POLITICO NIGHTLY: What the White House thinks about Covid relief

BY SAM STEIN Presented by McDonald's With help from Renuka Rayasam and Myah Ward ‘THEY’LL GET NO CREDIT’ — President Joe Biden and his advisers publicly tout the virtues of bipartisan collaboration. But privately, they aren’t pollyannaish about it. They know there is no recent history to suggest any such collaboration is coming. And Biden himself has made it clear that he’s not keen on repeating the early Obama years, when policy sacrifices were made and months of negotiations with Republicans undertaken, with little to show for it. And yet, inside the White House there is still some surprise that Republicans currently aren’t more interested in working with them on Covid relief. Not because they believe Republicans philosophically support the bill, but because there are clear political incentives for them to do so. It’s no secret where this process is going. Biden has all but stated that he is willing to use the process of budget reconciliation to pass the $1.9 trillion measure with the 50 votes Democrats have in the Senate. He did so even as 10 Senate Republicans presented him a counteroffer on Monday that was one-third the size of what he was proposing. If he goes down that route, those Republicans would have a binary choice: oppose the measure without being able to stop it or work to shape it, pledge to vote for it and get credit for the goodies inside it. Put another way: Republicans could vote for a bill that includes billions of dollars of help for states, massive amounts of cash for vaccine distribution and $1,400 stimulus check for most Americans. Or they could oppose it on grounds that the price tag is too steep, or the minimum wage hike is too high or the process too rushed. Most Republicans will opt for the latter. But, come election time, a chunk of that crew risks the downside of having opposed the former. “They’ll get no credit” for those $1,400 checks, is how one senior administration official put it to me. “They’ll get no credit.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell leaves his office and walks to the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol. | Getty Images There’s a recent template for how the politics of this are likely to play out. It’s the Georgia Senate runoffs. The lesson from that episode is, quite bluntly: It’s better to be on the side of giving people money. But the debate over the Covid relief bill also has echoes to two moments that long precede Georgia. The most recent was the passage of Obamacare. Back then, Republicans faced a similar dilemma: Move the bill in their ideological direction in exchange for their votes or oppose it in lockstep. Seeing the dwindling popularity of the measure and the vitriolic opposition to it from their base (two components that notably don’t exist around Biden’s Covid relief bill), they chose lockstep opposition. It seemed like the obvious choice, and it seemed to pay off with the “shellacking” Republicans gave Democrats in the 2010 midterms. But at least one prominent conservative took the longer view. “We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat,” George W. Bush alumnus David Frum wrote in a blog post (remember those?) in the early spring of 2010. That blog post got Frum booted from his conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute. But, over time, history proved him right. Obamacare may have fueled both the Tea Party movement and, from there, the 2010 midterm triumph for Republicans. But the law — which at the time polled demonstrably worse that Biden’s Covid relief bill is polling now — proved more durable than those election results. Which brings me to the other moment that has resonance for today’s debate. When George W. Bush came into office, he promised a sweeping tax cut that would spend down the surpluses of the Clinton years. Democrats, like Republicans now, argued that the plan was irresponsible. That it was a sop to GOP constituencies. That it offered solutions to problems that didn’t really exist. But when the bill was pushed through the Senate via reconciliation, they faced a similar choice: support it and reap the political benefits that come with putting cash in people’s pockets or oppose it knowing it will surely pass. In the end, 58 senators in an evenly split Senate voted for the measure. Twelve of them were Democrats. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out at sstein@politico.com and rrayasam@politico.com or on Twitter at @samstein and @renurayasam.   A message from McDonald's: Yenis started as a crew member at McDonald’s speaking limited English. After taking free English language courses through McDonald’s, Yenis improved her fluency and boosted her career opportunities. Today, she is the training manager for 19 restaurants. Learn how Yenis and others succeed at McDonald’s.   