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THE WEEK — Monday:VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY addresses NATO Parliamentary Assembly. JOE BIDEN pardons two turkeys. … Tuesday:MICHAEL FLYNN testifies before Georgia grand jury investigating DONALD TRUMP’s alleged election interference. … Thursday: Thanksgiving Day. Macy’s Parade starts at 9 a.m., the Bills-Lions game at 12:30 p.m., Giants-Cowboys at 4:30 p.m. and Patriots-Vikings at 8:20 p.m. … Saturday: Early voting starts in some Georgia counties for the Dec. 6 Senate runoff, litigation permitting.

PROBES AND PITFALLS — With NANCY PELOSI stepping aside, DONALD TRUMP launching another run for president, RICK SCOTT challenging MITCH McCONNELL for Senate GOP leader and KEVIN McCARTHY scrambling for the speaker’s gavel, one big story last week got a lot less attention than it should have.

Two soon-to-be House chairs, Oversight’s JAMES COMER (R-Ky.) and Judiciary’s JIM JORDAN (R-Ohio), detailed their plans to investigate JOE BIDEN and his son HUNTER BIDEN as well as a host of policy matters.

There’s been plenty of chatter about how much of a headache the countless GOP subpoenas could be for Biden’s White House. But when it comes to investigating Biden — and potentially impeaching him — Republicans are going to run into several problems of their own.

 1. The internal politics. We’re already hearing from a host of moderate House Republicans who won in Biden districts who are dreading the prospect of overly aggressive probes. It’s not what they ran on this election cycle — and certainly not what they want to be talking about after spending their campaigns focused on the economy.

Our Olivia Beavers, Jordain Carney and Sarah Ferris are up this morning with a story about how the moderate wing of the party will try to flex its muscle to counter the hard right. That could include pushing back against Trump allies in the House, like Jordan, who are eager to see Biden probes take center stage.

It echoes the dynamic among House Democrats after they won the majority in 2019, where Pelosi spent months trying to pump the brakes on the left’s push for investigations and impeachment. This time around, McCarthy is dealing with a much more emboldened right flank that is ready and willing to use its leverage to get what it wants.

2. The public sentiment. The week of the election, a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll found that fewer “than 3 in 10 voters said Congress should focus on a presidential impeachment investigation … or the first son’s politically uncomfortable business dealings — though there is zeal among over half of the GOP electorate for such probes.”

The sentiment shines through anecdotally, too. The market research firm Engagious conducted a focus group with Trump-to-Biden swing voters in Georgia just days after the election. “In what should be a massive red flag to Kevin McCarthy and his leadership team, none of the respondents thinks it’s necessary to investigate Hunter Biden,” reported Engagious President RICH THAU.

Here’s a sampling of comments from participants: “If it wasn’t Biden’s son, I don’t think anybody would give a damn” … “There’s so many more issues to focus on” … “We have more pressing issues at hand.”

In a similar vein, participants were also skeptical of probing infectious disease expert ANTHONY FAUCI and how the Covid-19 pandemic was handled: “What are they going to do? What’s the outcome? Why?” … “Spend millions of dollars doing it? … Ridiculous” … “That’s precious time that they’re losing that they could be spending on other issues.”

None of the focus group’s participants wanted to see investigations of the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago, either — or even the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Seven, however, were interested in a GOP probe of border issues.

“Their message was clear: Focus on today and tomorrow, not yesterday,” Thau said. (h/t WaPo’s Paul Kane, who flagged this study for us on a panel last week.)

— Related: McCarthy announced Sunday he’d travel this week to the border and that Republicans would “use every tool at our disposal — from the power of the purse to power of the subpoena” to address it.

3. The elusive evidence. Given the public skepticism, Republicans will need to amass some seriously compelling evidence if they want to justify their probes to voters. But while Hill subpoenas will go flying down Pennsylvania Avenue in no time, there’s little reason to think anything substantial will come back.

Thanks to Trump’s stonewalling posture — remember him vowing to ignore “all the subpoenas” sent by House Democrats? — Biden now has a precedent for totally snubbing Congress.

