Democrats outsmart Mitch McConnell on the debt limit but are still trying to solve their Joe Manchin problem, former Obama pollster Cornell Belcher offers his read on how to frame Republican extremism ahead of the midterms, and Fox News suffers a critical casualty in the War on Christmas. 

Show Notes

Congress update

• TRUMP ON HUGH HEWITT 
• NBC: Biden signs government funding bill into law, avoiding shutdown
• CNN: Congress votes to avoid government shutdown
• Axios: Congressional leaders clinch support for crucial defense bill, debt limit votes
• Politico: House Republicans seethe over Senate GOP’s debt deal
• Barrons: Sen. Manchin Won’t Pledge to Support Biden’s Social Spending Bill
• The Hill: Manchin warns about inflation as Democrats pursue Biden spending bill
• Politico: Dems weigh forcing Manchin’s hand on their $1.7T megabill
• Atlantic: Why Mitch McConnell Caved Again
• CNN: 10 things you didn’t know are in the Democrats’ Build Back Better bill
• NYT: Joe Biden and the Political Limits of Competence
• WSJ: Look at Build Back Better’s Benefits, Not Its Price Tag
• WaPo: The big, ugly truth that Biden cannot conceal from the world about the U.S.
• Business Insider:  Mitch McConnell is taking a big gamble on lifting the debt limit that could spark a GOP revolt over blowing a hole in the filibuster
• Salon: Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren demand end to filibuster to save abortion rights
• NYT: Biden Is Open to Scrapping Filibuster for Voting Rights Bill ‘and Maybe More’

Midterms 

• @alexnazaryan Tweet
• @ChadPergram Tweet 
• @RepMattGaetz Tweet
• WaPo: Okay, let’s talk about Trump for House speaker
• MediaMatters: House Speaker Trump? A brief history of the idea
• NYMag: Freedom Caucus Troublemakers Are Poised for a Comeback
• CNN: Marjorie Taylor Greene lays out demands for GOP House speaker vote if Republicans retake majority in 2022
• TNR: “It All Burns”
• NBC: Cornell Belcher on Meet The Press in 2019

Fox Christmas tree 

• NYT: Fox News Christmas Tree Catches Fire in Manhattan
• Curtis Houck tweet
• Media Matters’ Bobby Lewis tweet
• Media Matters’ Bobby Lewis tweet
• Media Matters’ Bobby Lewis tweet
• Media Matters’ Bobby Lewis tweet
• Media Matters’ Bobby Lewis tweet
• Fox contributor Raymond Arroyo tweet
• Matt Negrin tweet
• Parker Molloy tweet
• Bryan Tyler Cohen tweet
• Charlotte Clymer tweet
• Fox Nation tweet
• Vanity Fair: FOX NEWS WOULD LIKE TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT TUCKER CARLSON’S DERANGED JANUARY 6 SHOW IS NOT ON FOX NEWS
• Media Matters: Six months after January 6, right-wing media have waged a full-scale campaign to cover up the events
• Media Matters: Right-wing figures have decided that the person to blame for January 6 is Nancy Pelosi
• Media Matters: 15 days after the Capitol attack, Fox regular calls white supremacists and domestic terrorism “a mythical bogeyman
• Slate: Fox News Can Barely Admit the Capitol Riot Is a Story
• Media Matters: After insurrection, Fox host asks GOP: “You had no problem with President Trump up until this week. So what happened?”
• Quartz: There isn’t going to be a post-Trump pivot at Fox News
• MediaMatters: Fox News host defends the Jan. 6 insurrectionists: “They love freedom”
• MediaMatters: Right-wing media claim Capitol Hill rioters are actually “antifa”

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