| | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels and Ryan Lizza | Presented by Binance | With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross
|  It will take days or weeks or longer for reporters, accountants and other experts to sift through Donald Trump's tax records and suss out the news within. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | JUST POSTED — "How Justice Kagan lost her battle as a consensus builder," by Josh Gerstein: "In interviews, friends and allies of [Supreme Court Justice ELENA KAGAN] suggest she is at a major crossroads — mulling whether the breakdown in the broader American political scene has rendered her decadelong effort to find compromise and consensus on the nation's highest court obsolete, while sowing doubts about her future." Said a longtime associate, one of numerous friends and allies Josh interviewed for his sweeping portrait: "She's clearly not very happy." TRUMP'S TAXES ARE OUT — Shortly after 9 a.m., Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee published six years' worth of DONALD TRUMP's tax records — a trove that encompasses his personal and business returns from 2015 through 2020, totaling more than a gigabyte of data. Needless to say, it's a remarkable moment, coming nearly eight years after Trump first broke with modern precedent by refusing to publicly release his tax returns. It's also the culmination, Benjamin Guggenheim notes in his early file today, of a three-and-a-half-year legal battle led by Ways and Means Chair RICHARD NEAL (D-Mass.) that went as far as the Supreme Court. And it has stoked partisan enmity on the typically clubby tax-writing panel, with top Republican KEVIN BRADY (R-Texas) attacking Democrats this morning for setting a dire precedent by arrogating the "nearly unlimited power to target and make public the tax returns" of private citizens and political enemies. — Brady: "This is a regrettable stain on the Ways and Means Committee and Congress, and will make American politics even more divisive and disheartening. In the long run, Democrats will come to regret it." It will take days or weeks or longer for reporters, accountants and other experts to sift through the records and suss out the news within. Tax summaries already released by the panel revealed that Trump and wife MELANIA reported negative income in four of the six years examined. CBS MoneyWatch's Irina Ivanova breaks down what the pros will be looking for, including: 1) the scale and complexity of Trump's business dealings, 2) how charitable he is and 3) how much money he has earned from "The Apprentice" and other efforts to trade on his fame.
| | | | A message from Binance: It's been a tough year for crypto. After unprecedented fraud and mismanagement, industry confidence has been shaken. As the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance believes greater transparency is critical. At Binance, user assets are backed 1:1 and our capital structure is debt-free, and we are eager to work with regulators to help bring order to the markets. Learn more about our commitment to moving forward in Politico this week. | | | GAVEL SWEEPSTAKES — Sick of KEVIN McCARTHY news yet? Get used to it. The next week — or longer — is going to be packed with headlines about the GOP leader trying to win the votes he needs to claim the speaker's gavel, a prize he has spent two decades chasing. Today's latest … McCarthy's wheeling and dealing is picking up steam on two fronts: 1. The motion to vacate: As we've been predicting for weeks, McCarthy is offering to reduce the number of lawmakers needed to trigger a vote to oust a sitting speaker. Democrats raised the threshold four years ago, requiring a majority of either party to back such a move. But conservatives want the rule restored to what it had been for more than a century, where any one lawmaker can force the vote. CNN's Mel Zanona has some new detail: McCarthy is discussing a five-vote threshold to trigger the vote. That's quite a concession, but it may not be enough. Two of the five "Never Kevin" Republicans panned that proposal to CNN. "No, less than 5!!" Rep. RALPH NORMAN (R-S.C.) told Zanona. "2 or less (my opinion)." Added Rep. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.), who — let's be honest — will likely never back McCarthy for speaker: "He's gotta get down to 1." 