POLITICO Playbook: Zinke is out, and Mulvaney will be the next chief Presented by Amazon

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's impending exit will make him the most recent in line of Trump administration officials to leave under a cloud of ethical scandals. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

DRIVING THE DAY

BREAKING … ZINKE OUT … BLOOMBERG’S JENNIFER JACOBS (@JenniferJJacobs): “Scoop: Ryan Zinke has notified the White House he intends to step down as interior secretary. Concern about legal costs and scrutiny of his travel, political activity and potential conflicts of interest were factors in Zinke’s decision, I’m told. Plan is to announce Wednesday. …

“BREAKING: Trump has been notified Zinke plans to step down and has begun searching for replacement. Names that have emerged include Nevada’s Dean Heller, Nevada’s Adam Laxalt, Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, Idaho’s Butch Otter, Utah’s Sean Reyes and others.” Jennifer Jacobs and Jennifer Dlouhy’s story

-- @realDonaldTrump at 9:14 a.m.: “Secretary of the Interior @RyanZinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years. Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation.......”

-- FLASHBACK: BEN LEFEBVRE and NICK JULIANO, JUNE 19: “Exclusive: Zinke linked to real estate deal with Halliburton chairman: In the interior secretary’s hometown, a development brings together the head of the nation’s largest oil-services company and a foundation created by the man who regulates it.” POLITICO ... Ben Lefebvre, “Zinke to leave Interior amid scandals”

ON MICK MULVANEY … IT DOES NOT APPEAR that congressional relations played a big role in PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S thought process when selecting a chief of staff. MICK MULVANEY, who has the title “acting chief of staff,” was a hard-line spending foe when he represented South Carolina in the House. He resisted raising the debt ceiling and fought the leadership as a founding member of the Freedom Caucus.

HE WENT TO THE ADMINISTRATION and did a 180. Mulvaney pleaded with House Republicans to pass a spending and debt-limit deal Trump cut with Democrats, and was booed when he and Steven Mnuchin wouldn’t commit to a spending cut package. (Read Rachael Bade from 2017). A lot of Republicans have been slack jawed as he’s abandoned his long-held positions. Case in point: he called Trump a “terrible human being” during the 2016 campaign. (The Daily Beast’s report). The people we spoke to in the White House after this announcement was made were not too pleased with the selection.

DEMOCRATS don’t love Mulvaney either. He doesn’t have particularly close ties to the congressional investigators who will be hounding the president.

NYT’S MAGGIE HABERMAN (@maggieNYT): “Mulvaney was one of the few chief-of-staff choices who openly lobbied for the job, telling Trump at one point that he is the only person leading an agency who hasn’t been mired in scandal, per a person familiar with the discussion.”

MULVANEY is a good golfer, however. He carries a single-digit handicap.

PUNT FORMATION … ELIANA JOHNSON, BURGESS EVERETT and RACHAEL BADE: “Trump considers delaying border wall fight until January”

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NEW … GEORGIA REP. JOHN LEWIS sent a letter to Democrats, urging anyone who is considering voting for him to vote for NANCY PELOSI.

-- FROM THE LETTER: “We must never, ever forget that we are facing a bitter, stubborn resistance to true democracy in this nation. We must recognize and reject cynical gamesmanship that would mock our leadership to sow the seeds of distrust and dissension. Dividing our caucus on this vote for Speaker serves no strategic purpose at this time, except to signal disarray. That is why I must view a vote for me as Speaker as a vote for the Republican nominee, who would lead a Democratic House majority. We must unite against this possibility at all costs.” The letter

-- PELOSI visited a Christmas tree adorned with photos of her in Dupont. Washington Blade

SPOTTED: Nancy Pelosi in seat 1C on a delayed Alaska Airlines flight last night from DCA to SFO.

Good Saturday morning. CLICKER: SHIRLEY WANG in WBUR: “My Dad’s Friendship With Charles Barkley”

BREAKING LAST NIGHT … NYT’S ABBY GOODNOUGH and ROBERT PEAR: “Texas Judge Strikes Down Obama’s Affordable Care Act as Unconstitutional”: “At issue was whether the health law’s insurance mandate still compelled people to buy coverage after Congress reduced the penalty to zero dollars as part of the tax overhaul that President Trump signed last December.