The Republicans who are now targeting Biden foresaw this complication. In “Unchecked — The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump” ($28), Rachael and coauthor Karoun Demirjian scooped that McCarthy’s and Jordan’s teams tried to convince Trump to cooperate with House requests because they knew a future Democratic president might return the favor one day, crippling Congress’s oversight power. (Of course, they never said this out loud.)

That day has now come.

TALKER: “MRS. FETTERMAN GOES TO WASHINGTON” — Pablo Manriquez has a buzzy exclusive this morning for The New Republic with GISELE BARRETO FETTERMAN, wife of Sen.-elect JOHN FETTERMAN (D-Pa.). She opens up about the right’s obsession with her — particularly the emerging caricature in Republican circles that she is a “nefarious puppeteer seeking to replace her disabled husband,” as Manriquez puts it.

“The right-wing hates women,” she told Manriquez, who trailed her during Senate orientation week. “They especially hate strong women, and I think that's what you're seeing. … The fact that a spouse of a senator-elect has been attacked nonstop for the past 24 hours and everyone's okay with it and everyone thinks it's normal … it’s not normal.”

She put to rest any suggestions that she has political ambitions of her own: “Never,” she said of running for office someday. “It’s not for me. It’s a very cruel world, and I am not cruel. I don’t ever wanna become cruel. I’m sensitive. I want people to like me. It hurts me when people are mean.”

Come for the dish on her $12 wardrobe and the struggle to find a bathroom in the Capitol. Stay for the cracks about her husband being an “ogre” who’s too big to fit in pictures.

Good Monday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. What Thanksgiving side dish are you stanning this week? Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

MIDTERMS FALLOUT

FOLLOW THE MONEY — “GOP’s lackluster fundraising spurs post-election infighting,” by AP’s Brian Slodysko and Aaron Kessler: “Many of [the GOP’s] nominees — a significant number of whom were first-time candidates who adopted far-right positions — failed to raise the money needed to mount competitive campaigns. That forced party leaders, particularly in the Senate, to make hard choices and triage resources to races where they thought they had the best chance at winning, often paying exorbitant rates to TV stations that, by law, would have been required to sell the same advertising time to candidates for far less. …

“‘This has become an existential and systemic problem for our party and it’s something that needs to get addressed if we hope to be competitive,’ said STEVEN LAW, a former McConnell chief of staff who now leads Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC that spent at least $232 million on advertising to elect Republicans to the Senate this year.”

THE WHITE HOUSE

THE AGE-OLD QUESTION — “As Biden Turns 80, Some Democrats See Age as Issue for Potential 2024 Bid,” by WSJ’s Tarini Parti and Natalie Andrews: While some of Biden’s critics say it’s time for the octogenarian to step aside, his allies believe that he’s ready for another go. Here’s some of the responses WSJ received:

— Rep. DEAN PHILLIPS (D-Minn.): “I think he’s done a wonderful job of being the bridge that he promised to be. … The issue is that it is just time for a new generation of leaders to participate.”

— Rep. JUAN VARGAS (D-Calif.): “Like right now, I’m trying to think of a word, and I miss it. … Everybody does that. I mean, I gotta tell you, I think he’s all there.”

— LARRY DRAKE, chair of New Hampshire’s Rockingham County Democrats: “TOM BRADY won a Super Bowl when he was like 43. … I think we have to reassess our views of aging and all that.”

CLICKER — “President Joe Biden at 80: A look back,” by David Cohen

WHITHER THE CHIEF — “Progressives want Ron Klain to stick around. A united Democratic front may depend on it,” by Adam Cancryn: “An around-the-clock communicator who courted Democrats’ grassroots groups even before Biden took office, [chief of staff RON] KLAIN has become a critical conduit between liberal leaders and the administration’s upper echelon, according to interviews with more than a dozen leaders and lawmakers on the left. He offers a level of access the left has rarely enjoyed — and that progressives now say will be crucial to maintaining a united Democratic front in the face of divided government.

“The outpouring of support comes amid growing speculation over whether Klain will exit the White House, triggering a West Wing shakeup that could reshape the remainder of Biden’s presidency and reverberate through the Democratic Party. Biden has asked Klain to stay, a person familiar with the matter told POLITICO.”

