| | | | |  | | By Eugene Daniels | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | ELECTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES, PART 1 — “After backing Trump, low-income voters hope he doesn’t slash their benefits,” by WaPo’s Tim Craig … PART 2 — “These California farmers went for Trump. Now he could deport half their workers,” by Camille von Kaenel … PART 3: “Trump’s Tariff Plan to Hit Affordable Cars the Hardest,” by WSJ’s Sean McLain
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Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is looking ahead to a new year where his party will lose significant power in Donald Trump's Washington. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | THE JUDICIAL RESISTANCE — In less than a month, elected Democrats will find themselves with a lot less power in Washington, with a GOP-controlled House, Senate and White House resulting in a landscape in which their ability to tussle with President-elect DONALD TRUMP will be largely rhetorical. But if Dem leaders have learned one thing from Republicans over the years, it’s that sometimes, the judiciary can be the best bulwark against the opposing party getting what it wants. “I don’t know exactly what [Trump will] do. But I can tell you this: The judiciary will be one of our strongest — if not our strongest — barrier against what he does,” Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER told Playbook in an exclusive interview this week. Four years ago, Schumer launched a plan (along with President JOE BIDEN) to use the party’s Senate majority to prioritize not just passing legislation, but also pushing through as many judicial nominations as possible. The result? “When we started out, we knew it would be a very difficult job to do more than Trump had done,” said Schumer. “But we did: We got 235 — more than a quarter of the federal judiciary was appointed by our Senate and by the president.” And now, those judges are likely to be the tip of the spear in protecting Democrats’ legislative achievements over the last four years — as well as Republican attempts to remake or dismantle parts of the federal government. “We knew that getting more judges on the bench would help protect our legislative record,” Schumer told us. “The two did go hand in hand. If you asked me which one was more important, I wouldn't want to pick among my children. “ Where did they get the idea? From the GOP. Republicans “came up with a strategy in the GEORGE W. BUSH [years]: ‘We've got to control the bench’ and they made every effort to do it,” Schumer told Playbook. “When I became majority leader, I said, ‘This is something we have to work on, we have to focus on.’” That wasn’t necessarily an easy sell. “We would go to members and persuade them in two ways: Persuade some of them to vote for these judges because the Republicans threw all kinds of charges — mainly false — against them,” said Schumer. “And second, I had to persuade them that this was really important. And one of the most important things we could do with our floor time, particularly in ’23, ’24, when there was a Republican House.” (Though he was mum on which senators he had to convince, we have our guesses.) A few more highlights from our interview …
- On which Biden accomplishments Republicans will try to dismantle first: “They're going to come after everything. They have so many different parts of MAGA: the people who are anti-women's rights; the people who are anti-environment; the people who are anti-working people rights and union rights; the people who are anti-the consumer. They're going to use the judiciary in every way they can.”
- On balancing priorities: “When I set out, I wanted to do both: Have a major legislative record, but at the same time, get as many judges confirmed as possible because we knew that Trump had loaded the bench up with a lot of MAGA judges and achieving balance was important. And the more the better. … In a time when there's more legislative gridlock and there's an attempt to use the judiciary to actually legislate, having judges that are not MAGA judges, that are not extreme judges, is more important than it's ever been.”
- On reading the writing on the wall: “In ’23, ’24, it became much more important, because we saw that we would not be able to accomplish more legislatively. And we also saw that the hard right was gearing up to use the bench in case after case to achieve their goals.”
- On his sense of competition in wanting to outperform the judicial confirmation pace of Trump and MITCH McCONNELL: “Hey, I’m from Brooklyn, what can I tell you?”
Good Thursday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop me a line: Eugene Daniels.
| | | | A message from Instagram: Congress can help keep teens safe online today.
By passing federal legislation requiring app store parental consent and age verification, Congress would put parents in charge of teen app downloads. This helps parents ensure teens download apps that are safe.
That's why 3 of 4 parents agree: teens under 16 shouldn't be able to download apps without parental consent.