“When the Supreme Court upheld the mandate as constitutional in 2012, it was based on Congress’s taxing power. Congress, the court said, could legally impose a tax penalty on people who do not have health insurance. But in the new case, the 20 plaintiff states, led by Texas, argued that with the penalty zeroed out, the individual mandate had become unconstitutional — and that the rest of the law could not be severed from it.” NYT

-- DAN DIAMOND EXPLAINS: “Obamacare ruling delivers new shock to health system”: “Friday night’s ruling raises a number of decisions for the White House: Will the government appeal, how quickly and will its agencies continue to enforce the law in the meantime? It’s not clear what the Trump administration will choose to do, given its legal strategy to date. Career Justice Department lawyers this summer were told to drop their defense of the law — a near-unprecedented decision that led three lawyers to remove their names from the government’s brief and prompted the senior attorney, Joel McElvain, to resign.” POLITICO

-- SEEMA VERMA (@SeemaCMS): “The recent federal court decision is still moving through the courts, and the exchanges are still open for business and we will continue with open enrollment. There is no impact to current coverage or coverage in a 2019 plan.”



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INSIDE BIDEN’S BRAIN … AP’S TOM BEAUMONT, MEG KINNARD and MEG KINNARD: “Biden most consider the age issue as he ponders 2020 run”: “As he considers running for president, Joe Biden is talking with friends and longtime supporters about whether, at 76, he’s too old to seek the White House, according to several sources who have spoken with the former Democratic vice president. ...

“Past and current advisers to Biden have held frequent conversations about options to alleviate concerns about age, including teaming him with a younger running mate. One option that has been floated, according to a source with knowledge of the talks, is outgoing Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who at 46 has become the subject of intense 2020 speculation after nearly beating GOP Sen. Ted Cruz.” AP

THE FIRST FAMILY …

-- WNYC’S ILYA MARRITZ and PROPUBLICA’S JUSTIN ELLIOTT: “Trump’s Inauguration Paid Trump’s Company — With Ivanka in the Middle”: “When it came out this year that President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee raised and spent unprecedented amounts, people wondered where all that money went. It turns out one beneficiary was Trump himself. The inauguration paid the Trump Organization for rooms, meals and event space at the company’s Washington hotel, according to interviews as well as internal emails and receipts reviewed by WNYC and ProPublica.

“During the planning, Ivanka Trump, the president-elect’s eldest daughter and a senior executive with the Trump Organization, was involved in negotiating the price the hotel charged the 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee for venue rentals. A top inaugural planner emailed Ivanka and others at the company to ‘express my concern’ that the hotel was overcharging for its event spaces, worrying of what would happen ‘when this is audited.’ If the Trump hotel charged more than the going rate for the venues, it could violate tax law.” ProPublica

-- IN BETWEEN MIDDLE EAST PEACE, MEXICO AND REIMAGINING GOV’T … NYT’S ANNIE KARNI: “For Kushner, Criminal Justice Has Been a Personal Issue and a Rare Victory”: “The day after President Trump announced his support for a bipartisan criminal justice overhaul bill in the Roosevelt Room, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, arrived in the Oval Office to give him a dose of political reality. He was not going to bring the bill to the Senate floor until next year, Mr. McConnell told the president.

“Mr. Trump called for his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the administration’s driving force behind the bill, to join the meeting and hear the news himself. As Mr. Kushner entered the Oval Office, Mr. McConnell joked that he felt like he had heard from everyone Mr. Kushner knew.

