Sinema gets the ‘SNL’ treatment

From: POLITICO Playbook - Sunday Oct 03,2021 03:15 pm

Oct 03, 2021

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By Tara Palmeri

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DRIVING THE DAY

It’s official, the reconciliation/BIF fight has broken through to pop culture and “Dems in disarray” is more than a T-shirt worn by certain Republican operatives. In last night’s season premiere, “Saturday Night Live” solidified the narrative of this mind-boggling negotiation as only SNL can.

Rookie cast member JAMES AUSTIN JOHNSON debuted as SNL’s new JOE BIDEN, with what might be the best parody of the president yet. (He also has a fantastic DONALD TRUMP , yet to be seen on air.) He was flanked on the one side by progressives (portrayed: ILHAN OMAR and ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ) and on the other side by Manchinema, with a scene-stealing CECILY STRONG as Sen. KYRSTEN SINEMA.

— After everybody else is on board with investing in roads, Sinema: “I want no roads.” Biden: “Why?” Sinema: “Chaos.” [In reality, roads are one of the few things Sinema has made clear she wants.]

— After Sinema is asked what she actually likes: “Yellow Starbursts, the film ‘The Polar Express’ and when someone eats fish on an airplane. … As a wine-drinking, bisexual triathlete, I know what the average American wants.”

Much as TINA FEY’s SARAH PALIN nested a particularly hilarious/brutal caricature of the Alaska governor in the public imagination, it’s not a leap to think that this is how many Americans will see not only Sinema, but the entire intraparty fight that’s dominated Washington this week. On that topic …

— Biden sounded relatively sanguine Saturday about his teetering agenda, telling reporters, “Everybody’s frustrated, it’s part of being in government, being frustrated.” Per ABC, he also said he’d “work like hell” — though he didn’t set a deadline — and redouble his efforts to educate the public about what’s in the bills.

— But what exactly is in the bills? And which pieces of Biden’s economic plan is the White House willing to cut? On perhaps the most crucial policy question of the year, the administration is trying to figure out whether to ax certain planks entirely, or just shrink initiatives across the board, WaPo’s Jeff Stein reports.

Either way, the political blowback could be fierce. “The choices are stark: Should tackling rising rates of homelessness be dropped in favor of confronting climate change? Should Democrats prioritize seniors over the poor? Is it more important to reduce the cost of child care or the cost of a school lunch?” Companion reading: Is Build Back Better plan really the next New Deal or Great Society? WaPo’s Andrew Van Dam gets in the weeds, with some interesting findings/graphs.

— Meanwhile, Sinema released a blistering statement Saturday, slamming the delayed BIF vote as “inexcusable” and “deeply disappointing,” and saying it will reduce trust within the party, reports Marianne LeVine.

— Sinema’s remarks were, shall we say, poorly received on Twitter. “Kind of takes some brass to blow out of DC for fundraisers back home in the middle of this and lecture everyone by press release on ‘trust,’” wrote DAVID AXELROD.

— The Arizona Democrat was also subjected to the full Maureen Dowd treatment in today’s NYT. “Just like the original Sphinx, the Phoenix Sphinx is blocking the way until those who would move ahead solve her riddle: What does Kyrsten Sinema want? And why doesn’t she stick around to explain it?,” writes Dowd. “Somehow, we have gotten ourselves in a perverse situation where Sinema and JOE MANCHIN rule the world, and it’s confounding that these two people have this much sway. As HEMINGWAY wondered in ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro,’ what are those leopards doing at this altitude?”

Good Sunday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri.

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THREE TOP SUNDAY READS …

— Who is JOHN EASTMAN? NYT’s Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman go deep on the conservative lawyer who authored the memo advising then-President DONALD TRUMP on how he could stay in power after losing the 2020 election. Eastman first came to Trump’s attention — how else? — when he appeared on Fox News. The once-respected former Supreme Court clerk and law school dean wrote his now-infamous memo — which some critics have likened to “a blueprint for a coup” — over Christmas vacation. He is still pushing ahead, writing a book and declining to comment on whether he’s advising state legislatures on voting. Also: WaPo’s Bob Costa, co-author of the new book “Peril,” weighs in on Eastman this morning.