2. A new Biden-focused panel: Meanwhile, Jordain Carney has a scoop about the latest demand from the right: a new select committee that would centralize investigations of JOE BIDEN's administration. From the story: "While the Republican leader and soon-to-be committee chairs have already lined up a laundry list of investigations that will largely command the House GOP's agenda next year, it's not enough for some McCarthy critics," Carney writes. "Some of those opposing and on the fence about the Californian's speakership bid want him to start a new panel, one that could direct probes against the entities they've castigated for years, including the FBI, the Justice Department, the IRS and ANTHONY FAUCI." This could get dicey fast. We closely covered the intraparty turf wars between House Democratic investigators during the Trump years, and you can be sure a new panel would upend what incoming Oversight Chair JAMES COMER (R-Ky.) and Judiciary Chair JIM JORDAN (R-Ohio) already have planned for their own committees (though the members pushing the new panel appear to be eyeing Jordan as its potential leader). — Expect both items to come up on a conference call McCarthy is hosting this afternoon, per CNN. The huddle comes as the "Only Kevin" movement of McCarthy's biggest cheerleaders reasserts itself, circulating a letter Thursday dismissing the idea of a "consensus speaker" should he fail to get the votes. More from The Hill's Emily Brooks Happy Friday, and thanks for reading Playbook. See anything notable in the Trump tax returns? Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza. THE TALENTED MR. SANTOS — It just keeps coming. Among the latest revelations about Rep.-elect GEORGE SANTOS (R-N.Y.): On his Substack, WaPo's Dan Diamond calls into question Santos' account of being one of the first Americans to get Covid-19, while NYT's Grace Ashford and Dana Rubinstein go through his campaign filings and find some eyebrow-raising line items, including a whopping $40,000 for air travel and $11,000 to a company for "apartment rental for staff" — at an address where a neighbor says they saw Santos living for months. Those expenses are "among a litany of unusual disbursements documented in Mr. Santos's campaign filings that experts say could warrant further scrutiny," they write. "There are also dozens of expenses pegged at $199.99 — one cent below the threshold at which federal law requires receipts." Santos' lawyer responded that "there had been some money spent 'unwisely' by a firm that had been fired by the campaign more than a year earlier, but he said that all expenditures were legal." The Santos story is distracting from what should be a triumphant period for House Republicans, AP's Farnoush Amiri and Michael Balsamo report. Democrats don't plan to let up anytime soon: They're considering introducing a resolution for his expulsion and an FEC complaint. And the Queens County DA became the latest law enforcement body to say it was investigating the matter Thursday, per WABC-TV. The 2024 angle: Democrats are already gearing up to retake Santos' seat back in two years. Though 2022 nominee ROBERT ZIMMERMAN has called for Santos to resign and face him again in a special-election rematch, some Dems in the Long Island district are talking up 31-year-old moderate state Assemblymember DAN ROSENTHAL as a 2024 contender, Julia Marsh reports from New York. The media angle: The hyperlocal North Shore Leader did, in fact, raise plenty of questions about Santos before the election — and before the NYT broke this story open on a national level, WaPo's Sarah Ellison reports: "It was the stuff national headlines are supposed to be built on: A hyperlocal outlet like the Leader does the leg work, regional papers verify and amplify the story, and before long an emerging political scandal is being broadcast coast-to-coast. But that system, which has atrophied for decades amid the destruction of news economies, appears to have failed completely this time."
| | | | A message from Binance: As the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance believes greater transparency is critical. At Binance, user assets are backed 1:1, and we're eager to work with regulators to help bring order to the markets. Learn more about our commitment to moving forward in Politico this week. | | | TALKER — A post on Dear White Staffers is attracting attention for revealing texts in which Rep. KATIE PORTER (D-Calif.) excoriated a staffer for giving her Covid this summer and said she wouldn't allow her back in the office. The post said Porter fired her over the incident. But Porter's office said in a statement to the Washington Examiner's Virginia Aabram that she was actually a fellow whose end date was already set before this happened, and that she was just being told to work from home. The messages: Staffer: "I hate to have disappointed you … as I know it isn't an excuse I had found out my friend from the navy had been murdered and my head was not in the best place." Porter: "Well you gave me Covid. In 25 months, it took you not following the rules to get me sick. My children have nobody to care for them." Reason's Robby Soave spoke to the staffer, SASHA GEORGIADES, a U.S. Navy veteran who found her fellowship via the Wounded Warrior program: "According to Georgiades, the 'office protocol on testing' that Porter claimed she violated was failing to take a COVID-19 test the instant she felt even slightly unwell. Georgiades maintains an active lifestyle—she goes to the gym almost every day—and says that at first, she thought she was just sore from exercise."
| | BIDEN'S FRIDAY — The president has nothing on his public schedule.
VP KAMALA HARRIS' FRIDAY — The VP has nothing on her public schedule.
