| Good morning, Early Birds — especially those of you stayed up too late watching the Australian Open last night. What's happening out there? Send us your best tips: earlytips@washpost.com. Thanks for waking up with us. | | |  | At the White House | | The Post's Klain interview: Critics say the W.H. chief is too beholden to Biden's left flank |  White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain has bigger problems than restarting production of Tab diet soda. (Photo by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post) | | | It's the second-hardest job in the world: When Coca-Cola discontinued Tab after 57 years on the market, White House chief of staff Ron Klain's wife, Monica Medina, gifted him a year-long supply of his favorite beverage for Hanukkah. The stockpile of the pink-canned diet soda staple, however, was finished well before the end of the year — a problem he's "been unable to fix in my first year as chief of staff," Klain joked in an interview for our colleagues Sean Sullivan and Tyler Pager's story out this morning. But through interviews with more than 60 White House and administration officials, Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress and Klain associates, Sean and Tyler found far bigger problems unsolved than Tab's discontinuation. During his first year on the job, there have been disputes over legislative strategy and policy; bubbling tensions with the administration's top official in charge of the coronavirus response; complaints about Klain's presence on Twitter; and criticisms that Klain forged too close an alliance with the party's left flank "that has undercut Biden's effectiveness and hurt his political image," Sean and Tyler report. | - Congress: "Many complaints center on negotiations with Capitol Hill over Biden's agenda last fall, with many Democrats charging that White House acceded too often to the demands of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. At a critical juncture, the talks left House Democratic leaders, including Pelosi, feeling upset with Klain, according to a person with knowledge of the situation."
- Klain ultimately pissed off Pelosi: "The sore point was Biden's decision not to press House Democrats to vote immediately for his bipartisan infrastructure bill, as [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and her allies wanted. Liberal Democrats, in contrast, preferred to wait until they could ensure a companion social spending and climate plan also had enough support to pass. Biden's senior staff was united behind his decision to hold off, according to a White House official."
- 'A monster': "One frustrated Democratic member of Congress, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk more freely, accused Klain of creating 'a monster' by empowering [CPC Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)] using an expletive to underscore the point," Sean and Tyler report.
- Don't forget about Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.): "Manchin has complained publicly about the White House staff, and people close to him say those frustrations largely center on Klain. Manchin has told allies he believes Klain has pushed Biden to embrace a more liberal policy agenda, adding that Klain must repair the relationship with him if the chief of staff is be involved in future negotiations."
| | Even some of Klain's allies suggest he's been too focused on process: "I think that by and large he's making the trains run on time — even though some of the boxcars may seem to be empty some of the time," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). | | And too obsessed with Twitter: "Some Democrats complain that his presence on Twitter, regularly retweeting pro-Biden messages or occasionally taking aim at critics, reflects a focus on superficial Washington chatter," Sean and Tyler write. | - "I find being on Twitter useful as an early warning system of things that, to be honest, reporters are talking about," Klain responded. "So, a little way to kind of get a sense of what's out there. What our activists are talking about. What our critics are talking about. What Republicans are talking about."
