The GOP leadership scramble comes to the RNC

From: POLITICO Playbook PM - Monday Nov 14,2022 07:06 pm

Nov 14, 2022

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Republican National Committee chairman Ronna McDaniel speaks during a Get Out To Vote rally Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022, in Tampa, Fla.

Ronna McDaniel will seek to retain her post as RNC chair. | Chris O'Meara/AP Photo

BREAKING — “Federal appeals court blocks Biden student debt relief program nationwide,” by CNBC’s Annie Nova and Dan Mangan

JUST PUBLISHED — “McDaniel to run for another term as RNC chair,” by Alex Isenstadt: During a Monday call with members of the Republican National Committee, Chair RONNA McDANIEL signaled “that she plans to run for reelection as party chair, which would set her up to lead the RNC through the 2024 presidential election.”

— ICYMI: “Rep. Zeldin taking supporters’ calls about running for RNC chair, longtime adviser says,” by NBC’s Jonathan Allen

ELECTION UPDATE — “‘I don’t think we’re going to make it’: Democrats' hopes for House majority dim,” by Zach Montellaro

*EYES EMOJI* — House GOP Leader KEVIN McCARTHY got an unexpected vote of confidence from Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.), who said this morning on STEVE BANNON’s “War Room” show that it was a “risky” and “bad strategy” for any House Republicans to mount a challenge to the longtime leader given that the GOP is likely to only hold a slim majority once the midterm results finally shake out. ( h/t CNN’s Melanie Zanona )

— @Olivia_Beavers : “Rep. DON BACON, Mainstreet GOP Co-chair, on HFC motion to vacate push: ‘I will oppose the proposed changes to “vacate the chair” rules. With a small majority we cannot afford to weaken the future Speaker. We need to be able to govern and not build the GOP on a house of cards.’”

— On the other side of the Capitol, Sen. MARCO RUBIO (R-Fla.) continued his push to delay the Senate GOP leadership election: “We should not have a Senate GOP leadership vote until we have a clear explanation for why our 2022 campaign efforts failed AND until we have a clear understanding of the political & policy direction for the GOP Senate moving forward.”

HE SAID, XI SAID — President JOE BIDEN met with Chinese President XI JINPING earlier today in a closely watched confab during which Biden said the two leaders were “candid and clear with one another across the board.”

While the meeting did not yield a massive breakthrough, our colleague Jonathan Lemire writes from Bali, Indonesia , that simply “meeting at all was seen as an important step toward deescalation.”

— The White House readout: “President Biden underscored that the United States and China must work together to address transnational challenges — such as climate change, global macroeconomic stability including debt relief, health security, and global food security — because that is what the international community expects. The two leaders agreed to empower key senior officials to maintain communication and deepen constructive efforts on these and other issues.” Read the full statement

Perhaps the clearest divide that remained after the meeting came on Taiwan. While the White House said Biden expressed concern over China’s aggressive position toward Taiwan, the Chinese readout said: “Anyone that seeks to split Taiwan from China will be violating the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation; the Chinese people will absolutely not let that happen!” (Exclamation point theirs.)

Afterward, Biden spoke to reporters and took a few questions. Some highlights:

On China: “I absolutely believe there need not be a new cold war. We’re going to compete vigorously, but we’re not looking for conflict. We’re going to manage this competition responsibly.”

On Xi: “I didn’t find him more confrontational or conciliatory. I found him the way he’s always been: direct and straightforward.”

On abortion rights: “I don’t think there’s enough votes to codify [Roe v. Wade], unless something unusual happens in the House,” he said, per CNN’s Betsy Klein .

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MORE MIDTERMS FALLOUT

KNIVES OUT — Some of MITCH McCONNELL and RICK SCOTT’s top lieutenants are jumping into the sparring between the two GOP leaders’ camps with frank assessments of the opposing side as Republicans continue to sort out how they lost out on the Senate majority despite a political environment that offered them a clear path, WSJ’s Lindsay Wise writes .

