Playbook PM: Biden to GOP govs: Bring it on

From: POLITICO Playbook - Friday Sep 10,2021 05:32 pm

Sep 10, 2021

Presented by

FOR YOUR RADAR — Heather Caygle (@heatherscope): “Spending bill news: [House Majority Leader STENY] HOYER says he wants to move a CR in the House during [the] week of Sept 20. Dem leaders [are] currently eyeing [a] Dec. 10 end date, although hasn’t been decided. Hoyer tells members they can add some legislative days back in October to get work done. House comes back Sept 20-30, currently not set to return until Oct 19.”

“Hoyer asked about bringing bills up together. He says it’s *possible* reconciliation bill goes to rules by Sept 21 and House could act that week. But he concedes it’s unlikely Senate will act before end of the month. (And many senior Dems doubting House action that early)”

BRING IT ON — Following President JOE BIDEN’s Thursday-afternoon rollout of new vaccine mandates that would apply to tens of millions of Americans, Republican governors rushed to announce that they’d challenge the administration in court.

Texas Gov. GREG ABBOTT called Biden’s policy an “assault on private businesses.” Similar statements came from Missouri’s MIKE PARSON, Georgia’s BRIAN KEMP, Wyoming’s MARK GORDON and South Dakota’s KRISTI NOEM. South Carolina’s HENRY MCMASTER went so far as to promise that he’d fight Biden “to the gates of hell.”

Biden’s response this morning: Bring it on.

“I am so disappointed that particularly some Republican governors have been so cavalier with the health of these kids, so cavalier with the health of their communities,” Biden told reporters, lamenting that vaccines have been politicized.

Biden might have legal precedent on his side should a case come before the Supreme Court. WaPo’s Annabelle Timsit writes that the court has ruled in favor of vaccine mandates on a handful of occasions over the years.

But Biden is also betting that this fight plays well for him politically.

Case study: California, where Gov. GAVIN NEWSOM is enjoying a late-stage surge ahead of Tuesday’s recall election.

— In its final poll of the campaign, the L.A. Times has 60% of likely voters opposing the recall and just 39% supporting it. Opposition is up 10 points since July, and support is down 8 points in the same timeframe.

What changed?

— First, it’s an overwhelmingly Democratic state and Newsom has effectively nationalized the campaign by invoking DONALD TRUMP and tying him to Republican frontrunner LARRY ELDER.

— But it’s also worth noting that Newsom shifted how he talked about the pandemic.

“Much like Biden, Newsom started out this year stressing a positive message,” writes L.A. Times’ David Lauter . “But as the Delta variant spread, that optimism clashed with an increasingly grumpy mood among voters.”

In short: Newsom changed his tone to fit the public mood.

Can Biden do the same? Over the last 24 hours, we’ve seen the beginning of an attempt to do just that — witness his statement this morning. There is a new edginess to the way the president is speaking about the pandemic and vaccinations. The U.S. as a whole is a much different political animal than California, of course, and it remains to be seen how the politics play out. But the White House has clearly made a calculation, and for now, they’re sticking with it.

Happy Friday afternoon.

A message from Amazon:

On September 15, Amazon will be hosting its largest-ever training and recruitment event – Career Day 2021. This event is open to anyone and designed to support all job seekers, regardless of their level of experience, professional field, or background. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in more than 20,000 personalized career-coaching sessions with an Amazon recruiter. The company is also offering thousands of 1-on-1 career-coaching sessions for Amazon employees looking to grow their careers at the company. Learn more about Amazon Career Day 2021.

9/11 ANNIVERSARY

— AFTERNOON READ: Only two people were rescued from underneath the ruins of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11: Port Authority police officer WILL JIMENO and his sergeant JOHN MCLOUGHLIN. Remarkably, Jimeno suffered no broken bones after surviving for 13 hours under the rubble. But that was just the beginning of his story, Garrett Graff writes for POLITICO Magazine.

— Photographs from the day can’t capture the horror of what happened, but they offer an opportunity to remember some of the heroes who rushed to help others. WSJ’s Jennifer Levitz spoke with some of the people that day etched into history and where they are now.

— Four burn survivors from the Pentagon attack spoke to WaPo’s Donna St. George about how their lives changed that day. They “have each charted a distinct course, holding up against seizing pain, physical limitations and debilitating trauma. They have anguished. They have celebrated.”

— The NYT spoke to students from 12 different countries about what they’ve been taught about the Sept. 11 attacks. “If there is a consensus, it can be found in what students told us their education has been missing: depth. They want to know more.”

TALIBAN TAKEOVER

— Even as flights out of Kabul resume, red tape is still complicating the path out of the country for Afghans, write AP’s Ellen Knickmeyer, Julie Watson, Bernard Condon and Padmananda Rama. “With the United States and Taliban both insisting on travel documents that may no longer be possible to get in Afghanistan, the plight of those Afghans is testing President Joe Biden’s promises not to leave America’s allies behind.”

