POLITICO Playbook: The next coronavirus crisis Presented by

Could Congress be forced into some kind of economic stimulus this spring or summer right before the election? | David Dee Delgado/Getty Images

DRIVING THE DAY

THINK ABOUT THIS: What if this is only the beginning of the coronavirus economic downturn? Imagine if stocks keep on slipping and, even more concerning, if Americans truly stop traveling domestically and internationally over the spring and summer. Many of the members of Congress we spoke to this week were worried about the virus reemerging this fall, pressing the pause button on the economy again.

COULD CONGRESS BE FORCED into some kind of economic stimulus this spring or summer right before the election? Could Washington be forced to try to help airlines, hotels and even individuals in the middle of a political season?

MORE BLUNTLY: Would Democrats want to vote for any kind of bailout package that could help with President DONALD TRUMP’S reelection? And could Trump’s administration handle a legislative crisis with precision under pressure?

-- CNBC’S @carlquintanilla: “‘We’re 97% domestic, so what we’re seeing is a drop-off in DOMESTIC travel,’ says Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly on @CNBC just now. ‘It has a 9/11-like feel.’”

TIME MAGAZINE HAS A BIG READ on how the Trump administration squandered the early weeks of the outbreak and is now scrambling to contain its spread inside the United States. Just Thursday, Maryland announced three cases in Montgomery County -- just outside of Washington.

GABBY ORR and ANITA KUMAR: “Donald Trump is finally securing the presidency he’s always wanted: He rallies the people. Mike Pence governs them.” POLITICO

-- GOOD CATCH … NPR’s @tamarakeith: “The White House had announced earlier this week that President Trump would visit the CDC today. It’s not on his schedule. The White House hasn’t yet explained why.”

UH OH … L.A. TIMES: “Here’s why Chinese scientists say there’s a second, more dangerous coronavirus strain,” by Melissa Healy: “The global outbreak that has sickened nearly 100,000 people across six continents may actually be fueled by two variants of the same coronavirus: one older and less aggressive and a newer version whose mutations may have made it more contagious and more deadly, according to a controversial new study.

“Chinese scientists who compared the genetic sequences of 103 viral samples from patients infected with COVID-19 said their evidence suggests that the virulent version of the coronavirus -- which they tagged the ‘L-type’ version -- was the dominant strain in the earliest phase of the outbreak that began in Wuhan late last year. That strain, they said, appeared to recede as the epidemic progressed.

“But among samples collected later, as COVID-19 spread across China and into other countries, a variant of the virus they dubbed the ‘S-type’ was more common, the scientists reported. They suggested that the genetic makeup of the S version more closely resembles coronaviruses circulating in bats and pangolins, the animals that are thought to have incubated the virus before it jumped to humans. And they surmised that it is a less virulent version.”

A MAN BROUGHT a Nazi flag to a BERNIE SANDERS rally in Phoenix on Thursday. He was kicked out. Daily Mail

BERNIE’S SEARCH FOR A COMRADE … NYT, A1: “As Bernie Sanders Pushed for Closer Ties, Soviet Union Spotted Opportunity,” by Anton Troianovski in Yaroslavl, Russia: “The mayor of Burlington, Vt., wrote to a Soviet counterpart in a provincial city that he wanted the United States and the Soviet Union to ‘live together as friends.’

“Unbeknown to him, his desire for friendship meshed with the efforts of Soviet officials in Moscow to ‘reveal American imperialism as the main source of the danger of war.’

“That mayor was Bernie Sanders, and the story of his 1988 trip to the Soviet Union has been told before. But many of the details of Mr. Sanders’s Cold War diplomacy before and after that visit -- and the Soviet effort to exploit Mr. Sanders’s antiwar agenda for their own propaganda purposes -- have largely remained out of sight. …

“‘One of the most useful channels, in practice, for actively carrying out information-propaganda efforts has proved to be sister-city contact,’ a Soviet Foreign Ministry document provided to Yaroslavl officials said. The documents are part of a government archive in Yaroslavl, Russia, which became the sister city of Burlington. The files are open to the public, though archivists there said that, until now, no one had asked to see them.”

TIM ALBERTA in Columbus, Ohio, with a new “Letter to Washington”: “‘Life After Bernie’: The Young Left Braces for Disappointment in 2020”

Good Friday morning. SPOTTED: Ed Rogers and Corey Lewandowski at 21 Club in Manhattan.

HOUSE MINORITY LEADER KEVIN MCCARTHY -- a loyal Playbooker -- asks Jake about the birthdays. 45-second clip

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WARREN AGONISTES -- “‘White men get to be the default’: Women lament Warren’s demise,” by Laura Barrón-López: “And then there were two white men in their late 70s. Elizabeth Warren’s exit from the presidential race has left Democrats, including those who supported or ran rival campaigns, evaluating how the party arrived at Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders as the last two candidates standing.

