| | | | | |  | | By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer, Garrett Ross and Eli Okun | Presented by |  | | T-MINUS 11 HOURS or so until the government shuts down. No bill. No stopgap. No Covid relief package. Nothing. Waiting. SQUARE THIS CIRCLE: Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL on the floor this morning: "I'm even more optimistic now than I was last night that a bipartisan, bicameral framework for a major rescue package is very close at hand." AND COMPARE IT with this … Senate Democratic aide: "An agreement was in sight to deliver aid to the American people until Sen. Toomey and Republicans inserted an 11th hour purely political, unrelated provision to tie Biden's hands and risk throwing the economy into a tailspin. The Toomey provision would be an unprecedented change to the law to strip the Fed chair of one of their most important tools to quickly respond to any future economic crisis." SO, THE CRUX OF THE DISAGREEMENT at this point is outlined in this BURGESS EVERETT and HEATHER CAYGLE joint -- it's all about new restrictions on the Fed's emergency powers. SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI has pushed her news conference to 2 p.m. today. It was originally scheduled for this morning. SOME HAVE BEGUN talking quietly about a three-month stopgap spending bill. Doubt that would fly, since MCCONNELL and PELOSI have said they are going to stay until a Covid deal is at hand. SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-Mo.) -- who has been one of the leading champions of the direct payment program -- tried to get consent to pass a bill with $1,200 checks to all Americans. Sen. RON JOHNSON (R-Wis.) opposed due to the debt. Yes. You heard that right. SIREN … HAWLEY is starting to get frustrated with the dragged-out negotiating: "I'd like to see some indication of what we're moving towards with … relief. So far we've now been in the dark for days on end, we have absolutely no idea what's actually this package. … So I'm not willing to allow a CR to go through until I know what's actually in this package. … It's beginning to reach the point of absurdity. … It's time for leadership to put on the table what they've got, it's time for them to brief members about what they've got." REP. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.) sent a letter to the House Clerk saying he's unable to come to Washington to vote, and requested that Rep. TULSI GABBARD (D-Hawaii) cast his vote as his proxy. Gaetz's letter -- GAETZ criticized proxy voting in May. His tweet BTW … FLASHBACK to the last time there were tight margins on the Hill … DAVID ROGERS on Nov. 9, 2000 in the WSJ: "GOP's Narrow Margin in Congress Makes Bipartisanship a Necessity" TRUMP INC. … -- BUSINESS INSIDER: "Jared Kushner helped create a Trump campaign shell company that secretly paid the president's family members and spent $617 million in reelection cash, a source tells Insider," by Tom LoBianco and Dave Levinthal -- NYT'S SHANE GOLDMACHER and MAGGIE HABERMAN: "Trump's Future: Tons of Cash and Plenty of Options for Spending It": "Deflated by a loss he has yet to acknowledge, Mr. Trump has cushioned the blow by coaxing huge sums of money from his loyal supporters — often under dubious pretenses — raising roughly $250 million since Election Day along with the national party. "More than $60 million of that sum has gone to a new political action committee, according to people familiar with the matter, which Mr. Trump will control after he leaves office." | | A message from UnitedHealth Group: UnitedHealth Group is committed to leading in the development of a next-generation health system in a socially conscious way. Learn more here. | | | NEW … TEAM BIDEN announced several more members of its White House comms and press staff. They include KATE BERNER as deputy comms director, AMANDA FINNEY as chief of staff for the press office and special assistant to the press secretary, and EMMA RILEY as chief of staff for the Office of Communications. MARIEL SÁEZ, HOYER WORLD alum, will be director of broadcast media. The full list Happy Friday afternoon. We said this morning that Playbook PM and the Audio Briefing would be on hiatus for the rest of the year, but that was incorrect. They'll both publish Monday-Thursday next week. WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT -- "Pentagon halts Biden transition briefings," by Axios' Mike Allen and Jonathan Swan: "Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller ordered a Pentagon-wide halt to cooperation with the transition of President-elect Biden, shocking officials across the Defense Department, senior administration officials tell Axios. … Administration officials left open the possibility cooperation would resume after a holiday pause. The officials were unsure what prompted Miller's action, or whether President Trump approved. … "Miller's move, which stunned officials throughout the Pentagon, was the biggest eruption yet of animus and mistrust toward the Biden team from the top level of the Trump administration. … A senior Defense Department official sought to downplay the move, calling it 'a simple delay of the last few scheduled meetings until after the new year.'" SCOTUS WATCH -- "Supreme Court punts on Trump bid to exclude immigrants from census," by Zach Montellaro and Josh Gerstein: "The ruling, which appeared to split the court along ideological lines, leaves unresolved the possibility that Trump or a future president may be able to leave out some groups of non-citizens from the critical tally used to allocate House seats. "The court's majority did not squarely address the legality of excluding from the count all foreigners illegally in the country, but said that it appears impractical to do so. … The court's three Democratic appointees dissented, saying that the dispute is ripe for review, and that the court should declare now that Trump's policy seeking to remove foreigners from