Stay tuned after the show for a message from United Health Group.

Good Tuesday morning. I'm Jake Sherman and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing.

And I'm Anna Palmer. Maybe it's the cold. The impending wintry mix that's bearing down on Washington.

Maybe it's because we're about to leave 2020, that wretched, disgusting year.

In the rear view, as Peter Baker put it on A-22 of the New York Times

this morning, 2020 was, quote, a grueling year of disease, death, racial strife, street violence,

economic collapse, and political discord, the likes of which have not been seen in the United States

in generations.

Who knows what exactly prompted this?

Reality is beginning to intrude in Washington.

Reality number one.

Joe Biden is going to be the president of the United States.

This was obvious to most breathing-thinking human beings with a pulse,

but somehow Republican members of Congress were willfully blind to it. But a few of them began joining the rest of us on Planet Earth Monday. Tom Tillis called Biden the presumptive president. Lindsay Graham, who was calling around to state election officials a few weeks ago, said it's a very, very narrow path for the president. I don't see how he gets there from here, but he did say he'd let the court challenges play out. Roy Blunt said we'll deal with Vice President Biden as the president elect. Vladimir Putin took it even farther than

many Republicans saying he was congratulating Biden after months of waiting to say he wanted to see

the process play out. Reality number two. It seems painfully obvious to nearly everyone on Capitol Hill that a COVID

relief deal is available should the leaders want it. This deal would include a renewal of the

paycheck protection program, vaccine money, rental assistance, unemployment benefits, school money,

and if President Donald Trump woke up from his fever dream in which he's won the presidency again,

he could probably convince enough people to support direct payments,

since Republicans and Democrats are on board with this.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi Monday both said they were

...