— SCOTUS look-ahead: Tomorrow is the first Monday in October, which means the start of a new Supreme Court term. WaPo’s Robert Barnes surveys the landscape and concludes that it’s primed to be “extraordinarily controversial.” Not only has political furor around the court reached a fever peak — along with pushback from the justices — but its docket includes cases that are likely to touch on issues including religious rights, guns and affirmative action. None will be more hot-button than abortion rights, as the court takes up a challenge to Mississippi’s abortion restrictions — and could potentially overturn Roe v. Wade.

— Asian Americans are coalescing into a voting bloc. That’s the top-line takeaway from a major new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll out this morning. Rishika Dugyala and Beatrice Jin dig into what’s behind that: a heightened sense of solidarity amid the rise of anti-Asian hate and violence during the pandemic. “[A]s the fastest-growing demographic, [AAPIs have] become consequential in swing states like Georgia and Arizona,” write Dugyala and Jin. “This creates new opportunities for both parties, but mostly for Democrats, given the intense feelings about Trump’s comments.”

A graphic of poll results is pictured.

POLITICO

SUNDAY BEST:

— Sen. DICK DURBIN (D-Ill.) on the timeline, on CNN’s “State of the Union”: “Oct. 31 is our new target date.”

— CEDRIC RICHMOND on the timeline, on “Fox News Sunday”: “We don’t have a time frame on it.”

— Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-Wash.) on the prospect of a $1.5 trillion reconciliation bill, on “State of the Union”: “Well, that’s not going to happen. … Because that’s too small to get our priorities in. So it’s going to be somewhere between $1.5 and $3.5, and I think the White House is working on that right now, because remember, what we want to deliver is child care, paid leave, climate change, housing.”

— Jayapal on whether she could vote for a bill with the Hyde amendment, as Manchin has insisted: “No. … But I think the important thing here is this is the beginning of a negotiation.”

— Richmond on the nature of negotiating, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “People will be disappointed. People will not get everything they want — that is the art of legislating — but the goal here is to get both bills, and we’re going to fight until we get both bills, and that’s the statement from the president.”

— Sen. JOHN BARRASSO (R-Wyo.) on what happened on the Hill on Friday, on “Fox News Sunday”: “What we’re seeing is like watching an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone.’”

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BIDEN’S SUNDAY — The president has nothing on his public schedule.

VP KAMALA HARRIS’ SUNDAY — The VP has nothing on her public schedule.

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PLAYBOOK READS

Protesters are pictured marching with signs near the Capitol. | Getty Images

PHOTO OF THE DAY: Women’s March protesters demonstrate Saturday near the Capitol, part of marches nationwide in opposition to Texas’ new near-total abortion ban. | Joshua Roberts/Getty Images

THE WHITE HOUSE

IT’S OFFICIAL — Biden on Saturday signed into law a surface transportation funding extension, staving off thousands of furloughs for another month. More from WTOP

CONGRESS

QUOTE OF THE DAY — WaPo’s Paul Kane has a breakdown of the infrastructure/reconciliation stakes for Speaker NANCY PELOSI, who’s staring down either a career-topper or a final letdown. But this passage caught our eye the most: “‘You could argue she’s been the strongest speaker in history,’ NEWT GINGRICH (R-Ga.), who served as speaker from 1995 through 1998, said during a Thursday visit to the Capitol. ‘She has shown more capacity to organize and muscle, with really narrow margins.’”

POLITICS ROUNDUP

WOMEN’S MARCH WEEKEND — Demonstrators marched in favor of abortion rights at hundreds of Women’s March rallies throughout the country Saturday. Outside the Supreme Court, thousands “filled the streets … shouting ‘My body, my choice,’” reports the AP.

HEADS OF STATE — “When I ran for president, it messed with my head,” ANDREW YANG writes for POLITICO Magazine in a piece that mixes his firsthand experiences of life as a presidential (and NYC mayoral) candidate with actual brain science. His takeaway — or one of them, at least — is this: “We should worry about what the modern campaign process is doing to all of our leaders.”

