Trump’s terrible Thursday, followed by Biden’s bad Friday?

By Rachael Bade

SPOTTED: Former congressman-turned-OMB director-turned-acting White House chief of staff MICK MULVANEY on Thursday night drinking at Post Pub, a bar frequented by WaPo employees and other journalists. Maybe he misses all the coverage he used to get? Well, sir, we’re certain that reporters miss your memorable quotes, like when you told us all to “get over it!”

TRUMP’S BAD DAY — Thursday was a double-whammy for former President DONALD TRUMP.

— FIRST, New York state A.G. TISH JAMES announced that she was suspending her campaign for governor and would instead run for reelection. That all but assures the law enforcement officer who has been perhaps the most aggressive in investigating Trump will continue to focus her attention on the ex-president.

Indeed, just hours before the announcement, WaPo’s Josh Dawsey and David Fahrenthold scooped that James was pushing to depose Trump in January as part of her investigation into possible fraud in the Trump Organization.

— THEN, a federal appeals court flatly rejected that Trump’s claims of executive privilege , which he used to block the National Archives from turning over documents to the Jan. 6 committee. It’s not the final word on the matter — the Supreme Court could still intervene this month — but it’s a big win for the select committee.

AS FOR THE CURRENT POTUS — If Trump had a bad day Thursday, it might be JOE BIDEN’s turn on Friday. A pair of critical reports out today could cause a spate of negative headlines just as the White House is looking to push Build Back Better (BBB) past the finish line.

One is the consumer price index for November, which is expected to show rising inflation. The other is a Congressional Budget Office score of the fiscal impacts of BBB assuming its programs are funded for a decade. (Under the current bill, the programs expire after a couple years, but Republicans and even moderates like JOE MANCHIN have said it’s fiscally irresponsible not to assume they won’t be extended longer, and thus pressed to see a longer, 10-year cost analysis.)

Ahead of the releases, the White House has sought to do two things:

1) Downplay both. Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN sent a prebuttal to the Senate on Thursday night, our Laura Barrón-López scoops . The memo, entitled “Fiscal Responsibility and the Build Back Better Act,” argues that the CBO score is irrelevant because it assumes programs will run longer than Democrats propose — and that even if they were extended, it assumes they wouldn’t be paid for. She also emphasized that inflation is a near-term issue, and argued that BBB will be “deficit reducing” in the latter part of the next decade. The memo

2) Cling to positive headlines. Democrats keep reassuring themselves that Biden is doing wonders for the economy — while panning headlines suggesting otherwise. On Thursday, RON KLAIN liked a tweet blaming alleged unfair coverage for Biden’s unpopularity. Meanwhile, we hear White House officials have been particularly obsessed with this Robert J. Shapiro Washington Monthly piece, “It’s a Biden Boom—and No One Has Noticed Yet,” arguing that the economy is on the rise and the midterms won’t be as bad as many are predicting.

To be fair, there are positive signs on the horizon, at least at the moment. Our Victoria Guida reported Thursday that “prices of everything from oil and natural gas to wheat and corn have already started falling from their peaks earlier this year” — and that the trend is expected to continue into next year. Democrats are also buoyed by headlines like this one from CNBC: “Weekly jobless claims fall to 184,000, the lowest level in more than 52 years.” Or this one from The Hill’s Max Burns, which was leading the conservative Drudge Report on Thursday night: “Biden delivering fastest recovery in history?”

But the disconnect between some of these economic numbers and voter perceptions remains a serious problem for the White House. And today’s reports — if they’re as bad as Democrats are bracing for — won’t help the rosy narrative they’re clinging to.

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

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BIDEN’S FRIDAY:

— 9 a.m.: The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief.

— 11 a.m.: The president, first lady JILL BIDEN, VP KAMALA HARRIS and second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF will attend the memorial service for BOB DOLE at the Washington National Cathedral, where Biden will deliver remarks.

— 1:45 p.m.: Biden will deliver closing remarks at the virtual Summit for Democracy.

— 5:45 p.m.: The Bidens will depart the White House en route to Wilmington, Del., where they are scheduled to arrive at 6:40 p.m.

HARRIS’ FRIDAY:

— 3 p.m.: The vice president will ceremonially swear in JEFFRY LANE FLAKE to be ambassador to Turkey.

— 4:15 p.m.: Harris and Emhoff will welcome elementary school students to the Vice President’s Residence at the Naval Observatory for an outdoor holiday celebration.

