BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN

THE TOP

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A group of 10 Republican senators will put out their own Covid relief bill Monday and urge President Joe Biden to meet with them in a bid to forge a bipartisan consensus on the biggest issue facing the country.

The senators involved are Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Bill Cassidy (La.), Mitt Romney (Utah), Rob Portman (Ohio), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), Todd Young (Ind.), Mike Rounds (S.D.), Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Jerry Moran (Kan.).

Here’s the letter

This is important for a few reasons:

→ The Senate GOP letter comes as Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are preparing to move forward this week on Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid relief package — with or without Republican support. Red state Democrat Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.) said this on CNN’s Inside Politics Sunday morning: “I don’t think $1.9 trillion, even though it is a boatload of money, is too much money. I think now is not the time to starve the economy.”

→ It shows the political scramble around Covid relief now that Biden is in the Oval Office. Many of these GOP senators are in the Senate Sweet 16™ group. But this proposal is Republican only.

→ It’s a signal to the White House and Democrats that there are 10 Republicans locked into a set of policies. But these policies fall far short of what Biden wants. Fifty Senate Democrats plus 10 Republicans equals 60 — and that’s the number you need to get a bill through the Senate outside the reconciliation process.

→ The GOP senators involved are branding this proposal as “targeted” — the opposite of the “big and bold” proposal Democrats are trumpeting.

Take this quote for example: “Finally, we note that billions of dollars remain unspent from the previous COVID relief packages. Just last month, Congress provided $900 billion in additional resources, and communities are only now receiving much of that assistance.  Some of the spending appropriated through the CARES Act, passed last March, also has yet to be exhausted. The proposal we have outlined is mindful of these past efforts, while also acknowledging the priorities that need additional support right now.”

→ This won’t be enough for the House and Senate Democratic leadership. They’ll want more. Will this group of Republicans be open to that kind of negotiating? And can they stay together under pressure from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and others on the right? Will Biden be tempted to negotiate?

Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, said on CNN that the White House has received the letter, and the administration is open to input. But he also said Biden is “uncompromising when it comes to the speed” with which the president wants to move to address Covid relief.

In sum, this specific proposal isn’t going anywhere, of course. Democrats are already barrelling toward a one-party plan. But it does show what 10 Republicans are willing to support. 

CLIP FILE

WSAZ (W.Va.): “Sen. Joe Manchin reacts to WSAZ interview with Vice Pres. Kamala Harris”: After airing Thursday evening, WSAZ’s exclusive interview with Vice President Kamala Harris drew national attention. Friday morning, the White House answered questions about the vice president’s appearance on two stations — one in Arizona, the other on WSAZ.

“The interview even took U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., by surprise. Friday morning, Manchin visited one of West Virginia’s COVID-19 vaccination clinics. His visit comes just one day after the vice president spoke with WSAZ’s Amanda Barren about the proposed ‘American Rescue Plan’ (ARP).

“‘I saw [the interview], I couldn’t believe it. No one called me [about it],’ Manchin said. ‘We’re going to try to find a bipartisan pathway forward, but we need to work together. That’s not a way of working together.’”

NYT: “Lawmakers Look at GameStop Furor and See a Populist Issue to Seize,” by Lisa Lerer and Astead Herndon: “The hordes of young traders who this week fueled a spectacular surge in the value of the video game retailer GameStop may lack a unified political ideology. But they have forced a reckoning on Wall Street, and caught the attention of leaders in Washington who recognize a populist uprising when they see one. … 

“‘Big Hedge, with outposts in South Hedge-i-stan (Wall Street) and North Hedge-i-stan (Greenwich, CT), has made trillions shorting great American companies facing a rough patch,’ said Representative Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican of Nebraska. ‘Now they are getting a comeuppance from flash mobs of day traders and are paying dearly.’”

CNN: “Trump’s impeachment defense team leaves less than two weeks before trial,” by Gloria Borger, Kaitlan Collins and Jeff Zeleny: “Former President Donald Trump’s five impeachment defense attorneys have left a little more than a week before his trial is set to begin, according to people familiar with the case, amid a disagreement over his legal strategy. 

“It was a dramatic development in the second impeachment trial for Trump, who has struggled to find lawyers willing to take his case. And now, with legal briefs due next week and a trial set to begin only days later, Trump is clinging to his election fraud charade and suddenly finds himself without legal representation.

“Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, who were expected to be two of the lead attorneys, are no longer on the team. A source familiar with the changes said it was a mutual decision for both to leave the legal team. As the lead attorney, Bowers assembled the team. Josh Howard, a North Carolina attorney who was recently added to the team, has also left, according to another source familiar with the changes. Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris, from South Carolina, are no longer involved with the case, either.”