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Presented by Amazon: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross | | | THE NEW NORMAL — Capitol Police extracted a man from a suspicious vehicle outside the Supreme Court this morning after he refused to speak to crisis negotiators and they used a flash-bang to force him out of the SUV. Authorities identified him as 55-year-old DALE PAUL MELVIN of Kimball, Mich. No weapons found, no motive yet. More from NBC RECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES? — There was some confusion last week over whether Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) was setting $1.5 trillion as his hard and fast top line for the reconciliation bill, or if he’d be willing to compromise on a higher amount. This morning, he sounded flexible: Asked by CNN’s Manu Raju if he’s open to the $1.9 – $2.2 trillion range that President JOE BIDEN has floated, Manchin said, “I’m not ruling anything out.” — Who else is signaling an openness to compromise? Rep. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-Wash.). The leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus suggested the party could unite behind a $2.5 trillion package, per a new detail in a WaPo story up this morning about her meeting with Biden. As the Post notes, that “represents a striking narrowing of differences from just last week.” But even once both sides agree on the top-line number, there are still major differences to iron out. — Exhibit A: In a leadership meeting with her committee chairs today, Speaker NANCY PELOSI told her members to brace for cuts to the reconciliation bill to the $2 trillion range and aim “to do fewer things better,” per our own Sarah Ferris. “I don’t see why I should go get a grand to get my teeth fixed,” Pelosi said as Dems continue to haggle over which health programs get prioritized: the Affordable Care Act, or Sen. BERNIE SANDERS’ (I-Vt.) plan to expand Medicare to include dental coverage. — Exhibit B: For weeks, Manchin has talked up means-testing the benefits in the reconciliation bill to target the most vulnerable Americans. Talking to HuffPost’s Arthur Delaney this morning, the senator declined to get into specifics about targeting the child tax credit, but noted “90 million taxpayers file taxes of $50,000 or less,” and that “the mean household income for America is $68,000. If you’re gonna target, target to people that need it the most, the working.” Here’s the problem: Most Democrats will remind you in private that Manchin represents a state with a very low median income — it is routinely at or near the bottom of state-by-state rankings of the measure — and what works for Manchin’s constituents will not work for a lot of other Democrats who represent areas with higher incomes and more expensive costs of living. (Also, many Dems will point out, for example, that the enhanced CTC tax credit is already means-tested, and will push back strongly on limiting it further.) WHO’S AT DEFAULT? — After treading lightly for a while, the White House is jumping full force into the debt-ceiling debacle, hoping to put Senate Republicans in a bind, Chris Cadelago reports. Even as they acknowledge that Dems could be forced to handle this through reconciliation, they’re looking to shift public blame to Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL in a standoff that the administration expects to come down to the last minute. — “It’s not too late, but it’s getting dangerously close,” Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER said this morning. — Meanwhile, NYT’s Jonathan Weisman ponders what McConnell wants out of this situation, given that he hasn’t leveraged the crisis to try to extract specific wins, and basically lands on one answer: chaos for Democrats. Another possible factor, of course, is McConnell’s inability to control a few senators, like TED CRUZ (R-Texas) and JOSH HAWLEY (R-Mo.), who could derail things even if McConnell acquiesced and agreed to an up-or-down vote on raising the debt ceiling. “Senator ROY BLUNT, Republican of Missouri, said ‘40 or 45’ Republicans would be willing to agree to allow a debt ceiling increase to come [to] a vote, as long as they did not have to cast a public ballot,” Weisman writes. “The problem, he said, was the other five.” Good Tuesday afternoon. | | A message from Amazon: The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) ranked Amazon as the No. 1 U.S. company investing in America. For the second year in a row, Amazon placed first on PPI’s Investment Heroes list. PPI estimates that Amazon invested $34 billion in American infrastructure in 2020 . Every Amazon job comes with a starting wage of $15/hr and comprehensive benefits for regular, full-time employees. Learn more. | | | VALLEY TALK FACE THE MUSIC — Facebook whistleblower FRANCES HAUGEN was on the Hill today, calling out the social media giant for a variety of practices. Notable moments: — Haugen backed Section 230 reforms to make tech platforms legally liable for decisions they make about algorithms. — Haugen called out Facebook’s ownership structure, since founder MARK ZUCKERBERG owns a majority of voting shares. “There is nobody currently holding Zuckerberg accountable but himself,” she said. “The buck stops with Mark.” — Facebook spox ANDY STONE responded to the testimony via Twitter: “Just pointing out the fact that @FrancesHaugen did not work on child safety or Instagram or research these issues and has no direct knowledge of the topic from her work at Facebook.” (This, of course, doesn’t address all the documents she has.) — NYT’s Mike Isaac’s analysis: “[Haugen] seems to be swatting down many of Facebook’s standard defenses. One particular reference to Facebook claiming it can’t find underage kids on the platform because they lie about their age when they sign up was