Impeachment threatens to derail Biden transition
Welcome to POLITICO’s 2021 Transition Playbook, your guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history.
JOE BIDEN told reporters on Friday that he was leaving to Congress the decision of whether to impeach President DONALD TRUMP for a second time.
But lawmakers’ decision will alter the course of Biden’s transition and presidency.
A Senate impeachment trial could delay the confirmation of Biden’s Cabinet and the passage of Covid relief legislation for weeks, according to several experts in Senate procedure.
“It’s going to be tough enough as it is,” said MARTY PAONE, who was a top aide to Senate Minority Leader TOM DASCHLE (D-S.D.) during Clinton’s impeachment, and is now a senior adviser at the lobbying firm Prime Policy Group. “Why would you make it harder on yourself, and harder on Biden, to get anything done?”
It is essentially impossible to remove Trump from office before Jan. 20, especially since House Democrats likely will not vote until late next week. The Senate is not scheduled to return until Jan. 19.
Senate Majority Leader MITCH McCONNELL likely wouldn’t take up the articles before Inauguration Day and Sen. CHUCK SCHUMER won’t be majority leader until Vice President-elect KAMALA HARRIS is sworn in on Jan. 20.
And Senate impeachment trials suck up Senate floor time, meaning that Biden’s first weeks as president would likely be stalled while the Senate came to a verdict.
“Once the trial begins, it takes over everything,” said MICHAEL J. GERHARDT, a law professor at the University of North Carolina who is an expert on impeachment.
Current and former Republican senators are urging Biden to stop the impeachment train.
It would be “absolutely chaotic and should not happen,” said former Sen. TRENT LOTT (R-Miss.), who was Senate majority leader during President BILL CLINTON’s impeachment. Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) tweeted that it would “further divide the country.” Still, many Republicans noticed that even the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board said Thursday that Trump’s conduct this week was “impeachable.”
Republicans met with the Senate parliamentarian Friday morning to better understand the impeachment trial timeline, according to a person familiar with the gathering. (The Washington Free Beacon first reported the meeting).
The rules governing Senate impeachment trials can be changed by majority vote, but there has already been concern about the Clinton and Trump trials being streamlined. “If it got streamlined further I think some people would begin to question whether it’s a credible trial, and some of those people might be in the U.S. Senate,” Gerhardt said.
Beyond the symbolism, the main purpose of continuing the impeachment process after Trump leaves office would be to disqualify him from running for president in 2024 or any federal office in the future. That requires a separate vote by the Senate only after a conviction with two-thirds majority.
On a call with reporters Friday, incoming White House press secretary JEN PSAKI also said that there isn’t time to impeach and convict Trump before the inauguration. “A precondition to bringing the country together is Trump getting out of office. The fastest way that’s going to happen is for the president-elect to be inaugurated in 12 days.”
Would impeaching Trump get in the way of Biden’s agenda?
“I don’t think I’m going to weigh into the game of [whether it’s] helpful or hurtful,” she said.
Are you in touch with Biden’s transition team? Do you work in an agency preparing (or not preparing) for the transfer of power? Are you JUAN GONZALEZ? We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous: [email protected]. You can also reach Alex, Theo, Megan, Alice, Tyler and Daniel individually if you prefer.
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Where's Joe
At the Queen Theatre in Wilmington, Del., where he introduced his final Cabinet picks: Rhode Island Gov. GINA RAIMONDO, his choice for Commerce secretary; Boston Mayor MARTY WALSH, whom he’ll nominate as Labor secretary; ISABEL GUZMAN, his choice to lead the Small Business Administration; and DON GRAVES, his deputy Commerce secretary pick.
Where's Kamala
With Biden at the Queen.
Presidential Trivia
With the Center for Presidential Transition
Which president — HARRY TRUMAN, JIMMY CARTER or DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER — started the tradition of staying at Blair House, the presidential guesthouse on Lafayette Square, the night before the inauguration?
(Read to the end for the answer.)
Pro Exclusive
TOUGHEST JOB IN THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION? The once low-profile job of leading the Small Business Administration will prove one of the most challenging posts in the Biden administration, with lawmakers putting pressure on the agency to help rescue the economy and be more open about its operations.
If confirmed by the Senate, that job will fall to ISABEL GUZMAN, a California state official and former SBA staffer whom Biden this week tapped to lead the agency, ZACHARY WARMBRODT writes.
