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Presented by PhRMA: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | |  | | By Eugene Daniels, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross | | | A MILESTONE BIDEN DOESN’T WANT — The RealClearPolitics polling average for President JOE BIDEN’s approval rating has now dipped below 40% for the first time ever, sitting at 39.8% this afternoon. THE LATEST REVELATION — WaPo’s Jon Swaine, Emma Brown and Jacqueline Alemany scoop that RUDY GIULIANI and other DONALD TRUMP advisers asked a northern Michigan prosecutor to give county voting machines to their team in the weeks after the 2020 election. The prosecutor, a Republican, refused. “I never expected in my life I’d get a call like this,” he tells WaPo. ‘LEGITIMATE POLITICAL DISCOURSE’ — The three-word phrase heard ’round the world continued to rock the Capitol today as Speaker NANCY PELOSI and House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY both spoke out about the RNC’s official defense of the Jan. 6 insurrection. — Pelosi: “Take your party back from this cult,” the speaker urged Republicans at her weekly press conference. “It has been hijacked.” And Pelosi called out McCarthy for walking away from ABC’s Rachel Scott on Tuesday when she tried to ask him about it: “Republicans can run, but they cannot hide,” Pelosi said. — McCarthy: “I think anybody, we all know this, who entered this building, that rioted, is not ‘legitimate political discourse,’ the California Republican told NBC’s Garrett Haake this morning. “But I don’t think that’s what the RNC was talking about when you talk to them.” Other highlights from their comments this morning: — McCarthy defended the RNC’s censure of Reps. ADAM KINZINGER (R-Ill.) and LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.), whom he predicted would drop her reelection bid. — McCarthy agreed with Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL’s description of Jan. 6 as a violent insurrection. Sen. TED CRUZ (R-Texas), on the other hand, today called that language a mistake and “the political propaganda of Democrats and the corporate media.” (He used to call it a “terrorist attack.”) — Pelosi said that the House Administration Committee was reviewing the possibility of banning stock trades by members of Congress, and the chamber will “go forward with what the consensus is.” She suggested that any changes should be government-wide and include members of the judiciary. (That was a less strong endorsement than some had expected.) — Pelosi said she’ll follow guidance from the Capitol physician on how many members can attend the State of the Union as the Omicron wave recedes. Speaking of which … THE DEM MASK SHIFT — In this morning’s Playbook, we noted that many Democratic governors have concluded that it’s time to lift masking mandates. Now, we’re seeing that approach begin to be embraced by Democratic leaders in Washington, too. “It’s time to give people their lives back,” DCCC Chair SEAN PATRICK MALONEY (D-N.Y.) tweeted, endorsing Gov. KATHY HOCHUL’s plan to relax her state’s mask-or-vax rules. “I fully support the decision to roll back mask mandates,” he announced in a second tweet. It’s the latest confirmation that Democratic leaders are eager to pivot the party’s messaging on Covid-19 and emphasize a “return to normalcy” — something they argue was made possible by the Biden administration’s handling of the pandemic. For Democrats, there are obvious risks, including the possibility of declaring victory too early, only to find the country in the middle of yet another new catastrophic variant. (Indeed, the perception that Biden declared “mission accomplished” last July Fourth has been widely seen as the beginning of the administration’s political woes.) But with angst about the pandemic animating much of American politics right now, Democrats don’t really have a choice other than addressing the topic head on. — FWIW, the public health perspective: CDC Director ROCHELLE WALENSKY said this morning that the agency continues to recommend wearing masks indoors in areas with “high” or “substantial” coronavirus transmission — i.e., all but 14 counties nationwide at the moment. Good Wednesday afternoon.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: Washington is talking about price setting of medicines, but it won’t stop insurers from shifting costs to you. And it will risk access to medicines and future cures. Instead, let’s cap your out-of-pocket costs, stop middlemen from pocketing your discounts and make insurance work for you. Let’s protect patients. It’s the right choice. Learn more. | | | CONGRESS MISSING IN ACTION — Facing an uproar from her fellow Wyoming Republicans, Cheney has become all but invisible back home, attending hardly any party events in the state, NYT’s Reid Epstein reports from Rock Springs. Her absence, he writes, “is raising questions in Wyoming about whether she is counting on Democrats to bail her out in the August primary — or even whether she really is battling to hold on to her office.” They’re questions Cheney largely dismisses: She told Epstein of the state party’s leaders, “I’m not going to convince the crazies and I reject the crazies.” LOOK WHO’S BACK — BARACK OBAMA will address House Democrats virtually Thursday in a keynote conversation with Pelosi, per NBC’s Sahil Kapur. INFRASTRUCTURE YEAR — McConnell and Sen. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO (R-W.Va.) are urging governors to ignore Biden administration guidance recommending that states not use money from the bipartisan infrastructure law to expand highways, WSJ’s Andrew Duehren reports. Meanwhile, a lot of the money is still tied up until Congress approves it through the appropriations process. MUSICAL CHAIRS — Rep. JASON SMITH (R-Mo.) is planning to make a bid for the House Ways and Means chairmanship instead of jumping into his state’s crowded Senate primary, Scott Wong scooped in his first story for NBC. With an eye on Republicans retaking the chamber, Smith is hoping to make the leap from Budget Committee ranking member to the House’s top tax writer. But he’ll face competition from Ways and Means members VERN BUCHANAN (Fla.) and ADRIAN SMITH (Neb.). Buchanan told NBC he’s next in line for the spot, while Jason Smith pooh-poohed seniority and said, “Our party is about who works the hardest and has done the most to put the party and our country in a place to succeed.” START OF AN ERA? — WaPo’s Casey Parks profiles KATI HORNUNG, who helped push the Equal Rights Amendment ratification over the finish line in Virginia and is now commencing a nationwide push to try to mobilize voter support for getting it through Congress. Rep. JACKIE SPEIER (D-Calif.) is fighting to get Congress to repeal the deadline for passing the amendment, but says “the problem we have is inertia.” AMERICA AND THE WORLD THE DRUMBEAT OF WAR — Biden has signed off on plans from the Pentagon to evacuate Americans from Ukraine if Russia invades, WSJ’s Gordon Lubold and Nancy Youssef scooped . Everybody’s mindful of trying to avoid a repeat of Afghanistan last summer, and the preparations are already beginning: “Some of the 1,700 troops from the 82nd Airborne Corps being deployed to Poland to bolster that ally will in coming days begin to set up checkpoints, tent camps and other temporary facilities inside Poland’s border with Ukraine in preparation to serve arriving Americans.” — Russian military leaders arrived in Belarus today to oversee 10 days of joint military drills that begin Thursday, keeping the West’s fears high about a potential Ukraine invasion. “Russia has moved up to 30,000 troops, two battalions of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems and numerous fighter jets into Belarus for joint training exercises with the Belarusian army,” The Guardian’s Shaun Walker reports . “Satellite imagery shows much of the hardware has been moved to locations close to the border with Ukraine.” VEEP ON THE ROAD — VP KAMALA HARRIS will head to the Munich Security Conference later this month, the White House announced — a prominent perch at a summit Biden has often attended.
| | | | HAPPENING THURSDAY – A LONG GAME CONVERSATION ON THE CLIMATE CRISIS : Join POLITICO for back-to-back conversations on climate and sustainability action, starting with a panel led by Global Insider author Ryan Heath focused on insights gleaned from our POLITICO/Morning Consult Global Sustainability Poll of citizens from 13 countries on five continents about how their governments should respond to climate change. Following the panel, join a discussion with POLITICO White House Correspondent Laura Barrón-López and Gina McCarthy, White House national climate advisor, about the Biden administration’s climate and sustainability agenda. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | POLITICS ROUNDUP CASH DASH — JAMES CARVILLE is promoting a new super PAC that aims to raise $8 million for Democratic Rep. CONOR LAMB’s Pennsylvania Senate bid. “The fact that a super PAC is backing Lamb is a major development in one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races,” Holly Otterbein writes. “Lamb, a moderate, has so far been outraised by Lt. Gov. JOHN FETTERMAN, the progressive frontrunner.” AD WARS — The Republican Governors Association is shoring up Georgia Gov. BRIAN KEMP in his primary against DAVID PERDUE with a $500,000 ad buy, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein reports. Though the ad targets the Biden administration, not Perdue, and touts Kemp’s conservative credentials, it marks the first time ever that the RGA “is financing a TV ad during a party primary to support an incumbent facing a GOP challenger.” 2022 WATCH — Biden is making new investments in gubernatorial races this year, funding DNC comms staff for the elections in Connecticut, Maryland, Kansas and New Mexico, CNN’s Kate Sullivan reports. He’ll also appear at a Democratic Governors Association fundraiser. SUBURBAN MOMS ALERT — The national network Red Wine and Blue is mobilizing liberal suburban moms to fight back against the conservative culture wars over public health measures and diversity that are increasingly enveloping their schools, WaPo’s Annie Gowen reports . Among their strategies at school board meetings: “Show up at meetings with fact-based speeches ready and create text groups for real-time strategizing. Wave ‘jazz hands’ if told not to clap at meetings. Avoid using the divisive language of their opponents, such as ‘CRT’ for critical race theory, and instead replace it with alternatives