POLITICO Playbook PM: Mitch McConnell and the tale of two moderate Dems – POLITICO – POLITICO

By ELI OKUN

09/26/2022 01:46 PM EDT

Updated 09/26/2022 03:29 PM EDT

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnells move sets up a showdown with Democrats this week on energy permitting reform. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

BREAKING Senate Minority Leader MITCH McCONNELL is whipping against Sen. JOE MANCHINs (D-W.Va.) energy permitting reform bill, which Democrats want to combine with a stopgap government funding bill, Burgess Everett and Caitlin Emma revealed. That could torpedo the legislation that Democratic leaders agreed to grant Manchin this summer in exchange for his support of the Inflation Reduction Act.

McConnells move sets up a showdown this week as Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER tries to push the two pieces of legislation through. With some Democratic defections expected, Manchin will likely need a sizable chunk of Republican support. If McConnell can get enough of his conference to refuse and the reform gets dropped from the continuing resolution, itll be much more difficult to pass as a stand-alone proposition.

Manchin and McConnells relationship has run hot and cold over the years, largely tracking the political imperatives of the moment. After months of courting Manchin in order to block a reconciliation bill, preserve the filibuster and perhaps even flip the Senate majority, McConnell sees no need to help Manchin after his IRA vote, Burgess and Caitlin write.

Flashback to an old dispute, via Manu Raju in 2012: Football feud: McConnell vs. Manchin

But theres another Democratic centrist for whom McConnell had nothing but kind words today: Sen. KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-Ariz.) touted her bipartisan credentials in a speech at the University of Louisvilles McConnell Center, where McConnell introduced her as the most effective first-term senator Ive seen in my time in the Senate. Sinema lambasted both parties moves toward the left and right and the bitter and tribal extremism in todays political landscape. More from The Hill

Sinema also said she thinks the Senate should return to a 60-vote threshold for nominations, criticizing both President JOE BIDEN and DONALD TRUMP for supporting changes to the filibuster. (Law360s James Arkin notes that standard would have knocked out the vast majority of the judges Democrats have confirmed in the Biden era.)

And Sinema predicted its likely that Republicans will gain control of Congress in November. Responded Rep. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-Ariz.): I mean you could be out there helping our candidates @SenatorSinema But my sense is that you would actually prefer the Dems lose control of the Senate and House.

FOR YOUR RADAR Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN today granted EDWARD SNOWDEN citizenship in the country where the NSA whistleblower has lived under asylum and then as a permanent resident for the past nine years. More from Reuters

STORM CHASING Ian has now strengthened into a hurricane, the National Hurricane Center said today, as Florida and Cuba watch warily. Its now forecast to hit the U.S. as a Category 4 storm Wednesday. And parts of Tampa Bays county are already under a mandatory evacuation notice. More from the Orlando Sentinel

JUST ANNOUNCED Press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE said Biden will host the first state visit of his presidency on Dec. 1, bringing French President EMMANUEL MACRON to the White House.

Good Monday afternoon, and chag sameach to my fellow Rosh Hashanah celebrants. May all Playbook readers have a sweet new year.

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BIG PICTURE

THE PRICE IS RIGHT Abortion has often been deemed the key issue behind Democrats polling rebound this summer. But NYTs Nate Cohn writes that another factor shouldnt be overlooked: Gas prices fell steadily over the same period, tracking neatly with the political turnaround. And as some economic indicators have worsened again in the past few weeks including gas prices halting their decline the polls have stopped improving for Dems.

BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE

GABE INCOGNITO New Mexico Democratic congressional nominee GABE VASQUEZ gave an interview to a local TV station as James Hall at a 2020 Black Lives Matter rally, The Washington Free Beacons Collin Anderson reports. We need serious police reform in this country, he said in the interview. Its not just about defunding police, its about defunding a system that privileges white people over everyone else.

In a statement to Playbook, a campaign spokesperson disputed the Free Beacon framing: Gabe did not give a fake name. That name was attributed to him by the news station when he declined to give his name as he wanted the focus to be on the organizers. Vasquez, who is seeking to unseat GOP Rep. YVETTE HERRELL, added in a statement, I oppose defunding the police, citing his funding votes on the Las Cruces City Council.

BATTLE FOR THE STATES

MASTRIANO FLAILING DOUG MASTRIANOs Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial campaign is struggling with minimal infrastructure, sparsely attended rallies and an advertising drought, NYTs Reid Epstein reports in a brutal story from Harrisburg. The Republican Governors Association has no plans to help him out. Ive not seen anything that is even a semblance of a campaign, says one top Pennsylvania Republican. Mastrianos far-right campaign is a test of whether an ultra-Trumpist strategy can prevail avoid the news media, double down on the base with few indicators of success so far.

Stunning data point: Along with Mr. Mastriano in Pennsylvania, Trump-backed candidates for governor in five other states Arizona, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and Michigan have combined to air zero television advertisements since winning their primaries.

