Thursday, December 15, 2022

DEC 16

Yesterday, former president Trump took to his Truth Social media platform to announce that he would be making “a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT” today. Since he recently threw his hat in the ring for president in 2024, there was a great deal of speculation about what political move this would be.

When it came today, it turned out that his announcement was for digital trading cards with images of him as a superhero…available for $99 apiece. Radio personality John Melendez promptly called them “Broke’mon cards.”

Ron Filipkowski, a former federal prosecutor and Republican who now monitors right-wing extremism, tweeted: “All I can say is that those of us who have lost friends, fought with relatives, resigned positions, been called traitor, left our party, all because we saw very clearly what a con-man, huckster and fraud this man is, have never felt more vindicated.”

The reduction of the former president to a cartoon grifter seems likely to have political repercussions. Right-wing media personality Baked Alaska, who is facing six months in jail after pleading guilty to parading, demonstrating or picketing inside a Capitol building for his participation in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, tweeted: “i can’t believe i’m going to jail for an nft salesman,” with a sad face emoji.

Meanwhile, three members of the “Wolverine Watchmen” who hatched a plot to kill police and elected officials and to kidnap Governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer in summer 2020 as Trump urged his supporters to “LIBERATE” the state from her coronavirus restrictions were sentenced today to a minimum of 7 to 12 years in prison. Kara Berg of The Detroit News recorded their reactions: "I had a lapse in judgment," said one; "I sincerely regret ever allowing myself to have any affiliation with people who had those kinds of ideas,” said another; "I was caught up highly in the moment,” said a third. Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel noted that, “appropriate consequences for illegal acts are necessary to deter criminal behavior.”

Trump’s political star is fading, leaving the Republican Party without plan or policy: recall that in 2020, for the first time in its history, the party didn’t write a political platform. Instead, it said that if it had written a platform, it “would have undoubtedly unanimously agreed to reassert the Party’s strong support for President Donald Trump and his Administration.” Going forward, they simply resolved “[t]hat the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda.”

Now the former president is increasingly toxic. As the party tries to find someone to blame for its poor 2022 showing, some seem to have concluded the party hasn’t been extremist enough. Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, who remade the party to serve Trump, is now in a fight to keep her position, challenged by a woman who has backed election challenges and worked directly as Trump’s lawyer, rather than coming up from within the party.

The lawmakers Trump helped to usher into Congress are also doubling down on their extremism. In 2022 the Republicans just barely won control of the House—and that with the help of gerrymandered districts—leaving them very little room to argue with each other.

But while leadership in the Senate is determined by the party in power alone, the speakership of the House is voted on by the whole House. This means that with such a small majority, current House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who intends to become House speaker, can lose only a few votes and yet win.

The far-right wing of his conference, some of whom were prominent in the newly released texts to and from Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows as they tried to keep Trump in power despite the will of the voters, have said they will not back McCarthy. He appears to have promised them plum committee assignments, investigations, and even impeachments, but so far, they aren’t budging.

Today, McCarthy put off the choosing of committee leadership slots until after the January 3 election for speaker, which also means the Republican membership of the committees is unclear (in contrast, the Democrats will have made their decisions by next week). This enables McCarthy to use seats as leverage—Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who was stripped of her committee assignments in this Congress, has already said she expects a prime spot on the Committee on Oversight and Reform—but it also means that the House cannot organize to start the upcoming session. It can’t even hire staff.

Republicans who style themselves the “governing wing” of the party are quietly talking about stripping their more extreme members from committees. “From a governing perspective, it’s important that Republicans don’t start January 3 by going face down and not having some clarity as to what we’re going to be able to accomplish,” Representative Steve Womack (R-AR) told Annie Grayer and Melanie Zanona of CNN. “We need to be able to hit the ground running and demonstrate to the American people that the trust and confidence they’ve given to us by giving us a majority, albeit slim, was a good decision.”

Indeed. And first on that list is keeping the government funded. Yesterday, the House approved a stopgap funding measure to keep the government operating another week while Congress prepares an omnibus bill to fund — until the end of the fiscal year on September 30, 2023. The omnibus bill must be bipartisan to get through the Senate, but House Republican leaders urged Republican members to vote against the short-term measure, saying it was an “attempt to buy additional time for a massive lame-duck spending bill in which House Republicans have had no seat at the negotiating table.” Nine Republicans voted for it nonetheless, but at the very least, it seems that negotiations next year will be difficult.

