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Presented by Amazon: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | | |  | | By Ryan Lizza, Rachael Bade, Garrett Ross and Eli Okun | Presented by |  | | | BREAKING — President JOE BIDEN is announcing new, immediate sanctions on top Myanmar leaders after the coup. More from Bloomberg PLUS … WSJ: “President Biden is expected Wednesday to announce the creation of a Pentagon review of the national security aspects of the administration’s China strategy as part of a broader administration effort to determine its approach to countering Beijing, administration officials said.” WHITE HOUSE GOES SMALL ON SCHOOL REOPENINGS — Biden has repeatedly talked about “big” and “bold” Covid relief proposals. That seemed to extend to one of the most important issues parents and schoolchildren are facing during the pandemic: reopening schools. In December, when Democrats were wooing voters in Georgia looking for relief from kids stuck at home taking classes via Zoom, Biden made an ambitious promise. He said “a majority of our schools” would be open in his first 100 days as president. On Tuesday, in what’s becoming something of a habit, the White House added an asterisk to that bold Biden promise. The 100-day goal has been downgraded to 50% of schools having “some teaching” in person “at least one day a week.” It is a goal so modest and lacking in ambition as to be almost meaningless. Republicans on the Hill quickly seized on the issue, with the offices of both Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL and House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY flagging the White House’s dramatic reversal of Biden’s promise. Press secretary JEN PSAKI was asked today how the new goal squares with the Biden campaign pledge and she offered up this non-answer: “Certainly, we are not planning to celebrate at 100 days if we reach that goal. That is our own effort to set our own markings, set a bold and ambitious agenda for how we’re going to measure ourselves and progress. But we certainly hope to build from that, even at 100 days. And from there, our objective, the president’s objective, is for all schools to reopen, to stay open, to be open five days a week, for kids to be learning. That’s what our focus is on. This is simply a goal for 100 days.” One other note from the briefing: Psaki said the Biden budget will be delayed. MEANWHILE, AT THE SENATE TRIAL … FROM ‘COMMANDER IN CHIEF’ TO ‘INCITER IN CHIEF’: House impeachment managers have begun their 16-hour presentation prosecuting Trump for inciting an insurrection, which will continue tomorrow. Lead manager Rep. JAMIE RASKIN (D-Md.) opened by tearing apart the DONALD TRUMP attorneys’ argument that the former president was not responsible for the violence of Jan. 6 and was an innocent bystander. Raskin walked senators through Trump’s tweets inviting his followers to Washington on the day the electoral votes were counted as well as his words at the protest that morning telling the crowd to “fight like hell” to save their country from a stolen election. The team also took the chamber through Trump’s move to double down on “The Big Lie” in the middle of the violence, rather than calling for calm. “What the f---, man? Is this America?” Raskin also told the story of a Capitol police officer who faced racist insults while protecting the Capitol and later broke down crying with a fellow officer and asking “is this America?” BuzzFeed originally reported this officer’s story. But there is more to come. Raskin warned viewers at home that the videos they will play today are not suitable for children. | | A message from Amazon: In 2018, Amazon announced a starting wage of at least $15 an hour for all U.S. employees. Since then, other major companies have followed suit.
Now, it's time for Congress to raise the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since 2009. Increasing wages will give millions of workers the raise they deserve, pump money into local businesses and boost our economic recovery.
It’s time to raise the wage and revitalize the national economy. | | | MORE ON THOSE VIDEOS, via Kyle Cheney and Andrew Desiderio: “The footage, which may be drawn from Capitol security cameras and other sources, will shed light on the rioters’ ‘extreme violence’ from a new vantage point, aides to the House impeachment team said. … “According to aides, the brand new footage will also underscore the risk that the violence could have spiraled further ‘but for the brave action of the officers’ securing the building even when they were outnumbered by a pro-Trump mob.” — “Trump impeachment defense team scrambling to make new videos to bolster case,” CNN: “The move to use more videotape -- and lean away from in-person arguments -- amounts to a tacit acknowledgment that the lawyers Trump has enlisted to defend him during his second impeachment trial are failing to inspire confidence. Among the tape Trump’s team is now scrambling to assemble are clips of Democrats who also lost elections but declined to immediately concede.” MEANWHILE — “Proud Boy charged in insurrection blasts Trump's ‘deception’ in new court filing,” by Kyle Cheney … The motion ON TOP OF GETTING IMPEACHED … “Georgia Prosecutors Open Criminal Investigation of Trump Call,” NYT: “Prosecutors in Fulton County have initiated a criminal investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to overturn Georgia’s election results … The inquiry makes Georgia the second state after New York where Mr. Trump faces a criminal investigation. … “The Fulton County investigation comes on the heels of a decision Monday by [Secretary of State Brad] Raffensperger’s office to open an administrative