| | | | | |  | | By Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross | Presented by Facebook | PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP appeared in the briefing room for a minute or so around 12:30 p.m. to congratulate the American people on the stock market breaking 30,000. He did not take a single question. WHAT TRUMP WAS TALKING ABOUT … BLOOMBERG: "U.S. stocks rallied toward records, oil surged past $45 and the dollar fell as the formal start of President-elect Joe Biden's transition spurred investors into risk assets. "The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed to 30,000 for the first time, led by a 5% rally in Boeing Co. The S&P 500 and Russell 2000 jumped more than 1%, outpacing gains in the tech-heavy Nasdaq indexes as investors doubled down on economically sensitive sectors such as travel and energy. Haven assets were broadly weaker, while Bitcoin extended its searing rally, surpassing $19,000 for the first time since 2017." SOME CONTEXT … BLOOMBERG'S @SarahPonczek: "November @markets so far: Dow up 13%, passes 30k, best month since 1987. Russell 2000 up 20%, best month EVER. S&P energy up 37%, best month EVER. S&P financials up 19%, best month since 2009. S&P industrials up 18%, best month EVER." NEW … PAUL RYAN ON TRUMP … RYAN -- the former speaker -- spoke this morning at Bank of America's virtual European Credit Conference, and he addressed the 2020 election, President-elect JOE BIDEN and TRUMP. RYAN said the "attacks on our voting system really need to stop, in my opinion." And he said TRUMP'S lawyers are offering "baseless conspiracy theories." RYAN also said divided government would be more fruitful for BIDEN'S presidency. TRANSCRIPT BELOW -- we reviewed audio from the call. BOFA'S MICHELLE MEYER: "Let's turn to the current environment and particularly what we expect to see with President-elect Biden. … The transition process is now officially underway. We are a short while away from seeing that change in Washington, change in leadership, so what is your expectation of how sentiment in Washington can change under the leadership of President-elect Biden? And, in particular, you've had years of working with President-elect Biden in different capacities -- can you speak to specifically your experience working with him and what that might mean going forward?" RYAN: "Well, I think it's important to acknowledge that the GSA, I think as of last night, the General Services Administration ascertained the election, and that sounds kind of technical [but] it's really actually frankly pretty important because that allows the official transition to actually occur so that President-elect Biden -- and Joe Biden is the president-elect -- so that Joe Biden, the president-elect, can actually plan his transition, get the security background checks for his people, get the process going where he can be ready to populate his Cabinet and the lower positions in the administration. So that GSA attestation is actually pretty important. "I think maybe even more important is that these legal challenges to the outcome and the attacks on our voting system really need to stop, in my opinion. The outcome will not be changed, and it will only serve to undermine our faith in our system of government, our faith in our democracy. "I know firsthand -- you mentioned Joe Biden and how I know him. I know firsthand what it's like to lose a national election, and it is a terrible feeling. It is not pleasant, and I know there are a lot of people in this country who are really disappointed. But I think it's really important that we're clear about this, which is the mere fact that the president's lawyers throw these sort of baseless conspiracy theories out at press conferences but offer no evidence of these in court tells you that there is not the kind of widespread voter fraud or systemic voter fraud that would be required to overturn the outcome of this election. "So, the election is over. The outcome is certain, and I really think the orderly transfer of power -- that is one of the most uniquely fundamental American components of our political system. And I think it's really important that we respect that, we respect the will of the people, and if we don't, we end up doing damage to our country, to our democratic institutions and norms and to the cause of freedom. So frankly, I really think it's in the president's best interest to acknowledge these things and not just have the GSA technically facilitate the transfer of power, but to embrace the transfer of power, the system we have. I think it's in his best interest and clearly in the American people's best interest to do that." -- RYAN on BIDEN: "I've known Joe for many years. I've done lots of deals with him over the years. Frankly, Mitch McConnell has known Joe twice as long as I have and has done probably twice as many deals with Joe over the years. "I personally think it's in Joe Biden's best interest -- he obviously would not want to hear this -- for us to win these Georgia Senate seats, because then he really does have divided government and he really does have to work with both sides of the aisle and you won't have the building pressure from the left to try and jam the other side. "And so assuming, and you cannot assume these things, we keep the Georgia Senate seats and we have divided government, Joe Biden knows how to work in divided government. He's a good guy. He's a very nice person. He keeps his word. Those of us who've worked with Joe, we disagree with each other but he's not a disagreeable human being. So, he does know how to work in divided government. He does put deals together, and that will be made much, much easier for him to operate like that and bring sides together if we truly have divided government. If we don't have divided government and they narrowly get the Senate, then frankly I think he's going to be a much less successful president. I know that's sort of contrary to conventional wisdom, but that's just how I feel." Good Tuesday afternoon. PROGRAMMING NOTE: Playbook PM is off Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. Playbook will be in your inbox as usual in the mornings. | | | | A message from Facebook: Facebook supports updated internet regulations