The remaining articles and infographics in this section are exclusively available to POLITICO Pro subscribers. Pro is a smart, personalized policy intelligence platform from POLITICO. If you are interested in learning more about how POLITICO Pro can support your team through the 2020 transition and beyond, visit this webpage.
Cabinet Roulette
CIA DIRECTOR NEWS — Biden’s CIA director will not be in his Cabinet, a transition official tells us. That reverses Trump’s elevation of the role to Cabinet-level and means Biden has officially finished filling out his 24-member Cabinet.
“Since the creation of the position, the CIA director had never been a Cabinet position prior to the current administration,” a transition official said.
That’s technically true but the “CIA director” role has only existed since 2005. Before that, the director of central intelligence ran the CIA and oversaw other corners of American intelligence. That structure changed during the GEORGE W. BUSH’s administration with the creation of the director of national intelligence.
BILL CLINTON and RONALD REAGAN both had directors of central intelligence who were cabinet-level. The transition official said that the CIA director would be an NSC principal.
Advise and Consent
INSIDE MAYORKAS’ CORPORATE WORK — ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, Biden’s pick for Homeland Security secretary, has made more than $3.3 million over the past two years as a corporate lawyer representing and advising companies such as Airbnb, Northrop Grumman, T-Mobile and Uber, according to a newly filed disclosure, Alex and Theo report.
One potentially problematic client: Intuit, the company behind TurboTax. More than a dozen lawmakers — including Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.) — urged the Federal Trade Commission in 2019 to investigate whether efforts by Intuit and other tax prep companies to conceal their free tax filing options from the public, which were exposed by a ProPublica investigation, constituted “unfair and deceptive practices or unfair methods of competition.”
The Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation last year. The Los Angeles city attorney also sued TurboTax and H&R Block in 2019. While Mayorkas didn’t represent Intuit in the FTC investigation, he defended the company in the Los Angeles case.
Mayorkas argued in a court filing last year that Intuit “‘has no duty to advise customers on its commercial website’ of the option to file their taxes for free.”
MORE DISCLOSURES: The ethics disclosures filed by KATHERINE TAI, Biden’s pick for U.S. trade representative, and NEERA TANDEN, Biden’s choice for Office of Management and Budget director, also became public in the past couple of days — but they don’t contain any surprises. You could even call them boring.
Tanden has earned nearly $800,000 over the past two years as head of the Center for American Progress and its sister nonprofit.
ABOUT THOSE STAMPS: It caught our eye that Treasury Secretary-designate JANET YELLEN listed a stamp collection worth between $15,001 and $50,000 on her financial disclosure form.
The transition gave us some more details: Yellen inherited the collection from her mom and has brought it around the world with her. The collection includes stamps from the Columbian Exposition Issue of 1893 and other U.S. commemorative issues.
The most famous stamp of the Columbia Exposition collection is the $5 denomination with a bust of Christopher Columbus. According to Smithsonian Magazine, “the stamp has an almost mystical aura in the United States philatelic community.” The transition didn’t say if Yellen possesses that particular postal talisman.
DON’T RUSH AUSTIN VOTE, HOUSE REPUBLICANS SAY — Ten House Republicans sent a letter to House Speaker NANCY PELOSI today urging her not to fast track consideration of the waiver that retired Army Gen. LLOYD AUSTIN needs to serve as Biden’s Defense secretary.
“We urge the waiver process to receive full time for deliberation, including committee hearings, a committee vote, and a recorded vote on the House floor,” they wrote.
The letter was signed by Reps. JACK BERGMAN (R-Mich.), MIKE GALLAGHER (R-Wis.), MICHAEL WALTZ (R-Fla.), MO BROOKS (R-Ala.), DON BACON (R-Neb.), ROB WITTMAN (R-Va.), VICKY HARTZLER (R-Mo.), MIKE TURNER (R-Ohio) and MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.) — but not Rep. MIKE ROGERS (R-Ala.), the House Armed Services Committee’s new ranking member.
This is part of the complication of nominating Austin. The waiver requires votes in both the House and the Senate whereas every other nominee only needs to go through the Senate.
Agenda Setting
IMMIGRATION REFORM COMING — Biden said Friday that “I will introduce an immigration bill immediately.” It’s not clear if that will be a larger reform package or a more narrow bill targeted at Dreamers — undocumented immigrants brought to the United States at a young age.
