The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by ExxonMobil – Will Virginia’s election set midterms script?

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Total U.S. coronavirus deaths as of this morning: 745,836. Globally, confirmed fatalities from COVID-19 surpassed a sobering 5 million today, with no end in sight (The Associated Press).

 

As of this morning, 66.6 percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 57.9 percent is fully vaccinated, according to the Bloomberg News global vaccine tracker.

A whole lot is riding on Tuesday’s gubernatorial election in Virginia, including President Biden’s political aura, perhaps his legislative agenda, and the playbooks Democrats and Republicans may follow in next year’s midterms and in the presidential race three years from now.

 

Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a former Virginia governor, will learn if he was wise to try to lash Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin, a newcomer to politics, to former President Trump while banking on Biden as a net plus. And Youngkin will learn if he was savvy to try to sidestep Trump while capitalizing on the culture wars, including parents’ say-so over public school curricula.

 

The candidates and political analysts are poring over late-breaking polls this morning. Youngkin was a hair ahead of McAuliffe on Saturday, according to the FiveThirtyEight tracker. The RealClearPolitics average also showed Youngkin slightly ahead.  

 

What is clearer this morning is the extent to which Biden’s national job approval has plummeted one year after he defeated Trump. A majority of Americans disapprove of his performance as president and give him low marks for competence and on uniting the country, and Democrats now trail Republicans on which party better handles the economy, inflation and immigration, while the majority party has lost ground on issues such as education and response to the coronavirus (NBC News).

 

Asked on Sunday about his sinking standing in polls a year before midterm elections, Biden told reporters at the end of the Group of 20 (G-20) summit in Rome that fulfilling his campaign pledges is more important than survey results.  

 

Flashback: When Biden’s numbers were better earlier this year, the White House routinely noted polling in pushing its agenda, most notably on the COVID-19 bill that the president signed into law. 

 

On Sunday, McAuliffe argued during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Virginia voters do not ask him questions about the legislative situation in Washington but instead want to know about his views when it comes to pandemic responses. “COVID is on their mind. The economy is on their mind,” he said, pointing to what he said were his job creation and income achievements for Virginians during his past term as governor.

 

McAuliffe accused his opponent of denigrating Virginia’s teachers, whom he hailed as “real heroes” during the pandemic. Asked if Youngkin transformed education into a winning issue at the close of his campaign, McAuliffe said his opponent raised critical race theory as a “racist dog whistle” in a state in which the subject is not taught in public schools. He accused the Republican of “pitting parents against parents, parents against teachers, and they’re using children as political pawns.”

 

The Wall Street Journal: Tight race for Virginia governor tests dueling party strategies.

 

 

 

 

The Hill’s Reid Wilson reports on a landmark survey today that shows authoritarian and anti-democratic trends rising in this country, while a disturbing number of Americans view political violence as a viable solution.

 

The Hill: Virginia is set to elect its first woman of color as lieutenant governor.

 

NJ.com: Gov. Phil Murphy (D) leads in New Jersey’s gubernatorial contest on Tuesday.

 

NPR, Ron Elving: Here’s why the other 48 states care who is governor of Virginia and New Jersey.

 

WUSA 9: Remember Trump’s planned tele-rally today to urge Virginia voters to head to the polls? On Sunday, the organizer said an exact time for the telephone speech remained unknown. Youngkin stressed he is not involved in the former president’s plans.

 

 

 

 

The Virginia gubernatorial contest might not be the only vulnerability at the moment for Democrats. Female voters could turn their backs on the party if the slimmed-down Build Back Better plan passes. It no longer includes a key priority touted by progressives: an expansion of paid family and medical leave. 

 

As The Hill’s Morgan Chalfant and Amie Parnes note, it’s a topic Biden campaigned on extensively, having initially proposed 12 weeks of paid family leave before it was reduced to four weeks and eventually nixed from the bill entirely. The development could reverberate next year, as Democrats are the underdogs to retain the House and are set for a scrap to keep their Senate majority. 

