Playbook PM: How a billionaire, a lobbyist and a judge are shaping D.C.

From: POLITICO Playbook - Monday Feb 14,2022 06:20 pm

Feb 14, 2022

By Ryan Lizza, Garrett Ross and Eli Okun

Presented by

HEADS UP, PANDEMIC EDITION — D.C. is dropping its mandate that indoor venues require proof of vaccination for patrons beginning on Tuesday. And beginning March 1, the District will drop mask mandates for grocery stores and pharmacies, restaurants, bars and sports and entertainment venues — but it will still be required in settings like schools, public transit and emergency shelters. ( More from WaPo)

HEADS UP, NERD PROM EDITION — Comedy is coming back to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. TREVOR NOAH will perform at the dinner on April 30, becoming the first comedian to headline the annual event since MICHELLE WOLF’s controversial routine roiled official Washington in 2018. ( More from Quint Forgey)

V-DAY READS — It’s Valentine’s Day, so let’s talk about something we love: stories about behind-the-scenes players in Washington politics.

Cupid was generous today in the morning papers, and we happen to have three nice examples worth highlighting:

A story about an eccentric billionaire trying to quietly shape Congress with campaign contributions, one about a former Hill BFF of a key senator trading in on his connections as a newly registered lobbyist, and a piece by an intellectual stoking the fires of an important new idea in the minds of GOP party leaders.

— THE MAGA WHISPERER: NYT’s Ryan Mac and Lisa Lerer have an in-depth look at PETER THIEL, who they deem “the right’s would-be kingmaker” and “a key financier of the Make America Great Again movement.” The story examines Thiel’s political spending, which rivals that of anyone else in the arena, but the duo writes that what “sets Mr. Thiel’s spending apart, though, is its focus on hard-right candidates who traffic in the conspiracy theories espoused by [DONALD TRUMP ] and who cast themselves as rebels determined to overthrow the Republican establishment and even the broader American political order.”

Plus, it kicks off with this spicy anecdote: “The wine flowed. DONALD TRUMP JR. mingled with the guests. And Peter Thiel, the tech billionaire and host of the event, had a message for the well-heeled crowd: It was time to clean house.

“The fund-raiser at Mr. Thiel’s Miami Beach compound last month was for a conservative candidate challenging Representative LIZ CHENEY of Wyoming for a spot on the ballot in November’s midterm elections. Ms. Cheney, one of several Republicans who had voted to impeach President Donald J. Trump on charges of inciting the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, was the face of ‘the traitorous 10,’ Mr. Thiel said, according to two people with knowledge of the event, who were not authorized to speak publicly. All of them had to be replaced, he declared, by conservatives loyal to the former president.”

— THE MANCHIN WHISPERER: WaPo’s Theodoric Meyer and Jeff Stein dig into LARRY PUCCIO, a former top staffer for Sen. JOE MANCHIN turned lobbyist, who has cemented himself as one of the most powerful people on K Street right now.

“Manchin is now the Senate’s swing vote and one of the most powerful men in Washington, and Puccio has figured out how to monetize his ability to get his old boss on the phone. Barely a month after Democrats reclaimed the Senate last year, turning the ability to sway Manchin into a sought-after skill, Puccio registered for the first time as a federal lobbyist.

“In less than a year, Puccio has cashed in. He and a partner have lobbied the Senate almost exclusively, according to disclosure filings, pulling in more than $310,000 in addition to his earnings from his extensive state-level lobbying business in West Virginia. Puccio isn’t the only Manchin ally who’s been lured to K Street — several top lobbying firms snapped up former Manchin aides last year — but he goes back further with Manchin than almost anyone else in politics. With trillions of dollars tied to Manchin’s vote, Washington clients have sought out Puccio’s guidance on how to influence the West Virginia senator.

— THE ECA WHISPERER: This one isn’t a profile, but in an NYT guest essay, J. MICHAEL LUTTIG, a former federal appeals court judge who the Times notes “has been advising a number of senior Republican senators on the Electoral Count Act,” lays out what he’s been telling them behind the scenes in “The Conservative Case for Avoiding a Repeat of Jan. 6.”