Meanwhile, over at the White House, President Joe Biden has spent the last three days hosting the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. Both Russia and China have invested heavily in Africa in the past, and Biden, who is trying to weaken Chinese and Russian power around the globe, announced that the U.S. is committed “to expanding and deepening our partnership with African countries, institutions, and people.” This week he announced not only that he backs the African Union’s membership in the G-20, the intergovernmental forum of leading economies, but that the U.S. will invest at least $55 billion in the continent over the next three years. The U.S. hopes to work with African nations on issues of security, health, food security—Somalia is facing drought conditions that will affect food supplies, while the Russian invasion of Ukraine has cut down fertilizer shipments to Africa more generally—climate change, corruption, and so on.

Biden announced that he and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as Dr. Jill Biden, Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, and several members of the Cabinet, will travel to the African continent in 2023 to demonstrate the U.S. commitment to African countries and citizens.

But while the White House this week was all about geopolitics and representation, the person who handles the president’s personal Twitter account apparently couldn’t resist poking a little fun at Trump’s news. “I had some MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS the last couple of weeks, too…” the account read:

“Inflation’s easing

I just signed the Respect for Marriage Act

We brought Brittney Griner home

Gas prices are lower than a year ago

10,000 new high-paying jobs in Arizona”

If the Democrats are trying to portray themselves as the competent party, the Republicans seem to be trying to give them a leg up.

—

Notes:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-15/trump-hawks-nft-superhero-digital-trading-cards-as-campaign-lags

Christopher Mathias @letsgomathias

Nazi named after dessert dish who marched in CVille & livestreamed himself storming Capitol, let back on Twitter after it's bought by world's richest man, only to tweet regret the prez he did an insurrection for is now hawking NFTs, is perfect distillation of the Trump era

Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 @RonFilipkowski

All I can say is that those of us who have lost friends, fought with relatives, resigned positions, been called traitor, left our party, all because we saw very clearly what a con-man, huckster and fraud this man is, have never felt more vindicated.

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/resolution-regarding-the-republican-party-platform

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/12/1136267788/how-redistricting-affected-the-outcome-of-the-elections

John Melendez @stutteringjohnm

@bobcesca_go Broke'mon cards.

https://www.state.gov/africasummit/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/12/15/u-s-africa-leaders-summit-strengthening-partnerships-to-meet-shared-priorities/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/12/15/vision-statement-for-the-u-s-africa-partnership/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/11/30/marjorie-taylor-greene-house-majority-committee/

https://www.voanews.com/a/russia-steadily-rebuilding-presence-in-africa/6452193.html

https://www.iisd.org/articles/chinese-investment-africa-bilateral-trade-decline

https://www.detroitnews.com/story Kim/news/local/michigan/2022/12/15/three-men-sentenced-in-michigan-gov-whitmer-kidnapping-plot/69709773007/

https://www.michigan.gov/ag/news/press-releases/2022/12/15/wolverine-watchmen-sentenced

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/15/politics/militia-members-sentenced-whitmer-kidnapping-plot/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/15/politics/moderate-republicans-kevin-mccarthy-speaker/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/13/us/politics/trump-mccarthy-speaker-republicans-freedom-caucus.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-approves-short-term-government-funding-bill-heads-to-senate/

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/12/us/politics/republican-national-committee-rnc.html

Joe Biden @JoeBiden

I had some MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS the last couple of weeks, too… ✔️ Inflation’s easing ✔️ I just signed the Respect for Marriage Act ✔️ We brought Brittney Griner home ✔️ Gas prices are lower than a year ago ✔️ 10,000 new high-paying jobs in Arizona

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2022/02/02/the-future-of-russia-africa-relations/

POLITICO NIGHTLY: Crypto has its Washington moment

View in browser

BY CALDER MCHUGH

Presented by

With help from Ari Hawkins

Actor Ben McKenzie testifies during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on cryptocurrency and the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

CRASH LANDING — After the collapse of the crypto exchange and hedge fund FTX — it nosedived from a $32 billion valuation to near-zero in a day — and the subsequent arrest of its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, much anticipated hearings on crypto finally took place this week.

Everyone from Jennifer Schulp of the libertarian Cato Institute to former “O.C.” star Ben McKenzie (he’s a vigorous crypto-skeptic who’s writing a book on the industry) testified about crypto, with the latter calling it “the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.” The Senate Banking Committee’s chair, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), has called directly for legislation that regulates crypto .

To make sense of the implications of FTX’s fall on the global economy, the murky future of crypto as an investment prospect and Washington’s role in all of this, Nightly spoke with Sam Sutton , a financial services reporter for POLITICO, who has focused on crypto markets. This interview has been lightly edited.

For those of us who haven’t been following every beat of the crypto news this week, can you give an overview?

[Takes deep breath…] FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas this week at the request of U.S. prosecutors. Indictments filed by the Justice Department, SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Tuesday charged the former political mega donor — he and colleagues at the Bahamas-based crypto exchange gave at least $73 million to campaigns and independent expenditure committees during the midterms — with fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations.

