Playbook PM: Cease-fire brings hope after a brutal week

From: POLITICO Playbook - Friday May 21,2021 05:22 pm

May 21, 2021

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THE CEASE-FIRE — With violence between Israelis and Palestinians on pause amid a fragile cease-fire, we’re getting a clearer view of where things stand — both in the Gaza Strip and in Washington.

— Palestinians view the cease-fire “as a costly but clear victory for the Islamic militant group Hamas,” the AP reports from Gaza City. Meanwhile, Israeli PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU warned that any further hostilities would be met with “a new level of force.”

— “The cost of breaking the quiet will be very, very high,” Israeli Defense Minister BENNY GANTZ said at a press conference on Friday, per the Jerusalem Post. Netanyahu at the same presser: “My good friend [President JOE] BIDEN and I spoke six times in recent days — all the conversations were friendly and warm.” The PM added that he’d thanked Biden “for his cooperation in manufacturing Iron Dome missiles.”

— The White House is “optimistic” that the cease-fire will continue, a senior administration official told NBC in a behind-the-scenes look at the Biden team’s deliberations over the past week.

Amid public pressure to intervene, NBC reports that Biden’s “national security team told the Israelis he wouldn't accept a scenario like the 2014 conflict, which lasted 51 days and left 2,000 Palestinians dead. Multiple administration officials said the president's position was a result of ‘lessons learned’ from the Obama administration's approach to the 2014 violence between Israel and Hamas.” More on that from NBC.

— What was it like to live through the airstrikes that bombarded Gaza City? Reporter Iyad Abuheweila wrote a harrowing first-person account for the NYT: “It felt like blast waves were hitting my face and body. … I ran downstairs to my parents’ apartment. I told them I wanted to be with them, because it was much safer on the first floor. My sisters, Ayda, 16, and Maysaa, 21, were crying. My 14-year-old brother, Ayman, was very scared; his face turned yellow. … We moved from one room to another, debating whether this or that room was safer, whether the courtyard was too close to the street. There was no basement, no bomb shelter. ‘We have no option but to die,’ said my brother Asaad, 23.”

THE VACCINATION EFFORT — White House Covid coordinator JEFF ZIENTS used today’s Covid-19 briefing to highlight a new effort by dating apps to encourage people to get vaccinated. Apps including Tinder, Hinge and Bumble will now let users display badges that show their vaccination status, and several of the apps will offer their premium features to vaccinated users for free. (And it turns out getting vaccinated could be the missing piece of your love life: According to OKCupid, users who are vaccinated or plan to be received 14% more matches.)

— “Getting More People Vaccinated Against Covid-19 Means Wasting Doses,” WSJ: “Now that supplies are ample and the eager are dwindling, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new guidance. Sites should not miss an opportunity to vaccinate an individual, even if it means remaining doses in a vial will go to waste, the CDC said late Thursday.”

— “Most employers shy away from mandating coronavirus vaccines,” WaPo: “‘At least 36 states have attempted to pass legislation that you cannot compel people to get a vaccine as a condition of either employment or, sometimes, obtaining products and services,’ said Wendy Lazerson, a lawyer who co-chairs law firm Sidley Austin’s labor and employment practice.”

— The Small Business Administration is set to dole out relief funds to concert halls, theaters and other live-entertainment venues starting next week, the WSJ reports.

But as one sector gets an injection, another is asking for an extension. Hospitals are looking to the Biden administration to push a June 30 deadline to spend Covid relief funds. According to the WSJ, there is “more than $30 billion remaining to be distributed out of about $187 billion Congress approved. … Health and Human Services Secretary XAVIER BECERRA said his agency was reviewing the extension requests.”

Happy Friday afternoon.

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JAN. 6 FALLOUT — “‘It’s risky and it’s dangerous’: Dems plead for more security cash as threats rise post Jan. 6,” by Sarah Ferris: “Democrats included an unprecedented $22 million in the bill that passed Thursday to address threats against lawmakers in both parties. Those threats rose for years amid incendiary rhetoric from politicians, including former President DONALD TRUMP, and they escalated dramatically since a Trump-backed mob stormed the Capitol. But Senate GOP opposition to the security legislation could mean months of delays for those funds.

