News : Franken rules out run against Gillibrand

Sunday, October 31, 2021

Franken rules out run against Gillibrand

Oct 31, 2021

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By Tara Palmeri

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DRIVING THE DAY

Since moving to the Upper West Side in New York earlier this year, AL FRANKEN has been sounding out confidantes about primarying his nemesis Sen. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-N.Y.) in 2024, multiple sources tell Playbook.

The former Senator from Minnesota fueled speculation when he told the New York Times a month ago, "I am keeping my options open," when asked about running for Senate in New York.

But according to his spokesperson, those options do not include taking on Gillibrand.

Franken declined to comment by phone when we asked about his interest in primarying Gillibrand. He referred us to his spokeswoman, ALEXANDRA FETISSOFF, who said "he has no intention of running for Senate."

Fetissoff followed up later with a more narrow statement from Franken.

"Yes, I miss the Senate but I'm not going to run against Kirsten Gillibrand," it read.

Sources close to the former Minnesota senator say that's he's still outraged over how Gillibrand pushed for him to resign at the height of the #MeToo movement four years ago, when he was accused of groping and kissing multiple women.

He's made no secret that he regrets resigning. Franken is currently on a 15-stop comedy tour, "The Only Former U.S. Senator Currently on Tour Tour," which includes stops in Albany and Ithaca, N.Y., as well D.C.'s Warner Theatre on Friday.

While Franken uses his former Senate colleagues as punchlines , he's been noticeably silent about Gillibrand, who many think is vulnerable to a primary — whether it's Franken or someone else. She's coming off an unsuccessful presidential run, and has never faced a tough reelection fight since being appointed to HILLARY CLINTON's former seat in 2009. A September 2021 Siena poll showed Gillibrand's favorability at 44 percent.

"New Yorkers love larger-than-life characters," said BRENDAN COFFEY, a New York political strategist and former campaign manager to ANDREW YANG. "If he runs, he'll be a serious candidate. Al Franken likely has higher name ID in most parts of New York state than Sen. Gillibrand."

A source with knowledge said Gillibrand has heard the speculation about Franken's interest, and "is not exactly cool as a cucumber about it."

Gillibrand's chief of staff JESS FASSLER disputed that characterization. "The only thing she's worried about right now," Fassler said, "is getting family leave into the Build Back Better package."

— Related: WaPo's Tony Romm writes about the effort by Gillibrand and other female Democratic senators to pressure JOE MANCHIN to salvage paid leave.

Our favorite nugget: Manchin reportedly feared a paid leave program "could invite fraud," and "asked about work requirements, even though employment is a condition for one to take leave in the first place, some of the sources said."

ANOTHER AWFUL POLL FOR BIDEN — An NBC News poll out this morning shows President JOE BIDEN's approval rating has dropped to 42% — "a decline of 7 points since August, with much of the attrition coming from key parts of the Democratic base" — while his disapproval is now at 54%.

— Biden's approval rating "is lower than any other modern first-year president's at a similar point in time, with the key exception of DONALD TRUMP (whose approval averaged 37 percent in fall 2017)," notes Mark Murray.

— Speakeasy: "What people voted for was stability and calm," Democratic pollster Peter Hart tells NBC. "And what they got was instability and chaos."

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TWO DAYS LEFT IN VIRGINIA — With election day on Tuesday, there's a dizzying array of stories on the goings-on in the commonwealth. Here's what you need to know:

— On the final Saturday of the campaign …

•	GLENN YOUNGKIN "made a flurry of appearances in Northern Virginia," write WaPo's Meagan Flynn and Jim Morrison, "the area of the state where he faces the most resistance, and stuck to driving home his platforms on education and lowering taxes in a bid to appeal to parents and fiscal conservatives."
•	Youngkin continued his tightrope act on all things Trump. Via @DanaBashCNN: "Campaigning in Old Town Alexandria @GlennYoungkin⁩ told me he hasn't been involved in the planning for Monday's tele-town hall that Trump will participate in, although 'the teams are talking, I'm sure.' 'I'm not going to be engaged in the tele-town hall,' he said."
•	Meanwhile, TERRY MCAULIFFE repeatedly tied Youngkin to Trump during a campaign swing through southeastern Virginia. The Macker also "continued to pitch himself as the former governor who brought jobs and businesses back to the state after the Great Recession. He pledged to do so again after the pandemic, while arguing Youngkin's focus on culture-war issues would hurt business," per WaPo.
•	But in northern Virginia, "there is scant evidence that McAuliffe's attempt to revive the agitated emotions of 2020 and to cast Youngkin as a Donald Trump proxy is working," write Brittany Gibson and John F. Harris.