 

Another Democratic political concern is that the potential passage of the mammoth social spending package — which has been cut from $6 trillion to $3.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion — won’t sufficiently motivate the party’s liberal base ahead of the midterm elections. Liberals argue that the final package will not do enough to bring progressives to the polls after top priorities were booted from the bill (The Hill).

 

The Hill: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) says he is optimistic that “maybe one Republican” would vote for a stand-alone bill on paid family leave.

 

The New York Times: Why paid family leave’s demise this time could fuel it later.

 

The Hill: Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s (R-Ill.) retirement underscores Trump dominance over GOP.

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LEADING THE DAY

ADMINISTRATION: Biden today will speak in Glasgow, Scotland, eager to join global partners in a time-targeted battle against climate change. His ambition to show U.S. leadership during this week’s United Nations climate conference has been complicated by his party’s infighting over domestic legislation that, if enacted, would be the most significant U.S. action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (The Associated Press and NBC News).

 

The Hill: Biden today announced the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE), a coordinated federal approach partially embodied in his pending legislative agenda for “net zero” greenhouse emissions by 2050 — with a total price tag of $3 billion annually, which he’s asking Congress to approve by fiscal 2024. 

 

A proposed White House push to move the United States toward clean-energy production of electricity recently was stripped from Biden’s proposed spending bill, and the fate of another provision to address climate change is up in the air. Biden last week called for $555 billion in new U.S. spending to help thwart the heat trapping emissions that are damaging the planet (The Washington Post).

 

“The stakes are extremely high,” Liz Perera, the Sierra Club’s climate policy director, told The Hill. “We need to convince the world that we are serious about our commitments, even with our congressional challenges, but then the world needs to also convince — especially India and China — our Congress that they are also serious.”

 

COP26, as the climate conference is called, is the first global summit in two years devoted to the issue; last year’s event was canceled because of the COVID-19 crisis.

 

The Hill: The COP26 summit in Scotland confronts climate change at a perilous time.

 

 

 

 

Biden flew to the United Kingdom from Rome, where he met over the weekend with leaders from the 20 biggest economies. Modest climate pledges resulted, including a vague commitment to seek carbon neutrality “by or around mid-century” (The Associated Press and Reuters).

 

Reuters: On the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting, Biden met President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey amid tensions over defense and human rights.

 

The New York Times: The U.S. and Russia, rivals on the world stage, quietly seek areas of accord. (President Vladimir Putin participated in the G-20 summit virtually.)

 

 

 

 

*****

 

CONGRESS: The president on Sunday expressed his hope that Congress will pass his Build Back Better agenda this week despite a delay in procedural moves that could push back passage of the final $1.75 trillion proposal.

 

“I believe we will pass my Build Back Better plan and I believe we will pass the infrastructure bill. Combined, they have $900 billion … in dealing with climate and resilience and it’s the largest investment in the history of the world that’s ever occurred. And it’s going to pass, in my view. But we’ll see. We’ll see,” Biden told reporters on Sunday during a press conference in Rome after the G-20 summit. 

 

“I believe we’ll see by the end of next week at home that it’s passed,” Biden added.

 

The Guardian: Biden dismisses bad polling and says his domestic agenda is set to pass.

 

The comments came after the House Rules Committee pushed back its planned meeting today as negotiators continue to hammer out a deal on prescription drugs. The issue was left out of the framework unveiled by Biden late last week, with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) continuing to hold discussions with House leaders to lower drug prices (Politico). 

 

As The Hill’s Jordain Carney points out, supporters of getting drug pricing into the spending bill have powerful allies in their corner, including Senate Budget Committee Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has pointed to the plan as a must-include. The potential deal would allow Medicare to negotiate prices only for older drugs that are no longer on their period of “exclusivity,” when they are protected from competition.

 

Democrats had indicated that they are hopeful to vote on both the multi trillion-dollar blueprint and the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill on Tuesday. However, if the votes are pushed off beyond Tuesday, that result of the Virginia contest could play a role in what happens in the ensuing days. 

 

The Hill: Sanders says the fight for more in budget bill is not over for progressives.

 

The Sunday Shows: Democrats’ spending package in the spotlight. 

 

The Hill: Officials, lawmakers express optimism that infrastructure, spending vote is near.