THE SENATE and THE HOUSE are out. | | | | | PHOTO OF THE DAY
|  A Southwest Airlines traveler gets her luggage back Thursday in Salt Lake City after several days of the bags being lost. | Rick Bowmer/AP Photo | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | THE WHITE HOUSE IT'S OFFICIAL — Biden signed the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill into law Thursday on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. "Staff sent the bill to the president for his signature on a regularly scheduled commercial flight," Bloomberg notes. ANTITRUST THE PROCESS — TIM WU is departing the National Economic Council, where he's shaped much of the Biden administration's aggressive antitrust agenda, next week, NYT's David McCabe reports. The special assistant to the president is returning to Columbia Law School. He says the shift is largely personal, as his family is still in New York and he's been commuting to D.C. HANNAH GARDEN-MONHEIT and ELIZABETH KELLY will take over pieces of his portfolio. JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH IT'S OVER — The House Jan. 6 committee has officially withdrawn its subpoena for Trump, ABC's Katherine Faulders and Olivia Rubin report. Trump has tied up the subpoena in court, and with the committee winding down its operations ahead of the Republican House takeover, it ran out of time. THE LATEST TRANSCRIPTS — The committee put out another round of interview transcripts from its investigation Thursday. Among the notable nuggets, via CNN, the NYT and Axios: — JOHNNY McENTEE said top cybersecurity official CHRIS KREBS was fired essentially for stating that the 2020 election was secure when Trump was trying to spread lies about fraud. — STEPHANIE GRISHAM said Melania Trump didn't trust that DONALD TRUMP JR. and KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE were working in the president's best interest. Grisham also said on the day of the Capitol insurrection, Trump said "that these people looked very trashy, but also look at what fighters they were." — Trump wanted to fire TIMOTHY HARLETH, the White House chief usher (a non-political position), for trying to facilitate the transition to a Biden White House after the election. — The D.C. National Guard commander said it took hours for his force to get deployed on Jan. 6 because officials higher up were concerned about the "optics" of sending them in. — Former Capitol Police Chief STEVEN SUND said the department suffered a "colossal intelligence failure" in the run-up to Jan. 6. THE PANDEMIC THE CHINA SURGE — As public health officials fear potential new coronavirus variants to emerge from the apparently massive surge in cases in China, the CDC is thinking about testing wastewater from international flights, Reuters' Julie Steenhuysen and Nancy Lapid scooped. Experts tell Reuters that "would offer a better solution to tracking the virus and slowing its entry into the United States than new travel restrictions announced this week by the U.S. and other countries." AMERICA AND THE WORLD DANCE OF THE SUPERPOWERS — Chinese Ambassador QIN GANG is expected to be tapped as the country's next foreign minister, Semafor's Steve Clemons scooped. Long considered one of China's aggressive "wolf warriors" on the international stage, Qin could nonetheless provide "a more informed and nuanced diplomatic tone in U.S.- China relations" after serving in Washington, and especially compared to some of his colleagues. "The White House snubbed Qin for most of his time in Washington, but has been scrambling to open doors to him since realizing that he was on the cusp of emerging as a key player in Beijing," Clemons writes. "He's recently had sitdowns with Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN and Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN, who I'm told worked to make a real personal connection while meeting in his office at the State Department." — The Pentagon said a Chinese fighter jet attempted an "unsafe maneuver" as it buzzed a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane last week in international airspace above the South China Sea. More from CNN — Japan said China sailed an aircraft carrier near Guam, "a rare move that Beijing signaled as a clear warning to the Biden administration over Taiwan," writes U.S. News & World Report's Paul Shinkman. PAGING BIBI — The U.S. will send national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN to meet with new Israeli PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Axios' Barak Ravid reports, amid Biden administration concerns about the incoming government's far-right lurch.
| | | | A message from Binance:   | | | ALL POLITICS FOLLOWING THE MONEY — "Democratic dark money juggernaut behind Biden-allied group targeting House GOP," by the Washington Examiner's Gabe Kaminsky: "The Democratic strategist-led Congressional Integrity Project has raked in $1.5 million combined from Sixteen Thirty Fund, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit group managed by Arabella Advisors, the largest left-wing dark money network in the United States. This sum accounts for nearly all of the funding that CIP received between 2020 and 2021." MIDTERMS FOREVER — An official recount confirmed Democrat KRIS MAYES as the next Arizona AG on Thursday, even though her razor-thin margin over Republican ABE HAMADEH shrank from 511 votes to 280. But Hamadeh isn't giving up that easy, the Arizona Republic's Mary Jo Pitzl, Sasha Hupka and Tara Kavaler report. Citing the unusually large shift, much of which came from Pinal County, he's calling for further inspections of the votes. FROM 30,000 FEET — "Making the Senate Work for Democrats," by Alex Burns in the N.Y. Review of Books: "Democrats, … even in periods of electoral success, have shown themselves incapable of creating a political coalition broad and stable enough to defeat the tangled rules of the Senate and the rural bias of the American republic. … [S]everal recent books … bring into relief the scale of the work ahead for Democrats if they want to rebuild their party and the country from the ravages of the Trump era." BEYOND THE BELTWAY SOUTHWEST OF EDEN — It looks like travelers' Southwest Airlines nightmare may finally be coming to an end: As of Thursday afternoon, less than 1% of the carrier's flights scheduled for