| | | | | |  | | By Ryan Lizza, Eugene Daniels, Tara Palmeri and Rachael Bade | | | | | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | A busy Monday: Congress is back … PATRICK LEAHY makes a big announcement at 10 a.m. … JOE BIDEN signs BIF at 3 p.m. … STEVE BANNON is expected to surrender. THE TRUMP HOTEL IS BEING SOLD — WSJ's Craig Karmin scooped Sunday afternoon that "DONALD TRUMP's family hotel company has reached an agreement to sell the rights to its glittering Washington, D.C., hotel for $375 million." SCOOP: THIS COULD BE MAGA WORLD'S NEW D.C. MEETING SPOT — In August, former Trump Commerce Secretary WILBUR ROSS and his wife HILARY GEARY ROSS sold their 10,000-square-foot home in Woodland-Normanstone for $13 million, according to D.C. tax records. It is the most expensive D.C. home sale of the last 12 months. The August deal was shrouded in mystery. The purchaser used an LLC called Salona Village Holdings that concealed their identity. The Rosses are barred by a confidentiality agreement from disclosing the real buyer's name, Geary Ross told Daniel Lippman. But the secret is out. According to multiple sources, the anonymous buyer behind the LLC is PETER THIEL, the German-born billionaire co-founder of PayPal and friend of Trump. It is "common knowledge" among neighbors and real estate sources, one well-informed person told Playbook. The mystery buyer's identity became the talk of the neighborhood, which also includes PENNY PRITZKER (across the street), STEVEN MNUCHIN and LOUISE LINTON (down the hill), GEORGE and KELLYANNE CONWAY, EDEN RAFSHOON and ADRIENNE ARSHT, who sold the home to the Rosses in 2017 and moved around the corner. The purchase of the splashy new Washington residence comes amid a burst of political activity for Thiel, who turned 54 in October. Previously he was best known in media and politics for secretly funding the HULK HOGAN lawsuit against Gawker.com that bankrupted the site and for his speech praising Trump at the 2016 GOP convention. More recently, Thiel has become a major player in two top Senate races. He gave separate $10 million donations to a pair of super PACS to help elect J.D. VANCE in Ohio and BLAKE MASTERS in Arizona. As Alex Isenstadt reported in May, they are the largest donations Thiel has ever given and the largest donations that anyone has given to an outside entity supporting a Senate candidate, and they instantly transformed the two novice politicians into major contenders. Thiel's political views are murky. Once known as a libertarian, his biographer, MAX CHAFKIN, recently told Katie Fossett "there are aspects of Thiel's politics that aren't libertarian at all; they're closer to authoritarianism. It's super-nationalistic, it's a longing for a sort of more powerful chief executive, or, you know, a dictator, in other words." If Vance and Masters make it to Washington, they should have a nice place to strategize with their longtime mentor and benefactor. Thiel's new home has seven bedrooms, a 12-seat theater, a library, a caterer's kitchen and staff quarters, according to a listing for the property that describes it as a "prestigious" "privately gated limestone beaux arts estate" with "manicured grounds & pool & marble terraces w/ views of Rock Creek Park." Thiel and his spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. Slideshow: 75 photos of the new Thiel estate (via Zillow) ICYMI: "JD Vance Charts GOP Push Against Big Tech With Help From Thiel," by Bloomberg's Mark Niquette Good Monday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri. | | A message from Facebook: Why Facebook supports updated internet regulations
Rochelle is one of many experts working on privacy at Facebook—to give you more control over your information.