Multiple agencies launched investigations into Bankman-Fried in early November after FTX blew up amid allegations that SBF had used customer accounts to backstop losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research. FTX and its affiliates filed for bankruptcy and the company’s new CEO John Ray III — who previously steered Enron through its restructuring — has told Congress that the lack of internal controls and record keeping at FTX are unprecedented.

FTX’s collapse put tremendous strain on other crypto markets. The market contagion sparked by Bankman-Fried’s downfall has already forced other businesses into bankruptcy and threatens the viability of major crypto institutions that offer lending and brokerage services.

There’s also a lot of heat on other crypto giants. Customers have pulled billions of dollars worth of assets from Binance — the world’s largest crypto exchange and an early backer of FTX — over the last week. Binance and its top executives are also reportedly under investigation by the Justice Department for money laundering and sanctions violations. [In a statement, Binance said that it’s “actively working with regulators around the world on regulation” and that it’s committed to being in full compliance. The company also says it has “more than enough assets” to fulfill withdrawal requests.]

There’s clearly a lot going on very quickly. What does the FTX collapse mean moving forward? You mentioned the strain it has put on other crypto businesses. Could these ripple effects plausibly lead to further collapses throughout the sector and have broader effects on the U.S. economy?

It’s already led to collapses in the crypto space. BlockFi, a crypto lending platform that Bankman-Fried saved from insolvency during a previous market crash, has already filed for bankruptcy. The crypto brokerage/lender Genesis Global Trading is facing a severe financial crunch, which forced Gemini — a trading platform owned by the Winklevoss twins — to suspend customer redemptions for its yield-generating accounts.

To the point of the broader U.S. economy, the silver lining to all of this is that it hasn’t had much of an effect on traditional markets. Because crypto exists in a regulatory gray area in the U.S., Wall Street institutions and banks don’t have a ton of exposure to the chaos that we’re seeing in the digital asset space.

That said, lawmakers from both parties are starting to hone in on the handful of small and midsize banks that provided services to FTX and other crypto firms.

So how would more regulation — an increasingly desperate call from some members of Congress — change the space? And what have hearings revealed?

The hearings that Congress have held on this so far hammered home a lot of what was already known (or, what was known as of a month ago). 1) FTX was an absolute mess and Bankman-Fried’s claims about being a responsible actor in the space — which a ton of people in Washington, Wall Street, Silicon Valley and media circles bought — were a complete ruse. 2) Crypto customers aren’t protected. 3) There’s not a clear consensus on how to move forward with policies that address these markets.

As for regulation, I was really struck by a comment that Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) made during Senate Banking’s hearing earlier this week — which also goes back to how we haven’t seen any of this spill over into the mainstream economy. “The question is where do we go from here?” he said. “On the one hand, the impulse is to protect consumers. On the other hand, we want to make sure that in the process of trying to do that we don’t give a government imprimatur to a system that’s so inherently risky.”

That’s really interesting. From a government regulation perspective, are there no good options? Where would regulation take the crypto market? Boiled down, where do you think we go from here?

There’s certainly momentum behind setting disclosure and consumer/investor protection standards. The fact that Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown is now talking about legislation here — which was not something he was doing before — is a sign that the level of pain caused by FTX’s collapse has scared the bejesus out of a lot of people.

But the specifics of what’s ultimately required, what market regulators have jurisdiction and the categories of crypto businesses — or decentralized finance networks — that would have to comply? That’s the same fight Washington’s been having for the last year.

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at cmchugh@politico.com or on Twitter at @calder_mchugh .

A message from Chamber of Progress:

If passed, the Open App Markets Act S. 2710 (OAMA) would undermine content moderation on app platforms, furthering the spread of hate speech, disinformation, and violent rhetoric. Some Democrats have questioned the disastrous impact of OAMA, raising concerns about the bill creating cybersecurity risks, hamstringing content moderation, and targeting specific tech companies. So why are Democratic lawmakers still supporting MAGA Republicans in spreading harmful content online? Learn more about the dangers of OAMA here.

THE NEW CONGRESS

DRAGGING IT OUT — Kevin McCarthy’s imperiled speakership bid is threatening to incapacitate Republicans during a crucial planning period, virtually guaranteeing a sluggish start for the new House majority, write Olivia Beavers , Jordain Carney and Sarah Ferris .

The GOP leader today took the unusual step of punting conferencewide races for committee leadership slots until after his speaker election on Jan. 3, a maneuver that could help insulate him from disgruntled members who fall short in those contests and their allies.