FUN STORY — “Privacy prevailed at the White House wedding. Here’s what we found out anyway,” by WaPo’s Maura Judkis, Tyler Pager and Jada Yuan: “How do you tell the story of a wedding you weren’t invited to attend — one hosted in what may be the most public-yet-exclusive place in America to say ‘I do?’ You get creative.

“You stand outside the White House on a crispy cold Saturday morning with the rest of the excluded media, using binoculars to get a glimpse of NAOMI BIDEN’s wedding dress. (Long sleeves, high neckline, lace! Which, when the close-up photos materialized, turned out to be Ralph Lauren.) You comb through social media looking for details slipped by friends, wedding guests, the hired help. You wait for guests to leave the secure perimeter, and politely accost them for all the details. You follow the bride’s aesthetician on Instagram.”

CONGRESS

LAME DUCK DREAMIN’ — “Democrats confront bleak odds for immigration deal before 2023,” by Marianne LeVine and Burgess Everett: “Democrats eager to find a legislative solution before 2023 for young undocumented immigrants are getting a wake-up call: They need votes from Republicans who don’t want to do it. As the GOP prepares to take the House, top Senate Democrats are desperately proclaiming that the post-election session is the best — and perhaps only — chance for Congress to act in the near term on deportation protections for the immigrants known as ‘Dreamers.’ And with good reason: After the Senate passed a comprehensive bill in 2013, the Republican-controlled House never took it up.”

2024 WATCH

THE JOCKEYING JUMBLE — “2024 Republican rivals put Trump on notice,” by Alex Isenstadt in Las Vegas: “If former President Donald Trump thought his early 2024 announcement would cow prospective Republican primary rivals into submission, he clearly miscalculated.

“At this weekend’s Republican Jewish Coalition conference, a parade of ambitious Republicans hit all the notes that politicians eyeing future campaigns for the White House typically do. Their tones and messages varied — few called out Trump by name — but collectively they made clear they are not going to back down to the former president after a third consecutive poor election with him at the helm.

What the contenders sound like: “MIKE POMPEO, Trump’s hand-picked secretary of State and CIA director, warned that for Republicans to win elections, they can’t simply ‘go on Fox News or send tweets.’ Former New Jersey Gov. CHRIS CHRISTIE, who ran Trump’s transition, said Republicans were losing because ‘Donald Trump has put himself before everybody else.’

“NIKKI HALEY, Trump’s U.N. ambassador who said last year she wouldn’t run if her former boss did, has apparently changed her mind. She used her Saturday evening speech here to say she was looking at running in a ‘serious way,’ and to call for ‘a younger generation to lead across the board.’ …

“‘He’s not going to have the financial support he had anymore, he’s not going to have the internal support that he had before,’ said New Hampshire Gov. CHRIS SUNUNU, whose state hosts the first-in-the-nation GOP primary. ‘And so therefore, there’s opportunity there. That political weakness is blood in the water for some folks.’”

TRUMP CARDS

TRUMP INC. — “Trump Family’s Newest Partners: Middle Eastern Governments,” by NYT’s Eric Lipton and Maggie Haberman: “When former President Donald J. Trump returned briefly last week to his office at Trump Tower in New York, he was joined by his son ERIC TRUMP and the top executive of a Saudi Arabian real estate company to sign a deal that creates new conflict-of-interest questions for his just-launched presidential campaign. The deal is with a Saudi real estate company, which intends to build a Trump-branded hotel, villas and a golf course as part of a $4 billion real estate project in Oman.

“The agreement continues a practice that had been popular for the Trump family business until Mr. Trump was elected president — selling branding rights to an overseas project in exchange for a generous licensing fee. But what makes this project unusual — and is sure to intensify the questions over this newest transaction — is that by teaming up with the Saudi company, Mr. Trump is also becoming part of a project backed by the government of Oman itself.”

