| | | | | |  | | By Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross | Presented by |  | | | NEWS … HOUSE MINORITY LEADER KEVIN MCCARTHY told Republicans on Monday night at a private steering meeting that he would vote for the National Defense Authorization Act -- a rare and high-profile split with President DONALD TRUMP. TRUMP has vowed to veto the NDAA, but loads of lawmakers have said they'd vote to override TRUMP'S veto. MCCARTHY said publicly today he would not vote to override the president's veto. Andrew Desiderio and Connor O'Brien on the Hill vowing to override the veto THIS VOTE TODAY will be an interesting one to watch: who votes for the NDAA, and who votes with TRUMP against it because of the exclusion of extraneous tech policy. THE VETO OVERRIDE could come at some point in January. So, TRUMP could be leaving office with Congress overriding his veto for the first time as his finale. WAHOOOOOOOO … "Pfizer's Vaccine Offers Strong Protection After First Dose," by NYT's Noah Weiland and Carl Zimmer: "The coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech provides strong protection against Covid-19 within about 10 days of the first dose, according to documents published on Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration before a meeting of its vaccine advisory group. … "What's more, the vaccine worked well regardless of a volunteer's race, weight or age. … 'This is what an A+ report card looks like for a vaccine,' said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University. … The new Pfizer analysis revealed that many volunteers who received the vaccine felt ill in the hours after the second dose, suggesting that many people might have to request a day off work or be prepared to rest until the symptoms subside." CABINET JOCKEYING -- "Fudge emerges as frontrunner to lead housing agency," by Katy O'Donnell and Megan Cassella: "Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) has vaulted to the front of the pack of candidates to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Biden administration, after losing steam in her bid to become the first Black female Agriculture secretary. "The Cleveland congresswoman is now the strong frontrunner to lead the roughly $50 billion housing department, according to four people familiar with the deliberations, although Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, former HUD deputy secretary Maurice Jones and former Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown remain on the shortlist, people close to the transition say." POLITICO -- "Bernie co-chair Nina Turner eyes Fudge seat," by Holly Otterbein and Alex Thompson: "Turner, 53, represented the Cleveland area as a state senator from 2008 to 2014 and served on the Cleveland city council before that. She had weighed running for the House seat in 2008 when it was last open, but ultimately decided to campaign for the state senate instead. "As she considers the possibility, Turner is being coaxed by left-wing activists, aides and elected officials to throw her hat in the ring. They said her campaign would be an invigorating cause to rally around post-2020 and a vindication of the Sanders movement if she won." -- LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ: "Hispanic caucus backs former teacher's union chief for Education secretary": "The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is lobbying President-elect Joe Biden to nominate Lily Eskelsen García for Education secretary, substantially boosting the pack of supporters who are stumping for the former president of the country's biggest teacher's union. "Led by Hispanic Caucus chair Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-Texas) and Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), Latino lawmakers sent a letter to the Biden transition team Monday night urging the president-elect to name Eskelsen García. The missive marks the Hispanic Caucus' first cohesive push for Eskelsen García, who is backed by a coalition of more than 40 Latino advocacy groups." POLITICO … The letter Good Tuesday afternoon. AXIOS' JONATHAN SWAN: "Scoop: West Wing fears COVID spread after Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis attends WH party": "President Trump's lawyer Jenna Ellis has informed associates she has coronavirus, multiple sources tell Axios, stirring West Wing fears after she attended a senior staff Christmas party on Friday. … Ellis declined to confirm the diagnosis to Axios. … "Ellis showed up to the White House senior staff party in the East Wing on Friday as the guest of Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro and was not seen wearing a mask, according to sources who attended the indoor event." | | A message from Blue Cross Blue Shield Association: The coronavirus pandemic has magnified racial health disparities deadly proportions. See how Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies are working in local communities to reduce disparities and address social determinants of health. | | | THE VACCINE ROLLOUT -- "C.D.C. Call for Data on Vaccine Recipients Raises Alarm Over Privacy," by NYT's Sheryl Gay Stolberg: "The Trump administration is requiring states to submit personal information of people vaccinated against Covid-19 — including names, birth dates, ethnicities and addresses — raising alarms among state officials who fear that a federal vaccine registry could be misused. "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is instructing states to sign so-called data use agreements that commit them for the first time to sharing personal information in existing registries with the federal government. Some states, such as New York, are pushing back, either refusing to sign or signing while refusing to share the information." NYT UHH … "'I literally don't know': Operation Warp Speed scientist can't explain Trump's vaccine order," by Quint Forgey: "The chief scientist of the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed was unable to explain President Donald Trump's latest executive order Tuesday, which aims to prioritize shipment of the coronavirus vaccine to Americans over other countries. Moncef Slaoui, who Trump tapped in May to head up the administration's efforts to hasten vaccine development, appeared puzzled when asked to clarify the president's order during an interview on ABC's 'Good Morning America.' "'Frankly, I don't know, and frankly, I'm staying out of this. I can't comment,' Slaoui said. 'I literally don't know.' 'You don't know?' asked anchor George Stephanopoulos. 'Yes,' Slaoui said. 'But you're the chief science adviser for Operation Warp Speed,' Stephanopoulos pressed. 'Our work is, you know, rolling,' Slaoui replied. 