inquiry. … Former prosecutors said Mr. Trump’s calls might run afoul of at least three state laws.” CNN: “Harris to start ‘regular’ lunches with Blinken in bid to beef up foreign policy chops”: “Vice President Kamala Harris will have her first private lunch with Secretary of State Antony Blinken Wednesday … [S]he’s looking to solidify her foreign policy and national security accolades over time, leaning on her four years of experience as a member of the Senate intelligence committee.” NEWS YOU CAN USE — “CDC: Double-masking helps reduce exposure to Covid-19,” by Brianna Ehley: “Researchers determined double-masking or wearing tightly fitted medical masks can reduce exposure to infectious aerosols by 95 percent — demonstrating that the better the masks fit, the better protection they provide. Medical procedure masks don’t always provide robust protection alone because air can leak around their edges.” The study JEFF ZIENTS announced the federal government and state of Texas will create new mass vaccination sites in Dallas, Houston and Arlington the week of Feb. 22, able to administer more than 10,000 shots a day in total. There will be two new community vaccination centers in New York. And the administration announced members of its Covid-19 Health Equity Task Force. | | | | THE INDISPENSABLE GUIDE TO CONGRESS: Looking for the latest on the Schumer/McConnell dynamic or the increasing tensions in the House? What are the latest whispers coming out of the Speaker's Lobby? Just leave it to Beavers... New author Olivia Beavers delivers the scoop in Huddle, the morning Capitol Hill must-read with assists from POLITICO's deeply sourced Congress team. Subscribe to Huddle today. | | | | | 2022 WATCH — “Former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel announces Senate bid,” Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Mandel’s entry is the first for what is expected to be a high-profile contest on both the Republican and Democratic side. Mandel previously ran for Senate twice, losing to Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in 2012 and dropping out before the primary to challenge Brown again in 2018. “In a statement posted to his website, Mandel pitched himself as wanting to go to Washington as an ally of Republican former President Donald Trump. That included posting a list of his pro-Trump credentials, such as being the first statewide officeholder to back Trump in 2016 – though only after supporting Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.” VALLEY TALK — “Facebook to pilot new ways to reduce political content,” by Cristiano Lima: “The social networking giant announced in a blog post that as a ‘first step’ it will experiment with ways to limit the reach of political content that appears on Facebook news feeds in Canada, Brazil and Indonesia, with the U.S. soon to follow.” — “Twitter CFO says Trump’s ban is permanent, even if he runs for office again,” CNN THE NEXT FRONTIER — “The big business of online politics: Buying your email address,” by Elena Schneider: “Companies and groups like Avalanche are popping up to fill the gaping hole left by Facebook and Google’s prolonged political ad bans, which bar campaigns and political groups from running ads on their platforms to draw in small-dollar donors. By cutting off that pipeline to voters and potential supporters, the tech giants have set off a race to find new ways to reach those contributors, according to interviews with more than a dozen digital strategists. “And one old-school fundraising tactic is regaining fresh traction: buying, renting and swapping email lists, tactics that have been in use for a decade but have become newly important — and, some expect, lucrative — in the world of online politicking.” KNOWING THE INSURRECTIONISTS — “A majority of the people arrested for Capitol riot had a history of financial trouble,” WaPo: “Nearly 60 percent of the people facing charges related to the Capitol riot showed signs of prior money troubles, including bankruptcies, notices of eviction or foreclosure, bad debts, or unpaid taxes over the past two decades, according to a Washington Post analysis of public records for 125 defendants with sufficient information to detail their financial histories. “The group’s bankruptcy rate — 18 percent — was nearly twice as high as that of the American public, The Post found. … The financial problems are revealing because they offer potential clues for understanding why so many Trump supporters — many with professional careers and few with violent criminal histories — were willing to participate in an attack egged on by the president’s rhetoric painting him and his supporters as undeserving victims.” UNRAVELING JAN. 6 — “#StopTheSteal: Timeline of Social Media and Extremist Activities Leading to 1/6 Insurrection,” Atlantic Council/Just Security: “What bound these groups together across a spectrum of radicalization? Disinformation about the results of the 2020 election and extreme support of Trump, often amplified by Trump himself, which intensified the overall movement’s actions toward violence. “Though the movement was unsuccessful in its ultimate goal of maintaining Trump’s power by explicitly anti-democratic means, it was successful in expanding the reach of election-related misinformation as well as hardening many Americans already on the path to radicalization or dangerous adherence to outright conspiracy theories. The latter is a long-term challenge of pervasive domestic extremism in the United States.” | | A message from Amazon: At Amazon, we pay at least $15 an hour—more than double the current federal minimum wage. We believe that's the minimum anyone in the U.S. should earn for an hour of labor.
