News: 3 headlines, 1 Congress

Thursday, November 18, 2021

3 headlines, 1 Congress

Nov 18, 2021

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By Ryan Lizza, Rachael Bade, Tara Palmeri and Eugene Daniels

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DRIVING THE DAY

TOP-ED — Here's a LARRY SUMMERS op-ed for WaPo that the White House will be celebrating today: "IRS reform will generate a lot more revenue than the CBO thinks"

GOSAR TURNS SPOTLIGHT ON HOUSE GOP — There are three headlines that describe most big events in the 117th Congress so far:

(1) "Dems in Disarray"

(2) "Kevin McCarthy Defends Far-Right Member, Who [fill in the blank]"

(3) "Congress Sends Biden Historic Legislation"

Long stretches of Democratic infighting over policy are punctuated by semi-regular acts of extremism by the fringe of the House Republican Conference. And every so often, a massive spending bill ends up on the president's desk.

This was supposed to be a "Dems in Disarray" week, but thanks to Rep. PAUL GOSAR (R-Ariz.), it turned into a "McCarthy Defends …" week.

— Nicholas Wu and Heather Caygle have the run-down on the House's vote to censure Gosar and strip him of his committee assignments after he "posted an anime video last week that depicted him killing Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.) and attacking President JOE BIDEN." Just two Republicans — Reps. ADAM KINZINGER (Ill.) and LIZ CHENEY (Wyo.) — joined Democrats in voting for the measure.

— What came next, via The Informant's @nickmartin: "Before his censure, Congressman Paul Gosar made a big deal about having deleted the anime video depicting him killing AOC. Others in the Republican Party cited the deletion as a sign of good faith. Now, after the censure, Gosar has reposted the same video." And then: "And it's gone. Congressman Paul Gosar took the anime video down again, this time after leaving it up for two hours."

— Olivia Beavers and Sarah Ferris zoom in on the reversal for Republicans: "Their predicament was captured Wednesday afternoon, when [Minority Leader] McCarthy and dozens of Republicans held a press conference to speak out against Democrats' social spending plan. When the top Republican opened up the event to take questions from journalists, the first question was about Gosar. 'Did you listen to anything we said?' McCarthy responded to the reporter, before dismissing the question and ultimately ending the press conference."

— WaPo's Felicia Sonmez, Amy Wang and Marianna Sotomayor summed up Gosar Censure Day thusly: "The day brought the post-Jan. 6 tensions in Congress to the fore and highlighted Republicans' increasing tendency to defend their GOP colleagues against any criticism from Democrats, regardless of the behavior at issue."

And even if Gosar hadn't posted the video and refused to apologize for it, there was other news Wednesday that reminded us of the right's increasing tolerance for violent rhetoric.

JACOB CHANSLEY, "the QAnon Shaman" who became the face of Jan. 6, was sentenced to 41 months in prison. NYT's Alan Feuer reports this bit of history, which suggests that the distance between Chansley's violent fever dreams and Gosar's viral anime isn't all that far:

"Two weeks after the presidential race ended, Mr. Chansley was already promoting violence online, prosecutors say, posting a message that read, 'We shall have no real hope to survive the enemies arrayed against us until we hang the traitors lurking among us.'

"On Jan. 6, the government says, Mr. Chansley was among the first 30 rioters to enter the Capitol and quickly used a bullhorn to 'rile up the crowd and demand that lawmakers be brought out.' Within an hour, he had made it to the Senate floor, taking the seat that Vice President MIKE PENCE had only just evacuated and leaving a note on the dais saying, 'It's Only A Matter of Time. Justice Is Coming!'"

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The focus today will return to the Democrats, who are inching forward on a few fronts.

— Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER and Speaker NANCY PELOSI found a way to move both the NDAA and the China competition bills forward after the two pieces of legislation stalled for months.

— Schumer and Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL are at least (reportedly) talking about the debt limit.

