| Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1969, "Sesame Street" made its debut. Yip yip yip yip yip, uh-huh, uh-huh-uh-huh! Favorite character? Oscar The Grouch of course! | | |  | The big idea | | Welcome to the latest Repubican purity test … on infrastructure |  (Washington Post illustration; Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post; iStock) | | | Right-wing House Republicans enthralled by former president Donald Trump want to purge 13 of their GOP colleagues for the crime of voting for President Biden's bipartisan infrastructure law — and siding with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in the process. Alternately, those House Republicans, with Trump raging supportively from the sidelines, are looking to punish colleagues for giving Biden a much-needed policy and political victory. The law is something for Democrats to sell to voters as the country heads into a midterm elections cycle in which — history says — the president's party can expect a drubbing. Welcome to the latest Republican purity test of 2021. Once again, House Republican leaders must decide how to balance protecting their members against a desire to wring every political advantage possible from the volatile former president's profound intraparty popularity. Trump himself locked on to the question of even limited GOP cooperation with Biden months ago — on July 26, with the first of nine statements through Tuesday night denouncing any Republicans who went along with the president's $1.2 trillion package. They're "weak fools and losers!" (July 26). Led by "SUPER RINO [Republican in name only] Mitt Romney" (July 28). They're "desperate to push bad, Radical Leftist policies?" (July 30). "If Mitch McConnell was smart, which we've seen no evidence of …" (Aug. 7). The bill is "what's best for the Communist Democrat Party" (Aug. 8). And "Mitch McConnell is the most overrated man in politics—now I don't have to be quiet anymore" (Aug 10). There's more! "All Republicans who voted for Democrat longevity should be ashamed of themselves, in particular Mitch McConnell" (Nov. 7). "Old Crow Mitch McConnell voted for a terrible Democrat Socialist Infrastructure Plan" (Nov. 9). | | My colleagues Marianna Sotomayor, Paul Kane and Josh Dawsey reported Tuesday night that Trump also complained about the 13 House GOP yes votes "at a private event hosted by the House Republican campaign arm Monday night in Florida." "'I love all the House Republicans. Well, actually I don't love all of you. I don't love the 13 that voted for Biden's infrastructure plan,' Trump said, according to the recollection of a person who attended the event and spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private gathering." | What McConnell says at home | | So why oh why would a Republican — especially a conservative — vote for the bill? Let's ask McConnell! "Given Kentucky's recent infrastructure report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers, McConnell said he is proud of that infrastructure bill," WKYT's Jeremy Tombs reported on Monday. "I'm surprised we even got a C. We have a lot of infrastructure needs, both in rural areas and with big bridges. It's a godsend for Kentucky," McConnell said, according to Tombs. (In the WKYT report, McConnell also expressed hope Kentucky would benefit from cash Congress appropriated in Biden's American Rescue Plan Act, which passed without a single Republican vote. States get money irrespective of whether their D.C. delegation votes for it.) According to a similar report on Monday, from WVXU's Tana Weingartner and Ryland Barton, McConnell noted infrastructure "enjoys a 75% approval rating, passed on a bi-partisan basis, and I think it was the right thing to do." The belief that large investments to shore up the nation's infrastructure, including in conservative, rural areas that vote for Trump, are "the right thing to do" is not widely shared among House Republicans, to put it mildly. At least when there's a Democratic president. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called the package a "Social Spending Scam." Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), who leads the conservative House Freedom Caucus, declared on Twitter "Republicans who voted for the Democrats' socialist spending bill are the very reason why Americans don't trust Congress." | | (Concerns about massive government outlays were not exactly prevalent under Trump. The $2.2 trillion pandemic stimulus known as the Cares Act sailed through the House in March 2020 in a 419-6 vote, with three Democrats providing half the "no" votes.) Marianna, Paul and Josh also reported how "[f]ormer Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said in an interview on Stephen K. Bannon's 'War Room' podcast Tuesday that all 13 members should 'absolutely' be stripped of their committee assignments by House leadership in the coming days." That would require McCarthy to go after lawmakers who are the top Republican members on committees or subcommittees. Of the 13, a majority hold that distinction, which often reflects seniority, expertise, or the trust of party leadership. For some of the 13 Republicans, any punishment would be short-lived. Reps. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) and Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio) aren't seeking reelection. One, Rep. David B. McKinley (W.Va.) could have to face a fellow Republican because his state is losing a seat in reapportionment. The more far-reaching effects may be felt by House GOP leaders, who in recent decades have watched intraparty coups topple their predecessors. | | Washington Post reporting | "Mark Meadows said in an interview on Stephen K. Bannon's 'War Room' podcast Tuesday that all 13 members should 'absolutely' be stripped of their committee assignments by House leadership in the coming days." | | | | | | | | |  | What's happening now | |  Tractor-trailer trucks wait to enter the Seagirt Marine Terminal at the Port of Baltimore in Baltimore. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News) | | Prices climbed 6.2 percent in October compared to last year — the largest increase in 30 years | | "Overall prices rose 0.9 percent in October compared with September, tying June for the biggest one-month increase in prices this year. Airline fares and alcoholic beverages were among the few categories to decline in October," Rachel Siegel and Andrew Van Dam report. | - "Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other White House officials had initially said inflation would prove 'transitory.' They have been largely consistent in sticking to their message that it would fade with time. But Wednesday's report showing an increase in inflation had complicated that message."
| Igor Danchenko pleads not guilty to lying to FBI about Steele dossier | | "An analyst who contributed to a 2016 dossier of allegations regarding former president Donald Trump's ties to Russia has pleaded not guilty to charges that he repeatedly lied to the FBI about his sources of information," Rachel Weiner reports. | Data broker shared billions of phone location records with D.C. government as part of covid-tracking effort | | "The sharing of the raw phone location data was pitched as uniquely valuable for tracking the covid pandemic, the records show. But the provision of the records for six months to the D.C. government's Department of Health also shows the potential for abuse of such data, which is generally collected without consumers' knowledge and then resold to both public and private buyers," Drew Harwell reports. | Coronavirus infections rise in northern states, Mountain West, as holidays near | | "Twenty-four states have seen at least a 5 percent increase in cases over the past two weeks, led by New Hampshire with a 63 percent increase, Vermont with 50 percent, New Mexico with 48 percent, Minnesota with 42 percent and Nebraska with 37 percent. The aggregate national caseload, having eased for two months, begin ticking up after hitting a low of about 69,000 new cases a day in late October. On Tuesday that average topped 75,000," Carolyn Y. Johnson, Joel Achenbach and Jacqueline Dupree report. | U.S. will speed coronavirus vaccines to conflict zones | | The Biden administration is expected to announce today that it has struck a deal to get more coronavirus vaccines to conflict zones around the world, Axios's Tina Reed scoops. "As part of the deal, the U.S. government will also donate 1.5 million doses of extra domestic supply of J&J shots to [COVAX, the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access initiative] for people in conflict zones or other humanitarian settings, such as for migrants or asylum seekers." | | |  | Lunchtime reads from The Post | |  Chanting "White lives matter!" "You will not replace us!" and "Jews will not replace us!" several hundred white nationalists and white supremacists carrying torches marched in a parade through the University of Virginia campus. (Evelyn Hockstein/The Washington Post) | | White supremacists find a new platform to spread hate: A federal courtroom in Charlottesville | | "Defendants are using a trial about the 2017 Unite the Right rally as an opportunity to spew the hate they've been banned from some social media platforms for expressing," Ellie Silverman reports. "This is kind of unprecedented in terms of real-time doxing that the defendants are able to facilitate in the middle of a court proceeding," said Oren Segal, the vice president of the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League. "All of them understand that in some ways, the performance that they put on over the next month is going to sort of set themselves up for whether or not they still have whatever following they will have." | Donors threatened to shun the GOP after Jan. 6. Now, Republicans are outraising Democrats. | | After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, scores of donors and companies issued statements vowing to withhold or rethink their funding for the GOP. But the threats — cumulatively, at least — appear to have been empty. "A review of attendees at elite donor retreats, financial filings and interviews with party officials, donors and fundraisers indicates the GOP has had a booming financial year, retaining significant support from many Fortune 500 companies and the city's most influential lobbying shops, including some contributors who initially balked in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack," Josh Dawsey, Isaac Stanley-Becker and Michael Scherer report. | Meet the young generation risking it all to topple the Myanmar junta | | "The members of the resistance vow to fight the 'final battle' against military rule. Their utterly changed worlds since the February coup paint a portrait of sacrifice and resolve in a Burmese generation who, unlike their parents, grew up in a world of smartphones and greater political freedoms. Many are willing to pay any price to overthrow a government they say threatens to take them back to a darker past," Reuters's Poppy McPherson and Shoon Naing report. | The political war around daylight saving time takes a nasty turn | | Jay Pea and Scott Yates are "among the most prominent voices in the debate over how we structure the timing of our days," Politico's Hailey Fuchs reports. "They also seemingly despise each other." "That these two men could be at such bitter odds is both a microcosm of the current bare-knuckled nature of politics and an illustration of how even the debate over switching the time on the clock has become more mainstreamed and polarizing in recent years." | | |  | The Biden agenda | |  President Biden speaks to the media about the passage of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill on Nov. 6. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock) | | Biden Administration to invest another $785 million in communities hardest hit by pandemic | | "This new infusion of money builds on billions of dollars invested in equity-focused programs, such as expanding access to vaccines at community health centers and supporting health workers, that have helped decrease disparities in death rates and closed racial and ethnic gaps in vaccination rates among adults," Akilah Johnson reports. | Biden-Xi virtual summit expected next week | | "Ahead of an expected virtual meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the country is willing to work with the U.S. — on condition of mutual respect," CNBC's Evelyn Cheng reports. "Beijing typically uses the term 'mutual respect' in calling for more favorable communication with the U.S." | Rising oil prices v. climate pledges | | "Rising oil prices have handed President Biden a dilemma at a politically precarious time," the Wall Street Journal's Benoit Faucon and Timothy Puko report. "His administration's ambitious agenda to stem global warming calls for a shift away from fossil fuels. Yet Mr. Biden is now urging the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase production to ease shortages and lower prices." | Will Biden's vaping tax lead people back to cigarettes? | | "House Democrats are poised to vote on imposing a new federal excise tax on e-cigarettes—but without a tax increase on traditional cigarettes—leading some public-health experts to warn that the provision could push vapers back to cigarette smoking," WSJ's Jennifer Maloney and Richard Rubin report. | | |  | New TSA checkpoints at Reagan National Airport, visualized | | | "New checkpoints opened Tuesday morning at Reagan National Airport, offering a speedier security process and what airport officials say is an upgraded experience befitting an airport that serves as a gateway to the nation's capital," our colleague Lori Aratani reports. | | |  | Hot on the left | | Some Gen Z job applicants are scrubbing campus political activism from their résumés | | "After a surge of campus activism during the Trump years, a growing number of Gen Z job seekers are now discovering a downside to their political engagement. While employers say they are eager for diversity and advise applicants to 'bring their whole selves' to the job hunt, Mackenzie, [a college senior from Texas,] and some of her peers don't trust them to look beyond ideology," Jennifer Miller reports. "Many young partisans are playing it safe, censoring political content from their résumés or limiting their job search to politically friendly bubbles. Is this the right move?" | | |  | Hot on the right | |  Republican Senate candidate Sean Parnell walks to a courtroom at the Butler County Courthouse for the second day of his child custody trial on Monday. (Andrew Rush/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP) | | Sean Parnell's custody case is in a judge's hands after testimony that shook the Penn. Senate campaign | | "Senate candidate Sean Parnell's contentious custody case ended Tuesday after three days of grueling testimony and sharp questions that seem certain to follow one of Pennsylvania's top Republican contenders for the rest of his campaign," the Philadelphia Inquirer's Jonathan Tamari reports. "Parnell's estranged wife, Laurie Snell, with whom he shares three children, has accused him of multiple forms of abuse, including strangling her and hitting one of their children so hard he left a fingerprint-shaped welt on the child's back. She said Parnell has called her a "piece of s---" and said he once told her to get an abortion," Nick Keppler and Michael Scherer report. Parnell has denied the allegations. | | |  | Today in Washington | | | Biden will attend the funeral of former Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner at 1 p.m. in Milford, Del. At 2:20 p.m., the president will head toward Baltimore. He will be briefed at 3:40 p.m. while on the Port of Baltimore. At 4:10 p.m., Biden will give a speech touting the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal before returning to the White House. | | |  | In closing | |  A soldier with the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, known as "The Old Guard," moves flowers during a centennial commemoration event at the Tomb of the Unknowns on Tuesday in Arlington National Cemetery. (Alex Brandon / Pool via AP Photo) | | | On Tuesday, thousands laid flowers at the Tomb of the Unknowns to mark its centennial. The event will continue until 4 p.m. today, and a memorial procession will take place Thursday. Fredrick Kunkle describes the scene. |  A nun prays after placing flowers during a centennial commemoration event at the Tomb of the Unknowns Tuesday in Arlington National Cemetery. (Alex Brandon/Pool via Reuters) | | | Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow. | | |
