POLITICO Playbook: We have a deal

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DRIVING THE DAY

LATE SATURDAY NIGHT, Republicans and Democrats came to an agreement on Sen. PAT TOOMEY’S (R-Pa.) language to limit the Fed’s emergency lending programs -- and this will clear a path to a vote on a spending and Covid relief deal as soon as today. This deal is eight months in the making.

REPUBLICANS SAY Democrats folded … From DOUG ANDRES of Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL’S office: “Now that Democrats have agreed to a version of Senator Toomey’s important language, we can begin closing out the rest of the package to deliver much-needed relief to families, workers, and businesses.”

DEMS SAY say Republicans folded … From a Dem aide: “After going back and forth all day with Leader Schumer, Senator Toomey has agreed to drop the broad language in his proposal that would have prevented the Fed chair from establishing similar facilities in the future to the ones created in March. Compromise language is being finalized and, now that this obstacle has been cleared, a final agreement on an emergency relief package is significantly closer.”

GREAT, if both sides can say they got what they want, we’re in good shape! Read Burgess Everett and Andrew Desiderio … NYT’s Emily Cochrane and Jeanna Smialek’s late-night version … WaPo’s version, by Mike DeBonis, Jeff Stein and Rachel Siegel

NOW, who will vote to pass this thing? Liberals may say they didn’t like the size of the direct payments or they may grip about the lack of state and local aid, and conservatives may gripe that there are direct payments at all. There will be people who say they had one day to read a $2.3 trillion package. But this thing should clear both chambers pretty easily on the back of a broad coalition.

THE HOUSE will vote today on the Covid relief and government funding package, the leadership announced this morning. It will probably come late in the day.

BTW: Hate to be a party pooper, but we haven’t heard President DONALD TRUMP really weigh in on this package yet. Shortly after midnight, he tweeted: “Why isn’t Congress giving our people a Stimulus Bill? It wasn’t their fault, it was the fault of China. GET IT DONE, and give them more money in direct payments.” More than what? Before, or more than currently planned?

THE GHOST IN THE WHITE HOUSE …

-- WAPO’S YASMEEN ABUTALEB, ASHLEY PARKER, JOSH DAWSEY and PHIL RUCKER: “The inside story of how Trump’s denial, mismanagement and magical thinking led to the pandemic’s dark winter”

-- NYT’S JONATHAN MARTIN and ALEX BURNS: “A President Who Can’t Put Aside Grudges, Even for Good News”: “It was among the most consequential weeks of President Trump’s tenure: Across the country, health care workers began receiving a lifesaving coronavirus vaccine. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers neared a deal on economic relief aimed at averting a deeper recession. And on Friday, federal regulators authorized a second vaccine.

“Yet Mr. Trump was largely absent from those events. It was Vice President Mike Pence who held a call with governors on Monday to hail a ‘medical miracle,’ and who received the Pfizer vaccine at week’s end on live television. Legislative leaders were the ones working late into the nights on a stimulus deal.

“All the while Mr. Trump was conducting a Twitter-borne assault on Republicans for not helping him overturn the election results, even warning Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, to ‘get tougher, or you won’t have a Republican Party anymore.’ By this weekend, the president was considering naming a conspiracy theorist as special counsel to investigate voting fraud, for which there’s no evidence, asking his advisers about instituting martial law and downplaying a massive hack his own secretary of state attributed to Russia.

“Seldom has the leader of an American political party done so much to strike fear into the hearts of his allies, but done so little to tackle challenges facing the country during his final days in office. Far from presenting the vaccine breakthroughs from Pfizer and Moderna as testaments to private-sector ingenuity and innovation — once a conservative creed — he was fixated on menacing Republicans who might dare to acknowledge Joseph R. Biden Jr. as president-elect.”

