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POLITICO Playbook: Merry Christmas!

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DRIVING THE DAY

MERRY CHRISTMAS! … SPOTTED: Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump having Christmas Day brunch at the Ritz in Paris. Pic
CATCHING UP WITH TRUMP, from USA Today’s MICHAEL COLLINS’ pool reports yesterday: THE PRESIDENT went to church at Family Church in West Palm Beach -- he typically has attended Bethesda-By-the-Sea in Palm Beach.
PALM BEACH POST: “Inside the church, the Trumps were treated to an eclectic modern Christmas service featuring a brass orchestra, electric guitars, a Baptist-style choir, a capella and floating artificial snow flakes. It was a different atmosphere than the Episcopalian service they usually attend.”
FROM COLLINS’ POOL REPORT: “Asked if he prayed for Speaker Pelosi at church, POTUS said: ‘We’re going to have a great year.’” …
-- WHAT DID TRUMP get Melania, one soldier asked the president on his teleconference with troops: “That’s a tough question …. I got her a beautiful card. … A lot of love. We love our family, and we love each other. We’ve had a great relationship, hopefully like you do with your spouses. … I’m still working on a Christmas present. There’s a little time left. Not much, but a little time left.”
-- AFTER THE TELECONFERENCE the president complained about impeachment: “Now they come to the Senate, they want everything. … Look at what they did. We weren’t entitled to witnesses. We weren’t entitled to lawyers. They would leak everything …. They would leak selectively. They treated us worse than anybody has been treated from a legal standpoint in the history of the United States.”
FOR THE RECORD: The president was afforded lawyers during the open phase of impeachment.
MORE FROM COLLINS’ POOL REPORT: “Will he pardon Roger Stone? ‘I haven’t thought about it. ... he he got hit very hard as did Gen. Flynn and a lot of other people. And now they are finding out it was all a hoax.’”
PHOTOS from the president’s Christmas Eve dinner, via the Palm Beach Post. (Including a photo of Trump and Alan Dershowitz chatting at Mar-a-Lago) ... ALEX OVECHKIN was also at Mar-a-Lago, per the Daily Mail
THE WHITE HOUSE called a travel photo lid this morning at 8:51 a.m., per WSJ’s Alexa Course.
THE POPE’S Christmas message … AP/Vatican City: “ Pope Francis offered a Christmas message of hope Wednesday against darkness that cloaks conflicts and relationships in large parts of the world from the Middle East to the Americas to Africa.
“The pope told tens of thousands of tourists, pilgrims and Romans gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the annual Christmas Day message that ‘the light of Christ is greater’ than the darkness ‘in human hearts’ and ‘in economic, geopolitical and ecological conflicts.’ …
“The pope cited the Syrian people ‘who still see no end to the hostilities that have rent their country over the last decade’ as well as Israel, where Jesus ‘was born as the savior of mankind and where so many people -- struggling but not discouraged -- still await a time of peace, security and prosperity.’ …
“He noted that a number of countries in the Americas ‘are experiencing a time of social and political upheaval,’ citing ‘the beloved Venezuelan people, long tried by their political and social tensions.’
“The pope also noted migrants forced by injustice ‘to emigrate in the hope of a secure life.’ Instead of finding acceptance, Francis said injustice continues along their journey, where they often face abuse, enslavement and torture in ‘inhumane detention camps’ and death during dangerous sea and desert crossings. And once migrants arrive in ‘places where they might have hoped for a dignified life’ ... they ‘instead find themselves before walls of indifference,’ he said.” AP
Good Wednesday morning.
THE RESISTANCE or something? … NYT: “Cuomo Blocks Judges Picked by Trump From Officiating Weddings in N.Y.,” by Jesse McKinley in Albany: “Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s feud with President Trump has covered all manner of topics, including taxes, immigration policy and whether America was ever ‘great.’
“Now, however, the governor has brought their skirmish to a whole new battleground: marriage. In an end-of-year kibosh, Mr. Cuomo has vetoed a bill that would have permitted federal appeals and district court judges from around the nation to preside over nuptials in New York, thus denying them inclusion on a lengthy list of those so empowered, including the governor himself.
“And like the decision to tie the knot, the reasoning for Mr. Cuomo’s disapproval — signed on Friday — was distinctly personal. ‘I cannot in good conscience support legislation that would authorize such actions by federal judges who are appointed by this federal administration,’ he wrote. ‘President Trump does not embody who we are as New Yorkers.’”
DEPT. OF GREAT RELATIONSHIPS … WAPO’S JOBY WARRICK: “North Korea never halted efforts to build powerful new weapons, experts say”
THE NEW NORM IN THE GOLDEN STATE … “How power shutoffs are changing California's way of life,” by Mackenzie Mays, Angela Hart and Colby Bermel in Sacramento: “At all levels of government — from state officials to small-town mayors — California leaders are in uncharted territory, and scrambling to adjust their plans and operations to the realities of regular disruption. For now, their only answer to calamitous wildfires is shutting off power to millions of residents in advance, which residents now lament as a man-made disaster. Mike McGuire, the state senator representing the Santa Rosa area devastated by fires in 2017, said California is “the canary in the coal mine" as climate change threatens to upend life across the world.” POLITICO
2020 WATCH …
SHOT … THE INTERCEPT: “Mike Bloomberg Exploited Prison Labor To Make 2020 Presidential Campaign Phone Calls,” by John Washington: “Former New York City mayor and multibillionaire Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg used prison labor to make campaign calls.
“Through a third-party vendor, the Mike Bloomberg 2020 campaign contracted New Jersey-based call center company ProCom, which runs calls centers in New Jersey and Oklahoma. Two of the call centers in Oklahoma are operated out of state prisons. In at least one of the two prisons, incarcerated people were contracted to make calls on behalf of the Bloomberg campaign.”
CHASER: “Bloomberg axes company using prisoners for campaign calls,” by AP’s Alexandra Jaffe: “ Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg cut ties with a contractor that used prisoners to make calls for his presidential campaign, he said in a statement Tuesday.”
THE ONE PERCENTERS (IN THE POLLS): “‘We’ve never seen spending like this’: Bloomberg, Steyer saturate airwaves,” by Maya King: “Together, Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg have poured nearly $200 million into television and digital advertising alone, with the former New York mayor spending an unprecedented $120 million in the roughly three weeks since he joined the presidential race. That’s more than double the combined ad spending of every single non-billionaire candidate in the Democratic field this entire year.”
TRUMP’S CHRISTMAS -- Nothing on the schedule.