Biden’s immigration policy advisers also met with Reps. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-Texas), RAUL RUIZ (D-Calif.) and LINDA SÁNCHEZ (D-Calif.) about a week ago to discuss legislation, a source with knowledge tells LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ.
JOBS TUMBLE, STIMULUS PROSPECTS SURGE — The country lost 140,000 jobs in December, leaving the jobless rate at 6.7 percent and giving Biden and the Democrats wider leeway to force through trillions of dollars more in stimulus spending — by whatever legislative means available, BEN WHITE reports.
SAY IT WITH ME: CAITLIN EMMA unpacks the two words we’ll be hearing incessantly over the next two years: budget reconciliation. It’s a powerful procedural tool that can steer billions of dollars and reshape a host of social policies all while evading the dreaded Senate filibuster.
With Democrats clinching the Senate majority after winning the Georgia runoffs, senior lawmakers are already vowing to deploy it, Caitlin writes, including, potentially, for economic stimulus.
THE PUBLIC IS FOR IT: A POLITICO-Harvard poll conducted in late December found that nearly 90 percent of respondents ranked passing aid for businesses and individuals hurt by the pandemic’s economic effects as “extremely important.”
REVVING THE VACCINE ROLLOUT — The incoming Biden administration intends to deploy every available dose of Covid-19 vaccine, ADAM CANCRYN and TYLER PAGER report — a shift from the Trump administration’s approach of reserving half the available supply for second shots in a two-dose regimen.
The transition shared more information in a press conference Friday afternoon, ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN reports.
Psaki told reporters that Biden plans to immediately distribute “most but not all of the currently reserved doses” once he takes office, and will use the Defense Production Act if needed “to ensure people can get their second doses in a timely manner while also getting people their first dose.”
The transition also announced Friday that Biden will receive the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday and Harris will receive hers later in the month — possibly not until after the inauguration.
Additionally, 35 other members of the incoming administration began receiving shots today from the White House Medical Office. The team did not identify who they were other than saying they were either people who work in close proximity to Biden and Harris, who are members of the national security team or who are in the Cabinet in the line of succession to the presidency.
Transfer of Power
LEAST SURPRISING NEWS OF THE WEEK — Trump won’t go to Biden’s inauguration, he tweeted this morning, making him the first outgoing president not to attend his successor’s swearing-in since ANDREW JOHNSON skipped ULYSSES S. GRANT’s in 1869.
Biden told reporters Trump’s decision was “one of the few things he and I have ever agreed on,” adding, “It’s a good thing, him not showing up.”
Trump administration officials, meanwhile, are worried that their careers will be hurt by the ransacking of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters on Wednesday, DANIEL LIPPMAN reports.
FIRST IN TRANSITION PLAYBOOK: All five living former presidents of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty have sent a letter to President-elect Biden urging him to replace the controversial CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, MICHAEL PACK, with someone who will appoint broadcast network heads who won’t interfere with the media outlets’ journalistic independence and “demean their work as Mr. Pack and his unqualified appointees have done.”
The letter, obtained by Daniel, also calls for Biden to work with Congress to better protect the integrity of the outlets and consider new approaches to how they’re governed, including by making them more independent.
What We're Reading
Meet the woman who will lead Biden’s Covid racial and ethnic disparities task force. (The New York Times)
The Oppo Book
We wish we could take credit for unearthing the album reviews TONY BLINKEN published in The Harvard Crimson during his undergraduate years when he wasn’t critiquing secretaries of State — but The New Yorker beat us to it last month.
Blinken’s 1982 review of The Who’s “It’s Hard” is too good to miss.
Here are the opening lines (sorry, Tony): “I remember in agonizing detail a crush I had my second year of high school. After class, I would go home and release the pent-up frustration of unrequited love with my stereo. One track in particular spun over and over again on the turntable: ‘Bargain’ by The Who.
As the music blasted forth, I would listen to ROGER DALTREY and pretend his golden throat was mine. …”
TRIVIA ANSWER
It was Carter. President FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT authorized the acquisition of Blair House for $150,000 after WINSTON CHURCHILL stayed up late eating, drinking, smoking and roaming the White House during a 1941 stay. But Carter set the tradition of staying in Blair House during the days before his inauguration in 1977.
Given, ya know, *all this*, that tradition could end or be interrupted in 11 days.