But that delay will also mean days, if not weeks, of uncertainty for GOP committees as they begin their stint in the majority. Some of the most important panels, including those charged with tax-writing and border security, won’t be able to prepare bills, tee up hearings, or even hire staff. While some House committees already have uncontested leaders in place, those chairs won’t be able to choose their member lineup or potentially pay staff. The GOP’s subpoena power, too, will be frozen.

“Without question, delays in selecting chairmen and committee members put a lot of pressure on the agenda,” said retiring Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), who led the influential House Ways and Means Committee the last time the GOP had the majority.

A NEW POLITICO PODCAST: POLITICO Tech is an authoritative insider briefing on the politics and policy of technology. From crypto and the metaverse to cybersecurity and AI, we explore the who, what and how of policy shaping future industries. We’re kicking off with a series exploring darknet marketplaces, the virtual platforms that enable actors from all corners of the online world to traffic illicit goods. As malware and cybercrime attacks become increasingly frequent, regulators and law enforcement agencies work different angles to shut these platforms down, but new, often more unassailable marketplaces pop up. SUBSCRIBE AND START LISTENING TODAY .

WHAT'D I MISS?

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images

— D.C. legal panel finds Giuliani violated attorney rules in bid to overturn 2020 election: A bar discipline committee in Washington, D.C., has concluded that Rudy Giuliani violated at least one professional rule in his efforts to help former President Donald Trump challenge the results of the 2020 election — a preliminary finding that could result in the suspension or loss of his law license. The three-member disciplinary committee agreed that Giuliani’s handling of litigation in Pennsylvania crossed ethical lines. Their finding came after a week of testimony by Giuliani — who said Trump waived attorney-client privilege to permit him to testify — and some of his allies, including Trump advisers Bernie Kerik, Christina Bobb and Corey Lewandowski.

— Senate sprints to avert government shutdown: The Senate is racing to clear a one-week funding patch that would avert a government shutdown on Friday at midnight, but timing remains uncertain as any one senator could delay the legislation. The House on Wednesday night passed the stopgap measure , which extends federal cash until Dec. 23, as leading lawmakers scramble to wrap up a broader $1.7 trillion year-end spending package. But with less than 48 hours until federal funding lapses, any one senator can hold up the stopgap in exchange for concessions or amendment votes, and Senate conservatives on Wednesday were ambiguous about their plans.

— Intelligence agencies didn’t move fast enough to collect Covid data: The intelligence community was not prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic and did not move quickly enough to gather information about the spread of the virus , according to a report released today by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee. The report looks at the intelligence community’s response to Covid-19, particularly in the early days of 2020. The intelligence agencies’ clandestine collectors largely focused on analyzing data about the virus that was already being discussed openly by public health officials and experts across the world, the report said, arguing that they moved too slowly to collect clandestine information.

— Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker next NCAA president: Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a former Harvard basketball player, will be the next president of the NCAA. Baker, a Republican, will leave office on Jan. 5 after declining to seek a third term. Baker will succeed Mark Emmert. And he will be succeeded in the Massachusetts governor’s office by Democrat Maura Healey, a former basketball player and the state’s attorney general. Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), a former volleyball player said in a statement that Baker’s “experience as a college basketball player coupled with his extensive career spanning both the public and private sectors will serve him well in this position.”

A message from Chamber of Progress:

AROUND THE WORLD

UNCHURCHED — How often have you attended a religious service in the past three months?

If your answer is “never” you’re in the majority, at least in Ottawa, according to a new survey of Canadians from EKOS Research Associates. In fact, only 19 percent of survey respondents said they’d joined a service more than once during that time frame, writes Phillippe J. Fournier .

The federal government recently announced its plan to bring almost 1.5 million immigrants to Canada in the next three years, and an average of 500,000 per year until the end of the decade. Many of those newcomers will come from countries where religion occupies a far greater aspect of everyday life. The EKOS poll reveals the landscape as they arrive.

In Quebec, three in four respondents said they had not attended worship in the period surveyed. Just 10 percent said they’d been more than once, while elsewhere in the country, a majority said they’d been no-shows. The majorities were lowest in Alberta (61 percent) and the Atlantic provinces (60 percent).

The same poll asked respondents about their federal voting intentions — this at a time when Conservatives hold a narrow lead over the Liberals and here’s what the survey tells us about the Canadians who said they’d not attended service: Eighty-one percent were NDP voters; 71 percent were Liberals; 57 percent were Conservatives.

Read the full analysis here .

POLITICO AT CES 2023 : We are bringing a special edition of our Digital Future Daily newsletter to Las Vegas to cover CES 2023. The newsletter will take you inside the largest and most influential technology event on the planet, featuring every major and emerging industry in the technology ecosystem gathered in one place. The newsletter runs from Jan. 5-7 and will focus on the public policy related aspects of the event. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage of CES 2023.