Tell lawmakers: support a national standard requiring app store parental consent and age verification for teens. | | | TUNING OUT — From AP’s David Bauder and Linley Sanders: After election night through Dec. 13, MSNBC’s prime-time viewership is down 54% from its pre-election audience. CNN? Down 45%. Fox News? Up 13%. AUTOCRACY AND CONSEQUENCES — “It Was a Bad Year for the World’s Autocrats,” by WSJ’s Juan Forero and Jon Emont: It’s not just the fall of BASHAR AL-ASSAD in Syria; there are new pressures on VLADIMIR PUTIN in Russia, on the mullahs of Iran, the Chinese Communist Party, Myanmar’s military junta and NICOLÁS MADURO in Venezuela.
| | | | A message from Instagram:   | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | At the White House Biden and first lady JILL BIDEN are traveling to St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.
| | | | You read POLITICO for trusted reporting. Now follow every twist of the lame duck session with Inside Congress. We track the committee meetings, hallway conversations, and leadership signals that show where crucial year-end deals are heading. Subscribe now. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | 9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US
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Trump claims the United States is being “ripped off” at the Panama Canal and that U.S. vessels are charged excessive fees for passage. | Matias Delacroix/AP | 1. TRUMP’S MAN IN PANAMA: On the heels of a Christmas message in which he blasted the governance of the Panama Canal, Trump nominated 34-year-old KEVIN MARINO CABRERA to serve as ambassador to Panama. “Few understand Latin American politics as well as Kevin,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Cabrera, who served in Trump’s 2020 Florida reelection campaign as state director, also serves as vice chair of Miami-Dade’s International Trade Consortium,” writes Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing. More from the Miami Herald 2. BIG INVESTIGATION: In an expansive new report, the NYT reveals that Israeli military leaders recently loosened rules meant to protect against civilian casualties, allowing its military officers to strike wider swaths than ever in Gaza in a relentless bombing campaign. “The order, which has not previously been reported, had no precedent in Israeli military history. Mid-ranking officers had never been given so much leeway to attack so many targets, many of which had lower military significance, at such a high potential civilian cost,” NYT’s Patrick Kingsley, Natan Odenheimer, Bilal Shbair, Ronen Bergman, John Ismay, Sheera Frenkel and Adam Sella report. “It meant, for example, that the military could target rank-and-file militants as they were at home surrounded by relatives and neighbors, instead of only when they were alone outside.” Related read: “How Israel Weakened Civilian Protections When Bombing Hamas Fighters,” by NYT’s Samuel Granados, Patrick Kingsley and Natan Odenheimer 3. PRIMARY COLORS: As outgoing Democratic Rep. ABIGAIL SPANBERGER turns to her Virginia gubernatorial bid, she will likely have to contend with the new reality of the Democratic Party in the wake of Trump’s return to power. “The swing-district congresswoman, on a seeming glidepath to the Democratic nomination since her lone rival dropped out in April, suddenly faces attacks from the left and potential new competition in the primary from Rep. ROBERT C. ‘BOBBY’ SCOTT (D-Virginia),” WaPo’s Laura Vozzella reports from Richmond. “Spanberger herself has not commented directly on Scott’s potential candidacy, but she speaks with pride about her willingness to reach across the aisle on issues ranging from substance abuse and human trafficking to giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices.” 4. THE POST-JAN. 6 WORLD: Since the 2021 attack, Capitol Police Chief TOM MANGER has shifted the agency’s identity as a traditional police force with a focus on Capitol Hill to a “protective force” built on intelligence gathering, threat assessment and flexing its nationwide authority and jurisdiction. But those shifts come at a cost, Katherine Tully-McManus reports. “Capitol Police now operates with a $791.5 million budget, up more than 70 percent since the Capitol attack. Even accounting for inflation, that’s more than seven times the 9/11-era budget. Total spending is expected to reach $1 billion in the next few years, with officials requesting another 14 percent increase for next year’s budget. … “While Congress is the one that greenlights that funding, there’s an inescapable conflict given members’ increased fears for their own safety. No lawmakers publicly criticize USCP for its additional efforts to protect members — a difficult and complex task — but some would like to see transparency ramp up as more cash flows to the department, wondering if the increased money has really translated to increased safety.”
