Playbook PM: Trump-backed Senate hopeful in trouble

From: POLITICO Playbook - Monday Nov 22,2021 05:35 pm

Nov 22, 2021

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SIREN IN PA SENATE RACE — SEAN PARNELL, the DONALD TRUMP-backed Pennsylvania Senate candidate, “lost his battle for shared custody of his three children after his estranged wife accused him of physical and verbal abuse, a ruling likely to deal a devastating setback to his campaign,” the Philly Inquirer’s Jonathan Tamari reports. “A judge in Butler County has awarded Parnell’s wife, LAURIE SNELL, primary physical custody and sole legal custody of their three children, according to a portion of a ruling made public Monday. A docket entry for the ruling said the judge found Snell to be ‘the more credible witness.’ … His allies had hoped a favorable ruling in the custody case would help discredit the abuse accusations that he had firmly denied under oath.”

Flashback: Tara reported on Nov. 9: “One adviser to the campaign said they believe Parnell can remain a viable candidate as long as he keeps custody of his children, which the judge in the case will decide in a matter of weeks. A loss in the custody battle would be difficult to withstand politically, the adviser added.”

POWELL RETURNS — President JOE BIDEN said this morning that he would reappoint JEROME POWELL to chair the Federal Reserve, spurning liberals who rallied behind LAEL BRAINARD for the post.

From our colleague Victoria Guida: “Powell — a Republican and a Trump appointee — is expected to win confirmation with bipartisan backing, driven by his record in heading off a financial crisis at the onset of the pandemic and steering the economy through the crippling recession that followed. But he’ll face intense scrutiny from some Democrats such as Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN and Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ for overseeing a rollback in Wall Street rules, an issue that has sharply divided progressives over whether he deserves a second term, and over a trading scandal that forced two top Fed officials to resign.”

In a nod to the progressive wing, Biden also said he would nominate Brainard as vice chair of the central bank. “Fundamentally, if we want to continue to build on the economic success of this year we need stability and independence at the Federal Reserve — and I have full confidence after their trial by fire over the last 20 months that Chair Powell and Dr. Brainard will provide the strong leadership our country needs,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House.

But Powell’s second term will bring a new challenge, WSJ’s Greg Ip writes: “Over his first term in office, Jerome Powell became arguably the most dovish chairman in the Federal Reserve’s modern history, giving priority to full employment in an era in which inflation seemed extinct. In his second term he may have to execute the reverse: giving priority to inflation at the risk of sacrificing jobs. The pivot could be painful for both Mr. Powell and President Biden, who reappointed him in part on his dovish record, and reflects the substantial reordering of economic conditions in just the past year.”

Powell’s confirmation should sail through with enough Republican support — overriding opposition from Warren and fellow Democratic Sens. JEFF MERKLEY and SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, who have all said they would not vote for Powell. (Warren issued a statement confirming that she would oppose Powell but support Brainard.)

More to come: There are three more open spots on the Fed board that Biden needs to fill, offering him a further opportunity to put his stamp on the central bank.

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REPLACING LEAHY — Rep. PETER WELCH (D-Vt.) announced this morning that he would run for retiring Sen. PATRICK LEAHY’s seat. “Should he win the Senate seat, Welch would follow in the footsteps of [BERNIE SANDERS ], who also rose from the House to the Senate when former Sen. JIM JEFFORDS retired in 2007,” VTDigger’s Sarah Mearhoff writes. “Already on Monday morning, Sanders put his political weight behind Welch, announcing his endorsement of Welch’s Senate run. Pointing to Welch’s 14 years in the House, Sanders said Welch ‘has the knowledge and experience to hit the ground running’ in the Senate.”

Good Monday afternoon.

BEZOS’ BIG GIFT TO BARACK — Puck’s Teddy Schleifer has the scoop on an eye-popping $100 million donation that JEFF BEZOS recently sent to the Obama Foundation. “I’m told the $100 million was midwifed by JAY CARNEY, Bezos’ political sherpa and the former Obama press secretary. Carney ran point for Bezos, and Obama eventually spoke directly with the Amazon C.E.O. earlier this year,” Schleifer writes. “The gift, the largest single donation ever made to the Foundation, has no restrictions on its use. But it is very common, and increasingly controversial, for major donors to be granted some naming honor in return for a donation of that size.”

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THE PANDEMIC

MANDATE UPDATE — Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal workers seems to be working. “Around 95 percent of the 3.5 million federal employees covered by President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for government workers have complied with the requirement ahead of its Monday deadline, according to the White House,” Rebecca Rainey reports. “Agency-specific data on their staff’s compliance with the mandate will be released on Wednesday by the Office of Management and Budget, the senior administration official said.”

COUNTERING THE HEALTH WORKER SHORTAGE — VP KAMALA HARRIS is set to announce an investment of $1.5 billion from the administration for the ongoing health care worker shortage across the country, AP’s Alexandra Jaffe reports.

THE HOLIDAY SPIKE — As Americans begin traveling for the holidays with Thanksgiving later this week, coronavirus cases are creeping back up. “Nationally, case levels remain well below those seen in early September, when summer infections peaked, and are below those seen last Thanksgiving,” NYT’s Mitch Smith writes. “But conditions are worsening rapidly, and this will not be the post-pandemic Thanksgiving that Americans had hoped for. More than 90,000 cases are being reported each day, comparable to early August, and more than 30 states are seeing sustained upticks in infections.”

POLICY CORNER

HEADS UP — The Biden administration is “preparing to announce a release of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve in concert with several other countries as soon as Tuesday, according to people familiar with the plan,” Bloomberg reports . “The move, likely in conjunction with India, Japan and South Korea, would be an unprecedented effort by major oil consumers to tame prices after OPEC+ countries rebuffed U.S. calls to significantly boost production.”

THIS IS AN INTERVENTION — The Justice Department “intervened in former President Donald Trump's lawsuit against Facebook to defend the constitutionality of Section 230, an internet communications law, according to court filings,” USA Today’s Matthew Brown reports. “The Justice Department's intervention holds that the government has an ‘unconditional right to intervene to defend the statute’ as it is always allowed in cases where a law's constitutionality is at issue.”

JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH

HOW MUCH WORSE IT COULD HAVE BEEN — “An Indiana man charged with carrying a loaded firearm to the Capitol on Jan. 6 told investigators that if he had found Speaker NANCY PELOSI, ‘you’d be here for another reason,’ according to court documents posted over the weekend,” Kyle Cheney writes. “MARK MAZZA, 56, is the latest of about half a dozen Jan. 6 defendants charged with bringing a gun to the Capitol.”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

CUOMO LATEST — The New York State Assembly released its eight-month impeachment investigation into former Gov. ANDREW CUOMO, which “bolsters the findings of Attorney General TISH JAMES’ probe into allegations of sexual harassment,” Bill Mahoney, Anna Gronewold, and Shannon Young report . Further, the report “concludes that the Cuomo administration manipulated data on deaths of nursing home residents during the pandemic, with the goal of combating criticisms over his decision-making. And the report provides more details in its conclusion that Cuomo’s memoir ‘American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,’ relied on the use of state staff who did not volunteer their time.”

MEGATREND — U.S. home sales rose in October, marking a significant bump, WSJ’s Nicole Friedman reports. “Existing-home sales increased 0.8% in October from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.34 million, the highest pace since January, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. October sales fell 5.8% from a year earlier. Existing-home sales are on track to surpass six million this year, which would be the strongest annual pace since 2006, said LAWRENCE YUN, NAR’s chief economist.”

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PLAYBOOKERS

PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — Metro announced today that the current reduced rail service will remain through the end of the year as the update of older railcars is being delayed due to the global supply chain strain. The announcement

MEDIA MOVE — Jonathan Guyer is joining Vox as senior foreign policy writer. He previously was a managing editor at The American Prospect. The announcement

TRANSITIONS — Michael Harris is now a congressional and legislative affairs specialist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He previously was a Senior Policy Advisor and Appropriations Associate for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). … Sean Floyd is joining Scarlet Oak Strategies as a senior adviser. He most recently was COS to the senior adviser for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and is an Obama campaign alum.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Hallie Beasley, VP at The Herald Group, and Dane Beasley, a business insurance consultant at Fisher Brown Bottrell Insurance, welcomed Shapard “Shap” Rush Beasley on Oct. 5. Pic