POLITICO Playbook: Did Trump blow the shutdown? Presented by Amazon

Some of President Donald Trump's closest allies on Capitol Hill and in D.C. are wondering why he didn't instruct GOP leadership to keep Congress in town until they secured a government funding deal. | Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

DRIVING THE DAY

DID TRUMP BLOW THIS SHUTDOWN? PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP had an empty Washington and the captive attention of the media the last eight days. Why wasn’t he on TV blasting Congress for inaction every single day? “I’m the only guy who can sign a bill into law, but Congress has gone home,” he could’ve said.

HE STAYED HOME FROM FLORIDA, but hardly appeared on television or in public. If you’re going to do the “I’m working” thing, shouldn’t you just do it, and sit at a table with “Nancy Pelosi” and “Chuck Schumer” place cards, and empty chairs?

THE PRESIDENT has the unique ability to mold the newscycle to his liking -- especially with Congress out of town. Yet he hardly did anything publicly.

FURTHER … WHY DIDN’T TRUMP instruct GOP leadership to keep Congress in town until they got a deal? … If he believes his position is the right one, why not try to highlight that? Some of his closest allies on Capitol Hill and in D.C. are wondering this.

THE WHITE HOUSE has been putting out the message that CHUCK SCHUMER wants a deal, but NANCY PELOSI -- fearful she’ll lose the speakership -- is holding Democrats back. Schumer and Pelosi have worked judiciously to make sure there is zero daylight between them. Plus, she takes the majority in FIVE DAYS, at which point the game shifts in her direction.

YA DON’T EVEN CALL? … If the White House is so concerned about PELOSI, why has PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP not spoken with Pelosi since Dec. 11? That’s 18 days without contact between the president and the incoming speaker during a federal government shutdown. The White House has not reached out to Pelosi’s staff to try to schedule a get together. There has been no outreach to Pelosi at all from VP MIKE PENCE or INTERIM CHIEF OF STAFF MICK MULVANEY.

DAY 8 … This shutdown is now the ninth-longest shutdown in U.S. history.

BACK TO 1977, there’s never been a shutdown from one Congress to another. There’s never been a shutdown that involved a change of power in either chamber, per John Bresnahan.

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WAPO A1: “Trump in D.C. but out of sight during shutdown … RELIES ON TWITTER TO BLAME DEMOCRATS … No movement to resolve impasse is evident” WaPo A1

L.A. TIMES FRONT PAGE: “Trump, Pelosi likely to tussle on impasse: Republicans appear happy to foist the government shutdown on the Democrats’ leader in the House” LAT A1

-- L.A. TIMES’ CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDS: “The Smithsonian Institution has managed to keep its many Washington D.C. public spaces open through the early days of the federal government’s partial shutdown, but their days are now numbered.

“The institution’s museums, galleries and the National Zoo will shut down Wednesday if no solution to the federal government’s partial shutdown is reached by New Year’s Day, a spokeswoman said. Together, those institutions drew 30 million visitors in 2017, about 82,000 per day.” LAT

THREE Republicans are on the Sunday shows this week: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Dana Bash. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the appropriations chairman, is on CBS’s “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan. And incoming House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) on “Fox News Sunday.”

-- ANDREW RESTUCCIA, HEATHER CAYGLE and JOHN BRESNAHAN: “A cooped-up Trump’s threats fail to break budget deadlock”: “President Donald Trump is venting in public and private about Democrats’ refusal to fund a border wall, but there is no sign the president is advancing deadlocked budget negotiations that have kept the government closed for a week.

"Cooped up in the White House after canceling his planned two-week-plus vacation to his private Florida club, Trump is consumed by the shutdown, according to people close to him.

“And the president is increasingly isolated. Congress has essentially recessed until the new year and First Lady Melania Trump headed back to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Thursday, according to a spokeswoman, after briefly returning to Washington to accompany the president on a surprise Christmas trip to visit troops in Iraq. The White House’s ratcheted-up rhetoric on Friday — with Trump threatening to shutter the entire southern border if he doesn’t get his way — has done nothing to move Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).” POLITICO

-- LEON PANETTA in WaPo, “Five lessons that never seem to be learned from shutting down the government”



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Good Saturday morning. BLAKE HOUNSHELL, the editor of POLITICO Magazine, will be filling in writing Playbook the next three days. We’ll be back on Jan. 2.