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Read more | | | IF YOU THOUGHT Republicans were going to rubber-stamp BIDEN'S Cabinet, just look here at this tweet from Sen. MARCO RUBIO of Florida, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee who is up for reelection in 2022. -- @marcorubio: "Biden's cabinet picks went to Ivy League schools,have strong resumes,attend all the right conferences & will be polite & orderly caretakers of America's decline. I support American greatness. And I have no interest in returning to the 'normal' that left us dependent on China." -- THIS IS VERY SHORT of saying that he will hold up nominees, or he doesn't support their nomination. But it's a sign that there may be some choppy waters ahead for TEAM BIDEN. -- AND YES, DUH, much of TRUMP'S Cabinet went to Ivy League schools. As did TRUMP. They all love those conferences -- Davos, Milken, etc. SEN. BEN SASSE (R-Neb.) to CNN's MANU RAJU on the Biden Cabinet choices, per the Hill pool: "I'm glad he's resisting the far left on most of the picks to date." AT DOD … JACQUELINE FELDSCHER: "Kash Patel, a White House loyalist who was installed at the Pentagon two weeks ago amid a purge of senior civilian officials, has been put in charge of the Defense Department's transition to the next administration, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday." POLITICO -- FOREIGN POLICY: "Trump's Pentagon Now Vetting Nonpolitical Experts," by Jack Detsch: "The Trump administration has opted to extend background vetting of U.S. Department of Defense appointees to nonpolitical roles, current and former U.S. officials told Foreign Policy, a move that is said to be hampering top think tank experts and outside advisors from consulting with the Pentagon on policy matters. "The recent decision made by freshly minted Pentagon White House liaison Joshua Whitehouse, a loyalist to President Donald Trump and former New Hampshire state representative, could keep outside experts out of the Defense Department if they are found to hold anti-Trump views in a background check, which includes checking social media accounts. The positions are usually used to keep a continuity of knowledge inside the Pentagon amid personnel churn inside the building." FP | | | | TRACK THE TRANSITION: President-elect Biden has started to form a Cabinet and announce his senior White House staff. The appointments and staffing decisions made in the coming days send clear-cut signals about Biden's priorities. Transition Playbook is the definitive guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, it tracks the appointments, people, and the emerging power centers of the new administration. Track the transition and the first 100 days of the incoming Biden administration. Subscribe today. | | | | | HOW WE GOT HERE -- "Evidence Builds That an Early Mutation Made the Pandemic Harder to Stop," by NYT's James Glanz, Benedict Carey and Hannah Beech: "The mutation, known as 614G, was first spotted in eastern China in January and then spread quickly throughout Europe and New York City. Within months, the variant took over much of the world, displacing other variants. … "[A] host of new research — including close genetic analysis of outbreaks and lab work with hamsters and human lung tissue — has supported the view that the mutated virus did in fact have a distinct advantage, infecting people more easily than the original variant detected in Wuhan, China. … The first outbreaks of the virus would have spread around the world even without the mutation, believe most researchers. … But the mutation appears to have made the pandemic spread further and faster than it would have without it." NYT HUNT FOR A VACCINE -- "China and Russia are using coronavirus vaccines to expand their influence. The U.S. is on the sidelines," by WaPo's Loveday Morris, Emily Rauhala, Shibani Mahtani and Robyn Dixon in Berlin: "In the new frontier of vaccine diplomacy, there are two paths: stockpile or share. The first way is unfolding in the United States — with two promising coronavirus vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna on the cusp of approval — as the Trump administration focuses on domestic distribution from private labs. "The other approach comes from China and Russia, which have rushed to share their own state-backed vaccines with nations scrambling for supply, positioning themselves to possibly expand their political and economic interests in the process. The contrast goes well beyond the crisis of the pandemic, reflecting how the post-World War II world order is challenged by the rise of authoritarian powers and the retreat of the United States during the outgoing Trump administration." WaPo YIKES … AP: "Texts: U.S. census manager told counters to use fake answers," by Mike Schneider: "The texts from an Alabama census supervisor had an urgent tone. 