— Build Back Better continues to hurtle toward what just might be drama-free passage in the House in the coming days. (Of course, the bill will have to come back to the House in its final version, making this week's vote a lot easier for many members.) We anticipate a full return to D.I.D. coverage as the Senate reshapes the legislation.

Here are the big issues we're watching:

•	SALT: Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.), among others, has sounded the alarm about how the state and local tax deduction — dear to the hearts of Dems in high-income districts — needs to be rewritten as less of a giveaway to the very wealthy. *The latest on SALT from Burgess Everett and Heather Caygle*
•	Medicare: This fight isn't over for Sanders, who wants dental, vision and hearing coverage in the bill.
•	Paid leave: Pelosi included four weeks of paid leave in the House bill, but Sen JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) hasn't budged in his opposition, and the conventional wisdom remains that it will be sacrificed.
•	Climate: In comments that didn't receive much attention, Manchin recently said that the current Dem plan to make electric vehicle tax credits larger for the purchase of union-made EVs was "wrong" and "not American." (Manchin made his remarks at a non-union Toyota plant in Buffalo, W.Va.) The WSJ also notes that Manchin could be assisted in his effort to torpedo this policy by a rule bearing the name of his most famous predecessor, the late ROBERT BYRD: "Republicans are expected to ask the Senate parliamentarian to strip the union-related tax incentives from the bill, arguing that they run afoul of Senate rules requiring spending to have a meaningful fiscal impact that is more than 'merely incidental' to the policy proposal."
•	CBO: Despite the impressive efforts of Summers and White House deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES, the congressional scorekeeper still lurks as a potential boogeyman that could scare some Democrats and threaten the size, scope and details of the final package.

Good Thursday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook, where we still think headline No. 3 is not out of reach for Biden this year, even as we anticipate a flurry of 1s and 2s. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri.

THE BATTLE FOR CONGRESS — Redistricting has become a hot-button topic as Democrats and Republicans fight for every scrap of every state that they can carve out for their party. This is the new way to win for the two political parties, which are wielding the power to draw maps like a cudgel against their opponents in states where they have control.

— Via Scott Bland and Ally Mutnick: "Over the last decade, nearly 90 percent of congressional races held in states where legislators drew the district lines resulted in easy victories — margins of 10 percentage points or greater — for one party or the other, according to a POLITICO analysis. The rate of competitive races was almost twice as high in states where courts or commissions drew the district.

"Yes, some of the most apocalyptic redistricting predictions of recent years have been found wanting — many Democrats said they'd never win the House again until they got new maps after 2020; then along came DONALD TRUMP. But the last decade of election results shows just how powerfully redistricting shapes the House of Representatives, especially when the parties control the process through their representatives in state legislatures, who can work in concert with incumbents in Washington to draw favorable maps."

A graphic showing how redistricting has affected the partisan balance of Congress, with Republicans picking up 13 safe districts since 2020.

Politico

— Related reading, via Ally Mutnick and Maya King: The day that Dems feared in Georgia has arrived. "The state's Republican-controlled legislature revealed a new congressional map on Wednesday that will claw back one of the two seats the party lost over the past three years, leaving only a single district for both of the delegation's Democratic rising stars" — Reps. LUCY MCBATH and CAROLYN BOURDEAUX."

Bookmark this: To keep up with all this map-drawing mayhem, POLITICO has built a new tool that will track redistricting across the country in the leadup to the 2022 midterms.

BIDEN'S THURSDAY:

— 9 a.m.: The president will receive the President's Daily Brief.

— 9:45 a.m.: Biden will deliver remarks and sign three bills into law.

— 1:15 p.m.: Biden will have a bilateral meeting with Canadian PM JUSTIN TRUDEAU.

— 3 p.m.: Biden will have a bilateral meeting with Mexican President ANDRÉS MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR.

— 4:45 p.m.: Biden will host Trudeau and López Obrador for the North American Leaders' Summit.