VERY SAD NEWS … REMEMBERING BRE PAYTON … Fox News’ Alex Pappas: “Bre Payton, a conservative writer at The Federalist and frequent guest on television news outlets including Fox News Channel, died Friday after a sudden illness, according to her employer. She was 26. ...

“‘Bre has passed,’ publisher Ben Domenech tweeted. ‘We are devastated. Last we saw her, she was her funny, smart, vivacious self. Now lost to us so suddenly.’ ... A few hours earlier Friday, Domenech asked for prayers and linked to a CaringBridge website that said Payton was found unresponsive on Thursday in San Diego. Doctors, according to the post, determined she had contracted the ‘H1N1 flu and possibly meningitis.’” Fox News

THE NEW CONGRESS … WAPO’S FELICIA SONMEZ and ELI ROSENBERG: “Hoyer says House will not seat a North Carolina Republican amid questions about integrity of election”: “Incoming House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Friday that Democrats next week will not seat a North Carolina Republican amid allegations of election fraud in the state’s 9th Congressional District.

“‘Given the now well-documented election fraud that took place in NC-09, Democrats would object to any attempt by [Mark] Harris to be seated on January 3,’ Hoyer said in a statement. ‘In this instance, the integrity of our democratic process outweighs concerns about the seat being vacant at the start of the new Congress.’

“The statement came after North Carolina dissolved its elections board Friday without certifying the Nov. 6 results, leaving the fate of the seat in doubt days ahead of the start of the new Congress. David B. Freedman, an attorney for Harris, said the Republican has cooperated with the investigation and ‘looks forward to this matter coming to a resolution as quickly as possible so that he may serve the people of the 9th Congressional District as he was elected to do.’” WaPo

NYT’S LISA LERER and ALEX BURNS: “Four Key Senators Shift 2020 Presidential Planning Into High Gear”: “Senator Kamala Harris of California is eyeing Baltimore or Atlanta as a possible base of operations for her likely 2020 presidential bid and is close to bringing on a top aide to run her campaign.

“Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator, has completed a detailed review of her writings and political record to identify potential vulnerabilities, and her aides have been scouting headquarters near Boston.

“Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey has been interviewing possible campaign managers, as well as strategists who could run his Iowa caucus effort.

“And Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has been reaching out to more women than men for campaign roles, though she is expected to pick a man — her current top aide — to manage a campaign likely to be based near her upstate New York home.” NYT



FOGGY BOTTOM WATCH … WAPO’S CAROL MORELLO: “Pompeo heading to Brazil for inauguration of far-right president”: “Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will head a U.S. delegation to Brazil seeking to foster closer ties with the far-right incoming president, Jair Bolsonaro, and discuss ways to counter the Venezuelan government. Pompeo will leave Washington for Brasilia on New Year’s Eve to attend Bolsonaro’s inauguration the following day before heading to Colombia. He plans to meet with Bolsonaro, who was elected in October with an agenda and style so similar to President Trump’s that he has been dubbed the ‘Trump of the Tropics.’” WaPo

FALLOUT … NYT’S BEN HUBBARD in Beirut: “Syria’s Kurds, Feeling Betrayed by the U.S., Ask Assad Government for Protection”: “Feeling betrayed by the United States, its Kurdish allies in Syria asked the Syrian government on Friday to protect them from possible attack by Turkey.

“The request surprised some American officials and could help open the way for the forces of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, backed by Russia and Iran, to start retaking the Kurdish-held part of the country near Turkey’s border. That would be a big step toward Mr. Assad’s goal of reclaiming all of Syria, upended by almost eight years of war.

“It was also the first sign that President Trump’s abrupt announcement last week that he was withdrawing American troops from Syria was not only shifting alliances in the conflict but directly benefiting Mr. Assad — a brutal autocrat once described by Mr. Trump as an ‘animal’ responsible for chemical attacks and other atrocities. American-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or Y.P.G., said the Syrian government should send troops to the city of Manbij, near the Turkish border. The request amounted to a United States ally calling on an enemy of the United States to protect it from another American ally, Turkey.” NYT

REMEMBER HIM? – “Scott Pruitt: After the High Life, a Job Hunt,” by WaPo’s Juliet Eilperin, Brady Dennis and Josh Dawsey: “For the next stage of his career, Pruitt has tapped the industry connections he cultivated during his year and-a-half as a Cabinet member, according to four individuals briefed on his plans, as he works to make his way in the private sector and establish his own consulting business. Pruitt is promoting coal exports and doing other work for his longtime friend, coal baron Joseph W. Craft III, while offering himself as an energy consultant and paid speaker, said several friends and associates, who asked for anonymity to speak frankly. ...