Hear from Rochelle on why Facebook supports updating regulations on the internet's most pressing challenges, including federal privacy legislation. | | | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Most measures suggest that Democrats are very likely to lose control of the House next year. So we were eager to get the first look at a memo that the DCCC is releasing this morning on the state of play a little less than one year out from Election Day. The positive case for returning Democrats to power is their legislative agenda: passage of the American Rescue Plan to tackle the pandemic, the infrastructure bill and, they hope, the Build Back Better agenda. But there is a ton of data and history that make it clear that new presidents often don't get rewarded by voters for their legislative achievements in their first midterm. While running on the alphabet soup of ARP-BIF-BBB might be tempting, do the Dems have a backup plan? They do: rip the bark off of House Republicans as "too dangerous for American families" by focusing on GOP support for Trump, the Jan. 6 riot and Covid-19 conspiracies. Here's the key portion of the memo that lays out the ferocious line of attack: "The moment Washington Republicans felt their grip on power loosen, they unleashed a full assault on American democracy, culminating in a murderous assault on the Capitol and the introduction of anti-voter legislation across the country. Every day, Republicans demonstrate how unserious, cynical, and dangerous their return to power would be. … "Since [Jan. 6], Republicans have attempted to block investigations of the assault, cover up their alleged involvement, and have even defended and celebrated the rioters." On Covid: "Since day-one of this pandemic — they've been hellbent on making it longer and more disastrous — denying the seriousness of COVID, lying about the effectiveness of masks, social distancing, and vaccines, comparing vaccines to Nazi Germany, and constantly pushing junk science that first told Americans to take a useless anti-malaria drug and then encouraged Americans to consume horse dewormer, even as hundreds of thousands died and children filled up ICU beds." The conclusion: House Minority Leader " KEVIN MCCARTHY has turned over control of the entire caucus to Donald Trump. McCarthy's cowardly abdication leaves House Republicans with a toxic agenda and a field of conspiracy promoting, scandal prone, anti-democracy candidates that face an uphill battle convincing battleground voters to support them." Read the whole thing here ANOTHER BIG JON KARL SCOOP — Via Meridith McGraw, Jonathan Karl's new book, "Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show," which will be released Tuesday, reports: | • | Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL planned to disinvite Trump from the inauguration. According to Karl, McConnell "felt he could not give Trump another opportunity to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power." | • | McCarthy was against the plan. | • | McCarthy and a McConnell aide separately informed the White House of the plan. | • | The information spurred Trump to preemptively announce that he wouldn't attend via what would become his last tweet. | • | Bonus tidbit of post-insurrection intra-GOP maneuvering: McConnell told Rep. LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.) to knock off her Trump criticisms because it was hurting the GOP and her own reelection chances. | | — TOP TALKER: ABC's Libby Cathey reports another revelation from Karl's book: On New Year's Eve, MARK MEADOWS emailed MIKE PENCE's office a memo written by JENNA ELLIS on how the VP could overturn the election result. JOIN US — White House press secretary JEN PSAKI will join POLITICO standards and ethics editor Anita Kumar for a live interview Wednesday as part of POLITICO's inaugural Women Rule Exchange. The conversation will provide insight into how Psaki is reinventing her role for this era and the Biden presidency, what life is like inside the White House, especially for working mothers, and the latest developments with the Biden agenda. RSVP here to watch live | | | |   | | | BIDEN'S MONDAY: — 9:30 a.m.: The president will receive the President's Daily Brief. — 11:20 a.m.: Biden will participate in a Tribal Nations Summit coinciding with national Native American Heritage Month. — 3 p.m.: Biden will sign into law the bipartisan infrastructure package, and he and VP KAMALA HARRIS will deliver remarks. — 7:45 p.m.: Biden will virtually meet with Chinese President XI JINPING. HARRIS' MONDAY: The VP will also deliver remarks on voting rights at 5 p.m. at the Declaration for American Democracy Coalition Principals Meeting. Psaki will brief at 1:30 p.m. THE SENATE will meet at 3 p.m. to take up GRAHAM STEELE's nomination as an assistant Treasury secretary, with a cloture vote at 5:30 p.m. THE HOUSE will meet at 2 p.m. to take up several bills, with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m. BIDEN'S WEEK AHEAD: — Tuesday: The president will travel to Woodstock, N.H., to visit a bridge and deliver remarks. — Wednesday: Biden will travel to Detroit to visit a General Motors factory and deliver remarks. — Thursday: Biden will participate in bilateral meetings with Canadian PM JUSTIN TRUDEAU and Mexican President ANDRÉS MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR, before hosting the two leaders for a North American Leaders' Summit. — Friday: Biden will pardon a Thanksgiving turkey in a ceremony in the Rose Garden. | | | | DON'T MISS POLITICO'S SUSTAINABILITY SUMMIT: Join POLITICO's Sustainability Summit on Tuesday, Nov. 16 and hear leading voices from Washington, state houses, city halls, civil society and corporate America discuss the most viable policy and political solutions that balance economic, environmental and social interests. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | | 