PLAYBOOK READS

WHAT RIC GRENELL MIGHT BE READING -- REUTERS/LUSAKA and WASHINGTON: “U.S. recalls its ambassador to Zambia after gay rights row: sources”: “A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said Washington is ‘dismayed’ by the Zambian government’s statement that Ambassador Daniel Foote’s position ‘is no longer tenable.’ … Zambia’s high court last month jailed the male gay couple for 15 years for engaging in sexual relations ‘against the order of nature,’ a decision the U.S. ambassador said was horrifying.
“President Edgar Lungu said on Dec. 15 that Zambia, a major beneficiary of U.S. aid, had sent a protest letter to Washington over the remarks by Foote and was awaiting a response. A U.S. embassy source who is not allowed to issue statements told Reuters that Washington had decided to recall its ambassador because it was difficult for him to work in Zambia.” Reuters
MEDIAWATCH -- “Journalist leaves Christian Post amid its plans to attack Christianity Today,” by WaPo’s Sarah Pulliam Bailey: “[Napp] Nazworth, who sits on the editorial board as politics editor, said the website has sought to represent both sides and published both pro- and anti-Trump stories. ‘I never got the gist they were gung-ho Trumpian types,’ Nazworth said. Everything has escalated with the Christianity Today editorial.’
“Nazworth, who has been critical of Trump and suggested leaders who supported him have ‘traded their moral authority,’ said he doesn’t know what he will do next.” WaPo
-- Laura Blasey will be a multiplatform editor on the L.A. Times’ newsletters team, based in D.C. She most recently was a reporter and audio briefing host at Newsday. Announcement
-- Elizabeth Schulze is joining CNBC’s D.C. bureau as a multimedia reporter. She previously was at CNBC International in London. Talking Biz News
-- Dan Freedman is leaving Hearst Newspapers. He was a regional correspondent in Washington for New York and Connecticut newspapers. He plans to remain in D.C.

PLAYBOOKERS

Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com.
TRANSITIONS -- Ari Schaffer is now press secretary for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. He previously was special adviser for comms at the Commerce Department and is a Trump White House alum. … Varun Anand is now at Newfront Insurance in San Francisco, where he’s building out their employee benefits business. He previously was at Candid in New York City, leading their expansion, and is a Hillary Clinton and Google alum.
ENGAGED -- Kelsey Wessels, senior manager for programs and partnerships at POLITICO, and Charlie Raffensberger, assistant project manager at the Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., got engaged after her return from the PBS NewsHour/POLITICO debate in Los Angeles last week. They met through friends in D.C. Pic
WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Amy Lightbourn, communications consultant for the NYC Department of Education and an Edelman alum, and James Lightbourn, director of capital services at OSM Maritime Group and a CIT alum, recently welcomed Landon Lightbourn. Pic ... Another pic
BIRTHWEEK (was Tuesday): Samir Kapadia, COO of the Vogel Group
BIRTHDAYS: Irene Sherman … Karl Rove is 69 … Tim Miller, founder of Light Fuse Communications and contributor to The Bulwark, is 38 … Canadian PM Justin Trudeau is 48 … Brian Rabbitt, COS for A.G. Bill Barr, is 37 (h/t sister Caroline Tabler) … Lewis Lukens … Hilary Krieger, news editor for NBC’s THINK opinion section … former CEA Chair Christina Romer, now at Berkeley, is 61 … Bill Bailey, VP of government relations at Walt Disney Co., is 52 … Michelle Altman … Stephanie Mathews O’Keefe, CEO of the International Women’s Forum … Sophia Lalani, defense and foreign policy adviser to Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) (h/ts Jon Haber) … Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing … New York Assemblyman and DNC Vice Chair Michael Blake … Rachael Slobodien, COS at the CEA … Natalie Pahz … Chris Beam … Steven Luckett …
… Amanda Munger, president of the AM Group … Lisa Dallos, CEO of High 10 Media … Visa’s Grace Maumbe … Miranda Margowsky, principal at Precision Strategies … Wintta Woldemariam, policy director for House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) (h/t Paul Brathwaite) … Peter Kauffmann … Jonathan Block … Elisabeth Hire … Madhu Chugh (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Zachary Hastings Hooper is 46 … Mauritian PM Pravind Jugnauth is 58 … Anne Wall, partner at the Duberstein Group … Sarah Levin … Scott Cottington … Robert Jameson … NYT’s Michael Roston is 42 … Rebecca Pilar Buckwalter-Poza … Christopher Connell … Dan LeDuc is 59 … Kristen Shatynski … Murphie Koonce … James Fitzella … Christina Cornell … Dominic Gabello … Garrett Bess, director of government relations at Heritage Action (h/t Noah Weinrich)

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