Playbook PM: The GOP’s purge continues

From: POLITICO Playbook - Friday Oct 29,2021 05:05 pm

Oct 29, 2021

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KINZINGER CALLS IT QUITS — Rep. ADAM KINZINGER (R-Ill.), perhaps the most vocal Republican congressional critic of former President DONALD TRUMP, said today that he would not seek re-election next year, Ally Mutnick, Olivia Beavers and Quint Forgey write. Kinzinger was among the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, and is now the second to retire, after Ohio Rep. ANTHONY GONZALEZ said he would do the same.

The news comes on the same day that Illinois’ legislature approved a new congressional map for the state, Ally, Shia Kapos and Olivia report.

The proverbial nail in the coffin for Kinzinger: His redrawn district now crams him and Rep. DARIN LAHOOD — who more closely aligns with Trump — into a deep-red northern slice of the state. Kinzinger framed his decision as a conflict of focusing on both “a reelection to Congress and a broader fight nationwide,” and vowed to continue his political career. “There’s little to no desire to bridge our differences, and unity is no longer a word we use,” he said. Kinzinger’s announcement video

For Democrats, the new map comes with a lot of good, but also leaves one of the party’s liberal stars in the state in a lurch. The redrawn map “likely secures Democrats' control of 14 of the state’s 17 congressional districts — but it also condemned liberal freshman Rep. MARIE NEWMAN to an uncertain fate at the 11th hour.” Newman and Democratic Rep. SEAN CASTEN are now on a certain path for a primary clash in the 6th District.

“A draft map released last weekend looped both Casten and Newman together in one district — but after a concerted campaign from Casten allies, the legislature reversed course. A new map unveiled just hours before it was approved artfully carved Newman’s hometown of La Grange out of the district with Casten’s home and into the heavily Latino seat of Democratic Rep. Chuy García — where she would face long odds in a potential primary,” Ally, Shia and Olivia write.

BIDEN IN EUROPE — President JOE BIDEN kicked off his meetings with world leaders today with a trip to the Vatican, where he and POPE FRANCIS met for 75 minutes — an unusually long time for an audience with the pontiff, per AP’s Josh Boak, Zeke Miller and Nicole Winfield in Vatican City.

What did they discuss?

— Global topics: The two “engaged in extended talks on climate change, poverty and the coronavirus pandemic,” per the AP.

— … and the divide within the church in the U.S.: “Asked if he discussed abortion with Francis, Biden said he hadn’t. ‘We just talked about the fact he was happy I was a good Catholic and keep receiving communion,’ Biden said,” via CNN’s Kevin Liptak. “Asked whether he’d discussed the U.S. Conference of Bishops with Francis, Biden said, ‘That's a private conversation.’” Flashback: “‘A Private Matter’: Joe Biden’s Very Public Clash With His Own Church,” by Ruby Cramer … More from today, via Nick Niedzwiadek

— Biden also gave the Pope a challenge coin with a personal connection, via CNN’s Maegan Vazquez and Kevin Liptak: “‘It has a U.S. seal on the front, but what's different with this coin, usually — I know my son [BEAU ] would want me to give this to you, because on the back of it, I have the state of Delaware and the 261st unit my son served on,’ Biden said, handing the Pope the large gold coin. … ‘Now, the tradition is — I’m only kidding about this — the next time I see you, if you don't have it, you have to buy the drinks. I’m the only Irishman you’ve ever met who's never had a drink,’ Biden said to the Pope, who was laughing.”

The president revealed the details of his lengthy talks with Francis as he was greeting Italian Prime Minister MARIO DRAGHI in Rome.

Biden also met French President EMMANUEL MACRON and discussed the fraught relationship over the controversial U.S.-Australia submarine deal earlier this summer. “What we did was clumsy, it was not done with a lot of grace,” Biden said, per Bloomberg’s Jennifer Epstein . “Also throws Australia under the bus: ‘I had been under the impression long before that France had been informed.’” More from Quint Forgey

Good Friday afternoon. TRIVIA TIME: Biden’s audience at the Vatican today marks the 31st time a U.S. president has met with the pope. Who was the first president to visit the pope? Email us at playbook@politico.com. We’ll announce the winner in Monday’s Playbook PM.