'THIS JUST IN …,' one of them began. It then laid out how census takers should fake data to mark households as having only one resident even if they had no idea how many people actually lived there. "The goal of the texts from October, obtained by The Associated Press, was to check off as many households as possible on the list of homes census takers were supposed to visit because residents never had filled out census questionnaires. The supervisor wanted the census takers to finalize cases — without interviewing households — as the Trump administration waged a legal battle to end the once-a-decade head count early. "The texts are the latest evidence suggesting census accuracy was sacrificed for speed as census takers and supervisors rushed to complete a head count last month. … The texted instructions said that if two failed attempts were made to interview members of the households, along with two unsuccessful tries to interview landlords or neighbors about the homes' residents, then the census takers should mark that a single person lived there." | | | | DON'T MISS THE MILKEN INSTITUTE FUTURE OF HEALTH SUMMIT 2020: POLITICO will feature a special edition Future Pulse newsletter at the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit. The newsletter takes readers inside one of the most influential gatherings of global health industry leaders and innovators determined to confront and conquer the most significant health challenges. Covid-19 has exposed weaknesses across our health systems, particularly in the treatment of our most vulnerable communities, driving the focus of the 2020 conference on the converging crises of public health, economic insecurity, and social justice. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage from December 7–9. | | | | | VALLEY TALK -- "Roiled by Election, Facebook Struggles to Balance Civility and Growth," by NYT's Kevin Roose, Mike Isaac and Sheera Frenkel in San Francisco: "In the tense days after the presidential election, a team of Facebook employees presented the chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, with an alarming finding: Election-related misinformation was going viral on the site. … Typically, [news ecosystem quality] scores play a minor role in determining what appears on users' feeds. "But several days after the election, Mr. Zuckerberg agreed to increase the weight that Facebook's algorithm gave to N.E.Q. scores to make sure authoritative news appeared more prominently, said three people with knowledge of the decision, who were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations. … It was a vision of what a calmer, less divisive Facebook might look like. Some employees argued the change should become permanent, even if it was unclear how that might affect the amount of time people spent on Facebook. In an employee meeting the week after the election, workers asked whether the 'nicer news feed' could stay, said two people who attended." NYT 2021 WATCH -- "Virginia Democrats, Thrilled With Biden Victory, Aren't Looking for Carbon Copy," by NYT's Reid Epstein in Annandale, Va.: "Virginia's 2021 governor's contest is already underway, with three major Democratic candidates declared and two more planning to enter the race as soon as next week. The big question … Democrats in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington are asking themselves now is whether the Biden political template — a steady, experienced white man — is what they want from Democrats in the post-Trump era. "Mr. Biden's victory was powered by suburban voters, especially women like [Katherine] White, who were motivated during the primary and the general election by what they perceived as the existential threat of a second term for the president. Without Mr. Trump on the ballot, Ms. White and other liberal suburban women are looking to see the Democratic Party put forward more candidates that look like them — and they are not interested in waiting much longer." NYT MEDIAWATCH -- Miriam Elder will be executive editor of Vanity Fair's The Hive. She previously was world editor and politics reporter at BuzzFeed. -- Oren Liebermann will be a Pentagon correspondent for CNN. He previously was a correspondent in Jerusalem. Hadas Gold is moving to Jerusalem to become the new Israel correspondent. She previously was CNN Business media and tech correspondent in London. TRANSITIONS -- Tyler Haymore will be COS for Rep.-elect Byron Donalds (R-Fla.). He most recently was COS for Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.). … Emily Kolano is now legislative director for Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.). She most recently was senior legislative assistant for Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.). WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Sophie Zeigler, principal at Rosé Media, and Lucien Zeigler, research director at the Saudi-US Trade Group, welcomed Pierce David Zeigler on Nov. 17. Pic -- Greg Hellman, lead public relations specialist at CACI and a POLITICO alum, and Carly Katz, director of federal relations at Virginia Commonwealth University, welcomed Henry Jerome Hellman on Nov. 17. Henry is named after his great-grandfathers. He came in at 7 lbs, 4 oz, and 19 inches. 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