The Hill’s 12:30 Report — Optimistic update in government funding deadline

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–> A midday take on what’s happening in politics and how to have a sense of humor about it.* 

*Ha. Haha. Hahah. Sniff. Haha. Sniff. Ha–breaks down crying hysterically.

TALK OF THE MORNING 

What’s ~$26 billion~ between pals?:  

With five days until government funding expires, congressional negotiators have still not reached a deal on topline numbers. 

But there’s a small, hopeful update!: Democrats had planned on releasing their own spending bill draft on Monday, but Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) decided on Sunday night to hold off because of the progress of bipartisan negotiations over the weekend. More from Fox News’s Chad Pergram 

OK, so once lawmakers agree to topline numbers, the hard part is over?: Nope! Funding the government involves 12 smaller bills. Agreeing on a topline number is just the first step. The details must then be hashed out for each bill. Expect plenty of snags in that process. 

The chances of this getting resolved by Friday are slim — what happens then?: “Some are speculating that a continuing resolution would stretch until Dec. 23, giving negotiators another week to engage in talks while also upping the pressure by placing the deadline right before Christmas. But others think a shorter, three-day extension, or even a deadline closer to Dec. 30, could be better.”  

What we know about the negotiations, via The Hill’s Mychael Schnell 

THE OTHER BIG ITEM ON THE TO-DO LIST: 

The Senate will take up the multibillion-dollar annual defense authorization bill, which was approved by the House last week. 

For context: The bill passed the House 350-80 with bipartisan support.

It’s Monday. Still processing last night’s wild ‘White Lotus’ finale, I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here.

📱‍️ The latest at Twitter 

Elon’s picking fights from all sides: 

Twitter CEO Elon Musk received backlash over the weekend when he called for President Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci to be prosecuted for his handling of the COVID-19 response. 

Musk tweeted: “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci.” Musk then tweeted this meme 

The backlash involved both Fauci and the LGBTQ+ community: Astronaut Scott Kelly responded, “Elon, please don’t mock and promote hate toward already marginalized and at-risk-of-violence members of the #LGBTQ+ community. They are real people with real feelings. Furthermore, Dr Fauci is a dedicated public servant whose sole motivation was saving lives.”  

^ Musk didn’t ignore Kelly’s tweet: “I strongly disagree,” Musk replied to Kelly. “Forcing your pronouns upon others when they didn’t ask, and implicitly ostracizing those who don’t, is neither good nor kind to anyone. As for Fauci, he lied to Congress and funded gain-of-function research that killed millions of people. Not awesome [in my opinion.]” 

Read the full back and forth 

This will be great when I publish my grand manifesto and autobiography on Twitter:

Twitter chief Elon Musk said he is increasing the character limit for tweets from 280 to 4,000 (!) 

How we know this: A Twitter user asked, “Elon is it true that Twitter is set to increase the characters from 280 to 4000?” Musk responded directly to the tweet: “Yes.”  

Throwback: Remember how big of a deal it was when Twitter doubled its character limit from 140 to 280 in 2017? 

In Congress 

Kevin shouldn’t be feeling overly confident these days: 

“Searches for a Speaker alternative to House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) are slowly building momentum as he faces opposition that threatens to sink his bid.”  

What’s happening behind the scenes?: “On one side, McCarthy’s fiercest detractors are teasing that there are people interested in being a viable GOP consensus substitute for the current minority leader.” 

“On the other, members say preliminary conversations are happening among Republicans and Democrats about a possible contingency candidate if McCarthy cannot win the gavel after multiple ballots in the new GOP-majority House next month.”  

How this drama has been playing out behind the scenes, via The Hill’s Emily Brooks 

‘JAN. 6 PANEL EYES NEW BEGINNING WITH DOJ AS PARTNER IN TRUMP PROBE’: 

Why this is particularly noteworthy: “The two investigative teams have at times been at odds over the last year and a half, with the panel rebuffing a request from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to share transcripts of its interviews in May.”  