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THE CLIMATE SUMMIT

THANKS, OBAMA? — In an extremely unusual move, former President BARACK OBAMA will attend next week’s Glasgow climate summit in an attempt to “help Biden win back world faith in American leadership on this issue, and get the global alliance back on track after four years of Trump,” CNN’s Isaac Dovere reports. “Obama’s presence at the COP26 began with suggestions from climate activists. But it really took shape in conversation with JOHN KERRY, his former secretary of state and Biden's special presidential envoy for climate, people familiar with the conversations tell CNN. The White House was eager for the help.”

VA. GOV RACE

NEW POLL: MACKER UP BY 1 — “Virginia’s race for governor is a toss-up as Tuesday’s election draws near, with 49% of likely voters favoring Democrat TERRY MCAULIFFE and 48% favoring Republican GLENN YOUNGKIN, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll,” WaPo’s Gregory Schneider, Laura Vozzella, Karina Elwood, Scott Clement and Emily Guskin report.

KNOWING GLENN YOUNGKIN — The question of who exactly Youngkin is and what he stands for has flummoxed some voters of both parties, even less than a week from Election Day. But for Republicans, at least, it doesn’t really matter since he has taken on a right-wing persona — however real it might be, NYT’s Jeremy Peters writes.

“As long as Mr. Youngkin is saying what they want to hear and signaling what they understand he cannot say out loud — running on the issue of ‘election integrity,’ for instance, rather than wholeheartedly accepting Mr. Trump’s lies about election fraud in 2020 — many conservatives see his campaign as providing a template for how to delicately embrace Trumpism in blue states.”

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

BIG TALK, NO MONEY — G-20 leaders announced the formation of a new “Joint Finance-Health Task Force” to respond to future pandemics, but the rollout was a bit rocky, WaPo’s Jeff Stein and Frances Stead Sellers write in Rome . The group “would improve planning between the rich countries to respond to pandemics with both additional health care resources and financing measures. But the announcement came without a pledge of any new funding, inviting criticisms from those already furious that the rich nations of the world are doing too little to help poor countries still being ravaged by the coronavirus.”

ON THE U.S.-CHINA COLD WAR — The U.S. wants to improve its relationship with Taiwan and will counter China’s presence in the region, SANDRA OUDKIRK, the new director of the American Institute in Taiwan, said, per AP’s Huzhong Wu in Taipei. “We are going to continue to advance global and regional goals of the Biden administration, including countering malign PRC influence, recovering from the devastating impacts of the pandemic and addressing the threat of climate change,” Oudkirk said.

WHO’S NEXT? — TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, the WHO director-general, is running unopposed for a second five-year term, per the AP.

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JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH

NEW DETAILS FROM CAPITOL POLICE — Betsy Woodruff Swan and Daniel Lippman have the scoop on a new 17-page strategy document that shows “how Capitol Police geared up for the protests, detailing the force’s concerns about counterprotesters, which turned out to be unwarranted. And it shows that in some ways, the department was prescient about the violence that would unfold, but didn’t deploy enough defenses to counter the riots.”

— Also: MICHAEL RILEY, the Capitol Police officer charged with helping a Jan. 6 rioter attempt to evade the FBI, has resigned from the force, ending his 26-year tenure as he prepares to fight the case against him, Kyle Cheney reports.

INVESTIGATION’S LATEST — The House’s Jan. 6 select committee is bringing in a rioter who breached the Capitol for an interview today as “part of an attempt to collect evidence about the rioters’ motivations, contacts and travel arrangements,” Kyle Cheney reports. “[Attorney HEATHER] SHANER also revealed that she helped connect the committee with another source — not one of her clients — who claimed to have information related to associates of ALEX JONES, the far-right broadcaster who helped promote pro-Trump election conspiracy theories.”

