| | |  | BY ELANA SCHOR | | WHAT MOVIE ARE WE WATCHING? Among the conventions of sports films is the unity moment during or after a big game. You know the one: Sean Astin’s “Rudy” hoisted on the shoulders of his teammates, or Charlie Sheen bringing the Cleveland Indians together with his clutch relief pitching in “Major League.” It’s tempting to see partisan politics through the same lens, a game in which the pursuit of unity keeps people voting on their team’s side of the aisle. Except sometimes politics isn’t a sports saga — it’s a buddy movie, an ensemble affair of bickering allies. That’s certainly been the case with Joe Manchin.
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Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images | The voluble West Virginia centrist is the main character in the drama of American history’s longest-running 50-50 Senate.He held up a $1.9 trillion Covid aid bill last year to seek changes to its unemployment benefits. He crippled a $1.7 trillion party-line spending bill in December. And this week,he spoke some uncomfortable truths about the scope of his party’s marquee abortion-rights bill after joining every Republican in blocking debate on it. Manchin isn’t looking to be part of a unified team of Democrats, necessarily. Sure, he’s on board with a sizable share of the party’s ideological must-haves, like taxing the rich (he’ll do more of it) and Obamacare (he likes it). But he, and his fellow centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) for that matter, won’t just suit up for the sake of pouring Gatorade on Majority Leader Chuck Schumer after winning a vote. In short, Manchin and Sinema are buddy-movie ensemble players with particular, occasionally peculiar, personas. It should surprise no one that they helped coordinatethe bipartisan 10-senator group that wrote last year’s $550 billion infrastructure bill — and that both count real friends across the aisle. They’re looking for a legislative mise-en-scene that feels right for their voters, which necessarily involves at least a touch of outreach to Republicans. The Democratic base, and many of their own colleagues, may not like it. Most of them don’t. But Manchin and Sinema are not rebelling from their party for rebellion’s sake so much as they are looking for the right shot, the proper frame, for high-stakes legislation. Take last year, when POLITICO first reported on a document Manchin pitched to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer about the scope of any party-line spending bill. The proposal included language that warned “Senator Manchin does not guarantee that he will vote for” any bill failing to meet his parameters. Doesn’t sound like a man in search of a team-unity climax, does it? If their party has any hope of reviving the party-line bill that Manchin tanked late last year before the clock effectively runs out this fall, Democrats will need to see him and Sinema as the legislators they are — not the legislators the party wishes they could be. That probably involves building better chemistry with the duo, even if it’s oil-and-water chemistry, and dropping the pure rah-rah approach. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at eschor@politico.com, on Twitter at @eschor.
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| | A message from Save American Solar Jobs: The Biden administration’s Commerce Department is threatening to implement massive tariffs of up to 250% on solar panel components imported by American solar manufacturers for assembly in the U.S. This tariff threat is devastating the American solar industry, costing U.S. jobs, hurting domestic manufacturing, raising inflation and undermining efforts to address climate change.
President Biden: Tell Your Commerce Department to Stop Undermining U.S. Solar Manufacturing. | | | | | — Jan. 6 investigation subpoenas McCarthy, Jordan, 3 other House Republicans: The Jan. 6 select committee today subpoenaed five House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. The subpoenas target some of Donald Trump’s closest allies in the House, several of whom were engaged in numerous meetings and planning sessions amid the former president’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. The move represents a sharp escalation in the select committee’s tactics after months of weighing how aggressively to pursue testimony from their own colleagues. — Senate falters in push to pass $40B Ukraine aid: A $40 billion aid package to fortify Ukraine’s defenses against the Russian invasion won’t reach Biden’s desk this week , with one senator’s objections stalling the legislation. Democratic and Republican leaders sought to clear the bill today with enough time to head off a lapse in U.S. weapons shipments to Eastern Europe that’s expected next week. But those efforts were dashed after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blocked a fast-tracked vote, demanding leaders include a provision that would designate a special federal watchdog to oversee how the $40 billion is spent. — Fed’s Powell secures a second term as inflation rages: The Senate overwhelmingly voted today to give Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell a second term , keeping him atop the world’s most important central bank as he wages a risky battle against the highest inflation in 40 years. Powell has already kicked off a campaign of interest rate increases designed to rein in spending and slow growth in the hopes of taming surging prices, a move that many fear will tip the economy into recession. But the central bank has faced heat for being slow to react even as inflation showed signs of broadening out across the economy last fall.
