| | |  | BY DAN GOLDBERG AND JOANNE KENEN | BREAKING THIS EVENING — President-elect Joe Biden can finally start his formal transition to the White House . The General Services Administration formally recognized Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election tonight, allowing his team to get working on the logistics of the transition, with President Donald Trump announcing the move in a tweet. The president also said he was not conceding. ABOUT FACE — After Election Day, the 16 Republican governors who had not yet imposed mask mandates said nothing would change under a President Biden. Yet this month, seven Republican governors — including three of the 16 holdouts — have either strengthened an existing mandate or imposed one as the pandemic crowded hospitals, exhausted medical staff and filled morgues. Even with Trump still in office, change has begun. The post-Trump politics of Covid are beginning to emerge: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum had said a statewide mask mandate was unnecessary, unworkable and unenforceable. Now nearly one in 1,000 people in his state has died of the coronavirus. Burgum reversed himself, saying Friday that the soaring number of hospitalizations during the first two weeks of November forced his hand. He is trying to “avoid a post-Thanksgiving crunch,” he said, when the state’s hospitals could get overwhelmed. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, after calling mandates unenforceable, enacted a limited one. Everyone in the state now must wear a mask indoors if they are within six feet of other people for at least 15 minutes. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, seeing hospitalizations double in two weeks, announced a statewide mask mandate last Thursday. “Obviously the decision did not come lightly,” Sununu said. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, another mandate skeptic, issued an emergency order Thursday that district and charter schools require masks for all students, faculty and staff on campus or on the bus. He hasn’t extended it to a broader population. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice tightened his state’s mask mandate as the number of ICU patients hit a record. The new order requires residents to keep their masks when inside public spaces even if they can maintain social distance. “We have got to realize what we’re dealing with here, it is a massive, massive killer,” Justice said at the time. Even before Election Day, the shift had begun. Early in November, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, also citing overwhelmed hospitals, issued a mask mandate, after months of arguing for local control. And Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a moderate who already had a mandate, extended the rules, saying masks must be worn inside public places even when socially distancing is possible. There are still holdouts. The Republican Party did not completely flip on the merits of mask-wearing when Trump became a lame duck. A few GOP governors — South Dakota’s Kristi Noem among them — have dug in so deeply that it’s hard to imagine them changing. “People who want to wear masks should wear masks and people who don’t shouldn’t be shamed into it,” she said during a press conference last week. Yet the party also presents a far less unified front on mask mandates than it did earlier this month. Many public health experts say masks are the single most important thing that people can do right now, even with a vaccine on the horizon. Vaccines will take months to reach all Americans. Trump painted the policy choices raised by the pandemic in black and white. Fight the virus — or save the economy. That argument probably helped make the election as close as it was. But as Trump prepares to leave the White House, quite a few Republican chief executives have begun to embrace a message that the sitting president long resisted: To save the economy, we have to fight the virus. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out at dgoldberg@politico.com, jkenen@politico.com or rrayasam@politico.com, or on Twitter at @DanCGoldberg, @JoanneKenen or @renurayasam.
| |
| | TRACK THE TRANSITION: President-elect Biden has started to form a Cabinet and announce his senior White House staff. The appointments and staffing decisions made in the coming days send clear-cut signals about Biden's priorities. Transition Playbook is the definitive guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, it tracks the appointments, people, and the emerging power centers of the new administration. Track the transition and the first 100 days of the incoming Biden administration. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | UNDERFED — Biden is entering the White House with big hopes of juicing the economy with new spending, an experienced hand at Treasury in Janet Yellen and a Federal Reserve ready to unleash its arsenal of lending programs to prevent the country from slipping back into a recession. He might run into trouble, financial services reporter Victoria Guida writes. A rare public spat between the Trump administration and the Fed last week exposed the stark reality of the economic policy ammunition Biden will inherit: a stick rather than a bazooka. With Biden’s Democrats in danger of failing to win the Senate and a new era of gridlock on the way in Washington, the Fed is expected to try to pump up the economy in the face of congressional intransigence. But interest rates are already at zero. The Fed has given billions in aid to companies and municipalities, but it’s not putting money in consumers’ pockets, which is what millions of Americans need most. And Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s move last week to wind down most of the emergency lending programs that the Fed introduced at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic for the time being deprives the central bank of one of its most direct ways of boosting the economy. “It is not that the Fed is out of firepower,” said Ernie Tedeschi, policy economist at Evercore ISI. “It’s just that the Fed is really reaching down deeper and deeper into its toolkit, and it has tools that are less effective than the tools that it’s already used.”
