PLAYBOOK PM — COVID RELIEF DETAILS

The tension: W.H. now desperate for a deal, led by Washington’s most eager man, @stevenmnuchin1

MCCONNELL said it’s unlikely anything will get done before Election Day.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS and Hill sources tell us that they plan to work through this weekend, all next week and possibly next weekend to get a deal.

WHO KNOWS WHY TRUMP WANTS THIS. He may want noise to fill the silence. Maybe he wants a bump in the stock market. We’re not mood readers or psychiatrists or psychics. This deal could’ve been cut 90 times between May and now.

-- THE WHITE HOUSE’S top-line number is $1.8 trillion. The line the GOP can’t cross is $2 trillion. All depends on the details, but this is now significantly higher than the GOP’s previous top line, which was $1.5 trillion.

— NEWS HERE … THE ADMINISTRATION is aiming for $300 billion in state and local funding. Too low for Democrats, but in the right direction. The GOP will have to come up here. Also, there’s unspent money that could be counted.

-- THEY WANT TO TRY TO REPLACE the Earned Income Tax Credit with a boost in stimulus payments. We’re not clear here on the details, but it shows that the GOP is looking to close up an unresolved element of the negotiations.

As the great @jonathanvswan and great @alaynatreene said: why would @senatemajldr support something crafted by @SpeakerPelosi and @stevenmnuchin1 — two people Senate Rs want zero to do with.

MCCONNELL today “The situation is kind of murky, and I think the murkiness is a result of the proximity to the election and everybody kind of trying to elbow for political advantage. ...

I’d like to see us rise above that like we did back in March and April, but I think that’s unlikely in the next three weeks.”