“‘That’s not true,’ Mr. Kushner replied, according to administration officials. ‘I have a lot more people.’ And he did. Because Mr. Trump agreed that the bill had to wait, according to administration officials, Mr. Kushner enlisted Vice President Mike Pence to explain to the president that waiting until next year, when a House controlled by the Democrats would then vote on the bill, would most likely result in a version that he would not like. Mr. Kushner called Rupert Murdoch, his son Lachlan Murdoch and Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director who is now a senior executive at Fox, to release a statement backing his bill.” NYT

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UPDATE – “Former Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus selected to join Navy with backing from Mattis,” by WaPo’s Dan Lamothe: “Reince Priebus, a former chief of staff to President Trump and Republican power broker, could join the Navy after a months-long process in which Defense Secretary Jim Mattis recommended him and a board of officers selected him as a reserve officer, according to defense officials and a memo obtained by The Washington Post.

“Priebus, 46, will be required to attend two weeks of training in Newport, R.I., and drill once a month as a reservist if commissioned.” WaPo

-- FLASHBACK -- JULY 28’s PLAYBOOK: “SPOTTED: REINCE PRIEBUS at Andrews Air Force Base on Friday, where he talked with recruiters as he explores potentially joining the Navy Reserve, which has a recruiting station at Andrews. He is considering trying to be an intelligence officer, a JAG or working in HR.”

THE INVESTIGATIONS …

-- THE NEW YORKER’S JEFFREY TOOBIN on ADAM SCHIFF: “Adam Schiff’s Plans to Obliterate Trump’s Red Line: With the Democrats controlling the House, Schiff’s congressional investigation will follow the money”

-- WAPO’S SPENCER HSU: “In filing intended to be under seal, U.S. prosecutors ask to transport Maria Butina, possibly to testify at grand jury”: “U.S. prosecutors on Friday asked a federal judge for permission to move Maria Butina to and from jail for ongoing interviews, including potentially to testify before a grand jury, in a filing intended to be sealed that appeared on the public docket for her case. ...

“In a seven-page document filed Friday afternoon to a judge, prosecutors said they were making their travel request under seal because disclosing Butina’s movements from Alexandria City Jail, where she has been held since July, ‘may jeopardize defendant’s safety and may jeopardize the ongoing investigation.’ ... The request asks to cover movements through Jan. 17.” WaPo

-- NYT’S ADAM GOLDMAN: “Mueller Rejects Flynn’s Attempt to Portray Himself as Victim of the F.B.I.”

-- N.Y. DAILY NEWS’ CHRIS SOMMERFELDT: “New Jersey AG probes Trump golf club after undocumented maids claim racially-charged harassment, threats”: “New Jersey’s top law enforcement agency is looking into claims of widespread harassment and immigration fraud at President Trump’s Garden State golf club after several former and current housekeepers alleged racially-charged mistreatment, the Daily News has learned. Anibal Romero, a Newark-based attorney, said Friday the state attorney general’s office recently reached out to him about claims that five of his clients were routinely threatened and called racial slurs while working at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster.” N.Y. Daily News

NOW YOU TELL ME! … MORNING CONSULT’S ELI YOKLEY: “Incoming NRCC Chair Says GOP Is ‘Way Too Focused on Nancy’ Pelosi”



PLAYBOOK READS

PHOTO DU JOUR: Activists dressed like Marianne, symbol of the French Republic, face riot police officers during a yellow vests protest Saturday in Paris. | Kamil Zihnioglu/AP Photo

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER’S ANDREW SEIDMAN: “Despite advisers’ convictions, Bob Brady retains grip on Philly Democratic Party”

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

-- “John Podesta Is Ready to Talk About Pizzagate,” by Rolling Stone’s Andy Kroll: “The former Clinton campaign chairman is among the victims still recovering from a vile conspiracy theory that ended in gunfire.” RS

-- “‘Let Me Make You Famous’: How Hollywood Invented Ben Shapiro,” by Vanity Fair’s Tina Nguyen: “With the shaping of producer Jeremy Boreing, Brand Shapiro has made owning the libs a lucrative business, and the Daily Wire a rising power in conservative media. But can they survive Trump?” VF

-- “The Corruption of the Republican Party,” by George Packer in his debut in The Atlantic: “The GOP is best understood as an insurgency that carried the seeds of its own corruption from the start.” The Atlantic

-- “Mario Batali’s Empire in the Wake of Mario Batali,” by Eric Konigsberg in NYMag: “A year after allegations against him emerged, anyone who eats at Babbo is still filling his pockets.” NYMag

-- “Cold Discovery,” by Drew Austin in Real Life Mag: “What is lost when we ‘watch Netflix’ rather than shows and ‘listen to Spotify’ rather than songs?” Real Life Mag (h/t TheBrowser.com)

-- “The New Authoritarians Are Waging War on Women,” by Peter Beinart in the Jan./Feb. issue of the Atlantic: “Donald Trump’s ideological cousins around the world want to reverse the feminist gains of recent decades.” The Atlantic

-- “The Murder of Weekly Standard: An intellectual and political crime,” by John Podhoretz in Commentary Magazine: “There is no real reason we are witnessing the magazine’s demise other than deep pettiness and a personal desire for bureaucratic revenge on the part of a penny-ante Machiavellian who works for its parent company.” Commentary … Classics from the TWS archives: Matt Labash on Trump and the “Twidiocracy” ... Charles Krauthammer on IBM vs. Garry Kasparov and Andy Ferguson on the Beatles

-- “‘Guide to Advertising Technology,” by Elizabeth Anne Watkins in CJR – per TheBrowser.com’s description: “The main findings are almost all troubling. Advertising platforms drive down publishers’ revenues, skew news coverage, harvest users’ data, undermine trust, and blur the boundaries between editorial and advertising. They are opaque, parasitic, and ‘plagued’ with fraud.” CJR

-- “Your Tax Dollars Help Starve Children,” by NYT’s Nick Kristof in Aden, Yemen: “The Saudi war in Yemen has already lasted three years. Some 85,000 kids have died. And it’s all supported by America.” NYT

-- “GE Powered the American Century—Then It Burned Out,” by WSJ’s Thomas Gryta and Ted Mann: “How the company that was once America’s biggest, the maker of power turbines, the seller of insurance, the broadcaster of ‘Seinfeld,’ became a shadow of its former self.” WSJ



PLAYBOOKERS

SPOTTED at Matt and Mercy Schlapp’s Christmas party last night at their Alexandria house: Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Ashley Kavanaugh, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, Don and Shannon McGahn, Laura Ingraham, Stephen Miller, Bill Shine, Sarah and Bryan Sanders, Hogan Gidley, Lindsay Walters, Raj Shah, Julia Hahn, Adam Kennedy, Benny and Katelyn Johnson …

… Garrett and Ashley Marquis, Shahira Knight, Greta van Susteren and John Coale, Vince Coglianese, Mike Allen, Charmaine and Jack Yoest, Laura Schlapp, Mike Allen, Jonathan Hoffman, Kirk Marshall, Tony Sayegh, Gail Mackinnon, Scooter Libby, Katie Waldman, Ninio Fetalvo, Judd Deere and Weston Loyd.

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Jim Dornan, VP for business and policy development at 720 Strategies. A fun fact about Jim: “I lived in Mongolia for three months, a few years after the Wall fell, teaching the newly freed country about democracy for IRI. One of the most gratifying experiences of my life was watching people being able to worship for the very first time. Also, I spoke fluent Mongolian for a few years and can barely speak a word now.” Playbook Plus Q&A

BIRTHDAYS: Donna Brazile ... Andrew Cote, WH social aide to the

president and Marine Security Force Commander at WH Communications Agency ... Meridith Webster … Lauren French, comms director for Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) ... Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is 64 … Jeff Le … Matt Paul (hat tip: Ben Jenkins) ... David Adler, CEO of BizBash (h/t Tammy Haddad) ... Danyell Tremmel … Fox News’ Griff Jenkins is 48 ... POLITICO’s Bobby Moran and Isabel Dobrin ... Anna Jager … Heather Booth ... Erin Dwyer (h/ts Jon Haber) ... Bill Knapp of SKDKnickerbocker (h/ts Hilary Rosen and Kelley McCormick) ... Alison Omens ... Patrick Oakford ... Spike Mendelsohn is 38 ... Raquel Zaki ... Ruy Teixeira ... Emmanuel Chan ... Israel “Izzy” Ortega ... Deborah Koenigsberger ... Steve Duno ... Kristen Scholer, senior anchor at Cheddar ... former Amb. to Italy John Phillips is 76 …

… Ret. Gen. John R. Allen, now president of Brookings, is 65 (h/t Wendy Anderson) ... Tony Kreindler is 49 ... Jordan Richardson ... Lenny Young, COS for Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Calif.) ... Katie Hunt ... Gavin Ross … Google’s Frannie LaSala (h/t Riva Sciuto) ... Theana Kastens ... Diane Kepley ... Devon Kearns, who works in policy comms at Facebook ... Tara Corrigan, COO of the Messina Group (h/t Ty Matsdorf) ... Emily Pierce ... Rita Lenane ... Sarah Sullivan ... Abby Matousek ... Jimmy LaSalvia is 48 ... Julie Winkelman ... Mark Siedlecki ... Schuyler Softy ... Mark Patterson ... Andy Polesovsky ... Jan Eberly ... Brian Haley ... Karen Hicks ... Tim Dickson is 61 ... Carson Pfingston ... Maggie Brickerman ... Laura Nevitt ... Tanya Bjork ... Maggie Gau (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)

THE SHOWS, by @MattMackowiak, filing from Austin:



CBS “Face the Nation”: Stephen Miller ... Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) … Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) … Lanny Davis … Trevor Potter ... Paula Reid. Panel: Ben Domenech, Kelsey Snell, Margaret Talev and Ed Wong

NBC “Meet the Press”: New NBC News/WSJ poll ... Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) ... Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) … Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) ... Julián Castro. Panel: David Brody, Eliana Johnson, Gene Robinson and Katy Tur

ABC “This Week”: Rudy Giuliani … Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) ... Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Panel: Peter Baker, Molly Ball, Roland Martin and Matt Schlapp

CNN “State of the Union”: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) ... Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). Panel: Amanda Carpenter, Bakari Sellers, David Urban and Jen Psaki

Fox “Fox News Sunday”: Bill Gates … Rudy Giuliani. Panel: Brit Hume, Julie Pace, former Marc Short and Juan Williams

CNN “Inside Politics”: Panel: Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Abby Phillip, Josh Dawsey and Rachael Bade

Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures”: Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) … Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) … Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) … Michael Mukasey. Panel: Steve Moore and Art Laffer

Fox News “MediaBuzz”: Emily Jashinsky … Susan Ferrechio … Capri Cafaro … Jim Geraghty … Adrienne Elrod

CNN “Fareed Zakaria GPS”: Panel: Zanny Minton Beddoes and David Miliband (“Rescue: Refugees and the Political Crisis of Our Time”) … David Sanger … Charles Duhigg … Ray Dalio

CNN “Reliable Sources”: Panel: Joan Walsh, Matt Lewis and Will Bunch … Olivia Nuzzi and Oliver Darcy … Edward Felsenthal

Univision “Al Punto”: Current and former workers at Trump National Golf Club Victorina Morales and Sandra Diaz and attorney Anibal Romero … Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) … Father José Eugenio Hoyos … “Roma” director Alfonso Cuarón … former Peru VP Raúl Diez Canseco

C-SPAN “The Communicators”: Ajit Pai, questioned by Margaret Harding McGill … “Newsmakers”: Brock Long, questioned by Ron Nixon and Camila DeChalus … “Q&A”: author and the University of London’s Sarah Churchwell (“Behold America”)

MSNBC “Kasie DC”: Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) … Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) … Lanny Davis … Marc Lotter … Julia Ioffe … Matt Viser … Sam Stein … Shawna Thomas… Kimberly Atkins … Clint Watts … Joyce Vance … Julia Ainsley

Washington Times “Mack on Politics” weekly politics podcast with Matt Mackowiak (download on iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher or listen at MackOnPolitics.com): Alistair Campbell.

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Follow us on Twitter Anna Palmer @apalmerdc



Jake Sherman @JakeSherman