VP KAMALA HARRIS' THURSDAY:

— 1:30 p.m.: The VP will have a bilateral meeting with López Obrador.

— 2:45 p.m.: Harris will have a bilateral meeting with Trudeau.

Press secretary JEN PSAKI will brief at 1:45 p.m.

The SENATE is in.

The HOUSE will meet at 10 a.m. to take up the Build Back Better Act and other bills. Pelosi will hold her weekly press conference at 10:45 a.m.

BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we've got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don't miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now.

PLAYBOOK READS

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) is pictured.

PHOTO OF THE DAY: Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) rides an elevator on the Hill on Wednesday as the House prepared to censure him and strip him of his committee assignments. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

THE WHITE HOUSE

ABOUT THAT LETTER — WSJ's Andrew Restuccia, Katy Stech Ferek and Christopher Matthews throw cold water on Biden's latest anti-inflation gambit, a letter to the FTC asking for an investigation of possible price gouging by big oil:

"Facing political fallout from high gas prices, past presidents of both parties have called for similar investigations into alleged price gouging and manipulation in the market. The efforts rarely result in federal action against companies …

"'Demanding that the FTC investigate gouging is the oldest tool in the tool kit,' said BOB MCNALLY, who served as an energy adviser to President GEORGE W. BUSH and is the founder of Rapidan Energy Group. He added that the trend began during the first gasoline crisis after World War I. Mr. McNally and some other analysts questioned the merit of the letter's allegations.

"'I think it's a stretch to pick one month's data and conclude it's evidence of anticompetitive behavior' because of the historic price volatility of unfinished gasoline and pump prices, Mr. McNally said."

CAR GUY VISITS MOTOR CITY — Biden continued his pro-BIF victory tour of the country with a trip to Detroit on Wednesday, where he visited the recently renovated General Motors Factory Zero electric vehicle plant and — always one to indulge his need for speed — went for a joyride in an electric Hummer pickup truck that goes from 0 to 60 miles per hour in around 3 seconds. (Biden, per the Detroit News: "This sucker's something else!")

— Every Democratic House member from Michigan was invited to join Biden on Air Force One for the trip — except for the state's lone Dem "no" vote on BIF: Rep. RASHIDA TLAIB, whose Detroit district contains most of the GM factory the president toured.

— Catchphrase alert: In Detroit, Biden called the BIF "a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America," per the Freep. He used the same phrase at the bill signing Monday and in New Hampshire on Tuesday.

INFLATION WATCH — Lorraine Woellert captures a fascinating angle on the inflation story: Biden needs Americans to start going easy on the Amazon orders and spend more nights out instead. "The consumer shift from services to goods over the past 18 months is at the center of a 31-year high in inflation, stoked by massive supply chain disruptions," she writes, and what the economy could really use now is a change in human behavior back the other way. Presidents have often tried to cajole constituents into particular economic habits, but Biden's would be a complicated pitch: "[H]e can highlight how consumer demand for goods is driving much of the inflation problem. But getting consumers to change their behavior is a lot harder."

ALL POLITICS

TREND WATCH — "Republicans are becoming more diverse. That's a great thing," by Henry Olsen for WaPo Opinions: "Women or racial minorities won 10 of the 15 state legislative seats Republicans captured from Democrats in November. … Primary voters don't care about a candidate's gender, race or ethnicity … So long as a candidate largely shares the party's mix of conservative and populist beliefs, that person is in the hunt."

MEDIAWATCH — The partisan news landscape just got a little bigger: A top Democratic donor is pumping money into a new outlet designed to cover Midwestern politics from the left, reports Elena Schneider. The site is called Heartland Signal, and it will run together with existing progressive talk radio station WCPT. It's a reaction both to dying local news and the longtime dominance of conservative talk radio and other news outlets, but "there's a long list of failed attempts" on the left.

JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH

BANNON PLEADS NOT GUILTY — On Wednesday, former Trump adviser STEVE BANNON "pleaded not guilty to criminal charges that he defied a congressional subpoena from a U.S. House panel investigating the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to court documents," per Reuters' Sarah Lynch . "He was due to be arraigned in court on Thursday, but agreed to waive his right to a formal reading of the indictment, according to court documents filed on Wednesday."

— ANOTHER ANGLE TO CONSIDER: The judge in Bannon's case is CARL NICHOLS, a former DOJ attorney who, in 2008, "stepped into a courtroom to argue that top aides to then-President George W. Bush could simply ignore congressional subpoenas," report Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein.

STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.

PLAYBOOKERS

Rupert Murdoch told News Corp stockholders that "Trump needs to move on" from 2020, per NYT's Maggie Haberman.

After Ted Cruz appeared on Fox News on Tuesday night and accused Liz Cheney of having "Trump Derangement Syndrome," Cheney shot back: "Trump broke Ted Cruz. A real man would be defending his wife, and his father, and the Constitution." (h/t Melanie Zanona)

Mitt Romney welcomed Joe Manchin into a crowded senators-only elevator: "Mr. President," Romney said, with a nod.

Amy Klobuchar got the all-clear at her six-month post-cancer exam.

Jared Golden slammed BBB's SALT provisions on Twitter , effectively torching his fellow Democrats in the process: "If you'd told me a year ago that the second-biggest piece of a signature bill of this Congress was *$280 billion in tax giveaways to millionaires,* I'd have told you the Republicans were in charge."

Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam are expected to be exonerated today in the 1966 murder of Malcolm X.

Vinoda Basnayake got a writeup in the Washingtonian, which called him the "Beltway Whisperer for Middle Eastern Royalty — and the Operator of DC's Sceniest Nightlife Spots."

SPOTTED: Donald Trump and Reince Priebus dining together on Wednesday night al fresco at Mar-a-Lago. At a nearby table: Chris Ruddy and Ed Henry.

OUT AND ABOUT — Susan Rice had a birthday party Wednesday night on the second floor of the West Wing, where each office contributed its own special drink. SPOTTED: VP Kamala Harris, Erin Pelton, Priya Singh, Alex Yudelson, Carmel Martin, Tyler Moran, Dana Remus, Stuart Delery, Jeff Zients, Natalie Quillian, Farhana Hussain, Evan Ryan, Thomas Isen, Cedric Richmond, Adrian Saenz, Nia Page, Brian Deese, Daniel Hornung, Leandra English, Caitlin Meloski, Julie Rodriguez, Louisa Terrell and Kait Demers.

— John and April Delaney hosted a party at their Capitol Hill home Wednesday night for Adam Schiff's new book, "Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could" ($30). In a toast, Speaker Nancy Pelosi joked about how people in Brussels once cheered Schiff on when he visited even though at the specific moment of cheering, Schiff was "looking for a vegan Belgian waffle place." SPOTTED: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Reps. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), Andrea Mitchell, Howard Fineman and Amy Nathan, Ruth Marcus and Jon Leibowitz, Silvia Foster-Frau, Lauren French, Jason Grumet and Alex Gangitano.

— The Archives Foundation Dinner on Wednesday night at the National Archives honored Jon Meacham with the Records of Achievement Award, and he did a Q&A with Michael Beschloss. SPOTTED: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), David Ferriero, David Rubinstein, Jim and Janet Blanchard, Charlie Dent, Tom and Carol Wheeler, Rob Mosbacher and Carolina Barco, Lucinda Robb, Jacqueline Mars, Gary Bachula and Jane Woodfin, Al Kamen, Chuck and Lynda Johnson Robb, Cynthia Ford, Rodney and Cassandra Slater, Molly Moynihan, Yebbie Watkins, Joseph Knowles, Suhail Khan, Nathan and Linda Daschle, Laurie Fulton, Fay Hartog Levin and David Jacobson.

