Gifts only a politician could love
Stocking stuffers for 2023’s most high-profile political figures.
Some of you think they’ve been naughty. Some of you think they’ve been nice. And the FBI considers some of them to be under investigation.
The most headline-grabbing political figures of 2023 have had quite a mixed year. They’ve been laughed at on late night for possibly wearing height-boosting boots, scrutinized in the press so thoroughly that the Supreme Court adopted an ethics code for the first time ever, and in one case, even been kicked out of Congress.
But here at POLITICO Magazine, we think everyone deserves a gift this Christmas — something special, something personal, something that’s just for them. So we’ve curated a gift guide for this year’s most high profile politicos, from President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump to Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley, to name just a few. These gifts may not help their poll numbers (or, for some of them, their cases in court) but they’ll at least spread some holiday cheer.
“This is the fourth debate that you would be voted, in the first 20 minutes, as the most obnoxious blowhard in America.”
Can you guess who said this about GOP primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy? Scroll to the bottom for the answer.**
Vivek’s Bully Pulpit … We ran this piece before last night’s debate, and boy, do we feel prescient. Critics on both the left and the right are calling out GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy for his bullying tactics on the stage, particularly his personal attacks on Nikki Halley. Ahead of the debate, we reached out to UCLA psychologist Jaana Juvonen, who studies bullying, to find out what Ramaswamy is trying to do. She told POLITICO’s Kierra Frazier that his approach is “a very primitive strategy” — but that doesn’t mean it won’t work.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy was House Speaker for just nine months before Congress took his gavel in an historic ouster in October. Now, after nearly two decades in the House, he’s officially announced that he’s resigning. Not sure what to make of the latest McCarthy drama? These insights will have you sounding like an expert Hill observer (from POLITICO Congress Editor Kate Irby):
— McCarthy’s conservative critics frequently complain that he isn’t entirely truthful. This detail might just offer them some fodder: Two months to the day before he announced his resignation in the Wall Street Journal, POLITICO reported that he planned to resign. Make sure to point out that he not only publicly denied it at the time, but said he was planning to run for reelection.
— The first name to bring up in conversation is California Gov. Gavin Newsom. If McCarthy resigns after today at 5 p.m., as expected, Newsom gets to choose whether to hold a special election or leave the seat vacant until the next election. Share this detail to make Democrats cheer and Republicans jeer: “Remember when Rep. Duncan Hunter resigned in 2020? Newsom left the seat empty.”
— Speaking of California, share some local analysis to sound like a true Golden State expert: “This is another rough loss for the GOP in that Bakersfield/Central Valley area of California, after Devin Nunes resigned in 2021. It used to have two powerhouses in a Republican leader and Intelligence Committee chair. Now they’re both gone for way more junior members.”
— Everyone will be saying that McCarthy’s departure narrows the already thin GOP majority, and they’re right. But you can still throw a little cold water on that obvious argument, and point out that it may not change all that much: “Sure, the GOP is hanging on by its nails, but their majority was narrow from the start. Do you really think it’s going to change how leadership operates?”
Cuba Is Still in the Spy Game … On Monday, former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia Victor Manuel Rocha was arrested on espionage charges for allegedly spying for Cuba since 1981. According to Attorney General Merrick Garland, it constitutes “one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the U.S. government by a foreign agent.” So how did he get away with it for so long, and what does this tell us about Cuba’s enduring power as an espionage threat? Eric Bazail-Eimil spoke to award-winning investigative journalist and Cuba expert Jim Popkin about the broader implications of the case. Spoiler alert: “The Cubans are really good at espionage,” he says.
Kissinger Gets the Last Laugh … Even in death, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is fooling the media. Both the hagiographies and the scathing rebukes written since his death last week have accepted at face-value Kissinger’s own spin on history. But James Mann, who has studied Kissinger over the course of writing several books about foreign policy, is here to set the record straight: Here are six myths Kissinger created about himself that we’re all still falling for.
**Who Dissed answer: It was former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who sparred with Ramaswamy on the debate stage Wednesday night.