THE PANDEMIC

FIRST TO WORST — West Virginia started out as a leader in vaccinating its citizens against the coronavirus. But the good times didn’t last. “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 41% of West Virginia’s 1.8 million residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 49% have had at least one dose,” AP’s John Raby reports in Kenova. “The state’s rate of about 89,000 doses administered per 100,000 population is the nation’s worst. Nationally, 57.5% of the population is fully vaccinated and 66.5% has gotten at least one dose.”

HOW IT HAPPENED — The Trump administration bet big on Novavax to produce a vaccine shot that would be a major boost to the world. But quality and manufacturing problems loomed large over the effort. Erin Banco, Adam Cancryn, and Sarah Owermohle have the backstory from multiple sources, including two former officials, about how Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed continued to fund and support Novavax's manufacturing [for] six months with the encouragement of top Trump officials from multiple agencies — despite clear warnings that the company had yet to solve core problems.”

ALL POLITICS

THE NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY — Michael Kruse writes from Lincolnton, N.C. , on the “ultra-important race” to be the Democratic nominee who will vie for retiring GOP Sen. RICHARD BURR’s seat.

— The frontrunner seems to be CHERI BEASLEY, “who is looking more and more like a part of a wave of Black candidates who are rapidly altering the dynamics of Senate campaigns across the country, especially in the South, challenging long-held maxims about what kinds of candidates are best positioned to appeal to the mixture of voters in a region with electoral demographics that are changing just as fast and where Black candidates have historically had to run as outsiders or long shots.”

— … but JEFF JACKSON is a strong candidate, too: “A white father to three young children, an Army veteran who spent a year in Afghanistan and a former prosecutor in a conservative county who’s now a state senator from Charlotte, he is, even his critics grant, a gifted communicator — good on the stump, good on the internet, and good face-to-face, fist-bumping his way through rope lines and meet-and-greets, making apparent inroads in places where progressive Democrats usually are persona non grata.”

VALLEY TALK

UNFRIENDED — Facebook is facing a big problem on Capitol Hill: No one wants to chat anymore. “Several congressional aides involved in efforts to regulate the tech companies say they are fed up with Facebook’s government relations strategy — an attitude that is making it even harder for the company to recover from the revelations of whistleblower FRANCES HAUGEN,” Emily Birnbaum reports . “Some offices on the Hill have started to either ignore the company’s outreach or ban its representatives altogether.”

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JUDICIARY SQUARE

SCOTUS WATCH — When the Supreme Court takes up a new conservative case on gun ownership this Wednesday, the question posed is: “To what extent do Americans have a constitutional right to carry loaded, concealed firearms outside the home and in public places?” WaPo’s Ann Marimow writes . “Although some observers say it seems likely that the court took the National Rifle Association-backed lawsuit to overturn a century-old New York state law, which is similar to restrictions in seven other states, there is a surprising split among conservative judges and legal analysts that could influence how broadly the justices rule.”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

TEXAS ABORTION LATEST — “In September, after Texas enacted the most restrictive abortion ban in the nation, the number of abortions performed there dropped 50 percent from the same month in 2020, according to data released Friday by a group of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin,” NYT’s Quoctrung Bui, Claire Cain Miller and Margot Sanger-Katz report.

PLAYBOOKERS

TRANSITIONS — Cari Berlin is now scheduler for Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.). She most recently was the regional GOTV director for Virginia Democrats and is a Biden campaign alum. … Patrick Hillmann is now chief comms officer at cryptocurrency exchange company Binance. He most recently was global head of innovation for crisis and risk at Edelman. … Michael McRaith is joining Brookfield Asset Management as vice chair of its insurance arm. He most recently was managing director at Blackstone and is an Obama Treasury alum. More from the WSJ