NIGHTLY NUMBER

12 years

The minimum amount of prison time that was handed down by Judge Thomas Wilson to Pete Musico due to his participation in an attempt to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer . Two of Musico’s associates, Joe Morrison and Paul Bellar, got 10 years and seven years, respectively. The three men were not charged with having a direct role in the conspiracy, but trained with Adam Fox, who separately faces a possible life sentence for a federal conviction.

RADAR SWEEP

TURN DOWN THE HEAT — NASA and its international partners plan to launch a satellite dedicated to scanning the world’s water. The device will provide critical information on changing coastal areas that can help future communities react to climate-induced natural disasters like rising sea levels and devastating hurricanes, and will be able to survey about 90 percent of the water on Earth. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite will officially launch Friday morning as part of a joint mission with the space stations from the U.S., France, Canada and the United Kingdom. WIRED’s Ramin Skibba has the full report.

PARTING WORDS

Viktor Bout sits inside a detention cell while waiting for an extradition hearing in Thailand in 2008. | Chumsak Kanoknan/Getty Images

PUTIN’S PROPAGANDIST — Notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, recently returned to Moscow after a prisoner swap with the U.S. last week, has arrived back home with a bang. He’s taken no time at all to get reacclimated — Bout is eagerly putting his suddenly enhanced celebrity status and newfound political clout to work, writes Ari Hawkins for Nightly.

While WNBA star Brittney Griner, the American imprisoned in Russia who represented the other half of the swap, continues to recover privately at a medical facility in the United States, Bout was ushered into the media spotlight by pro-Kremlin forces from the moment he touched down at Vnukovo airport in Moscow. The man known as the “Merchant of Death” gave an interview to an aggressively pro-Putin outlet not long after landing and has barely stopped airing his views about the moral decline of the U.S. — and the West in general — since then.

His opinions, not surprisingly, tend to echo and validate those of Russian President Vladmir Putin. In a flurry of media interviews and sympathetically written profiles, he has expressed support for the war in Ukraine, his nationalist pride and his disdain for Western social mores, winning the hearts of ultra-nationalist Russians and emerging as a symbol of opposition to the West.

One widely read state-controlled publication called URA.RU claimed that the U.S. offered the arms dealer a green card, but only if he “slandered” Putin — which Bout says he refused.

“I’m proud that I’m a Russian person, and that Putin is our president,” Bout said in an interview in which he also expressed his support for the war in Ukraine. He also claimed a photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin was table-side in his prison cell and helped lift his spirits during solitary confinement.

Pro-Kremlin voices portray the exchange as a win for Moscow and an example of Putin’s negotiating savvy — the framing of a trade of a patriotic entrepreneur for an African American lesbian arrested on drug charges ties into a broader Russian narrative about the corrupted nature of American priorities.

"What is happening in the West is just a suicide of civilization," said Bout in a television interview with Russian lawmaker Maria Butina, who herself was detained in an America prison after being found guilty of spying for Moscow . “If this suicide is not prevented… the whole planet will [die]. This is probably going in all directions: it's both drugs and LGBTQ+,” he said.

Bout’s value as a propagandist was underscored earlier this week when he spoke to an audience of ultranationalists. Leonid Slutsky, the leader of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia who celebrated the official entrance of Bout into the party earlier this week, described him as a “courageous man who has become a symbol of the struggle for principles, for the spiritual and moral foundations of today's Russia,” according to a translated version of Russian media.

“Putin's war is not going well. There is dissent in society. So part of what he's attempting to do with this is to keep people believing in the mission of the war,” said Jill Dougherty, a professor at Georgetown University's Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies. “Viktor Bout was like a shot in the arm for the average Russian, who might identify with someone portrayed to be an ordinary businessman held unfairly by Americans for more than a decade.”

Bout, who was convicted in U.S. federal court in 2011 on terrorism charges for supplying weaponry to terrorist groups and conspiring to kill American civilians, was believed to have done business in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Sudan before his arrest. Yet across the pro-Kremlin media, he is framed in highly sympathetic terms as he bolsters ultranationalist political messaging and delivers unflinching praise for the Russian president.

“There has been a substantial change in the Russian PR strategy from years ago when he was arrested, where he was presented as an independent businessman, not an arms dealer, but still kept at arm’s length,” said Dylan Myles-Primakoff, a senior manager at the National Endowment for Democracy, an organization aimed at promoting democracy abroad.

“But as the Russian government has become more authoritarian and as their relationships with the West have deteriorated, that mask has really come off and Moscow is happy to embrace [Bout] as a hero.”

