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

Good Wednesday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing.

And I'm Jake Sherman. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reminded reporters Tuesday that he's been in Washington through a few crises, 9-11, the financial crisis in 08 and the fiscal cliff.

He said when these calamities occur, lawmakers are able to rise above normal partisanship.

McConnell is right. Typically during times of true national emergency, Congress ditches partisanship and

rises to the occasion. But the coronavirus is truly the first large-scale crisis in today's

political era of nonstop venom. Before September 11th, 42% of Americans approved of Congress. Afterwards,

that figure jumped to 84%. During the 2008 financial crisis, Barack Obama and John McCain,

rivals for the presidency issued a joint statement urging a yes vote for TARP. Congressional approval is now in the 20s,

and the two candidates for the White House are constantly barking at each other. The president

calls a Democratic nominee senile and lacking mental facilities, and Joe Biden calls a president

a racist. To put it mildly, this is a starkly different political era.

And we aren't counting the fiscal cliff since it was a crisis of Congress's own making.

The two leaders will be charged with cobbling together one of the largest emergency spending packages in American history is McConnell and Chuck Schumer and they are playing two vastly different hands.

McConnell consciously and purposefully stood aside during the phase two stimulus talks,

leaving the work to Nancy Pelosi and Stephen Mnuchin. And now with the market selling off,

McConnell is asking Senate Republicans to quote gag and vote for the bill and acknowledgement

that many of his lawmakers don't like it. McConnell can't afford inaction this time around, at least internally.

Now McConnell is taking charge of the Phase 3 talks, partially out of necessity.

He is looking to find consensus among Republicans as the government gears up to spend

north of $1 trillion.

So why is consensus important for McConnell? Because he has a less

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