— The Hispanic Federation held its annual gala and a premiere screening of Disney's new film "Encanto" at the AMC Lincoln Square in New York City on Wednesday night. SPOTTED: Frankie Miranda, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jessica Darrow, Rhenzy Feliz, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Sebastián Yatra and Tom MacDougall.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Amy Nathan is retiring from the FCC after 23 years of service. Nathan began her career as a WaPo reporter and later graduated from Georgetown Law. She practiced at Akin Gump and Mayer Brown before joining the FCC in 1998.

— Dakota Hall is joining the Alliance for Youth Action/Alliance for Youth Organizing as executive director. He currently is executive director of Leaders Igniting Transformation.

— Kelly Jane Torrance is now op-ed editor of the N.Y. Post. She most recently was associate editorial page editor, and is a Weekly Standard alum.

MEDIA MOVE — Ankush Khardori is now a legal analysis contributing writer for POLITICO Magazine. He is a former federal prosecutor and is a columnist for N.Y. Mag's Intelligencer.

STAFFING UP — Adrian Eng-Gastelum is now press secretary at HHS. He previously was on the DCCC comms team, and is a Biden campaign/transition and Elizabeth Warren campaign alum.

— The White House announced several new nominations, including Dimitri Kusnezov as DHS undersecretary for science and technology, Steven Fagin as ambassador to Yemen, Jodi Herman as assistant USAID administrator for legislative and public affairs, Lester Martinez-Lopez as assistant secretary of Defense for health affairs and Rebecca Jones Gaston as commissioner for the Administration for Children, Youth and Families at HHS.

TRANSITIONS — Brendan McPhillips is joining Pennsylvania state Rep. Brian Sims' campaign for lieutenant governor as senior adviser. He previously served as Pennsylvania state director for the Biden and Pete Buttigieg campaigns. … Joshua Friedlander is now senior lead for corporate comms at Compass. He most recently was an associate at the Brunswick Group. …

… Wendy Anderson has joined the board of advisers of the Truman Center for National Policy. She is senior counselor at Palantir Technologies and a founding member of Chief, and is an Obama DoD and Commerce alum. … Douglas Stringer is the new candidate outreach director for Democrats for Life of America. This is in addition to his professional legal work with Sessions Law Firm.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Katherine Faulders, ABC News investigative reporter covering Capitol Hill and the White House, and Alex Mallin, ABC News reporter covering DOJ, welcomed Henry David Mallin on Saturday. He came in at 8 lbs, 2 oz, is named after his two grandfathers, and joins golden retriever Lucy. Pic … Another pic

— Bhumika Tharoor, a managing editor at The Atlantic, and Ishaan Tharoor, a foreign affairs columnist at WaPo and anchor of Today's WorldView, recently welcomed Kahaani Davé Tharoor. Pic

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) (5-0), Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) … Megyn Kelly … NYT's Sheryl Gay Stolberg … POLITICO's Matt Wuerker, Hailey Fuchs and Weston Walker … WaPo's Theo Meyer … Dan Sadlosky of Raytheon Technologies … Tom Namako of BuzzFeed … Paige Hutchinson of Rep. Colin Allred's (D-Texas) office … Brian Forest of Arboreal Communications … Drew Brandewie of Sen. John Cornyn's (R-Texas) office … Robert Dougherty of Rep. Antonio Delgado's (D-N.Y.) office … NBC's Heidi Przybyla and Morgan Radford … Ryan Caldwell of J.A. Green & Co. … Ashish Kumbhat of Bank of America … Brannon Rains of the House Energy and Commerce GOP … Waldo Tibbetts … Carrie Matthews … Steven Janelli … former Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) … Abby Tinsley … Karen Dunn … Deirdre Schifeling … Amber Manko … Abigail Marone … Lana Marks … Adali Hernandez of the Trevor Project … Barry Jackson … Ace Smith … Erica DeVos

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