-- CASE IN POINT … NYT’S MAGGIE HABERMAN and ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS: “Trump Weighed Naming Election Conspiracy Theorist as Special Counsel”

-- WSJ: “Amid Vaccine Rollout and Historic Hack, Trump Remains Focused on Reversing Election,” by Rebecca Ballhaus, Alex Leary and Dustin Volz: “[T]he president and first lady Melania Trump have shown signs of wistfulness about the prospect of leaving the White House. The president told advisers before the couple canceled their traditional Thanksgiving trip to Florida that it would be their last chance to celebrate the holiday at the White House. In a recent get-together in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump began filling up bags with White House trinkets for his visitors, telling them he didn’t know what to do with the items, according to a person briefed on the meeting.”

Happy Sunday.

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-Utah) to CHUCK TODD on NBC’S “MEET THE PRESS”: “I’m not going to psychoanalyze the president. But I think he feels that anything that suggests that Russia is being malevolent or not treating him with the respect he deserves, why, he obviously backs away from that. He doesn’t want to recognize Russia as the problem they are and the extraordinarily bad actor they are on the world stage. Because it reflects poorly on him, at least perhaps in his own mind.

“AND THE REALITY IS Russia really is a geopolitical adversary. They go against us on every front. They have now invaded our cyberspace again. They kill people in their own country, whether it’s politicians or media people. And we have to recognize, you know, we made -- I made fun of Hillary Clinton saying that we would have a reset with Russia. We’ve got the same problem in this administration, which is we’ve not been serious enough at the very top about how damaging an adversary Russia can be.”

ROMNEY to JAKE TAPPER on CNN’S “STATE OF THE UNION”: “[I]t’s really sad, in a lot of respects, and embarrassing, because the president could right now be writing the last chapter of this administration with a victory lap with regards to the vaccine. After all, he pushed aggressively to get the vaccine developed and distributed. That’s happening on a quick time frame.

“He could be going out and championing this extraordinary success. And, instead, he’s leaving Washington with a whole series of conspiracy theories and things that are so nutty and loopy that people are shaking their head, wondering, what in the world has gotten into this man? And I think that’s unfortunate, because he has more accomplishments than this last chapter suggests he’s going to be known for.”

ADM. BRETT GIROIR on ABC’S “THIS WEEK”: “We are very confident that, by June, anyone in America who wants to have a vaccine will have that opportunity to have a vaccine.” …

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: “Would it help if President Trump took the vaccine in public?”

GIROIR: “Well, I think any leader who is influential over groups of individuals should have the vaccine. First of all, I believe everyone at risk or who is very important coming up, obviously the President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris, the president.

“But, yes, I think leadership like the vice president, the surgeon general, you know, should get vaccines because they will inspire confidence in -- with the people who believe in them and trust them. And again, we have every reason to believe that this vaccine, these two vaccines, are very effective and they are safe. So, you know, I would encourage the president to get a vaccine for his own health and safety and also to generate more confidence among the people who follow him so closely.”

VIVEK MURTHY on NBC’S “MEET THE PRESS”: “I think that, you know, in -- if we, if everything goes well, then we may see a circumstance where by late spring, you know, people who are in lower-risk categories can get this vaccine, but that would really require everything to go exactly on schedule. I think it’s more realistic to assume that it may be closer to mid-summer or early fall when this vaccine makes its way to the general population. So we want to be optimistic, but we want to be cautious as well.”

JEN PSAKI to CHRIS WALLACE on “FOX NEWS SUNDAY” on TRUMP attending the inauguration: “I would say it’s not on the top 10 list of priorities or focus at this point in time. Chris, as you know, and you covered many transitions and I’ve been a part of transitions myself, this is not a traditional transition.”

REP. AYANNA PRESSLEY (D-Mass.) to ABBY PHILLIP on CNN’S “INSIDE POLITICS”: “We have to get urgent relief to our families. Again, at this point, these are not stimulus checks. They’re stimulating nothing. These are survival checks. This is about basic needs, about families needing to remain safely housed, about purchasing diapers and formula, inhalers, insulin. And the truth of the matter is $600 will not even cover a month’s rent.”

