Playbook PM: Klain tries to make nice with Manchin

Jan 19, 2022

By Eugene Daniels, Garrett Ross and Eli Okun

Presented by

JOE BIDEN is about to face a barrage of questions this afternoon about how poorly the past month or so has gone for him — from the pandemic to voting rights to the collapse of BBB. What's his plan to turn it around?

A must-read from the WSJ this morning provides a solid clue about the White House's thinking: Chief of staff RON KLAIN is clearly moving to mend fences with Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va) in the hopes of reviving BBB in some form.

"Looking ahead, the White House said it remained confident that Democrats could approve significant portions of the legislation and reach consensus with Mr. Manchin," Ken Thomas, Catherine Lucey and Natalie Andrews write.

"One lesson we learned in the first year is, I think, the less we talk about our negotiations with specific senators and congressmen, the better we are so I'm going to say our talks with Sen. Manchin will proceed directly and privately," Klain told the trio.

Klain said the White House wants to get the BBB negotiations back on track soon, though Manchin's team says negotiations haven't resumed.

Democrats are debating what moving forward should look like: Some lawmakers want to try to get as close to the package that was on the table before the White House-Manchin implosion; others are in favor of breaking it apart and vote on popular components, to give vulnerable Democrats issues to campaign on and put Republicans on defense.

Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) put it like this to the Journal: "It's one thing to hold a position in the backroom. It's another thing to hold a position on the floor of the Senate when the whole world is watching. If we fail we can come back and try to come forth with a more modest proposal. And I also believe that we have got to start bringing important pieces of legislation—one by one by one—onto the floor. And let the Republicans vote against them. And let Mr. Manchin and Ms. Sinema vote against them or not, whatever it may be."

CONTEXT FOR TODAY'S PRESSER, via WaPo's Cleve Wootson Jr.: "A year into his presidency, Biden's 4 p.m. news conference will be just his second on U.S. soil and his sixth overall, according to historians who track interactions between presidents and the press. … Biden has also granted fewer one-on-one interviews — particularly with print publications — and given fewer prime-time addresses than most of his recent predecessors. The White House has not said how long Wednesday's news conference will last."

MEANWHILE … Marianne LeVine and Burgess Everett have the latest from the Capitol: "Senate Democrats are set to take a doomed vote Wednesday evening to weaken the filibuster to pass elections and voting reform, pressing forward despite unflinching opposition from Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. … Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER picked up one of the few remaining undecided senators on Wednesday as Sen. MARK KELLY (D-Ariz.) endorsed a rules change specific to elections legislation.

"Speaking to her caucus on Wednesday morning, Speaker NANCY PELOSI said Democrats' push on voting reforms was still ongoing, despite centrist opposition to changing the filibuster. She optimistically compared it to a scene in the movie 'Princess Bride,' when Miracle Max helps bring a character back to life that he describes as 'mostly dead' but also 'slightly alive,' according to people familiar with her remarks."

Good Wednesday afternoon.

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CONGRESS

SAFE FOR NOW — CNN's Melanie Zanona (@MZanona): "Freedom Caucus Chair SCOTT PERRY stood up in conference today and announced that KEVIN MCCARTHY has asked the hardline group to hold off on their effort to boot [LIZ] CHENEY & [ADAM] KINZINGER from GOP Conference, so they can focus on the 1 yr anniversary of Biden's inauguration, per sources."

McCARTHY'S SILICON VALLEY CONUNDRUM — Congressional Republicans are leading a charge to put the clamps on Big Tech. But McCarthy is in a tough position: As GOP leader, he's under the spotlight on the issue. But he's been a longtime champion of the industry, which is anchored in his backyard. "Some Silicon Valley lobbyists are skeptical that McCarthy would actually enact policies that hurt their companies. After all, the California lawmaker spent years distinguishing himself as their top advocate among congressional Republicans. They say he still maintains that friendliness behind closed doors," Emily Birnbaum and Hailey Fuchs write.

— Meanwhile, the battle between Big Tech and the industry's critics is coming to a head in lobbying efforts this week as "a key Senate panel takes up legislation that seeks to blunt the market power of dominant tech platforms," WSJ's Brody Mullins and Ryan Tracy write . "The antitrust legislation, set to be considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, would bar dominant online platforms such as Amazon.com Inc.'s e-commerce site and Alphabet Inc.'s Google search engine from preferring their own goods and services over other companies."

JUDICIARY SQUARE

SCOTUS WATCH — Justices SONIA SOTOMAYOR and NEIL GORSUCH released a joint statement this morning, in response to a report from NPR's Nina Totenberg that outlined tension on the bench over masking.

The statement: "Reporting that Justice Sotomayor asked Justice Gorsuch to wear a mask surprised us. It is false. While we may sometimes disagree about the law, we are warm colleagues and friends."

But that's not exactly what happened. According to Totenberg's report, Chief Justice JOHN ROBERTS is the one who asked all of the justices to wear masks, leading to Gorsuch's refusal.

ALL POLITICS

MIDTERMS WATCH — CNN's Edward-Isaac Dovere reports that Dems have been left hanging by the White House as they prepare for the onslaught of the midterm elections. "In three dozen exclusive interviews with CNN, top Democratic politicians, campaign officials and operatives say the White House political operation is heading into the midterms unprepared and unresponsive even to basic requests for help or information.

"Biden advisers say that the President talks politics with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, but people familiar with both leaders say any campaign talk has been brief, and Democratic leaders have significant concerns with the White House's approach to getting the President to break through. It's not just that Biden's approval ratings have tumbled. Those in charge of keeping Democrats in power doubt that Biden's team understands how to improve his political fate -- and with it, theirs."