JUDICIARY SQUARE

SCOTUS WATCH — “Senior Democratic lawmakers demand answers on alleged Supreme Court leak,” by Josh Gerstein: “Two senior Democrats in Congress are demanding that Chief Justice JOHN ROBERTS detail what, if anything, the Supreme Court has done to respond to recent allegations of a leak of the outcome of a major case the high court considered several years ago. Sen. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D-R.I.) and Rep. HANK JOHNSON (D-Ga.) are also interested in examining claims about a concerted effort by religious conservatives to woo the justices through meals and social engagements. They wrote to Roberts on Sunday, making clear that if the court won’t investigate the alleged ethical breaches, lawmakers are likely to launch their own probe.” Read the letter, obtained by Josh

POLICY CORNER

GARY G HAD TO REGULATE — “Gary Gensler versus the world,” by Declan Harty: “Nineteen months after taking the SEC’s reins, [GARY] GENSLER, a veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations, has drawn widespread ire thanks to an ambitious regulatory agenda poised to shake up much of corporate America. The SEC is pursuing new rules that would force companies to disclose their carbon emissions and fundamentally revamp the stock market’s inner workings.

“Gensler’s regulatory push has triggered public threats of litigation from Wall Street executives and warnings from their friends in Congress. He’s even under pressure from long-time progressive allies who want to make sure he doesn’t compromise when it comes to cracking down on big business.”

THE CRYPTO MELTDOWN — “FTX says it owes more than $3 billion to creditors,” by WaPo’s Steven Zeitchik

WAR IN UKRAINE

JUST POSTED — “US will support Ukraine “for as long as it takes," says US Defense Secretary,” by CNN’s Colin McCullough

DATELINE HALIFAX — “Global security leaders, activists say it’s time to fight, not talk, in Ukraine,” by Paul McLeary, Alexander Ward and Connor O’Brien in Nova Scotia

ON THE GROUND — “Shells hit near nuclear plant; Blackouts roll across Ukraine,” by AP’s John Leicester and Hanna Arhirova

BIG INVESTIGATION — “Videos Suggest Captive Russian Soldiers Were Killed at Close Range,” by NYT’s Malachy Browne, Stephen Hiltner, Chevaz Clarke-Williams and Taylor Turner

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

THE BIBI EFFECT — “Netanyahu’s Comeback Widens Divide Over Israel Among American Jews,” by NYT’s Liam Stack: “BENJAMIN NETANYAHU has mounted a political comeback with the backing of a far-right coalition that has stirred concerns among some over the direction Israel will take.”

THE PANDEMIC

THE TRIPLE-DEMIC — “RSV, covid and flu push hospitals to the brink — and it may get worse,” by WaPo’s Sabrina Malhi

ABORTION FALLOUT

THE REAL-WORLD IMPACT — “Despite dangerous pregnancy complications, abortions denied,” by AP’s Laura Ungar and Heather Hollingsworth: “A growing number of physicians and families tell similar stories as a post-Roe fear comes to pass: Pregnant women with dangerous medical conditions are showing up in hospitals and doctors’ offices only to be denied the abortions that could help treat them. Some doctors in states with restrictive abortion laws say they’ve referred or suggested more patients go elsewhere than ever. Some women are facing harmful, potentially deadly delays.”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

THE LATEST IN COLORADO — “Gay club shooting suspect evaded Colorado’s red flag gun law,” by AP’s Bernard Condon and Colleen Slevin in Denver: “A year and a half before he was arrested in the Colorado Springs gay nightclub shooting that left five people dead, ANDERSON LEE ALDRICH allegedly threatened his mother with a homemade bomb, forcing neighbors in surrounding homes to evacuate while the bomb squad and crisis negotiators talked him into surrendering.

“Yet despite that scare, there’s no record prosecutors ever moved forward with felony kidnapping and menacing charges against Aldrich, or that police or relatives tried to trigger Colorado’s ‘red flag’ law that would have allowed authorities to seize the weapons and ammo the man’s mother says he had with him.

“Gun control advocates say Aldrich’s June 2021 threat is an example of a red flag law ignored, with potentially deadly consequences. While it’s not clear the law could have prevented Saturday night’s attack — such gun seizures can be in effect for as little as 14 days and be extended by a judge in six-month increments — they say it could have at least slowed Aldrich and raised his profile with law enforcement.”

MEDIAWATCH

BATTLE OF THE BOBS — “Bob Iger Replaces Bob Chapek as Disney CEO,” by Variety’s Cynthia Littleton: “BOB IGER has replaced BOB CHAPEK as Disney’s CEO, a shocking turn of events for the world’s largest media company that has been in turmoil ever since Iger stepped down as CEO in February 2020. The shakeup that caught the entertainment industry and Wall Street mostly by surprise was confirmed by Disney’s board of directors late Sunday. There had been rumblings of a shakeup in the C-suite but the prospect of Iger returning to the CEO job still seemed far-fetched.”

FOR YOUR RADAR — “News Corp Investors Raise Concerns About Proposed Merger With Fox,” by NYT’s Lauren Hirsch

MUSK READS

STRESS TEST — “Elon Musk’s Downscaled Twitter Faces World Cup Test,” by WSJ’s Alexa Corse: “Employees have been working for weeks to prepare for the soccer extravaganza, a Twitter executive says.”

Gabby Giffordsshared a photo of Barack Obama visiting her in the hospital after she was shot in 2011.

Joe Biden gave the U.S. Soccer men’s national team a World Cup pep talk.

TRANSITION — Eliana Locke is joining Rep. Robin Kelly’s (D-Ill.) office as comms director. She previously was national press secretary for Priorities USA.

ENGAGED — Courtney Walter, associate attorney with Alston & Bird LLP, and Joe Gollinger, legislative assistant for Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.), got engaged this weekend in front of the U.S. Capitol. Pic

WEDDINGS — Rob Flaherty, deputy assistant to the president and director of the office of digital strategy at the White House, and Carla Frank, special assistant to the president and deputy director of the office of political strategy and outreach at the White House, got married on Saturday at Union Station with the ceremony in the presidential suite. The ceremony was officiated by the DCCC’s James Singer and Carla’s grandfather Don. The couple met in 2015 when they both worked at the DNC, but didn’t go on their first date until January 2017 when they reconnected at a friend’s birthday party. Pic … Another pic

SPOTTED: Ron Klain, Anita Dunn, Bruce Reed, Kate Bedingfield and David Kieve, Kate Berner, Bill Russo and Alice Muglia, Meghan Hays, TJ Ducklo, Andrew Bates and Megan Apper, Emmy Ruiz, Stacy Eichner, Amanda Brockbank, Clarke Humphrey, Rebecca Rinkevich, Christian Tom, Hoor Qureshi, Ali Zaidi, Rob Friedlander, Ofirah Yheskel, Lauren Hitt, David Wysong, Brad Smith,Tony Gardner, Chris Hayden, Alex Kellner, Will Baskin-Gerwitz, Teddy Goff, Jenna Lowenstein, Emily Norman, Tyler Anderson and Matt Campbell.

— Emma Goldstein, lead of account management at Civis Analytics, and Andrew Kane, director in the health care practice at Guidehouse, got married at the Decatur House on Saturday. SPOTTED:Erin Wilson, Katie Fricchione, Sophie Ota, Danielle Friedman, Jeremiah Montgomery-Thompson and Vriti Jain.

— Philippa Bradley, legislative director for Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.), and Will Lane, legislative assistant for Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), got married recently at the Greenbrier Resort. The two met when interviewing for the same staff assistant position in former Rep. John Faso’s (R-N.Y.) office. Philippa got the job. Pic

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and John Kennedy (R-La.) … Reps. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) and Anthony Brown (D-Md.) … POLITICO’s Oscar Santamarina … James Braid of Rep. Ken Buck’s (R-Colo.) office … Betsy Dudley … Allison Varricchio of the NSC … David Culver … ABC’s Rick Klein … Sarah Courtney … Mallory Shelbourne … Elizabeth Farrar of the Senate Rules Dems … Mica Soellner of the Washington Times … Christopher “Gindy” Gindlesperger of the National Confectioners Association … Jon Adams … … Bret Stephens … Kyle Nevins … Catherine Edmonson of American Defense International … Joanna Liberman Turner … T.J. Tatum of Cornerstone Government Affairs … Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League … Colby Moore … Judah Taylor … Tina Brown … former Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) … Matthew Agvent of Matt Richards’ Georgia congressional campaign … NASFAA’s Maria Carrasco … Valerie Berlin of BerlinRosen  … Peter Dodge Jr. … Walmart’s Alexis Weiss

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