Playbook PM: Biden plunges into the reconciliation negotiations

From: POLITICO Playbook - Wednesday Sep 15,2021 05:37 pm

Sep 15, 2021

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HERE WE GO — Democrats wanted to have their massive reconciliation package written by today, but instead they’re still trying to get the caucus in line.

And now, President JOE BIDEN is jumping into the wrangling.

— Sen. KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-Ariz.) arrived at the White House shortly before 10 a.m. for a meeting with the president to discuss the $3.5 trillion bill. Sinema was seen leaving the grounds just before 11 a.m., per CNN’s Betsy Klein.

— Later today, Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) will drop by the Oval Office to chat about the bill, according to WaPo’s Seung Min Kim, who was first to report the confabs. During a lunch with Senate Dems on Tuesday, Manchin again called for the party to put a pause on the $3.5 trillion bill, an attendee told Burgess Everett. The proposition was met with crickets.

The two meetings are Biden’s first crack at breaking through to the two moderates who have so far resisted backing the bill due to its hefty price tag.

GRIM MILESTONE — This week, the U.S. death toll from Covid exceeded 663,000. That means the coronavirus has led to the deaths of roughly 1 in every 500 Americans, per WaPo’s Dan Keating and Akilah Johnson.

FBI FACES DAMNING TESTIMONY ON NASSAR — In emotional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, Olympic gymnastics star SIMONE BILES blamed “an entire system that enabled and perpetuated” LARRY NASSAR’s years of sexual abuse of hundreds of girls and women. She was joined by other survivors who shared their own stories.

— ALY RAISMAN said she “felt pressured by the FBI to consent to Nassar's plea deal.”

— MCKAYLA MARONEY accused the FBI of making “entirely false claims about what I said” in their report on Nassar. “They chose to lie about what I said and protect a serial child molester rather than protect not only me but countless others.” She called for the prosecution of the FBI agents who were involved in the botched investigation into Nassar.

— Afterwards, during his own testimony, FBI Director CHRISTOPHER WRAY apologized to the survivors, and said that the Indiana-based FBI agent who improperly handled the Nassar case has been fired. More on the hearing from CNN … NBC News … NYT

TALKER — Time released its list of the 100 most influential people of the year today. Among the writeups: Joe Biden, by Sen. Bernie Sanders … VP Kamala Harris, by Speaker Nancy Pelosi … Rep. Liz Cheney, by Cindy McCain … Sen. Joe Manchin, by Sen. Susan Collins … W.H. COS Ron Klain, by Hillary Clinton … The full list

Good Wednesday afternoon.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

MANDATORY MEETING — Biden is scheduled to meet with a score of top private-sector executives to discuss vaccine mandates today, per WSJ’s Sabrina Siddiqui.

BIDEN’S BLESSING — “POPE FRANCIS said Wednesday that Catholic bishops must minister to politicians who back abortion with ‘compassion and tenderness,’ not condemnation, and warned that they shouldn’t let politics enter into questions about receiving Communion,” according to the AP.

MRS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON — ANGELINA JOLIE continued her Washington tour this morning, meeting with White House press secretary JEN PSAKI, comms director KATE BEDINGFIELD and White House Gender Policy Council co-chair JENNIFER KLEIN to “discuss reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act,” CNN’s Kate Sullivan, Betsy Klein and Arlette Saenz report. Jolie also popped into the White House briefing room

CONGRESS

THE LATEST PAY-FOR PROPOSAL — Dems’ newest idea to pay for their multitrillion-dollar economic package? Hiking “existing federal levies on cigarettes and cigars while introducing new taxes on vaping,” WaPo’s Tony Romm writes. “Democrats say the changes could help them raise $100 billion in revenue over the next 10 years.”

A HAIL MARY ON FILIBUSTER REFORM — “Anti-filibuster advocates are preparing a last stand to gut the Senate’s supermajority requirement by spotlighting a sweeping Democratic election reform bill. Their chances aren’t looking good,” Burgess Everett and Marianne LeVine report. “Some in the party want to press pause on what could be a messy fight over the Senate’s rules until other must-pass matters advance, given their thin majorities in the House and Senate. That sentiment was borne out by interviews with more than a dozen Democrats on Tuesday.”

POWERFUL INTERVIEW — Rep. SUSAN WILD (D-Pa.) opens up to the 19th News’ Amanda Becker about the trauma that she has faced after her longtime partner died by suicide, the coronavirus pandemic and the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. “Each experience, traumatic in its own way, inspired Wild to focus on highlighting the importance of mental health care, whether by sponsoring legislation or sharing her own experiences.”

THE PANDEMIC

A DIFFERENT KIND OF SHOT SKEPTICISM — Ahead of an advisory committee meeting set to take place on Friday, the FDA is proceeding with caution when it comes to the booster shot created by Pfizer and BioNTech, Lauren Gardner reports . “The agency appeared skeptical about the companies’ assertion that an apparent drop in immune protection conferred by their Covid-19 vaccine is likely due to the passage of time, rather than the emergence of the hyper-contagious Delta variant.”

