First in POLITICO Playbook: Mark Meadows to leave Congress, plus what McConnell will say on impeachment Presented by Amazon

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) says he will not seek re-election and could leave Congress before the end of his term. | Patrick Semansky/AP Photo

DRIVING THE DAY

NEW … REP. MARK MEADOWS (R-N.C.), one of President DONALD TRUMP’S top allies, is not seeking re-election, and tells Playbook he could leave the House in the middle of this term to begin a new, yet presently undefined role helping TRUMP. Tweet this

“OBVIOUSLY, I’VE LOOKED AT THIS AS A TEMPORARY JOB,” Meadows told us in an interview Wednesday, speaking of serving in the House. “Endorsed term limits -- never ran on a term-limit pledge. Every year it’s a decision whether you’re going to run again. Probably the hardest thing for me was the timing of this, because the president has accomplished so much. I’m not only an ally, but will continue to be an ally. And we’ve had discussions on how we can work more closely together in the future and I felt like filing and then potentially resigning at some point in the future would not serve my constituents in North Carolina best.”

THE FILING DEADLINE IN NORTH CAROLINA is Friday. Meadows has not filed -- and will not file -- for reelection. His state’s political picture has been shaken up by a court-ordered redraw of congressional districts. Meadows’ western North Carolina district has gotten marginally less conservative, but he said he’s confident he would win re-election.

MEADOWS had an immediate impact in the House after his election in 2012. He was one of the founders of the House Freedom Caucus, and in 2015, he filed a motion that eventually led to John Boehner resigning as House speaker. Between 2017 and 2019, the Freedom Caucus was the most powerful bloc of lawmakers in Washington -- Meadows and his wingman Rep. JIM JORDAN (R-Ohio) essentially had veto power over anything that came to the House floor.

WHEN REPUBLICANS WERE IN THE MAJORITY, Trump saw Meadows and Jordan as foils to Paul Ryan, and viewed the pair as the keepers of his creed. The president looked to Meadows and Jordan to discern how certain decisions would play with his base. And, in turn, Meadows and Jordan had Trump’s back in the Capitol. Since Republicans lost the majority, Meadows has remained a close adviser to the president and White House on impeachment and other issues.

MEADOWS SAID he does not have a specific job with Trump locked down, but signaled he might try to work for his re-election campaign or in the administration.

ASKED IF HE WOULD serve out the remainder of his term, MEADOWS said this: “At this point, I plan to serve the people of western North Carolina until it’s decided that I can best serve the president and the American people in a different capacity. And so while there’s no immediate plans, there’s certainly discussions that have occurred and potentially could occur in the future.”

“THE HARDEST DECISION for me is that when you’re in the fight, you enjoy staying in the fight,” MEADOWS said. “So this is not me shrinking away from a fight. In fact, it’s just going to be continuing to fight a different capacity, whether that’s officially as part of the Trump team or unofficially in my capacity as a sitting member of Congress.”

JARED KUSHNER sent along this statement: “Congressman Meadows has been a warrior for the president and a champion of his agenda. We have greatly valued his guidance for the last three years in the administration, and I have no doubt that Mark will play an important role going into 2020.”

SO, IT’S OFFICIAL: DONALD JOHN TRUMP, the 45th president of the United States, has been impeached as of 8:32 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, Dec. 18. The final tallies: 230 votes in favor of Article I -- abuse of power -- with 197 against and 1 “present” (Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii). For Article II -- obstruction of Congress -- the count was 229 for, 198 against and 1 “present.” Three lawmakers missed both votes. How it went down

AS THE NEWS HIT THE WIRES, the president was speaking at a rally in Battle Creek, Michigan, and he marveled that he hadn’t lost a single Republican vote.

NEW … After the vote on Wednesday night, Speaker NANCY PELOSI signaled she might not send the impeachment articles to the Senate for a few weeks. (The Senate isn’t in session for a few weeks, and the House is done for the year after today.)

-- WHAT SHE SAID: ‘So far we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us,’ Pelosi told reporters at a news conference just moments after the House charged Trump with abuse of power and obstructing congressional investigations. ‘That would’ve been our intention, but we’ll see what happens over there.’” Story, from Kyle Cheney, Sarah Ferris and John Bresnahan

FIRST LOOK … Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL will speak on the Senate floor at 9:30 a.m. this morning to continue to map out his views about his chamber’s impeachment process, and the one that just wrapped up in the House.