In McConnell’s corner: “JOSH HOLMES , a Republican strategist who previously served as chief of staff to Mr. McConnell, said Mr. Scott made errors in strategy and fundraising in running the campaign arm and accused Mr. Scott of falling short in communicating and consulting with fellow senators. ‘It was run basically as a Rick Scott super PAC, where they didn’t want or need to input any Republican senators whatsoever,’ Mr. Holmes said of the NRSC. ‘That's a huge break from recent history where members have been pretty intimately involved.’”

In Scott’s corner: “ CHRIS HARTLINE, an NRSC spokesman, said Mr. McConnell’s allies, who run the Senate Leadership Fund super PAC, spent months undermining the ability of the NRSC and Republican Senate campaigns to raise money by ‘constantly trashing our candidates publicly and privately, and telling donors not to give to us or our campaigns.’ … CURT ANDERSON , a political adviser to Mr. Scott, said that Republicans’ failure to retake the majority belongs to everyone: SLF, the NRSC, the Republican leader, the candidates and the party. ‘But insecure small people never accept responsibility for failure,’ Mr. Anderson said.”

REID ’EM AND WEEP — WaPo’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Paul Kane report from Las Vegas on how the “Reid machine” — the political operation in Nevada built by the late HARRY REID — took on “Team Mitch” to hold Democrats afloat in Nevada against all odds: “The victories this year provided a psychic boost to the former Senate majority leader’s alumni in Nevada in a race that played out like a political soap opera. The candidates served as proxy stand-ins for old foes, several of whom have been dead for years but whose influence lives on.”

CONGRESS

COMING THIS WEEK — “The Senate will vote to codify same-sex marriage rights this week,” by Semafor’s Kadia Goba: “This legislation, which has already passed the House of Representatives with 47 Republicans joining Democrats, would federalize same sex marriage recognition and protection if the Supreme Court reverses itself on same sex marriage rights. … Democrats postponed the vote to keep midterm politics out of sensitive negotiations, but bringing it up this week means it could still play a role in the Georgia Senate runoff on December 6 between Senator Ralph Warnock and Herschel Walker.”

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JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH

SCOTUS WATCH — “Supreme Court allows Jan. 6 committee to access Arizona GOP chair’s phone records,” by Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein: “The justices, with noted opposition from CLARENCE THOMAS and SAMUEL ALITO, denied [Arizona GOP Chair KELLI] WARD’s emergency motion to block the panel from enforcing a subpoena against T-Mobile to obtain Ward’s records. The panel is seeking evidence related to Ward’s coordination with [ DONALD] TRUMP and his allies to assemble a slate of fake presidential electors intended to help disrupt the transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2021. Ward, who served as one of those pro-Trump electors, pleaded the Fifth when interviewed by the panel in March.”

TRUMP CARDS

THE ‘SHELL GAME’ — “Justice Department accuses Trump of ‘shell game’ with Mar-a-Lago documents,” by Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein: “Former President Donald Trump mischaracterized White House documents he retained after leaving office as ‘personal,’ the Justice Department argued in a newly unsealed court filing, accusing Trump of engaging in a ‘shell game’ to shield documents from criminal investigators. In the filing, unsealed Monday by U.S. District Court Judge AILEEN CANNON, prosecutors contended Trump has sought to restrict investigators’ access to materials — seized by the FBI in August from his Mar-a-Lago estate — by inappropriately claiming they’re his personal property.”

SPENDING SPREE — “Documents Detail Foreign Government Spending at Trump Hotel,” by NYT’s Luke Broadwater and Eric Lipton: “Officials from six nations spent more than $750,000 at former President Donald J. Trump’s hotel in Washington when they were seeking to influence his administration, renting rooms for more than $10,000 per night, according to documents that his former accounting firm turned over to Congress.

“The governments of Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and China spent more money than previously known at the Trump International Hotel at crucial times in 2017 and 2018 for those countries’ relations with the United States, according to the documents, which were obtained by the House Oversight Committee and released on Monday.”

THE PANDEMIC

THE NEW NORMAL? — “As the Pandemic Drags On, Americans Struggle for New Balance,” by NYT’s Roni Caryn Rabin: “While deaths have plummeted since the beginning of the year, about 315 Americans are still dying of Covid on the average day. This year’s toll has so far exceeded 219,000. More than 27,000 Americans with Covid are in hospitals on any given day, and an uncertain number face lingering complications, so-called long Covid. Declines in test positivity and hospitalization are flattening, hinting at a possible reversal.”

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TALES FROM THE CRYPTO — “FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried Sit in the Crosshairs of U.S. Prosecutors,” by WSJ’s Dave Michaels: “The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office is investigating FTX’s collapse, according to people familiar with the matter. One focus for prosecutors, at least initially, is likely to be examining reports that FTX lent customer funds to Alameda Research, a crypto-trading firm that traded on FTX and other exchanges. FTX founder SAM BANKMAN-FRIED, who resigned as chief executive on Friday, also founded and owns Alameda Research.”

AP INVESTIGATION — “DEA’s most corrupt agent: Parties, sex amid ‘unwinnable war,’” by Jim Mustian and Joshua Goodman in San Juan, Puerto Rico

WAR IN UKRAINE

THE VIEW FROM UKRAINE — “Visiting liberated Kherson, Zelensky sees ‘beginning of the end of the war,’” by WaPo’s Michael Miller, Anastacia Galouchka and Kamila Hrabchuk: “Standing in the central square of Kherson in front of a raucous crowd of several hundred people, [Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY] said Western-supplied weapons played a crucial role in recent battlefield victories but that the victories were paid for in Ukrainian blood.”

THE VIEW FROM RUSSIA — “Fighting-age men in Russia are still hiding in fear of being sent to war,” by WaPo’s Mary Ilyushina

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AMERICA AND THE WORLD

HEADS UP — “CIA Director Bill Burns meeting with Russian counterpart Monday,” by CNN’s Natasha Bertrand: “CIA Director BILL BURNS is meeting with his Russian intelligence counterpart, SERGEY NARYSHKIN, in Ankara Monday as part of an ongoing effort by the US to ‘communicate with Russia on managing risk’ and to discuss the cases of ‘unjustly detained U.S. citizens,’ a National Security Council spokesperson tells CNN.”

FOR YOUR RADAR — “Turkey Accuses U.S. of Complicity in Istanbul Attack That Killed 6,” by NYT’s Ben Hubbard and Safak Timur: “The Turkish authorities arrested a woman on Monday they suspect was behind the deadly bombing in central Istanbul a day earlier, saying she had been sent to Turkey from Syria by Kurdish militants to carry out the attack. … Turkey accused the United States of complicity in the attack because America has long maintained a military partnership with a Kurdish-led militia in Syria.”

THE SHIPPING SITUATION — “What One Importer’s Legal Fight Says About the Power of Cargo Giants,” by NYT’s Peter Goodman: “The Biden administration has vowed to crack down on abuses by ocean carriers. But cases at the Federal Maritime Commission reveal the challenges of the campaign.”

VALLEY TALK

LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS — “Jeff Bezos says he will give most of his money to charity,” by CNN’s Brian Fung: “Amazon founder JEFF BEZOS plans to give away the majority of his $124 billion net worth during his lifetime, telling CNN in an exclusive interview he will devote the bulk of his wealth to fighting climate change and supporting people who can unify humanity in the face of deep social and political divisions. Though Bezos’ vow was light on specifics, this marks the first time he has announced that he plans to give away most of his money.”

MEANWHILE — “Amazon Is Said to Plan to Lay Off Thousands of Employees,” by NYT’s Karen Weise

PLAYBOOKERS

MEDIA MOVE — Sam Stein is now POLITICO’s deputy managing editor for politics, leading 2024 election strategy. He was previously White House editor. Read the announcement

TRANSITION — Maggie Woodin is now manager of federal affairs for the Great Lakes Region at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She was most recently legislative director for Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.).