DEEP DIVE — Kaiser Health News is up with new reporting that found GOP legislators in more than half of states have rolled back public health powers in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. “A KHN review of hundreds of pieces of legislation found that, in all 50 states, legislators have proposed bills to curb such public health powers since the covid-19 pandemic began,” KHN’s Lauren Weber and Anna Maria Barry-Jester write. “While some governors vetoed bills that passed, at least 26 states pushed through laws that permanently weaken government authority to protect public health.”

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POLITICS ROUNDUP

LESSONS LEARNED — Democrats have at least one big takeaway from California Gov. GAVIN NEWSOM’s blowout victory in yesterday’s recall election, NYT’s Jonathan Martin writes: “The party’s pre-existing blue- and purple-state strategy of portraying Republicans as Trump-loving extremists can still prove effective with the former president out of office, at least when the strategy is executed with unrelenting discipline, an avalanche of money and an opponent who plays to type.”

POLICY CORNER

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? — Commercial cellphone data is increasingly being used in criminal law proceedings, forcing critics to ask “a host of potential constitutional questions” about how much access is being given to law enforcement officials, WSJ’s Byron Tau reports.

RUNNING ON EMPTY — ELON MUSK and Tesla’s “honeymoon period with the government” may be reaching its end, WaPo’s Faiz Siddiqui writes from San Francisco, as the White House and Congress turn their attention to other automakers to bolster electric-car production.

TRUMP CARDS

REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT — A handful of former Trump administration officials are “writing position papers, appearing on conservative television outlets and meeting privately with GOP lawmakers — all in an effort to turn the collapse of Afghanistan into another opportunity to push a hard-line immigration agenda,” AP’s Jill Colvin reports. The group includes STEPHEN MILLER, RUSS VOUGHT and KEN CUCCINELLI.

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AMERICA AND THE WORLD

TECH TREATY — The White House is joining forces with Britain and Australia on a working group to share advanced technologies in a thinly veiled challenge to China, a White House official and congressional staffer told Alexander Ward. The trio, which will be known as AUUKUS — which sounds a little auuk-ward, if you ask us — will focus on AI, cyber, underwater systems and long-range strike capabilities.

MISSILE TESTS IN KOREA — North and South Korea ratcheted up tensions again today, with each country testing new missile capabilities hours apart from each other, the BBC reports. “The North fired two ballistic missiles across its east coast, its first test with such missiles in six months and a fresh breach of UN resolutions. … Hours later, the South tested its first submarine-launched ballistic missile.”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

IDA’S TRUE TOLL — Hurricane Ida was every bit as powerful and dangerous as forecasted. But in New Orleans, the storm itself turned out not to be the most deadly part. Of 14 deaths the storm caused in the city, 10 were tied to the heat — and experts say there are probably more, NYT’s Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Katy Reckdahl write.

VALLEY TALK

MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS — WSJ’s Keach Hagey and Jeff Horwitz have a new look at the internal organs of Facebook. The report details a 2018 change in the algorithm that was meant to improve user interaction. But Facebook staffers recognized that it was making the platform worse. “Company researchers discovered that publishers and political parties were reorienting their posts toward outrage and sensationalism,” Hagey and Horwitz write. Those staffers’ warnings fell on deaf ears.

MEDIAWATCH

POTENTIALLY BIG FIRST AMENDMENT IMPLICATIONS — On Wednesday, a federal appeals court rejected Rep. DEVIN NUNES' defamation against RYAN LIZZA over a 2018 Esquire article he wrote about a farm owned by members of Nunes’ family, reports Josh Gerstein . But the court also ruled that when Lizza tweeted out a link to the story the following year, he essentially republished the story — a decision that could have wide-reaching consequences for the First Amendment in the social media age.

“‘It’s certainly a novel application of a couple of important libel doctrines, and a potentially troublesome one if the 8th Circuit’s ruling is allowed to stand,’ said CHIP STEWART , a professor at Texas Christian University. ‘It’s an odd kind of bootstrapping argument. Nunes claims the underlying article is false. He sues over it. Lizza tweets the exact same story after the lawsuit is filed. And what was originally not actual malice now all of a sudden is, at least plausibly enough for a lawsuit to advance to further costly litigation. All over a tweet that changed nothing about the original story.’”

FOR YOUR RADAR — “An ABC News staffer claimed the network retaliated against her after she filed a complaint early this year alleging that she was sexually assaulted by MICHAEL CORN, who was then her boss as the top producer of ‘Good Morning America,’” WSJ’s Joe Flint reports. “KIRSTYN CRAWFORD, a producer on the show, filed suit last month against Mr. Corn and the network. In an amended version of the suit filed Wednesday, she alleged that after she formally registered her complaint at ABC the network didn’t renew her three-year contract, offering instead a six-month extension with no raise.”

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