MCCONNELL WILL call the House’s impeachment “the most rushed, least thorough, and most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern history.” He’ll say that the two articles that the House passed are “fundamentally unlike any articles that any prior House of Representatives has ever passed.”

MCCONNELL WILL ACCUSE THE DEMOCRATS of backpedaling, which he’ll say began “when Senator Schumer began searching for ways the Senate could step out of our proper role and try to fix House Democrats’ failures for them”and continued last night “when Speaker Pelosi suggested that House Democrats may be too afraid to even transmit their shoddy work product to the Senate.”

HERE IS THE LINE THAT WILL BLOW UP EVERYWHERE: “The framers built the Senate to provide stability… To keep partisan passions from boiling over. Moments like this are why the United States Senate exists.”

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… SO, CAN PELOSI HOLD THE ARTICLES? The House is an institution that operates on precedent. And impeachment is so rare that there isn’t much precedent from which to judge how long Pelosi can hold onto the articles.

THAT SAID, IT’S COMPLETELY NORMAL for PELOSI to hold the articles for a few weeks, considering today is the House’s last day in session for the year. The Senate will be out in the next 36 hours, too, so it’s not as if there’s a huge rush. But PELOSI can’t hold the articles ad infinitem, or else she’ll be blocking the results of impeachment, which is a constitutionally prescribed process.

ALSO, ON THE STRATEGERY SIDE OF THINGS … Some Democrats have been advocating withholding the articles as a means of putting pressure on MCCONNELL to negotiate over the parameters of a Senate trial. Yet it’s not clear why a delay in the trial would be enough to move MCCONNELL, who is not easily moved by much. If Pelosi doesn’t send the articles, there won’t be a trial in the Senate. People in favor of the hold-the-articles strategy say a trial benefits TRUMP, because he wants to be acquitted. But then some argue it this way: Wouldn’t it be equally beneficial to not have a trial at all?

LOOK WHO … SEN. KAMALA HARRIS in the NYT: “Will McConnell Let the Senate Hold a Fair Impeachment Trial?”

Good Thursday morning. HAPPENING TODAY: The House will follow up impeachment by passing TRUMP’s top legislative priority, the USMCA. The Senate still has to pass government funding, which could happen today or tomorrow, because it’s the Senate.

NEW -- THE AMERICAN ACTION NETWORK, the House GOP-aligned super PAC, is launching another $2.5 million in TV and digital ads against Democratic lawmakers who voted for impeachment. The Dem lawmakers who will get ads include: Reps. Jared Golden of Maine, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Xochitl Torres Small of New Mexico, Susie Lee of Nevada, Max Rose and Anthony Brindisi of New York, Kendra Horn of Oklahoma, Joe Cunningham of South Carolina and Elaine Luria of Virginia.

TRUMP’S BATTLE CREEK, MICH., RALLY, via Matthew Choi and Gabby Orr, who was there: “Some of his comments demonstrated a vindictiveness he has used in the past. At one point, he went after Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and her vote for impeachment by mocking her husband, the late Rep. John Dingell.

“Trump accused her of ingratitude in her impeachment vote, after he had called for flags to be flown at half-staff following her husband‘s death. He said that after he had offered the late congressman the ‘treatment,’ Debbie Dingell called to say her husband was ‘thrilled’ looking down from heaven. ‘Maybe he’s looking up,’ Trump said of the congressman, drawing groans from the crowd.

“Debbie Dingell was quick to respond. ‘Mr. President, let’s set politics aside,’ she wrote on Twitter. ‘My husband earned all his accolades after a lifetime of service. I’m preparing for the first holiday season without the man I love. You brought me down in a way you can never imagine and your hurtful words just made my healing much harder.” POLITICO

ALSO: We can’t imagine what TRUMP did for Dingell. His body was laid in state in the Capitol -- although that’s a decision the speaker makes. So what, exactly, did Trump do?

FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS … NYT, A1 BANNER: “TRUMP IMPEACHED … BECOMES THIRD PRESIDENT TO FACE TRIAL IN SENATE” … AP’S JONATHAN LEMIRE in New York, with a sharp lead: “AP Analysis: Impeachment forever changes Trump’s legacy”: “The first line of President Donald Trump’s obituary has been written.” … NYT’S PETER BAKER, with a front-page News Analysis: “A President Impeached, and a Nation Convulsed”

WSJ ED BOARD: “This Impeachment Folly”: “House Democrats voted Wednesday evening to impeach Donald Trump but, media high-fives aside, what have they accomplished? They have failed to persuade the country; they have set a new, low standard for impeaching a President; Mr. Trump will be acquitted in the Senate; and Democrats may have helped Mr. Trump win re-election. Congratulations to The Resistance.” WSJ

WAPO TICK TOCK … RACHAEL BADE, MIKE DEBONIS and JOSH DAWSEY: “Inside the decision to impeach Trump: How both parties wrestled with a constitutional crisis”

IT’S DEBATE DAY IN LOS ANGELES! TONIGHT is the PBS NewsHour/POLITICO debate in LA, and we have lots of great coverage for the occasion. Everything you need to know

-- ON THE FRONT RUNNER: “Inside Biden’s Brain Trust,” by Ryan Lizza

-- “How Warren bulldozed Hillary on the economy,” by Alex Thompson

-- JOHN F. HARRIS COLUMN: “The biggest reveals from Democrats' debate performances so far”

-- NERDCAST … TALKING TO THE HOST! … TIM ALBERTA speaks about the debate, which he will moderate along with Judy Woodruff, Amna Nawaz and Yamiche Alcindor of PBS. RYAN LIZZA and LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ also talk on the podcast about the lack of diversity among the candidates on stage.

TRUMP’S THURSDAY -- THE PRESIDENT has nothing on his calendar until 4:15 p.m, when he speaks at a Christmas reception. He speaks at a second Christmas reception at 8:15 p.m.

PLAYBOOK READS

FEATURED VIDEO: Take a look behind the curtain to see what it takes to put a debate together.

VALLEY TALK -- “Twitter and Facebook Want to Shift Power to Users. Or Do They?” by NYT’s Nathaniel Popper: “Not so long ago, the technology behind Bitcoin was seen in Silicon Valley as the best hope for challenging the enormous, centralized power of companies like Twitter and Facebook.

“Now, in an unexpected twist, the internet giants think that technology could help them solve their many problems.

“The chief executive of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, said last week that he hoped to fund the creation of software for social media that, inspired by the design of Bitcoin, would give Twitter less control over how people use the service and shift power toward users and outside programmers.

“Likewise, Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has said he hopes the same concepts from Bitcoin could ‘take power from centralized systems and put it back into people’s hands.’

“This push toward decentralization … has already gained enough currency and has sounded outlandish enough that it was one of the central themes of the satirical HBO show ‘Silicon Valley.’” NYT

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WHAT DEMOCRATIC STRATEGISTS ARE READING -- “Trump Administration Weighs Plans to Reduce Student Debt,” by WSJ’s Josh Mitchell and Andrew Restuccia: “The Trump administration is considering ways to help Americans with their student-loan debt, according to senior administration officials, including by refinancing loans at lower interest rates and eliminating debt in bankruptcy.

“President Trump has asked advisers for a plan that would rely on policy changes at the Education Department, which oversees federal student-loan lending, and possibly Congress. It would counter student-debt-forgiveness proposals by some Democratic presidential contenders. Sen. Bernie Sanders has called for canceling all student loan debt, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren has proposed canceling up to $50,000 in debt for anyone earning under $100,000 a year, with lower amounts for those making between $100,000 and $250,000.” WSJ

ACROSS THE POND -- “What Macron plans for Europe,” by POLITICO Europe’s Rym Momtaz: “A little less conversation, a little more action — that’s Emmanuel Macron’s plan for Europe in 2020. The French president has spent the past two years setting up his chess pieces. Now, with the new European Commission in office, he wants to get down to the work itself — breaking the political deadlock he says is holding back Europe on the global stage.”

WHAT THE E-RING IS READING … FOREIGN POLICY’S LARA SELIGMAN: “Pentagon’s Policy Chief Under Fire as Senior Officials Head for the Exits”: “Three years into U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, the Pentagon is bleeding senior policymakers faster than it can replace them, an exodus that many current and former defense officials largely blame on a toxic work environment created by John Rood, the Defense Department’s top policy official.