| | | 
Tyler Weyant | POLITICO | Welcome to Bidenology, Nightly’s look at the president-elect and what to expect in his administration. Tonight, we chronicle The Onion’s coverage of “Diamond Joe Biden.” Our Tyler Weyant writes: A few headlines you may remember from Biden’s vice presidency: — “Biden to cool his heels in Mexico for a while.” — “Biden receives lifetime ban from Dave & Buster’s.” — “Security removes Biden’s rowdy buddies from auditorium.” — “Biden Says Life Better Than It Was 4 Years Ago But Nothing Can Touch Summer Of '87.” The Onion’s portrayal of Biden as a Trans-Am-loving, hard-partying rapscallion named Diamond Joe is one of the great satirical portrayals of American politicians of the modern era. The then-vice president was reportedly a fan of the caricature. An associate told The Onion: “‘Keep it up. He really likes it.’” When The New York Times gamely tried to capture the phenomenon in 2010, the paper seemed not to understand the joke, describing The Onion treatment of Biden as “entirely incongruous with his public image.” The Gray Lady never issued a correction, but, if I may, that’s totally wrong. Diamond Joe was like any good caricature: It took a slice of Biden’s character and blew it out of proportion. Biden loves cars? Let’s make him a shirtless polisher of vintage American muscle . Prone to gaffes? Maybe he throws literal firecrackers into press conferences. Diamond Joe’s carefree and in-your face attitude was very much moored in the public image of Joe Biden. In 2016, as the Obama administration neared its end and Biden prepared to depart the Naval Observatory, The Onion threw a bash as part of the festivities that surround the White House Correspondents’ Dinner: “Diamond Joe Biden’s Badass Balls-To-The-Wall Fiesta.” I was proud that I got an invitation until I learned that every young political professional in the greater DMV had gotten their hands on the password-protected ticket (password: MAMACITA). I started the night at some more dutiful parties at the Washington Hilton, where I watched Callista Gingrich complain to Newt that she was cold, quickly Googled who Karlie Kloss was, and accidentally butted in front of Tony Romo and the teacher from Glee in a bar line. The Onion party at the Newseum was more Diamond Joe’s speed. The scene included a Biden cutout to take pictures with, complete with cigarette boxes and empty liquor bottles. A string quartet played ’80s power ballads. There was an ice sculpture of Biden riding a motorcycle. Diamond Joe faded from The Onion once he departed the vice presidency. The 2020 campaign introduced a new and less original Onion character, with more jokes about his age or lack of strong progressive opinions. We don’t quite know what the publication will bring us during Biden’s first term as president. But I’ll be patiently waiting, hoping to hear that turbocharged V-8 motor rumble down the street again.
| | THE CABINET MAKER — Biden announced a slate of Cabinet nominations today, stacking his incoming foreign policy and national security team with experienced public servants and veterans of former President Barack Obama’s administration. Biden’s selections include Alejandro Mayorkas as secretary of Homeland Security, Avril Haines as director of national intelligence and John Kerry as special presidential envoy for climate. The transition team’s announcement also confirmed reports from over the weekend that Biden had chosen Antony Blinken as secretary of State, Jake Sullivan as national security adviser and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Obama applauded the selections by his vice president. “He was part of our inner circle in our key meetings throughout my presidency. He’s outstanding, a smart, gracious skilled diplomat, well regarded around the world, and I know he's going to do a great job,” Obama said about Blinken at a Washington Post Live event.
