So far, New York City’s biggest tabloid — after mocking Bill de Blasio mercilessly for eight years — has barely touched the mayor-in-waiting, Eric Adams. | Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
It’s Friday, which Democratic leaders set as an (unofficial) deadline to reach a deal on the reconciliation package. There’s no agreement yet, but at a CNN town hall Thursday night, President JOE BIDEN sounded an optimistic note — “I do think I’ll get a deal,” he said — while laying out some concrete specifics. More on that below …
THE ADAMS-MURDOCH BROMANCE — ERIC ADAMS has the makings of a tabloid gold mine.
He’s a vegan teetotaler who vacations in Monaco like JAMES BOND, spends his evenings at exclusive nightclubs surrounded by celebrities, then goes to bed at a location that still remains a mystery.
So far, though, the city’s biggest tabloid — after mocking BILL DE BLASIO mercilessly for eight years — has barely touched the mayor-in-waiting. We’ll get to a well-informed theory about why the New York Post has laid off Adams in a minute — but first a little more on Adams’ nighttime extracurricular activities …
Just this past Friday night, the Democratic mayoral nominee dined at the swanky members-only club Casa Cipriani with PAOLO ZAMPOLLI, who was MELANIA TRUMP’s former modeling agent and the man who introduced her to DONALD. Zampolli, the Dominica ambassador to the U.N. and man about town, used the time to pitch Adams on making city landmarks such as Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
On Saturday night, Adams was out until after midnight at Zero Bond, another members-only downtown nightclub where celebrities like TOM BRADY and KIM KARDASHIAN have cocooned themselves from the masses during the pandemic. On Sunday, Adams was at Slate nightclub in his Salvatore Ferragamo loafers for a fundraiser hosted by bar owner TELLY HATZIGEORGIOU where he gave a shoutout to the nightlife industry.
Those are just a few of Adams’ most recent sightings at private exclusive nightclubs since he won the Democratic nomination. But you’d hardly know it reading the Post. In a pair of stories in September, the tabloid did report that Adams spent four nights in a row at two nightclubs. But they were hardly the paper’s signature takedowns: One described Adams’ “impressive New York nightlife stamina” because he stayed out until 1:30 a.m.
Which brings us to the Post’s owner, RUPERT MURDOCH. After de Blasio won the Democratic nomination in 2013, there was back and forth between Murdoch’s staff and de Blasio aides about arranging a time for the two to meet and talk at a pro-business event. But de Blasio rebuffed the media mogul and ignored him at the event, according to two people with knowledge of what happened. Murdoch never made another attempt to connect with de Blasio.
Adams has taken the opposite tack. The two met over dinner this year. And, as a centrist and former cop, Adams’ politics are in closer proximity to Murdoch’s.
“Eric has met with the owners of all three daily New York newspapers to discuss his vision for the city,” his spokesperson EVAN THIES said. “The New York Post editorial board has stated that it shares Eric’s vision for a safer, more prosperous city where our children have more education options and we are more welcoming to businesses.”
We talked to several people at the Post who said the newsroom is not pleased about the paper’s light touch with Adams.
Murdoch isn’t the only billionaire media figure to court Adams. Former Mayor MIKE BLOOMBERG threw a fundraiser for Adams in August, and has been consulting with him as he sets up his government.
At his fundraiser at Slate on Sunday, Adams told Playbook that he’s taking advice from almost all of the living former mayors and their first deputy mayors.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Adams would also lend his ear to the city’s nightlife empresarios. On Sept. 11, he announced at his regular haunt Zero Bond: “When I become mayor of this city, this is going to be the city where nightlife lives and grows.” – This item was reported and written by Tara and New York City Hall bureau chief Sally Goldenberg.
Happy Friday, and thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri.
A message from Facebook:
Why Facebook supports updated internet regulations
Jack is one of 40,000 people working on safety and security issues at Facebook.
Hear more from Jack on why Facebook supports updating regulations on the internet’s most pressing challenges, including reforming Section 230 to set clear guidelines for all large tech companies.
RECONCILIATION RUNDOWN — Taking questions at a live town hall in Baltimore, Biden got into the nitty-gritty of the reconciliation negotiations, speaking about his mix of frustration with and respect for Sens. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) and KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-Ariz.) with surprising candor. He also made some news about the particulars of the bill/framework at this point in time:
- IN, BUT REDUCED: paid family medical leave. “It is down to four weeks,” said Biden. “We can’t get 12 weeks.”
- IN, DETAILS TBD: child tax credit. Biden announced his opposition to a work requirement, despite Manchin’s support of one, and stated that middle-class families will not have to pay more than 7% of their income on child care.