today had been canceled. More from the L.A. Times But Southwest's own nightmare may just be beginning. Senate Commerce Chair MARIA CANTWELL (D-Wash.) said this week that her panel would investigate the mess, and other Dems are pushing the Transportation Department to get more aggressive, WSJ's Katy Stech Ferek reports. A NEW ABORTION FRONTIER — "Red states that banned abortion consider expanding Medicaid for mothers," by WaPo's Molly Hennessy-Fiske FOR YOUR RADAR — "Alcohol abuse spiked during the pandemic. Treatment hasn't kept up," by Ruth Reader POLICY CORNER TREASURY VS. EUROPE VS. MANCHIN — Under pressure from international allies, the Treasury Department on Thursday said it would ease some North America manufacturing requirements for consumers to get electric vehicle tax credits. Several European and Asian countries had complained about the protectionist measure in the Inflation Reduction Act. But Treasury's new guidance applies only to leased cars, not new purchases. More from Reuters The change sparked an angry reaction from Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.), who said in a statement that the move "bends to the desires of the companies looking for loopholes and is clearly inconsistent with the intent of the law." Manchin vowed to introduce new legislation to stop it. OPIOID FILES — "Feds sue AmerisourceBergen over 'hundreds of thousands' of alleged opioid violations," NPR AT THE ADUHELM — House Democrats released a new report Thursday criticizing the FDA's approval process for the controversial Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm, saying the agency "inappropriately" worked with Biogen before making the decision. The congressional investigation also found that the company set the drug price at $56,000 to maximize profits. More from Stat in a multi-part report, The Aduhelm Files WAR IN UKRAINE THE POLITICS OF UKRAINE AID — "The Looming GOP Crisis Over Ukraine," by Jonathan Martin: "The GOP's Ukraine divide is so resonant because it's here and now and because it neatly cleaves much of the party's old and new guard. But it also cuts deeply because it represents a stand-in for the internal party debate that never took place over the Iraq war." THE NEXT TRANCHE? — The U.S. is weighing whether to include Bradley Fighting Vehicles in the next shipment of military assistance to Ukraine, Bloomberg's Jennifer Jacobs, Alberto Nardelli and Anthony Capaccio report. The light tanks would bolster Kyiv's ground capabilities, but training could take months if the U.S. decides to send them. HUGE INCREASE — "The Arsenal of Democracy Is Back in Business," by Foreign Policy's Robbie Gramer: "In 2021, the U.S. government approved 14 possible major arms sales to NATO allies worth around $15.5 billion. In 2022, that jumped up to 24 possible major arms sales worth around $28 billion, including $1.24 billion worth of arms sales to expected future NATO member Finland." SUNDAY SO FAR … NBC "Meet the Press," with a special edition called "Democracy Disrupted: How Social Media Is Shaping Our Politics": Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) … Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) … Frances Haugen. Panel: Elizabeth Nolan Brown, Carlos Curbelo, Jeh Johnson and Cecilia Kang. CNN "State of the Union": Maryland Gov.-elect Wes Moore … Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) … House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Panel: Lis Smith and David Urban. ABC "This Week": Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson … Rep.-elect Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.). Panel: Rick Klein, Donna Brazile, Sarah Isgur and Rachael Bade. FOX "Fox News Sunday," guest-anchored by Gillian Turner: Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) … Michael Allen. Panel: Charlie Hurt, Catherine Lucey and Richard Fowler.
| | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Sarah Huckabee Sanders is tapping a top Ron DeSantis official to lead Arkansas schools. Anthony Fauci, who's retiring this weekend, is "pretty good friends" with Joan Baez. Ro Khanna and Chasten Buttigieg are feuding over the Southwest situation. Antony Blinken put out playlists of his favorite American and international songs of the year. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Mike Bost (R-Ill.) and Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) … Sean Hannity … former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo … Tammy Haddad … Kevin Smith of Sen. Rob Portman's (R-Ohio) office … Lauren Claffey Tomlinson … POLITICO's Jennifer Scholtes, Philip Harman, Maria Crujeiras and Michael Georgiou … Matt Latimer … Bill Thorne of the National Retail Federation … Heather Reid … Katie Hays … Justin Thomas Russell … Noelle Straub … Shannon Gilson of Apple … Nick Schmit … WaPo's Courtney Beesch … Bob Cochran … former Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson … Udai Rohatgi … Jim Billimoria of Rational 360 … Maria Elena Salinas … former Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) … Hari Sevugan … Voters of Tomorrow's Santiago Mayer (21) … Philippa Martinez-Berrier … Megan Porter of Rep. Troy Balderson's (R-Ohio) office … Meredith Vieira … Marcia Kramer of CBS New York … Michael Rekola … Jack Deschauer Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and producers Setota Hailemariam and Bethany Irvine.
| | | | A message from Binance: It's been a tough year for crypto. Macroeconomic headwinds have ushered in challenging market conditions, followed by unprecedented fraud and mismanagement. The combination rocked consumer confidence and created a level of skepticism about the future of crypto. Binance strongly believes crypto's best days remain ahead, but to get there, transparency is the only path forward. At Binance, we are investing in transparency protocols to demonstrate our strong financial health. Our capital structure is debt-free and all user assets are backed 1:1. Binance does not borrow against customers' funds or invest them without their consent. Most importantly, we look forward to working with policymakers to better protect consumers while promoting innovation. Learn more about our commitment to moving forward in Politico this week. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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