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Today's Playbook Power Briefing presented by PhRMA

By ANNA PALMER (anna@politico.com; @apalmerdc), JAKE SHERMAN (sherman@politico.com; @JakeSherman), DANIEL LIPPMAN (daniel@politico.com; @dlippman) and ZACH MONTELLARO (zmontellaro@politico.com; @ZachMontellaro)


BREAKING -- AP at 12:54 p.m.: "WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. awarded $30 million in contracts for Puerto Rico storm victims to unproven Florida company that failed to supply aid." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=13fbe106763b2b7dacf0878900947ac6c7168c9117eb4031a1d745ebe415cec64c97db4bc5f369bd307aed469bae882f

ABOUT THAT WHITE HOUSE MEETING ... SENATE MINORITY LEADER CHUCK SCHUMER (D-N.Y.) and HOUSE MINORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI (D-CALIF.) abruptly pulled out of a West Wing meeting with PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SPEAKER PAUL RYAN and SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY.).

THE TWEET THAT TWEAKED PELOSI AND SCHUMER ... at 9:17 a.m.: "Meeting with 'Chuck and Nancy' today about keeping government open and working. Problem is they want illegal immigrants flooding into our Country unchecked, are weak on Crime and want to substantially RAISE Taxes. I don't see a deal!"

JOINT PELOSI/SCHUMER STATEMENT: "Given that the President doesn't see a deal between Democrats and the White House, we believe the best path forward is to continue negotiating with our Republican counterparts in Congress instead. Rather than going to the White House for a show meeting that won't result in an agreement, we've asked Leader McConnell and Speaker Ryan to meet this afternoon. We don't have any time to waste in addressing the issues that confront us, so we're going to continue to negotiate with Republican leaders who may be interested in reaching a bipartisan agreement.

"If the President, who already said earlier this year that 'our country needs a good shutdown,' isn't interested in addressing the difficult year end agenda, we'll work with those Republicans who are, as we did in April. We look forward to continuing to work in good faith, as we have been for the last month, with our Republican colleagues in Congress to do just that."

-- UPON HEARING that Democrats pulled out, STENY HOYER, the No. 2 House Democrat, flashed a thumbs up and said, that after he saw the tweet he thought, "Mr. President, you're on your own," according to Kyle Cheney of POLITICO's Hill team.

-- MCCONNELL, RYAN STILL GOING TO 1600 PENN: Their statement: "We have important work to do, and Democratic leaders have continually found new excuses not to meet with the administration to discuss these issues. Democrats are putting government operations, particularly resources for our men and women on the battlefield, at great risk by pulling these antics. There is a meeting at the White House this afternoon, and if Democrats want to reach an agreement, they will be there."

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ...

-- THIS WAS UNEXPECTED. This wasn't a long-thought-of coordinated stunt. Schumer and Pelosi did decide to pull out this morning. Of course, the tweet on its face was seen by Democrats as completely counterproductive. Not to mention, both Pelosi and Schumer have their own internal politics to contend with. They both want -- and need -- a DACA deal. Sitting down with the president after he dumps on their immigration policy would be tricky internal politics for Democratic leaders.

-- THIS IS ALSO A VERY BAD SIGN FOR THE WEEKS AHEAD. This December is the most complicated legislative month in recent memory. They have a government funding deadline, they want to rewrite the tax code, complete a DACA deal and renew the the children's health insurance program. The principals expected to make progress today. They needed to make progress today. There are just 33 days before the end of the year. Now they'll have to wait.

Good Tuesday afternoon. BUZZ ON THE HILL -- CAN CONYERS SURVIVE? -- Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers has a number of woman accusing him of improper behavior, and Pelosi has said she believes ethics attorney Melanie Sloan, who also accused him of improper behavior. Can Conyers hold on?

HAPPENING TOMORROW! -- SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FLA.) will sit down with us for the Playbook Interview Wednesday at 8 a.m. at the Liaison Hotel on Capitol Hill (415 New Jersey Ave., NW). http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3b45a63a1b149e7f24faaeb8c7a1ea500e8892367bcb7b7d9030a3efc60c773f69d67b5c9068206f3f80c64d8eee3767

TRUMP INC. -- "Trump Paid Over $1 Million in Labor Settlement, Documents Reveal," by NYT's Charles Bagli: "In 1980, under pressure to begin construction on what would become his signature project, Donald J. Trump employed a crew of 200 undocumented Polish workers who worked in 12-hour shifts, without gloves, hard hats or masks, to demolish the Bonwit Teller building on Fifth Avenue, where the 58-story, golden-hued Trump Tower now stands.

