POLITICO Playbook Daily Briefing - POLITICO

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Sep. 14, 2022: Did Lindsey Graham just score an own goal on abortion? Sep 14, 2022

Show notes

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, most Republicans stuck to a simple message: The decision merely sent the issue back to the states; it was not a prelude to any national ban on abortion.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) tossed all that out the window Tuesday, dropping a bill that would implement a nationwide ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy while allowing states to pass more restrictive laws. The immediate effect was to put fellow Republicans, who had already been on their heels over Roe’s reversal, straight onto their butts.

And senior legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein and POLITICO founding editor John Harris discuss the life of Ken Starr, who passed away yesterday at the age of 76.

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Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Sep. 13, 2022: What the VP told activists about abortion Sep 13, 2022

Show notes

Back in July, a coalition of civil rights and reproductive rights groups pushed President Joe Biden for “continued leadership” in the wake of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, requesting a POTUS meeting.

On Monday evening, they got their meeting — with VP Kamala Harris, who spent about 90 minutes with the groups’ leaders. Her message, attendees said, echoed the rising sentiment in Democratic circles that abortion rights stand to be a key motivating factor in the midterms — and she said the Biden administration would continue raising the salience of the issue.

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Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Sep. 12, 2022: Washington revs up for a stacked week Sep 12, 2022

Show notes

We’re keeping our eyes on three big things this week when senators return this afternoon:

1. The brewing Manchin-Sanders faceoff.

2. The status of the marriage bill.

3. How will the White House handle the new Taiwan bill?

And Playbook's Eugene Daniels chats with New York magazine reporter (and former POLITICO) Gabriel Debenedetti about his new book, “The Long Alliance,” that comes out Tuesday. In it, he explores the complex and — as he puts it — “misunderstood relationship” between President Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

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Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Sep. 9, 2022: DOJ offers Judge Cannon a new deal Sep 09, 2022

Show notes

As expected, the Justice Department said on Thursday that it will likely move forward with an appeal of Judge Aileen Cannon's recent decision largely blocking DOJ’s use of materials seized at Mar-a-Lago and appointing a special master.

But in the meantime, the government tried a new approach to convince Cannon to rethink her recent decision, at least when it comes to the key documents seized from Mar-a-Lago by the FBI.

And Politico's health care reporter Alice Miranda Ollstein explains the Michigan Supreme Court ruling that an abortion amendment must appear on its November ballot.

Listen to Playbook Deep Dive: Kara Swisher knows when to fold ‘em

Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Sep. 8, 2022: Why same-sex marriage is on the cusp of passing the Senate Sep 08, 2022

Show notes

It would have been unthinkable just a few months ago, let alone a decade ago, but senators of both parties are increasingly optimistic they can overcome a filibuster and pass a bill enshrining same-sex and interracial marriage into law as soon as this month.

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters a same-sex marriage vote “will happen on the Senate floor in the coming weeks.” But there are potential land mines.

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Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Sep. 7, 2022: Legal world fires at Judge Cannon Sep 07, 2022

Show notes

Legal pundits have had another day to digest Monday’s confounding opinion from Judge Aileen Cannon.

Recall that the 41-year-old Trump appointee (who was confirmed in the days after the 2020 election) granted the former president’s request to appoint a special master to review the documents taken from Mar-a-Lago, and enjoined the Department of Justice “from reviewing and using the seized materials for investigative purposes.” She ordered the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to continue its damage assessment review of the documents.

Lawyers are, by definition, a quarrelsome bunch, and members of the pundit bar are especially quick to second-guess any opinions that aren’t theirs. But they are also as ideologically divided as the rest of the country. So it’s notable that while Cannon has had little trouble finding political support for her decision, she has been largely alone when it comes to support for her legal arguments.

And Senate Republicans tried to tamp down the burgeoning feud between Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and NRSC Chair Rick Scott (Fla.) over campaign strategy at a Tuesday meeting, Burgess Everett and Marianne LeVine report. “Republican senators said after the meeting that there was little talk inside McConnell’s leadership suite of a split between Scott and the GOP leader. Still, the divide hung over the Senate’s return like Washington’s steamy early September weather.”

