Aktuelle Informationen von politico.com – Politics

“It’s hard to remem­ber what hypo­cri­sy loo­ked like befo­re Jules Feif­fer sket­ched it,” Todd Git­lin opi­ned in 1987.

Here’s a look at what Trump signed on Day One.

Watch: Musk salu­tes Trump inau­gu­ra­ti­on crowd lead image

Watch: Biden lea­ves Washing­ton after Trump’s swea­ring-in cerem­o­ny lead image

High­lights from Trump’s inau­gu­ra­ti­on eve ral­ly lead image

If Trump’s first inau­gu­ral address was lack­ing in the tra­di­tio­nal­ly con­ci­li­a­to­ry rhe­to­ric of vic­to­ry, his loya­lists weren’t miss­ing it that year — or expec­ting him to chan­ge cour­se.

The state’s Demo­cra­tic Gov. Gavin News­om invi­ted Trump last week, but the pre­si­dent-elect told NBC News that he felt it was “bet­ter if I went as pre­si­dent.”

James Sherk, who was behind Trump’s push to make it easier to fire fede­ral workers, is set to return to the White House.

Stone­wall Demo­crats had long gone defunct. But under Trump, it’s back.

Every week poli­ti­cal car­too­nists throug­hout the coun­try and across the poli­ti­cal spec­trum app­ly their ink-stained skills to cap­tu­re the foi­bles, memes, hypo­cri­sies and other head-slap­ping events in the world of poli­tics. The fruits of the­se labors are hundreds of car­toons that enter­tain and enra­ge rea­ders of all poli­ti­cal stripes. Here’s an offe­ring of the best of this week’s crop, picked fresh off the Too­no­sphe­re. Edi­ted by Matt Wuer­ker.

DNC lea­der­ship can­di­da­te Micha­el Bla­ke talks what Dems need to be exci­ting lead image

DNC chair can­di­da­te says Dems need a lea­der for ‘war­ti­me foo­ting’ lead image

Should Biden have drop­ped out ear­lier? DNC can­di­da­tes for vice chair respond lead image

Ossoff, the first-term Demo­crat, would defeat other poten­ti­al Repu­bli­can rivals.

The forum fea­tures can­di­da­tes for Chair, Vice Chair, Vice Chair of Civic Enga­ge­ment and Voter Par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on, Secre­ta­ry, and Tre­asurer.

The New Geor­gia Pro­ject and its action fund did not dis­c­lo­se mil­li­ons of dol­lars in expen­dit­ures that sought to boost Stacey Abrams in the 2018 guber­na­to­ri­al race.

The race has so far focu­sed on par­ty mecha­nics. That could chan­ge with Shakir’s can­di­da­cy.

Ban­non urges Trump to era­di­ca­te ‘wea­po­niza­ti­on’ of govern­ment lead image

Ban­non: Musk ‘does­n’t have much power’ over Trump lead image

As Trump’s big-tent GOP returns to power, Ban­non and Musk have ser­ved as a prime exam­p­le of the infight­ing alre­a­dy under­way.

Ban­non calls Pro­ject 2025’s influence ‘years in the making’ lead image

The clas­hes are a pre­view to the chal­lenges the pre­si­dent-elect faces.

“Ben has pro­ven that with year-round voter pro­tec­tion, smart orga­ni­zing and clear mes­sa­ging, we can win — espe­ci­al­ly in sta­tes whe­re our rights are being ero­ded,” she says.

There’s litt­le dis­cus­sion of how to fix the party’s big­gest pro­blems. But one group gets a big share of the bla­me.

A Har­ris-affi­lia­ted com­mit­tee is con­ti­nuing to draw on con­tri­bu­tors’ bank accounts.

CFR pre­si­dent Micha­el Fro­man joins Play­book Deep Dive to dis­cuss the sta­te of affairs in the world that Trump is step­ping into.

