Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) baselessly cast doubt on the integrity of the 2020 election in a Meet the Press interview, though he insisted that his own victory last year was earned “fair and square.”
But he wouldn’t say if Joe Biden was elected fairly: “You know, Joe Biden was sworn into office. I called him Mr. President since the day he was … sworn in. I still remain concerned about election integrity.”
A new poll shows that nearly two-thirds of West Virginia voters think BBB will make inflation worse and a slightly larger share think Congress “should slow down and get the Build Back Better Act right.”
“Democrats are hoping a year-end cliff with 35 million families on the line can finally shake a deal loose on President Joe Biden’s marquee bill,” Politico reports.
“Preserving the party’s expanded child tax credit, which delivers monthly checks to most families with children, has been a central tenet of Biden’s social safety net bill from the start. But months of grueling negotiations have forced Democrats right up against the Dec. 31 deadline that could blot out one of their biggest political wins this year.”
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“Chuck Schumer leapt over the trap doors of a potential government shutdown and debt default. Now he has to stick the landing on one of the largest spending bills in American history,” Politico reports.
“As the Senate majority leader checks off his chamber’s list of must-pass bills, he’s turning to the urgent task of passing President Joe Biden’s $1.7 trillion social safety net bill before the long holiday break. Just a few obstacles lie in his way: Joe Manchin’s concern over rising inflation, the need for total party unity and only a few days left to meet his goal of final passage by Christmas. Oh, yeah, and the final deal isn’t finished yet.”
Playbook: “Schumer has been adamant that his chamber will clear the party’s $1.7 trillion social spending package before senators leave for the holidays. Yet everyone knows that won’t happen without the stubborn West Virginia Democrat — and Democrats are looking for some presidential arm-twisting to get him there.”
Punchbowl News: “Biden and Manchin will speak about the BBB as early as today, a discussion that will go a long way toward deciding whether the $1.7 trillion package — the president’s top legislative priority — can be finished before Christmas or will slide into 2022.”
Insider rated every member of Congress on their financial conflicts and transparency.
“Speaker Nancy Pelosi will stay until at least after the midterm elections, extending her nearly 20-year run as the House’s top Democrat after she turns 82 and, perhaps, beyond,” CNN reports.
“She is planning to file and run for reelection in her San Francisco district next year — at least for now — in keeping with her pattern of deciding about staying in Congress after the elections, when she likely will have won an 18th full term.”
“And sources familiar with Pelosi’s thinking say she isn’t ruling out the possibility of trying to stay in leadership after 2022, despite her original vow to leave as the top House Democrat.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham “continued his criticisms of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for adopting a bipartisan deal that allowed Democrats to raise the debt ceiling,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Graham: “What I’m worried about is that for four months the Republican Senate said we would not lift a finger to help the Democrats raise the debt ceiling. We would make them use reconciliation.”
He added: “At the end, we did not make them use reconciliation, which changed the rules of the Senate in a House bill. I don’t like that a lot… What we did is promised one thing and delivered another.”
The U.K. government raised its official coronavirus alert level, citing an increase in cases largely driven by the Omicron variant, Axios reports.
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) told Axios he expects Senate Democrats will find a way to get around the filibuster to pass federal voting rights legislation.
Said Clyburn: “It may require some jiu-jitsu, but that’s not beyond the Senate to do that.”
He added: “They’ll come up with some way to get around it. We had better come up with some way to get around it, because this democracy is teetering on collapse.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Democrats must “quit lying” about the cost of the Build Back Better Act and called for the House to revote on the massive social spending package, The Hill reports.
“Despite a Saturday evening statement promising ‘big crowds,’ the first date of ex-president Donald Trump and Bill O’Reilly’s joint speaking tour seemingly failed to draw any such thing,” the Daily Beast reports.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “Many seats remained empty in the cavernous arena. The top-level was closed, and ticket buyers were ‘upgraded’ to the lower bowl.”
Chris Wallace, who unexpectedly announced he was leaving Fox News, will anchor a new show on the network’s upcoming streaming service, CNN+.
Former RNC Chairman and Montana Gov. Marc Racicot (R) “warned that fidelity is in jeopardy in America, not only in regard to the state and national constitutions, but to the country’s spirit as well,” the Helena Independent Record reports.
“He also said there are serious warning signs that the U.S. Constitution and republic are at risk.”
Said Racicot: “The most probable way for our republic to vanish is through a lack of honor and fidelity. Not surprisingly that is precisely what is required by our constitutional oath of office.”
He added: “I don’t want to preach, so I am hopeful that I won’t appear pretentious, but with all that has dramatically changed with the political and social fabric of our lives in this last decade and a half – much for the worse – in my judgment, I would confess that I sometimes feel like I am diagonally parked in a parallel universe.”
“There is nothing about this job that is supposed to be easy. If something is coming to me, it’s because it needs to be addressed and because, by definition, it’s not going to be easy. If it was easy, it would have been handled before it comes to me.”
— Vice President Kamala Harris, quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Wall Street Journal: “Covid-19 is surging in many parts of the country in the wake of Thanksgiving, with Christmastime gatherings on the horizon.”
“Some 35 states have higher seven-day averages for new cases than they did before Thanksgiving.”
“The top diplomats for the world’s wealthiest large democracies warned Russia on Sunday of ‘massive consequences’ and ‘severe costs’ should it invade Ukraine or continue military aggressions near its border,” the New York Times reports.
“The foreign ministers for the Group of 7 urged Russia to pull back from the tense border standoff and made clear that any effort to negotiate or otherwise avoid confrontation would be welcome.”
“Last year on Christmas Eve, advisers to then-President-elect Joe Biden held an emergency meeting to discuss a scenario that felt increasingly likely: the emergence of a mutant strain of the coronavirus that would evade vaccine protection,” NBC News reports.
“At the time, the alarm bells were ringing for the alpha variant, which quickly faded. But the concerns led Biden’s team to lay the groundwork for the plan they are now beginning to implement as researchers work to determine how much of a threat the omicron variant may pose.”
“While there are still more questions than answers about the variant, Biden administration officials are prepping for a litany of worst-case scenarios and daunting questions, such as: What would happen if it turned out more than 200 million Americans needed to be revaccinated?”
ABC News: Fauci says Omicron can evade vaccine protection, but boosters help.
“In Florida, for the first time in modern history, registered Republican voters outnumber Democrats. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is heading into a reelection campaign buoyed by a national profile and a cash reserve unmatched by any Democratic challenger,” the AP reports.
“And Republicans control virtually all of state government.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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