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11/13/2017 07:51 AM EDT


By Heather Caygle (hcaygle@politico.com or @heatherscope)

With an assist from Daniel Lippman

MOORE DIGS IN AS GOP URGES HIM TO STEP ASIDE - Roy Moore dismissed calls to step down over the weekend, declaring at a campaign stop in Alabama that the accusations against him were part of a conspiracy between Democrats, the GOP establishment and the media, Daniel Strauss reports from Birmingham. The first round of polls released after the accusations surfaced shows Moore neck-and-neck with Democratic nominee Doug Jones in the ruby red state, Steve Shepard writes. Moore stands accused of pursuing teenage girls while in his 30s, including initiating a sexual encounter with a 14 year old. Moore threatened to sue the Washington Post over the allegations during a campaign stop Sunday.

White House officials on Sunday said they expect to discuss the Moore situation further with President Donald Trump when he returns from his overseas trip tomorrow, Nicholas Fandos reports for the New York Times. "There's no Senate seat more important than the notion of child pedophilia," Marc Short, White House director of legislative affairs, said on NBC Sunday. "But having said that, he has not been proven guilty. And we have to afford him the chance to defend himself."

Senate Republicans are still looking at ways to get rid of Moore, including exploring backing a write-in challenge from outgoing Sen. Luther Strange. "I think the accusations have more credibility than the denial. I think it would be best if Roy would just step aside," Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said on NBC, calling Strange a "good candidate" for a write-in bid. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Friday declined to say whether he would seat Moore to the Senate if elected in an interview with the New York Times and the Senate GOP's campaign arm withdrew from a joint-fundraising agreement with Moore's campaign, Jonathan Martin and Alex burns report.

LET THE WHIPPING BEGIN - House GOP leaders are confident they can pass their tax code rewrite this week, meeting their self-imposed deadline to finish work on the House bill by Thanksgiving. There was little arm-twisting over the weekend, multiple sources close to leadership told Rachael. "And unlike with the Obamacare repeal effort earlier this year, when leaders made final-hour tweaks to win over resistant members, Speaker Paul Ryan's team doesn't intend to make significant changes to the legislation before the vote this time," she reports.

"I think they've made the calculation that they have 218," said Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), one of a handful of Republicans who opposes the bill because of changes to the state and local tax deduction. The House Rules Committee will meet on the tax bill Wednesday with a floor vote planned for Thursday. More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=262d99d6304216ed485f23ba2703d0e4d08589e313b3d3634164d669cf282166b578a91169bea684224c734d6a4dcef7

But, if things seem too easy, remember there's still an ocean of differences to reconcile between the House and Senate bill before anything makes it to the president's desk. The Senate bill would completely repeal the state and local tax deduction, a proposal Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said Sunday could never pass the House. More tax news after the jump.

GO AHEAD, DRINK THAT EXTRA CUP OF COFFEE. We won't tell. Welcome to Monday, Nov. 13, and thanks for reading Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill. Did anybody else see the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs fall to Auburn over the week and Alabama hold off Mississippi State to stay undefeated? We sure did. Roll Tide Roll!

SEVENTH ANNUAL EMERGING HEALTH CARE LEADERS EVENT - an evening of one-on-one conversations with the rising stars who are moving the health care system forward through improvements in payment, delivery and quality of care. Speakers include: Anna Abram, FDA; Matt Gallivan, Office of Senator Bill Cassidy; Jennifer Kuskowski, Senate Committee on Finance; Arielle Woronoff, Senate Committee on Finance. Nov 14 - 5pm - AJAX - 1011 4th St NW. RSVP: here.

FRIDAY'S MOST CLICKED: Marin Cogan's story on the pervasive sexual harassment issues on Capitol Hill in N.Y. Mag was the winner.