“Yes, they acknowledge that Tulsi Gabbard … remain[s] in the race. But if you’d told Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) a year ago that the final two candidates would be white and male — from a field that included a half-dozen women, three African Americans, a Latino, and three Asian Americans — ‘no,’ she would not have believed you.

“‘It’s truly disheartening. I wanted her to succeed in the worst way,’ Speier, who has not endorsed in the race, said of Warren. ‘I think the electorate has not come to the same level of enlightenment that many other countries around the world have: that a woman as president can be in the best interests of our country.’”

-- WARREN 2024?: “Elizabeth Warren won’t rule out another go at the presidency,” by Matthew Choi

-- THE BOSTON GLOBE’S JESS BIDGOOD sat down with Warren in her kitchen in Cambridge, Mass. … SOME CHOICE QUOTES: “I think I would have made a better president than either one of them, that’s why I was running. … I thought it was worth fighting for another approach. … Why would I owe anybody an endorsement? … Is that a question they asked everybody else who dropped out of this race?” Boston Globe

THE U.S. SECRET SERVICE put out a statement on why none of the presidential candidates have protective service, noting that “to date, the Department has not received a request for protection.” Full release

THE BIDEN BUILDOUT … NYT’S JONATHAN MARTIN and ALEX BURNS: “Mr. Biden is looking to broaden his communications and political teams and reorder some of the senior-most roles in the operation, according to multiple people familiar with the campaign’s outreach.

“Most significantly, Mr. Biden’s advisers are in discussions with Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, who last year managed Beto O’Rourke’s presidential bid, to take a senior role alongside Anita Dunn, the chief strategist.” NYT

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ALERT … WSJ: “JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive James Dimon was recovering in a hospital following emergency heart surgery Thursday. The procedure to repair an acute aortic dissection was successful, and Mr. Dimon was alert and ‘recovering well,’ the bank said in a memo to employees.

“Mr. Dimon, 63, checked himself into a Manhattan hospital early Thursday after experiencing chest pains while getting ready for work, according to a person familiar with the matter. The medical staff made a quick diagnosis, the person said, and Mr. Dimon spent the morning sending emails before the several-hour surgery.”

ROCKET FROM THE BENCH -- “Judge cites Barr’s ‘misleading’ statements in ordering review of Mueller report redactions,” by WaPo’s Spencer Hsu and Devlin Barrett: “A federal judge in Washington sharply criticized Attorney General William P. Barr on Thursday for a ‘lack of candor,’ questioning the truthfulness of the nation’s top law enforcement official in his handling of last year’s report by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

“U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, overseeing a lawsuit brought by EPIC, a watchdog group, and BuzzFeed News, said he saw serious discrepancies between Barr’s public statements about Mueller’s findings and the public, partially redacted version of that report detailing the special counsel’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.” WaPo

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL on Senate Minority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER on FOX NEWS with SHANNON BREAM … MCCONNELL: “Now if that was an apology, it wasn’t much of an apology. He named the justices by name. He used words that generally are associated with inciting violence. Chuck Schumer ought to know better than that. He didn’t just show up yesterday.

“It reminds me of the speaker of the House tearing up the President’s State of the Union right after he finished speaking. We have a behavioral problem, and I think the leaders of Congress owe it to the American people to act like adults, and to not engage in shenanigans like going over in front of the Supreme Court with a rowdy mob and threatening the justices by name. That wasn’t enough of an apology to satisfy me, and I don’t think any of our colleagues either.”

-- REPUBLICANS are wary of further action to censure Schumer, thinking it could open the door to censuring TRUMP.

MELANIE ZANONA and JOHN BRESNAHAN: “GOP Rep. Steve Watkins’ woes mount with FEC probe into his father”: “The Federal Election Commission is investigating potentially improper ‘straw man donations’ to Rep. Steve Watkins’ 2018 campaign that were paid for by his father — the latest political headache for the embattled Kansas Republican.

“At the heart of the FEC probe is whether Watkins’ father made illegal contributions to boost Watkins’ congressional bid. Steve Watkins Sr. confirmed in a brief interview with POLITICO that the FEC is investigating him for giving thousands of dollars to his daughters, a home-building contractor and the contractor’s wife, which they then used to max out to Watkins’ campaign. Those types of donations violate campaign finance laws.

“The elder Watkins -- a Topeka-based endocrinologist who also dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into a super PAC to support his son’s election -- insisted he didn’t know that what he was doing was illegal. Watkins’ office, meanwhile, said the freshman lawmaker is not under investigation by the FEC.

