Playbook PM: Pelosi plays cleanup for Biden

From: POLITICO Playbook - Thursday Jan 20,2022 06:12 pm

Jan 20, 2022

By Rachael Bade, Garrett Ross and Eli Okun

Presented by

BIG MEDIA MOVE THIS MORNING: BOB COSTA, the star politics reporter for the Washington Post and BOB WOODWARD’s recent co-author, is joining CBS as chief election and campaign correspondent. More from the NYT

THE MEANING OF ‘CHUNKS’ — Speaker NANCY PELOSI doesn’t like the word “chunks” — for good reason.

Just hours after President JOE BIDEN endorsed breaking up Build Back Better up into “chunks” to try to get it passed, Pelosi gently rebuffed the idea. Her issue? If you break up the bill, each proposal would then be subject to the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

In other words, kiss the passage goodbye.

“‘Chunks’ is an interesting word,” Pelosi said at her weekly presser. “What the president calls 'chunks' I hope would be a major bill going forward. It may be more limited, but it is still significant.”

She later added: “This is a reconciliation bill. So when people say, ‘let's divide it up,’ they don't understand the process.”

The speaker did lay out what’s more likely to happen, a process Biden sort of hinted at yesterday but did not articulate clearly. Democrats will probably take the ideas Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) has signaled he’s willing to accept — $500 billion in climate funding, universal Pre-K and a permanent fix for the Affordable Care Act — and try to pass that via the fast-tracking budget process that enables the Senate to avoid a filibuster.

It will be a much smaller “chunk” of BBB. Pelosi even acknowledged that Democrats “may have to rename” the bill.

Senior Democratic aides tell us that then — and likely only then — would the party move to try to pass their other axed portions of BBB. But since they have no chance of getting to Biden’s desk, those will effectively be turned into messaging bills that front-liners can try to run on in 2022, and blame Republicans for blocking.

ONE POSSIBLE PROBLEM: As Insider’s Joseph Zeballos-Roig tweeted just a few minutes ago, Manchin is indicating that his previous offer to the White House is no longer necessarily acceptable. Remember: Manchin is still sour from the White House’s personal attacks on him after he stepped back from talks.

Here’s Zeballos-Roig: “Sen. Joe Manchin tells me BBB negotiations with the WH are gonna be ‘starting from scratch’ … His previous offer to the WH is no longer on the table.”

SPEAKING OF WHICH …

ANOTHER MESSAGE FROM PELOSI’S PRESSER: Lay off Manchin and KYRSTEN SINEMA.

“I have not encouraged that,” she said when asked about attacks on the two moderates. “In fact, I have discouraged it because we are a giant kaleidoscope here... We have to be respectful. But I've discouraged people from making comments about them. … I don't think there's any upside in Democrats criticizing Democrats.”

The comments are particularly noteworthy given the White House’s move before Christmas to suggest Manchin was not a man of his word — and the party’s subsequent pile-on as the pair refused to blow up the filibuster.

It also comes just after Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER wouldn’t say whether he would support a primary challenge to Manchin and Sinema. Pelosi has long given her more moderate members leeway to vote in line with their districts.

Good Thursday afternoon.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Biden’s BBB remarks weren’t the only thing from his news conference that needed cleaning up today …

NYT’s Steven Erlanger writes in Brussels that Biden “caused controversy in his news conference Wednesday night by stating the obvious: that the many European allies of the United States are not all in agreement at this point about what to do should Russia choose any number of aggressive options toward Ukraine.” But it wasn’t just that. “Mr. Biden created confusion when he suggested that a ‘minor incursion’ by Russian forces, as opposed to a full-scale invasion, might not prompt the severe response Washington and its allies have threatened. The White House later tried to clarify his words, saying that what Mr. Biden meant to say was that any further move of Russian forces into Ukraine would qualify as an invasion.”