WE’RE ALL FRIENDS NOW: Gov. Kathy Hoch­ul is pled­ging to work with a future Andrew Cuo­mo admi­nis­tra­ti­on — if her for­mer boss’ spe­cu­la­ted run for mayor pro­ves suc­cessful. “My natu­re is to work with whoe­ver is sit­ting in office, whe­ther it’s the pre­si­dent of the United Sta­tes, other gover­nors or mayors,” the gover­nor said when she was asked whe­ther she sup­ports Cuomo’s spe­cu­la­ted run for mayor. “I’ll con­ti­nue on that path,” she added. Hoch­ul, who was on Long Island to unveil a pro­po­sal to pro­vi­de free lun­ches for all K‑12 stu­dents in the sta­te (more on that below), made the comm­ents on the heels of a new POLITICO report that signals Cuo­mo is con­ti­nuing to line up the pie­ces for his run for mayor. The Thurs­day report details how Cuo­mo is expec­ted to hire Char­lie King, a part­ner at the Man­hat­tan-based con­sul­ting and lob­by­ing firm Mer­cu­ry Public Affairs. Hoch­ul has enjoy­ed a sun­ny rela­ti­onship with Mayor Eric Adams, even as he batt­les fede­ral cor­rup­ti­on char­ges that could turn into even worse char­ges. She opted not to oust him — a power she holds — after his Sep­tem­ber indict­ment, in exch­an­ge for him pushing out scan­dal-scar­red top aides. “My job as gover­nor of this gre­at sta­te is to work with who­me­ver the voters choo­se to be the Mayor of the City of New York,” Hoch­ul said, still in respon­se to the Cuo­mo ques­ti­on. “I’ve demons­tra­ted that. I’ve had a bet­ter rela­ti­onship with the mayor of New York than pro­ba­b­ly any of my pre­de­ces­sors. It has been col­la­bo­ra­ti­ve, becau­se I reco­gni­ze one thing — we both repre­sent the same peo­p­le.” Cuo­mo — who­se own pet­ty feuds with for­mer Mayor Bill DeBla­sio have beco­me the stuff of legend — decli­ned to com­ment for this sto­ry. His team con­ti­nues to avo­id con­fir­ming the drips of news about his see­mingly embryo­nic cam­paign for mayor mean he is actual­ly run­ning. (Jewish Insi­der also repor­ted in Novem­ber that Cuomo’s team is pre­pa­ring to run, and is set­ting up an inde­pen­dent expen­dit­u­re group.) “This all remains pre­ma­tu­re, but Andrew Cuo­mo will always be a Queens boy who loves New York, is deep­ly con­cer­ned about its direc­tion, and will always help any way he can,” Azzo­par­di told our col­le­ague Nick Reis­man in respon­se to the Mer­cu­ry Public Affairs news. He also insis­ted that “not­hing has chan­ged and neither appar­ent­ly has the rumor mill in all its glo­ry.” When asked if she would rank Adams at the bal­lot box in June, Hoch­ul bal­ked — “I’m not a voter in New York City,” she said, sides­tep­ping the hypo­the­ti­cal. The governor’s comm­ents, about Pre­si­dent-elect Donald Trump, Adams and Cuo­mo (who Cuo­mo has insis­ted are all the same) come as she con­ti­nues to signal a non-aggres­si­on pact with, well, ever­yo­ne after quick­ly aban­do­ning a Trump-resis­tance pos­tu­re. If you remem­ber, the day after Elec­tion Day, Hoch­ul hos­ted a Trump-bas­hing press con­fe­rence with Att­or­ney Gene­ral Leti­tia James, whe­re James said the two are “rea­dy to fight back again.” But imme­dia­te­ly after­ward, her stance sof­ten­ed, a pre­ro­ga­ti­ve that seems to have been soli­di­fied by her “leng­thy,” “cor­di­al” and “very pro­duc­ti­ve” pho­ne call with Trump the next day. Sin­ce the pair’s cuddly chat, the gover­nor has pled­ged to work with — not obs­truct — the Trump administration’s efforts, even pled­ging to be “the first to call up ICE” to deport immi­grants who break the law when asked about Trump’s mass depor­ta­ti­on plan. While she plays nice with the three cri­mi­nal­ly pro­bed men, she still must ward off a chall­enge from Demo­cra­tic Rep. Rit­chie Tor­res and Repu­bli­can Rep. Mike Law­ler, who are both doing their best to ramp up spe­cu­la­ti­on they will cam­paign against her for gover­nor in 2026. “The chan­ge of heart about Cuo­mo is the latest flip-flop from the fore­most flip-flop­per in New York poli­tics,” Tor­res text­ed Play­book. “Just like Kathy Hoch­ul was for con­ges­ti­on pri­cing befo­re she was against it befo­re she was for it, Hoch­ul was for Cuo­mo befo­re she was against him befo­re she was for him.” Law­ler also chi­med in: “Gover­nor Hochul’s new ‘Kum­ba­ya Kathy’ act is laug­ha­ble,” he said. “Com­mon­sen­se peo­p­le in both par­ties know that she doesn’t work with, or lis­ten to, anyo­ne who dis­agrees with her and her bad ide­as. If she did, we wouldn’t be deal­ing with con­ges­ti­on pri­cing, sanc­tua­ry cities, or cashl­ess bail.” — Jason Bee­fer­man­Y­OU GET A LUNCH, AND YOU GET A LUNCH … : New York is set to beco­me the ninth sta­te in the nati­on that pro­vi­des free lun­ches and break­fasts to all K‑12 school stu­dents, regard­less of their inco­me. “I’m pro­po­sing free school meals for every stu­dent in New York — giving kids the sus­ten­an­ce they need and put­ting more money back in par­ents’ pockets,” the gover­nor said today. The announce­ment is the final in a trifec­ta of afforda­bili­ty pro­po­sals Hoch­ul is unvei­ling ahead of her Sta­te of the Sta­te. Hoch­ul has long cen­te­red afforda­bili­ty from her perch in Alba­ny, but the recent empha­sis on “put­ting money back in your pockets” comes after Trump’s decisi­ve vic­to­ry over Vice Pre­si­dent Kama­la Har­ris reve­a­led los­ses of Demo­cra­tic sup­port from working class voters across most demo­gra­phic groups. “It’s just a state­ment of our values,” Hoch­ul said. “Hel­ping put more money in the pockets of par­ents, fami­lies in count­less ways. This is just one of the other initia­ti­ves we’ll be announ­cing in my Sta­te of the Sta­te on Tues­day.” The governor’s new initia­ti­ve, known as Uni­ver­sal Free School Meals, would eli­mi­na­te any inco­me requi­re­ments, expan­ding eli­gi­bi­li­ty to near­ly 300,000 addi­tio­nal pupils. The invest­ment into the state’s free stu­dent meals pro­gram, which Assem­bly­mem­ber Jes­si­ca Gon­zá­lez-Rojas and sta­te Sen. Michel­le Hin­chey had fought to expand over the last two years, means around 2.7 mil­li­on stu­dents will be entit­led to free meals. “Redu­cing the stig­ma is so important,” Rojas said. “We’­ve heard about so many child­ren who are teased, fami­lies who are embar­ras­sed to do all this work and get that atten­ti­on, becau­se they just want their kids to learn and not be focu­sed on the chal­lenges they’re facing,” Rojas said. “The­se arbi­tra­ry cutoffs that we have for things, just becau­se you may not qua­li­fy does­n’t mean your fami­ly is not right on the brink and strugg­ling,” Hin­chey said. The initia­ti­ve is expec­ted to cost $340 mil­li­on and would go into effect in the 2025–26 school year, accor­ding to the governor’s office. — Jason Bee­fer­man and Madi­na Tou­ré­TO BE (THERE) OR NOT TO BE: Adams is open to atten­ding Trump’s inau­gu­ra­ti­on on Jan. 20, but his Alba­ny ally is stay­ing put. Hoch­ul cam­paign