“Soon after the Senate confirmed Mark Esper as Pentagon chief this summer, the new defense secretary pledged to rebuild the senior ranks of the department. But friction within the Pentagon’s policy shop, particularly frustration with Rood’s leadership style, has stymied progress. Nearly a dozen current and former officials who spoke to Foreign Policy on condition of anonymity pointed to Rood as a major contributor to the departures and the Pentagon’s struggle to fill the empty posts.” FP

-- “U.S. Envoy to Ukraine Was Asked to Step Aside Ahead of Pompeo Visit,” by WSJ’s Michael R. Gordon in Washington and Georgi Kantchev in Moscow: “Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor was instructed by a top aide to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to hand over responsibilities for his post just days before Mr. Pompeo plans to visit the Ukrainian capital, according to a person familiar with the situation.

“That timing countered earlier suggestions that Mr. Taylor’s precise departure date was predetermined, and will allow Mr. Pompeo to avoid meeting or being photographed with an ambassador who has drawn President Trump’s ire for his testimony in the congressional impeachment inquiry, according to this person and to Ukrainian officials.”

PLAYBOOKERS

Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at [email protected].

MEDIAWATCH -- United Talent Agency has signed Bret Baier.

OBAMA ALUMNI -- “UAE hires its second former Samantha Power aide to defend itself at UN,” by Al Monitor’s Aaron Schaffer

SPOTTED: Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) at Uno Pizzeria in Union Station on Wednesday night. Pic

SPOTTED at the Harvard Public Service Awards Dinner at the University Club on Wednesday evening: Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, David Rubenstein and Lawrence Bacow.

NEW … UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO WINTER IOP PRITZKER FELLOWS: Enrique Acevedo, John Bouman, Abdul El-Sayed, Margaret Hoover and Shahira Knight.

TRANSITIONS -- Denzel Singletary is now senior government relations manager at Postmates. He previously was manager of global government relations at eBay. … Ernesto Rodriguez is now legislative director for Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.). He most recently was in Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán’s (D-Calif.) office and is a Martin Heinrich/Joint Economic Committee alum.

ENGAGED -- Ryan McDevitt, director of federal government relations at The George Washington University, proposed to Lindsey Santamaria, associate director for member strategy at the American College of Cardiology, on Saturday in Lincoln Park on Capitol Hill. They’re both Rutgers alumni, and they met in their native New Jersey five years ago. Pic … Another pic

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Michael Duncan, founding partner at Cavalry. What he’s been reading recently: “I just finished ‘The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires,’ which follows the evolution of media from the radio to the internet. With our fractured media landscape, it’s a fascinating look at how gatekeepers throughout history have tried to monopolize the distribution of information.” Playbook Q&A

BIRTHDAYS: Ronan Farrow is 32 … Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) is 64 … Rep. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) is 49 … Recode’s Teddy Schleifer … Ryan Jackson, COS at EPA … retired Marine Gen. Jim Jones is 76 … Tal Kopan, Washington correspondent at the San Francisco Chronicle … Chris Meagher, national press secretary for Pete Buttigieg’s campaign (h/t Lis Smith) … Ethan Todras-Whitehill, co-founder and executive director of Swing Left, is 39 … Joey Scarborough … “PBS NewsHour’s” Daniel Yang … Sameer Punyani … Patrick Ventrell … Jill Slabey … Kelsey Moran … Erin Taylor of the Climate Reality Project (h/t Jon Haber) … Molly Pattison … Bronwyn Lance Chester, comms director for Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) … Callie Schweitzer, founder and CEO of the Callie Co. … Ann McDaniel … Ann Lewis (h/t Teresa Vilmain) …

… Shannon McGahn, SVP of government affairs at the National Association of Realtors … Kerri Lyon, managing director at SKDKnickerbocker … Craig Winneker … Henry Longley … Tomicah Tillemann ... Michaela Balderston, SVP at Tusk Ventures … NPR’s Kelsey Snell ... Max McClellan of MCM Productions ... Taara Rangarajan … Kate Mize … Rebecca Edgar … Maggie Polachek is 3-0 ... John Vail ... Catherine Hormats ... Amy Best Weiss, VP of federal government affairs at American Express ... Kasey Hampton ... Jim Oberman ... Ashley Snee Giovannettone ... Matt Wojtkun is 36 ... Michael Feinberg ... Sarah Scott ... Whitney Patton ... Russ Caso ... Patrick B. Donohue ... WaPo’s Josh Freedom du Lac ... Jenny Murphy ... CBS’ Sean Gallitz ... Jeff Kiernan … Shaun Doherty ... Anne Stewart ... Bernie Weinraub

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