THE GLOBAL FIGHT WHAT MYANMAR WILL TELL US ABOUT BIDEN — A military takeover in Myanmar is testing Biden’s professed commitment to standing up to authoritarian leaders around the globe, his administration’s appetite for challenging China and its ability to coordinate a multilateral response. The Biden administration officially labeled the military’s overthrow of its newly elected civilian government a “coup” today, which will cut off direct financial aid to the Southeast Asian country’s government. The United Nations Security Council met this morning behind closed doors to discuss Myanmar, but seems unlikely to agree on a common approach. Nightly’s Renuka Rayasam chatted with foreign affairs correspondent Nahal Toosi over Slack today about what Biden’s response to Myanmar signals for his foreign policy agenda. This conversation has been edited. What are the Biden’s administration’s options on Myanmar? The most realistic options are sanctions and diplomacy. He could impose economic and other types of sanctions on Myanmar, particularly its military, to try to squeeze them into returning power to the civilians they’ve ousted. As far as diplomacy, that covers everything from issuing strongly worded statements to cooperating with other countries, such as U.S. allies in Asia, to meet with and pressure members of the military. The U.S. alone has limited leverage. But if it can get other countries who do significant business in Myanmar to impose their own sanctions, then the generals might feel the squeeze. That’s why coordination and diplomacy really matter. This is Biden’s first foreign policy crisis. What do these choices tell us about Biden’s approach to foreign policy? He’s set to talk at the State Department later this week and will probably talk about reasserting America’s role in the world, right? I disagree that it’s his first foreign policy crisis. I believe the coronavirus pandemic is a foreign policy crisis. But, yeah, in terms of traditional geopolitics, this is the one. Biden ran on promoting democracy and human rights around the world — a not-so-subtle dig at the last U.S. administration. He also said he’d stand up to China, so in a way this coup in Myanmar is a challenge and an opportunity for Biden on all those promises. So far, based on Biden’s statement and his aides’ efforts to reach out to U.S. allies and partners to coordinate a response, he appears to be living up to his promise of acting in a multilateral way. And he is standing up for democracy and human rights, which he promised he would do. But we’ll have to watch and see how far he’s willing to take this. You wrote in POLITICO Magazine about how the Obama administration didn’t see the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar coming. (Btw I reread the story today and had to keep stopping because I kept crying.) Trump largely ignored it. Has Biden, and his administration, learned any lessons from his predecessor? Do they trust Aung San Suu Kyi? Putting aside former President Trump himself, his administration as a whole did a lot to respond to the Rohingya crisis, though it was late in figuring out what was happening. It sanctioned perpetrators, it sent humanitarian aid, and it called what happened an ethnic cleansing. It did not go so far as to label what happened a genocide, but it had geo-strategic reasons for that. Many of the people in the Biden administration served in the Obama administration. And I know that they have thought very deeply about what more they could have done and should have done in terms of the Rohingya. From what I’ve seen so far, they are determined to make human rights a priority. And there’s a lot of wariness of Aung San Suu Kyi. But it all comes down to the reality they will face. The U.S. has relatively limited national interest in Myanmar. It has a major national interest in the face-off with China. I’d be very interested in seeing if they take up the cause of Rohingya citizenship. Basically, Myanmar stripped the Rohingya of citizenship many years ago. If the Biden administration makes that a focal point, it would signal a lot of seriousness. I still cry about that story. Listen to Nahal’s analysis on how the White House plans to respond to Myanmar — and how the situation could escalate tensions with China — on the latest POLITICO Dispatch. Listen to the latest POLITICO Dispatch podcast   TRACK FIRST 100 DAYS OF THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: The Biden administration hit the ground running with a series of executive orders his first week in office and continues to outline priorities on key issues. What's coming down the pike? Find out in Transition Playbook, our scoop-filled newsletter tracking the policies, people and emerging power centers of the first 100 days of the new administration. Subscribe today.     FIRST IN NIGHTLY BIDEN’S BIG TEST ON SCHOOL REOPENINGS — California Gov. Gavin Newsom had dreams last spring of opening classrooms in the most populous state by late summer, angering teachers who felt his plans were premature and unsafe. Ten months later, most of California’s schools remain shut, the governor is frustrated, and the state may be the main obstacle in the way of Biden reopening most of the nation’s schools in his first 100 days in office, California education reporter Mackenzie Mays writes. Newsom, who normally measures his words and maintains a controlled public persona, boiled over last week and told local superintendents they should give up hope of reopening this school year if “everybody has to be vaccinated.” In a meeting inadvertently streamed on YouTube, the governor lost his cool and said, if nothing gives, they might as well tell the “truth” to parents: “There will be no in-person instruction in the state of California.” Newsom’s rare candid moment serves as a warning to the White House: Biden’s reopening plans are in serious jeopardy, and labor-strong California — with hundreds of local unions at the table — offers the toughest test of all. Biden will need to rely on governors and school superintendents to open classrooms if he has any chance of fulfilling his pledge, and they’ll in turn need to convince educators to show up on the job.   