spo­kesper­son Jen Good­man today con­firm­ed the gover­nor will not attend Trump’s swea­ring-in cerem­o­ny in Washing­ton. Adams and Hoch­ul are mode­ra­te Demo­crats who have work­ed well tog­e­ther. But Adams, who is fight­ing a five-count fede­ral fel­o­ny indict­ment, has trod light­ly in Trump world. Unli­ke the gover­nor, Adams was not a vocal sur­ro­ga­te for Pre­si­dent Joe Biden or Vice Pre­si­dent Kama­la Har­ris when she repla­ced him at the top of the ticket. Adams also met with inco­ming Trump bor­der czar Tom Homan and has been cri­ti­cal of how Biden has hand­led immi­gra­ti­on poli­cy. (Hoch­ul has been in vir­tu­al ali­gnment with the Biden admi­nis­tra­ti­on on the issue and has bla­med Repu­bli­cans for a scuttled bor­der secu­ri­ty bill last year.) The inau­gu­ra­ti­on will coin­ci­de with Mar­tin Luther King Jr. Day and pro­mi­nent New York offi­ci­als typi­cal­ly unite at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s cele­bra­ti­on of the civil rights lea­der at the Natio­nal Action Net­work in Har­lem. Hoch­ul has not dis­c­lo­sed her plans for Jan. 20, but she is also expec­ted to deli­ver her sta­te bud­get pre­sen­ta­ti­on in Alba­ny the fol­lo­wing day. — Nick Reis­man­BIT­TER TAX FIGHT: Sena­te Mino­ri­ty Lea­der Chuck Schu­mer is dra­wing a line in the sand in the hea­ted batt­le to lift the cap on the sta­te and local tax deduc­tion, or SALT, as House Repu­bli­cans meet Satur­day with Trump to argue for an increase. Schu­mer wants a full repeal, full stop. Reps. Mike Law­ler, Nick LaLo­ta, Nico­le Mal­lio­ta­kis, Andrew Gar­ba­ri­no and their col­le­agues from New Jer­sey and Cali­for­nia view a sub­stan­ti­al hike in the cur­rent $10,000-per-household cap as a rea­li­stic ope­ning bid in the light of the con­ten­ti­on to come over rene­wing the broa­der tax cuts packa­ge. But Schu­mer and other Demo­crats, inclu­ding Hoch­ul, are sta­king out total res­to­ra­ti­on as their posi­ti­on. The seni­or sena­tor pre­view­ed the Dems’ stra­tegy Fri­day in remarks to the pro-busi­ness Long Island Asso­cia­ti­on. “Pre­si­dent-elect Trump and many sou­thern and mid­wes­tern Con­gress mem­bers who pushed the unfair SALT cap in their 2017 tax bill are now having second thoughts, and we have to take advan­ta­ge of that,” he told the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty in a sub­ur­ban stretch whe­re SALT is a very big deal. “There’s been a lot of chat­ter this week about various poten­ti­al increa­ses to Trump’s SALT limits, but remem­ber: If we don’t renew them, then the Trump SALT cap will expi­re … and this attack on New York tax­pay­ers ends for good.” As House Repu­bli­cans from high-tax sta­tes make their SALT case, they’ve also made sure to bla­me the Demo­cra­tic lea­ders of tho­se sta­tes, inclu­ding Hoch­ul, for hef­ty taxes that make the deduc­tion so cru­cial in the first place. — Emi­ly Ngo— GUILTY PLEA: Tur­ki­sh-Ame­ri­can con­s­truc­tion exe­cu­ti­ve Erden Arkan plea­ded guil­ty Fri­day to making straw dona­ti­ons to Mayor Eric Adams’ cam­paign. (POLITICO) — LESS TERRIBLE TWOS: City par­ents are start­ing a cam­paign to push City Hall to fund free uni­ver­sal child care for 2‑year-olds. (Dai­ly News) — DON’T GIMME SHELTER: The city is shut­te­ring 10 migrant shel­ters as the rate of arri­vals for asyl­um see­kers con­ti­nues to hit new lows. (New York Post) Missed this morning’s New York Play­book? We for­gi­ve you. Read it here.