He knows how to get readers’ attention. This is the first graf:

“The clear and present danger to our democracy now is that former President Donald Trump and his political allies appear prepared to exploit the Electoral Count Act of 1887, the law governing the counting of votes for president and vice president, to seize the presidency in 2024 if Mr. Trump or his anointed candidate is not elected by the American people.”

Good Monday afternoon.

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UKRAINE-RUSSIA LATEST

— Russia said today that the possibilities for a diplomatic resolution to its conflict with Ukraine are still on the table. “Speaking in what appeared to be a carefully scripted televised meeting with President VLADIMIR V. PUTIN of Russia, Foreign Minister SERGEY V. LAVROV said that he supported continuing negotiations with the West on the ‘security guarantees’ Russia has been demanding of the United States and NATO,” NYT’s Anton Troianovski, Marc Santora and Christopher Schuetze report from Moscow . “‘I believe that our possibilities are far from exhausted,” Mr. Lavrov said, referring to Russia’s negotiations with the West. ‘I would propose continuing and intensifying them.’ Mr. Putin responded simply: ‘Good.’”

— Meanwhile, Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY and German Chancellor OLAF SCHOLZ played down the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO in a news conference following their meeting today. “The question of [Ukrainian] membership in alliances is practically not on the agenda,” Scholz said, per POLITICO Europe’s Hans von der Burchard. Zelenskyy “said NATO membership was a remote ‘dream’ but added: ‘For us, NATO membership is not the absolute goal. That’s not a question that comes from us.’”

JUDICIARY SQUARE

FEVER BREAKING? — The Senate Judiciary Committee is famously partisan. Look no further than the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice BRETT KAVANAUGH. How bad was it? “At one point, BEN SASSE said that he was so mad at me he wanted to hit me,” Sen. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D-R.I.) recalled in an interview. Now, the question is whether the panel can move past those types of animosities, Marianne LeVine reports . “Judiciary members on both sides of the aisle predict that the still-unnamed nominee’s confirmation hearing will be civil. But the panel’s handling of her forthcoming selection by Joe Biden, the first former Judiciary chair in modern history to send the chamber a Supreme Court hopeful, will challenge senators to set a new tone with each other — and the pick herself.”

RALLYING CRY — Black activists and women’s groups that have backed VP KAMALA HARRIS in the face of racist and sexist attacks are “remobilizing for the battle over President Biden’s upcoming Supreme Court nomination,” WaPo’s Annie Linskey writes . “UltraViolet, a women’s rights group, will announce Monday it is reactivating the Women’s Disinformation Defense Project — launched during Biden’s search for a vice president — to combat racist posts on social media. The She Will Rise initiative, which has worked to establish a Black woman on the high court since before Biden was elected, is also stepping up efforts on behalf of the prospective nominee. The Black Women’s Roundtable is planning a rally at the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington and regular huddles with the White House, among other actions.”

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THE WHITE HOUSE

BIDEN’S INFLATION DILEMMA — Biden has a plan to address soaring inflation. But much to the chagrin of voters, it isn’t likely to bear out much fruit in the immediate future. “Biden is now trying to remedy the situation with 72 distinct initiatives — everything from new rules for cell phone repairs to regulations on meatpacking to more merger reviews,” AP’s Josh Boak writes . “But even administration officials acknowledge that the initiatives outlined by the president’s seven-month-old competition council aren’t designed to quickly stop the 7.5% inflation that’s frustrating Americans and damaging Biden’s popularity. Furthermore, business groups dispute the fundamental premise that competition has faded within the U.S. economy and they are prepared to challenge the administration’s new initiatives in court.”

ON THE WAY OUT — “MARIEL SAEZ , the White House director of broadcast media, will leave government for the private sector after serving as the administration's point person on a critical component of its wide-ranging messaging strategy: television,” CNN’s Phil Mattingly reports. “Several White House officials have told CNN there's an expectation there will be more departures in the weeks ahead, likely after Biden's State of the Union address on March 1.”