PHOTO OF THE DAY: President Joe Biden arrives back in Washington from Camp David on Sunday. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo | THE WHITE HOUSE THE INFRASTRUCTURE FUND OVERSEER — WSJ's Ken Thomas scooped that the White House tapped former New Orleans Mayor MITCH LANDRIEU "to supervise the roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill, turning to a veteran of Hurricane Katrina's recovery to coordinate the rebuilding of roads, bridges and ports." He "will be a senior adviser responsible for the coordination of the new law, working through the National Economic Council." — Landrieu's appointment immediately triggered 2024 speculation, per JMart. SUCCESSION — Eugene Daniels and Alex Thompson put it plainly : "Biden says he intends to run for reelection in 2024. But not all Democrats believe him. Nor are they convinced his No. 2 would be the clear heir if he did choose to opt out. As Harris grapples with a portfolio of seemingly intractable issues and responsibilities that have drawn her away from the national spotlight — she Zoomed into the infrastructure Cabinet meeting from Paris on Friday — other Democrats have raised their own national profiles. "A person familiar with Biden's conversation about his 2024 plans says 'he has told people he is running and that 'we will be prepared.' But there has been persistent chatter in Democratic circles that he could decide not to. And talk of successorship has spilled into open view in recent days, with even a close Biden ally, former Connecticut Sen. CHRIS DODD, speculating about Harris' positioning in a potential 2024 primary." — CNN's Edward-Isaac Dovere and Jasmine Wright portray the start of Harris' vice presidency as pretty much a big mess. Citing conversations with "nearly three dozen former and current Harris aides, administration officials, Democratic operatives, donors and outside advisers," the pair writes that "many in the vice president's circle fume that she's not being adequately prepared or positioned, and instead is being sidelined. "The vice president herself has told several confidants she feels constrained in what she's able to do politically. And those around her remain wary of even hinting at future political ambitions, with Biden's team highly attuned to signs of disloyalty, particularly from the vice president." AND THEN THERE'S PETE — Harris-world has chafed at all the positive press PETE BUTTIGIEG has gotten compared to their own. And just as a trio of tough stories on Harris dropped over the weekend, the AP posted this glowing piece about the charmed Transportation secretary: "As Biden prepares to sign the infrastructure bill on Monday, eyes are turning to the man still best known as 'Mayor Pete,' a newcomer whose promise of 'generational change' and real-world sensibility of fixing potholes launched him to the top of the early Democratic primary contests during the 2020 campaign," Hope Yen, Tom Beaumont and Josh Boak write. Buttigieg "now stands to become one of the more powerful brokers in Washington, handling the largest infusion of cash into the transportation sector since the 1950s creation of the interstate highway system." | | | |   | | | CONGRESS THE NEXT BIG SHOWDOWN — Democrats want to get going on a bipartisan deal to lock in government funding levels. But Republicans are considering taking a hard-line stance to force the majority to freeze funding at Trump-era levels, report Jen Scholtes, Caitlin Emma and Burgess Everett — even if that means giving up higher defense spending. "Democratic leaders believe retiring GOP senators will provide the bipartisan support needed for a longer-term spending deal and that appropriations leaders will squash a freeze … Their bet may be misplaced, however." BANNON CHRONICLES DEPT. OF WAGON CIRCLING — Republicans are "warning that Democrats' efforts to force Bannon to comply with what they say is an unfair subpoena paves the way for them to do the same if they take back the House in 2022," WaPo's Amy Wang reports. Much of the party's leadership is "seizing on Bannon's indictment to contend that Democrats are 'weaponizing' the Justice Department, warning Democrats that they will go after Biden's aides for unspecified reasons if they take back the House majority in next year's midterm elections, as most political analysts expect." DEPT. OF COLD WATER POURING — "Steve Bannon's Contempt Indictment Isn't All that Trump Foes Think It Is," by former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti for POLITICO Magazine | | | | 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. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Pam Brown is pursuing a master's of law at GW but will continue working at CNN. Elon Musk trolled Bernie Sanders after the Vermont senator said the extremely wealthy need to pay "their fair share" in taxes. "I keep forgetting you're still alive," Musk tweeted. Joe Biden Facetimed with the Irish rugby team to congratulate them on a big win. Mark Cuban shared his thoughts on inflation — and America's overreliance on overseas manufacturing — with WaPo's Jeff Stein. Joe Neguse had a pithy answer to the question: "What's the worst thing humans have ever invented?" "Social media." Caitlin Flanagan of The Atlantic wrote beautifully about "The Day I Got Old." SPOTTED: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) at the Hilton in Charleston, S.C., taking pictures in the lobby. Graham — one of the 19 Senate Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill — said he's in "The Holy City" for an event on a local parkway that will benefit from BIF. Pic SPOTTED: New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Sunday watching the Jets/Bills game with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Run for Something is launching a C3, Run for Something Civics. Its focus is "helping recruit young people to run for office" to ensure that elected leaders are representative of their constituents. — Richard Parker is now VP of external affairs at Food for the Hungry. He most recently was assistant USAID administrator for legislative and public affairs, and is a U.S. Global Leadership Coalition and George W. Bush HHS and Peace Corps alum. TRANSITIONS — Andy Flick is now executive director for the New Democrat Coalition. He most recently was chief of staff for Rep. David Trone (D-Md.), and is a Seth Moulton, Jim Costa and Ike Skelton alum. … Erin Perrine is launching TAG Strategies' public relations arm as VP. She previously was comms director for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). … Thom Parisi is now a public policy manager on Meta's connectivity and access policy team in D.C. He previously was an associate at Covington & Burling. … … Eddy Conroy is joining New America's education policy team as senior adviser. He previously was associate director of institutional transformation at the Hope Center. … Brian Hawkins is now director of external relations at Philanthropy Roundtable. He previously was director of free speech initiatives at Stand Together. … Brian Martinez is now Midwestern regional coordinator at the American Conservation Coalition. He previously was a legislative aide for Wisconsin state Sen. Rob Cowles. ENGAGED — Andy Eichar, press secretary for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and a House Oversight and Rosa DeLauro alum, and Gloria Nlewedim, a health partnership and policy specialist for YMCA of the USA and a Cori Bush and House Appropriations alum, got engaged Friday. Eichar popped the question in the Rayburn elevator where the two first met. Pic … Another pic — Joshua Woodward, legislative director for Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), and Katie Abrames, a legislative analyst for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, got engaged Saturday at the Constitution Gardens on the National Mall. They met in former Rep. Mark Walker's (R-N.C.) office and have been together for four-and-a-half years. Pic WEDDING — Eli Schooley, legislative counsel for Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), and Ollie Engebretson, an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell, got married Oct. 30 at Natirar in Peapack, N.J. They originally met as classmates at the University of Virginia School of Law. Pic … Another pic WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Clare Krupin, senior editor at Pivotal Ventures and speechwriter to Melinda French Gates, and Stephen Krupin, head of executive comms at SKDK and a former Obama speechwriter, welcomed William Michael Krupin on Tuesday. Pic — Bobby Panzenbeck, director at DCI Group, and Cassie Panzenbeck, CEO at Fiscally Fit, welcomed Doris Marie Panzenbeck on Thursday. Pic … Another pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.) … Fox News' John Roberts ... AP's Zeke Miller … Jen Palmieri … USDA's Xochitl Torres Small … Joe Sandler … Amanda Renteria … Bill Richardson … Asha Rangappa … Robert Draper … Gail Gitcho … WaPo's Greg Miller … Molly O'Toole … Madge Bush … John Easton … Augie McGinnity … Jennifer Jones … Adam Snider … Bill Signer of the Carmen Group … CNN's Laura Bernardini … Elliott Phaup … Davan Maharaj … Lee Cochran of the Blackstone Group … Chris Graham … Matthew Fried … Jim Boyle … AARP's Joe Valenti … Ben Goodman of Mission: Readiness … Lumen Technologies' Cyril Dadd … Mike Mills … Robert McCreary … FT's Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli … Alexandra Lippman … Mark Naymik … Erin (Shaw) Stinner … Ryan Miner … Zach Bauer Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. 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