| | | | A message from Instagram:   | | | 5. THE NEW POLITICS OF CRIME: “In New Mexico, a Democratic Governor Wants to Get Tough on Crime,” by NYT’s Michael Corkery: “Even as crime declines rapidly across the United States and fatal overdoses decrease, the violent crime rate in New Mexico was twice the national average in 2023, according to the Council of State Governments Justice Center. … [Gov. MICHELLE] LUJAN GRISHAM, 65, said her state must face a hard truth: Mentally ill or drug-addicted people living on the streets must be compelled to get help. She is among the Democratic governors who are trying to chart a path forward for their party, following its resounding defeat in the election last month. But her efforts to confront crime have, at times, exacerbated fissures among Democrats in her own state.” 6. EMBRACE THE ZUCK: This year, MARK ZUCKERBERG fought the law — and Zuckerberg won. The Facebook founder and his company Meta went up against 91 senators, a bipartisan group of representatives, DONALD TRUMP JR., ELON MUSK and a coalition of parents who thought this would be the year Congress passed legislation to protect kids online. But Congress left without passing the Kids Online Safety Act, which would have imposed rules on social media to prevent the addiction and mental health harms the sites are widely agreed to cause, Ruth Reader writes. “Zuckerberg can thank House Speaker MIKE JOHNSON for closing the door on it this Congress. Once reviled by Republicans for kicking Trump off Facebook, the outcome shows how well Zuckerberg and Meta have restored a rapport.” 7. WHAT THE DOGE DUDES ARE READING: “Trump wants federal workers back in the office. It may be a tall task,” by WaPo’s Lisa Rein: “About 56 percent of the civil service is covered by collective bargaining contracts, many of which include provisions for telework, according to federal data and union officials. A record 10 percent of federal jobs now are designated as fully ‘remote,’ with the official workplace an employee’s home or rented space far from an agency headquarters or regional office. The General Services Administration, which manages federal buildings, has also moved aggressively in recent years to shed costly excess office space as Biden officials kept pandemic policies in place.” 8. WHAT ELSE WAS IN THE CR: “Congress stripped IRS of another $20 billion in government shutdown fight,” by WaPo’s Jacob Bogage and Shannon Najmabadi: “Biden administration officials said the additional cuts would add $140 billion to the national debt over the next decade by hamstringing the agency’s ability to audit wealthy individuals and large corporations. The agency will conduct 400 fewer audits of major businesses each year, Biden administration officials said, and 1,200 fewer audits of high-income individuals. … By 2026, the IRS would have enough resources to answer only two of every 10 phone calls to customer helplines, and wait times would increase to 28 minutes on average.” 9. THE BRAVE NEW WORLD: “How A.I. Could Reshape the Economic Geography of America,” by NYT’s Steve Lohr: “To date, the regions benefiting the most from the rapidly progressing technology have been a handful of metro areas where scientists are building A.I., including Silicon Valley. But those places are also some of the ones most apt to face issues as A.I. gets better and can automate jobs, according to the labor economists’ study. Centers of technology and office work including San Jose, San Francisco, Washington, New York and Boston are home to large numbers of high-paid workers, from business analysts to computer programmers, whose tasks involve generating words or code, which is what A.I. does well.”
| | | | POLITICO Pro's unique analysis combines exclusive transition intelligence and data visualization to help you understand not just what's changing, but why it matters for your organization. Explore how POLITICO Pro will make a difference for you. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Cori Bush gave an exit interview. Donald Trump said he encouraged Wayne Gretzky to run for prime minister of Canada. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Council of Economic Advisers’ Jared Bernstein … Mary Blanche Hankey of Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) office … Mike Hammer … Bishop Garrison … Katie Fallon … Eloy Martinez of Aristocrat … Noelle Troost … Matthew Verghese … Kristin Davison … Alex Zuckerman of Scripps News … Jonathan Hoffman … Rohit Mahajan of Radio Free Asia … Sarada Peri … Sally Fox of Rep. Tom Emmer’s (R-Minn.) office … Jeremy Broggi … Jon Henke … Jennifer Duck … Joe Deoudes … former Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) … Candy Crowley … former California Gov. Gray Davis … Synim Rivers … Chris Weihs of Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-Mo.) office … Rob Pyron … Griffin Wiggins of Rep. Mike Ezell’s (R-Miss.) office … Bill Becker (75) … Annie Orloff Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
| | | | A message from Instagram: Instagram Teen Accounts: a protected experience for teens, guided by parents.
Instagram Teen Accounts are designed to address parents’ biggest concerns, providing automatic protections for who can contact their teens and the content they can see.
The impact: Built-in limits give parents more peace of mind when it comes to protecting their teens.
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