Press secretary JEN PSAKI will brief at 12:30 p.m.

The HOUSE and SENATE are out.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY: Former Sen. Elizabeth Dole rests her head on the casket of her husband, former Sen. Bob Dole, as he lies in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, Dec. 9. | Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via AP, Pool

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

JUST POSTED — The U.S. “won an appeal against a U.K. court’s decision to bar the extradition of JULIAN ASSANGE, clearing a big hurdle in Washington’s pursuit of the WikiLeaks founder on espionage charges,” WSJ’s Jason Douglas reports.

THE WHITE HOUSE

LATE NIGHT — Biden is set to make the first late-night television appearance of his presidency on Friday, AP reports: He’ll be “on NBC’s ‘The Tonight Show’ with comedian JIMMY FALLON. Biden will appear virtually; the White House didn’t say where he will be when he tapes the segment.”

A UNITED FRONT — The president on Thursday “moved to solidify a unified position with Ukraine and U.S. allies on Europe’s eastern flank in a set of phone calls, part of an urgent effort to prevent and prepare for a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine,” WaPo’s Paul Sonne and Ashley Parker report. “In a call with Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY , Biden emphasized American support for Kyiv, seeking to reassure a country that has seen Russian forces mass on its border in recent days. The White House is also trying to work out the shape of forthcoming talks with Russia on the Ukraine crisis and other security issues.”

ALL POLITICS

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Our Senate campaigns reporter Natalie Allison writes in with news on a batch of hires Republican Rep. MO BROOKS has made for his Alabama Senate campaign:

— ROBERT CAHALY of Trafalgar Group will be senior adviser and pollster.

— FRED DAVIS of Strategic Perception, who has long worked for retiring Sen. RICHARD SHELBY, will handle media.

— FORREST BARNWELL-HAGEMEYER will be campaign manager.

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CONGRESS

DEBT CRISIS AVERTED — Via WaPo’s Tony Romm writes that the Senate’s passage of the deal clearing the path to raise the debt ceiling (got that?) “essentially puts to rest a fierce, months-long battle between Democrats and Republicans and appears to postpone the next round of wrangling over the country’s financial health until after the 2022 midterm elections.”

FIGHT OVER REMOTE VOTING FIRES UP — KEVIN McCARTHY’s battle against proxy voting will soon come to a head when the Supreme Court decides whether or not to take up the case, Olivia Beavers and Katherine Tully-McManus report. “Despite the flood of his members who abandoned the court challenge and started taking advantage of Democrats’ Covid-era remote voting rules, McCarthy says he’s committed to revoking it in 2023 if his party takes back the House.”

CONFIRMED COVID CASE — Rep. BRETT GUTHRIE (R-Ky.) said he tested positive for Covid-19 and was experiencing "mild symptoms" despite being vaccinated, The Hill’s Cristina Marcos reports. The news comes “just hours after [Guthrie] spent a considerable amount of time on the House floor managing debate for Republicans on several noncontroversial health-related bills.”

THE PANDEMIC

THE POLITICS OF AT-HOME TESTING — Three administration officials tell Adam Cancryn and David Lim that the White House “opted for a controversial plan to pay for at-home Covid-19 testing through private insurance after officials concluded it would be too costly and inefficient to simply send the tests to all Americans for free. … The decision to forgo a European-style approach to testing — which hinges on the government buying and widely distributing rapid tests — has sparked days of backlash, putting the White House on the defensive over its newest plan for containing the virus.”

PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — DCist’s Ally Schweitzer takes a look at how the federal government’s embrace of telework could endanger D.C.’s economy. “The U.S. government employs more than 2 million civilians globally. It’s also the single largest employer in D.C., and one of its biggest landlords,” she writes. “If every federal worker spends an average of $20 a day downtown, [D.C. Deputy Mayor JOHN FALCICCHIO] says, ‘somewhere between $60 and $100 million of tax revenue has vanished if those workers don’t come back.’”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

VOTING RIGHTS FOR NONCITIZENS — The New York City Council approved legislation Thursday that allows noncitizens to vote in local elections, “granting the right to more than 800,000 legal residents,” write NYT’s Jeffery Mays and Annie Correal .

TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week”: Peter Baker, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Vivian Salama and Jake Sherman.

