| | | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross | | | The newest inflation numbers out this morning showed that consumer prices in December leaped 7% year over year, as what is perhaps the top economic challenge facing the Biden administration shows no signs of abating yet. Three quick data points: (1) It's the highest inflation rate since 1982. (2) Rising prices wiped out wage gains last year. (3) Core prices in December jumped 0.6% from the previous month, a faster growth rate than from October to November. More from the AP On cue, Republicans heaped blame on the president. "Under JOE BIDEN, everything costs more, store shelves are empty, and small businesses are struggling to hire workers and stay open," RNC Chair RONNA MCDANIEL said in a statement. "Americans are paying the price for Biden's failures, and Biden doesn't care." Meanwhile, Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) — who walked away from the Build Back Better negotiating table citing concerns about inflation — called the numbers "very, very troubling," per CNN's Manu Raju. VOTING RIGHTS LATEST — Biden is headed to Capitol Hill on Thursday to caucus with the Senate Dems before a pair of votes on Democrats' voting bills. But it seems unlikely that Biden will be able to get the job done. This morning, Manchin had this to say in light of POTUS' Georgia speech and the latest series of huddles, per Burgess Everett: "I've got no new answers at all. Good meetings, good discussions, the president gave a good speech. That's about it." Sen. KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-Ariz.) also has yet to change her position. — Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER said today that only two Democratic senators oppose a filibuster carveout, according to Bloomberg's Erik Wasson. But after a group of nine senators met with Manchin this morning to talk about filibuster reform, Schumer added: "We're not there yet." — Senate Democrats still haven't decided exactly what proposal they'll be voting on either. Per Burgess and Marianne LeVine, the caucus is still talking about instituting a talking filibuster and the voting rights "carveout" idea. "Every 24 hours it feels like the conversation has shifted as we wrestle," a senator told them. BREAKING — Rep. MATT GAETZ's (R-Fla.) ex-girlfriend testified today before a federal grand jury investigating him for possible sex crimes. She's been talking to prosecutors about a potential immunity deal for months, and her testimony is "a major development that suggests the Department of Justice may be moving closer to indicting him," scoops NBC's Florida whisperer Marc Caputo. Good Wednesday afternoon. LYING IN STATE — Today, former Senate Majority Leader HARRY REID made it to the Capitol one last time. NBC's Leigh Ann Caldwell has video of his casket's arrival. | | | | A message from the Freedom to Vote Alliance: A strong economy depends on a strong democracy. But the cornerstone of our democratic system – the freedom to vote – is under attack. States nationwide are making it harder to cast ballots and easier for partisan officials to overturn election results.
For businesses to prosper, our basic rights must be protected. The Freedom to Vote Alliance is calling on the Senate to reform its rules and give voting rights legislation a straight up or down vote. | | | CONGRESS SANCTIONS LATEST — Senate Democrats today are introducing a White House-backed bill to sanction Russia if it invades Ukraine, seeking to offer an alternative to Dems who might otherwise be tempted to back Sen. TED CRUZ's (R-Texas) Nord Stream 2 bill, reports WaPo's Seung Min Kim. This bill, led by Sen. BOB MENENDEZ (D-N.J.), would target top Russian officials, military leaders, banks and more, in addition to bolstering Ukrainian security and "consider[ing] all available and appropriate measures" to oppose the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. But the administration still has work to do to stem Democratic defections on the Cruz bill, as national security moderates and climate liberals remain potential "yes" votes — though one possible defector, Sen. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-Conn.), told Kim he'll back Menendez's bill and not Cruz's. — Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of senators is considering a trip to Ukraine this weekend, including KEVIN CRAMER (R-N.D.), CHRIS MURPHY (D-Conn.), ROB PORTMAN (R-Ohio) and JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-N.H.), per Andrew Desiderio and Ben Lefebvre in Congress Minutes. They were briefed Tuesday by Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN. The senators want to meet with Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY. But whether they go could depend on scheduling in the busy chamber, as Dems try to push forward their voting rights and election reform bills. — And U.S. officials are trying to reassure European allies that potential sanctions on Russia wouldn't screw them over on energy supplies, Bloomberg's Jennifer Jacobs reports. SPEAKING OF PORTMAN … A major Ohio newspaper's editorial board is asking the Ohio Republican to reconsider retirement. "Ohio needs you. Don't retire. Seek another term," the headline in the Cleveland Plain Dealer reads. "Otherwise, the ugliness that is the Republican primary for your seat will continue its cavalcade of intemperate, cruel, ill-judged, narrow-minded and explosive rhetoric designed to divide not unite," the editorial says. POLICY CORNER CLIMATE SIREN — The Atlantic's Robinson Meyer is out with a sobering piece warning that Senate Dems are on the verge of total, catastrophic failure on climate policy, with time rapidly running out. He pins the blame not just on Manchin, but on the whole caucus for not figuring out a way to prioritize and pass its climate planks. Failure to do so "would be a cataclysmic failure for the climate, setting America's energy transition back by a decade or more, and dooming the planet to warm well above 1.5 degrees Celsius," he writes. DELAYED RELIEF — A new watchdog report finds that Americans went to the IRS' "Where's My Refund?" page 632 million times in 2021, a sign of "deep frustration with the speed and efficiency of the tax collection agency," reports WaPo's Jeff Stein. POLITICS ROUNDUP FEATURE OF THE DAY — FiveThirtyEight's Kaleigh Rogers connects the dots on the erosion of American democracy, compiling a database of Republican voter restriction laws and partisan election "audits" around the country that have resulted from DONALD TRUMP's Big Lie about 2020. "What's revealed is an anti-democratic shift among the GOP," she writes, "catalyzed by the Big Lie and ushered in by a network of right-wing power brokers." The lies have become so insidious that they've filtered throughout the party, going well beyond fringe conspiracy theorists to drive legislation from ordinary, not particularly Trumpy Republican state legislators. FOLLOWING THE MONEY — Rolling Stone's Andy Kroll looks at the donors funding the Claremont Institute, the right-wing think tank that he writes has played an outsized role in perpetuating the Big Lie. Among the top contributors in 2020 and 2021: the DEVOS, BRADLEY and SCAIFE families. 2024 WATCH — In Vanity Fair, Tom LoBianco writes that allies of former VP MIKE PENCE see him gearing up for a presidential run — even if Trump is in the race. He's been loosening up in recent appearances, getting a little more personal: "[A]llies and supporters saw a man coming out of his shell after close to two decades of testing the waters — someone who's finally embracing his own style as a candidate." AD WARS — With the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary heating up, a super PAC backing MEHMET OZ is out with a new ad campaign blasting DAVID MCCORMICK as "a friend of China," the Washington Examiner's David Drucker reports. | | | | DON'T MISS CONGRESS MINUTES: Need to follow the action on Capitol Hill blow-by-blow? Check out Minutes, POLITICO's new platform that delivers the latest exclusives, twists and much more in real time. Get it on your desktop or download the POLITICO mobile app for iOS or Android. CHECK OUT CONGRESS MINUTES HERE. | | | | | TRUMP CARDS TRUMP TAKES A JAB AT DESANTIS — ICYMI, Trump blasted politicians who won't say whether they've received a Covid-19 vaccine booster shot, calling them "gutless" in a One America News interview that aired Tuesday night. His remarks were widely seen as aimed at Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS, a possible 2024 competitor who has refused to reveal his own booster status. ("Trump has been telling a range of aides a version of, he isn't getting the deference from DeSantis that he wants in the pre-2024 leadup," NYT's Maggie Haberman tweets.) More from NBC It's worth reading Trump's quote in full, since it runs contrary to so much of the pandemic messaging you hear from his MAGA base: "I've had the booster. Many politicians — I watched a couple of politicians be interviewed and one of the questions was, 'Did you get the booster?' — because they had the vaccine — and they're answering like — in other words, the answer is 'yes,' but they don't want to say it because they're gutless. You gotta say it — whether you had it or not, say it. But the fact is that I think the vaccines saved tens of millions [of lives] throughout the world. I've had absolutely no side effects." THE PANDEMIC PUT TO THE TEST — The Biden administration is rolling out 10 million more coronavirus tests per month for schools around the country, the White House announced today. The tests — half of them rapid, half PCR — are intended to help