It’s Friday, and Christmas is almost here. I’ve had so much fun filling in for you guys this holiday week. Thank you for all your enlightening and funny emails. The 12:30 Report will be on a holiday break next week but will return with Cate Martel in 2024.

Here’s what’s coming up for today’s newsletter:

• Biden faces headwinds in his approval rating heading into the election year.

• Harvard’s president is facing new plagiarism allegations.

• Lawmakers share about their favorite ornaments.

• Can we get some fries and a shake with that? Yep! I’ve got you.

I’m Elizabeth Crisp, with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here. Send me your tips: ecrisp@digital-stage.thehill.com and follow me on X @elizabethcrisp.

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Not great news for Biden: The president’s year-end approval rating is worse than any other modern-day president seeking reelection at this point in the campaign cycle, Gallup has found.

Biden’s approval rating sits at 39 percent. By comparison, former President Trump’s approval rating was 45 percent at this point in his failed 2020 reelection bid, and former President Obama’s was 43 percent in 2011.

More via The Hill.

❔Quiz time: Which president over the past nearly five decades has had the highest approval rating before a presidential election? (Answer is at bottom)

President Biden on Friday issued a proclamation to pardon some marijuana offenses and is commuting the sentences of 11 people in prison for nonviolent drug convictions.

How one lawmaker responded: Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) thanked Biden for pardoning what he called “bullshit weed charges.” See Fetterman’s tweet

More on Biden’s move from The Hill here.

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A key annual inflation metric is signaling that the U.S. is coming in for a rare soft landing from high price growth without a recession.

That metric, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, dropped to 2.6 percent year over year in November, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis released Friday.

The Hill’s Taylor Giorno breaks it all down here.

Courtesy photo, Rep. Lucy McBath office

The Hill spoke with a few lawmakers who shared about their favorite Christmas tree decorations:

Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.): “My favorite decoration this year are these little gnomes I have in my office. To me, they invoke the spirit that children carry during the Christmas season. It’s pure and it’s joyous. The gnomes also invoke a bit of humor — I can’t help but smile when I see them.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.): “We started a tradition years ago of collecting Christmas ornaments when we go on vacations, starting when Jennifer and I went on our honeymoon. Our kids get into it now and we have lots of ornaments on our tree that bring back great memories of trips we took together as a family.”

Do you have a favorite Christmas ornament when you decorate your tree? Tell me about it! (Mine is a flamingo.)

President Biden has kept his distance from Senate negotiations on a border deal that’s been linked to additional aid to Ukraine, but GOP lawmakers want to hear from him.

It’s making some Republicans suspect the White House doesn’t want Biden to agree to a deal.

“Any ‘border deal’ will not be with [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas, who has lost the confidence of Congress by repeated dishonesty: that the ‘border is secure.’ Only POTUS can commit to any ‘border deal.’ Anything else is a waste of time,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) posted on X, formerly Twitter, referring to President Biden.

The Hill’s Alexander Bolton breaks down what’s happening behind the scenes.

RELATED: Cruel winter: Congress has a lot on its plate when it returns in January.

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Harvard University President Claudine Gay is facing more allegations of plagiarism on old papers, as the fallout continues from her controversial congressional testimony on antisemitism.

Harvard has stood by Gay amid the backlash, but this week, officials disclosed that the university president had asked to add multiple updates to her dissertation from 1997 to fix attribution issues that had been called out. The latest request adds to other corrections in the last two months to other work she has published. 

Some lawmakers, including Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who is a Harvard grad, have called on Gay to resign.

Earlier in the week, House Republicans signaled they would expand their investigation into Gay to include plagiarism allegations.

Read more from The Hill’s Lexi Lonas on the mounting scrutiny

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Just days before Iowa caucusgoers have their say on the Republican 2024 primary race, CNN will host a pair of town halls in the Hawkeye State with top GOP candidates Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

DeSantis and Haley have been jockeying to try to gain traction as former President Trump faces mounting legal issues. Trump, the front-runner for the GOP nomination, won’t attend the CNN town halls and has skipped all debates during the primary.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins will moderate a DeSantis town hall at 9 p.m. on Jan. 4, and CNN’s Erin Burnett will moderate a Haley town hall at 10 p.m. (The Hill)

More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during the Israeli war against Hamas after the militant group’s Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

That would be about 1 percent of the prewar population in Gaza, The Associated Press noted. About 85 percent of Gaza’s population has been displaced during the conflict, and many buildings have been destroyed, including hospitals. (The Hill)

RELATED: The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution Friday aimed at scaling up the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and calling for a release of hostages held by Hamas. The U.S. abstained and did not block the measure after changes to its wording this week. More here

There haven’t been many airport delays reported this holiday season, despite an uptick in travelers. From The Hill’s Lauren Irwin:

“As of early Friday, 41 flights were canceled nationwide, and just more than 500 flights were delayed with mild weather reported in most of the nation, FlightAware reported. So far, 1.2 percent of U.S. flights have been canceled this year, the lowest cancellation rate in five years.”

Read more here.

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The House and Senate are on holiday recess until January. President Biden and Vice President Harris are in D.C. (all times Eastern)

• 10 a.m.: President Biden got the Presidential Daily Briefing.

• 2:45 p.m.: Biden and the first lady will head to the Children’s National Hospital to meet with families for the holidays.

• 4:10 p.m.: The Bidens are scheduled to return to the White House.

• Coming up: The Bidens will spend the holiday weekend at Camp David.

🤏  It is National Short Person Day, and let me tell y’all … My tiny 5-foot-2 self feels seen!

🍔  Hungry? Shake Shack is giving freebies through Christmas Eve!

🌈 Today is the 13th anniversary of then-President Obama signing legislation that repealed the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” LGBTQ policy. Catch up on it here.

💗 Ready for it?: Sources tell US Weekly that pop icon Taylor Swift and footballer Travis Kelce are the real deal and talking about their future. I’m shipping it.

🎉  The end of the year is very near, and that means it’s time for best of 2023 lists. Washingtonian has a great rundown of food, drink and other fun new things to enjoy this year in the DMV.

Quiz Answer: George W. Bush had the highest approval rating of a president before a presidential election year going back more than 40 years. Bush’s approval was at 58 percent in 2003, in the years post-9/11, according to Gallup.

Thanks for reading! We’ll leave you with this adorable pup.

View past issues of 12:30 Report here and check out other newsletters from The Hill here. See you next time!