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Susan Collins accidentally walked into the Senate Dems’ lunch, prompting jokes that she was leaving the GOP. Said Tim Kaine: “I prayed for this for years!” (h/t Zachary Cohen)

Meanwhile, Republicans hurled an array of tortured Christmas-related digs at Joe Biden on the Senate floor. Some highlights:

— Rick Scott depicted Biden as the Grinch (and Anthony Fauci as his dog, Max) in a poster with strong “graphic design is my passion” vibes.

— Joni Ernst wielded a large image of Mariah Carey while announcing that "if, like Mariah, you ‘don’t want a lot for Christmas’ and ‘don’t care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree,’ this may be your year.” (h/t Zach Purser Brown)

Liz Cheney tantalizingly tweeted that Mark Meadows “has turned over many texts from his private cell phone from January 6th” to the House select committee.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, fresh off a spat with Nancy Mace, now appears to be taking aim at Dan Crenshaw over his recent comment that the House Freedom Caucus is filled with “grifters.” Greene said Crenshaw is “shooting with blanks.”

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., noted purveyor of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, authored a piece breaking with most of his siblings by claiming that Sirhan Sirhan did not assassinate their father, and calling on Gavin Newsom to release Sirhan from prison.

The VP’s office celebrated the birthday of outgoing senior adviser and chief spokesperson Symone Sanders a day early on Thursday with cupcakes for the birthday girl. We’re told the treats came from D.C. staple Baked and Wired, with a special German Chocolate cupcake purchased just for the veep.

SPOTTED at the Beach Cafe on the Upper East Side for New York Post columnist Miranda Devine’s “Laptop from Hell” book party: Rudy and Andrew Giuliani, Roger Stone, Ann Coulter, Shawn McCreesh, Douglas Murray, James O’Keefe and Julia Hahn.

TRANSITIONS — Malbert Smith is now legislative officer at the Labor Department. He most recently was senior education policy fellow at MetaMetrics and is a Biden campaign alum. … Lauren Townsend is joining Fox Corporation as SVP of comms. She currently is a consultant to Hulu and is a STARZ, Sony and NBC alum. … Irvin McCullough is joining the German Marshall Fund as press officer. He currently is deputy legislative director and national security analyst at the Government Accountability Project. … Matthew Minor is now an account executive for Hill+Knowlton Strategies’ energy and industrials team. He previously was a senior account coordinator at RUBENSTEIN and is a Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Madeira alum.

ENGAGED — Bill Van Saun, counsel for the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and Annaliese Davis, director at SKDK and a Steny Hoyer alum, got engaged in front of the Capitol Christmas tree on Wednesday evening. Annaliese’s former colleagues played photographer and the couple celebrated afterward with Christmas cocktails at Archipelago on U Street. They met while volunteering on Rep. Conor Lamb’s special election campaign in March 2018. Pic

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Sarah Gargagliano Phillips, the owner/editor of the Scout Guide Alexandria and fitness/fashion blogger @fiftytwothursdays, Casey William Phillips, founder of The Hereford Agency, welcomed Waylon Scott Phillips on Tuesday, 80 years to the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor that prompted his great grandfather, Roy O. Phillips, to leave the family farm in South Dakota and join the Marine Corps. Waylon came in at 8 lbs, 3 oz. and 22 inches. Pic … Another pic

BIRTHWEEK (was Thursday): Emil Skandul of Capitol Foundry

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Symone Sanders … Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) … Reps. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Harley Rouda (D-Calif.) and Austin Scott (R-Ga.) … Georgia GOP gubernatorial candidate and former Sen. David Perdue … “Dateline NBC” correspondent Andrea Canning … CNN’s Kristin Wilson and Alex Koppelman … Fox News’ Mike Emanuel … Patrick O’Neill of Public Strategies Washington … Hope Hodge Seck … Mike Shields of Convergence Media … POLITICO’s Katie Fossett, Erin Durkin and Lulu Parajuli … Christina Coloroso of Analyst Institute … Kieran Mahoney … Steve Johnston of FlexPoint Media … Ellie Cohanim … David French of the National Retail Federation … Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List … Chris McGrath … Nathan Daschle of the Daschle Group … Jorge Neri … Alice Cohan … former Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) … Megan Whittemore … Lucy Buckman … Jasper Craven ... Marc Mezvinsky ... Melissa Harrison … Matt Huckleby of the Indiana GOP ... U.S. News & World Report’s Susan Milligan ... David Kieve … Jess Peterson … Kevin de León … Kip Wainscott

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