To the Kremlin, much of the value of Bout’s message is in its implicit and explicit criticism of Western culture and identity. In one interview, ostensibly about his prison stint, the arms dealer offered this take: “First-graders are told in class that there [are] 72 sexes,” he said, pointing to his experience in an American prison as evidence of his familiarity with the American education system. In the same interview, he claimed "there is reverse racism in America now. It's very hard to be a white man.”

Brian Taylor, a professor of political science at Syracuse University and a Russia expert, said Bout could also be trying to influence the minority of far-right Americans sympathetic to the arms dealer’s perspective: “The shared language used both among far right American conservatives and Russian state actors is not accidental. The Russian state has a long standing record of trying to appeal to extreme actors in the West as a way of trying to divide the West against itself.”

Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here .

A message from Chamber of Progress:

Disinformation, hate speech, and violent rhetoric are threatening the stability of our democracy and the safety of many communities around the country. Even in the face of that reality, Democratic lawmakers are supporting legislation that would strip online platforms of their ability to remove harmful content—the Open App Markets Act S. 2710 (OAMA).

Some Democrats have continued to question the disastrous impact of OAMA, warning that “extremist outlets and disinformation sites could sue app platforms for blocking them,” forcing platforms to provide soapboxes to outlets like Infowars and Parler.

Democrats shouldn’t help MAGA Republicans spread harmful content online.

Learn more about lawmakers' concerns with OAMA here.

Follow us on Twitter

Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie

Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh

Katherine Long @katherinealong

Ari Hawkins @_AriHawkins

FOLLOW US

POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA

POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: Healey's first big hires

LOST IN SPAM FOLDER!

Dec 13, 2022

View in browser

BY LISA KASHINSKY

Presented by

DRUMROLL PLEASE — Maura Healey is turning to Beacon Hill veterans and trusted advisers from the attorney general's office for her first batch of hires as the governor-elect.

Matthew Gorzkowicz will be Healey’s secretary of administration and finance. He served as assistant secretary for budget and then undersecretary of administration and finance during the Patrick administration and has worked in the state Senate, Department of Mental Health and for the Massachusetts School Building Authority. For the past decade-plus he’s been associate vice president for administration and finance at the UMass president’s office.

Kate Cook will be Healey’s chief of staff after serving as her first assistant attorney general. Cook was chief legal counsel to former Gov. Deval Patrick in the final two years of his administration. Prior to that, she served as general counsel to the Senate Ways and Means Committee and assistant corporation counsel to the city of Boston. She was also a partner at Sugarman Rogers.

Gabrielle Viator, a longtime Healey aide, will serve as a senior adviser. Viator was an assistant attorney general in the office’s civil rights division when Healey was its chief, and later became her senior policy adviser and chief of staff. She serves as chief deputy attorney general and previously worked in the Legislature and at Ropes & Gray.

(Left to right) Matt Gorzkowicz, Kate Cook, and Gabe Viator were announced as the first round of hires for Massachusetts Gov.-elect Maura Healey's incoming administration. | Handouts

With prior stints in the Patrick administration and the Legislature, Healey's new hires bring “experience and credibility on Beacon Hill” to the incoming administration, Doug Howgate, the next head of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation who’s worked with Gorzkowicz and Cook, told Playbook.

Gorzkowicz will be responsible for Healey’s first budget, where he’ll have to balance the state’s slowing-but-still-exceeding-expectations revenue collections with his new boss’s desires to pursue tax reform and keep Massachusetts affordable. Mix in the start of the millionaires tax and an uncertain economic outlook and it’s a challenging situation for even a seasoned state budget operative.

His former bosses and colleagues say he’s up to the task. UMass President Marty Meehan and former A&F Secretary Jay Gonzalez sang Gorzkowicz’s praises in interviews. “He knows exactly what he is walking into, so he’ll be able to hit the ground running,” Gonzalez told Playbook.

And by tapping two of her confidants from the attorney general’s office, Healey is showing "she values those people and those people value her, and so that loyalty comes through,” former Sen. Mo Cowan, who overlapped with Cook in the Patrick administration, told Playbook.

Healey's long-awaited announcements will temporarily quell talk of the governor-elect being light on details during her transition. But she continues to lag behind her predecessor in naming key players in her administration. At this point after his 2014 election, Charlie Baker had named four Cabinet secretaries and his chief of staff.

GOOD TUESDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. Your Playbook scribe is headed to D.C. for a few days. If you see me on the Hill, give me a shout!

PROGRAMMING NOTE: The last Playbook of the year is Friday. Send me your tips and scoops: lkashinsky@politico.com .