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| — White House announces steps to combat infant formula shortage: The Biden administration today announced steps to address the infant formula shortage, as limited supplies shake parents across the country struggling to locate the critical and in some cases, life-sustaining, products. Biden spoke with retailers and manufacturers to discuss the crisis, and the administration announced plans to speed up the manufacturing process, crack down on price gouging and increase supply through additional imports. — Trump tries to slow Kathy Barnette in Pennsylvania’s Senate primary: Trump sought to tamp down Republican Kathy Barnette’s roaring momentum in Pennsylvania’s GOP primary for the Senate . Barnette, a political commentator, is surging in the polls as the closely watched primary quickly approaches, with a handful of Republican groups throwing support behind the candidate this week. Barnette’s rise as a MAGA candidate herself comes despite TV star Mehmet Oz’s securing the prized Trump endorsement.
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| | DON'T MISS DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | | | HOW TO SAY MISTAKE IN FINNISH — The decision by the leaders of Finland, which has one of the world’s best-equipped and most advanced militaries, to back NATO membership reflects a grave strategic blunder by Russian President Vladimir Putin that will redefine the security balance in Europe regardless of the final outcome of his ill-conceived war in Ukraine, Lili Bayer and David Herszenhorn write. “It’s a colossal loss for Putin — colossal,” said former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb, who had advocated for his country to join the alliance since Russia’s war with Georgia in 2008. Not only does Finland share a 1,300-kilometer land border with Russia, but it brings strong battle-ready defense and security capabilities in every domain — on land, at sea, in the air, and in cyberspace. As a NATO partner nation, Finland’s forces and weapons systems are already interoperable with the U.S. and other Western powers, unlike Ukraine which had relied heavily on Soviet-made equipment and material. Together with Sweden, whose leaders are also expected to back NATO membership in the coming days, Finland asserts naval power in the Baltic Sea and, as an expert in cold-weather warfare, can project strength in the Arctic north — an area of mounting strategic importance as climate change opens new waterways.
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| | A message from Save American Solar Jobs:  
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$3.1 billion The amount of new funding for the global Covid fight announced by U.S. and world leaders today. The announcement was part of the Biden administration’s second Global Covid Summit, where top officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris, appeared with global organizations, nonprofits and foreign officials working to ramp up vaccinations and expand access to therapeutics to fight the virus across the world. |
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| | 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. | | | | | | | WORD CHOICE — A group of pro-abortion rights Democrats are urging their colleagues to update their terminology when it comes to talking about abortion. That includes using the word “decision” instead of “choice,” Sarah Ferris writes in Congress Minutes. The caucus, led by Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Col.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), distributed talking points today. The memo, obtained by POLITICO, stresses a few changes to how they’d like Democrats to talk about abortion rights, including: — Avoid terms like “back alley” or “coat hanger” abortions. Instead, they said Democrats should say “criminalizing healthcare.” — Instead of Bill Clinton’s 30-year-old refrain calling for abortions to be “safe, legal, and rare,” Democrats would prefer the language: “Safe, legal, and accessible.” — Call them unexpected pregnancies, instead of unwanted pregnancies. — Laws that allow health care providers to deny abortion services based on religious beliefs should be called “refusal of care” or “denial of care” laws, rather than conscience clauses.
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| | A message from Save American Solar Jobs: The Biden administration’s Commerce Department is threatening to implement massive tariffs of up to 250% on solar panel components imported by American solar manufacturers for assembly in the U.S. This tariff threat is devastating the American solar industry, costing U.S. jobs, hurting domestic manufacturing, raising inflation and undermining efforts to address climate change.
There is a better solution already on the table. Congress should pass the clean energy tax credits and incentives that have been stalled since last year. These policies will drive the expansion of domestic solar panel component manufacturing and ensure we have the infrastructure needed to fight climate change and create jobs.
President Biden: Tell Your Commerce Department to Stop Undermining U.S. Solar Manufacturing. | | | Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. | |
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