A message from McDonald's:     WHAT'D I MISS? — Navalny jailed: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to more than two-and-a-half years in prison on charges that he violated probation while he was recuperating in Germany after being poisoned. — Newsom’s approval sinks: Newsom’s approval rating has plummeted to 46 percent as the public sours on his pandemic management, according to a new Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll that underscores the viability of a recall campaign. — Tanden’s Senate grilling scheduled: The Senate will hold its first confirmation hearing for Neera Tanden next week to press the nominee on her plans for leading the Office of Management and Budget. — Yang tests positive: New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang has tested positive for Covid-19, his campaign announced today. — Psaki’s Space Force remarks: The House Armed Services Committee’s top Republican is calling on White House press secretary Jen Psaki to “immediately apologize” for her response to a Space Force question in today’s briefing. (Psaki tweeted tonight to invite members of Space Force to come to the briefing room to talk about “their important work.”) FROM THE TECHNOLOGY DESK TIME FOR R&R IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA — Jeff Bezos will step aside as CEO of Amazon later this year, the company announced today, with Amazon Web Services chief Andy Jassy set to take over. The company announced ahead of its latest quarterly earnings call that Bezos “will transition to the role of Executive Chair in the third quarter of 2021 and Andy Jassy will become Chief Executive Officer at that time.” The announcement marks the biggest transition of power to date for the online behemoth, which rose from its beginnings as an online bookseller to become one of the first trillion-dollar companies in history, with a sprawling footprint across global commerce. ON THE HILL DHS HAS A BOSS — Alejandro Mayorkas was confirmed today to serve as secretary of Homeland Security, putting him in charge of carrying out the Biden administration’s immigration agenda and tackling national security concerns, Sabrina Rodríguez writes. The Senate backed Mayorkas in a 56-43 vote, the tightest confirmation vote for a Biden nominee so far. The new DHS secretary is entering the role with a long to-do list. He will play a key role in carrying out Biden’s immigration agenda, protecting the U.S. from domestic terrorism threats and helping coordinate coronavirus vaccine distribution. DHS, the nation’s third-largest federal department, also oversees emergency management and cybersecurity and infrastructure security.   JOIN THURSDAY - BUILDING PUBLIC TRUST AROUND THE VACCINE: How do we overcome the trust gap around the Covid-19 vaccines? How do we craft and deliver messages to break through fear and misinformation, especially in diverse and underserved communities that are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus? Join for a conversation with policymakers and public health experts about the urgent need to soothe fears and get Americans vaccinated. REGISTER HERE.     DEAR NIGHTLY COVID COURT IN SESSION — Are you in the middle of a Covid safety argument? Do you have an unresolved disagreement over Covid risk management with a relative or colleague? Ask Renu to issue a ruling! Email your pandemic disputes to nightly@politico.com. NIGHTLY NUMBER 91.6 percent The rate of effectiveness in protecting against symptomatic Covid-19 of the Russian-developed Sputnik V vaccine, according to a peer-reviewed study published today in The Lancet. PARTING WORDS DOT, MEET #TEAMPETE — Pete Buttigieg will be the next Transportation secretary, bringing his political celebrity and legion of superfans to a mammoth agency that’s not used to headlines — unless they’re jokes about “Infrastructure Week.” After four years of leadership under Trump’s Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, a Washington insider who was notoriously unavailable to reporters, DOT has a new leader who made near-daily appearances on cable TV even before the Senate confirmed him in an 86-13 vote today, Tanya Snyder, Sam Mintz and Stephanie Beasley write. The onetime presidential candidate and former mayor of South Bend, Ind., has fielded questions during cable TV appearances on everything from impeachment to the former administration’s transgender military ban, serving as what amounts to a surrogate for Biden’s policies writ large. “He is very unique in the sense that he brings a whole group of people from all over the country that got to know him when he ran for president,” said Ray LaHood, former President Barack Obama’s first DOT secretary, in an interview. “They believe in him; they believe in his leadership. He starts out with a huge, huge advantage.” Now an agency that oversees aviation safety, railroads, transit, highways and more, and has an entire bureaucracy devoted to corralling statistics , will run headfirst into Mayor Pete’s throngs of social media fans.   A message from McDonald's: Yenis started working at McDonald’s with big ambitions — but limited English skills. So she seized opportunities to take free English language courses from McDonald’s, helping propel her from crew member to training manager. Today she leads hundreds of training sessions for restaurant employees. And uses her bilingual skills to help others succeed. There are thousands of stories like Yenis’ at McDonald’s, where restaurant employees can develop skills that are useful throughout their career, helping them learn, grow, and achieve their goals. In addition to resources that support restaurant employee’s development, like English Under the Arches, McDonald’s offers the opportunity to develop work readiness skills sought after by hiring managers across the nation — teamwork, customer service, time management, and responsibility. Learn how Yenis and others build careers at McDonald’s.   Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

