The Playbook Podcast

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.

It’s a fitting end to a year dominated by two Senate Democrats at the center of pretty much everything in 2021: Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have all but put the kibosh on two major proposals their own party was hoping to pass before the holiday break.First: Manchin’s talks with President Joe Biden over Build Back Better hit a brick wall. Earlier this week, Senate Democrats were looking to the president to bring the stubborn West Virginia Democrat around. Instead, Burgess Everett, Alex Thompson and Jonathan Lemire report that their discussions have gone so poorly that they’re “straining their friendly relationship.”Second: Realizing the BBB challenges with Manchin, Senate Democrats this week did an about-face on their topic du jour. Instead of narrowing in on their $1.7 trillion social spending bill, they started eyeing a Senate rule change to enable passage of a long-stalled voting rights bill.Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.

The Senate passed a debt limit increase of $2.5 trillion Tuesday afternoon, and the House followed suit just after midnight. Congress should be freed from addressing the issue again until 2023.A final vote on the long-stalled NDAA is likely in the Senate today. Congress has funded the government through mid-February. It shouldn’t exactly get a big pat on the back for doing the basics, but the three issues were all cleared with some degree of bipartisanship and less brinkmanship and drama than expected.The next big hurdle for Democrats? Senator Joe Manchin.And, Doug Sosnik was an adviser to Bill Clinton for six years, and for some dozen years he has written regular memos about national trends that have attained something of a cult following among political junkies. We know many of our readers are fans of his wonky missives, so we’re pleased to present Sosnik’s latest memo, “A Look Ahead to the 2022 Midterm Elections and Beyond,” exclusively to the Playbook audience.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 is set to speak with Sen. Joe Manchin as early as today in what Hill sources tell us will be a make-or-break moment for passing the Build Back Better Act (BBB) before Christmas. Senate Majority Leader Chuck 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. Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Thursday was a double-whammy for former President Donald Trump. First, New York state A.G. Tish James announced that she was suspending her campaign for governor and would instead run for reelection. That all but assures the law enforcement officer who has been perhaps the most aggressive in investigating Trump will continue to focus her attention on the ex-president. Then, a federal appeals court flatly rejected that Trump’s claims of executive privilege, which he used to block the National Archives from turning over documents to the Jan. 6 committee. It’s not the final word on the matter — the Supreme Court could still intervene this month — but it’s a big win for the select committee. If Trump had a bad day Thursday, it might be Joe Biden's turn on Friday. A pair of critical reports out today could cause a spate of negative headlines just as the White House is looking to push Build Back Better (BBB) past the finish line. Listen and subscribe to Playbook Deep DiveRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Former Rep. Renee Ellmers announced on Twitter Wednesday that she’s running for Congress again in North Carolina’s 4th district — and sent the House GOP gossip mill into overdrive.Ellmers, you’ll recall, lost her primary in 2016 following allegations that she was having an extramarital affair with Kevin McCarthy, who also lost his bid for speaker around that time in part due to the controversy. (Both denied the allegations.) Oddly enough, her foray back into politics comes as McCarthy is in his best position yet to attain the job he’s wanted for years.  And, President Joe Biden will open his two-day Summit for Democracy with opening remarks at 8 a.m. Watch live here.Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.

The idea started out promising, at least from the GOP’s perspective. Over the summer, Mitch McConnell surprised much of Washington when he drew a bright line on the debt ceiling, demanding Democrats use reconciliation to raise the borrowing cap on their own. The idea was to force President Joe Biden's party to vote to increase the $29 trillion debt by a specific number — then hammer them for out-of-control spending on the camping trail. Republicans cheered.But while McConnell struck a deal with Chuck Schumer on Tuesday that will ultimately achieve the same result, his method of getting there has left many of his own rank-and-file members unhappy. Instead of gumming up the works by forcing Democrats to use reconciliation, he agreed to a convoluted strategy that enables Democrats to bypass the filibuster.It goes like this: At least 10 Republicans will have to join Democrats as early as Thursday in approving new legislation allowing Schumer’s party to temporarily raise the debt ceiling by a simple majority vote. Maybe they’ll get more GOP backing; but maybe not.Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about the Omicron variant: It could be like Delta and current vaccines will offer robust protection. But there’s also a chance that Omicron could be vaccine resistant, so vaccine makers are readying a booster to protect against the new variant, just in case.That could be the future: a new variant, followed by a new vaccine booster to defend against it, followed by a new variant… Rinse. Repeat. It’s what we do to fight the annual flu. But it all takes time, and a new coronavirus variant can spread rapidly and kill a lot of people during the process.And, ahead of President Joe Biden’s highly anticipated video conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, sources tell NYT’s David Sanger and Eric Schmitt that the president is “expected to encourage diplomatic de-escalation over the conflict in Ukraine,” and warn Putin that “if he orders the Russian forces poised at the border to invade Ukraine, Western allies may move to cut Russia off from the international financial system and seek direct sanctions on Mr. Putin’s closest associates.” How BIden handles this meeting could mean the difference between a free and independent Ukraine and one overrun by Russian troops. No pressure. Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Congress’ holiday season theme of governing by crisis continues this week, as lawmakers return to Washington to address what could be the trickiest issue of the month: the debt ceiling.House Democratic leaders have discussed adding a provision addressing the debt ceiling to the final National Defense Authorization Act and voting on it as soon as this week, according to a senior Democratic aide. That’s assuming, of course, that compromise NDAA language is ironed out between the two chambers. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has privately signaled to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that he could go along with this idea, which would end their months-long stalemate. But, there are serious questions about whether this defense-debt ceiling sandwich could pass the House. And much of that is because of one man who might typically be aligned with McConnell, but on this issue appears opposed: Kevin McCarthy.Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.