Good morning. Welcome, Naxios today. It's Friday, December 9th. I'm Nailibudu. Here's

what we're watching. Protests, crackdowns, and change in China and Iran. But first, Biden

closes out the year on a winning streak. Our Friday politics state of play is today's

one big thing. A Senator elected from Georgia, a battle for Congressional leadership, and WNBA

star Brittany Griner released from a Russian prison. What a week. Her to break it down for all of

us in our Friday politics state of play is Axios' co-founder, Mike Allen. Hey, Mike. Now, thanks for

having me. Mike, let's start with Brittany Griner. She's on her way back home to the US from Russia.

This is a big win for the president, just adding to the list of his successes in recent months.

How different is this year ending than how it started for President Biden?

Funny that you should ask that, because I was just googling a story about Biden, and what came

up a story from January 2022, so 11 months ago, and it said Biden closes out your one on epic

losing streak. So, it shows how fast fortunes change, and the Brittany Griner's story is a perfect

example of how, by being in the White House, having the most powerful seat in the world,

you get blamed for everything, are responsible for everything, but also have huge power, and this

is going to be one of the stories of the year, no question. And if you were to flash back and ask

President Biden a year ago, could he see this string of electoral successes? The economy

being in a slightly better place, and his foreign policy accomplishments, and a friendly

Senate next year, he'd be like, I'm in. On the flip side of that, we have Republicans

how much of the rest of this year is going to be about the struggle for congressional leadership

particularly in the House. No, it's a great point, and the surprise of this season,

if you'd asked us on election day, election evening, who's going to clearly be almost definitely

going to be the Speaker of the House? He would have said, Kevin McCarthy, he's going to ride the

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