| 
| | | FEINSTEIN STEPS DOWN AT JUDICIARY — Sen. Dianne Feinstein plans to step down as the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee in the next Congress, three people familiar with the matter told congressional reporters Marianne LeVine and Burgess Everett. The 87-year-old California Democrat faced blowback from progressives for her handling of Amy Coney Barrett’s contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearings, particularly after praising Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) for his handling of the process and giving him a hug. After the hearings, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he had a “long and serious” talk with Feinstein. Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is next in line for the job, followed by Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
| |
| | DON'T MISS THE MILKEN INSTITUTE FUTURE OF HEALTH SUMMIT 2020: POLITICO will feature a special edition Future Pulse newsletter at the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit. The newsletter takes readers inside one of the most influential gatherings of global health industry leaders and innovators determined to confront and conquer the most significant health challenges. Covid-19 has exposed weaknesses across our health systems, particularly in the treatment of our most vulnerable communities, driving the focus of the 2020 conference on the converging crises of public health, economic insecurity, and social justice. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage from December 7–9. | | | | | | | Nightly asks you: What are your plans for Thanksgiving this year during the spike in Covid-19 cases? Submit your answers in our form, and we’ll use select responses in Wednesday’s edition.
| | BARS VS. SCHOOLS — Schools are shutting down again — or remain shuttered — though they haven’t turned out to be the super-spreader sites experts feared. At the same time, many bars and restaurants remain open for business. In the latest POLITICO Dispatch , senior deputy policy editor Nirvi Shah explains how the situation is reigniting a debate over pandemic priorities.
| | SMALL TOWN, BIG IMPACT — The future of the world depends on a Belgian town so small that its parking lot is named Dorpshart, the “heart of the village.” It is in Puurs, a town of 17,000 in the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders, that Pfizer will manufacture a coronavirus vaccine created with Germany’s BioNTech that is now hailed as one of the front-runners to liberate the world from lockdowns, Barbara Moens writes. Don’t feel too bad if you’ve never heard of Puurs. Within Belgium, it is mostly known for its Duvel beer , which according to an urban legend owes its name to someone calling it “a true devil” thanks to its alcohol percentage of 8.5 percent. (The name means devil in Dutch.) Thanks to the crisis, there’s no chance of meeting the mayor, Koen Van den Heuvel, for a bottle of Duvel in De Vierklaver, the pub opposite the town hall, so we met in his office where he now spends his days dealing with international media requests from Norwegian television to Britain’s Daily Mail. They all have one question: Why did Pfizer pick this town (together with its Kalamazoo site in Michigan) to produce the vaccine? The town was connected to the port city of Antwerp by train and by a string of new roads in the middle of the 20th century, thanks to which Puurs is now in a sweet spot between Brussels Airport and the port of Antwerp. “Thanks to those investments, you can export products from here by ship and by plane in a fairly quick way, which is a major asset if you’re producing something that’s exported globally,” said Van den Heuvel. In the same period, the Belgian government launched a series of laws to make the country more attractive for foreign investments. In the aftermath of the Marshall Plan, investments from foreign medical and chemical companies such as Alcon and Upjohn started to pour into the region. While some have left, others, like Pfizer, have flourished.
| 
Residents sit in an army plane with their belongings as they are being evacuated in Providencia Island, Colombia. The islands of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina were hit by Hurricane Iota in the early hours of Nov. 16 as a category 5 storm, the strongest to affect the country since records are kept. | Getty Images | | | | |
3 The margin of the Michigan state Board of Canvassers’ vote certifying the results of the state’s presidential election. The three yes votes and one abstention were a bipartisan decision affirming Biden’s victory over Trump by more than 155,000 votes. |
| | | RECALL FEVER RETURNS TO CALI — Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pandemic group outing to the French Laundry and his decision to send his kids to in-person private school are reigniting talk of a recall that was once relegated to the fringes of conservative groups in deep blue California, Carla Marinucci writes. In a collision of unfortunate events for Newsom, conservative activists last week won a 120-day court extension to continue gathering recall signatures, and they’re hoping to capitalize on events so damaging for the governor that he has avoided reporters for a week despite an escalating pandemic crisis. Nearly two decades after California Republicans successfully led the drive to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and catapult Arnold Schwarzenegger to the state’s top spot, the GOP faithful are hoping the court ruling will be a “game changer,” said Tom Del Beccaro, chair of the RescueCalifornia.org drive. Newsom had strong approval ratings in October, approaching 60 percent overall, and Democrats enjoy a nearly 2-to-1 registration advantage over Republicans in the state. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. | |
|
| | Follow us on Twitter | | | FOLLOW US
|
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.