| | | | |  | | By Bethany Irvine | | Presented by |  | | | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | | 
Donald Trump's pick to head up the SEC, Paul Atkins, once blamed the U.S government for FTX's crypto collapse. | Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images | HE’S BACK — Disgraced former Rep. ANTHONY WEINER (D-N.Y.) has filed to run for city council in New York, per the NY Post’s Craig McCarthy. NOMINATION STATION — Amid a flurry of news about President-elect DONALD TRUMP’s transition, here’s what you need to know … — SEC: Who’s to blame for the collapse of convicted fraudster SAM BANKMAN-FRIED’s FTX crypto exchange? If you’re PAUL ATKINS, Trump’s nominee to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, the answer is the U.S. government. “‘The collapse of FTX was this international debacle that happened because, I think, the U.S. didn’t make our rules accommodating to this new technology,’ Atkins said on a podcast last year,” Bloomberg’s Monique Mulima reports — remarks you can expect to come up at his confirmation hearing. — CMS: A coalition of eight Democratic senators led by by ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.) are pressing MEHMET OZ, Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, on his “previous advocacy for Medicare privatization” in a new letter, NBC News’ Sahil Kapur reports. “The Democrats referred to a 2020 opinion piece that Oz co-wrote calling for putting all Americans into Medicare Advantage, effectively replacing the traditional Medicare program in which the government directly insures Americans 65 and older in tandem with private insurance plans.” — HHS: ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. will be shaking hands and taking names next week, scheduling at least 20 meetings with lawmakers on the Hill, Chelsea Cirruzzo reports. Among them, Trump’s HHS pick will meet with the Senate HELP committee’s GOP staff and incoming chair BILL CASSIDY (R-La.). — Defense: As former Fox News host PETE HEGSETH works to smooth out his rocky introduction as Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, a new offensive aims to buoy his nomination. The Trump transition team is out with a new hype video of various senators praising Hegseth and his abilities, Fox News’ Julia Johnson reports, while more than 40 veterans who served alongside Hegseth in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan signed onto a letter backing his bid, The Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese writes. The push comes as Hegseth returned to the Hill today to meet with senators, including JOHN BOOZMAN (R-Ark.) and LISA MURKOWSKI (R-Alaska), per NYT’s Noah Weiland. Meanwhile, Fox News’ Aishah Hasnie reports that Sen. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-Okla.) — a Hegseth supporter — says that JONI ERNST (R-Iowa) should not be primaried if she ultimately votes against his confirmation. — FBI: During the DOJ’s leak investigations during Trump’s first term, the department privately obtained phone records from two members of Congress and 43 staffers — including KASH PATEL, who was then a House staff member and is now the president-elect’s current pick to run the Federal Bureau of Investigation — in an effort to “root out reporters’ sources,” CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz and Evan Perez scoop. The newly released report from the DOJ’s inspector general did not name Patel or the two lawmakers, but “sources familiar with the matter tell CNN that Patel was targeted along with Democratic Reps. ADAM SCHIFF and ERIC SWALWELL.” DOJ inspector general MICHAEL HOROWITZ pointed out several issues with the investigation’s scope of inquiry, noting that the broad sweep of official records “based only on ‘the close proximity in time between access to classified information and subsequent publication of the information … risks chilling Congress’s ability to conduct oversight of the executive branch.” While he did not suggest any specific changes in the review, Horowitz “found that prosecutors failed to follow some of the department guidelines that instructed prosecutors to exhaust all other investigative options before subpoenaing records from journalists,” Rabinowitz and Perez write. FROM MAYOR PETE TO GOVERNOR BUTTIGIEG? — Though PETE BUTTIGIEG rose to national prominence as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, his political future may instead be in Michigan. Buttigieg — who moved to the state in 2020 (his husband, CHASTEN, is a Traverse City native) — recently met with several prominent Democrats in the Great Lakes state to “get their thoughts on the lay of the land in state politics,” The Detroit News’ Craig Mauger, Melissa Nann Burke and Francis Donnelly report. Some factors he’s surely considering: (1) Gov. GRETCHEN WHITMER is term-limited, and though there are prominent Democrats weighing a gubernatorial run in 2026 — including Secretary of State JOCELYN BENSON and Lt. Gov. GARLIN GILCHRIST — Buttigieg would bring a national profile and substantial fundraising network to the field were he to mount a campaign. (2) Detroit Mayor MIKE DUGGAN, who was widely viewed as a Dem frontrunner, has instead opted to run as an independent. (3) With Trump’s victory in the presidential election, Buttigieg’s calculus may have changed: 2028 will not feature a Democratic incumbent in the White House, and he may well make a presidential bid instead. Fun lede from the AP’s Joey Cappelletti: “In a packed union hall outside Detroit, a worker shifts the conversation from policy to the personal, quizzing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on his knowledge of Michigan, the state he only recently started calling home. ‘Mayor Pete — Secretary Pete, I apologize,’ one auto worker yelled from the crowd. ‘Now that you’re a Michigander, who do the Lions play Sunday?’ Caught off guard, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, couldn’t provide an answer.” Good Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at birvine@politico.com.
