| | |  | BY SAM STEIN | With help from Renuka Rayasam THE OTHER MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE SENATE — Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) played the most dramatic role during the passage of the Covid relief bill into law. But the senator with the greatest imprint on the script itself was his colleague on the opposite end of the Democratic ideological spectrum: Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Sanders’ influence on the most ambitious piece of domestic legislation in a generation is evident in several places, particularly the guaranteed income program for children, the massive subsidies for people to buy health care, the sheer size of the $1.9 trillion measure and the centerpiece of it — direct checks to working Americans. But the specifics of the law tell only part of the story. The calculus by which the legislation was crafted and passed — a belief that popular bills endure more than bipartisan ones — is quintessentially Sanders. And it raises a thought-provoking question: Has any elected official in American history had such a profound influence on a major political party without ever formally joining it? Six years ago, Democrats were in a different place. Austerity politics were still gripping parts of the party. The ambitious agenda items were more social than economic: immigration reform, gun control, police reform after Ferguson. And in a few months time, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee would make serious inroads among the white working class voters who had served as the bedrock for Democrats for decades. Within that landscape, Sanders was a throwback: a labor-oriented big-government liberal who seemed like more of a gadfly than a serious player. He was known for passing little-noticed amendments but also found a knack for making well-noticed public spectacles, often as acts of disagreement with the Obama White House on items like domestic surveillance laws and the extension of the Bush tax cuts. As his following picked up, a depiction of him emerged as an ideologue who valued ideological purity over progress and was content to undermine a historic president in the service of it. That never jibed with reality. Though admittedly stubborn, Sanders voted often for major bills that fell short of his ambitions (Obamacare), cut deals that went against his ideology (VA reform), and made sure his public shows of opposition didn’t actually turn into catastrophes for the Democratic Party. When his legislative white whale (a $15-an-hour minimum wage hike) was nixed by the parliamentarian a few weeks back, he could have insisted that his fallback option be given a vote. He didn’t, calculating that it wasn’t worth jeopardizing or delaying the entire enterprise over the minimum wage. As one Sanders aide described it: “He knows when to throw down and when it’s time to get s--- done.”
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Sen. Bernie Sanders listens during a hearing on Capitol Hill. | Getty Images | The criticism of Sanders has been that his style doesn’t result in legislative wins. But that no longer seems persuasive even as it misses the larger point of his political agenda. His objective has been to move the Overton window of what Democrats believe is politically permissible. Sometimes, like when he floated that he’d primary Obama in 2012, his attempts have backfired spectacularly. But, on the whole, it’s hard to argue that he’s been unsuccessful. The Democratic Party today holds razor-thin majorities in both chambers and is helmed by a president who might have been the most moderate of the 20 or so candidates who ran in the primary. And yet every single member — save one in the House — voted for a nearly $2 trillion deficit-financed bill that sends money without strings attached to the poorest Americans, all while embracing a unionization effort targeting the biggest e-commerce giant in the world and entertaining a $4 trillion follow-up bill to revamp American infrastructure that will likely include tax hikes on the rich. If Sanders was just a touch more extroverted, we’d likely see signs of euphoria in Burlington. Of course, credit (or, if you’re so inclined, blame) isn’t his alone. The enlarged child tax credit has been the project of countless Democrats, including Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.). The bill’s $86 billion bailout for multi-employer pensions was spearheaded by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). And none of it would have been possible without twin Senate wins in Georgia or Biden’s insistence that he needed to go big out the gate. But, it’s worth recalling, that Biden easily could have charted a bipartisan approach instead. In early December, Manchin and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) announced the outlines of a $900 billion relief bill of their own, with a splashy Washington Post op-ed framing it as the logical step toward ideological comity. Five other senators in the Democratic caucus were on board with the idea. Sanders rejected the proposal out of hand. His move sent an early signal to the White House that it would have to scramble for votes even on a center-of-the-road approach. Weeks later, the Georgia election happened, Biden stuck to the script that bigger was better, and the pieces of a $1.9 trillion package — upon which the success of the Democratic Party now hangs — fell into place. “It used to be that conservative Democrats write the bill and progressives make the changes,” said Faiz Shakir, Sanders’ 2020 campaign manager. “What you had here is the progressives wrote the bill and the conservatives got to make the changes.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news and tips at sstein@politico.com and rrayasam@politico.com, or on Twitter at @samstein and @renurayasam.