CONGRESS

MOD VS. MOD — Dems who want to scoop the economic agenda out of the BBB’s ashes are running into a bit of a problem that hasn’t been encountered much to this point: “Sen. JOE MANCHIN’S goal for raising tax rates clashes with Sen. KYRSTEN SINEMA’S opposition to doing so,” WSJ’s Andrew Duehren and Richard Rubin write. “‘I respect her and what her concerns may be, but I think basically our financial situation is getting worse, not better, so maybe we can take another look at it,’ Mr. Manchin said. ‘I would hope so.’ A spokesman for Ms. Sinema said she would consider proposals that increase U.S. competitiveness and create jobs. Ms. Sinema has also raised concerns about large-scale spending, but unlike Mr. Manchin she didn’t visibly oppose specific spending programs during talks last year.”

COLLINS ON SPEED DIAL — There was a bevy of stories over the weekend documenting the increased bipartisanship that Congress has seen of late. Here’s an interesting nugget from Sen. SUSAN COLLINS (R-Maine) that illuminates the trend, via WSJ’s Lindsay Wise: Collins “said she fielded an unprecedented number of calls in the past week from the White House—from top Biden adviser STEVE RICCHETTI, chief of staff RON KLAIN and the president himself. She said Democrats have become more flexible in negotiations and willing to retreat from some red lines, a shift she tied to the party’s failure to change the filibuster rule, which requires 60 votes to advance most legislation.”

HISTORY LESSON — “When The Washington Post published the first list of members of Congress who were slaveowners last month, the article included a call to action: Help us complete the database. … Thanks to … scores of other amateur and professional researchers — who emailed from as far away as China and France and ranged from high school students to presidential historians — The Post’s tally of slaveholders who once served in Congress has grown from 1,715 to 1,795.” (The full piece, by WaPo’s Julie Zauzmer Weil)

JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH

DOC DRAMA — JOHN EASTMAN, the Trump-aligned attorney, has “attempted to shield more than 10,000 pages of emails and counting from congressional investigators, citing attorney client or attorney work-product privileges,” Kyle Cheney reports. “The staggering total comes amid a court-ordered review by Eastman of more than 94,000 pages of emails the Jan. 6 select committee has subpoenaed from Eastman’s former employer, Chapman University. … In a court filing early Monday, Eastman said he has reviewed about 46,000 pages — nearly half the total — and provided about 8,000 to the committee.”

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.

POLICY CORNER

IMMIGRATION FILES — Last year, the Biden administration wanted to ease the process for admitting migrants into the U.S. In the spring, “they admitted tens of thousands of migrants while issuing them a new document that did not include the typical hearing dates or identification numbers recognized in the immigration court system. The change sped up the process of releasing them into the country, but also made it much harder for the new arrivals to start applying for asylum — and for the government to track them,” NYT’s Eileen Sullivan writes. The problem? “Months later, the government has not been able to complete the processing started at the border, showing how ill prepared the system was for the surge and creating a practical and political quagmire for the Biden administration.”

POLITICS ROUNDUP

REDISTRICTING READ — “Democrats sued Kansas officials on Monday over a Republican redistricting law that costs the state’s only Democrat in Congress some of the territory in her Kansas City-area district that she carries by wide margins in elections,” AP’s John Hanna and Roxana Hegeman write in Topeka.

AD WARS — Stephanie Murray has the report on which states saw political advertising sprinkled into the high-profile Super Bowl commercial breaks:

“Republican DAVE MCCORMICK, who’s running in Pennsylvania’s Senate primary, brought the anti-Biden slogan ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ to prime time on Sunday.” (The 30-second spot)
“Another GOP Senate hopeful, JIM LAMON in Arizona, spent six figures to produce and air an ad that depicts him in an old western-style shootout with President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).” (The 30-second spot)
“In Michigan, Republican gubernatorial candidate PERRY JOHNSON took a more traditional approach. Johnson, a businessperson, kicked off a $1.5 million ad buy that will run through the first week of March.” (The 60-second spot)

— MATT DOLAN, the Ohio GOP Senate hopeful who has drawn the attention of Trump, “is taking aim at President Biden over border security as he launches his second massive ad blitz in a month in his bid for the Republican Senate nomination in Ohio’s crowded and competitive GOP primary,” Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser reports.

PLAYBOOKERS

MEDIA MOVE — Maya King is joining the NYT to cover politics in the Southeast, based in Atlanta. She’s been a much beloved politics reporter at POLITICO. Best of luck Maya! Announcement

TRANSITION — Angela Chiappetta is now managing director of business development at Rational 360. She previously was VP of business development at DDC Public Affairs.

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