DOWN BALLOT Texas Democrats are hoping AG nominee ROCHELLE GARZA has a shot at unseating KEN PAXTON, focusing on persuading moderates to abandon the GOP incumbent over his legal scandals, WSJs Elizabeth Findell reports from Austin. Paxton is under indictment and a separate FBI investigation, potentially positioning Garza, a civil rights lawyer, as Dems best hope statewide in November. But Garza has struggled to raise money, keeping her off the airwaves. And Paxton is casting her as too liberal for Texas.

Arizona Republican secretary of state nominee MARK FINCHEM failed for years to follow state laws requiring elected officials to report their sources of income and business ties, the Arizona Republics Robert Anglen reports the very laws hed be in charge of overseeing. Finchem did not disclose nearly $2,000 a month in pension benefits and a few businesses in which he was involved from the time he took office in 2015 until January.

HOT POLLS

Pennsylvania: The Phillips Academy Poll shows very tight races: Democrat JOHN FETTERMAN leads MEHMET OZ in the Senate campaign 47% to 45%. And despite that NYT article above, Democratic gubernatorial nominee JOSH SHAPIRO is barely ahead of Mastriano, 46% to 43%.

Oklahoma: GOP Gov. KEVIN STITT is just 3 points ahead of JOY HOFMEISTER, 47% to 44%, per KOCO 5-Amber Integrated.

South Dakota: Republican Sen. JOHN THUNE leads BRIAN BENGS 46% to 33%, per a new Dem poll from Lake Research Partners.

HOT ADS

With help from Steve Shepard

Georgia: Borrowing a page from the 2008 JOHN McCAIN playbook, GOP Gov. BRIAN KEMPs leadership committee is out with a new ad calling Democrat STACEY ABRAMS Celebrity Stacey, including images of magazine covers and footage of Abrams behind the scenes filming a cameo on the series Star Trek: Discovery.

Ohio: Democratic Rep. MARCY KAPTURs latest ad features RICK GOODMAN, a Republican voter, who says he cant support GOP nominee J.R. MAJEWSKI because of Majewskis extreme beliefs. Theres something wrong with that guy, Goodman says.

JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH

COMMITTEE LATEST The House Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed Wisconsin state House Speaker ROBIN VOS this weekend to learn more about a call he had with Trump in July. Vos sued to block enforcement of the subpoena in an emergency lawsuit. The committee initially demanded that Vos testify by this morning, though Kyle Cheney reports in Congress Minutes that the deadline has been extended as the parties await a judges ruling on the matter.

INSIDE ACCOUNT Former Capitol Police Chief STEVEN SUND, who commanded the force during the riot, said he will break my silence and reveal everything that I know happened in a new book, Courage Under Fire: Under Siege and Outnumbered 58 to 1 on January 6, set to come out just ahead of the riots second anniversary. His publisher, Blackstone, says Sund will include a never-before-heard accounting of a call from the White House amid the riot and never-before-detailed conversations he had with congressional leaders, APs Hillel Italie reports.

THE PLOT TO SUBVERT THE ELECTION PHIL WALDRON texted then-White House chief of staff MARK MEADOWS in December 2020 about his efforts to find election fraud in Arizona and Georgia, CNNs Zachary Cohen reveals. Waldron, a prominent promulgator of fraud conspiracy theories, called Arizona our lead domino we were counting on to start the cascade, and Meadows texted him that opponents efforts to stop Waldron from accessing voting machines were [p]athetic. Despite attempts to distance himself from the more dubious attempts to keep Trump in office, the messages underscore how Meadows was an active participant.

THE HUNT FOR VOTER FRAUD The Arizona AGs efforts to detect voter fraud over the past few years have turned up few cases and rather than bolster confidence in elections, the absence of massive fraud has just fueled more bogus theories and distrust, WaPos Beth Reinhard and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez report from Phoenix. Now, as more Republican-led states implement similar efforts, Arizona stands as a cautionary tale of devoting state resources to baseless claims of widespread fraud. The election crimes unit, which was created after Democrats won key races in 2018, hasnt satisfied Republicans who say its done too little. But its existence has nonetheless helped undermine trust in elections.

WHO YOU GONNA CALL After former Rep. DENVER RIGGLEMAN revealed that there was a call from a White House landline on the afternoon of Jan. 6 to someone who stormed the Capitol, CNNs Jamie Gangel and Elizabeth Stuart today pulled back the curtain on one half of the call: The recipient was ANTON LUNYK. A 26-year-old Brooklyn man, Lunyk was sentenced earlier this month for criminally illegally demonstrating inside the Capitol. But Lunyk says he doesnt remember receiving the nine-second call and claims he doesnt know anyone who worked in the Trump White House. Its still not clear who placed the call or whether its of any real significance.

ROCKY RHODES From Phoenix, APs Jacques Billeaud and Lindsay Whitehurst trace the path of STEWART RHODES from an elite Yale Law pedigree and work as a RON PAUL staffer to founding the extremist Oath Keepers militia, ahead of his seditious conspiracy trial Tuesday. For Rhodes, it will be a position at odds with the role of greatness that he has long envisioned for himself, said his estranged wife, TASHA ADAMS. He was going to achieve something amazing, Adams said. He didnt know what it was, but he was going to achieve something incredible and earth shattering.