the count violates the Constitution." IT'S HAPPENING! -- "'Hope is on the way': Pence gets coronavirus vaccine on live television," by Quint Forgey: "The vice president, second lady Karen Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams were all administered the vaccine developed by U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer during a ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building that was carried live across multiple television networks. … "The vice president added that he and the second lady 'wanted to step forward and take this vaccine to assure the American people that while we cut red tape, we cut no corners.'" -- VACCINES STARTED on the Hill today for some members of Congress, including PELOSI. AS FOR THE REST OF US … "Few guardrails to keep people from cutting in line for Covid shots: As soon as more doses become available to wider categories of people, much of the immunization program will rely on the honor system," by Alice Miranda Ollstein and Rachel Roubein ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: "Kamala Harris to arrive in Georgia on Monday for Senate runoff rallies," by Greg Bluestein: "Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will travel to Georgia on Monday to campaign for Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock … Her trip to Suwanee and Columbus is focused on turning out early voters and energizing the Democratic base." | | | | BIG SCOOPS IN TRANSITION PLAYBOOK: In the runup to Inauguration Day, president-elect Joe Biden's staffing decisions are sending clear-cut signals about his priorities. What do these signals foretell? Transition Playbook is the definitive guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, this scoop-filled newsletter is breaking big news and analyzing the appointments, people and emerging power centers of the new administration. Track the transition and the first 100 days of the incoming administration. Subscribe today. | | | | | COMING ATTRACTIONS -- "Trump pardons expected today," by Axios' Stef Kight and Jonathan Swan: "President Trump plans to issue a wave of pardons today, moving to expedite acts of clemency before Christmas, according to a source with direct knowledge and advocates who have been briefed on the plans. … It was unclear who will be included in this batch. … A source with direct knowledge of the planning said they did not expect Trump to follow through with [an Edward] Snowden pardon." HACKING FALLOUT -- "Bill That Trump Is Vowing to Veto Strengthens Hacking Defenses, Lawmakers Say," by NYT's Julian Barnes: "The military spending bill that President Trump is threatening to veto contains provisions that would help protect against the kind of broad Russian hacking discovered in recent days, according to experts and lawmakers." PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION -- "D.C. to End Indoor Dining at 10 p.m. on Dec. 23," by Washington City Paper's Laura Hayes -- WAPO: "Interior shuts Washington Monument after interior secretary tests positive for the coronavirus," by Juliet Eilperin, Lisa Rein and Darryl Fears THE VACCINE DISTRIBUTION -- AP: "U.S. experts debate: Who should be next in line for vaccine?" by Mike Stobbe: "A federal panel of vaccination experts takes up that question at an emergency meeting this weekend. No matter what the committee decides, there will be differences from state to state. "The panelists are leaning toward putting 'essential workers' first because bus drivers, grocery store clerks and similar employees can't work from home. They are the people getting infected most often, and where concerns about racial inequities in risk are most apparent. But other experts say people age 65 and older should be next, along with people with certain medical conditions. Those are the people who are dying at the highest rates, they say. The group is scheduled to vote on the proposal Sunday, one day after it discusses a vaccine made by Moderna." BEHIND THE SCENES -- "45,000 names, 130 packets of information, and gut instincts: How Biden is managing his transition," by WaPo's Matt Viser: "Thick packets have been delivered regularly to President-elect Joe Biden's Wilmington, Del., home, providing meticulous details on each potential Cabinet member's strengths, weaknesses and possible areas of conflict. Biden has been conducting virtual interviews with final candidates, focusing on their values and life stories nearly as much as their approach to the departments they would lead. "He has made Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris perhaps his closest partner in the Cabinet-selection effort; she has interviewed each candidate separately and traded notes with Biden afterward in what people close to the transition say has been an important step in deepening their working relationship. … The formation of the Biden Cabinet began much earlier and has been far more comprehensively planned than previously known." -- CNN: "Kamala Harris prepares for her historic vice presidency by studying Joe Biden's legacy," by Dan Merica and Jasmine Wright: "Harris has told people close to her that she wants to shape her vice presidency after the way Biden worked with President Barack Obama over eight years: testing and pushing the administration in private, while in public remaining a dedicated and loyal lieutenant. Harris, in effect, wants to be Biden's Biden." TRANSITION JOCKEYING -- "Biden breaks the Obama mold on teachers union strife," by Nicole Gaudiano: "Biden's rhetoric and policies suggest the president-elect is still listening closely to teachers unions in a way Obama often did not, including as Biden's team considers potential nominees for Education secretary. … "Biden, a self-described 'union guy' whose wife is a community college professor, may soon find that it is far easier to be the compassionate vice president than it is to make the tough political calls on education policy himself." DEEP DIVE -- "1 