TODAY — Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito highlight their support for vocational and technical education at 9 a.m. in Danvers and celebrate the Massachusetts National Guard’s 386th birthday at 10:30 a.m. at the State House. Polito chairs a Seaport Economic Council Meeting at 1:30 p.m. in Plymouth. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu releases a new Franklin Park Action Plan at 10 a.m. in Roxbury, is on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio” at 12:30 p.m. and attends the Black Men Lead Boston Program graduation ceremony at 6 p.m. at City Hall Plaza.

PROPAGANDA: message from NextEra Energy:

NextEra Energy is the first company in history committed to moving past net zero all the way to Real Zero™, leveraging low-cost renewables to drive energy affordability for customers.

DATELINE BEACON HILL

— SO LONG, FAREWELL: Outgoing senators and representatives bid adieu to their colleagues on Monday, delivering heartfelt speeches touting their legislative accomplishments and offering advice to those taking their places. State Rep. Tami Gouveia also used her speech to deliver a pointed message to leadership to allow staffers to unionize.

Gouveia is among the handful of lawmakers departing after largely failed runs for higher office. Former state Sen. Adam Hinds, now the CEO of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, returned to formally say farewell. State Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz, the first Latina elected to the Senate who gave up her seat to run for governor, spoke about what she does and, more pointedly, doesn’t regret from her decade-plus in office. State Sen. Diana DiZoglio’s speech was more of a see-you-later — she’s moving to the auditor’s office in January.

And state Sen. Eric Lesser used his speech to deliver a warning about the state’s regional divides : “Massachusetts is growing increasingly divided on economic and geographic lines. … Left unchecked that divide will bring our whole state down, it will make all of us less well-off. Yes, West-East rail is going to help a lot … but so will better housing, so will more life sciences jobs, so will arts and cultural development, so will manufacturing jobs."

— “Mass. lawmakers revive proposal requiring state’s chief medical examiner to review autopsies of young children,” by Matt Stout, Boston Globe: “Months after the measure stalled, the Massachusetts House on Monday passed a proposal that would require the state’s chief medical examiner to personally review and approve all autopsies of children younger than 2, reviving its chances with just weeks left in Beacon Hill’s legislative session.”

— “Haven’t received your Mass. tax refund? Make sure to file 2021 return,” by Alison Kuznitz, MassLive: “About $150 million remains in state coffers, as the Baker administration awaits more people filing their 2021 tax returns, a Baker administration official told MassLive. But the massive push to distribute refunds to all eligible people who filed their returns by the end of October is finished, with Massachusetts issuing $2.75 billion so far to more than 3.1 million taxpayers, the official said.”

— “Mass. POST Commission Police Officer Database Unveiled,” by Thea DiGiammerino, NBC10 Boston.

POLITICO APP USERS: UPGRADE YOUR APP BY DECEMBER 19! We recently upgraded the POLITICO app with a fresh look and improved features for easier access to POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Starting December 19, users will no longer have access to the previous version of the app. Update your app today to stay on top of essential political news, insights, and analysis from the best journalists in the business. UPDATE iOS APP – UPDATE ANDROID APP .

FROM THE HUB

— “What will it take to diversify the Boston police?” by Ivy Scott, Boston Globe: “As city officials continue their decades-long push for a more diverse police force, the watchdog agency charged with holding Boston officers accountable has hired two firms to independently review the department’s recruitment and retention of women and people of color.”

— “Boston to consider giving voting rights to some immigrants in local elections,” by Saraya Wintersmith, GBH News: “Less than a month after voting to ask the legislature to expand municipal voting rights to 16- and 17-year olds, the Boston City Council Monday braced for potentially extending voting rights to yet-to-be-determined categories of immigrants with a hearing, setting up a political debate that will reverberate beyond Boston for the coming new year.”

PARTY POLITICS

— RNC SHAKEUP: Ron Kaufman, Massachusetts’ RNC committeeman and a close ally of embattled Chair Ronna McDaniel, said Monday he won’t run for reelection as the committee’s treasurer, citing a desire to return to the “front lines” ahead of 2024. “I’m looking forward very much to returning to the battlefield, if you will, from the back office,” Kaufman told Playbook.

Kaufman urged his colleagues to reelect McDaniel, calling her the “proven, outstanding leader we need.” McDaniel faces a challenge from Harmeet Dhillon, a committee member from California who co-chaired Lawyers for Trump in 2020, as Republicans try to regroup after a midterm underperformance.

Kaufman declined to address MassGOP Chair Jim Lyons’ campaign to oust him as treasurer. But he’s keeping active on the RNC — Kaufman spoke to POLITICO Monday night from Miami, where he was visiting as part of the committee’s site selection for its 2028 convention.