“That’s raising concerns among some lawmakers, particularly Democrats, about how to plan a return to normal constituent events this summer — including, for many, their first in-person public gatherings since the deadly Jan. 6 riot.”

WOWZA — “Since leaving office, Trump has charged the Secret Service more than $40,000 to use space at Mar-a-Lago,” WaPo: “[Federal spending records] show that Trump’s club charged the Secret Service $396.15 every night starting Jan. 20, the day he left the White House and moved full-time into his Palm Beach, Fla., club. Those charges, ultimately paid by taxpayers, continued until at least April 30, the spending records show, for a total of $40,011.15. The charges were for a single room used as a workspace by Secret Service agents, according to one person familiar with the payments.”

BIDEN BUILDS BACK — “The federal government puts out a ‘help wanted’ notice as Biden seeks to undo Trump cuts,” WaPo: “The annual list of troubled federal programs, released in March by the Government Accountability Office, is longer than ever, a shift workforce experts attribute to vast areas of the government the Trump administration ignored. Auditors spotlighted ‘high-risk’ areas vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse or mismanagement, ranging from oversight of the federal prison system to the Department of Health and Human Services’ leadership and coordination of public health emergencies.

“Then there are delays that have nothing to do with Trump. Across the government, departments are waiting for money from the yet-to-be-negotiated federal budget to fill vacancies. Biden’s spending plan for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 is scheduled to be released May 28.”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY — “Cooks, nurses guard inmates with U.S. prisons down 6K officers,” AP: “Nearly one-third of federal correctional officer jobs in the United States are vacant, forcing prisons to use cooks, teachers, nurses and other workers to guard inmates. At a federal penitentiary in Texas, prisoners are locked in their cells on weekends because there are not enough guards to watch them.

“Elsewhere in the system, fights are breaking out, several inmates have escaped in recent months and, in Illinois, at one of the most understaffed prisons in the country, five inmates have died in homicides or suicides since March 2020. The Justice Department budgeted for 20,446 full-time correctional officer positions in 2020, but the agency that runs federal prisons said it currently employs 13,762 officers. The Bureau of Prisons insists that many of its facilities still have a full complement of officers who focus solely on maintaining order.”

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CONGRESSIONAL STOCK TRADING — “As pandemic spread pain and panic, congressman chased profit,” AP: “The issue of congressional stock trading took on a new urgency last year when at least three senators were the subject of inquiries about whether they made financial decisions based on insider information. … [Democratic New Jersey Rep. TOM] MALINOWSKI’S trades received little attention at the time. Yet his subsequent failure to report his trading activity to Congress as required by law, which was first reported by Business Insider, have made him the latest to face scrutiny, with two complaints filed against him with the Office of Congressional Ethics. …

“In an interview Thursday, Malinowski said his failure to file was ‘a mistake that I own 100%.’ He said the reports, some of which were due over a year ago, have been submitted though not released by the congressional ethics office, which did not respond to a request for comment. Malinowski said his broker handles all of his trading decisions and he does not speak to the firm about specific transactions.” The Business Insider report

CLIMATE FILES — “States are pricing carbon. Washington hasn’t followed their lead,” by Anthony Adragna, Marie French, Debra Kahn and Lorraine Woellert: “Republican opposition — and Democrats' reluctance — has kept anything resembling a carbon tax or cap-and-trade system on the sidelines in the capital for more than a decade, with discussions about one of the most potent tools to combat climate change largely relegated to think tanks. …

“But states accounting for a quarter of the U.S. population and a third of the U.S. economy have implemented carbon pricing regimes, most through a cap-and-trade program that covers much of the Northeast or a separate system operated by California. … The states that have imposed carbon prices have seen their coffers swell with money to finance clean energy initiatives or environmental cleanups. But the potential for a major new revenue stream that could help pay for President Joe Biden’s $2.2 trillion climate-heavy infrastructure plan has so far not moved the needle on carbon pricing in Washington, D.C.”

ALL THAT AND A LACK OF CHIPS — “Industries pressure Washington to act as chip crisis worsens,” by Steven Overly: “Washington’s pledge to pour tens of billions of taxpayer dollars into making more microchips in the U.S. is setting off behind-the-scenes squabbles among industries angling for a slice of the spoils.