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| | JOIN THE CONVERSATION, SUBSCRIBE TO “THE RECAST”: Power dynamics are shifting in Washington, and more people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that all politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. “The Recast” is a new twice-weekly newsletter that breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics, policy and power in America. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country, and hear from new voices that challenge business as usual. Don’t miss out on this new newsletter, SUBSCRIBE NOW. Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | | | | BIDENCARE — Fresh off the first big upgrade to Obamacare since its 2010 passage, Democrats are eyeing a much heavier and politically riskier lift: creating a government-run public health insurance option, write Alice Miranda Ollstein and Joanne Kenen. Democratic politics have moved left since centrist lawmakers jettisoned a public option from the Affordable Care Act legislation back in 2009. At the time, a government-run health plan was seen as too radical. But as progressive calls for a fully government-run “Medicare For All”-type system have gotten louder in the intervening years, the public option has become classic Biden middle ground — popular with independents and even some Republican voters. Still, the public option has gotten little scrutiny, and Republican lawmakers and the health care industry are ready to unleash an all-out assault on the idea. Democratic leaders are treading lightly for now, well aware that three of the last four presidents saw divisive health care proposals during their first year in power contribute to electoral shellackings in their second.
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| GRAY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN — California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said today that an effort to recall him probably has enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot before a Wednesday deadline of 5 p.m. PT. It will likely take another month for the secretary of state to qualify and certify the election, which would probably then take place this October at the earliest, California Playbook writer Carla Marinucci told Nightly’s Renuka Rayasam over Slack today. The two chatted about how Newsom got here and what’s next. This conversation has been edited. What happened to Newsom? He went from being a Democratic superstar to facing a recall without even a specific scandal like Andrew Cuomo’s. The recall backers say that 1/3 of the people who signed are Dems and independents, and the anger at Newsom is deep. They compare him to Cuomo — they say he’s a guy who’s gotten out of touch with average people and has lost his mojo here in CA. Some of this was not his fault, to be fair. California got slammed with Covid much harder than many states. Controlling it in the rural areas and some of the nation’s biggest urban areas was a hard challenge. The resentment about businesses and school closures grew. And Newsom didn’t help with some of his own self-inflicted wounds — going to a fancy dinner at the French Laundry in Napa, a birthday party for a big lobbyist, at a time when he was telling people to stay at home. Also it’s relatively easy to recall a governor in California, right? I am thinking of Gray Davis, whose signature is on my college diploma. The bar is low, just 12 percent of voter turnout in the last election, and you don’t need to have the governor convicted of a crime like fraud, as in some states. Only 19 states even allow a recall of a governor. But the recall people got a big break. Their movement was out of gas and they were about to be shut down — they didn’t have the signatures last November when they were facing a deadline. But then a judge (appointed by Gov. Schwarzenegger, and nominated for a Trump post) gave them 120 extra days to collect the signatures, presumably because of Covid. That was the turning point. Had that not happened, we wouldn’t be here. What is Newsom doing to keep from becoming like Davis, who lost his recall and was replaced by Schwarzenegger? There are a lot of legislative hurdles, and Dems will want to run out the clock as long as possible. The longer the recall takes, the more CA recovers from Covid and its businesses and schools open. They’re hoping the rationale and passion for the recall will dissipate. Right now, this is Newsom’s strength: “You can’t beat somebody with nobody.” The Republicans don’t yet have anyone who looks to be strong enough to take him out in a state where the Dems have a 20+ voter registration advantage. Also, it looks like a crowd of Republicans may run and split up their vote. Any frontrunners? Kim Kardashian West as the next governor of California? That would be killer!! Already, Caitlin Jenner has declared she’s not running — seriously!! So what do you want to bet that Kylie, Kim, Kendall or who knows who else in that clan might want to take a stand. We used to think Kayne was the guy who’d do it, but sounds like he’s off to Montana.