- LIKELY OUT: Medicare coverage of dental, vision and hearing. Biden said he believed that Manchinema opposes its inclusion. As a compromise, he suggested an $800 voucher for dental care.
- SOUNDS LIKE IT’S OUT: tax increases on corporations and wealthy Americans. He pinned some of the blame on Sinema. “She will not raise a single penny in taxes on the corporate side and/or on wealthy people, period,” Biden said. “And so that’s where it sort of breaks down.”
- OUT: tuition-free community college. Biden cited opposition from Manchin “and one other person” (cough, Sinema, cough) as the reason why. Still, he vowed to “get it done,” perhaps by expanding Pell Grants. “I guarantee you: We’re going to get free community college in the next several years,” he said. More from CNN … WaPo … Myah Ward and Sam Stein run down the Biden-Manchinema comments
Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, our Sarah Ferris, Marianne LeVine and Nicholas Wu have a helpful readout of the state of play.
— On the areas of agreement: On Thursday, Sinema “spoke for roughly a half hour with Ways and Committee Chair RICHARD NEAL (D-Mass.), who is a major player on tax issues in the bill. ‘We were in full agreement on the policy achievement, and she’s in on renewables, she’s in on the issue of child credit, and she’s in on family medical leave, and that’s the way she ranked them,’ Neal said, adding he planned to speak to Manchin later.”
Sinema has also agreed to provisions “in each of President Biden’s four proposed revenue categories — international, domestic corporate, high net worth individuals, and tax enforcement — providing sufficient revenue to fully pay for a budget reconciliation package in the range currently being discussed,” per a source familiar.
— … and the disagreements that remain: “Some of the largest remaining obstacles include paid leave, Medicare expansion, prescription drug pricing and climate, according to Democrats familiar with the discussions — all issues that risk alienating key factions of the party.”
And all of this movement came about in the aftermath of a tangle between Manchin and Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) at a meeting of Senate Dems on Monday. Burgess Everett and Marianne have the details, starting with Manchin telling Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER’s team that he was willing to accept universal pre-K but not tuition-free community college — prompting a vocal rebuke from Sanders:
“‘Bullshit,’ Sanders said, according to a readout of the meeting provided to POLITICO. Sanders said Manchin was telling the rest of the Democratic caucus to go ‘F themselves’ and bend to one senator’s agenda. Manchin disputed that, recounting that he’d told Biden the president did not win West Virginia and his very presence in the Senate is remarkable.
“Shortly after that tussle, Manchin and Sanders met privately, posed for a photo together and publicly reconciled. They’ve met four times so far this week, each softening their rhetoric toward one another and speaking more hopefully of a deal even as they continue to spar behind the scenes. Yet the cathartic blowup helped spark a significant breakthrough after a days-long feud between the two that began when Sanders leaned publicly on Manchin to support Biden’s agenda.”
BIDEN’S FRIDAY:
— 9:30 a.m.: The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief.
— 8 p.m.: Biden will depart the White House en route to Wilmington, Del., where he is scheduled to arrive at 8:55 p.m.
VP KAMALA HARRIS’ FRIDAY:
— 10:05 a.m.: The VP will depart D.C. en route to New York City.
— 12:20 p.m.: Harris will deliver remarks on the administration’s agenda at the Northeast Bronx YMCA with HHS Secretary XAVIER BECERRA.
— 3:25 p.m.: Harris will depart New York to return to D.C.
The White House Covid-19 response team and public health officials will brief at 11 a.m. Press secretary JEN PSAKI will brief at 1:30 p.m.
The HOUSE will meet at 9 a.m. to take up the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) for Nursing Mothers Act, with first and last votes expected between 10:45 a.m. and noon.
The SENATE is out.
PHOTO OF THE DAY: President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris arrive at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on Thursday. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo
THE WHITE HOUSE
HOLIDAY HAVOC — Biden’s vaccine mandate has major shipping companies “sounding the alarm … complaining it threatens to wreak havoc at the busiest time of the year — and add yet another kink to the supply chain,” Natasha Korecki reports. STEPHEN ALTERMAN, president of the Cargo Airline Association, sent a letter to OMB asking the Biden administration to postpone the deadline to “the first half of 2022.”
JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH
BANNON IN CONTEMPT — “The House voted Thursday to hold STEVE BANNON, a longtime ally of Donald Trump, in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about his communications with the former president,” report Kyle Cheney and Olivia Beavers. “Bannon’s fate is now in the hands of the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington D.C., which will decide whether to prosecute.”
— The vote was 229-202, with nine Republicans supporting the contempt charge: Reps. LIZ CHENEY (Wyo.), BRIAN FITZPATRICK (Pa.), ANTHONY GONZALEZ (Ohio), JAIME HERRERA BEUTLER (Wash.), JOHN KATKO (N.Y.), ADAM KINZINGER (Ill.), NANCY MACE (S.C.), and Michiganders PETER MEIJER and FRED UPTON.
