View in web browser

PRESENTED BY

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN

THE TOP

OK — get ready. Today is Punchbowl News’ 100th day in business, and to celebrate, we’re going to do a merch drop. 

Do you like these awesome Punchbowl News x Rhoback quarter zips?

We love them and wear them all the time. And judging by the emails we’ve gotten, a lot of people want one of their own. We’re going to make them available for purchase for 100 premium subscribers. Sign up for premium here, and keep your eyes peeled for the sign-up information, which we’ll put in an afternoon or evening edition this week. 

And the answer is yes, we’re going to do a bigger merchandise situation in the future and its going to be awesome. And also, just wait until the spring and summer. We’ll start doing in-person, invite-only gatherings for premium members. We already have a ton in the works.

And more than anything, thank you all for your support and for reading us every day. We can’t wait to keep on growing. Join the Punchbowl News community. It’s going to be a great year.

A quick note: Senate Democrats are having their weekly policy lunch in person today. It’s the first time in roughly a year that they’ve dined together to open up the week. Democrats have been meeting virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic, although Republicans have been holding in-person gatherings for some time.

Things are ever so slowly — glacially slowly — getting back to normal-ish on Capitol Hill. Now senators will caucus in person, and House votes have been cut to 30 minutes, both of which are progress. You can see tourists strolling around the Hill, although they’re not allowed in the Capitol yet and won’t be for a while (how’s that gonna work, by the way?). There’s still a big security fence around the Capitol grounds and National Guard troops here, and the recent death of U.S. Capitol Police Officer Billy Evans tragically proved both are still needed. Lawmakers are drafting a multi-billion dollar security supplemental package designed to “harden” the Capitol and hire hundreds of new officers. Things will never go back the way they were before, that’s clear. But they’re definitely beginning to get better than they have been.

PUSHING THE ENVELOPE

A trend we’ve noticed about Biden’s appointees

If you want to be nominated by President Joe Biden, it doesn’t hurt to have been a vocal critic of Donald Trump or his policies. And even better if you wrote an op-ed in the New York Times bashing Trump.

We’re sort of kidding, but the overall point here is that Biden is truly pushing the envelope when it comes to his sub-Cabinet picks. The Biden White House has made very clear it’ll be aggressive in its personnel choices, and in fact may be looking for a partisan fight on some of these picks as a way to put pressure on Senate GOP moderates. As long as the White House can keep Senate Democrats in line, it doesn’t matter what Republicans say or do. This is how the Trump administration worked it, but now it’s just in reverse. Although some of Trump’s picks were far, far more outspoken than their Biden counterparts. Sort of like Trump himself.

These are important posts that have a huge impact on government policy and a president’s ability to run their administration effectively. Cabinet officers get the most headlines, but agency heads and deputy secretaries have an enormous impact on their own.

“I don’t mind the trash talking” of Republicans, insisted Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who added that “Politics is a tough business.”

“I don’t like it, but under the First Amendment, there’s not a lot I can do about it,” Cornyn added.

Here are some of the recent picks that have caught our eye:

→ ATF: David Chipman, Biden’s nominee for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), is already running into a buzzsaw of GOP opposition. Chipman spent 25 years as an ATF agent, but he’s most recently been a senior adviser to the pro-gun control group Giffords, started by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) after she was severely injured in a mass shooting. Chipman has called for regulating AR-15 rifles — a hugely popular weapon that’s been used in a number of mass shootings — in the same way as machine guns. 

He opposed the widespread sale of gun silencers and called for restricting high-capacity magazines. Chipman was repeatedly quoted as saying the rise in gun sales during the pandemic would lead to “more violent outcomes.” Pro-gun rights groups loathe Chipman, but so far, Democrats look solid on his nomination. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told reporters on Monday that Chipman “seems like a really qualified, good person. So I haven’t seen any other reason why” he wouldn’t support his candidacy.

→ Customs and Border Protection: Chris Magnus, Biden’s nominee for CBP, actually did write an op-ed in the New York Times bashing Trump and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions over their immigration policies, which he said backfired on police officers. So his selection to run Customs and Border Protection is a big deal. Magnus, currently chief of police in Tucson, Ariz., has been a police officer for more than 35 years. Magnus has run police departments in North Dakota, Michigan and California, in addition to the Tucson job. Magnus was photographed in 2014 carrying a “Black Lives Matter” sign while he was chief of police in Richmond, Calif. Magnus offered to resign last year as Tucson’s top cop during a press conference about a man who died while in police custody. It got national attention, but Magnus stayed in his job. He’s openly gay and married.

