POLITICO Playbook Daily Briefing - POLITICO

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May 5, 2022: The book J.D. Vance doesn’t want you to read May 05, 2022

Show notes

J.D. Vance owes his GOP Senate primary victory in Ohio to two people: Donald Trump and Peter Thiel. Trump’s endorsement put him over the top in a crowded primary, while Thiel’s support — funneled through a super PAC called Protect Ohio Values (aka POV) — enabled Vance to outsource many traditional campaign operations, including polling, advertising, GOTV and, it turns out, opposition research.

One big problem with letting a super PAC do everything: Campaign finance law prohibits communication between a candidate’s own committee and a super PAC supporting them.

But there are ways around that obstacle.

As Alex Isenstadt detailed Tuesday in a fascinating tick-tock of the Ohio race, POV set up an unadvertised-but-public Medium account, where it posted a trove of sensitive documents, polling reports, audio and video for Vance to use. Some of the files are boring, such as b-roll footage the Vance camp could include in ads. But the group also posted extensive opposition research reports — on both his primary opponents and Vance himself.

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

May 4, 2022: Poll: Voters back major SCOTUS reform after Roe bombshell May 04, 2022

Show notes

On her first day back in public since testing positive for the coronavirus last week, VP Kamala Harris spoke to a crowd of abortion rights supporters at the EMILY’s List conference Tuesday evening. Her speech, scheduled long in advance, had to be completely rewritten for obvious reasons.

Harris gave a preview of how the administration hopes to frame the debate moving forward — channeling its supporters’ outrage while pitching the midterm election as a choice between two very different views of abortion rights.

In the wake of the news about the draft opinion overturning Roe, a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll reveals that a clear majority of voters want the court to support abortion rights.

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

May 3, 2022: Breaking down Alito's Roe bombshell May 03, 2022

Show notes

In his own words: “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely — the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Thus begins Justice Samuel Alito's February draft opinion that would end the constitutional right to an abortion in America, obtained exclusively by POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward.

We knew this was coming. Ever since last December’s oral arguments in the Mississippi abortion case, it seemed likely that there was a majority on the court to overrule Roe and Casey.

But while not a surprise, it was still shocking to see Alito’s words in black and white. The draft opinion, if it holds, would be the culmination of half a century of legal conservatives organizing around the idea that Roe was wrongly decided and needed to be reversed.

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

May 2, 2022: Team Biden eyes a new midterm strategy May 02, 2022

Show notes

It’s May 2, just over six months until the midterm elections, which are generally a referendum on the president’s performance. President Joe Biden is in rough shape. Let’s look at how it happened, and how he hopes to prevent a wipeout …

How they got here: As early as April 2021, John Anzalone — Biden’s top pollster — saw the writing on the wall. In a series of memos over the ensuing months, he tried to warn the president about the growing liabilities posed by immigration, inflation and crime, report NYT’s Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.

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

April 29, 2022: A late-breaking shift in next week’s Ohio primary? Apr 29, 2022

Show notes

Most of the candidates chasing Ohio’s GOP Senate nomination have pledged allegiance to Donald Trump and beaten a path to Mar-a-Lago. But not state Sen. Matt Dolan. Instead, he’s poured millions of his own fortune into a run as a traditional conservative. Now, “days before the May 3 primary, Dolan appears to be experiencing a late burst of momentum,” Natalie Allison reports.

Listen to Playbook Deep Dive: Beltway, stars want an invite: How Tammy throws brunch

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

April 28, 2022: Voters are not partying Apr 28, 2022

Show notes

The enormous gap between the excitement in Washington about the return of the WHCA weekend and the ongoing anxiety of voters hit us hard this week as we watched focus groups of voters conducted by longtime Democratic pollster Celinda Lake.

On Tuesday night, Lake talked to a group of “high -information” Democrats scattered around the country over a Zoom call while we watched on mute. This appeared to be one of the more financially well-off focus groups we’ve seen this year, but like the others, these voters were defined by their disgust.

When asked the first word that popped into their mind about how things are going in the country, here’s what they said: “frustrated,” “disbelief,” “aggravated,” “discouraged,” “unsure,” “worrying,” “resigned,” “frightened.” The only positive words offered were “better” and “OK.”

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

April 27, 2022: Fauci pulls out of WHCD. Is Biden next? Apr 27, 2022

Show notes

Late Tuesday night, CNN’s Oliver Darcy and Kaitlan Collins scooped that Anthony Fauci is dropping out of this weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner over concerns about Covid-19.

The question on our minds now: Will President Joe Biden go forward with his own plans to attend the dinner — disagreeing with his chief medical adviser in the process?

And, embattled House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will face his rank and file in a GOP Conference meeting this morning. It’s their first time gathering since a slew of book excerpts and audio recordings landed McCarthy in hot water with MAGA world over what he said in private about both Donald Trump and Trump’s congressional allies in the days following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

The meeting comes just after the release of one of the most damaging clips yet: On Tuesday, NYT’s Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin published another explosive piece of audio in which McCarthy (1) said he wished Twitter would ban some of his own members from the platform, and (2) expressed concerns that his rank and file could incite more violence in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack — yet chose to do nothing about it.

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

April 26, 2022: Republicans to Trump: Stay away from Twitter Apr 26, 2022

Show notes

The news that Elon Musk is buying Twitter has thrown Washington into a tizzy over one major question: Will Donald Trump return to his old favorite social media platform and start tweeting again?

As it turns out, no one is more petrified of this than members of Trump’s own party.

On Monday night, in a series of calls and texts with several top GOP insiders, every single one of them told us that they hoped the former president stays the hell away from Twitter, lest he sink their chances at flipping the House and Senate. Some of his allies even think that a return to his old Twitter habits could damage his own brand ahead of a possible third presidential bid in 2024.

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

April 25, 2022: Groundhog Day on the Hill, hangover week in Washington Apr 25, 2022

Show notes

Congress returns from a two-week recess facing the same unresolved issues that have plagued lawmakers for months. Lawmakers left town unable to pass a bipartisan deal to provide the administration with $10 billion in pandemic relief money and there’s still no immediate solution in sight. The White House announced another $800 million tranche of Ukraine aid last week, but says it needs Congress to allocate more funds ASAP.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and White House officials have been exchanging niceties in recent weeks, strong signals that they’re willing to re-engage on a smaller social-spending package months after Build Back Better was left for dead.

April 22, 2022: Is Kevin McCarthy toast? Apr 22, 2022

Show notes

For years now, through controversy after controversy, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has bent over backward to stay in former President Donald Trump's good graces, all to serve one major purpose: He wants to be speaker someday.

That hope may have just blown up on the launchpad.

On Thursday night, NYT’s Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns delivered an absolute stunner of a scoop: an audio recording of a phone call on Jan. 10, 2021, in which McCarthy is heard clearly and unambiguously saying that Trump should resign. Listen for yourself

Listen to Playbook Deep Dive: 'You only win if you fight:' Will Gallego unseat Sinema?

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

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