How that dynamic is shifting, via The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch 

TIDBIT — THE FIRST GEN Z MEMBER OF CONGRESS WAS REJECTED FOR AN APARTMENT:

25-year-old Rep.-elect Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) said last week that he applied for an apartment in Washington, D.C., and was rejected for his “really bad” credit. Read his full tweet explaining the situation

🏃‍️ 2024 reads

‘TRUMP WHO? GOP SENATORS RAVE OVER A POTENTIAL TIM SCOTT PRESIDENTIAL RUN.’:

From Politico’s Marianne Levine 

‘TRUMP, BIDEN FORTUNES SHIFT DRAMATICALLY POST-MIDTERMS’:

From The Hill’s Amie Parnes

🏀 In other news 

Brittney Griner is back to doing what she loves: 

ESPN’s T.J. Quinn reports that “Brittney Griner pulled on a pair of black Chuck Taylor sneakers, Phoenix Suns shorts and a T-shirt touting Title IX, and picked up a basketball Sunday for the first time in almost 10 months, her agent told ESPN. Her first act was a dunk.” 

Where is Griner?: At Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. 

Is Griner planning on returning to the WNBA?: That’s unclear. From her agent: “If she wants to play, it will be for her to share. She has the holidays to rest and decide what’s next without any pressure. She’s doing really, really well. She seems to have endured this in pretty incredible ways.”

How Griner has spent her time since returning, including eating barbecue

🦠 The latest with COVID-19 

The CDC is urging people to wear masks again: 

“Concerns are growing nationwide for rapidly increasing cases of what health officials have deemed a tripledemic: the flu, RSV and COVID-19, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is once again urging the public to wear face masks indoors.”  

Risk levels: “According to the agency’s Dec. 8 report, 13.7 percent of Americans now live in communities now rated ‘high’ COVID-19 Community Levels, up from 4.9 percent of the population last week. An additional 38.1 percent of Americans are in ‘medium’ areas and 48.2 percent are in ‘low’ areas.” 

The full story from Nexstar’s Alex Caprariello and Taylor Delandro 

THE COVID-19 NUMBERS: 

Cases to date: 99.2 million 

Death toll: 1,080,472 

Current hospitalizations: 30,253 

Shots administered: 657 million 

Fully vaccinated: 68.9 percent of Americans 

CDC data here.

🐥Notable tweets 

Arty is back with some stories!: 

NASA’s Orion capsule successfully landed in the Pacific Ocean over the weekend as part of the Artemis I mission.  

NASA tweeted: “After traveling 1.4 million miles through space, orbiting the Moon, and collecting data that will prepare us to send astronauts on future #Artemis missions, the @NASA_Orion spacecraft is home.” Watch the landing 

More on the mission, via Reuters

Footage of the spacecraft a few hours before returning to Earth 

This is too cute: 

@amandadeibert tweeted a screenshot of a little girl’s letter to Los Angeles animal control asking if she could keep a unicorn if she found one. Read the letter that animal control wrote back to her 

How festive: 

Meteorologist Scott Duncan tweeted an incredible video of the snow at the Big Ben in London. Watch

⏱On tap 

The House and Senate are in. President Biden and Vice President Harris are in Washington, D.C. 

• Today: Harris has no public events scheduled. 
• 8:45 a.m.: Biden received his daily briefing. 
• 3 p.m.: The Senate meets. Today’s Senate agenda 
• 5:30 p.m.: The Senate holds a judicial confirmation vote. 
• 6:30 p.m.: First and last House votes of the day. Today’s House agenda 

All times Eastern.

📺What to watch 

• 12:40 p.m.: Biden and first lady Jill Biden participate in a United States Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots event in Arlington, Va. Livestream 
• 3 p.m.: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and national security adviser Jake Sullivan hold a press briefing. Livestream 

☕️ In lighter news 

Today is National Cocoa Day. 

And to leave you in a holiday mood, here are two Christmas dancing buddies.