Every week poli­ti­cal car­too­nists throug­hout the coun­try and across the poli­ti­cal spec­trum app­ly their ink-stained skills to cap­tu­re the foi­bles, memes, hypo­cri­sies and other head-slap­ping events in the world of poli­tics. The fruits of the­se labors are hundreds of car­toons that enter­tain and enra­ge rea­ders of all poli­ti­cal stripes. Here’s an offe­ring of the best of this week’s crop, picked fresh off the Too­no­sphe­re. Edi­ted by Matt Wuer­ker.

RISING FROM HIS GRAVE: Mayor Eric Adams’ Sta­te of the City address had a bla­ring mes­sa­ge: I’m not just here — I’m thri­ving. “Even dark moments are not buri­als, they’re plan­tings,” Adams said. “Allow your plan­ting to hap­pen and you’ll see the fruits of your labor. Mom­my did it, and that’s why I’m mayor.” The first New York City mayor in modern histo­ry to be indic­ted on cri­mi­nal char­ges wants the world to know that the fede­ral cor­rup­ti­on indict­ment, the sin­king poll num­bers and the flur­ry of fede­ral raids and mass resi­gna­ti­ons hasn’t chip­ped his self-belief one bit — lest the­re had been any doubt. “Don’t let anyo­ne fool you,” he said. “Don’t lis­ten to the noi­se, don’t lis­ten to the rhe­to­ric. New York City, the sta­te of our city is strong.” “The ulti­ma­te mea­su­re of a man or woman is not whe­re they stand in moments of com­fort and con­ve­ni­ence, but whe­re they stand at times of chal­lenges and con­tro­ver­sy,” he also said, para­phra­sing Mar­tin Luther King Jr. as he than­ked the mem­bers of his staff who hadn’t resi­gned. He deli­ver­ed the hour­long mes­sa­ge of defi­ance after a brief 54 minu­tes of intro­duc­tion that included a Chris­ti­an pray­er, a Mus­lim pray­er, a Hin­du pray­er, a Sikh pray­er, a Bud­dhist pray­er, a Jewish pray­er, the Natio­nal anthem, God Bless Ame­ri­ca, the Black natio­nal anthem, two pro­mo­tio­nal vide­os, a youth drum line per­for­mance and some wai­ting. The address, like all Sta­te of the City spee­ches, high­ligh­ted accom­plish­ments — the City of Yes housing plan, the (par­ti­al) year-over-year drop in crime, the expan­si­on of ear­ly child­hood pro­grams and the slo­wing of the city’s once unre­len­ting migrant cri­sis. He also put two prio­ri­ties for the upco­ming legis­la­ti­ve ses­si­on in Alba­ny front and cen­ter. He wants fel­low Demo­crat Gov. Kathy Hoch­ul to adopt his ver­si­on of a bill that would allow chro­ni­cal­ly home­l­ess indi­vi­du­als suf­fe­ring from men­tal ill­ness to be invol­un­t­a­ri­ly remo­ved from the streets. (She is set to announ­ce her own plan on invol­un­t­a­ry rem­ovals, but has also signal­ed she will work with him on it.) He needs the Legis­la­tu­re to back him in com­ple­te­ly eli­mi­na­ting city inco­me taxes for fami­lies making up to 150 per­cent of the fede­ral pover­ty line. The “Axe the Tax” plan has the back­ing of Assem­bly­mem­ber Rod­ney­se Bichot­te Her­me­lyn, who prai­sed Adams in a pre-speech video. (Assem­bly Spea­k­er Carl Heas­tie signal­ed Wed­nes­day he might look to end sta­te inco­me taxes for lower-inco­me New Yor­kers.) For the city, the mayor unvei­led some key pro­po­sals: He laid out his extre­me­ly ambi­tious plan to build 100,000 new homes in Man­hat­tan, though the idea so far lacks some much-nee­ded spe­ci­fics. (We wro­te about it this mor­ning in New York Play­book.)  