in 5 prisoners in the U.S. has had COVID-19, 1,700 have died," by The Marshall Project's Beth Schwartzapfel and Katie Park and AP's Andrew Demillo in Little Rock, Ark.: "One in every five state and federal prisoners in the United States has tested positive for the coronavirus, a rate more than four times as high as the general population. In some states, more than half of prisoners have been infected … "New cases in prisons this week reached their highest level since testing began in the spring, far outstripping previous peaks in April and August." AP | | | | NEW EPISODES OF THE GLOBAL TRANSLATIONS PODCAST: Our Global Translations podcast, presented by Citi, examines the long-term costs of the short-term thinking that drives many political and business decisions. The world has long been beset by big problems that defy political boundaries, and these issues have exploded over the past year amid a global pandemic. This podcast helps us identify and understand the impediments to smart policymaking. Subscribe for Season Two, available now. | | | | | REUTERS: "Exclusive: For years, the Pentagon sits on racial discrimination survey data," by Phil Stewart: "[T]he Defense Department not only carries out granular surveys about discrimination but has been legally-required to do so since the 1990s here. The last survey of the active duty force, conducted every four years, was for fiscal year 2017. "However, the Defense Department denied repeated requests from Reuters to release the 2017 survey data, including through a Freedom of Information Act request. It has also not released a separate report about the 2017 survey data or clearly explained why the data has been withheld for so long. … A Pentagon spokeswoman said the Defense Department was nearing completion of its report on the fiscal year 2017 survey data and would provide it to Congress in the coming weeks. The spokeswoman did not explain the years-long delay." HOT ON THE RIGHT -- "MAGA leaders call for the troops to keep Trump in office," by Tina Nguyen: "The conviction shows how hard-edged MAGA ideology has become in the wake of Trump's election loss. While scattered theories about a 'deep state' arrayed against Trump have long circulated in MAGA circles, calls for troops to stop a democratically elected president from taking office have taken those ideas to a more conspiratorial and militaristic level." FOR YOUR RADAR -- "Iran builds at underground nuclear facility amid U.S. tensions," by AP's Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates: "Iran has begun construction on a site at its underground nuclear facility at Fordo amid tensions with the U.S. over its atomic program, according to satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press on Friday. … While the purpose of the building remains unclear, any work at Fordo likely will trigger new concern in the waning days of the Trump administration before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden." AP MEDIAWATCH -- "A Riveting ISIS Story, Told in a Times Podcast, Falls Apart," by NYT's Mark Mazzetti, Ian Austen, Graham Bowley and Malachy Browne: "Shehroze Chaudhry, the central figure in the 2018 podcast 'Caliphate,' by The New York Times, was a fabulist who spun jihadist tales about killing for the Islamic State in Syria, Canadian and American intelligence and law enforcement officials contend. … "Now, Mr. Chaudhry's public declarations have put him in legal jeopardy. In September, the Canadian authorities charged Mr. Chaudhry with perpetrating a terrorist hoax, a criminal charge that could bring up to five years in prison if he is convicted. … As a result of the review, The Times on Friday published an editors' note that the podcast was 'not sufficiently rigorous' and that the episodes presenting Mr. Chaudhry's claims did not meet its standards." NYT -- NYT: "New York Times Says 'Caliphate' Podcast Fell Short of Standards," by Marc Tracy, Katie Robertson and Tiffany Hsu … The editors' note SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA -- "Abortion, Guns and Trump: A Church Group Tries to Navigate America's Divisions," by WSJ's Janet Adamy in Wyoming, Mich.: "Religious leaders say America's bitter partisanship has been seeping inside their walls and making it more difficult to maintain unity within their congregations. Pastors say it has become more difficult to infuse current events into sermons and prayers because churchgoers perceive it as partisan. "In extreme cases, the tensions are prompting members to leave churches altogether, exacerbating a yearslong decline in religious participation among Americans. … In last month's presidential election, white evangelical voters were nearly a quarter of the electorate, and about 8 in 10 of them backed the Republican incumbent, according to a large survey called AP VoteCast. Catholics, who represented another nearly one-quarter of the voting population, split their votes almost evenly between President Trump and Mr. Biden." WSJ NEED ANOTHER THING TO WORRY ABOUT? -- "'We are slowly being poisoned': How toxic fumes seep into the air you breathe on planes," by the L.A. Times' Kiera Feldman AFTERNOON READ -- "The Kidnapped American Trump Forgot," by J. Weston Phippen in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, for POLITICO Magazine: "Jorge Dominguez was a U.S. citizen kidnapped in Mexico by the military. Did the U.S. government do anything to find him?" BONUS BIRTHDAYS: Paul Windsor, digital director for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) (h/t Lauren Bianchi) … Mike Thom, deputy political director at the NRCC (h/t wife Emily Benavides) | | | | A message from UnitedHealth Group:   Learn about three solutions that could save the federal government $1.5 trillion in health care costs. | | | | | | | 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 | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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