— In one of the stranger developments of the day, Cheney called out Rep. JIM BANKS (R-Ind.) for writing a letter to the Department of the Interior last month claiming to be the “ranking member” of the House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6 (his appointment, he noted in the letter, was blocked by Speaker NANCY PELOSI) and “asking to be provided with any information the department turns over to the House committee,” per CNN’s Annie Grayer and Zachary Cohen.
CONGRESS
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? — NYT’s Jonathan Martin reports that Republican lobbyist JEFF MILLER told consultants that “they must choose between working for Cheney or House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY, an ultimatum that marks the full rupture between the two House Republicans.” The either-or is what led the Morning Group, a firm that had helped Cheney fundraise for her 2022 reelection, to stop working with the congresswoman.
GAETZ-GATE LATEST — “The DOJ has added two top prosecutors from Washington to the child sex trafficking investigation of Rep. MATT GAETZ,” report NYT’s Michael Schmidt and Katie Benner — “a sign of the complex and high-stakes nature of the inquiry.”
WATCH: How Manchin is key to Biden’s climate agenda: After months of Congress trying to cobble together a spending package that tackles most of Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, Manchin managed to throw a wrench in the cornerstone of its climate plan. This week, Zack Colman joins Ryan to break down why Manchin’s vote is crucial to the reconciliation bill and what’s next for future climate policy.
VA. GOV RACE HEATS UP
SCHOOL OF THOUGHT — For GLENN YOUNGKIN — and, if he’s successful, perhaps for the whole Republican Party — this election cycle largely comes down to a pitch to angry parents. Tapping into their frustration with local school boards over pandemic restrictions and culture war issues around race and gender could be a blueprint for the party to claw back the suburban voters it lost in the Trump era, write Michael Stratford and Zach Montellaro from Culpeper.
THE PANDEMIC
BOOSTER SHOTS INCOMING — A CDC panel on Thursday night approved the use of booster doses of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccines, also green-lighting the ability for Americans to take whichever brand of booster they’d prefer, Lauren Gardner reports.
ALL POLITICS
GALLEGO VS. SINEMA? — Sinema is a powerful figure in today’s Washington. But some in Arizona don’t want to see her hold it for much longer. “I think the sentiment that I’m hearing out there, voters in Arizona are upset with her, especially Democratic voters,” Rep. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-Ariz.) told CNN’s Manu Raju and Alex Rogers. “‘I think they support the President’s agenda, and they hope that she will, in the end, support the President’s agenda, pass reconciliation — the Build Back Better agenda.’ Gallego, who has been frequently mentioned as a potential primary challenger against her in 2024, pointedly did not rule out a run against Sinema.”
2024 WATCH — Vanity Fair’s Tom LoBianco reports that former VP MIKE PENCE and second lady KAREN PENCE “are living their best lives: traveling widely, making bank on the speaking circuit, and residing in one of Indiana’s toniest suburbs. And in an unlikely trolling of Trump, Pence remains a top contender for the GOP nod.”
TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week”: Seung Min Kim, Jake Sherman, Ryan Reilly and Mike Memoli.
SUNDAY SO FAR …
-
CBS
“Face the Nation”: Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) … Gita Gopinath … Scott Gottlieb.
-
MSNBC
“The Sunday Show”: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) … Melanie Campbell … Andrew Young … Iowa state Rep. Ross Wilburn … Steve Schmidt.
-
Gray TV
“Full Court Press”: Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) … Heather Long.
-
NBC
“Meet the Press”: Panel: Brendan Buck, Eugene Daniels, María Teresa Kumar and Ayesha Rascoe.
-
ABC
“This Week”: Panel: Chris Christie, Donna Brazile, Jane Coaston and Sarah Isgur.
-
CNN
“Inside Politics”: Panel: Molly Ball, Seung Min Kim, Amy Walter and Zolan Kanno-Youngs.
-
FOX
“Fox News Sunday”: Panel: Bret Baier, Julie Pace and Juan Williams. Power Player: Edward Luthy.
Bill Clinton posted a video update to Twitter thanking everyone for the “outpouring of support” during his recent hospitalization due to sepsis.
Paris Hilton sashayed through the Capitol rotunda and met with Mitt Romney.
Sean Spicer got into a Twitter spat with John Legend over voting rights.
Kyrsten Sinema took to her Instagram stories to say that she’ll again be on the Betty Designs Squad of triathletes in 2022.
Donald Trump’s new social media platform includes a non-disparagement clause in its terms of service, via Lachlan Markay.