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Trump Just Removed the IG Investigating Elaine Chao. Chao’s Husband, Mitch McConnell, Already Vetted the Replacement.

Cape Cod Women for Change

Late on Friday, Trump removed the independent watchdog investigating Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao’s alleged favoritism benefiting her husband Mitch McConnell’s political prospects and installed a political appointee to serve in his place.

How can the American people expect transparency and accountability when the watchdogs must pass a loyalty test?

citizensforethics.org

Trump Just Removed the IG Investigating Elaine Chao. Chao’s Husband, Mitch McConnell, Already Vetted the…

How can the American peop

By Donald K. Sherman
May 19, 2020

In yet another assault on checks and balances, President Trump abruptly removed the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) independent watchdog late Friday – the same night he announced plans to fire the State Department Inspector General (IG). At DOT, the acting IG was overseeing a high profile investigation of Secretary Chao’s alleged favoritism benefiting her husband Senator Mitch McConnell’s political prospects, but has now been replaced with a political appointee from within the agency. The acting IG’s ouster calls into question the future of the Chao-McConnell investigation, other critical oversight, and whether the watchdog was dismissed for unearthing damaging information. 

This move is the latest salvo of Trump’s assault on oversight. And it looks like the President made sure to cover all his bases to block accountability, not only nominating an IG to succeed the experienced watchdog who held the post, but also demoting the acting IG who was investigating Chao, and installing a political appointee to serve in his place while the Senate considers a permanent replacement. To make matters worse, Trump’s pick to be the new acting IG, Howard “Skip” Elliott, already has a job overseeing the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), an office he will now also be in charge of policing. 

Trump’s decision to sideline DOT acting IG Mitch Behm (who has 17 years of experience with OIG) was lost in the shuffle of outrage following the announcement that Trump planned to fire the State Department IG, but potential conflicts of interest abound. The most high profile is the DOT OIG’s review of allegations that Secretary Chao gave Senator McConnell’s constituents special treatment and helped steer millions of federal dollars to Kentucky as he is facing low approval ratings and a tough reelection bid. 

As Senate Majority Leader, McConnell was integral to the Senate’s consideration of Howard Elliott’s nomination to lead PHMSA. Now McConnell will also be instrumental to Eric Soskin’s potential confirmation as permanent IG. Soskin is a Justice Department trial lawyer “involved in some hot-button immigration and civil rights cases.” These moves will leave oversight of the Chao-McConnell  investigation in the hands of Trump administration officials  who McConnell has effectively endorsed. In the case of Ellinott, as Secretary, Chao maintains authority to fire him from PHMSA. As CREW has pointed out before, this situation poses a huge conflict of interest. How can the American people expect transparency and accountability when the watchdogs must pass a loyalty test from the President and be approved by officials impacted by their investigations?

In addition to the role new acting IG Elliott will play overseeing the Chao-McConnell investigation, a DOT spokesperson explained that Elliott “will continue to serve as leader of the pipeline agency under a dual-hat arrangement.” As a result, Elliott will potentially oversee audits or investigations into PHMSA, and be responsible for ensuring that the administrator of PHMSA (him) complies with recommendations made by OIG (led by him). It’s hard to understate the significance of this conflict of interest. Even if Elliott recuses from OIG matters related to PHMSA, which he absolutely should do, he can still discipline or fire OIG officials working for him, if he doesn’t like or agree with their handling of the Chao-McConnell investigation or PHMSA.The new acting DOT IG will also play a critical role in overseeing the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has drawn significant scrutiny from the President. 

Inspectors General are meant to be apolitical and independent, so they do not typically come from among an administration’s pool of political appointees. But Elliott’s appointment is not the first time the Trump administration has sought to install a political appointee as an acting IG amid high profile investigations. In 2018, the administration abruptly moved a political appointee from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to serve as the acting IG for the Interior Department, overseeing multiple investigations into then-Secretary Ryan Zinke’s conduct. The Washington Post called the move “an unusual choice for a role that is traditionally nonpartisan.” Thankfully, public pressure led the administration to reverse course on a number of controversial acting IG appointments.

The President’s attack on inspector general independence at DOT deserves just as much public scrutiny as all the rest. It is no coincidence that an experienced and independent watchdog was sidelined while carrying out an investigation into alleged political corruption involving the Transportation Secretary and Trump’s chief enabler in the Senate, Leader McConnell. The administration’s Friday night announcements appear to be designed to keep us from taking notice. It is incumbent upon Congress, the public, and the good government community not to let President Trump get away with it yet again.