— TO WIT, Ukrainian Foreign Minister DMYTRO KULEBA told the WSJ: “Speaking of minor and full incursions or full invasion, you cannot be half-aggressive. You’re either aggressive or you’re not aggressive. We should not give Putin the slightest chance to play with quasi-aggression or small incursion operations. This aggression was there since 2014. This is the fact.”

— And Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY chimed in on Twitter: “We want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations. Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones. I say this as the President of a great power.”

— Biden tried to clarify his comment further today: “If any assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border that is an invasion” and will “be met with severe and coordinated economic response that I’ve discussed in detail with our allies. … If Putin makes this choice, Russia will pay a heavy price.” WaPo has more

POLL POSITION — Despite his claim that he doesn’t “believe the polls” on Wednesday, Biden is facing the worst numbers of his presidency one year in, according to the latest AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. “More Americans disapprove than approve of how Biden is handling his job as president, 56% to 43%. As of now, just 28% of Americans say they want Biden to run for reelection in 2024, including only 48% of Democrats,” AP’s Aamer Madhani and Hannah Fingerhut write.

THE ONE-YEAR STEPBACKS …

— “Biden’s First Year: The Goals He Hit and the Ones He Missed,” by WSJ’s Catherine Lucey and Ken Thomas

— “After one year in office, what has Biden done about the four crises he pledged to address?” by WaPo’s Annie Linskey, Cleve Wootson Jr., Jeff Stein and Brady Dennis

— “Fact check: A look at Biden's first year in false claims,” analysis by CNN’s Daniel Dale

— “‘The Lowest Point in My Lifetime’: How 14 Independent Voters Feel About America,” by NYT Opinion’s Patrick Healy and Adrian Rivera

PROGRAMMING ALERT — White House COS RON KLAIN will sit down for an interview with Lester Holt on “NBC Nightly News” at 6:30 p.m.

JOIN NEXT FRIDAY TO HEAR FROM GOVERNORS ACROSS AMERICA : As we head into the third year of the pandemic, state governors are taking varying approaches to public health measures including vaccine and mask mandates. "The Fifty: America's Governors" is a series of live conversations featuring various governors on the unique challenges they face as they take the lead and command the national spotlight in historic ways. Learn what is working and what is not from the governors on the front lines, REGISTER HERE.

CONGRESS

WHAT’S NEXT FOR BBB — Now that Biden has endorsed a scaled back version of BBB, Democrats are angling for climate to be one of the priorities. “We don’t have another 10 years to wait,” Sen. ED MARKEY (D-Mass.) told NYT’s Coral Davenport and Lisa Friedman. “We should take what Joe Manchin said, take the climate and clean-energy provisions in the package that have been largely worked through and financed, and take any other provisions in any other part of Build Back Better that have the votes, and put them together as a package.”

TOO LITTLE TOO LATE — Senators want to find a bipartisan way to deter Russia from invading Ukraine. But it might be too late for that. “With the Biden administration warning that Moscow could launch an offensive against Kyiv at any moment, senators from both parties are hustling to back up their promises of bipartisanship with a legislative response aimed at crippling Russia’s economy if President Vladimir Putin triggers a war in eastern Europe,” Andrew Desiderio writes.

JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH

FAMILY BUSINESS — The latest subject of the Jan. 6 select committee’s interest is inside the Trump family, Nicholas Wu and Betsy Woodruff Swan report. “Chair BENNIE THOMPSON (D-Miss.) told reporters Thursday the panel will soon ask the former president’s daughter to come before the committee. ‘You will anticipate the committee inviting some people to come talk to us,” he said, adding, ‘not lawmakers right now — IVANKA TRUMP.’”