"The workers were paid as little as $4 an hour for their dangerous labor, less than half the union wage, if they got paid at all. Their treatment led to years of litigation over Mr. Trump's labor practices, and in 1998, despite frequent claims that he never settles lawsuits, Mr. Trump quietly reached an agreement to end a class-action suit over the Bonwit Teller demolition in which he was a defendant.

"For almost 20 years, the terms of that settlement have remained a secret. But last week, the settlement documents were unsealed by Loretta A. Preska, a United States District Court judge for the Southern District ... The documents show that Mr. Trump paid a total of $1.375 million to settle the case, known as Hardy v. Kaszycki, with $500,000 of it going to a union benefits fund and the rest to pay lawyers' fees and expenses. According to the documents, one of the union lawyers involved asked the judge to ensure 'prompt payment' from Mr. Trump, suggesting 'within two weeks after the settlement date.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=13fbe106763b2b7d60d5356b8e2ba90bf65210584edfe5d8986d02bb9ae969d028a29d7792e62919eb87e9c85335c491

****** A message from PhRMA: How much are hospitals marking up medicine prices? According to new Moran Company analysis, hospitals mark up medicine prices nearly 500 percent. The analysis of 20 medicines also found a hospital is paid 2.5 times what the biopharmaceutical company, who brought the medicine to market, receives. Read more: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3b45a63a1b149e7f52953e308402cf3c285298cf42cff0eaeb0d70d1ab538245e859f156dac349bd65f9522322074692 ******

HMM... -- "How a House Dem accused of drunken shenanigans revealed another secret 'hush fund'," by The Washington Times' S.A. Miller: "Rep. Raul M. Grijalva quietly arranged a 'severance package' in 2015 for one of his top staffers who threatened a lawsuit claiming the Arizona Democrat was frequently drunk and created a hostile workplace environment, revealing yet another way that lawmakers can use taxpayer dollars to hide their misbehavior on Capitol Hill.

"While the Office of Compliance has been the focus of outrage on Capitol Hill for hush-money payouts in sexual harassment cases, the Grijalva payout points to another office that lawmakers can use to sweep accusations under the rug with taxpayer-funded settlements negotiated by the House Employment Counsel, which acts as the attorney for all House offices. The employment counsel negotiated a deal for taxpayers to give $48,395 -- five additional months' salary -- to the female aide, who left her job after three months. She didn't pursue the hostile workplace complaint further. ...

"Mr. Grijalva, Arizona Democrat, told The Washington Times that the pay was a severance package and that the agreement was reached without a complaint lodged with the Office of Compliance, which handles workplace grievances by congressional employees. 'On the advice of House Employment Counsel, I provided a severance package to a former employee who resigned. The severance did not involve the Office of Compliance and at no time was any allegation of sexual harassment made, and no sexual harassment occurred,' Mr. Grijalva said in an email to The Washington Times." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=13fbe106763b2b7de0372adce9838e20d6ca30e3b82f416acc68cc81e14d820e2e24b0845f80fea290d14d0ed50fd630

FOR YOUR RADAR -- "Navajo Nation president calls Trump's 'Pocahontas' quip an ethnic slur," by Nolan McCaskill: "Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye told CNN that the president's injection of a political attack during a ceremony honoring Navajo code talkers was 'uncalled for.'

"'This was a day to honor them, and to insert something like that -- the word 'Pocahontas' as a jab to a senator -- you know, that belongs on the campaign trail,' Begaye said. 'That doesn't belong in the room when our war heroes are being honored.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=13fbe106763b2b7d2a5c6a039db94bef44cf8d5dc30dd11ef0bcf4183e9678ce09aff859f282ef649b59962924da314a

ON THE PRESIDENT'S MIND -- @realDonaldTrump at 7:45 a.m.: "At least 24 players kneeling this weekend at NFL stadiums that are now having a very hard time filling up. The American public is fed up with the disrespect the NFL is paying to our Country, our Flag and our National Anthem. Weak and out of control!" ... at 8:00 a.m.: "Melania, our great and very hard working First Lady, who truly loves what she is doing, always thought that 'if you run, you will win.' She would tell everyone that, 'no doubt, he will win.' I also felt I would win (or I would not have run) - and Country is doing great!" The president also retweeted his daughter, wife, and State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert.