| | — Russia stoked Ukraine allegations to undermine Biden: Russia tried again last year to help then-President Donald Trump win the White House , the U.S. intelligence community said today in a long-awaited postmortem — adding that a “primary” tactic was the spreading of corruption allegations involving Biden and Ukraine. The effort fell short of the Kremlin-backed efforts to assist Trump in his 2016 contest against Hillary Clinton, the spy community wrote in its unclassified assessment of foreign threats to the 2020 U.S. federal elections. And the agencies found no attempts by foreign countries to change vote tallies or final results. — Feinstein dismisses Newsom’s talk of her replacement: Sen. Dianne Feinstein accused reporters of misinterpreting remarks from the California governor about her hypothetical replacement and insisted she would serve out the remainder of her term. “Please, we’re very good friends. I don’t think he meant that the way some people thought,” Feinstein (D-Calif.) told reporters in reference to Newsom. — Senate centrists weigh brokering deals on immigration, minimum wage: A bipartisan group of senators who successfully pushed for a second coronavirus aid bill last year will meet Wednesday as they weigh whether to wade into another thorny topic , such as immigration or the minimum wage. The group of 20, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, was formed to push Congress to pass a $900 billion pandemic stimulus bill late last year. Its meeting this week comes as the House prepares to pass immigration bills that will further reinforce the Senate’s gridlock on that issue without some bipartisan framework to break the impasse. — FDA opens door to widespread at-home Covid-19 tests: The Food and Drug Administration will allow some developers of Covid-19 tests to market their products for regular at-home use without first studying how well the tests perform in people without symptoms. The agency’s announcement is aimed at making it easier to screen Americans returning to school and work, senior FDA regulators said.
| | ‘A SWING AND A MISS’ — New documents obtained by POLITICO shed light on the FTC’s decision not to file an antitrust suit against Google in 2013, allowing the company to grow into the giant that it is today. In the latest POLITICO Dispatch, Leah Nylen reports on how regulators appear to have misread the evidence in front of their eyes. And don’t miss the full report on how the Obama administration missed their chance to reign in the tech giant.
| | | | THE SUN NEVER SETS ON ‘GLOBAL BRITAIN’ — A “Global Britain” blueprint is necessary for the country’s “safety and prosperity” in the coming decades, Boris Johnson said today. Unveiling a 100-page report setting out the U.K.’s foreign policy priorities after Brexit, Johnson said it was the most comprehensive such review since the Cold War and was not a “vainglorious gesture.” The report, which highlights the security threats posed by Russia and China, sets out to end three decades of gradual nuclear disarmament by lifting a cap on the U.K.’s stockpile of nuclear weapons from 180 to 260. It is a move Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab earlier said was the “ultimate insurance policy” against threats from hostile states. Johnson, a leading voice in the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, said, “The truth is that even if we wished it — and of course we do not — the U.K. could never turn inwards or be content with the cramped horizons of a regional foreign policy.” The United States would be the U.K.’s “greatest ally” in all its endeavors because of the two countries’ unique intelligence and security partnership, Johnson said.
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9 The number of days until Biden’s first press conference as president. He will hold his first formal news conference on March 25 , White House press secretary Jen Psaki said today. While Biden has periodically taken questions from reporters, he has been under fire from conservative news outlets — as well as some political allies — for waiting longer than some predecessors to hold a formal press conference. |
| | | YANG’S RIGHTWARD ROAD TO POLITICAL STARDOM — Andrew Yang’s road to fame was paved with right-wing podcasts. Before he joined the New York City mayor’s race in January or even appeared on a presidential debate stage during the Democratic primary, Yang reached an audience of millions through an unconventional venue: shows that promoted a strongly anti-progressive point of view. His appearances were the most high-profile examples of his history on the campaign trail espousing views that were antithetical to today’s current Democratic party — part of a strategy to win back white, working-class workers who swung for Trump in 2016, Tina Nguyen and Sally Goldenberg report. At the time his views weren’t too distant from other centrist candidates, who shied away from embracing progressive issues, particularly those related to “culture war” topics. But New York City Democratic politics demand a different script. Primary voters across the five boroughs generally support labor unions, take into account a candidate’s race and ethnicity and veer further left in their politics. In recent years traditional Democrats who suited voters for decades were toppled by even further-leaning upstart progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Even Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a moderate in the mayoral field this year, celebrated winning support from a trio of influential unions last week. Yang’s political leanings in this field are as unorthodox as his candidacy itself — a novice to local politics who vaulted to frontrunner status even as news coverage focused on his escape from the city during the height of the pandemic, his spotty voting record and staff complaints about a hostile work culture in his presidential campaign.
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