That’s why we’re calling on Congress to pass the Raise the Wage Act. | | | WEDNESDAY WATCH — In the heart of Biden’s first 100 days, Democrats are again in negotiations over a massive stimulus bill with McConnell. Meanwhile, Biden is signing a whole pile of executive orders with a progressive tilt. So how does all of this affect Biden’s utopian dream for unity? It means the balancing act between what Biden says and does could get very tricky. | 
| EIGHT IN TEN! — “Large bipartisan majority of Americans favor more COVID economic relief,” CBS: “Four in 10 Americans think the economic relief package being discussed in Congress right now is about the right size, but just as many fear the amount of funds being discussed is too small.” THE EXODUS — “‘There’s Nothing Left’: Why Thousands of Republicans Are Leaving the Party,” NYT: “An analysis of January voting records by The New York Times found that nearly 140,000 Republicans had quit the party in 25 states that had readily available data (19 states do not have registration by party). Voting experts said the data indicated a stronger-than-usual flight from a political party after a presidential election, as well as the potential start of a damaging period for G.O.P. registrations as voters recoil from the Capitol violence and its fallout. … “The biggest spikes in Republicans leaving the party came in the days after Jan. 6, especially in California, where there were 1,020 Republican changes on Jan. 5 — and then 3,243 on Jan. 7. In Arizona, there were 233 Republican changes in the first five days of January, and 3,317 in the next week. Most of the Republicans in these states and others switched to unaffiliated status.” — @RichardHaass: “I changed my registration to ‘no party affiliation’ after 40 years. I worked for Reagan & Bush 41 & 43. But today’s Rep Party no longer embraces the policies & principles that led me to join it. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, I didn’t leave the Republican Party; the Party left me.” IMMIGRATION FILES — “‘They need to move quickly’: A Texas DACA case could force Congress to move on immigration,” by Sabrina Rodríguez: “Advocates, attorneys and lawmakers expect a ruling within days — or weeks — on a court case that will determine the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program … Many anticipate that DACA will be ruled unlawful, given the Trump administration’s handling of the case and the judge’s track record on immigration. … “And that could pressure Congress to offer permanent legal status for Dreamers — and potentially other undocumented immigrants. … If [U.S. District Judge Andrew] Hanen rules against DACA, however, it's unlikely he will shut down the program immediately — or even imminently.” — “Undoing Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Policies Will Mean Looking at the Fine Print,” NYT: “Hundreds of little-noticed but consequential revisions to the U.S. immigration system will remain in place unless President Biden’s team specifically looks for — and roots out — the changes.” — WARNING SIGN FOR BIDEN: Morning Consult has polled 28 of Biden’s executive actions since taking office. And while it has found broad support for most of his moves, five of the seven least popular are immigration-related. The only executive action of the 28 that’s actually underwater with the public is lifting the refugee cap by 110,000. More details | | | | TRACK THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: President Biden's cabinet is getting confirmed, bringing change to agencies and departments across the Executive Branch. From the West Wing to Foggy Bottom, track the first 100 days of the Biden administration with Transition Playbook, our scoop-filled newsletter that chronicles the policies, people, and emerging power centers of the new administration. Subscribe today. | | | | | ON THE WORLD STAGE — “Biden’s in no rush to engage China. Guess who’s trying to take advantage,” by Nahal Toosi and Gavin Bade: “The worry, some former officials say, is that Biden is just getting organized while Xi is seizing the moment: ramming through a massive investment deal with the European Union, for instance, that aims to cement ties with the 27-country bloc. “And the longer Biden takes to make any big moves related to China, the more he risks letting Beijing dictate the course of events abroad — while leaving political openings for his Republican critics to exploit back home. … Biden’s approach has plenty of defenders, too, especially at this early stage.” FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: The Sedition Caucus PAC is launching new ads against House Republicans for standing by Trump on impeachment — just the latest evidence that Democrats believe they can use the vote to their political advantage. The latest TV ad against Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) … And Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) MEDIAWATCH — Jia Lynn Yang will move up to become the next national editor at the NYT. Announcement FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — César Blanco is joining Mosaic Campaigns as president. He most recently was a congressional relations officer for the VA and is a Ciro Rodriguez, Sheila Jackson Lee, Pete Gallego, Silvestre Reyes and DNC alum. STAFFING UP — David Turk will be deputy secretary of Energy. He is currently deputy executive director of the International Energy Agency. TRANSITIONS — Lorenzo Rubalcava is now health policy adviser for Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.). He previously was health policy adviser for Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). … Patrick Delaney will be director of external affairs for the Senate Agriculture Dems. He most recently worked for the House Agriculture Dems. … … Andrea Delisi is now of counsel at Morrison & Foerster. She previously was assistant chief counsel at the Treasury Department’s foreign assets control office. … Susan Ralston is now chief revenue officer at FARE. She most recently has had her own consulting firm, and is a Bush White House alum. | | A message from Amazon: Amazon saw an immediate positive impact when we increased our starting wage to $15 an hour in 2018. Applications doubled. And employees had an easier time providing for their families, which boosted morale and retention. The investments we made in our hourly employees were quickly transferred to local businesses and economies, showing the benefits far transcend the workplace.
We’re ready to see this done on a larger scale. The minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 since 2009. Passing the Raise the Wage Act would increase incomes for millions of employees and revitalize the national economy.
We applaud the policymakers leading this critical effort.
As we recover from the devastating economic impact of the pandemic, America’s workers, small businesses, and the country’s broader economic recovery simply can’t wait. | | | | | | | 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 | | | | |  |