 

The potential passage of the reconciliation bill would also represent a massive win for Black lawmakers, with a number of members having been left disappointed by the lack of action on a number of key issues, including police reform and voting rights. 

 

As The Hill’s Marty Johnson writes, the framework included key priorities of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), including funding for historically Black colleges and universities, an increased child tax credit, affordable housing, universal child care and pre-K, and Medicare expansions. CBC Chairwoman Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) suggested prior to the Thursday unveiling of the framework that the president was aware the group was disheartened by the miniscule movement on key topics.

 

The Hill: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on passing spending packages: “We are the closest we have ever been.”

 

Jordain Carney, The Hill: Democrats face monster December collision. 

 

The Washington Post: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says reconciliation is a “viable” path for Democrats to deal with the debt limit. “If they’re not going to cooperate, I don’t want to play chicken,” Yellen said of GOP blockade. 

 

The Hill: Subpoenas are a real worry for lawmakers facing Jan. 6 questions.

 

The Washington Post (interactive): Before, during and after the Jan. 6 attack.

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

CORONAVIRUS: The issue of breakthrough cases came to the forefront as White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced on Sunday that she tested positive for the virus after family members did so last week.

 

Psaki is the highest-ranking White House official to reveal infection with COVID-19 following vaccination. She met with Biden on Tuesday, she said, masked and distanced outdoors. The last time she briefed the White House press corps was on Wednesday before the president departed a day later for an overseas itinerary, which continues today.

 

“While I have not had close contact in person with the President or senior members of the White House staff since Wednesday — and tested negative for four days after that last contact — I am disclosing today’s positive test out of an abundance of transparency,” Psaki said in a statement, adding that she is experiencing mild symptoms. “I last saw the President on Tuesday, when we sat outside more than six-feet apart, and wore masks.” 

 

Psaki said she will return to work after a 10-day quarantine and a negative test. The White House has declined to disclose breakthrough COVID-19 cases within its ranks unless revealed on an individual basis or if the individual has had direct contact with the president (The Hill).

 

 

 

 

The announcement by Psaki, who has two young children, comes as official guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to administer COVID-19 shots among children ages 5 to 11 is anticipated this week. 

 

Twenty-eight million children will be eligible to be vaccinated, and the Biden administration said last week that 15 million doses are to be shipped immediately.

 

The Wall Street Journal: Moderna confirms the Food and Drug Administration delayed approving COVID-19 vaccines in adolescents in order to review a rare heart complication called myocarditis.

 

The New York Times: Even after federal authorization, vaccinating America’s children will present challenges.

 

The Washington Post: How does a pandemic start winding down? You are looking at it.

 

The Wall Street Journal: Delta surge of COVID-19 recedes, leaving winter challenge ahead.

 

The Associated Press: COVID-19′s global death toll tops 5 million in under 2 years.

 

> Supply chain struggles: As long as the pandemic goes on, so will supply chain bottlenecks. That was the message from Buttigieg on Sunday, who argued that the reconciliation bill could help ease that trouble.

 

“Look, there are so many things that are still happening in our economy — distortions, disruptions, things in our supply chain that are affecting prices that are clearly a direct consequence of the pandemic — which is why the best thing we can do for our economy in the short term and to deal with these transitory issues is to put the pandemic behind us,” Buttigieg told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace (The Hill).

 

The Hill: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says putting off vaccine mandate until after holidays would be a “mistake.”

 

The Wall Street Journal: How does Eric Church keep touring in the pandemic? With a one-of-a-kind concert bubble.

 

NBC News: Fully vaccinated Jon Bon Jovi tested positive for COVID-19, canceled Miami concert scheduled on Sunday.

The Morning Report is created by journalists Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver. We want to hear from you! Email: asimendinger@digital-release.thehill.com and aweaver@digital-release.thehill.com. We invite you to share The Hill’s reporting and newsletters, and encourage others to SUBSCRIBE! 

OPINION

A triumph for Detroit over Davos, Lawrence H. Summers, contributing columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3GBdJXz 

 

The spending bill Is an attack on work and marriage, by Casey B. Mulligan, opinion contributor, The Wall Street Journal. https://on.wsj.com/3w31P3J 

A MESSAGE FROM EXXONMOBIL

WHERE AND WHEN

The House convenes at noon.