He pled­ged $650 mil­li­on to com­bat home­l­ess­ness, inclu­ding a faci­li­ty to ser­ve as a shel­ter and tre­at­ment cen­ter for the vul­nerable popu­la­ti­on. He is ope­ning schoo­ly­ards as com­mu­ni­ty parks on weekends and sum­mers for over 10,000 New Yor­kers, and he’s adding more clea­ning shifts to city parks. He’s expan­ding free inter­net for low-inco­me homes in Upper Man­hat­tan and all of the Bronx. He’s adding a finan­cial liter­acy tea­cher in every school dis­trict by 2030. He’s clea­ring stu­dent loan debt for city employees and their fami­lies. He’s allo­wing rent pay­ments from thou­sands of low-inco­me New Yor­kers to count toward buil­ding up their cre­dit score. And he con­tin­ued to thank Hoch­ul for their sim­pa­ti­co rela­ti­onship — even fea­turing her in his pro­mo­tio­nal video.“There were some who said, ‘Step down,’” Adams said. “I said, ‘No, I’m gon­na step up. I’m gon­na step up. That’s what life pres­ents you.’”ZELLNOR-CODED: Brook­lyn sta­te sena­tor and mayoral can­di­da­te Zell­nor Myrie has been tap­ped to lead the Sena­te Codes com­mit­tee — a well-timed appoint­ment. As he pre­pa­res for the June pri­ma­ry and beg­ins his seventh year in Alba­ny, Myrie will have a key role in sha­ping cri­mi­nal jus­ti­ce poli­cy in Alba­ny while he and his chal­len­gers attempt to pro­ve their pre­pared­ness on the cam­paign trail. An Octo­ber Sie­na poll found likely New York City voters iden­ti­fied crime as their big­gest con­cern. Adams has alre­a­dy signal­ed public safe­ty will again be the crux of his mayoral cam­paign and he’s likely to call out any left-of-cen­ter oppon­ents for pri­or votes he views as soft on crime. “I’m gra­teful the lea­der has ent­rus­ted me to chair this com­mit­tee, par­ti­cu­lar­ly at a time whe­re public safe­ty is on the minds of every New Yor­ker,” Myrie told Play­book. “As someone who is from New York City, who takes our sub­ways and our buses, who talks to neigh­bors, I can say con­fi­dent­ly this is an issue that is pro­mi­nent in their minds.” Myrie most recent­ly hel­med the Elec­tions Com­mit­tee, and his new spot lea­ding Codes — which deals with all things cri­mi­nal jus­ti­ce — has tra­di­tio­nal­ly been view­ed as the third most-powerful com­mit­tee chair in the Sena­te. Nevert­hel­ess, Majo­ri­ty Lea­der Andrea Ste­wart-Cou­sins — who has a cool rela­ti­onship with Adams — still wields near abso­lu­te power in the cham­ber, deci­ding with lea­der­ship what bills make it to the flo­or. Sen. Jes­si­ca Ramos, ano­ther mayoral can­di­da­te, will remain chair of the Labor Com­mit­tee. Zohr­an Mamda­ni, the other sta­te law­ma­ker vying to lead City Hall, was not assi­gned a lea­der­ship posi­ti­on in the Assem­bly. “We’­re at a time whe­re peo­p­le are going to be using public safe­ty as a poli­ti­cal con­ver­sa­ti­on, and I think that the­re needs to be a serious­ness and sobrie­ty in how we talk about actu­al solu­ti­ons to this pro­blem,” Myrie added, say­ing the com­mit­tee will “be squa­re­ly focu­sed on having actu­al solu­ti­ons to city pro­blems.” — Jason Bee­fer­man COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS ARE IN: Bey­ond Myrie, the Sena­te and Assem­bly announ­ced all the other new com­mit­tee lea­der­ship posi­ti­ons today, and that came with a host of chan­ges, our col­le­ague Bill Maho­ney repor­ted ear­lier in POLITICO Pro.The Assem­bly Gary Pret­low will replace the reti­red Hele­ne Wein­stein as chair of the Ways and Means Com­mit­tee. Car­rie Woer­ner replaces Pret­low to lead the Racing and Wage­ring Com­mit­tee. Mari­an­ne But­ten­schon suc­ceeds Woer­ner as chair of the Small Busi­ness Com­mit­tee. Ron Kim will suc­ceed the reti­red Dani­el O’Donnell as Tou­rism chair.  