POLITICO Playbook Daily Briefing - POLITICO

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Sept. 1, 2021: Biden vs. The Blob Sep 01, 2021

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President Joe Biden ended August on Tuesday with a combative speech in which he defended his decision-making on Afghanistan, which has become by far the most controversial turn of his short presidency.

He criticized Afghan national security forces for melting away in the face of the Taliban. He insisted that Americans in Afghanistan had “multiple warnings and offers to help them leave.”

“Biden is fighting The Blob,” noted our colleague Alex Ward. “That seems to be the messaging here, both in and out of DC.”

And, Biden is about to make a sharp pivot from fighting D.C.’s foreign policy Blob to fighting D.C.’s interest group Blob.

Two weeks from today, congressional committees are scheduled to complete assembling the myriad pieces of Build Back Better into a single bill — resulting in possibly the largest package of new legislation in American history.

Today we start Playbook’s series of deep dives into the major policies of the reconciliation bill by digging into the Dems’ proposals to lower prescription drug costs.

Aug. 31, 2021: Biden looks to pivot after month from hell Aug 31, 2021

Show notes

It’s been a month from hell for President Joe Biden. From the Afghanistan pullout mission that led to American casualties, to the spike in Covid-19 hospitalizations — and an accompanying hit to his poll numbers — September can’t come soon enough for the president.

After the last soldier boarded a C-17 to depart Afghanistan on Monday, the White House and Democrats are looking for a reset, our colleagues Natasha Korecki, Chris Cadelago and Laura Barrón-López report. The trio write today that Biden and the Democrats are “racing to put the conflict’s tumultuous exit behind them … plotting a way forward that hinges tactically on Biden’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and passage of his sweeping economic agenda on Capitol Hill.

Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio.
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

Aug. 30, 2021: A breathtaking account from inside the Pentagon Aug 30, 2021

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Lara Seligman has a breathtaking account from inside the Pentagon that is based on detailed notes of three classified calls in the hours leading up to Thursday’s terrorist attack outside Abbey Gate at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport that killed almost 200 people.

Lara documents the Pentagon’s deepening frustration with reliance on the Taliban to provide security in Kabul (and even drive buses for evacuees), as well as Biden officials’ growing conviction that an attack was coming and a fateful decision to keep the airport’s Abbey Gate open in order to process British evacuees.

And, add Hurricane Ida and North Korea to the list of crises President Biden is facing this week. August was supposed to be devoted to highlighting pieces of the Biden economic agenda that is now being assembled by congressional committees into a $3.5 trillion bill.

Biden hasn’t held an event devoted to a piece of that bill since the evacuation crisis began.

Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio.
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

Aug. 27, 2021: ‘The worst day of your presidency’ Aug 27, 2021

Show notes

When Kabul fell to the Taliban several days ago, rocking President Joe Biden's pullout operation, the White House made a strategic choice: They doubled down, didn’t apologize and crossed their fingers that the nation would move on quickly.

Now, 13 U.S. service members are dead following a pair of suicide bombs — the first U.S. troops to be killed in Afghanistan in 18 months — as are 95 Afghans. The attack, carried out by ISIS-K, is the deadliest assault on U.S. troops in the country in a decade.

Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio.
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

Aug. 26, 2021: Biden’s Thursday — Kabul terror threat, Iran and refugees Aug 26, 2021

Show notes

Today is the kind of day that candidate Joe Biden said he was uniquely prepared for.

Congress is gone, domestic policy has been momentarily pushed aside, and global crises are colliding. President Biden awakens to the burden of his promises with a busy public schedule completely focused on foreign policy.

He receives an update on the situation in Afghanistan from his national security team in the morning, has two bilateral meetings with new Israeli PM Naftali Bennett before noon and hosts a late-afternoon Zoom with governors who have volunteered to help resettle Afghan refugees.

Here's what to expect in the day ahead.

Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio.
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

Aug. 25, 2021: Analyzing Biden’s three big challenges Aug 25, 2021

Show notes

We try our best around here to sift through the competing narratives each day and present our dear listeners with a coherent story. But this is one of those weeks in American politics when it’s best to lay out some possibilities, especially across the three great challenges that President Joe Biden is facing right now: Afghanistan, the Covid-19 pandemic and Build Back Better.

Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio.
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

Aug. 24, 2021: Pelosi underestimates the moderates Aug 24, 2021

Show notes

“How dare you?!” … “I’m pissed off!” … "Please, everybody vote for the damn thing.”

Those were just some of the choice phrases being thrown around in the House Dems’ caucus meeting Monday night as tensions over the budget standoff between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and moderate Democrats reached a boiling point.

The chamber broke shortly after midnight without any deal in place to advance the fiscal blueprint vital to passing President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.

Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio.
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

Aug. 23, 2021: Who’ll blink first: Pelosi or the Mod Squad? Aug 23, 2021

Show notes

This week's big storyline: the Pelosi-Gottheimer game of chicken — The House returns to Washington today for a rare mid-August-recess vote on Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget — at least in theory.

One little problem: Speaker Nancy Pelosi still doesn’t have the votes to pass it.

And on Sunday night, the White House announced that over a 12-hour period at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Sunday, approximately 1,700 people were evacuated on 8 U.S. military flights, and 3,400 people via coalition aircraft.

— Biden is considering extending the Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw troops in order to facilitate the evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies. Among those lobbying for it: British PM Boris Johnson, according to the Telegraph.

Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio.
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

Aug. 20, 2021: Obama douses D.C.’s party scene Aug 20, 2021

Show notes

A pair of must-reads on Afghanistan overnight:

— A WSJ scoop that casts perhaps the harshest light yet on the administration’s performance, by Vivian Salama: “An internal State Department memo last month warned top agency officials of the potential collapse of Kabul soon after the U.S.’s Aug. 31 troop withdrawal deadline in Afghanistan, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the document.

— A POLITICO tick-tock on “five days of panic” inside the Biden administration as Afghanistan unraveled and crisis ensued, by Alexander Ward, Lara Seligman, Andrew Desiderio, Alex Thompson and Bryan Bender: “[B]y Thursday morning in Washington, more population centers were falling to the Taliban by the hour, including the provincial capitals of Ghazni and Badghis.

And, did Barack Obama ruin the party in D.C.?

His over-the-top 60th birthday party in Martha’s Vineyard first drew criticism for the size of the guest list during the Delta surge — and then after he slimmed it down, the former president was blasted for throwing an opulent party during a pandemic. It didn’t matter that he was following CDC protocols for an outdoor event.

The bashing of the bash is having a chilling effect on the D.C. party scene as (especially Democratic) pols and their staffers scramble to figure out when and where — or even if — they can party again.

Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio.
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

Aug. 19, 2021: Afghanistan + immigration politics = A divided GOP Aug 19, 2021

Show notes

Republicans universally agree that President Joe Biden's bungled handling of the Afghanistan pullout has given them fresh ammunition to attack the commander in chief. Many Democrats think the same. But a major rift is starting to emerge in GOP messaging, as the Donald Trump wing of the party seeks to turn the matter into a base appeal with anti-immigration rhetoric.

Over the past week, most GOP lawmakers have lambasted Biden for abandoning interpreters and Afghan civilians who put their lives at risk to help U.S. troops — and are now trapped as armed militias block their escape.

But a not-insignificant chunk of the party is using the Afghanistan disaster as fodder for their campaign against immigration. The unsubstantiated charge: that Biden intentionally fumbled the withdrawal in order to flood the U.S. with Afghans.

Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio.
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

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