ACROSS THE CAPITOL, the Senate Finance Committee markup of its tax bill starts at 3 p.m. A Tax Foundation analysis of the bill found that the top 1 percent of households would get a big boost in after-tax income next year -7.5 percent for top earners compared to 2.5 percent for the population as a whole, the Wall Street Journal reports. A separate JCT analysis found the Senate plan would be better for middle-class households overall compared to the House bill, Brian Faler reports. You can livestream the hearing as well as see the list of 350-plus proposed amendments to the bill here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=262d99d6304216edaf064601c445dd7064df41637ae3c7ec37a23880abde16f2f58fc109672221904f8a5a446ba26af3

-- Five senators to watch in the tax bill debate, via McClatchy's Emma Dumain: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=262d99d6304216edc086c94141fea8057c056ac00317a41fa2fed67b29901c47505bb0f4fcdeacd8dd3303b06c76c8f1

There's just one little thing... GOP leaders keep insisting that their plans won't add to the national debt although economic analyses of both proposals predict just that. "The disconnect is prompting House and Senate Republican leaders and the Trump administration to hunt down - and promote - more optimistic forecasts, even if they exclude large parts of the tax bills from their analyses or assume growth-boosting features that are not, in fact, in the bills," Jim Tankersley reports for the New York Times.

Did we say that? Both McConnell and Ryan have walked back comments that everyone would receive a tax cut (Ryan) and no one in the middle class would see a tax increase (McConnell) under the GOP bills, notes Bloomberg's Steve Dennis.

SO YOU'RE SAYING THERE'S A CHANCE? After sweeping victories in Virginia last week, Democratic leaders are taking a fresh look at Senate, gubernatorial and House races across the South, Gabriel Debenedetti reports. "One or two upsets in the South next year could be the difference in which party controls the Senate after next year's midterms," he writes. But, as the New York Times notes, gerrymandering and restrictive voting laws "have left many experts wary of assuming that the intensity of Democratic voters will translate into equally robust electoral gains" across the country. "It's almost going to take a historic wave to overcome the gerrymandered map in a handful of states," said former
Attorney General Eric Holder, who is leading the Democratic redistricting effort. Alex Burns, Michael Wines and Trip Gabriel with more: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=262d99d6304216edf593a9264a773bb55d69c30856ac75b03dff64ea9480f6228a9f37eb207e68d4824f0ecba6c0889f

SESSIONS IN THE HOT SEAT - Attorney General Jeff Sessions will be questioned publicly by members of the House Judiciary Committee and privately by the House Intel Committee on Tuesday. Democrats say they are particularly interested in grilling Sessions about what he knew about the Trump campaign's contact with Russia after a former campaign aide recently pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. The aide, George Papadopoulos "told authorities that he urged Trump - in a meeting that included Sessions - to travel to Russia for a meeting with Putin. Sessions reportedly shot down the proposal, but he later told congressional investigators he had no awareness of any Trump campaign contacts with
Russian officials," Kyle and Elana noted last week.

Also on tap this week: The House Administration Committee will hold a hearing on sexual harassment policies tomorrow. And the House will vote on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) after conferees unveiled a final version last week.

YOU GOT JOKES? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell thinks Steve Bannon's promise to oust him before the midterms is so ridiculous, his response is to laugh. No, seriously. "You can write that down," McConnell said in an interview with the New York Times. "I laughed. Ha-ha. That's a perfect response." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=262d99d6304216edd9936206279fb82805c1d5c9787f980f3408a9465c7aef42234ae608dc51f94a61c16b2ebab51483

ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES - Katie Waldman, who worked for Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), is joining DHS as assistant press secretary. Breanna Deutsch starts today as press secretary for Daines. She was most recently with Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.). Ian Wilhite has been hired as press secretary in Lambda Legal's new Washington DC office. He most recently worked in communications for Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).

TODAY IN CONGRESS - The House gavels in at 12 p.m. with votes on several noncontroversial bills at 6:30 p.m. Today's agenda: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=262d99d6304216ed54d0de6ec46ac654a7300ae6eb37128587d69e8e80279b60bf8a8dfed1cfbdea53f47a650f11ab41 The Senate meets at 4 p.m. with two roll call votes related to DOT nominees at 5:30 p.m. More info: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=262d99d6304216edfa8fc346ce0401ad16578ff261dd5e1babb28719e6642b87bb53577cc194adaf3a89f9fd343429c4

AROUND THE HILL - D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser hold a press conference on the House GOP's tax bill at 11 a.m. in the House triangle.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hold a press conference to discuss the GOP tax bill and the 2018 midterms at DNC headquarters starting at 2 p.m.

FRIDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Huddle trivia loyalists, nobody correctly answered Friday's question. I'm attributing it to many folks having the day off.

TODAY'S TRIVIA - Let's try this one more time. Eli Schechner with today's question: Which future member of Congress was born on the exact day that a U.S. President was assassinated? The first person to answer correctly gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your best guess my way: hcaygle@politico.com.

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