— The stakes are straightforward and wide-reaching, writes NYT's Jonathan Martin:

•

For Republicans: "Virginia represents the promise of renewal, the chance to rebuild their party in a fairly forbidding state — and without having to make the difficult choice of fully embracing or rejecting Mr. Trump. … Suffering yet another loss here, though, would make it clear to Republicans that they cannot continue to delay their internal reckoning over the former president and that, even in exile, his unpopularity remains the party's biggest impediment."

•

For Democrats: "Should Mr. McAuliffe lose or barely win, moderates will demand immediate passage of the infrastructure bill. Liberals will argue that the Democratic Party, and democracy itself, are in such a parlous state that they must push through new voting laws. And strategists across the party's ideological spectrum will be made to contend with a political playing field in the midterm elections that stretches deeper into blue America."

— Dems' behind-the-scenes fury and worry:

•

At a private meeting last Tuesday, lawmakers from Virginia and New Jersey urged Speaker NANCY PELOSI to pass Biden's legislative agenda before the election, per J-Mart. A McAuliffe loss, they said, "could have a cascading effect on the party, prompting Democrats to pull back from President Biden and his ambitious agenda, and perhaps even drive some to retirement." The vote didn't end up happening.

•

The McAuliffe camp is 'baffled' by Biden's inaction: "The former Virginia governor and his top aides, who have been pushing congressional and White House officials to pass the bill for over a month, were both stunned and infuriated [by the lack of a BIF vote this week], according to Democrats. They were amazed Ms. Pelosi had been forced to delay the vote for the second time in a month, baffled why the president didn't make a more aggressive push and despairing about the impact of yet another round of negative stories from Washington."

Happy Halloween! It's Sunday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri.

THREE TOP SUNDAY READS …

— As the Supreme Court takes up the Texas abortion ban on Monday, Josh Gerstein and Alice Miranda Ollstein break down five major questions to look out for: 1) Do justices pivot to Roe v. Wade? 2) What will Chief Justice JOHN ROBERTS do? 3) Can abortion rights advocates convince another justice to swing? 4) Does the "parade of horribles" prove convincing? And 5) How big a rush are the justices in?

— A trend to watch: "Mayoral candidates across the country are closing out their campaigns pledging to restore law and order, a major setback for racial justice protesters who only a year ago thought they had permanently reshaped the debate on policing in American cities," WaPo's Tim Craig writes . "As voters head to the polls Tuesday, local elections are dominated by discussions about safety and law enforcement amid a surge in violent crime. The tone of the debate, even in many liberal urban communities, highlights how major policing reforms have stalled."

— If Never-Trumpers want to stop the former president in 2024, they should get in line behind RON DESANTIS, writes The Atlantic's Conor Friersdorf . The Florida governor "can boast both conventional political achievements and credibility on the Trumpist right," Friersdorf writes, while also helping the party avoid some of the pitfalls that led to Trump's nomination. "By failing to unite around any candidate in 2016, Trump's opponents all but guaranteed that the celebrity businessman would coast to the nomination. In 2024, DeSantis may not be the president that Never Trumpers would choose. He's too Trumpy for their taste. But their options are limited, and if beating Trump is their highest priority, as I think it should be, DeSantis may be their best bet."

SUNDAY BEST …

Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) on whether he would support the reconciliation bill as it is written today on CNN's "State of the Union": "All I will tell you is we have a very, very strong bill. … We worked yesterday. We're working today. We're going to work tomorrow to strengthen that bill."

— On working to get prescription drug reform into the bill: "As soon as I leave the studio, I'm going to be going back home to get on the phone to make sure that we have it."

— On whether he thinks House progressives should insist on a public commitment from Sens. Manchin and KYRSTEN SINEMA before voting on the bills: "I think there has got to be a framework agreed upon in the Senate that all of us know is going to be implemented before the members of the House vote. Yes, I do."

Energy Secretary JENNIFER GRANHOLM on NBC's "Meet the Press" on provisions left out of the reconciliation package: "There are pieces of this that we can actually get Republicans — there are, believe it or not, once in a while, a few Republicans will actually support paid family leave. Because they want to be pro-family. And so maybe they won't vote for it in this whole big bill. But it's possible to go after pieces of this separately."

Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG on the slimmed-down reconciliation package on "State of the Union": "This is not half a loaf. This is a feast of good policy of which my party has been talking about, or even politicians on both sides of the aisle have been talking about for literally as long as I have been alive."

Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN on "State of the Union" on China's absence from the climate summit: "I think it's ultimately going to be up to China, as now currently the world's largest emitter, to decide whether it is going to do the right and important thing for its own people."

Rep. ADAM KINZINGER (R-Ill.) on ABC's "This Week" on Trump's 2024 chances: "If he runs in 2024, he'll be the front-runner no doubt, but I think the Republican establishment now — whether it's the NRCC, whether it's [House Minority Leader] KEVIN MCCARTHY — have held onto Donald Trump. It's not handing a win as much to Donald Trump as it is to the cancerous kind of lie and conspiracy." More from David Cohen

BIDEN'S SUNDAY: The president has already met with Turkish President RECEP TAYYIP ERDOĞAN and participated in two G-20 plenary sessions. Still to come (Eastern time):

— 12:15 p.m.: Biden will host an event on global supply chain resilience.

— 2:30 p.m.: Biden will hold a news conference.

VP KAMALA HARRIS' SUNDAY — The VP has nothing on her public schedule.

JOIN TUESDAY FOR A TALK ON THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE AIR TRAVEL: As delegates descend on Glasgow for the COP26 global climate summit, reducing carbon emissions in the aviation sector will play a critical role in the progress of fighting climate change. Join POLITICO for a deep-dive conversation that will explore the increased use of sustainable aviation fuel, better performance aircraft, and other breakthroughs in to cut greenhouse gas emissions and meet broader sustainability goals. REGISTER HERE.

PLAYBOOK READS

Leaders of the G20 throw coins inside the Trevi Fountain during an event for the G20 summit in Rome, Sunday, Oct. 31.

PHOTO OF THE DAY: G-20 leaders throw coins inside the Trevi Fountain in Rome on Sunday, Oct. 31. | Jeff J Mitchell/Pool Photo via AP

(IR)RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES

TIMETABLE TALK — Democratic leaders are hoping that the House can vote on both the BIF and BBB bills early this week — possibly as soon as Tuesday — but it's unclear if the short turnaround will be possible, AP's Alan Fram reports.

AT THE G-20

YOU CAN RUN, BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE — Biden and the G-20 leaders "endorsed a landmark global agreement on Saturday that seeks to block large corporations from shifting profits and jobs across borders to avoid taxes, a showcase win for a president who has found raising corporate tax rates an easier sell with other countries than with his own party in Congress," NYT's Jim Tankersley and Alan Rappeport write from Rome.

THE GAMES BEGIN — Negotiations over the official G-20 communique are stretching on as the U.S. and Canada "are objecting to a reference to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics — requested by Beijing — 'as a symbol of humanity's resilience and global unity in overcoming Covid-19,' according to a diplomat briefed on the negotiations," Ryan Heath reports. Speaking of which …

WHERE IS XI? — Chinese President XI JINPING is not at the G-20, won't be at the Glasgow climate summit, hasn't yet met Biden in-person, and hasn't left China in 21 months. Ostensibly, that is because of the pandemic. But it's also a sign of "a deeper shift in China's foreign and domestic policy," NYT's Steven Lee Myers and Chris Buckley write . "China, under Mr. Xi, no longer feels compelled to cooperate — or at least be seen as cooperating — with the United States and its allies on anything other than its own terms."

JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH

WHAT TRUMP DOESN'T WANT OUT — The details of which documents former President Trump is seeking to block from release in regards to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack were made public in a court filing Saturday. Spoiler alert: The list is long.

"According to the filing, Mr. Trump has asserted executive privilege specifically over 770 pages of documents, including 46 pages of records from the files of MARK MEADOWS, his former chief of staff; STEPHEN MILLER , his former senior adviser; and PATRICK PHILBIN, his former deputy counsel. Mr. Trump is also objecting to the release of the White House Daily Diary — a record of the president's movements, phone calls, trips, briefings, meetings and activities — as well as logs showing phone calls to the president and to Vice President MIKE PENCE concerning Jan. 6," NYT's Luke Broadwater reports . "Mr. Trump has also asserted executive privilege over 656 pages that include proposed talking points for KAYLEIGH MCENANY, his former press secretary; a handwritten note concerning Jan. 6; a draft text of a presidential speech for the 'Save America' rally that preceded the mob attack; and a draft executive order on the topic of election integrity, the filing states."