LINK

Cape Cod Women for Change

Wonderful essay with a message.
Recommended reading.
https://anitafinlay.com/my-mom-wouldnt-want-you-to-get-sick/

My dear Mom just died of Coronavirus. She was one month shy of 94. Don’t let her age fool you. She’d pulled off a number of health care miracles in the past, bouncing back from devastating illnesse…

anitafinlay.com

My Mom Wouldn’t Want You To Get Sick

My dear Mom just died of Coronavirus. She was one month shy of 94.…

My dear Mom just died of Co

My dear Mom just died of Coronavirus. She was one month shy of 94. Don’t let her age fool you. She’d pulled off a number of health care miracles in the past, bouncing back from devastating illnesses despite all odds. Until Covid-19. Toni, as she liked to be called, was so generous, she’d give you the shirt off her back and the shoes besides. Imperfect as we all are, she had her toxic moments. Yet Toni was effervescent, warm and protective of others, watching everyone around her like a hawk. And if she were still here, she wouldn’t want you to get sick. 

So, here is some sage advice I’m sure my intuitive-to-the-point-of-uncanny mom would give us all if she still could:

Don’t trust anyone who dares you to do
something reckless when they do the opposite.

When I see Trump pushing “reopen” rallies—even though those most in danger of contracting Covid-19 are those who stand in close proximity to each other—I have to speak out. This disease is passed most often by person-to-person contact—like standing in crowds, being in nursing homes, at restaurants, grocery stores, meat packing plants, athletic events.

When I see people raging at the inconvenience of wearing a mask, even though doing so would help ensure they don’t give a front line worker a horrible disease, I have to speak out.

When Trump’s son Eric claims on national television that this pandemic is merely a hoax designed to make his father look bad, I have to speak out.  93,500 dead in the U.S. in a couple of months is not a hoax.

A Florida man in his mid-40s believed Covid-19 was a “fake virus,” until he and his wife contracted it. They are both in isolation at a local hospital and he now says, “I have come to accept that my wife may pass away.”

When men like Chris Christie say we’ve got to re-open the country and be willing to sacrifice countless (nameless) persons to the bargain—please note that he’s not willing to throw himself or his family onto the pyre.

Coronavirus affects people of all ages. Surely the elderly are in greater danger, yet doctors with whom I’ve spoken made it clear this “sneaky” disease has also taken the lives of 40 year olds—even those with no underlying health conditions.

The people I trust to tell me about the horrors of Covid-19 are medical professionals on the front lines. Not politicians trying to shore up their poll numbers by sweeping their inadequate response to a pandemic under the rug.

One of the most horrible aspects of Covid-19, and a sorrow my family and I now share with over 319,000 families around the world, was being robbed of the ability to hold my mother during the last two months of her life.

I was one of the lucky ones who actually got to see my mom for 15 minutes alone to say goodbye. Outfitted in head-to-toe PPE garb, including mask and clear plastic face visor, I stroked her hair with my gloved hand. I don’t wish that kind of “goodbye” on anyone.

Despite my concerns, one of her doctors put her on Plaquenil (aka Hydroxychloroquine) saying it “was shown to help in milder cases.” She died three weeks later.

I understand the devastation to millions during this economic shutdown. I want society to reopen, and quickly. I want us to be able to be social with each other and work and play together and have a thriving economy. And if it’s going to take everybody washing their hands with soap and water constantly and wearing a mask, for now, until we get a vaccine, then do it.  Don’t complain.

So you’re inconvenienced. You’re alive.

Keep it that way. Don’t allow hypocrites (on any “news” network), who now work from the safety of their own homes, tell you to go out and do the opposite.

Their agendas have nothing to do with your well-being.

By the way, our country would likely be able to re-open faster if everyone respected social distancing parameters, sheltering in place if instructed. And, no, don’t say it’s “slavery” or “taking your freedom”. Stop it. You insult every person who has actually experienced those horrors.

Those who know me know how much I treasure my privacy. The bits of my life that are mine, I guard carefully. Yet this affects too many for me not to talk about my mother’s death.

We can do this, together. We can open the economy back up sooner than later if we’re willing to uniformly take precautions that not only protect us, but protect all of the angels on the front lines risking their lives for us.

Make no mistake, the danger of Coronavirus is real.

Please share this with as many people as you can and thanks for reading, because I know in my heart, mom wouldn’t want you to get sick.