 

The Senate meets at 3 p.m. to resume consideration of the nomination of Jonathan Davidson to be deputy under secretary of the Treasury.

 

The president today travels from Rome to Glasgow, Scotland, to participate in COP26, which is the 26th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. Biden will meet one-on-one with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson before COP26 gets underway. The president addresses the conference at 1 p.m. local time, and meets with Indonesian President Joko Widodo this afternoon amid events for leaders, including an evening reception hosted by Johnson.

 

First lady Jill Biden today flew from Rome to Naples, Italy, to visit a U.S. school located at Naval Support Activity Naples. As part of the White House’s Joining Forces program supporting the military, the first lady speaks after a tour with high school students and teachers at 1 p.m. local time. She flies back to Washington from Naples. 

 

Vice President Harris departs Washington for New York City this morning and joins Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm at 1:05 p.m. for a tour and remarks at Kennedy International Airport related to climate change. The vice president at 7:30 p.m at Carnegie Hall will deliver remarks at an annual awards event hosted by National Action Network. Harris will depart New York at 9:05 p.m. to return to the nation’s capital. 

 

The White House coronavirus response team will brief journalists in Washington at 11 a.m.

 

Hill.TV’s “Rising” program features news and interviews at http://digital-release.thehill.com/hilltv or on YouTube at 10:30 a.m. ET at Rising on YouTube.

ELSEWHERE

➔ SUPREME COURT: Expect some heightened drama this week when justices consider high-stakes arguments over abortion and gun rights in what is shaping up to be a defining court term, reports The Hill’s John Kruzel. Previews also from The Washington Post and The New York Times. … The high court on Wednesday will hear a case on New York’s gun permit law, the result of which could mean more guns on city streets (The Associated Press).

 

➔ STEPS TO HUMAN RIGHTS: The Chinese dissident artist Badiucao painted “End Slave Labor Now” and “Free Tibet,” among other slogans, on Boston Celtic’s center Enes Kanter’s size 16 basketball shoes as part of a campaign to raise awareness of human rights abuses by the Chinese Communist Party. Kanter’s decision to wear the shoes on the court and to speak out on social media attracted China’s attention. The Hill’s Laura Kelly interviewed the activist artist. 

 

 

 

 

➔ TECH: Meta? Yawn. Facebook’s rebrand has done little to assuage critics or turn down the political heat. The company’s renaming, announced last week, has not slowed government scrutiny of the tech behemoth or attacks lobbed at the company by activist organizations (The Hill) . … The American Economic Liberties Project argues the government should weigh criminal charges against Facebook’s top executives based on documents and disclosures of potential wrongdoing triggered by a former employee-turned-whistleblower (Bloomberg News). 

 

➔ TRAVEL TROUBLES: American Airlines canceled more than 1,300 flights over the weekend due to staffing issues and bad weather in the latest instance of travel issues in recent months. More than 800 flights got nixed on Sunday, representing nearly one-third of the airline’s total schedule for the day. The cancellations also took place a day after 540 more flights were axed. American Airlines Chief Operating Officer David Seymour said that “these few days” to end the month “will be challenging” (The Washington Post).

 

➔ SPORTS: The Atlanta Braves failed to clinch the club’s first world championship in 26 years as the Houston Astros pulled out a 9-5 victory on Sunday night, setting up a Game 6 in Houston on Tuesday night. After giving up a first inning grand slam, the Astros scored 9 of the game’s next 10 runs, including a two-run single by Marwin Gonzalez in the fifth inning that took the lead for good. First pitch on Tuesday night is slated for 8:09 p.m. EST (ESPN). 

THE CLOSER

And finally … Dying star CW Leonis, 300 light years from Earth, is a carbon star — a luminous type of red giant star with a carbon-rich atmosphere. It has been seen by the Hubble Space Telescope wrapped in striking webs of orange carbon as it casts its outer layers of sooty gas and dust into the void (CNET). Hubble’s ethereal video rendering on Twitter is HERE. ​​