→ United States Citizenship and Immigration Service: To call Ur Jaddou, who Biden has selected to run U.S. Citizenship and Immiragtion Services, a “Trump critic” is underselling it. Jaddou — a former general counsel at USCIS — ran DHS Watch, which is part of America’s Voice, a pro-immigration group that’s seeking a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. Jaddou’s comments on Trump’s immigration policies as part of DHS Watch will be the focus of Senate GOP attacks on her. And there’s no question those will come, since most Senate Republicans backed those same Trump immigration policies. Jaddou was a one-time aide to Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and former deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Legislative Affairs at the State Department. Jaddou is currently a counsel at Potomac Law and an adjunct associate professor at American University.

→ Drug Enforcement Agency: Anne Milgram is another of those Biden nominees who wrote a New York Times op-ed bashing Trump. This one was headlined “Donald Trump Is a Clear and Present Danger to the 2020 Election.” Millgram has been nominated to run the Drug Enforcement Agency. She’s a former New Jersey attorney general, assistant Manhattan district attorney and federal prosecutor, as well as being a contributor at CNN. Milgram is currently a law professor at NYU and a special counsel at the law firm Lowenstein Sandler. Milgram also helped lead a sexual harassment investigtion into the Dallas Mavericks basketball franchise.

A quick note: A number of Biden’s picks have been “firsts” — the first Native American to serve in the Cabinet, the first woman Treasury secretary, the first Black Defense secretary, the first openly gay Senate confirmed Cabinet officer, the first Latino and immigrant to head Homeland Security, the first woman to head the U.S. intelligence services and the first transgender nominee confirmed by the Senate. And just yesterday, Biden nominated the first woman to be secretary of the Army.

BEHIND THE SCENES

New: What the W.H. is doing to push its infrastructure bill

The Biden administration has an extraordinarily long way to go to win Republican support for its top legislative priority — the massive, multi-trillion dollar American Jobs Plan. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who met with President Joe Biden Monday, said it’s going to be very difficult for the administration to attract GOP interest if it wants to unravel the 2017 Republican tax cut, which many on the right consider to be the top achievement of the Trump years.

There’s a lot to do yet, but the Biden administration does deserve some credit thus far for its outreach to the Hill. We’re not talking about Biden’s meeting yesterday, but rather the behind-the-scenes work the White House legislative affairs shop has been doing to stay in touch with the rank-and-file, and keep top committee figures in the loop. 

Here are some numbers we got from the administration:

→ Leg affairs has made 139 calls to lawmakers, chiefs of staff and staff directors. Of those calls, 99 went to House offices, including 35 GOP offices. They’ve made 40 calls to Senate offices, 25 Democratic and 15 GOP.

→ Cabinet secretaries have made 27 calls to lawmakers — including 7 Republicans.

→ There have been 26 committee staff briefings, and nine lawmaker briefings. Committees that have been briefed include: House Transportation, Senate Commerce, Senate Ag, House Financial Services, Senate ENR, HELP, House Ed and Labor, Senate EPW, Senate Approps, House Science, House Energy and Commerce, House Approps and House Veterans Affairs.

→ Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, officials from USDA, Commerce, DPC and NEC have all held meetings.

Here’s what the administration told us: “The President has laid out his vision for rebuilding our infrastructure and creating jobs, and is sitting down with leaders from both parties to chart a way forward because inaction isn’t an option. President Biden, the jobs cabinet, and his team are making a good faith effort to work with Republicans — including with continuous engagement at the Member and staff level — and it’s our sincere hope that our outreach will be reciprocated.”

“Good faith effort” says a lot here. The administration is trying to show that it is indeed interested in talking to Republicans. But, in addition, it’s a tried and true move for the White House to want to try to lay any failure to build consensus at their opponent’s feet. More broadly, this outreach with some constituencies could be key down the line. If lawmakers and aides feel bought into the process, it could pay dividends for the administration later on.

GUN UPDATE

Murphy says he’s spoken to nearly half of Senate GOP on gun legislation

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) — who Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has deputized to take the lead on gun legislation — says he has spoken to “almost half the Republican conference over the last two weeks” about gun control legislation, although he cautioned that a bipartisan breakthrough is not imminent. 