“‘I didn’t know that I wasn’t allowed to do it,’ Watkins Sr. said during a phone conversation on Thursday. ‘I thought you could just give money to them and they could do with it what they wanted.’” POLITICO

SNEAK PEEK: NYT’S JENNIFER STEINHAUER has a brand-new book out next week called “The Firsts: The Inside Story of Women Reshaping Congress.” The book is about the women of the 116th Congress -- particularly the history-making freshman class, yes, including the Squad. We have a sneak peek for you about how AMY KLOBUCHAR worked on behalf of KYRSTEN SINEMA to get the dress code rules lifted in the Senate. $27.35 on Amazon … The sneak peek … More details about the book

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TRUMP’S FRIDAY -- The president will leave the White House at 8:45 a.m. en route to Nashville, where he’ll spend the morning before departing for West Palm Beach at 1:30 p.m. Central time. He will arrive at Mar-a-Lago at 4:35 p.m. Eastern and hold a roundtable with supporters at 8:15 p.m. He’s due to speak at a fundraising dinner at 8:45 p.m.

-- “Trump Plans to Meet Brazil’s Bolsonaro at Mar-a-Lago on Weekend,” by Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs

PLAYBOOK READS

PHOTO DU JOUR: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and VP Mike Pence greet each other with an elbow bump – not a handshake – at a coronavirus press conference Thursday. | Karen Ducey/Getty Images

SUNDAY SO FAR …

FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Anthony Fauci. Panel: Ben Domenech, Donna Edwards, Jason Riley and Juan Williams. Power Player of the Week : Sylvia Acevedo.

ABC “This Week”: Panel: Rahm Emanuel, Chris Christie, MaryAlice Parks and Alexi McCammond.

NBC “Meet the Press”: Panel: Matt Bai, Al Cárdenas, Helene Cooper and Hallie Jackson.

CBS “Face the Nation”: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). Panel: Leslie Sanchez, Joel Payne, Dan Balz and Amy Walter.

CNN “State of the Union”: Panel: David Urban, Alexandra Rojas, Linda Chavez and Bakari Sellers.

CNN “Inside Politics”: Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Toluse Olorunnipa, Jonathan Martin and Laura Barrón-López.

Sinclair TV “America This Week with Eric Bolling”: President Donald Trump … Lara Trump … Corey Lewandowski … Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) … Jose Aristamuño … Julia Manchester. Panel: Ameshia Cross and Sebastian Gorka.

CLICKER -- “5 ways the global coronavirus is entangling the nationalist Trump,” by Ryan Heath and Eli Okun

ACROSS THE POND -- “Amid coronavirus chaos, EU aviation rules become the target,” by Saim Saeed in Brussels: “Airlines are hemorrhaging money, canceling flights and even going under as travel dwindles thanks to coronavirus fears — prompting a battered industry to demand an easing of EU aviation rules.

“As the economic impacts of the coronavirus outbreak spread faster than the highly contagious disease, demand for flights is at rock bottom and airlines are taking out capacity to avoid flying empty planes. The crisis has already taken one industry casualty — Europe’s largest regional airline Flybe on Thursday announced it was going under — and the European Regions Airline Association is desperate to ensure there are no more.” More for Pros

TARA PALMERI is the new host of a podcast called “Broken: Jeffrey Epstein.” The EP is Julie K. Brown of the Miami Herald, who broke the Epstein story open, plus Adam McKay, Kevin Messick, The New Yorker’s Adam Davidson and WNYC’s Laura Mayer. Subscribe … Details about this season

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DEPT. OF HIGHER ED -- “How the new DeVos rules on sexual assault will shock schools — and students,” by Juan Perez Jr. and Bianca Quilantan: “Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is about to shake up how sexual assault and harassment charges are handled at every college campus and K-12 school.

“This much is clear: If your child is a victim of sexual misconduct at school, or an accused offender, administrators must soon respond to their cases in major, untested ways. That could mean a courtroom-like hearing where lawyers would cross-examine youthful witnesses and challenge their credibility, a huge shift from traditional behind-the-scenes investigations of highly sensitive and damaging allegations.

“The final Title IX rule, anticipated to arrive this month, will invite fury: DeVos has said every survivor must be taken seriously — but also that the accused can’t be presumed guilty. The Obama administration in 2011 laid out guidance pushing schools to resolve an epidemic of complaints of sexual assault and harassment. But DeVos scrapped the Obama-era policies, saying they were unfair to everyone involved, and she now wants to balance the scales of justice with clear, formal rules. ‘Our proposed rule recognizes that we can continue to combat sexual misconduct without abandoning due process,’ she says.” POLITICO

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VALLEY TALK -- “Facebook Removes Trump Campaign Ads, Citing Census Interference Policy,” by WSJ’s Emily Glazer and Janet Adamy: “Facebook Inc. removed Trump campaign ads that referred to a census, saying they violated a company policy aimed at preventing disinformation and other interference with the nationwide 2020 census, which goes online next week.