Just a reminder: During the Jan. 6 Capitol siege, top military leaders and Trump officials brought Ivanka Trump into the Oval to try to get her father to call off the violence. It will be interesting to see how Ivanka Trump — who has sought to maintain some separation herself from her father’s bombast — decides to handle this. Kyle Cheney has a thread on the significance of the committee’s request

ALL POLITICS

BACK IN BUSINESS — As House Republicans look to take back the chamber in the midterms, they’re calling on someone with experience in that department to help craft the path forward. “NEWT GINGRICH, whose ‘Contract with America’ in 1994 is linked with the GOP takeover of Congress in that midterm cycle, said he has been advising House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY (Calif.) on a set of policy items for Republicans to take to voters ahead of the November elections,” WaPo’s Jeff Stein and Laura Meckler report. “House Minority Whip STEVE SCALISE (La.) and other members of House Republican leadership are also involved in the project, which is not expected to launch until the spring or summer.

What’s in the mix: “Republicans are expected to focus their new platform on education policies aimed at tapping into parental discontent; countering the rise of China with new economic measures; and “oversight” of the Biden administration. They are also looking at invoking other traditional GOP goals such as cutting taxes, restricting immigration, criticizing Silicon Valley and repealing environmental rules.”

STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.

THE ECONOMY

THE UNEMPLOYMENT PICTURE — Unemployment claims hit a three-month high last week amid the Omicron surge, AP’s Paul Wiseman writes . “Jobless claims rose for the third straight week — by 55,000 to 286,000, highest since mid-October, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The jump in claims marked the biggest one-week increase since mid-July. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, rose by 20,000 to 231,000, highest since late November.”

— Labor Department numbers released today also painted a brutal picture of Omicron’s effect on labor shortages. “Between Dec. 29 and Jan. 10, approximately 8.8 million workers reported not working because they were sick with the coronavirus or caring for someone who was, according to data from the Census Bureau,” per WaPo’s Eli Rosenberg. “Those numbers are nearly triple the levels from the first two weeks of December, before cases had started to peak around the country. They were also the highest numbers since the agency started taking the survey in April 2020 — well over last January’s peak of 6.6 million workers out.”

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

HAVANA SYNDROME LATEST — The CIA has “ruled out that the mysterious symptoms known as Havana Syndrome are the result of a sustained global campaign by a hostile power aimed at hundreds of U.S. diplomats and spies,” NBC’s Ken Dilanian and Josh Lederman scooped Wednesday night. “In about two dozen cases, the agency cannot rule out foreign involvement, including many of the cases that originated at the U.S. Embassy in Havana beginning in 2016. Another group of cases is considered unresolved. But in hundreds of other cases of possible symptoms, the agency has found plausible alternative explanations, the sources said.”

AP’s Nomaan Merchant reports that the “agency’s findings, according to one official familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence, drew immediate criticism from those who have reported cases and from advocates who accuse the government of long dismissing the array of ailments.”

— Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN defended those who suffered from the phenomenon in a Thursday letter to U.S. diplomats obtained by NBC’s Josh Lederman and Ken Dilanian.

TRUMP CARDS

HEADS UP — “Fulton County District Attorney FANI WILLIS is requesting a special grand jury to aid in her investigation of former President Donald Trump and his efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Tamar Hallerman reports.

PLAYBOOKERS

MEDIA MOVE — Allie Raffa is joining NBC as a Capitol Hill correspondent. She previously was a general assignment reporter at KNSD, NBC’s San Diego affiliate, and is a Fox News alum.

MEDIA FLASHBACK — Our Alex Thompson sat down with Eliana Johnson and Chris Stirewalt to discuss his appearance on “The Tonight Show” as a teen (as well as the media and the Biden administration). If you’re a West Wing Playbook reader, you have to watch this video. The podcast

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is announcing a slate of senior staff: Marc Aidinoff will be COS and previously was senior adviser and acting COS, Kevin Lo will be deputy COS and previously was a special adviser to the director, and Jenny Gao will be senior adviser to the director and previously was COS to the White House Office of the Staff Secretary.

BONUS BIRTHDAY: USTR’s Nora Todd

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