Murphy said he’s found substantial interest in so-called “red flag” legislation that would allow families and law-enforcement agencies to seek court orders removing guns from people who may harm themselves or others.

“We’re in the early days, but I definitely think there’s a handful of Republican senators that are willing to keep talking about this,” Murphy said Monday evening. He called the discussions “productive.”

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), another key player on gun control efforts, said he’s discussed the outlook for new legislation with Murphy. He’s also planning to speak with Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on this issue. Manchin and Toomey pushed a bill in 2013 expanding background checks on commercial gun sales following the Sandy Hook massacre, but that bill stalled in the face of overwhelming Senate GOP opposition.

“Everybody wants to make something happen, and Chris Murphy has been great to work with. Mark Kelly has been great to work with,” Manchin told reporters on Monday evening. “And [Toomey] and I are going to get together and talk on some things too. So we’re just getting everything back in the conversation.”

Of course, there are lots of issues that the two sides would need to work out on red-flag laws. Republicans are concerned about due process, and that’s something the two sides would have to hammer out in the course of negotiations. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) pushed a “red flag” proposal in 2019, although that effort failed to pick up sufficient support to make it through the Senate.

Murphy said he didn’t think a bill would come together during this work period, however. Any gun legislation would need 60 votes, and this might be the only chance to gun legislation that can squeak through.

PRESSURE COOKER

Speaking of 60 votes … 

Fix Our Senate is launching a new ad campaign in D.C., Arizona, Colorado, Delaware and Virginia, seeking to pressure Senate Democrats to blow up the filibuster. Here’s the 30-second spot.

Also: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Capitol Monday: “This country faces enormous crises. I think the American people are not staying up nights worrying about the process. They want results. Among other things, they want to create millions of good-paying jobs, rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, dealing with climate change. In my view, they want to see Medicare expanded to include dental, hearing aids, eyeglasses and lower the age of eligibility. That’s what, and in my mind, we’ve got to look at all possible approaches and get it done. But the most important thing is get it done.”

Senate Democrats will hold their policy luncheon Tuesday, and the topic will be the recent Senate parliamentarian ruling that allegedly allows them to craft and pass another fast-track reconciliation bill. 

Top Democratic aides say no decision has been made yet on whether to move forward on this procedure. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is waiting to see whether his colleagues support the move, which would represent a huge change to Senate procedures.

THE MONEY GAME

→ Sen. Jackie Rosen (D-Nev.) raised just shy of $342,000 and has $1.8 million on hand. She’s not up until 2024.

→ Newt Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign spent $500 on accounting. It still has an astounding $4.6 million in debt. He has made no progress in paying it back.

MOMENTS

9:30 a.m.: President Joe Biden will get his intelligence briefing.

10 a.m.: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) will hold a news conference about the Covid-19 hate crime act.

11 a.m.: Biden will come to the Capitol for a ceremony honoring the late U.S. Capitol Police officer Billy Evans.

12:30 p.m.: Jen Psaki will brief reporters. … VP Kamala Harris will hold a roundtable on Black maternal health. 

2 p.m.: Biden and Harris will meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. 

4 p.m.: Harris will come to the Capitol to pay her respects to Evans.

CLIP FILE

NYT

→ “Surging Virus Has Michigan’s Democratic Governor at Loggerheads With Biden,” by Noah Weiland and Mitch Smith

→ “‘Bond Girl’ Talk and Groping: Albany’s Toxic Culture for Women,” by Sydney Ember, J. David Goodman and Luis Ferré-Sadurní

NYT editorial board

→ "Trump Abandoned the Climate. This Is Biden’s Moment.: The new president has promised to take the lead on climate. His plan does not disappoint.”

WaPo

→  “Virginia attorney general launches civil rights probe of Black Army officer’s violent traffic stop,” by Laura Vozzella and Justin Jouvenal

WSJ

→ “Taliban Back Out of Turkey Talks, Dealing a Blow to Afghanistan Peace Efforts,” by Jessica Donati and Nancy A. Youssef

WSJ Editorial Board

→ The Green New Deal, in Disguise”

Politico
→ “Republicans pray for truce after Trump attacks on McConnell,” by Burgess Everett and Marianne Levine

Enjoying Punchbowl News AM?

Subscribe 10 friends with your unique link (below) and get a Punchbowl News hat!

Your referral link is: 

You can see all the rewards in here!

Or share via

You currently have: 0 referrals

Editorial photos provided by Getty Images