“The ads, which began running on the social network this week, asked people to take the ‘Official 2020 Congressional District Census’ and then directed users to a website for fundraising to support Mr. Trump’s re-election. ‘The information we gather from this survey will help us craft our strategies for YOUR CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT,’ the ads said.

“Facebook said Thursday that it was the first time the company removed a Trump campaign ad for violating its census interference policy. ‘There are policies to prevent confusion around the U.S. Census, and this is an example of those being enforced,’ a Facebook spokesman said.”

TUNE IN -- Ahead of International Women’s Day on Sunday, Women Rule is putting out a special podcast with ANNA interviewing U.N. Population Fund Executive Director NATALIA KANEM. Listen and subscribe

MEDIAWATCH -- Clinton Cargill is now assistant national editor at the NYT. He previously was visuals editor at Vanity Fair. Talking Biz News

PLAYBOOK READS

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

SPOTTED at a party for Charlotte Alter’s new book, “The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For” ($16.29 on Amazon), at the home of her uncle Charles Rivkin and Susan Tolson on Thursday night: Mark Chiusano, Jonathan Alter, Emily Lazar, Judge Merrick Garland, Michael Isikoff, Brian Bennett, Jackie Alemany, Molly Ball, Kathleen Biden Buhle, Margaret Carlson …

… Linda Douglass and John Phillips, Nelson Cunningham, Walter and Didi Cutler, EJ Dionne, Tammy Haddad, Robert and Mary Haft, Jim Hoagland, Jordanian Ambassador Dina Kawar, Emily Lenzner, Gail MacKinnon, Urmila Venugopalan, Elissa Leonard, Tamera Luzzatto, Evan Thomas, Lis and Misha Petcevich, Sally Rosenberg and Bruce Charendof.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Matthew Kroenig, deputy director of the Scowcroft Center at the Atlantic Council, and Olivia Kroenig welcomed Henry DeMay Kroenig on Feb. 22. He came in at 7 lbs, 6 oz and 21 inches. Pic

BIRTHWEEK (was Thursday): Monica Forero, associate at New Heights Communications, turned 23 (h/t Joshua Cohen)

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Jacqui Newman, deputy executive director and COO of the DCCC. What she’s been reading: “I’ve been reading ‘Milo’s Hat Trick’ to my daughter a lot these days. The D.C. Public Library, in partnership with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, mails a book to each child in the city enrolled in its ‘Books From Birth’ program every month from birth to age five. D.C. alone has sent out over a million books so far. It’s a fantastic program that everyone with children should take advantage of.” Playbook Q&A

BIRTHDAYS: Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan is 94 … David Bradley, chairman of Atlantic Media … John Stossel is 73 … Eileen Murphy, SVP of corporate comms for the NYT … Saul Anuzis is 61 … Reuters’ Jim Bourg … Armen Keteyian is 67 … former CIA and FBI Director William Webster is 96 … former Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) is 81 … Pablo Chavez, VP of global public policy and government affairs for Google Cloud … Blake Gottesman of Berkshire Partners … Anthony Foti … Jenny Rogers, deputy editor of WaPo’s Talent Network … Jonathan Day, COS for Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) (h/t Blain Rethmeier) … TransCanada’s Alex Stroman … WaPo’s Erin Cox … Sandra Salstrom … Kara Carscaden … Parker Brugge, head of Best Buy’s D.C. office (h/t Andrew Szente) …

… Joe Perticone, director at Bullpen Strategy Group, is 3-0 … Brooke Gladstone, co-host of WNYC’s “On the Media” … Catherine Wilkins … Kara Carscaden … John McKinney … Krista Beal … Bill Huey is 73 … Michael Sitrick … Anna Kopperud … Joe Alexander … Indiana Supreme Court Justice Mark Massa … Jennifer Skyler, chief corporate affairs officer at American Express … Chris Leavitt … Lisa Todorovich Porter … Brendon Plack, SVP of public policy and government affairs for the NFL … Ellen Canale … Emily Leviner, LD and chief counsel for Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) … Karen Lightfoot … Shannon Moriarty … Sam Spence … Katy Bayless … Kathleen J. Becker … Steve Fox … Kim Moxley … Tim Bergreen … Lanon Baccam

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