DON'T MISS CONGRESS MINUTES: Need to follow the action on Capitol Hill blow-by-blow? Check out Minutes, POLITICO's new platform that delivers the latest exclusives, twists and much more in real time. Get it on your desktop or download the POLITICO mobile app for iOS or Android. CHECK OUT CONGRESS MINUTES HERE.

THE WHITE HOUSE

BIDEN BOLSTERS NSA — Biden this morning signed a directive to expand the NSA's cybersecurity role in the federal government. It "mandates baseline cybersecurity practices and standards, such as two-factor authentication and use of encryption, for so-called national security systems," WSJ's Dustin Volz writes.

NOMINATION NAMES — Biden has named four new ambassador nominations: JANE HARTLEY to be ambassador to the U.K., ELIZABETH BAGLEY to be ambassador to Brazil, ALEXANDER LASKARIS to be ambassador to Chad and ALAN LEVENTHAL to be ambassador to Denmark. More from Samuel Benson

THE PANDEMIC

OMICRON ON THE RUN? — There is a wealth of recent data that suggests the worst of the Omicron surge is in the rearview mirror. "Since early last week, new cases in Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey and New York have fallen by more than 30 percent. They're down by more than 10 percent in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. In California, cases may have peaked," NYT's David Leonhardt writes.

While these numbers are encouraging and suggest reason a hopeful outlook, the U.S. isn't in the clear: "The Covid situation in the U.S. remains fairly grim, with overwhelmed hospitals and nearly 2,000 deaths a day. It's likely to remain grim into early February. Caseloads are still high in many communities, and death trends typically lag case trends by three weeks."

POLICY CORNER

CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE — ROBERT CALIFF's nomination to lead the FDA is being threatened by the agency's recent decision to expand access to abortion pills as a fresh wave of anti-abortion rights groups seeks to derail his confirmation, Alice Miranda Ollstein and Lauren Gardner write . "The effort has already swung some previously undecided Republican senators … like TOMMY TUBERVILLE of Alabama and ROGER MARSHALL of Kansas. … With only four Republicans on the record supporting his confirmation and the possibility of more Democratic defections, peeling off even one or two more Republicans could prove fatal to Califf's chances."

TRUMP CARDS

TRUMP ORG PROBE — New York A.G. LETITIA JAMES laid out new details against the Trump Organization, with documents alleging that Trump's business "inflated the value of his properties and misstated his personal worth in representations to lenders, insurance brokers and other players in his real estate empire," WaPo's Shayna Jacobs, Jonathan O'Connell and Josh Dawsey report. "In the nearly 160-page document, James cited examples of Trump allegedly lending his signature to financial statements that estimated the worth of properties in the Trump Organization portfolio and the value of his own fortune — estimates that James's team has long suggested were misleading and potentially key to taking legal action against the Manhattan-based company." The document

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

NEW MAYORS MEET TOUGH FIRST TEST — Newly elected mayors in cities like Atlanta, Boston and Cincinnati are up against it already not even a year into office. "The Omicron surge didn't just upend mayors' inaugural fetes. It's overtaken their first days and weeks in office, jeopardizing their approval ratings before they get a chance to push their agendas," Lisa Kashinsky reports in Boston . "And for Democrats, who run most of America's big cities, any perceived missteps or overreaches could reflect poorly on the party heading into a midterm year where conservatives are already running against Covid restrictions and President Joe Biden is slipping in the polls."

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

RUSSIA-UKRAINE LATEST — Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN this morning in Ukraine issued a warning to be ready for a Russian attack at any moment. "Mr. Blinken made the remarks while speaking to American employees at the U.S. Embassy in the Ukrainian capital, where he landed on Wednesday morning in the latest show of U.S. support for the country's embattled government," NYT's Michael Crowley, Anton Troianovski and Andrew Kramer report in Kyiv . "'We know that there are plans in place to increase that force even more on very short notice,' he said, 'and that gives President [VLADIMIR] PUTIN the capacity, also on very short notice, to take further aggressive action against Ukraine.'"

OM-5G — International airlines "canceled flights heading to the U.S. or changed the planes they're using Wednesday, the latest complication in a dispute over concerns that new 5G mobile phone service could interfere with aircraft technology," AP's Jon Gambrell reports in Dubai, United Arab Emirates . "It wasn't immediately clear why the airlines made those decisions — or whether they took into account that mobile carriers AT&T and Verizon agreed this week to pause the rollout of the new high-speed wireless service near key airports. But some said they received warnings from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration or Boeing that the plane maker's 777 — used by carriers worldwide — was particularly affected by the new service."

PLAYBOOKERS

MEDIA MOVES — Ryan Reilly and Scott Wong are joining NBC. Reilly will cover the DOJ and federal law enforcement and previously was a justice reporter for HuffPost. Wong will be a senior congressional reporter. He previously was a senior staff writer at The Hill, and is also a POLITICO alum.

TRANSITIONS — Robert Friedman is now a partner in Holland & Knight's international trade practice. He most recently was previously a partner with Harris, Wiltshire and Grannis, and is a State Department alum. … Jenna Dresner is now senior campaign strategist at Citizen Data. She most recently was deputy comms director for the California secretary of state, and is a Mercury alum. … David Kramer is joining the George W. Bush Institute as managing director of global policy. He most recently was a senior fellow for the Vaclav Havel Program on Human Rights and Diplomacy and director of European and Eurasian studies at the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University.

ENGAGED — Tamika Hawkins, director at Brunswick Group, and Sanders Adu, SVP of federal government relations at Wells Fargo and a House Financial Services alum, got engaged Sunday at the Conrad D.C.'s Estuary. The couple had an unexpected meeting during a Small Business Fair planning session in the office of Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and are planning for a fall wedding. Pic … Another pic

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