Wendy Livingston, the in-house “hero” nurse who managed health and safety on the set of “The View,” was dumped by the show after last month’s on-air fiasco in which two hosts got false positive coronavirus tests right before Kamala Harris was set to come out.
FYI: A memorial service for Gen. Colin Powell will be held at the Washington National Cathedral on Nov. 5 at noon. (h/t Geoff Bennett)
OLLIE THE CNN ANCHOR: WaPo columnist Kathleen Parker has long been an advocate for animals, but amid contract negotiations with CNN in 2010 to host a talk show with former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, she took her advocacy for her own pup to another level. At the St. Regis on Wednesday, Parker told guests at a dinner hosted by the homeless pet charity Best Friends that she’d informed then-CNN President Jon Klein that she wanted it spelled out in her contract that her blind poodle, Ollie, could come to work with her every day and be on set during the show. Klein said the only way they could make that work was to make the poodle CNN talent. So power lawyer Bob Barnett had to draft up a contract with CNN that made Ollie the network’s newest talent (Ollie was likely Barnett’s only four-legged client). Other guests at the dinner included: Jim Acosta, Tony Capra, Lisa Rizzolo Sanfuentes, Antoine Sanfuentes, Steve Chaggaris, Christine Dell’Amore, Erin Waters, Katherine Patterson, Kate Constantini and Elise Traub.
TRICK OR TREAT — Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) are hosting “Hart Halloween,” inviting children to trick-or-treat through the Hart Senate Office Building on Oct. 29. Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) are signed up to participate. The invite
SPOTTED on the rooftop of the Eaton Hotel on Wednesday at a forum organized by This is Us, Breaking Code Silence and the Annie E. Casey Foundation where The Hill’s Steve Clemons interviewed Paris Hilton and other survivors of the troubled teen industry: Carter Reum, Megan Smith, Douglas Heye, Susanna Quinn, Robyn Bash, Christina Sevilla, Steve Rochlin, Kimball Stroud, David White, Rene Jones, Shane Jordan, Rick Hendrix, Kevin McDonald, Diane Blagman, Todd Flournoy, Steve Ross, Christine Choi, Vikram Singh, Matt Dornic, Adam Parkhomenko, Sandra Gasca Gonzalez, Vanessa Hughes, Caroline Cole, Alain Datcher and Bobbi Taylor.
SPOTTED at the Center for Democracy & Technology’s Tech Prom, an invitation-only event bringing together leaders from across the tech policy community, at Hook Hall on Wednesday night: Tim Wu, Joshua Geltzer, Avery Gardiner, Didier Barjon, Alvaro Bedoya, Alexandra Reeve Givens, Travis LeBlanc, Geoffrey Starks and Charlotte Burrows.
STAFFING UP — The White House announced a few new nominations: Beth Van Schaack as ambassador at large for global criminal justice at State, Michèle Taylor as U.S. representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council and Martha Williams as director of Fish and Wildlife Services at Interior.
TRANSITIONS — Parker Novak is now deputy director of government relations at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. He most recently was senior technical manager for Asia at the International Republican Institute, and is a John Boehner alum. … Frannie Einterz is joining the Policy Equity Group as senior director of early childhood equity initiatives. She previously was a senior policy analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center. …
… Claire Sanderson and Laura Franco French are joining the chipmaker TSMC. Sanderson will be senior director of global government affairs and previously was a legislative assistant for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). French will be director of state government affairs and previously was a senior policy adviser to Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) … Hilary Rosen … Stephanie Cutter of Precision Strategies … Adam Parkhomenko … Sarah Scanlon … former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour … Guy Harrison of OnMessage Inc. … Brett O’Donnell … Jerry Zremski … FiscalNote’s Mallory Howe Molina … Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson … Jon Reedy … Atlantic Council’s Trey Herr … Helen Milby … Patrick Dolan of BGR Group … Chris Moore … Kurt Bardella … Chris Licht of “The Late Show” and ViacomCBS … Slack’s Jonathan Prince … Casey Phillips … Jeff Grappone of Rokk Solutions … WSJ’s Warren Strobel … Sara Swezy of Sena Kozar Strategies … Michael Ceraso of Winning Margins and Community Groundwork … Michael Beckel … former Reps. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) and Ed Feighan (D-Ohio) … Brian Dodge … Sandy Smith … Samantha Friedman Kupferman … Tom Basile … Jessica Huff … Rachel Petri … Alice Henriques … Sister Simone Campbell … Frank Lowy (91) … Elliott “Buff Guff” Guffin
Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.
Send Playbookers tips to [email protected]. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike Zapler, deputy editor Zack Stanton and producers Allie Bice, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross.