ICYMI — On Jan. 6, JOHN EASTMAN , an attorney who'd advised Trump on how to overturn the results of the election, sent a member of then-VP Pence's team, GREG JACOB, an email blaming the ongoing attack on Pence, WaPo's Josh Dawsey, Jacqueline Alemany, Jon Swaine and Emma Brown report:

"'The "siege" is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened,' Eastman wrote to Jacob, referring to Trump's claims of voter fraud. Eastman sent the email as Pence, who had been presiding in the Senate, was under guard with Jacob and other advisers in a secure area. … Jacob, Pence's chief counsel, included Eastman's emailed remarks in a draft opinion article about Trump's outside legal team that he wrote later in January but ultimately chose not to publish."

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

GO EASE-Y ON ME — The Biden administration will "ease tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union under an agreement reached Saturday, resolving a Trump-era tension that for years has tarnished trade relations between the longtime allies," Steven Overly writes.

THE PANDEMIC

A POST-PANDEMIC RECKONING — Some countries around the world are getting serious about diet-related disease after the coronavirus showed how much more vulnerable it made their citizens to getting seriously sick. But not the U.S., Helena Bottemiller Evich reports . "There is no national strategy. There is no systemswide approach, even as researchers increasingly recognize that obesity is a disease that is driven not by lack of willpower, but a modern society and food system that's almost perfectly designed to encourage the overeating of empty calories, along with more stress, less sleep and less daily exercise, setting millions on a path to poor health outcomes that is extremely difficult to break from."

ALL POLITICS

WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY — On the right, the phrase "Let's Go Brandon" — a euphemism for "F*** Joe Biden" — has gone from a "secret handshake" to something more ubiquitous, writes AP's Colleen Long. In recent days, it's been used on the House floor by Rep. JEFF DUNCAN (R-S.C.); Sen. TED CRUZ (R-Texas) posed with a sign featuring the phrase at a recent Astros game; it's seeping into everyday culture.

"On Friday morning on a Southwest flight from Houston to Albuquerque, the pilot signed off his greeting over the public address system with the phrase, to audible gasps from some passengers."

— The story behind the story, via Colleen Long (@ctlong1): "TFW you're trying to go on vacation and then the pilot says the very thing you're working on over the loud speaker and you have to try to get him comment but then almost get removed from plane. Also in defense of airline I was asking them to open locked cock pit and probably sounded insane!"

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PLAYBOOKERS

It's Halloweekend!

AOC dressed up as Venkman from "Ghostbusters."

Pete Buttigieg's newborn twins are dressing up as "infrastructure" (presumably because they're too young to vocally object).

Tracy Moore of Rep. Mark Pocan's office went as every Hill staffer's worst nightmare.

Two other favorites: Our own Ursula Perano as the bill from "Schoolhouse Rock" … and the award for most clever/D.C.-specific: this costume as the now-defunct Wendy's in Washington's famous "Dave Thomas Circle."

Kamala Harris got her Covid vaccine booster shot.

Donald Trump did the "tomahawk chop" — a chant long decried as offensive to Native Americans — while attending last night's Atlanta Braves game. "Trump has frequently sought to capitalize politically on such controversies as part of an effort to galvanize White voters who make up much of his political base," notes CNN's Karl de Vries. Where we're at: the House Judiciary GOP urged its followers to retweet the video "to trigger a Democrat."

Robert E. Lee's childhood mansion is up for sale at $5.9 million, but the listing makes no mention of him. (h/t WaPo's Gillian Brockell)

Bret Baier's new book "To Rescue the Republic" debuted at No. 1 on the NYT's nonfiction hardcover bestseller list.

SPOTTED: Stephen Miller at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego at a dinner Tuesday night for a Republican Attorneys General Association conference.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Dan Rather (9-0) … Jane Pauley … Frank Bruni … Olivia Alair Dalton of the U.S. Mission to the U.N. … Justin Bis … POLITICO's Betsy Woodruff Swan and Michael Kruse … ProPublica's Marilyn Thompson … Susan Orlean … former Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuño of Steptoe and Johnson … Jason Abel … Peter Pasi of Zeta Global … Clay Heil of Taft Stettinius & Hollister … Ryan Morgan of Veracity Media … Luke Mullins of Washingtonian … Lee Fang … Marilyn Rosenthal of AIPAC … Kenny Thompson Jr. of PepsiCo … RNC's Mike Ambrosini … Sam Tanenhaus … FTI Consulting's Joe Kon … Lisa Hagen of U.S. News and World Report … Jon Seaton … Brian Kettenring … Rokk Solutions' Rachel Winer … retired Lt. Gen. Ricky Waddell … Piper Perabo … former Reps. David Jolly (R-Fla.) and John Barrow (D-Ga.) … Archana Mehta

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