Rebec­ca Seaw­right will take Kim’s place as chair of the Aging Com­mit­tee.  Ange­lo San­ta­bar­ba­ra will suc­ceed Seaw­right on the Peo­p­le With Disa­bi­li­ties Com­mit­tee. Bob­by Car­roll will beco­me chair of Libra­ri­es and Edu­ca­ti­on Tech­no­lo­gy, repla­cing San­ta­bar­ba­ra. Pame­la Hun­ter is suc­cee­ding Jeff Aubry as spea­k­er pro tem­po­re.  Cly­de Vanel will replace Hun­ter as chair of the Banks Com­mit­tee. Jona­than Jacob­son will replace Vanel on Over­sight, Ana­ly­sis and Inves­ti­ga­ti­ons. Ed Braun­stein will beco­me chair of Cor­po­ra­ti­ons, Aut­ho­ri­ties and Com­mis­si­ons, repla­cing the reti­red Ken Zebrow­ski.  Pat Bur­ke will take over the Cities Com­mit­tee, suc­cee­ding Braun­stein. Jo Anne Simon will beco­me Men­tal Health chair, fol­lo­wing the reti­re­ment of Aileen Gun­ther.  Karen McMa­hon will take Simon’s place on Ethics & Gui­dance. Bil­ly Jones will replace the reti­red Fred Thie­le on Local Govern­ments.  Ste­ve Stern will suc­ceed the reti­red Kim­ber­ly Jean-Pierre on Veterans Affairs.  Ali­cia Hynd­man will beco­me chair of Hig­her Edu­ca­ti­on, after pre­vious chair Pat Fahy was elec­ted to the Sena­te. The Sena­te Jam­aal Bai­ley will take over reti­red Neil Breslin’s lea­der­ship of the Insu­rance Com­mit­tee Zell­nor Myrie will replace Bai­ley on the Codes Com­mit­tee  Kris­ten Gon­za­lez will take over for Myrie on the Elec­tions Com­mit­tee and remain chair of the Inter­net and Tech­no­lo­gy Com­mit­tee. Rachel May will lead the Con­su­mer Pro­tec­tion Com­mit­tee, which was vaca­ted by Kevin Tho­mas.  Fresh­man Chris­to­pher Ryan will suc­ceed May as chair of Cities II, a recent­ly added com­mit­tee that deals with cities north of the Bronx. Fresh­man Pat Fahy will chair Disa­bi­li­ties, form­er­ly hel­med by John Man­ni­on. Fresh­man Sie­la Byn­oe will lead Libra­ri­es, which had been chai­red by Iwen Chu. THE WINNOWING: GOP lea­ders in the North Coun­try House seat being vaca­ted by Rep. Eli­se Ste­fa­nik will nar­row the field of poten­ti­al can­di­da­tes by the end of the weekend, sta­te par­ty spo­kesper­son David Las­ka said. As Play­book repor­ted this mor­ning, Repu­bli­can coun­ty chairs in the spraw­ling dis­trict met over Zoom with a dozen pos­si­ble nomi­nees. GOP offi­ci­als expect to winnow that field of some 12 peo­p­le to less than 10. Tho­se pre­fer­red can­di­da­tes will then advan­ce to ano­ther round of vet­ting by Repu­bli­can lea­ders. Jockey­ing to replace Ste­fa­nik, Pre­si­dent-elect Donald Trump’s nomi­nee to ser­ve as United Nati­ons ambassa­dor, has been under­way for the past two months. A Repu­bli­can can­di­da­te is expec­ted to be hea­vi­ly favor­ed in a spe­cial elec­tion — likely to be sche­du­led for mid-April — given the party’s enroll­ment advan­ta­ge in the lar­ge­ly rural seat. — Nick Reis­man — SALT SLOWDOWN: Mem­bers of New York’s GOP dele­ga­ti­on, once pro­mi­sing a full repeal of the cap on Sta­te and Local Tax Deduc­tions, are now tem­pe­ring expec­ta­ti­ons as they signal a full repeal is unli­kely. (NY1) — THE WHEELS ON THE TRAIN GO ROUND AND ROUND … EXCRUCIATINGLY: There’s a mys­te­rious defect on the sub­way tracks of let­te­red train lines that’s caus­ing sub­way wheels to be worn down more quick­ly than ever. (Dai­ly News) — TOP NY COURT BUCKS TRUMP: The Court of Appeals denied a request to delay Trump’s sen­ten­cing in the “hush money” case. (Times Uni­on) Missed this morning’s New York Play­book? We for­gi­ve you. Read it here.

‘Don’t play any poli­tics’: News­om responds to Trump’s fire cri­ti­cism lead image