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PRESENTED BY

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN

THE TOP

We’ve been watching President Joe Biden for four months now, and, while usually you can’t tell much from one-third of one year of a presidency, these are unusual times.

Biden has signed nearly $2 trillion dollars of Covid relief into law, and he’s proposing trillions more. He’s been forced to respond to a highly volatile crisis in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians, the latest sad chapter in a decades-long conflict. Biden decided to pull U.S. forces out of Afghanistan after 20 years, a move opposed by the Pentagon. There’s a migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, possibly the most serious in years. There’s the fallout from the bloody insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, a predecessor who falsely claims he won the November election. And it’s all playing out as the United States emerges from a pandemic coupled with a deep recession. Biden’s personal style may be less than scintillating, but the news keeps coming.

So here are some observations about what we’ll call the "Biden Governing Doctrine."

→ Relearning Washington. Biden campaigned for the presidency having what he described as a deep set of relationships with Republicans, combined with real insight into how they think. But he quickly learned that his view of D.C. is tinted with sepia. The Republicans in Congress now don’t resemble the Republicans he knew in the ‘80s, ‘90s, or early 2000s. They are, for the most part, uninterested in working with him. Biden has learned that quickly. His White House has been somewhat smart in targeting the rank-and-file instead of the GOP leadership. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), for example, carries a different kind of heft than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. She also has her own thoughts on what’s achievable. And it turns out that the relationships that are proving most fruitful for Biden are new ones.

→ Bipartisanship — when it suits him. We can’t tell you how many conversations we’ve had with Republicans who think that Biden overstates the importance of his interactions across the aisle. Here’s an example from Thursday. Biden signed into law the anti-Asian hate crime bill, which was the subject of a good deal of bipartisan haggling on Capitol Hill. But when the photo op came, there were just Democrats behind him in the picture.

→ No saber rattling. We just watched Biden handle his first major foreign policy crisis: a bloody 11-day showdown between Israel and Hamas. There were no threats or demands issued from the Oval Office, no Twitter broadsides. Despite growing pressure from Hill Democrats to publicly intervene, Biden dealt with it his way — behind the scenes. In a half-dozen calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden pressed the longtime Israeli leader to scale back the IDF military campaign in Gaza while pledging U.S. support. In public, Biden tacitly pushed for a cease-fire, which irritated Republicans. The United States blocked any action by the U.N. Security Council against Israel, and administration officials — including Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken — held hectic talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and other regional allies on the crisis. 

In his remarks on Thursday, Biden pointedly offered condolences for those hurt in the fighting, both Israeli and Palestinian. Biden then went out of his way to note that United States will provide aid to the people of Gaza, but won’t work with Hamas, only the Palestinian Authority, “in a manner that does not allow Hamas to simply restock its miltary arsenal.”

→ The Swerve Man. We’ve been trying to come up with a description of Biden’s approach to big issues. He moves right, then left. He tacks back and forth. Mostly left, but not always. He takes it issue by issue, but in reality, Biden is a swerver.

Biden gave progressives nearly everything they wanted on the American Rescue Plan, and followed that up with even more in the American Jobs Plan and American Family Plan. But when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pressed him to wipe out student loan debt, Biden said no.

Biden initially won praise from immigration advocates for canceling former President Donald Trump’s border wall and canceling the travel ban. Biden has also introduced a broad immigration plan that includes a path to citizenship for undocmented immigrants. But when Biden decided to keep in place a Trump administration cap of 15,000 refugees for the rest of this fiscal year, it led to an explosion of anger from immigration advocates, who screamed that he was going back on a campaign promise. Within two weeks, Biden issued a new executive order — the United States would accept 62,500 refugees in FY 2020, and 125,000 in 2021. It’s not clear if the administration can make this goal, but Biden defused a problem with his left.

Biden has been pressed by the left to expand the Supreme Court. He doesn’t like the idea, so what did he do? He named a commission to study it. He’s called for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines as the country has faced a wave of mass shootings, yet Biden knows there’s no way to get it through a 50-50 Senate. And he’s spoken publicly about reforming the filibuster, and acknowledges its being “abused.” Yet the 36-year-Senate veteran hasn’t called for its outright end.