easily knocked down; Ms. Haugen said the company can do its standard analyses that it carries out on other types of audiences on the platform. It just chooses not to do so. It is rare to see this kind of inside knowledge of Facebook.” — Senators from both parties said during a break that they support subpoenaing Facebook to get the full suite of internal research Haugen has disclosed, per WaPo’s Cristiano Lima. TRUMP CARDS WOW — In an explosive new WaPo op-ed, STEPHANIE GRISHAM claims that DONALD and MELANIA TRUMP “seemed totally unfazed” and didn’t do anything when she told them her ex-boyfriend, White House staffer MAX MILLER, had physically abused her. Though Grisham writes that she felt Melania believed her, she writes that neither Trump followed up with her or sought to investigate the situation. (Miller is now running for Congress in Ohio and denies the claims.) “There will be an effort to destroy me — I know because I did the same thing to others who saw the Trumps up close and came forward with books or interviews or op-eds to tell the truth,” concludes Grisham, whose tell-all memoir publishes today. “It’s poetic justice, I guess, that I was once a destroyer myself.” — Grisham sat down with N.Y. mag’s Olivia Nuzzi in Plainville, Kan., for her first print interview , including this striking passage: “‘I don’t think I can rebrand. I think this will follow me forever,’ Grisham said. ‘I believe that I was part of something unusually evil, and I hope that it was a one-time lesson for our country and that I can be a part of making sure that at least that evil doesn’t come back now.’” WHITE HOUSE POTUS ON THE ROAD-US — Biden’s selling his agenda today in Howell, Mich., part of Rep. ELISSA SLOTKIN’s district. But NBC’s Mike Memoli reports that the moderate House Dem wanted a stand-alone infrastructure vote last week and is undecided on supporting the reconciliation bill: “‘She’s not a guaranteed vote on this. And she’s going to say that to him,’ a source said.” NEITHER ‘ZERO EMISSIONS’ NOR ‘INBOX ZERO’ — Environmental justice advocates’ frustration is rising with what they see as insufficient action from the White House. And that culminated in an unusual form of disruption, Zack Colman reports: blasting out an email to the administration “more than 5,600 times over a 48-hour period” in August, which effectively prevented top U.S. climate officials from being able to email each other. At least one angry phone call and meeting refusal followed. | | | | INTRODUCING 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. GET A FIRST LOOK AT CONGRESS MINUTES HERE. | | | | | POLITICS ROUNDUP 2022 WATCH — Former presidential candidate EVAN MCMULLIN is launching an independent bid to unseat incumbent Utah Republican Sen. MIKE LEE. The Salt Lake Tribune’s Robert Gehrke had the scoop, and McMullin made it official this morning with a launch video. Despite winning 21% of the state’s popular vote in the 2016 presidential race, McMullin faces long odds as he tries to chart a path forward for non-Trumpist conservatism — though as an independent, he won’t have to overcome a GOP primary. — GAIL HUFF BROWN, a former TV news anchor in Boston and the wife of former Sen. SCOTT BROWN (R-Mass.), jumped into a House race in New Hampshire today, per the Boston Globe. She’s looking to replace incumbent Democratic Rep. CHRIS PAPPAS. Launch video THE NEW GOP — Unlike McMullin, NIKKI HALEY represents something much closer to the near-term future of the Republican Party. She’s oscillated toward and away from Trump over the years, but in a new interview with WSJ’s John McCormick , she’s back on board, striking a positive tone about Trump and embracing him as part of the party’s future. Still, she won’t go all the way, acknowledging that he did, in fact, lose the 2020 election. Fox News previews her anti-Democrat speech at the Reagan Library tonight POLICY CORNER TAKING A SECOND LOOK — While testifying on the Hill today, Deputy A.G. LISA MONACO announced that DOJ is investigating the decision not to prosecute FBI agents who botched the LARRY NASSAR sexual abuse case. She said there’s “new information that has come to light.” More from Reuters SPEAKING OUT — All seven living former VA secretaries signed a letter with the Troops First Foundation urging Congress to make Nov. 21 the first annual National Warrior Call Day. The day would be a call to action to help prevent suicide by reaching out to socially isolated veterans and active-duty service members. The letter … More from the Military Times WEAPONIZING WOKENESS — The powerful American Bankers Association is fighting a Biden administration proposal to increase reporting requirements with a novel argument: Banks say the rules would hurt people of color because the privacy concerns around increased disclosures could be a barrier to trust for marginalized communities. “For critics, it’s a misleading and whiplash-inducing effort by the finance industry to claim the moral high ground after decades of being accused of discriminatory practices,” Hailey Fuchs reports. THE PANDEMIC BOOSTER SEAT — Johnson & Johnson asked the FDA for an emergency use authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine booster shot this morning. It didn’t specify a timeline, nor which populations would be eligible for the shots. An FDA advisory committee is expected to consider J&J and Moderna boosters at a meeting next week. More from CNN ROOM OF REQUIREMENT — The Labor Department is working carefully on the design of its vaccine/testing requirement for large employers, trying to steel it against legal challenges, reports WaPo’s Eli Rosenberg . But Republican attorneys general are gearing up to fight it in court, posing a serious test to the administration’s efforts to control the pandemic in the coming months. PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — Today at 5 p.m., the Washington National Cathedral will toll the Bourdon bell 700 times, a 70-minute remembrance of the 700,000 Americans who have died from Covid. Watch here | | | | HAPPENING THURSDAY – POLITICO’S FIRST EVER DEFENSE FORUM : President Joe Biden is making critical shifts in the Pentagon’s priorities, including fully withdrawing all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, scaling back U.S. military presence across the Middle East and rethinking the positioning of military forces around the world to focus more on China. Join POLITICO on Oct. 7 for our inaugural defense forum to talk to the decision makers in the White House, Congress, military, and defense industry who are reshaping American power abroad and redefining military readiness for the future of warfare. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | AMERICA AND THE WORLD PULLOUT FALLOUT — When’s the last time you read a positive article about U.S. involvement in Afghanistan? Here’s one — or, at least, one encouraging statistic: NYT’s Dave Philipps reports that it’s the first major U.S. conflict ever to end with zero Americans missing in action or unidentified remains. That’s due to a variety of factors, but chief among them is a military culture change that has prioritized the recovery of troops. “It is a stunning change from previous wars that ended with thousands of troops forever lost, their families left to wonder what had happened to them,” Philipps writes. BUT, BUT, BUT … It turns out that the U.S. has left behind plenty of others around the world, and not just in Afghanistan. A top-secret cable last week told the CIA that “troubling numbers of informants recruited from other countries to spy for the United States [are] being captured or killed,” including unusually specific details on how many agents have been executed, NYT’s Julian Barnes and Adam Goldman report. The warning, they write, shows that “the issue is more urgent than is publicly understood.” CLIMATE FILES — The Nobel Prize in Physics today was awarded to SYUKURO MANABE, KLAUS HASSELMANN and GIORGIO PARISI, scientists whose work helped lay the foundation for understanding climate change, per the BBC. (ICYMI: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday went to researchers in the biology of senses, whose work has helped lead to non-opioid painkillers.) PLAYBOOKERS BOOK CLUB — Sasha Issenberg is writing a new book , “The Veracity Lab,” focusing on “the newest frontier of political innovation: the global quest by candidates, campaigns and parties to develop strategies for confronting disinformation, online manipulation and other digital malfeasance.” It’s a sequel to “The Victory Lab,” and slated for a fall 2023 release. OUT AND ABOUT — The Angelika hosted a pop-up screening of “The Closer,” Dave Chappelle’s new Netflix special, on Monday night, ahead of the Nov. 23 debut of the Chappelle auditorium at the Duke Ellington School for the Arts (Chappelle, an alum, will be there for the naming and celebration). “Ellington gave me the courage and foresight to be the man who I am,” said Chappelle, who also joined the post-screening afterparty at Masseria. SPOTTED: Sandi Logan, Sonya Ali, Emilio Garcia, Marie Dixon, Casey Cooper, Priscilla Clarke, Ari Fitzgerald, Clint Odom, Kathleen Buhle and Amy Kauffman. — The Business Council for International Understanding held its annual Dwight D. Eisenhower Global Awards event in New York on Monday, honoring Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak with the Eisenhower Global Leadership Award and Ken Frazier with the Eisenhower Global Citizenship Award. SPOTTED: Michael Bloomberg, Cindy McCain, UAE Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, Anne Eisenhower, Henry Kravis, Alex Gorsky, Dina Powell McCormick, David Rubenstein, Jim Nevels, David Marchick, Peter Tichansky, Bayo Ogunlesi, Vicki Hollub, Klaus Kleinfeld, Mukesh Ambani and Rajeev Misra. MEDIA MOVES — Blake Hounshell is joining the NYT. He currently is managing editor for Washington and politics at POLITICO. … Jack Gillum is joining Bloomberg as a cybersecurity reporter. He previously was a technology reporter for ProPublica. More from Talking Biz News TRANSITIONS — Ashli Palmer is now a principal at Resolution Public Affairs. She previously was a partner at Tiber Creek Group and is a Jim Clyburn and Obama Agriculture Department alum. … Marv McMoore is now VP of digital media strategy at SKDK. He previously was senior political digital strategist at GMMB, and is a Pete Buttigieg campaign alum. … … Notarize is adding Kim Gaedeke as associate VP and head of government affairs and Casey Garber as director of auto policy and industry relations. Gaedeke previously was at the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, and Garber previously was manager of vehicle programs at the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. WEEKEND WEDDING — Adam Rubenstein, a former journalist for the NYT and Weekly Standard, and Deborah Malamud, a clerk on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, got married Sunday in Los Angeles. They met during their freshman year at Kenyon College. Pic WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Genta Arnold, director of corporate relations at the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, and Josh Arnold, deputy chief of staff for Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), welcomed Tate David Arnold on Thursday. Pic — Kate Meissner, EVP at Edelman and a POLITICO alum, and Chris Meissner, COO at the 202 Group, welcomed Lane Auden Meissner on Thursday night. She came in at 9 lbs, 2 oz. Pic BONUS BIRTHDAY: Jon Banner | | | | A message from Amazon:   Amazon employees have seen the difference $15/hr can make. | | | | | | | 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 | | | | |  |