TRUMP CARDS

THE DEEP STATE ABIDES — STEVE BANNON is back, and he’s got his eye on the prize. The Trump adviser spoke last week at the Capitol Hill Club to former Trump appointees organized by the Association of Republican Presidential Appointees, per NBC’s Jonathan Allen. The goal is to lay the groundwork to have teams of MAGAites “ready to jump into federal agencies when the next Republican president takes office” — an attempt to institutionalize Trumpism and hit the ground running if and when it returns to the White House.

VALLEY TALK

TV TONIGHT — Tonight’s episode of “60 Minutes” will reveal the identity of and interview a major Facebook whistleblower. Per CBS , she says she’s given the SEC tens of thousands of pages that “prove Facebook is lying to the public and investors about the effectiveness of its campaigns to eradicate hate, violence and misinformation from its platforms.” The episode has gotten tons of advance buzz — including a lengthy prebuttal from Facebook’s NICK CLEGG.

— NYT’s Mike Isaac reports that she’ll accuse Facebook of contributing to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection by “relaxing its security safeguards for the 2020 election too soon after Election Day.” (She’s apparently the same person who laid the groundwork for the WSJ’s explosive “Facebook Files” series.)

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AMERICA AND THE WORLD

IMMIGRATION FILES — In Matamoros, Mexico, WaPo’s Kevin Sieff dives into the universe of “the smugglers at the heart of one of the world’s largest human migrations — including the current surge of children and families.” It turns out they’re often only teenagers themselves. That’s in part due to a loophole in U.S. enforcement: DOJ won’t prosecute minor Mexican smugglers, leaving them free to re-offend even hours after they’re caught at the border. Then, when they turn 18, a stark life choice awaits.

— Farther down the route, tens of thousands of mostly Haitian migrants are attempting the dangerous trek from Colombia to Panama, spurred by the pandemic’s economic crisis. From Necoclí, Colombia, NYT’s Julie Turkewitz, Natalie Kitroeff and Sofía Villamil chronicle a criminal-controlled jungle passage so perilous that few used to attempt it. And they emerge with this sobering warning for the U.S.: The Haitian migrant crisis in Del Rio, Texas, last month was “just the leading edge,” and the deportations haven’t deterred people desperate enough to come.

IRAN LATEST — Iran said the U.S. tried to make contact with them last month on restarting nuclear talks, but Iran refused without getting $10 billion in funds unfrozen first, Reuters reports.

THE PANDEMIC

GET A SHOT TO TAKE A SHOT — So far, much of the pandemic-fueled culture war has centered on mask-wearing requirements in classrooms. But that battlefield is shifting as more school districts are “beginning to require teen athletes, band members and even after-school program participants to get vaccinated,” reports Juan Perez Jr.

THANKS FOR SHARING — Vaccine companies insist they’re making enough doses for everybody. Rich countries insist they’re donating enough doses to save the rest of the world. And yet … in reality, poor countries still have nowhere near the amount of vaccine they need. WSJ’s Gabriele Steinhauser and Denise Roland investigate the disconnect.

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

DEEP IN THE HEART — Texas is closing off another abortion avenue in the wake of its near-total ban on the procedure, WSJ’s Elizabeth Findell reports in Austin. Advocates for abortion access have tried to ramp up “abortion drugs prescribed remotely and delivered by mail,” but a new law is expected to make that a felony starting in December.

THE NEW GOP — Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS’ pick for the state’s next surgeon general, JOSEPH LADAPO, has questioned Covid-19 vaccines’ safety and promoted the debunked hydroxychloroquine as a treatment tool, reports Arek Sarkissian in Tallahassee. The pick has already provoked backlash.

MEDIAWATCH

YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN — The last time JON STEWART regularly hosted a TV show was August 2015. Quite a bit has changed since then. But has Stewart? As the former “Daily Show” host returns to the airwaves (or, more precisely, to streaming) in a new show for Apple TV+, “much of liberal America still embraces Stewart as its conscience, but it’s not clear whether he fully embraces the extent to which that conscience has evolved in his absence,” writes Derek Robertson for POLITICO Magazine.

BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we’ve got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don’t miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now.