'We have plans. We feel that we can deliver the vaccines as needed. So I don't know exactly what this order is about.'" POLITICO KREBS FIRES BACK -- "Christopher Krebs, a fired Trump official, sues the campaign and the lawyer who said he should be shot," by NYT's Alan Feuer: "On Tuesday, Mr. Krebs, who was fired by Mr. Trump last month, filed a lawsuit against Mr. DiGenova accusing him and the Trump campaign of defamation and the infliction of emotional distress. "The lawsuit, which seeks monetary damages and the removal of the threatening video from the Newsmax archives, also made a far more extraordinary claim: that Mr. Trump, members of his legal team and Newsmax have been engaging in 'a calculated and pernicious conspiracy' to defame and injure not just Mr. Krebs but other members of the Republican Party who have stood up against the president's baseless claims of fraud." FOR THOSE WHO STILL NEED IT … AP: "Safe harbor law locks Congress into accepting Biden's win," by Mark Sherman | | | | TRACK THE TRANSITION & NEW ADMINISTRATION HEADING INTO 2021: President-elect Biden is pushing full steam ahead on putting together his Cabinet and White House staff. These appointments and staffing decisions send clear-cut signals about Biden's 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, 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. | | | | | THE NEW COLD WAR -- "U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Chinese Officials Over Hong Kong Crackdown," by NYT's Austin Ramzy and Tiffany May in Hong Kong: "The United States imposed travel bans and other sanctions on 14 high-level Chinese officials over the continuing crackdown on the opposition in Hong Kong, as the police in the Chinese territory arrested more pro-democracy figures on Tuesday. "The U.S. State Department took aim at members of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, citing the officials' role last month in authorizing the Hong Kong government to disqualify four opposition lawmakers from the city's legislature. The ousting of the lawmakers prompted the rest of the city's pro-democracy camp to resign from the legislature in protest. … On Tuesday, the police arrested at least eight opposition figures over a July 1 protest that took place hours after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong." NYT WAPO: "Saudi court sentences American citizen to six years in prison despite appeals from the U.S.," by Kareem Fahim in Istanbul: "A court in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday sentenced Walid Fitaihi, a doctor with dual American and Saudi citizenship, to six years in prison on charges that included illegally obtaining U.S. citizenship, a person close to his family said. The sentencing came despite the Trump administration's repeated appeals to the Saudi government to release Fitaihi. "Fitaihi, the founder of a prominent hospital, was arrested in November 2017 as Saudi authorities detained hundreds of business executives, government officials and royal family members. He was held for nearly two years without trial and tortured while in custody, he told family members. … The sentence imposed on Fitaihi Tuesday was for charges that included obtaining U.S. citizenship without official permission and posting messages on Twitter supporting the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, according to the person close to the family, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case." | | | | JOIN WEDNESDAY - BATTLING INFORMATION CHAOS IN A PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS: The extraordinary pace which scientists, doctors, epidemiologists, and hospital staff are working to fully understand the coronavirus can sometimes lead to the wrong information getting published and more accurate information being buried. Join POLITICO for a virtual deep-dive conversation on strategies for improving the flow of accurate and timely findings during a public health crisis. Tune in and hear the executive conversation between POLITICO CEO Patrick Steel and Surescripts CEO Tom Skelton. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | QUITE THE STORY … NYT: "He Pretended to Be Trump's Family. Then Trump Fell for It," by Jack Nicas: "Last month, between tweets disputing his election loss, President Trump posted an article from a conservative website that said his sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau, had just joined Twitter to publicly back her brother's fight to overturn the vote. 'Thank you Elizabeth,' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. 'LOVE!' "But the Twitter account that prompted the article was not his sister. It was a fake profile run by Josh Hall, a 21-year-old food-delivery driver in Mechanicsburg, Pa. … Since February, he had posed as political figures and their families on Twitter, including five of the president's relatives. … Records also show that some accounts served another purpose: directing people to give Mr. Hall money. … Mr. Hall's Twitter spree seems to be a case of mischief spun out of control, illustrating how a person simply needs a phone and some knowledge of the internet to start trouble that gets the attention of hundreds of thousands of people." NYT DEEP DIVE -- "Behind the Taliban's ties to al-Qaeda: A shared ideology and decades of battlefield support," by WaPo's Susannah George in Kabul: "As the Taliban and the United States were finalizing their February deal, Taliban leaders were in frequent communication with al-Qaeda, consulting with their counterparts on the terms of the agreement and assuring them that they would not be betrayed, according to U.N. monitors. … "The active coordination between the two groups has continued to this day, despite the Taliban's commitment to sever ties as a condition of the peace deal, according to U.N. and Afghan officials and current and former Taliban members. … Since the signing of the U.S.-Taliban deal, al-Qaeda has become more active in Afghanistan, communicating more frequently with Taliban leaders and traveling around the country to rally support among sympathetic local Taliban leadership, according to an Afghan security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue." WaPo MEDIAWATCH -- Siobhán O'Grady will be Cairo bureau chief for WaPo. She currently is a staff writer on the foreign desk. Announcement TRANSITIONS -- James-Christian Blockwood is now EVP at the Partnership for Public Service. He most recently was managing director for strategic planning and external liaison at the GAO, and is a VA and DHS alum. … Darrell Owens is now director of government relations at America's Warrior Partnership. He previously was national security adviser to Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and recently returned from active duty with U.S. Army Europe. … … The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors has hired Dan Schuberth as chief business development officer and William Inman as chief public affairs officer for comms and advocacy. Schuberth is a Robbinsville, N.J., township councilman and executive at McMaster-Carr. Inman previously was VP for external relations at Wells Fargo, and is a Rob Portman alum. WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Beena Patel, director of government affairs at Teva Pharmaceuticals, welcomed Mila Ruth Patel on Nov. 18. She came in at 7 lbs, 15 oz. Pic | | | | A message from Blue Cross Blue Shield Association:   Reducing racial health disparities to help communities get healthier and save lives. See how we're taking action. | | | | | | | 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 | | | | |
