How Democrats Will Fight Donald Trump

New Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer outlined the nature of his party’s opposition to President-elect Donald Trump Tuesday, taking a page from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s opposition to President Obama since 2009. Democrats, Schumer said, will work to block Trump’s Supreme Court nominee and will only work with him on legislation if he abandons his GOP base. Call it legislative karma, as Democrats try to give Republicans a taste of their own medicine. But Democrats have fewer arrows in their quiver after employing the nuclear option to end the filibuster to break the GOP’s blocking of Obama nominees. Even if they can’t block confirmation votes, they are planning on elongating the process to muck with Trump’s transition.

The battle over Obamacare is officially on, as GOP Senator Mike Enzi introduced the beginnings of the legislation Republicans hope to use to repeal the law. Vice President-elect Mike Pence is on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning to huddle with Republicans over tactics on the law, with the GOP currently planning to sunset the law after a number of years, allowing the party time to devise and pass a replacement. Obama is also on Capitol Hill to huddle with his own party over how to protect is eponymous signature legislative achievement. Trump himself has been sending cryptic tweets suggesting that Republicans need to be careful as they plot to repeal the law to avoid giving up a potent political weapon. Publicly, Trump has come out in favor of keeping some of the most popular provisions of the law, but the depths of his planned involvement in the repeal-then-replace effort is as yet uncertain. Either way, the next president will have to sign that legislation, and he’ll own the political benefits and costs. The end of Obamacare will lead, one way or another, to Trumpcare.

Republicans about-face on plan to gut ethics office amid Democratic and Trump outrage. Trump continues to cast doubts about Russian involvement in the 2016 election hacks, while seemingly trying to discredit the intelligence officials who will brief him on their conclusions Friday. And Tuesday marked the final episode of the semi-annual Joe Biden show.

Here are your must reads:

Must Reads

House Republicans, Under Fire, Back Down on Gutting Ethics Office
GOP suffers first defeat at hands of Trump, Democratic pressure [New York Times]

Trump Says a Delay in his Briefing on ‘So-Called’ Russian Hacking Is ‘Very Strange’
Skeptical—at best—ahead of intelligence briefing [Washington Post]

Ethics Flap Reveals Flaws in Paul Ryan’s Approach to Using Power
The Speaker’s weaknesses were revealed [Yahoo]

Inquiries Go on as Independent Ethics Office Wins Reprieve
What the little-known agency does [Associated Press]

Repealing Obamacare Could Be Trump’s First Lesson in the Glacial Pace of Congress
Rand Paul to vote no on GOP budget [Bloomberg]

Sound Off

“The only way we’re going to work with him is if he moves completely in our direction and abandons his Republican colleagues.” — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Donald Trump in an interview with CNN

“It kind of reminds you that no matter how long you have been here, you haven’t seen it all.” — Speaker of the House Paul Ryan opening the 115th Congress Tuesday

Bits and Bites

Hillary and Bill Clinton Will Attend Donald Trump’s Inauguration [TIME]

Omarosa Manigault joining Trump’s White House staff to focus on public engagement [Associated Press]

President Obama to host a goodbye party at the White House on Friday [Washington Post]

Dems Take Photos on House Floor to Protest Proposed GOP Fine [Roll Call]

Exxon Mobil, Tillerson agree to cut all ties [Reuters]

Meet the Harvard whiz kid who wants to explain Trumpism [Politico]

Jeff Sessions says he handled these civil rights cases. He barely touched them. [Washington Post]

Pence expected to name Josh Pitcock as chief of staff [Politico]

NAACP President Among 6 Arrested After Staging Sit-In Against Sen. Jeff Sessions [TIME]

The Final Episode Of The Joe Biden Show [BuzzFeed]

Biden says he will be based at Penn [Philly.com]

Spicer tours White House, meets with Earnest [Politico]