PROPAGANDA: A message from NextEra Energy:

HEALEY WATCH

— “Gov.-elect Healey is mostly mum on priorities. Experts point to major challenges and low-hanging fruit,” by Katie Lannan, GBH News: “In the weeks since they were elected, [Maura] Healey and running mate Kim Driscoll have kept fairly quiet about specific post-inauguration plans, working behind the scenes to build their team and write their agenda. Along the way Healey has hinted about her agenda: She’s said housing will be a priority, and wants a dedicated Cabinet secretary for that issue. She’s signaled an interest in early action on tax reform, and proposed an expanded child tax credit on the campaign trail. And then there are the inescapable big-picture efforts like helping schools continue to bounce back from the pandemic and addressing workforce shortages that hamper the healthcare system.”

— “CVS, Walgreens to pay Massachusetts $230 million for opioid crisis settlement,” by Irene Rotondo, MassLive: “The state of Massachusetts is set to receive $230 million from a nationwide settlement with CVS and Walgreens regarding allegations that the companies each had a heavy hand in furthering the opioid crisis, according to Attorney General Maura Healey.”

PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES

Fluor, together with its project team and others, celebrated the opening of the Medford/Tufts Branch of the Green Line Extension light rail project today. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (center) is joined by U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn and other elected city and state officials (photo courtesy of MBTA) | Business Wire

— “'It’s just a huge accomplishment': Green Line Extension opens with fanfare, festivities, some protests,” by Jeremy Siegel, Bob Seay and Gal Tziperman Lotan, GBH News: “Meredith Porter was excited to be on the first train, but then turned attention to another issue: Gentrification. Some landlords are using the new Green Line stops as an excuse to raise rents, pushing out long-time residents and vulnerable communities the mass transit line was originally intended to serve.”

DAY IN COURT

— “Troy Sargent sentenced for assaulting police during Jan. 6 Capitol attack,” by Tom Matthews, MassLive: “A Pittsfield, Massachusetts, man was sentenced Monday in District of Columbia federal court to 14 months in prison for assaulting police officers during the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol. Troy Sargent, 38, was sentenced to 14 months in prison for felony charges of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, civil disorder, and four related misdemeanor offenses, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said.”

JOIN THURSDAY FOR A CONVERSATION ON FAMILY CARE IN AMERICA : Family caregivers are among our most overlooked and under-supported groups in the United States. The Biden Administration’s new national strategy for supporting family caregivers outlines nearly 350 actions the federal government is committed to taking. Who will deliver this strategy? How should different stakeholders divide the work? Join POLITICO on Dec. 15 to explore how federal action can improve the lives of those giving and receiving family care across America. REGISTER HERE .

THE LOCAL ANGLE

— “Trapped: Worcester neighborhoods still suffer from the legacy of redlining,” by Kevin Koczwara, Worcester Business Journal: “Worcester has gone through many iterations — including plenty of tough times — but its growth, in a lot of ways, has been predictable. It’s a city shaped not only by its hills, but also by a map. Specifically, a realty area map drawn and looked over by seven white men in 1936 with ties to the federal government, and the city’s banking and real estate industries. The map was commissioned by the Home Owners' Loan Corp. and used problematic — and, in some cases, downright racist — criteria to classify the city into five areas: Best, Still Desirable, Definitely Declining, Hazardous, and Business. And today, the city, like so many others where these maps are drawn, is still dealing with this legacy.”

— “Can Drugs Treat Addiction? Prisons Offer an Answer,” by Julie Wernau, Wall Street Journal: “Sheriff Peter Koutoujian worked for years to get drugs into Middlesex County jail. Operating the facility northwest of Boston had come to feel like living in a bad rerun, he said. Inmates arrived addicted to opioids, went through detox, lived without drugs and were eventually released. Then they started using again, overdosed and died, or landed back in jail. Mr. Koutoujian aimed to break the cycle with a medication regime that addiction experts say is the most effective known way to curb opioid use. The results so far are promising.”

— “Hate crimes in Massachusetts jump 31%: ‘Hate crimes continue to have a deep impact across New England’,” by Rick Sobey, Boston Herald: “Hate crimes were on the rise across the state last year, according to new FBI hate crime data that shows the Bay State recording its most bias-motivated incidents in five years. Massachusetts saw a notable increase in reported hate crimes in 2021 — from 310 hate crimes in 2020, when hate crime reports dropped during the height of the pandemic, to 407 hate crimes last year.”

PROPAGANDA: A message from NextEra Energy:

NextEra Energy is the first company committed to reaching Real Zero™, as in 100% clean energy. We’re not just offsetting carbon emissions — we’re eliminating them.

HEARD ‘ROUND THE BUBBLAH

SPOTTED — on The New York Times’ list of the 93 most stylish people of 2022 : Rep. Ayanna Pressley.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to Boston state Sen. Lydia Edwards and Nancy Fitzpatrick.

Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com .

Follow us on Twitter