| | | | A message from Meta: Open source Ai is available to all, not just the few.
Meta’s open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
When AI models are open source, they’re available to all. And when AI models are available to all, everyone benefits.
Learn more about open source AI. | | | POPULAR — “The Real Trumpy Character in ‘Wicked’ Is Not Who You Think,” by POLITICO Mag’s Joanna Weiss
| | 6 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | | 
An opposition fighter steps on a broken bust of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad in Damascus, Syria, Sunday Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) | AP | 1. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: Rebel-backed leader MOHAMMED AL-BASHIR announced today that he intends to formally step in as Syria’s prime minister after an opposition group overthrew BASHAR AL-ASSAD’s regime this weekend, Reuters’ Maya Gebeily and Timour Azhari report from Damascus. “In a brief address on state television … al-Bashir, a figure little known across most of Syria who previously ran an administration in a small pocket of the northwest controlled by rebels, said he would lead the interim authority until March 1.” The new leadership comes as the main rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is fighting to impose order in the capital city and form a transitional government. On the ground in Damascus, things are starting to settle into a new normal: “[B]anks reopened for the first time since Assad's overthrow. Shops were also reopening, traffic returned to the roads, construction workers were back fixing a roundabout in the Damascus city centre and street cleaners were out sweeping the streets. … There was a notable decrease in the number of armed men on the streets,” Gebeily and Ashari write. Still, it’s going to take time to see the full impact of the rebellion, with analysts noting that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is “joining forces with local entities and expect it will be a few weeks before the transition process becomes clearer,” WSJ’s Stephen Kalin and Saleh al-Batati report. Meanwhile, the Israeli military launched strikes overnight in Syria “in an attempt to destroy weapons, aircraft and military facilities before the rebels controlling much of the country could take possession of them,” NYT’s Jack Nicas reports. “Photographs from Syria on Tuesday showed sunken boats at a shipyard, crumbled buildings and the charred remains of a science research center that had been linked to the country’s chemical weapons program.” Elsewhere in the region: “Israel’s Netanyahu Testifies in His Corruption Trial for First Time” by WSJ’s Anat Peled 2. FAILURE TO LAUNCH: It’s been a year since the FDA approved Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS’ plan to import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada into the Sunshine State, but the sweeping program remains “stuck in neutral” with little progress on the horizon, WaPo’s Phil Galewitz and McKenzie Beard report. The program, which was eyed as a possible model for other states, is aimed at lowering Medicaid and health care costs. “Florida is the first and only state that has been approved to import drugs from Canada — a strategy for which politicians ranging from conservatives such as DeSantis to progressives such as Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vermont) have long pushed. … Drug companies say importation would increase the risk of counterfeit drugs appearing on U.S. pharmacy shelves, while Ottawa has warned it won’t allow medicines to be exported if Canadians could experience shortages as a result.” 3. WHO RUN THE WORLD?: In an interview with Semafor’s Burgess Everett, Sen. