpens Newsom's focus on California's troubled COVID-19 response," by the LA Times' George Skelton: "Newsom's latest moves indicate he's feeling the public pressure and reacting. … Newsom has recently taken swift actions in an effort to get a grip on managing the pandemic, gradually return everyone's lives to normal and calm anger over the snails-pace delivery of vaccinations, failure to reopen public schools and other complaints."

— "Law enforcement investigates threats against Newsom, his family, his businesses," via the AP.

CAMPAIGN MODE

FAULCONER'S FIGHT — Former San Diego mayor to officially launch GOP challenge to Newsom, by POLITICO's Carla Marinucci: As a moderate Republican who ran California's second largest city, Faulconer is regularly viewed as the most viable Republican for statewide office in solidly blue California. But any GOP candidate would face an uphill climb against Newsom — who won in a landslide in 2018 in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans in voter registration by an overwhelming 46 percent to 24 percent.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is launching the first major digital and ad campaign of the 2022 election cycle by putting a target on the back of Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.), along with five other GOP House members considered especially vulnerable. The 30-second TV ads and digital spots — which charge that Garcia "stood with Q, and not with you" — will play in local broadcast and cable stations in Los Angeles and five other major markets, as well as on digital platforms.

CERNOVICH CLAIM — "Republicans are emerging to run for governor should Newsom recall qualify," by the LA Times' Seema Mehta: "Right-wing activist Mike Cernovich announced Monday that he too would run for governor if the recall qualifies. The 43-year-old, who has pushed false conspiracy theories such as a pedophile ring being run out of a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C., said he has no delusions that he could win."

CALIFORNIA AND THE CAPITOL CORRIDOR

— California counties object to state vaccine deal with Blue Shield, Kaiser, by POLITICO's Victoria Colliver.

— California, New York join multistate push to tackle plastic packaging, by POLITICO's Debra Kahn: State lawmakers in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington are all working on legislation to require plastics manufacturers to manage the disposal or recycling of their products, a concept known as extended producer responsibility.

— " Biden order poised to expand Bay Area homeless programs," by the Mercury News' Marisa Kendall: "Bay Area counties — which already have put up several thousand unhoused people in hotel rooms — are looking into extending hotel contracts, moving more people in and opening additional rooms."

PRISON PROBLEMS — " California prisons risked thousands of lives in rushed COVID-19 transfers, report says," by the Sac Bee's Andrew Sheeler: "Before inmates were loaded onto buses for transfer, prison officials conducted temperature and verbal screenings. However, the screenings were too early to determine whether the inmates had symptoms of COVID-19, according to the report. As a result, some of the inmates who were transferred may have been experiencing symptoms of the virus."

— " Report card: California cities, counties failing again on affordable housing goals," by the OC Register's Nikie Johnson and Jeff Collins.

SACRAMENTO SHOWDOWN — "'No remorse.' Sacramento homeless group demands city manager be fired over storm response," by the Sac Bee's Theresa Clift: "A prominent homeless activist group is calling on the Sacramento City Council to fire City Manager Howard Chan following a Sacramento Bee story that revealed Chan declined to open a warming shelter for the homeless during last week's storm, despite the requests of multiple City Council members."

— "Missing in School Reopening Plans: Black Families' Trust," by the NYT's Eliza Shapiro, Erica L. Green and Juliana Kim: "In Oakland, Calif., just about a third of Black parents said they would consider in-person learning, compared with more than half of white families."

SILICON VALLEYLAND

— "Facebook Knew Calls for Violence Plagued 'Groups,' Now Plans Overhaul," by the WSJ's Jeff Horwitz: "The company's data scientists had warned Facebook executives in August that what they called blatant misinformation and calls to violence were filling the majority of the platform's top 'civic' Groups, according to documents The Wall Street Journal reviewed. Those Groups are generally dedicated to politics and related issues and collectively reach hundreds of millions of users."

— " Anti-vaccine protest at Dodger Stadium was organized on Facebook, including promotion of banned 'Plandemic' video," by WaPo's Isaac Stanley-Becker: "It … shows how social networking services could foster more confrontational tactics by those committed to false ideas about the dangers of immunization as the mass vaccination effort ramps up."

FLORIDA BOUND — " Home prices near Miami have risen over 25% in the last year as Silicon Valley and Wall Street billionaires flock to Florida," by Business Insider's Avery Hartmans.

HOLLYWOODLAND

— "Marilyn Manson Dropped by Record Label Amid Evan Rachel Wood Abuse Allegations," by Variety's Jem Aswad: "In 2019, Wood created the Phoenix Act, a bill that extends the statute of limitations on domestic violence to five years from three. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law in Oct 2019, and it took effect in January 2020."

— "Sustainability in Hollywood Backslides Amid COVID: 'It's Everything We Told Everybody Not to Do All These Years,'" by the Hollywood Reporter's Kirsten Chuba.

CANNABIS COUNTRY

— "Violating California's Prop 65 labeling rules can cost cannabis companies thousands in legal fees," by Marijuana Business Daily's John Schroyer: "Such actions can mean costly out-of-court settlements or even more expensive litigation for businesses."

MIXTAPE

GET WELL SOON, MICHAELANGELO! — "'The tortoise is sick, it got an owie': Beloved decades-old reptile recovering after attack at San Jose preschool," by the Mercury News' Julia Prodis Sulek.

— " California DMV to resume behind-the-wheel drive tests," by KTLA's Nouran Salahieh.

— "Shootings in Oakland soar as cuts to Police Department take hold," by the SF Chronicle's Phil Matier.

— " San Jose, Oakland may require grocers to give 'hazard pay' to front line workers," by the Mercury News' Annie Sciacca.

— "Latasha Harlins' name sparked an L.A. movement. 30 years later, her first memorial is up," by the LA Times' Kailyn Brown.

— "Santa Clara University fraternity faces consequences for super-spreader event," by KTVU's Emma Goss.

— "These are the San Francisco restaurants that closed permanently in January," by SFGATE's Madeline Wells.

MEDIA MATTERS

— "Jack Palladino, famed S.F. private detective, dies after attack in front of his house," by the SF Chronicle's Sam Whiting.

TRANSITIONS

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Vivek Viswanathan, a senior policy adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom, began a Biden administration job this week as a senior policy adviser to the National Economic Council. Viswanathan served as chief deputy at the California Department of Finance, then from July 2020 worked directly with Newsom and his cabinet as an adviser across a range of economic issues.

BIRTHDAYS

Jen Duck … Sean Evins … Nika Nour

JOIN WEDNESDAY - AN UNEQUAL BURDEN FOR WOMEN DURING THE PANDEMIC: Covid-19 dealt a significant blow to working women as household work, child care and the care of older adults disproportionately fall to them. A recent report found that 1 in 4 women considered cutting back hours spent at their jobs or dropping out of the workforce altogether, citing increased household and child care responsibilities during the pandemic. How do we start even the burden? Join POLITICO for a virtual discussion on women, work and caregiving during Covid-19.

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