The Playbook Podcast

There’s a lot to unpack from President Joe Biden's marathon press conference in the East Room, but let’s start with this statement deep into the 1-hour-and-51-minute event:“You guys have been trying to convince me that I am Bernie Sanders. I’m not. I like him, but I’m not Bernie Sanders. I’m not a socialist. I’m a mainstream Democrat, and I have been.”Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Welcome back to a four-day workweek in Washington. Today, Senate Democrats resume their doomed push on voting rights and election reform, taking up legislation that already passed the House. Expect more of the fiery speeches we’ve heard from both sides recently as Democrats open the debate.And, what's next for the BBB? Front-line House Democrats, eager to boost their prospects in November, are urging party leadership to break up Build Back Better into a series of votes on popular planks — even if it means giving up on one grand bill.Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.

With the Democratic Party on course for a devastating midterm election and party elder statesmen stepping in to help, Playbook's Tara Palmeri reports that people close to Bill and Hillary Clinton said the former first couple sees it as an opportunity to insert themselves back into political life.The intra-party divisions have given them a chance to flex their centrist, dealmaking brand of politics as a way to move the party forward.Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook Deep Dive: What Joe Manchin told Steve Clemons at dinnerRaghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the senior producer of POLITICO Audio.

At 1 p.m., the president will appear at a Democratic Caucus meeting to try to rally senators behind the party’s voting reform proposal. In keeping with his Georgia speech this week, he’s expected to call on them to do whatever it takes — including making an end run around the filibuster — to “save” democracy. But Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) aren’t budging on the filibuster.Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.

We have fresh numbers, via the latest POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, on how the public views the major voting rights and electoral reform proposals being considered in Congress. Crosstabs … ToplinesLet’s start with the most interesting takeaway: the first data we’ve seen about reforming the Electoral Count Act, the 19th-century law that Donald Trump tried to use to subvert the Electoral College on Jan. 6. 2021. Fifty-five percent of voters support ECA reform.Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Democratic leaders hoped to spend the week before Martin Luther King Jr. Day presenting a united front for voting rights legislation and blasting Republicans as undemocratic. So much for that.Multiple high-profile voting rights leaders are planning to skip President Joe Biden's speech on the matter in Atlanta today, dismissing the address as too little too late. “We’re beyond speeches. We’re beyond events,” said LaTosha Brown, the leader of Black Voters Matter. (h/t Sam Gringlas from NPR’s Atlanta Bureau)Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.

President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats are entering the second week of their push to pass a pair of voting rights bills.Ryan Lizza is a co-author of POLITICO PlaybookJenny Ament is senior producer of POLITICO Audio.

The White House is looking to Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) to help thaw out its frosty relationship with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in hopes of resurrecting President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan.Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

For those who always despised him, feel betrayed by him, or fear his return to power, today is about remembering — never forgetting — Donald Trump's lowest point as president: the day he incited a mob to attack Congress while it affirmed Joe Biden's clear victory, the final desperate move in a plot to overthrow an American presidential election.For those who love him, merely tolerate him, or crave his return to the White House, today is a media stunt: a contrived anniversary of an insignificant event boosted by Democrats and the press to punish Republicans and cynically advance Biden’s legislative priorities. Americans often have a shared understanding about big traumatic national events. That is not the case with Jan. 6, which is why the cliché about our politics feeling like a civil war has more and more resonance. Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Today's Big Event: Senate Democrats will hold a virtual meeting at 12:45 p.m. It will be the first opportunity of the new year for all 50 caucus members to talk about where Build Back Better 2.0 stands and what they think of Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER’s new voting rights push. On both issues — as usual — every utterance of JOE MANCHIN (W.Va.) and KYRSTEN SINEMA (Ariz.) will be examined like a haruspex inspecting a sheep liverThe Latest Deadline: As we previewed Monday, voting rights and election reform will dominate the debate in Washington over the next weeks.Meeting self-imposed deadlines has not exactly been the Democrats’ forte over the last year, but Schumer said Monday he wants the Senate to consider rules changes by Jan. 17 if voting rights legislation is filibustered.Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.