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-N.H.), the incoming top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — and the highest-ranking woman in the panel’s history — offered a glimpse of how she’ll aim to turn the page, and what Democrats’ foreign policy messaging might look like in the Trump era. On Israel: “We know that Israel is holding up humanitarian aid in northern Gaza. There are [hundreds of thousands of] people that are on the verge of starvation,” Shaheen said. “It’s not acceptable for a country that calls itself a democracy, that says it’s in support of human rights and freedom for people, to allow that to happen.” On Syria: Shaheen sees no clear role for the U.S. in the nation (though the interview happened before the Assad regime fell). “There aren’t any really good options, because there aren’t any good guys in Syria,” Shaheen said. She sees the main U.S. role as focusing on humanitarian assistance and protecting American troops. On Trump’s nominees: “They’re going to be acted on in a timely way,” Shaheen said. “That’s in the best interest of the country.” Still, she noted more politically motivated nominees — like CHARLES KUSHNER for ambassador to France — are “a different story.” Related read: “Missing: House Republican women chairing committees,” by Punchbowl’s Melanie Zanona
| | | | REGISTER NOW: As the 118th Congress ends, major decisions loom, including healthcare appropriations. Key focus: site neutrality. Can aligning hospital and clinic costs cut federal spending, reflect physician costs, and lower patient expenses? Join policymakers and providers to discuss. | | | | | 4. DANCE OF THE SUPERPOWERS: In a stark warning to the incoming Trump administration, Chinese President XI JINPING said there would be “no winners” should Washington reignite a trade war with Beijing, CNN’s Juliana Liu reports. Speaking to a group of global financial leaders today in Hong Kong, Xi promised to defend China’s economic priorities, noting: “Tariff wars, trade wars, and technology wars go against the historical trend and economic laws.” The remarks come a day after China launched an antitrust investigation into the U.S. chip maker, Nvidia, which was “widely seen as a major escalation in a growing battle for AI dominance.” 5. DEATH AND TAXES: “Tax Cuts Were Top of Mind at the Tax Foundation’s Annual ‘Prom’” by NYT’s Andrew Duehren: “[E]ven with the conditions ripe for cutting taxes next year, the village of consultants, lawyers and former congressional aides that lobby Capitol Hill were not ready to let its guard down. … Various industries and companies have an array of sometimes conflicting demands of Congress, turning next year’s tax bill into another arena for corporate competition. Then there are those who don’t want to miss out an opportunity to worm an advantageous tax change into law.”
| | | | Billions in spending. Critical foreign aid. Immigration reform. The final weeks of 2024 could bring major policy changes. Inside Congress provides daily insights into how Congressional leaders are navigating these high-stakes issues. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | | | | | A message from Meta:   | | | Josh Gottheimer admitted his Spotify Wrapped was Photoshopped. SPOTTED on Capitol Hill today: Bill Gates. OUT AND ABOUT — Steve Clemons hosted a holiday party at Cafe Milano last night. At the event, John and Naomi Tice, brother and sister of journalist Austin Tice, asked attendees to continue to advocate for the release of their brother in Syria, where he was captured more than 12 years ago. SPOTTED: Heather Podesta, Stephen Kessler, Randi Weingarten, Michael Schaefer, Kadia Goba, Patrick Kane, Francesca Craig, Omar Vargas, Joe Hack, Rachel Pearson, Orson Porter, Zach Butterworth, Sam Feist, Bobby Zeliger, Axel Dittmann, Niamh King, Steve Wozencraft, Matt Corridoni, Jonathan Kott, Terrence White, Julia Manchester, Chris Slevin, Phil Elwood, Tom Madrecki, Niala Boodhoo, Bill Turenne, Brian Bartlett, Michael Moroney, Elizabeth Baker Keffer, Lyndsay Polloway, Peter Nonis, Alex Slater, John McCarthy, Helen Milby, Doug Rediker, Erica Richardson and Lyndon Boozer. TRANSITION — Jaclyn Rothenberg is now SVP at Avoq. She previously was director of public affairs at FEMA. 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.
| | | | Sponsored Survey WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: Please take a 1-minute survey about one of our advertising partners. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment