Playbook PM: ‘Dropping like flies’

From: POLITICO Playbook - Monday Nov 29,2021 06:18 pm

Nov 29, 2021

By Rachael Bade, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross

Presented by

BIDEN TRIES TO CALM FEARS OVER NEW COVID VARIANT — President JOE BIDEN sought to calm growing anxiety about Omicron, the new coronavirus variant, in a speech this morning. “This variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic,” he said. “We’re gonna fight and beat this new variant as well.”

The president pleaded with Americans to get vaccinated, sign up for booster shots and continue to mask up indoors, the latter of which could fall on deaf ears. After spending Thanksgiving in Akron, Ohio, we can tell you that very few people wore masks — not servers, not cooks, not customers — shocking as it may be for those of us who live here. Biden said lockdowns are off the table for now.

Biden said it was “hopefully unlikely” that the variant will beat through the current regime of vaccinations but if it does, he promised that “we will accelerate their development and deployment with every available tool” necessary to come up with new vaccines. He said the administration is already working with vaccine makers to develop contingency plans, and he plans to direct the FDA and CDC to use the fastest process available. “I’m sparing no effort and removing all roadblocks to keep the American people safe,” Biden said.

Biden also said he’ll release a plan Thursday for fighting the pandemic through the winter months. More on the latest Omicron developments below … AP’s Zeke Miller on Biden pushing shots over further restrictions

‘DROPPING LIKE FLIES’ — Rep. TOM SUOZZI (D-N.Y.) announced today that he’ll run for governor, becoming the 18th House Democrat to announce his retirement. The move has Republicans positively giddy: More House Democrats have officially chosen to hang it up this year than in 2010, when the chamber lost more than 60 seats in the Tea Party wave.

“House Democrats’ retirement crisis has reached a five alarm emergency, and it’s only getting worse,” Congressional Leadership Fund spox CALVIN MOORE said in a blast touting the news. “Democrats are dropping like flies because they know their days in the majority are numbered and are making the wise choice to quit rather than face defeat next November.”

— Katie Glueck and Nicholas Fandos have more for the NYT, writing that Suozzi’s move will “broaden … the field of candidates challenging the incumbent, KATHY HOCHUL, according to five people who have spoken with the congressman and his team in recent days. His decision to run for governor … will intensify and complicate the battle for moderate voters in one of the nation’s marquee Democratic primary contests next year. Mr. Suozzi, a former Nassau County executive, could cut into parts of the coalition Ms. Hochul is seeking to assemble on Long Island and in suburbs around the state.”

Good Monday afternoon.

VALLEY TALK

JACK OUT OF THE BOX — Twitter CEO JACK DORSEY is stepping down, CNBC’s David Faber scooped. It’s a seismic shift for the social media giant, as chief technology officer PARAG AGRAWAL takes over as the new CEO. “He had been in charge of strategy involving artificial intelligence and machine learning and he led projects to make tweets in users’ timelines more relevant to them.” Dorsey’s announcement

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CONGRESS

SHUTTING DOWN A SHUTDOWN — Neither party looks inclined to force the government into a shutdown as a funding deadline looms Friday. As we wrote in Playbook this morning, the latest thinking from Democrats is a stopgap measure that would kick the can to mid- to late January. Caitlin Emma and Jennifer Scholtes have more on the latest spending strategy. A measure could be on the House floor by Wednesday, though the parties still have to iron out the details of exceptions for specific programs. It likely won’t address the debt limit.

PLAYBOOK FASHION SECTION — The Atlantic’s Elaine Godfrey reports that post-pandemic, fashion norms are relaxing for staffers across much of the Hill (though less in the Senate and House leadership offices, and more among Democrats). Black jeans, sneakers, shirts without ties, turtlenecks, athleisure: It’s all acceptable attire after a year of remote work. Godfrey writes that shifting norms could even have a tangible impact on poorly paid Hill staffers’ pocketbooks — and make it easier for lower-income folks to take the jobs.

THE PANDEMIC

OH MY OMICRON — As the world scrambles to respond to the emergence of the new Omicron variant of Covid-19, these are some of today’s latest moves:

— The WHO warned of a “very high” risk to the world, with particular danger for countries with low vaccination rates.

— Portugal and Scotland newly reported cases of the variant.

— Japan became the third country to ban all foreign travelers.

MANDATE DEBATE — The White House is moving to delay suspending or firing unvaccinated workers at federal agencies until after the holidays, per a new memo obtained by ABC’s Anne Flaherty.

— Some health care providers could lose up to a third of their workforce for being unvaccinated against Covid when a federal mandate kicks in Jan. 4, WSJ’s Julie Wernau and Kathryn Dill report. In rural regions, the loss of even a few workers could especially take a toll. Employers are hoping that a mixture of generous mandate exemptions and workers opting in as the deadline approaches will ease the labor pain.

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POLITICS ROUNDUP

2022 WATCH — Democrats are increasingly worried that the party lacks not just an ability to sell its accomplishments but an overarching message to sway voters and tie its agenda together, WaPo’s Tyler Pager, Sean Sullivan, Michael Scherer and Marianna Sotomayor report. The failure to translate legislative victories into credit with voters has stymied the party, as have the pandemic and economic recovery. Some strategists are urging Biden to get more aggressive in his sales pitch — and soon.

Meanwhile, internal DCCC polling shows that Dems would benefit most in swing districts from a message about how they’ll “secure the supply chain, boost manufacturing and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil,” as well as “taxing large corporations … fixing highways, roads and bridges … [and] attacking Republicans on their efforts to ban abortion, block an increase in the debt ceiling and block negotiation of prescription drug prices,” per WaPo.

— The Washington Times’ Mica Soellner profiles LUCAS KUNCE, the young Marine veteran who’s leading the money race in the Missouri Democratic Senate primary. Kunce is striking a populist tone, she writes: “He pledged to break up Big Tech, abolish corporate PACs, and implement a Marshall Plan for the Midwest to reinvigorate communities that have lost jobs to foreign competitors. … Mr. Kunce has also railed against outsourcing jobs overseas.” Of course, as a Democrat in Missouri in the 2020s, he’s also still a long shot.

— Low turnout in Atlanta’s Nov. 2 mayoral election — which heads to a runoff Tuesday — has Georgia Democrats sounding the alarm about voter fatigue in their most crucial region of the state, WaPo’s Tim Craig and Vanessa Williams report.

DISINFORMATION DIGEST — Spanish-language misinformation poses a big threat to Democrats in the midterms — and to truth and democracy more broadly — with experts and activists warning that social media platforms aren’t prepared, AP’s Amanda Seitz and Will Weissert report: “That explosion is fueled in part by a U.S.-Latin America feedback loop that allows falsehoods to fester.” False articles in the leadup to the Virginia gubernatorial election and claiming that New Jersey’s gubernatorial election was rigged offered a preview of what’s to come.

THE REAL VOTER FRAUD — In a POLITICO Magazine excerpt from their new book, “The Vote Collectors” ($28), Michael Graff and Nick Ochsner go deep on the fraudulent 2018 congressional election of MARK HARRIS in North Carolina, including hundreds of contacts between Harris and MCCRAE DOWLESS, who was later convicted. (Harris says he didn’t know about the fraud.) The big picture, they write, is that “what happened in the race for North Carolina’s 9th District shows just how rare and also how basic and local election fraud really is.”

— The 2018 election was the topic of an excellent Serial/NYT podcast earlier this year about voter fraud hosted by Zoe Chace, “The Improvement Association.”

LIFE’S A BEACH — N.Y. Mag’s Shawn McCreesh has a fun piece about the Beach Cafe, the prime hangout spot for Manhattan conservatives (aka the Republican Cheers). Among the morsels: ANN COULTER on “Impeachment: American Crime Story,” landfills and DONALD TRUMP fading away; ROGER STONE on STEVE BANNON’s skin care and clothing; JON LEVINE’s font of scoops; and more.

POLICY CORNER

RENTAL AID LATEST — Treasury is planning to reallocate funding for rental assistance from states and localities that haven’t used much to those that are close to depleting their supplies (like New York and Texas), WSJ’s Andrew Ackerman scooped. The reallocation could total more than $800 billion, with an announcement expected early next month.

STRIKE UP THE BROADBAND — $10 billion in pandemic relief funds is currently going out across the country for broadband expansion, the greatest such investment in U.S. history, and a whopping $42 billion more is on the way in years to come from the bipartisan infrastructure law. There’s just one problem, John Hendel reports : The FCC’s maps of broadband availability are seriously inaccurate and understate the extent of the problem, leaving states and counties uncertain about where the fixes should go. Better maps are coming, but not in time for this round of funding. Among those going on the record to raise concerns: GAYLE MANCHIN.

ANTITRUST THE PROCESS — The New Yorker’s Sheelah Kolhatkar has a big profile of FTC Chair LINA KHAN and her fight to regulate Big Tech. Khan, who still lives in New York City, said she intends to “steer the agency to choose consequential cases, with less emphasis on the outcomes, and to generally be more proactive.” Antitrust is just one of the tools she plans to wield, but it’s a risky strategy. “In a sense, the real work of Khan’s antitrust fight will be about changing minds over time,” Kolhatkar writes, “first those of consumers, and then those of judges and legislators, who must reshape the legal framework to reflect a new world view.”

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AMERICA AND THE WORLD

CLIMATE FILES — Cobalt is crucial for batteries needed to power electric cars and help usher the world away from climate disaster. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, human rights concerns in the mines have also made it the “blood diamond of batteries.” A big investigation by NYT’s Dionne Searcey and Eric Lipton reveals that the chair of Congo’s state-owned mining enterprise “has been accused of helping to divert billions of dollars in revenues,” which he denies and is pushing hard to counter by “[e]ffectively operating his own foreign policy apparatus” in Washington. Now his standoff with the Congolese president could threaten the whole world’s clean energy ambitions.

PAGING XI JINPING — The U.S. is planning infrastructure improvements at military bases in Guam and Australia, WSJ’s Gordon Lubold scooped, but the global posture review being released today “contains no major reshuffling of U.S. forces.” That points to how difficult it will be for the U.S. to take on China as a threat while still dividing its military attention among several other regions.

PLAYBOOKERS

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Biden is naming two new FEMA appointees: Anne Bink as associate administrator of the Office of Response and Recovery and Jenna Peters as deputy chief of staff in the Office of the Administrator. Bink most recently was deputy commissioner for disaster recovery at the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services. Peters previously was chief of staff at New York City Emergency Management.

MEDIA MOVE — Rebecca Rainey will be a senior reporter covering the Labor Department at Bloomberg Law. She currently is a labor reporter at POLITICO.

TRANSITIONS — Zaid A. Zaid is now head of U.S. public policy at Cloudflare. He most recently was head of North America for strategic response policy at Facebook/Meta, and is an Obama White House counsel’s office alum. … Natalie Young is now comms director for Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.). She most recently was press secretary/digital director for the House Administration Committee. … Scott Carter is retiring from the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service after 30 years of federal service, most recently as disaster response coordinator and chief of government affairs. He’ll be policy coordinator for Maine’s Office of Aging and Disability Services, and will launch a new government relations/public affairs/strategic comms firm with Alex Rodriguez.

ENGAGED — Truman Reed, campaign manager for Nick Begich III’s Alaska congressional campaign and a Capitol Hill alum, and Kathryn Chakmak, a legislative staffer to Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), got engaged Nov. 21 at a winery in Sonoma, Calif. The couple met at the White House while bowling at the Harry S. Truman bowling alley. Pic

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Annie Thalman, VP at Washington Speakers Bureau, and Matt Thalman, contributing writer at INO.com, welcomed Audrey Faith Thalman, their third child, on Tuesday. She shares a birthday with her cousin, born eight hours later on the same day.

BONUS BIRTHDAY: Abby Duggan of Sen. Sherrod Brown’s (D-Ohio) office