WHAT AMERICA IS READING … THE NATION’S FRONTS: Arizona Republic: “Trying to track down 628 parents: Advocates aid migrant kids separated from families” … S.F. Chronicle: “Hospitals may be pushed past breaking point” … San Jose Mercury News: “Basic vaccine questions still go unanswered despite rollout” …

… Tampa Bay Times: “Live events showing life: Concerts return to Tampa Bay as struggling venues await government relief” … Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “In runoffs, ground game calls for bringing A-game” … Cincinnati Enquirer: “Rep. Davidson’s profile is rising in Ohio GOP”

NATIONAL FRONTS: WaPo … NYT

QUOTE OF THE DAY … Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY to the NYT’S ANDREW KRAMER: “‘Joe Biden, it seems to me, knows Ukraine better than the previous president,’ Mr. Zelensky said in his first interview with an American news organization since the election. ‘Before his presidency, he had close ties to Ukraine, and he understands the Russians well, he understands the difference between Ukraine and Russia, and, it seems to me, he understands the Ukrainian mentality,’ Mr. Zelensky said. ‘It will really help strengthen relations, help settle the war in Donbas and end the occupation of our territory. The United States can help.’”

YOUR WEEKLY PAUL KANE COLUMN … WAPO: “There’s little love lost among the Hill’s top leaders. Can Biden get them to work together?”

THE PRESIDENT’S SUNDAY: Nothing on Trump’s schedule.

PRESIDENT-ELECT JOE BIDEN will meet with transition advisers today.

PLAYBOOK READS

NYT’S MIKE SHEAR and MICHAEL CROWLEY: “Biden Cabinet Leans Centrist, Leaving Some Liberals Frustrated”

ELENA SCHNEIDER and JAMES ARKIN: “GOP winning the Georgia ad war as Dems shift money to ground game”: “Republicans hold an overall advertising advantage across the state, largely fueled by $86 million in outside spending supporting their candidates, compared to just $30 million spent by Democratic outside groups on TV advertising so far, according to AdImpact. Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are hauling in record small-dollar cash, far ahead of GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler — but not enough to own the airwaves.”

-- AJC: “Trump to return to Georgia on runoff eve for GOP Senate candidates,” by Greg Bluestein

IN MEMORIAM -- MISSISSIPPI TODAY: “William Winter, former Mississippi governor who ushered in education reform, dies at 97”: “Known as Mississippi’s Education Governor, Winter secured passage of landmark educational initiatives in 1982 bringing kindergartens, compulsory school attendance, and a range of other key reforms to a state plagued by poverty and illiteracy. During his remarkable 75 years of public service, Winter linked education with economic development in the nation’s poorest state.”

PLAYBOOKERS

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BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS. What she’s reading: “Perhaps it is the times, but I have found a number of books to be especially moving this year. I am now reading ‘The Beauty in Breaking’ by Michele Harper. From the impact of systemic racism to the realities of the emergency room, Michele Harper’s powerful memoir is a reminder of the resilience of the human spirit, the capacity for empathy and the opportunity to heal oneself by helping others.” Playbook Q&A

BIRTHDAYS: Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is 74 … John Frick of the White House is 46 … Jen Bendery, senior politics reporter for HuffPost … Murray Waas ... Joshua New, technology policy executive at IBM ... Susan Neely, president and CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers … POLITICO’s John Yearwood … AP’s Mary Clare Jalonick ... Patrick Sims, founder and CSO at LGND, is 36 … Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter ... Megan Nathan ... Mandi Rogers Thorpe ... Bo Creason ... Campbell Massie ... David Pollak ...

… Hannah Thoburn of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee … Amelia Burns is 31 … Hilary Nachem Loewenstein of Bully Pulpit Interactive … Michelle Brooks … Alison Williams, COS to Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson … Brooke Goldstein, executive director of the Lawfare Project … Tamer El-Ghobashy … brothers Reid Kellam and Alex DeParde … former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) … former Sen. Jean Carnahan (D-Mo.) is 87 … Ingrid Sophia Lyndgaard Smith … Wesley Merritt … Donald Lathbury … Marisa Mills … Bill Kloiber