ATTN PRESIDENT TRUMP -- JET-SETTER -- FORMER PRESIDENT OBAMA will be traveling abroad starting today until Dec. 2. He is in China today through Nov. 30 and will meet with President Xi Jinping tomorrow. He'll hold "private meetings" and has speaking engagements booked. He will then travel to New Delhi, India until Dec. 1, where he will meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and participate in an Obama Foundation town hall. He will then travel to Paris until Dec. 2.

-- "Pence to travel to Israel, address Knesset," by Louis Nelson: "Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday that he will travel to Israel next month and address its legislative body, the Knesset. Pence spoke in New York to mark the 70th anniversary of the United Nations vote that established Israel as a sovereign state. He delivered his remarks at the Queens Museum, the site of the UN vote, and was introduced by Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=13fbe106763b2b7dc7e37b965414fffae30c33ad1a5c7a3e8b8687da4f2b757327b378c329237f6378fc80a83815b60f

MANAFORT'S WEB -- "Florida lawmaker's former company used Manafort to pitch Russian-developed technology to U.S. government," by POLITICO Florida's Matt Dixon: "Florida House freshman Don Hahnfeldt ran a company in the early 2000s that hired Manafort -- President Donald Trump's former campaign chief who was recently indicted -- to try to sell Russian-developed nuclear containment foam to the U.S. Energy Department. At one point, a Manafort-directed company bought more than 2 million shares of company stock. The story of the now-defunct, Virginia-based EuroTech Ltd. doesn't just involve Russia -- it's also ingrained with other obscure plot elements worthy of the silver screen, including
officials with known ties to the mafia and an untraceable cash flow from Cayman Island investors, according to thousands of pages of regulatory filings." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3b45a63a1b149e7fd3e5dc80f194a31eef23f857dc973d4a0a67a5334869434c9bed4fd3d570c60218e07f729402f907

ON THE WORLD STAGE -- "Gold Trader to Tell U.S. Jury Inside Story of Turkish Corruption," by Bloomberg's Christian Berthelsen and Bob Van Voris: "Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader at the center of an international corruption case that has strained relations between the U.S. and Turkey, is set to tell a New York jury the 'inside story' of a plot to evade American sanctions on Iran that reached the highest levels of the Turkish government, a prosecutor said.

"Zarrab is the U.S. government's most important witness in the prosecution of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a deputy chief executive officer at Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS, who is accused of conspiring with Zarrab to launder money and funnel Iranian funds through the U.S. financial system. Zarrab, who has pleaded guilty after being charged with Atilla, is likely to take the witness stand on Wednesday. The disclosure of Zarrab's cooperation roiled markets in Turkey." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3b45a63a1b149e7f01f6197f44810487963f5431b5a400ce9d3e22d5afe8931466a87a80667e3fe5c2f142d8eee1c668

ANOTHER PROBLEM FOR P.R. -- "Drugmakers Hold Key to Puerto Rico's Future in Tax Overhaul," by Bloomberg's Rebecca Spalding: "After Puerto Rico's ailing economy was crippled by Hurricane Maria, the island's leaders fear that the Republican tax overhaul could deliver another devastating blow. The legislation, passed by the House this month and under debate in the Senate this week, would end provisions that turned Puerto Rico into a medical manufacturing hub. Drug and device makers have poured billions into the U.S. territory, creating thousands of jobs and powering almost a third of its economic output.

"Officials worry that the proposal will smother the island as it grapples with as much as $100 billion in storm damage, an exodus of workers and the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3b45a63a1b149e7f1e162c6c8e44065752a488569481275de0cf2fcc83c59302166fb527e262a58096fa2ba403196348

TODAY'S BEYOND THE BELTWAY -- Who Gutiérrez will endorse to replace him in Congress -- California lawmaker resigns after sexual harassment claims http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3b45a63a1b149e7f75162b2876dd7ddc90659a9669a9f314546359a0ef7e08e1ce097d8627afa98feebf09822eef8dfc

NEW OFF MESSAGE -- ISAAC DOVERE talks with RACHAEL BADE and ELANA SCHOR in this week's podcast about their reporting on sexual harassment on the Hill, why the Al Franken and John Conyers situations are resonating differently than the accusations against Donald Trump, how much more is coming -- and their own experiences with sources who've suddenly started sending them poetry and commenting on their blouses. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3b45a63a1b149e7fce1f0f0aeeac14469a1a5546e6f249d3805c6e75cc26603fca769d03e0d87e5c9b161322dee19949