| | Klain's take on it all: "I think the challenge here is not that we've tried to do too much — it's that we still have work left to do," he told Sean and Tyler over a Zoom. Ouch: "Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), a centrist who is retiring from Congress, ridiculed that assertion, saying, 'Has he read a poll lately?' She added, 'Hopefully we're moving away from progressive aspirations and towards pragmatic results.'" In Klain's defense: "Few chiefs of staff have entered the job facing such daunting challenges, and if nothing else, Klain is credited by many with quickly restoring order to a government that had been engulfed in chaos and recrimination. Given the wreckage left by the Trump presidency, his supporters say, simply reestablishing traditional practices was itself an accomplishment." Bottom line: "He's the guy in charge. Things aren't going well, therefore, it's his fault," said Bill Daley, who served as Obama's chief of staff after Rahm Emanuel. "That's just the price of admission in that job." | | .@WHCOS Ron Klain | "I find being on Twitter useful as an early warning system of things that, to be honest, reporters are talking about … What our activists are talking about. What our critics are talking about. What Republicans are talking about." | | | | | | | | |  | On the Hill | | Discussions around the Electoral Count Act are picking up |  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) at the U.S. Capitol on January 11, 2022 in Washington, DC speaking about their party's push to pass election reform and voting rights legislation. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) | | | Not all might be completely lost in the second session of the 117th Congress. | | The bipartisan group working on modernizing the Electoral Count Act met for an hour-long zoom on Monday and plans on meeting again next week, a person familiar with the meeting told The Early. The group has more than doubled in size since their first meeting on Jan. 5 and included Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), and others. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) previously slammed the talks of reform as "unacceptably insufficient" and White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated the Biden administration's position on Monday that reforms to the ECA "is not a replacement for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act or any of the voting rights federal legislation we were working to get across the finish line because they do entirely different things." Still, bipartisan momentum for updates to the 1887 law that governs how Congress counts and certifies presidential election results has picked up. "Senators in this group are also considering the inclusion of more funding for elections and federal protections against harassment and intimidation of election workers in what would potentially be a bipartisan package," Business Insider's Grace Panetta reports. | | |  | The campaign | | Federal court blocks Alabama's congressional map |  State Sen. Rodger Smitherman compares U.S. Representative district maps during a special session on redistricting at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Ala., Nov. 3, 2021. (Mickey Welsh/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP, File) | | | Democrats score a surprise redistricting victory: "Federal judges on Monday blocked Alabama from using newly drawn congressional districts in upcoming elections, ruling that the state should have two districts — instead of one — in which Black voters are a sizeable portion of the electorate," The Associated Press' Kim Chandler reports. | - "Black voters have less opportunity than other Alabamians to elect candidates of their choice to Congress," the three-judge panel wrote in the 225-page ruling that found plaintiffs are "substantially likely" to prevail on claims that the current districts violate the Voting Rights Act.
- "We find that the plaintiffs will suffer an irreparable harm if they must vote in the 2022 congressional elections based on a redistricting plan that violates federal law," the ruling stated.
| | A spokesman for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall's office told the AP that the ruling would be appealed. |  Stephen K. Bannon talks to reporters after appearing in federal court on Monday, Nov. 15, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) | | | Bannon, Robert J. Sigg and the rise of Real America's Voice: "Two years after being cast out of the White House, Stephen K. Bannon spoke from a steep, dusty hill outside El Paso, asking for donations," our colleague Isaac Stanley-Becker writes. "The former investment banker and Hollywood producer wanted cash in 2019 for his latest quest, to privately build Trump's stalled border wall." | - "The coverage came from an upstart network run by a little-known media mogul in Colorado, a felon with a record of unpaid taxes and a family history marked by tragedy and violence. The mogul, Robert J. Sigg, found news value in Bannon's mission to the desert, which ultimately resulted in fraud charges."
- "When Bannon launched his own talk show in the fall of 2019, calling it 'War Room,' he quickly handed over its distribution to Sigg. More than two years later, the arrangement has paid off for both men. Sigg used 'War Room' as a springboard for an expanded network of conservative hosts — bringing him the commercial opportunity he sought."
- "The rise of Real America's Voice, built around Bannon and removed from the traditional power structures of cable television and talk radio, illustrates how the country's fractured media landscape has empowered unconventional actors following market incentives toward more and more extreme content."
| | |  | The Data | | | The Afghanistan hunger crisis, visualized: "Over 22 million people, more than half the country's population, are facing crisis-levels of hunger, the majority of them unable to guarantee when their next meal is going to be," our colleagues Ruby Mellen and Júlia Ledur report. | - "This marks a dramatic increase since September, when more than 14 million people were at risk of going hungry."
- The U.N. World Food Program "estimated that in December, 95 percent of the population had insufficient food consumption, adopting measures to cope with their situation by skipping a meal, for example."
| | |  | The Media | | | |  | Viral | | | 😳 2022 hot mic casualties: | | | AM/PM | | Looking for more analysis in the afternoon? | | | | Weekday newsletter, PM |  | | | | | | |