JUDICIARY SQUARE

SCOTUS WATCH The Conference of Chief Justices doesnt usually weigh in on Supreme Court cases, let alone controversial ones. But the bipartisan group of the countrys top state court judges is urging the Supreme Court not to upend election law this term by adopting the radical independent state legislature theory, which could allow state legislatures to override constitutions without judicial review on election changes, NYTs Adam Liptak reports. The case could transform redistricting and other election litigation, too.

Bloombergs Greg Stohr previews the term to come, in which the courts conservative majority looks set to pull American jurisprudence further to the right on a variety of issues, from the Clean Water Act to the Voting Rights Act to affirmative action to same-sex wedding services. The revolution is proving as wide as it is deep, he writes. With the conservative legal revolution marching on, the question is increasingly not so much where the Supreme Court is going as how quickly its going to get there.

THE WHITE HOUSE

FLORIDA FEVER Bidens postponement of a Florida campaign swing due to Hurricane Ian belies the White Houses uncertainty about how to treat the swing state thats tinting red, NBCs Mike Memoli reports: For weeks, there has been a debate among Biden advisers about whether to elevate [Gov. RON] DeSANTIS at a time he clearly welcomes engaging in the national conversation.

TRUMP CARDS

RECORDS REQUEST The National Archives has to inform the House Oversight Committee by Tuesday whether its still missing records from the Trump White House, WSJs Siobhan Hughes previews.

ON THE FRINGES How a QAnon splinter group became a feature of Trump rallies, by WaPos Isaac Arnsdorf in Wilmington, N.C.: Numbering about 100, they can be spotted by their lanyards sporting as many as 16 commemorative buttons from each rally they have attended. The arrival of the QAnon group [Negative48], however, has led to a silent standoff with Trumps team, raising concerns that they could disrupt events, alienate other fans, distract from the former presidents message or generate bad publicity.

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

TIKTOK ON THE CLOCK TikTok and Biden administration have ironed out the fundamentals of a deal to take care of national security worries around the app, but it still needs to surmount some final negotiating hurdles, NYTs Lauren Hirsch, David McCabe, Katie Benner and Glenn Thrush report. The draft agreement would change the apps governance, algorithms and data security but not its ownership structure. ByteDance wouldnt be required to sell TikTok (a potential political vulnerability for the Biden administration). A final deal could still be months away, though, as Deputy AG LISA MONACO and Treasury officials have raised continuing concerns about China and national security.

THE ECONOMY

WHAT RON KLAIN IS READING Manufacturing in the U.S. is enjoying a renaissance the likes of which we havent seen in decades and this iteration looks different than it used to, NYTs Jim Tankersley, Alan Rappeport and Ana Swanson report. The center of gravity is shifting from the Rust Belt to the Mountain West and Southeast. And instead of reshoring jobs in the industries of yore, the new manufacturing boom comes in the likes of pharmaceuticals and craft beers. Economists attribute the strong bounce-back to the unusual aspects of the pandemic-triggered recession. The Biden administration also touts the American Rescue Plans role in helping revitalize.

A BIT OF RELIEF Apartment rent prices in August fell 0.1% from July, the first time theyve declined since December 2020, new CoStar Group data shows, per the WSJ.

POLICY CORNER

BIG AFTERNOON READ How Policy Got Done in 2022, by The American Prospects David Dayen: To understand the Democrats big climate and health care bill, you must go back decades.

UP IN THE AIR The Transportation Department today is rolling out a proposed new rule that would force airlines and travel websites to tell customers up front about extra fees, CNNs Kate Sullivan reports. At todays White House Competition Council meeting, Biden is expected to call on other agencies to take similar action to increase transparency and limit add-on fees for American consumers.

THE PANDEMIC

GETTING A BOOST Pfizer and BioNTech today said they asked the FDA to authorize their new Omicron-specific coronavirus vaccine booster for kids ages 5 to 11. More from USA Today

PLAYBOOKERS

MEDIA MOVE Elahe Izadi will co-host WaPos Post Reports podcast. Shell also continue as a media reporter. Announcement

TRANSITIONS Dan Jasper is now a policy adviser for Project Drawdown. He previously was Asia public education and advocacy coordinator at the American Friends Service Committee. Charles Williams is now manager for advocacy and government affairs (federal) for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He most recently was legislative assistant for Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.). Peggy Ellis is now a strategic partner with Strategic Elements. She currently is president and founder of Ellis and Co., and is a DOT and RNC alum.

Corrections: Tuesdays Playbook PM misspelled Madison Malins name. Fridays Playbook PM mistakenly included Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) in a spotted item at a Moon Rabbit lunch.

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this newsletter incorrectly described the office Republican Mark Finchem is seeking in Arizona. He is running for secretary of state.

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POLITICO Playbook PM: Mitch McConnell and the tale of two moderate Dems - POLITICO - POLITICO