“The president once viewed him as a loyal soldier and confidante, brainstorming on policy in the Oval Office and commiserating about Democratic attack dogs by phone. But Trump also has joked about some of Pruitt’s missteps, according to senior administration officials. On more than one occasion, they said, the president congratulated [acting EPA Administrator Andrew] Wheeler for not attempting to buy a used mattress from the Trump Hotel, a move Pruitt once tried.” WaPo



PLAYBOOK READS

PHOTO DU JOUR: Fog covers the U.S. Capitol on Friday night as a partial government shutdown continues into the weekend. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

FOR AVIATION GEEKS … WSJ’S ROBERT WALL: “The Last 747: Airlines Dump the Jumbo Jet, Transforming International Travel: Smaller, ultraefficient long-range airliners are overtaking the once celebrated giant of the sky; crammed seats and fewer perks” WSJ

CLICKER – “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker -- 12 keepers



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GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman, filing from Los Angeles:

-- “I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon,” by Austin Murphy in the Atlantic: “Let’s face it, when you are a college-educated 57-year-old slinging parcels for a living, something in your life has not gone according to plan. That said, I haven’t come down in the world. What’s come down in the world is the business model that sustained Time Inc. for decades. I’m pretty much the same writer, the same guy. I haven’t gone anywhere. My feet are the same. When I’m in a rhythm, and my system’s working, I enjoy this gig.” The Atlantic

-- “How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually,” by Max Read in NYMag: “Studies generally suggest that, year after year, less than 60 percent of web traffic is human; some years, according to some researchers, a healthy majority of it is bot.” NYMag

-- “An unnatural disaster,” by WaPo’s Sudarsan Raghavan in Al Jarb, Yemen: “After four years of conflict, more than 20 million Yemenis — roughly two-thirds of the population — don’t have enough to eat. In most cases, it’s not because food is completely unavailable but because it’s unaffordable, priced out of reach by import restrictions, soaring transport costs due to fuel scarcity, a collapsing currency and other man-made supply disruptions.” WaPo

-- “The Sidney Awards, Part II,” by NYT’s David Brooks: “Sex, foreign intrigue, faith, the corruption of ideas, and man-eating tigers, oh my — more great reading for edification and pleasure.” NYT ... Part 1

-- “Time to Worry,” by James Grant in the Weekly Standard: “Over the past 30 years, the debt jumped by 727 percent, the cost of servicing it by just 144 percent. To the casual question, ‘What’s the harm in the Treasury’s availing itself of the market’s over-generous hospitality?’, there is no casual, tweetable answer.” TWS (h/t TheBrowser.com)

-- “The Rise, Lean, And Fall Of Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg,” by BuzzFeed’s Anne Helen Petersen: “The reality of Silicon Valley is that it’s commerce by any means necessary. And the reality of Sandberg is that she’s excellent at it.” BuzzFeed (h/t Longform.org)

-- “Rising Waters Are Drowning Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor,” by Bloomberg’s Christopher Flavelle and Jeremy C.F. Lin: “By the middle of this century, climate change is likely to punch a hole through the busiest stretch of rail in North America. Parts of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor route, which carries 12 million people each year between Boston and Washington, face ‘continual inundation.’” Bloomberg

-- “Susan Potter Will Live Forever,” by Cathy Newman in NatGeo’s special January “The Future of Medicine” issue: “Susan Potter donated her body to science. It was frozen, sawed into four blocks, sliced 27,000 times, and photographed after each cut. The result: a virtual cadaver that will speak to medical students from the grave. National Geographic has been documenting Potter’s journey for 16 years.” NatGeo

-- “The Inevitability of Impeachment,” by Elizabeth Drew in the NYT: “Even Republicans may be deciding that the president has become too great a burden to their party or too great a danger to the country.” NYT

-- “Atlanta’s patron saint of pit bulls,” by Candice Dyer in Atlanta Magazine – per TheBrowser.com’s description: “Profile of Jason Flatt, ‘punk-rock St. Francis of Assisi’, who used to be a commodity broker on Wall Street before settling in Georgia to start a dog shelter for abused pit-bulls. Americans used to admire pit-bulls as dependable household dogs. They were known as Yankee Terriers, back when Teddy Roosevelt had one in the White House. ... [F]ighting pit-bulls are starved, beaten and drugged. Treated humanely, pit-bulls are calmer than Labradors.” Atlanta Magazine