THE RUSSIA REPORT -- "Dance colleague identifies Putin's younger daughter," by Reuters' Jack Stubbs and Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber in Moscow: "A colleague of Katerina Tikhonova from the world of acrobatic rock'n'roll has confirmed that she is the younger daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The confirmation from a World Rock'n'Roll Confederation (WRRC) official comes two years after Reuters first disclosed Tikhonova's relationship to the president and was publicly challenged post publication. ... Putin, a former KGB intelligence officer, is famously guarded about his private life and has fought to keep his two daughters, Maria and Katerina, away from the public eye."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3b45a63a1b149e7f98dafac1f4ec799f46b1d283b2fe5097eb72b9edf096f34cfd70a976e2c0ebb2eb765b4bb99abc77

VALLEY TALK -- CRAIG SILVERMAN in BuzzFeed -- "Social Platforms Promised A Level Playing Field For All. The Russian Trolls Showed That Was Never True": "If you can't tell whether a Facebook or Twitter account is run by an American, a Macedonian spammer, or a Russian troll, then that's great news for the Macedonians and Russians, or others seeking to push false information on social media. The fact that so much attention could be harvested on social media by fostering division, confusion, and conflict speaks volumes about American politics and society -- but also about these massive platforms that cloak themselves in the values and talk of liberal democracies.

"One of the unintended consequences of the so-called 'flattening' effect of platforms is that, by ostensibly putting everyone on the same level, you empower those who become experts at gaming the system. By democratizing media on platforms that reward pure attention capture, you enable manipulation on a profound scale. Thanks to the internet, the marketplace of ideas is more open and more democratized than ever before. Yet thanks to social platforms, it's also been rigged to reward those who can manipulate human emotion and cognition to trigger the almighty algorithms that pick winners and losers." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3b45a63a1b149e7f185938c18960248501526a59cc759afd17486799cb68b3b835706735131f9d0fb5829b1e7745fd69

MEDIAWATCH -- NADEAM ELSHAMI, Pelosi's former chief of staff and current EVP at Signal Group, has been named a CNN political commentator.

-- A LITTLE BIRDIE TELLS US... "Wednesday's episode of 'Designated Survivor' on ABC was written by Pat Cunnane, former senior writer and deputy director of messaging in Obama's White House. Cunnane's book, 'West Winging It,' will be published by Gallery Books in Spring 2018."

DESSERT -- "Here Are Your 2018 Grammy Nominees," by Vulture's Dee Lockett: Jay-Z leads the pack with eight nominations http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3b45a63a1b149e7fcafb2b6f69cc60c3f7aed1a8b7b9d5555400f52d4d5d3b2e16cd2e37e58037a7dc59e9c45f1c3f96

SPOTTED: Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) having dinner last night at Joe's near the White House ... Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) "running" through Logan airport this morning to try to make his shuttle to D.C., according to a tipster.

TRANSITIONS -- Andrew Brady has joined the Association of American Railroads as an assistant VP for government affairs. He was previously at the American Public Transportation Association.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Douglas Farrar, senior manager of communications and public affairs at the Aspen Institute, and Katie Farrar, a realtor at the Garrison Breck Group, TTR Sotheby's International Realty, welcomed Margaret Jane Farrar yesterday at 2:29 a.m. "She weighs 7 pounds, 20 ounces and is named after her great grandmother of the same first and last name and her middle name is Jane for her granny, the late Carol Jane Lancaster." Pic http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3b45a63a1b149e7f4549b276e9111aa62c643169523f0c0a13a33b5c5a14682aae0b0362c792a66b76f54f5bfaa3143a

****** A message from PhRMA: According to new analysis from the Moran Company, hospitals mark up medicine prices, on average, nearly 500 percent. The analysis of 20 medicines also found a hospital is paid 2.5 times what the biopharmaceutical company, who brought the medicine to market, receives. While hospital markups lead to higher costs for patients, employers and payers, these markups are often overlooked in conversations about medicine costs. As the provider market continues to become more concentrated and the number of medicines being administered in hospital-owned facilities is growing, the amount hospitals mark up medicine prices needs greater scrutiny.
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