“Commerce Secretary GINA RAIMONDO on Thursday convened nearly three dozen executives from many of those sectors, including tech, autos and semiconductors, for a second high-level confab with the Biden administration in just over a month. … The issue has only grown more urgent as the chip shortage threatens to last through the rest of the year — or longer. But building new semiconductor plants is a yearslong undertaking, so some industries, especially automakers, have implored the U.S. to explore more immediate interventions.”

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THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE — HARRY REID writes for the NYT: “What We Believe About U.F.O.s”: “[A]s I became increasingly interested in U.F.O.s — in part through my conversations with former astronaut JOHN GLENN, a fellow senator with a similar curiosity — my staff warned me not to be seen to engage on the topic.

“‘Stay the hell away from this,’ they said. I politely ignored them. I was inquisitive and, like Senator Glenn, I thought it was an issue that demanded attention, and I was in a position to act. And act I did. … Let me be clear: I have never intended to prove that life beyond Earth exists. But if science proves that it does, I have no problem with that. Because the more I learn, the more I realize that there’s still so much I don’t know.

FIRST PERSON — “I Was The First Woman to Negotiate a Nuclear Arms Deal With the Russians. They Never Let Me Forget It,” by Rose Gottemoeller for POLITICO Mag

SPORTS BLINK — “How Democrats Learned to Love Activist Athletes,” by Ian Ward and Calder McHugh for POLITICO Mag: “The Democrats’ historically arms-length attitude toward athlete-activists led some commentators to predict that, following Joe Biden’s election in November, sports and politics would ‘retreat to their own separate corners’ after four years of public acrimony between athletes and the Trump presidency.

“Instead, more than 100 days into Biden’s term, it’s clear the opposite has happened. In a marked reversal, Democrats in Washington are hailing progressive athletes as key partners in the post-Trump Democratic coalition. Where once Democratic officeholders feared alienating sports fans and moderate voters alike, the rise of the party’s left wing — and its full-throated support for the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of last year’s George Floyd protests — have changed the political equation.”

MEDIAWATCH — “Sale of Tribune Newspapers to Hedge Fund Is Approved by Shareholders,” NYT: “In the end, the hedge fund got its way. Shareholders of Tribune Publishing, whose titles include The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun and The New York Daily News, on Friday voted to approve the company’s sale to Alden Global Capital, an investor with a reputation for slashing costs and cutting jobs.”

“Shareholders of the newspaper company, whose titles include The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun and The New York Daily News, will vote on Friday on whether to approve the company’s sale to Alden Global Capital, an investor with a reputation for slashing costs and cutting jobs at the approximately 200 newspapers it already owns.”

— “Glenn Greenwald may have quit the Intercept, but he can’t quit the feud,” WaPo

— “Axel Springer Is in Talks to Buy Axios,” The Information: “German media conglomerate Axel Springer is in talks to acquire Axios, according to people familiar with the matter, continuing a consolidation of the digital media sector. Axel Springer already owns Business Insider and is an investor in Group Nine Media, owner of digital sites such as The Dodo and news site NowThis.”

AFTERNOON SNACK — “I’m a Cicada Who’s Been Underground for 17 Years. I Have a Few Questions,” WSJ

NSC ARRIVAL LOUNGE — Chanan Weissman is now director for technology and democracy at the NSC. He most recently was section lead for internet freedom and business and human rights at State and is also an Obama White House alum.

TRANSITIONS — Joe Boddicker is now a tax counsel for the Senate Finance GOP. He previously was a senior associate in Alvarez & Marsal’s national tax office. … Melissa Laitner will be a health science policy analyst in the NIH Immediate Office of the Director. She previously was director of public policy and government affairs at the Society for Women’s Health Research. … Katy Summerlin has joined Maxar’s marketing and comms division, in a role spanning the company’s government and commercial space product offerings. She previously was NASA’s deputy press secretary. …

… John Conger, Lawrence Gumbiner and Nick Zimmerman are joining WestExec Advisors. Conger currently is director of the Center for Climate and Security and senior U.S. adviser to the International Military Council on Climate and Security. Gumbiner currently is president of Gumbiner Interamerican Strategies. Zimmerman currently is forum director at Columbia University’s World Projects initiative.

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