PLAYBOOKERS

Pete Buttigieg and Lis Smith have some “Veep”-level dialogue in the new “Mayor Pete” documentary, writes Insider’s Adam Wren. One sample: their debate over whether to use the word “shocked” or “astonished” in his Iowa victory speech.

Barbara Bush welcomed a new baby.

Elizabeth Warren recommended using a selfie with her on dating apps.

Kyrsten Sinema joined the Hall of Fame for poorly aged tweets, with this gem from 2015 praising former Theranos executive Elizabeth Holmes.

OUT AND ABOUT — The Australian Embassy’s inaugural Kangaroo Cup Tennis Tournament took place Saturday at the ambassador’s residence. Players wore tennis whites and played doubles on the only grass court in D.C. Proceeds go toward the Washington Tennis & Education Foundation. The finals will take place today, featuring Natasha Dabrowski and Stephen Boyd vs. Sahil Chaudhary and John Borden. Also SPOTTED: Ambassador Arthur Sinodinos and Elizabeth Sinodinos, players Jim Acosta, Jon Decker, Bob Goodlatte, Meridith McGraw, Rico Doss, Sunmin Kim, Jim Wise and Ben Barnett, and guests Garrett Haake and Allison Harris, Meredith Hoing, Michael Falcone, Christina Sevilla and Amanda Golden.

— SPOTTED at ColorComm’s 10th anniversary celebration: MSNBC’s Rashida Jones, Symone Sanders, Valerie Jarrett, Sunny Hostin, Whoopi Goldberg, April Ryan, Lauren Wesley Wilson, Alencia Johnson, Stephanie Young, Tarrah Cooper Wright and Maude Okrah.

— SPOTTED at DOJ attorney Josh Rothstein’s 40th birthday party Saturday night at a rented-out Etto with 60 balloons, pizza, truffles, cookies with Josh’s name on it and a birthday cake carrying the Dave Matthews quote “Celebrate we will, because life is short but sweet for certain”: Jeh Johnson, Michael Falcone, Josh Hsu, Erin McPike, Sarah Istel, Kelley Hudak, Sarah Gilmore, Sasa Nikolic, Matt Aguire, Caitlin Carroll, Ian Tuttle, Daniel Lippman, Sophia Narrett, Maggie Snipes, Gena Wolfson and Matt Beynon.

IN MEMORIAM — “Edward Keating, Times Photographer at Ground Zero, Dies at 65,” by NYT’s Alex Traub: “Edward Keating, who for more than a month did whatever it took, even disguising himself as a worker, to photograph the wreckage at ground zero after Sept. 11, 2001, contributing to a body of work that brought The New York Times a Pulitzer Prize for photography for its 9/11 coverage, died on Sunday … His wife, Carrie Keating, said the cause was cancer, which Mr. Keating had attributed to the days and nights he spent inhaling toxic dust amid the ruins of the World Trade Center.”

TRANSITION — Chelsea Marlow Bishop is joining iostudio as director of accounts for DOD comms and marketing recruitment contracts. She previously was director of corporate affairs at Saab Defense and Aerospace, and is a Pentagon and Mark Begich alum.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) … Rev. Al Sharpton … White House’s Cristóbal Alex … The Daily Beast’s Asawin “Swin” Suebsaeng … AP’s Darlene Superville and Verena Dobnik … CNN’s Maegan Vazquez … POLITICO’s Ursula Perano … Targeted Victory’s Logan Dobson ... Backstory Strategies’ J. Toscano … Jonathan Lamy of JLLCommunications … Pam Gilbert … Dewey Square Group’s Katie Whelan … Sally Painter of Blue Star Strategies … Joshua Chaffee … Insider’s Kimberly Leonard … Beth Jones … Tim Gowa of the State Department … former Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) … former Reps. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.), Dave Obey (D-Wis.), Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) and Charlie Melançon (D-La.) … Chelsea Radler … Eric Reller ... Mark Hamrick ... Eric Wolff … Emma Kinnucan … Ben Adler ... Michael Medved … former Alabama Gov. Bob Riley … Bradley Tusk of Tusk Holdings … Sarah Feinberg

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