-- “The Year in Pictures 2018” -- NYT: “News photography is often meant to be consumed instantly, on paper, on our screens, in endless scrolling feeds. It tells us what the world looks like right at a given moment. But it can lose much of its power that way — the power to seize us, to shake us awake, to interrupt the everyday. There is always a new image. Scenes of the present become instantly the past. Put together at the end of a year, though, their essence is restored.” NYT ... “A world of surprising splendor, captured by AP photographers”

-- “Why It’s Hard to Escape Amazon’s Long Reach,” by Paris Martineau and Louise Matsakis in Wired: “The company now occupies roughly as much space worldwide as 38 Pentagons. ... Amazon employees are paid far less than other tech workers. In its annual filing with the [SEC] in February, Amazon said its median worker earned $28,446 in 2017 (it says that number jumps to $34,123 for full-time U.S. workers). Facebook’s median salary in 2017, by contrast, was more than $240,000.” Wired



PLAYBOOKERS

BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Clara Brillembourg, partner at Foley Hoag and chair of Meridian International’s Rising Leaders Council (hat tip: Ben Chang) … (was Tuesday): Dan Drew, mayor of Middletown, Connecticut

BIRTHDAYS: Kate Sherman … Reihan Salam is 39 ... Jeremy Waldstreicher is 33 … Erica Kimmel Haffetz … Leah Malone ... Andrew Malcolm, manager of federal advocacy at Exelon ... Ashleigh Banfield is 51 ... retired ABC newscaster Tom Jarriel is 84 ... Kevin Griffis (h/t Ben Chang) ... Katie Pudwill … POLITICO’s Eric Engleman ... Jordan Langdon, director at Purple Strategies … Erica Ryan ... Scott Keyes … Leo Wallach, principal at RALLY, is 39 … Edelman’s Renée Revetta and Alexander Romano ... Mike Siegel, comms director for Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) … Shehzad Haider ... Tom Dickens is 3-0 ... Theo and Paul Epstein are 45 ... Kyle Egan ...

… Katie Glueck, senior national political correspondent at McClatchy (h/t Kristin Roberts) ... Blair Watters, senior director at InterDigital ... Maria Randazzo of the Council for a Strong America is 25 (h/t Rachel Wein) ... Boris Medzhibovsky ... Rob Burgess … Kim Snyder … Michael McLaughlin … Ian Steyer ... Kai Stinchcombe ... Kim Barnes Kimball ... Didi Cardenas ... Renata McGriff ... Adam Shoucair ... David Koeppel ... Caroline Ey ... Grace Goodman ... Gracie Brandsgard ... Kara Kostanich … Laura Clawson ... Grant Addison ... Amata Radewagen, Delegate to the U.S. House from American Samoa, is 71 ... George Caudill … Marie-Therese Dominguez (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … IOC president Thomas Bach is 66 (h/t AP)

THE SHOWS, by @MattMackowiak, filing from Austin:



NBC “Meet the Press” : Special edition on the Climate Crisis: Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ... California Gov. Jerry Brown. Panel: NASA and Columbia University scientist Dr. Kate Marvel, Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michéle Flournoy, former FEMA administrator Craig Fugate … Anne Thompson.

ABC “This Week” : CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan … Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) … Gen. Stanley McChrystal (U.S. Army, Ret.). Panel: Mary Bruce, Matthew Dowd, Mary Jordan and Reihan Salam.

CBS “Face the Nation” : Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) ... Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) … The One Campaign CEO Gayle Smith. Panel: Peter Baker, Michael Beschloss, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jill Lepore.

Fox “Fox News Sunday” : House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) … Kellyanne Conway. Panel: Marc Thiessen, Philippe Reines, Anne Gearan and Charles Hurt (substitute anchor: Fox News’ Sandra Smith).

CNN “State of the Union” : Kellyanne Conway ... Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) ... Terry McAuliffe. Panel: Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.),Rick Santorum, Linda Chavez, Symone Sanders (substitute anchor: CNN’s Dana Bash).

CNN “Inside Politics” : Panel: Josh Dawsey, Catherine Lucey, Phil Mattingly and Rachael Bade. (substitute anchor: CNN’s Nia-Malika Henderson).

Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures” : Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) … Christian Whiton … Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Panel: Ed Rollins, James Trusty, Jon Sale and Al D’Amato.

Fox News “MediaBuzz”: Gayle Trotter … Gillian Turner … Richard Fowler … Kristina Partsinevelos … Philippe Reines … Kat Timpf.

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