NYT’s David Brooks: “Has Biden Changed? He Tells Us”

INFRASTRUCTURE SCOOP

Senate Dems prep reconciliation options on infrastructure

As the White House and Senate Republicans continue to search for a deal on a big infrastructure bill, Senate Democrats are readying their options to move ahead with a fast-track reconciliation package if no agreement is reached.

Aides to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) were among staffers who met with Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough on Thursday, three Hill sources said.

Part of their discussion revolved around the issue of whether Democrats can once again use the FY 2020 budget resolution to craft a reconciliation package, a potentially huge change in the Senate’s legislating procedures. That was the resolution Democrats used to pass the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan on a party-line vote.

Schumer said last month MacDonough ruled that Democrats can do so, which gives them at least two chances to pass President Joe Biden’s multi-trillion dollar American Jobs Plan and American Family Plan despite solid GOP opposition.

Republicans have always disputed Schumer’s assertion, saying the issue — like the reconciliation process itself — is hugely complicated and not as definitive as Schumer’s office has suggested in public comments.

Democratic insiders downplayed the idea that Thursday’s meeting meant party leaders and the White House were giving up on the bipartisan talks, although both sides privately admit there hasn’t been much progress so far despite a promising start, and the clock is ticking. The White House is supposed to present Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and other Senate GOP negotiators with a new proposal Friday.

“This was the next logical meeting after the first opinion, and the timing and anything else is coincidental,” a senior Democratic aide said.

MURDOCH’S N.Y. POST ON THE CUOMO BROTHERS

THE MONEY GAME

→ The RNC raised $13 million last month and has $90 million on hand. 

→ The DNC raised $15.5 million and has $56 million on hand.

MOMENTS

9 a.m.: President Joe Biden will receive his daily intelligence briefing.

10 a.m.: VP Kamala Harris will meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. 

11 a.m.: The Covid-19 response team will brief the press.

Noon: Jen Psaki will brief. 

12:35 p.m.: Biden will welcome Moon to the White House.

1 p.m.: Biden will award the Medal of Honor to Ralph Puckett. Moon and Harris will attend.

2:15 p.m.: Biden will meet with Moon in the Oval Office and then in the State Dining Room. 

5 p.m.: Biden and Moon will hold a news conference.

CLIP FILE

NYT

→ “Trump Justice Dept. Seized CNN Reporter’s Email and Phone Records,” by Adam Goldman

WaPo

→ “As fragile cease-fire holds, eyes turn to suffering in Gaza and Netanyahu’s political future,” by Shira Rubin, Michael E. Miller  and  Steve Hendrix  

→ “Arizona secretary of state says Maricopa County should replace millions of dollars worth of voting equipment because of GOP-backed recount,” by Roz Helderman

WSJ

→ Editorial Board: “A Bad Infrastructure Bargain”: “Senate Republicans say they’re inching closer to striking an infrastructure deal with the Biden Administration. Sorry to say, this looks like bad policy and politics—bipartisanship for its own sake, and not for the public good.”

FT

→ “Russia issues €1.5bn bond as tensions between Moscow and Washington ease,” by  Tommy Stubbington in London and Max Seddon in Moscow

AP

→ “As pandemic spread pain and panic, congressman chased profit,” by Brian Slodysko: “Since early 2020, [Rep. Tom] Malinowski has bought or sold as much as $1 million of stock in medical and tech companies that had a stake in the virus response, according to an analysis of records by The Associated Press. The trades were just one slice of a stock buying and selling spree by the congressman in 2020, worth as much as $3.2 million, that he did not properly disclose.”

→ “Hour-by-hour: Biden’s behind-the-scenes push for cease-fire,” by Aamer Madhani

Politico

→ “Filibuster brawl amps up with GOP opposition to Jan. 6 panel,” by Burgess Everett

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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images