like ‘culturally responsive instruction.’” SPORTS BLINK — As the country gears up for the Super Bowl this weekend, NBC LX’s Noah Pransky has a fun look at the political activities of Cincinnati Bengals owner MIKE BROWN and L.A. Rams owner STAN KROENKE. The two have collectively donated almost $2 million to politicians in the past couple of decades: Brown almost always to Republicans, including the Trump reelect, and Kroenke to members of both parties, including HILLARY CLINTON’s 2016 campaign and the Trump inauguration committee. JUDICIARY SQUARE THE LATEST DISCUSSIONS — Biden will talk to Senate Judiciary Dems at the White House on Thursday about the Supreme Court opening, per CNN. CLYBURN STILL MAKING THE ROUNDS — We don’t know what they talked about, of course. But as House Majority Whip JIM CLYBURN (D-S.C.) pushes hard for MICHELLE CHILDS for the SCOTUS seat, this morning Senate Judiciary member SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D-R.I.) posted that he was the latest senator to meet with Clyburn. VETTING THE CANDIDATES — WaPo’s Robert Barnes digs into a 2012 religious rights case that current California Supreme Court Justice LEONDRA KRUGER lost before the Supreme Court. Conservatives are warning that her arguments show “she might not protect religious rights”; at the time, even Kruger’s former boss, ELENA KAGAN, “termed the government’s argument ‘amazing,’ and not in a good way,” Barnes writes. But then-Solicitor General DONALD VERRILLI tells him that he assigned Kruger the position and owns its faults, not her. PAGING DOUG JONES — As Biden gets ready to name his Supreme Court nominee, Marianne LeVine sat down with DAN COATS to talk about how a high court pick can go sideways — he was the sherpa for HARRIET MIERS’ doomed 2005 nomination. “The result here and example is that the president needs to understand the difficulty of getting a person nominated and confirmed,” he says.
| | | | 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. | | | | | BEYOND THE BELTWAY AFTERNOON READ — BuzzFeed’s Katie Baker has a big feature out about former New York A.G. ERIC SCHNEIDERMAN, his life since his Me Too downfall and his friendship with ANNA GRAHAM HUNTER. It’s a complex, compelling story about the nature of apology, punishment and forgiveness for a man who “insists he is not looking to make a political comeback. Instead, he said, he realized that he had only himself to blame for his downfall, and that his subsequent growth was only possible because he was publicly accused.” STATE OF THE CITIES — Mayors have had a rough go of it the past couple of years. In a new POLITICO survey of mayors across the country, Liz Crampton and Lisa Kashinsky report, respondents said “the pandemic forced mayors into crisis mode, first to deal with the pandemic, and now with its lingering effects: a sharp rise in homelessness and food insecurity, prolonged remote learning, demands for mental health resources and a litany of economic woes.” And they’re often battling with state-level officials over money, especially the influx of federal pandemic aid. MEDIAWATCH MAKING IT TO THE MERGE — U.S. antitrust regulators have allowed the Discovery-WarnerMedia merger to go forward, Discovery said today, per The Hollywood Reporter . The huge deal is expected to close in the second quarter. The FTC’s and DOJ’s decisions not to challenge the merger will likely disappoint progressive Democrats in Congress who had urged the administration to block the deal on antitrust grounds. NOT DEAD YET — Local newspapers and the chains that own them are sensing a bit of cautious optimism around growing online subscription numbers, with Lee, Gannett and Hearst all reporting roughly 50% year-over-year increases recently, NYT’s Marc Tracy reports . “They do not remotely compare with the subscription numbers of not 20 years ago … But for an industry accustomed to doomsaying, the willingness of people to pay for digital access is giving many publishers hope that they have found a way to survive.” NOW DEAD — Entertainment Weekly, InStyle and several other magazines newly acquired by BARRY DILLER’s media group will end their print publications, becoming digital-only outlets and laying off about 200 people, WSJ’s Alexandra Bruell scoops. PLAYBOOKERS MEDIA MOVE — Elaina Plott will rejoin The Atlantic as a staff writer. She currently covers politics for the NYT. Announcement TRANSITIONS — Alan Fitts is now VP and chief of staff for corporate affairs and comms at American Express. He most recently was executive director of international government affairs at JPMorgan Chase, where he managed the firm’s international council, and is an Obama White House and State Department alum. … Peter Kamocsai will be a program manager at NBCUniversal. He previously was a research and analysis manager at the Partnership for Public Service. … Esther Jensen will be a senior account executive on Edelman’s energy team. She currently is a public affairs associate at Kivvit. ENGAGED — Megan Capiak, VP at Foundry Ten and an Uber, Salesforce and Invariant alum, and Andrew Laing, director at Wolverine Mutual and co-founder of Victory Six Advisors, got engaged at 2:22 p.m. on 2/2/22. The two met while working for Fred Upton in 2013. Pic
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