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Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

September 6: Welcome to the general election Sep 06, 2022

Show notes

Labor Day has long served as the unofficial kickoff of election season: More voters start to pay attention, political TV ads become inescapable, volunteers knock on doors and pollsters adjust their samples from “registered voters” to “likely voters.”

Now, with Labor Day behind us, here’s the lay of the land just nine short weeks away from Election Day, per POLITICO’s just-updated forecast. The Senate is a toss-up, with the previous forecast leaning Republican. The House is likely going to flip Republican, with a previous forecast of likely Republican. Today, we dive into some of the reasons behind both.

Kara Tabor is an audio producer for POLITICO Audio.
Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

September 2: Biden pulls an eager Trump onto center stage for 2022 Sep 02, 2022

Show notes

There was a lot going on in President Joe Biden's 24-minute primetime speech at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall Thursday night. If you felt some whiplash listening to Biden, you’re not alone.

We are in the midst of a confusing and turbulent political period 10 weeks before the midterms, and it seemed to us that Biden was attempting to weave together and make sense of a lot of contradictory political currents.

At its core, the speech was about an issue as grave as any that a president might address: what Biden described as “an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.”

Kara Tabor is an audio producer for POLITICO Audio.
Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

September 1: Alaska rejects Palin, Mississippi confronts a crisis Sep 01, 2022

Show notes

It's a shocker in Alaska as Democrat Mary Peltola won Alaska’s special election on Wednesday, making her “the first Alaska Native in Congress,” the Anchorage Daily News’ Iris Samuels reports. Peltola is also the first person elected via the state’s new ranked-choice voting system.

“Peltola topped Republican former Gov. Sarah Palin after ballots were tallied and after votes for third-place GOP candidate Nick Begich III were redistributed to his supporters’ second choices. Peltola, a Yup’ik former state lawmaker who calls Bethel home, is now slated to be the first woman to hold Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat.” Peltola, Palin and Begich will face off again in November for a full term.

While Washington chews on headlines about President Joe Biden's pre-midterm road blitz and former President Donald Trump's legal jeopardy, an American city of more than 150,000 people is struggling to deliver clean drinking water to its residents.

There’s no clear end in sight to the crisis in Jackson, Miss., which was sparked by record rainfall that flooded the Pearl River but is rooted in much more persistent issues of public disinvestment, political neglect and racial inequity. As with Hurricanes Katrina and Harvey, as well as the water crisis in Flint, Mich., majority-Black communities are left bearing the brunt of the dysfunction — not just during a crisis, but for years before and after.

Kara Tabor is an audio producer for POLITICO Audio.
Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

August 31: Trump likely obstructed classified records probe, DOJ says Aug 31, 2022

Show notes

Just minutes before a midnight deadline, the Justice Department filed a stunning response to former President Donald Trump’s request for an independent review of the documents seized from his Florida home earlier this month.

The 36-page document is chock-full of previously unknown information, providing an extensive timeline of how the government worked to recover classified material before the unprecedented search of Mar-a-Lago. It is the clearest and most detailed account yet offered of the steps taken before the search and forcefully rebuts attacks from Trump and his allies. It going so far to claim that “government records were likely concealed” from prosecutors and “efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.”

The DOJ filing says Trump’s request for a special master “is unnecessary and would significantly harm important governmental interests,” dismissing it as an attempt to slow down the investigation. It also claims Trump has no standing to sue because the records belong to the government, not to him. And, notably, prosecutors placed a photo of some of the seized documents — strewn across a Mar-a-Lago carpet with their classified markings plain to see — into the public court record.

Trump and his allies have claimed executive privilege over the documents, but prosecutors rejected that assertion — arguing that executive privilege is usually invoked to protect communications from the legislative or judicial branch, not within the executive branch itself. The prosecution team, led by DOJ counterintelligence chief Jay Bratt, also points out that Trump never once asserted executive privilege or declassified the documents prior to the search.

Kara Tabor is an audio producer for POLITICO Audio.
Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

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