— Meanwhile, WaPo’s Nick Miroff reports that DHS “flagged 44 Afghan evacuees as potential national security risks during the past two weeks as the government screened tens of thousands for resettlement in the United States, according to DHS vetting records reviewed by The Washington Post. Of the more than 60,000 evacuees who have arrived on U.S. soil since Aug. 17, the lists show 13 Afghans remain in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody awaiting additional screening and review procedures, including interviews with FBI and counterterrorism teams. Another 15 evacuees who were considered security concerns have been turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), sent back to transit sites in Europe or the Middle East, or in some cases approved for release after additional review.”

CONGRESS

— NYT’s Jonathan Weisman and Peter Eavis have the deets on a new plan Senate Dems are kicking around that would use the reconciliation bill to impose “a new tax on corporations that buy back their stocks to boost share prices and tightening rules around business partnerships that have allowed rich companies to shield profits from taxation.”

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.

POLICY CORNER

— The debt default warnings are growing more dire. A new projection from the Bipartisan Policy Center says Treasury could run out of cash in mid-October/mid-November, WSJ’s Kate Davidson reports, backing up Secretary JANET YELLEN’s forecast earlier this week.

— The new White House Competition Council meets today to talk over potential government actions aimed at protecting consumers and lowering prices, per AP’s Josh Boak.

— The $46 million in aid that Washington set aside for emergency rental assistance didn’t stop a crushing wave of evictions across the nation. A congressional panel is examining why in a hearing today, but NYT’s Glenn Thrush and Conor Dougherty take a stab: “More than anything the failure illustrates the difficulty of trying to build a vast new social program from scratch in under a year, and the inability of policymakers to fully anticipate the challenges of navigating a rental market dominated by mom-and-pop operators outside the more regulated world of owner-occupied housing.”

— The Biden administration has erased $10 billion in student loan debt since taking office. It’s the largest relief offered to the federal student loan system in at least a decade, NYT’s Stacy Cowley writes.

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

— Texas’ abortion ban has stirred up a below-the-surface divide among Democrats over abortion and trans issues, Alice Miranda Ollstein, Josh Gerstein and Alex Thompson write. “Many of the activists and clinics fighting the Texas law and similar restrictions around the country are taking pains to avoid gender-specific words such as ‘woman’ and ‘women’ … The diverging language is complicating the left’s efforts to remain united on abortion rights and take on Republicans intent on banning the procedure, while drawing national attention to a fight that has long played out in private.”

— In New Orleans, a power plant was built with the promise of quickly restoring energy in the event of storms. But after Hurricane Ida came through, the power plant and residences in the area sat dark, NYT’s Sophie Kasakove and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs report. It’s begging the question both inside and outside of the state: Why is a region so vulnerable to climate change so reliant on fossil fuel technology?

Be a Policy Pro. POLITICO Pro has a free policy resource center filled with our best practices on building relationships with state and federal representatives, demonstrating ROI, and influencing policy through digital storytelling. Read our free guides today .

VALLEY TALK

— Apple secured something of a “victory royale” in the antitrust challenge brought by Epic Games over Apple’s ban of “Fortnite” from its app store in August 2020, Leah Nylen reports. U.S. District Judge YVONNE GONZALEZ ROGERS ruled that Apple’s “developer restrictions and 30 percent commission for digital goods and services don’t violate the antitrust law.” But it wasn’t all roses for Apple: Rogers also found the company “has been violating California state laws by writing contracts with developers that prohibit them from telling customers that cheaper options exist online outside the App Store.”

— Facebook and the Biden administration are headed for a collision over the company’s controversial cryptocurrency project, WaPo’s Elizabeth Dwoskin and Jeff Stein scoop.

TRUMP CARDS

— A White House official confirmed today that 18 Trump appointees who were serving on advisory boards for military service academies — KELLYANNE CONWAY, SEAN SPICER and H.R. MCMASTER included — had either resigned or been removed, WaPo’s Felicia Sonmez reports.

— Remember him? “IGOR FRUMAN, an associate of RUDY GIULIANI, pleaded guilty Friday in New York federal court to a charge stemming from a case alleging he funneled foreign money to US campaign coffers,” per CNN’s Erica Orden.

PLAYBOOKERS

MEDIA MOVE — James Arkin is now a congressional reporter at Law360. He previously was a Senate campaigns reporter at POLITICO.

WHITE HOUSE DEPARTURE LOUNGE — Devontae Freeland has left the White House where he was a special assistant on the racial justice and equity team. He is now pursuing a Fulbright in Paris studying international relations in the Sorbonne.

TRANSITION — Madeline Holzmann is now deputy press secretary for Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.). She most recently was legislative correspondent/press assistant for Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.).

A message from Amazon: