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Presented by Mastercard: Tomorrow’s conversation, tonight. Know where the news is going next. | | | | | |  | | By Elana Schor | | | With help from Tyler Weyant
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Sen. Joe Manchin is followed by reporters as he leaves a caucus meeting with Senate Democrats at the U.S. Capitol Building. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images | WATCH ME PULL A BILL OUT OF THIS HAT — Magical thinking has a multitude of definitions in psychology, but at its root is the belief in connections that aren’t there: that one’s thoughts or actions have the power to change objective reality, for example. And Democrats have had, in 2021, a year of magical thinking (with apologies to Joan Didion and her masterful memoir). Regardless of how the majority of Joe Manchin’s party feels about his continued presence in their ranks — and he’s offered to leave it if his colleagues want him to — the West Virginian conveyed in every way possible that he wouldn’t back the House-passed social spending bill before he squashed it Sunday. Manchin said in September he didn’t favor the creation of a large number of new programs in the bill that would expire after only a few years, a political dare to make them permanent. The House-passed bill went that way regardless. Then, when Manchin pointedly declined to endorse the framework for the bill in November, it came after a weekend of texts from House progressives pushing him. “He was mad because members kept asking him for more s---,” one Senate Democratic colleague told us of Manchin, insisting on anonymity. And Manchin said last week that he wanted to see the expanded child tax credit permanently extended, rather than the yearlong reprieve it got in the House-passed social spending bill. He’s also previously indicated his interest in adding work requirements or other means-test-like conditions to the credit, though that wrinkle reemerged today as if it were new. In other words: Manchin’s objections to the bill were unsurprising, even as his decision to announce that he was finished negotiating landed as pretty startling in a Washington already accustomed to Democrats’ thinking. His more liberal colleagues believed they could change Manchin, that they could exert outsized power over him by wishing it were so. Their assumption proved fanciful; but as we report tonight, progressives aren’t reconciling themselves to trimming their agenda because of their inability to influence Manchin. Instead, they’re arguing that they can work around him and get President Joe Biden to use executive actions to enact some of what Manchin nixed. Democratic leaders have persisted in believing their intense focus on writing the most progressive-leaning climate and social spending bill possible would muscle it through the 50-50 Senate, past Manchin’s clearly stated opposition. They’re engaging in similar magical thinking about their elections and voting bill, letting their belief in its existential necessity blur the reality that it lacks a path to passage without filibuster reform that Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have said they do not support. The party is now left with a simple choice: Continue the magical thinking in the hopes that Manchin and the colleagues who may align with him on one or multiple priorities can be worn down by it, or embrace a more realistic perspective that involves further compromise. The furious Democratic base might prefer the first course of action. The odds of getting serious legislative wins next year will jump higher with the second one. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. A programming note: Nightly won’t publish from Friday, Dec. 24-Friday, Dec. 31. But don’t fret: We’ll be back and better than ever on Monday, Jan. 3. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at eschor@politico.com, or on Twitter at @eschor.
| | | | A message from Mastercard: Holiday cheer is in the air and shoppers are returning to stores in force, including millions of small businesses across America. Mastercard SpendingPulse data shows that total retail sales are up nearly 30% compared to last year. By empowering small businesses with digital payment solutions, data insights and the tools to operate more efficiently, Mastercard is committed to helping them during this holiday season, and thrive in the future. | | | | | | — Omicron now the dominant Covid strain in U.S., CDC says: The highly transmissible Omicron variant has rapidly taken hold in the United States and now accounts for nearly three-quarters of new Covid-19 cases nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . CDC estimates today showed that Omicron accounted for an estimated 73.2 percent of U.S. cases surveilled between Dec. 12 and 18, with the Delta variant now accounting for 26.6 percent of cases. Between Dec. 5 and Dec. 11, Omicron accounted for just 12.6 percent of U.S. cases, the agency estimated. — Biden and Manchin speak: Manchin and Biden spoke Sunday night after a major blowup in negotiations around the president’s domestic agenda , two people familiar with the call told POLITICO. The conversation ended with a sense that negotiations would, in fact, resume around the Build Back Better act in some form in the new year. White House staff had given Manchin a heads-up Thursday that the president was soon to put out a statement accepting a delay in the Build Back Better Act and that it was going to mention the West Virginia senator by name. Manchin objected, asking that either his name be left or that he not be alone because his family had already been the target of abuse and he didn’t want to be singled out.
| | | | POLITICO TECH AT CES 2022 - We are bringing a special edition of the POLITICO Tech newsletter to CES 2022. Written by Alexandra Levine and John Hendel, the newsletter will take you inside the most influential technology event on the planet, featuring every major and emerging industry in the technology ecosystem gathered together in one place. The newsletter runs from Jan. 5-7 and will focus on the public policy related aspects of the gathering. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage of the Summit. | | | | | — Trump says he received vaccine booster: Former President Donald Trump said he received a Covid-19 booster shot, revealing the news to former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly on Sunday during one of their “History Tour” live events . O’Reilly also confirmed he received a booster shot, though neither said which one they received. The crowd began to boo Trump after he said he had gotten his booster shot, though the former president discouraged the jeers. — Pentagon issues rules aimed at stopping rise of extremism: Warning that extremism in the ranks is increasing, Pentagon officials are issuing detailed new rules prohibiting service members from actively engaging in extremist activities. The new guidelines come nearly a year after some current and former service members participated in the riot at the U.S. Capitol, triggering a broad department review. Senior defense officials tell the Associated Press that fewer than 100 military members are known to have been involved in substantiated cases of extremist activity in the past year, but they warn that the number may grow given recent spikes in domestic violent extremism, particularly among veterans.
| | | |   | | | — Maryland’s Hogan announces positive Covid test: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced today he had tested positive for Covid-19, the latest in a string of high-profile public officials to have been infected as case rates escalate nationwide . “This morning, as part of my regular testing routine, I received a positive rapid test for COVID-19,” Hogan, a Republican, wrote on Twitter. “I have been vaccinated and boosted, and I am feeling fine at the moment.” — Alex Jones sues Jan. 6 committee, indicates plan to plead the Fifth: Pro-Trump broadcaster and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is suing the Jan. 6 select committee to block the panel from obtaining his phone records and compelling his testimony at a deposition next month. In the suit, Jones says he intends to assert his Fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination — confirming a statement he made on his show — and that the committee rejected his offer to provide “written responses” to their questions.
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The Davos Congress Centre, center, prepared for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2020. | AP Photo/Markus Schreiber | DAVOS HEADS ONLINE AGAIN — The World Economic Forum in Davos will go virtual for the second year in a row, amid the surge of Covid-19 cases in Europe and fears about the Omicron variant, organizers of the event announced today. “Current pandemic conditions make it extremely difficult to deliver a global in-person meeting,” the WEF said in a release. Instead, participants will join a headline series of "State of the World" sessions, bringing together global leaders online to focus on shaping solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges, Jules Darmanin and Johanna Treeck write. The forum was supposed to take place from Jan. 17-21 in the Swiss ski resort town. The full annual meeting, with in-person attendance, is now scheduled to take place in early summer. The annual meeting is a gathering of the world’s rich and powerful. The meeting has repeatedly come under fire, most recently because participants pay lip service to fighting climate change while flying in with private jets and helicopters.
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With the statue of U.S. Navy Adm. David Farragut looming above, a man is tested for Covid-19 at a free testing site in the square named for the Civil War admiral famous for saying, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead," in Washington, D.C. | THE ESSENTIALS — Nightly deputy editor Tyler Weyant emails: In an article by Ashish Jha in The Atlantic this weekend, titled “Don’t Panic About Omicron. But Don’t Be Indifferent, Either,” the dean of the Brown School of Public Health used a phrase that caught my eye as he talked about making choices during the pandemic: “... seeing friends and family? That is essential, and we should feel comfortable celebrating with our nearest and dearest these holidays — as long as everyone eligible is vaccinated and boosted, and uses rapid testing as an additional layer of protection.” Essential . It’s a word we’ve carried with us for the past two years. We learned which industries were considered essential to keeping our economy running. We celebrated doctors and nurses and grocery store workers and delivery drivers for the essential work they do for all of us. But “essential” and how we use it has evolved with the pandemic. The coming week will be a test of how we see the word now, how essential we feel the rituals of the holidays are, how essential seeing that friend who’s been having a rough time is. The things that were considered essential in the first year of the pandemic were easily counted: We closely tracked cases and hospitalizations and deaths, while also measuring how our country’s economic health was holding up. And while monitoring the twin curves of the economy and the virus is still critically important, it’s also crucial that we not forget about the essential parts of our lives that are less quantifiable. We need to repair our economy and reinforce our health care system. But the way to a better future after the worst of the Covid pandemic recedes must also include an understanding that everyone needs to be around other people, to socialize and to simply be a human being who belongs to a society, even if such things are much harder to count. Yes, it is also essential that we try to keep our families and friends safe, secure and supported with the latest data and advice. But public health and governmental officials need to include one more essential feature in their decision making, perhaps most important at this time of year: The essential need to be together.
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