keep schools open and in person, in line with the CDC's latest "test-to-stay" guidance for schools. More from NPR FOR YOUR RADAR — West Virginia Gov. JIM JUSTICE has Covid-19, and said in a press release late Tuesday that he's feeling "extremely unwell" with "extremely elevated" blood pressure, a fast heart rate and a high fever. The 70-year-old Republican is fully vaccinated and boosted, and began receiving monoclonal antibodies Tuesday night. Justice has postponed his State of the State address, which was scheduled for tonight. Announcement … More from WaPo STAT NEWS — As the Omicron variant potentially helps usher the coronavirus toward a state of long-term, lower-grade endemicity, news outlets are grappling with which statistics to highlight, AP's David Bauder reports . Media organizations are weighing the usefulness of case counts and hospitalization numbers in capturing the pandemic's severity, as well as the possibility that case numbers could be serious undercounts if people are testing at home and not reporting the results. — Behind the scenes: "The Associated Press has recently told its editors and reporters to avoid emphasizing case counts in stories about the disease. That means, for example, no more stories focused solely on a particular country or state setting a one-day record for number of cases, because that claim has become unreliable." | | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | AMERICA AND THE WORLD MON AMI AMÉRICAIN — The Biden administration has moved to continue its military support for the French counterterrorism campaign against Islamist groups in Africa's Sahel region, despite outside criticism that it's been ineffective, WaPo's John Hudson reports . The decision last year followed the diplomatic blowup with France over an Australia nuclear submarine deal. The U.S. had been considering pulling back its support in Africa, but the article implies that the submarine row prompted an about-face to shore up relations with the French. Hudson details one instance in which U.S. intel helped France bombard an SUV of militants in Mali in October. THE WHITE HOUSE GRADING KAMALA HARRIS — BAKARI SELLERS, who our colleague Chris Cadelago notes has been a top surrogate for the VP, gave her first year in office a "solid B-minus" during an appearance on "The Breakfast Club." Sellers called Harris "a prisoner of Washington, D.C.," partially due to the pandemic, and said, "The more you get into Washington, the more that cancer grows on you, and she [has] got to be willing to shake that." MEDIAWATCH NEW KID ON THE BLOCK — D.C.'s latest news outlet has launched, and LAURA MCGANN and MARK BAUMAN's long-gestating venture has a name: Grid. The site is un-paywalled and uses what it's calling a "360" article format. "Grid is meant for people like you and me who follow the news but want something more,' McGann writes in her introductory note. "A lot of us are inundated with updates on relentless crises. The flood prioritizes what's new, not necessarily what is important." The site … NYT writeup PLAYBOOKERS MEDIA MOVES — Evan Smith will leave The Texas Tribune, which he's led for more than a dozen years, by the end of the year, per NYT's Katie Robertson. No word yet on his next steps, but in his announcement, he said that he'll stick around "through the end of 2023 as a senior adviser to my replacement." … … Jeanine Pirro will snag one of two empty spots at Fox News' "The Five," with Harold Ford Jr., Geraldo Rivera and Jessica Tarlov rotating into the fifth seat as the panel's resident "liberals," per Variety's Brian Steinberg. TRANSITIONS — Jennifer Miller is now senior director for appropriations and authorizations on Raytheon Technologies' global government relations team. She most recently was a consultant at S-3 and a partner with the venture firm Hangar, and is a House Appropriations alum. … Lars Anderson will join Finsbury Glover Hering as a partner. He most recently was a founding partner at BlueDot Strategies. … Amy Pellegrino is now a director on Johnson & Johnson's federal affairs pharmaceutical team, overseeing part of the Janssen Pharmaceuticals portfolio. She most recently was health policy director for Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). … … The Taxpayers Protection Alliance announced several promotions/new additions: Patrick Hedger is now executive director, Johnny Kampis is now director of telecom policy, and Abigail Graham is now press secretary. … Alan Knapp is now director of public affairs for Edenred USA. He previously was founder and managing principal of Avison Strategies. … Lacy Adams is joining the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors as a policy analyst. She previously was a health policy analyst at the National Governors Association. 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