| | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels and Ryan Lizza | | | With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross
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Ron DeSantis is barreling toward the presidential bid that many Republicans have been pining for. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images | | | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | THE WEEK AHEAD — Tuesday: Fed Chair JEROME POWELL testifies before the Senate Banking Committee. … Wednesday: The Senate is expected to vote on overturning D.C.’s criminal code rewrite; the measure is likely to win 70-plus votes, we’re told, given President JOE BIDEN’s refusal to veto the measure. … Thursday: Biden releases his fiscal 2024 budget; Norfolk Southern CEO ALAN SHAW testifies at a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on the East Palestine, Ohio, rail disaster. … Friday: Biden hosts European Commission President URSULA VON DER LEYEN at the White House; Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN briefs the House Ways and Means Committee on the budget. … Saturday: The annual Gridiron Club dinner. DeSANTIS BUILDS THE BUZZ — Former President DONALD TRUMP might have sucked up all the headlines this weekend as he addressed his most loyal supporters at CPAC. This week, however, attention will return to his top expected 2024 rival, RON DeSANTIS. Florida lawmakers kick off a critical legislative session in Tallahassee on Tuesday, a two-month sprint where Republican supermajorities are expected to advance conservative priorities that many on the right had previously only dreamed of passing. DeSantis, emboldened by his sweeping November victory, stands ready to sign that agenda into law and use it as a springboard for his potential bid for the White House. The legislative to-do list is long, and, as Andrew Atterbury reports, many of the bills deal with education — including measures that would ban gender studies classes and diversity programs in state universities, expand a prohibition on teaching sexual orientation and gender identity through the 8th grade, and banning the use of preferred pronouns in K-12 schools. (Opponents are calling the last proposal the “Don’t Say They” bill.) Other bills that DeSantis could end up signing would end permitting requirements to carry a gun, make it easier to impose the death penalty, mandate companies use E-Verify to check the immigration status of employees, increase funding to send unauthorized migrants to other states and cut taxes by $2 billion. Related reads: “DeSantis, GOP lawmakers ready for Culture Wars 2.0 as Florida Legislature convenes,” by the Miami Herald’s Lawrence Mower … “In Florida Legislative Session, a Chance for DeSantis to Check Off His Wish List,” by NYT’s Patricia Mazzei DeSantis will deliver a state-of-the-state address to the legislature on Wednesday. Then, after a brief stop in Alabama on Thursday, he’ll head to early-voting Iowa for the first time since he’s emerged as a possible 2024 contender. He’ll spend the weekend in Nevada, a critical swing state, then head to New Hampshire later this month. His travels come as his new book, “The Courage to Be Free,” sticks near the top of Amazon’s best-seller list, and they follow last week’s stops at the Club for Growth’s Palm Beach gathering as well as in Texas and California — where, last night, he packed the auditorium of the Reagan Library and won a standing ovation for his swipes at “woke” culture. Watch his full speech Afterward, he headlined a dinner for the Orange County Republican Party — “the largest attendance and largest one-night fundraiser in the OC GOP history,” the group’s chair told WaPo, drawing about 900 people and raising more than $740,000. Make no mistake, all are signs that DeSantis is barreling toward the presidential bid that many Republicans have been pining for. Oh, and there’s one bill filed in Tallahassee we forgot to mention: A repeal of the state’s “resign to run” law, which would allow DeSantis to launch a 2024 campaign without stepping down as governor.
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Then-Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) walk to a meeting on Capitol Hill on Friday, July 14, 2017. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo | | | | | A message from Amazon: Two-thirds of college students in the U.S. say they struggle with the cost of their education. Amazon is committed to helping employees learn more and advance their careers by offering prepaid tuition for college, GED courses and ESL proficiency certificates.
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See how employees benefit. | | | ‘RONNY D’ IN THE HOUSE — While plenty of Republicans are eager to send DeSantis to Washington, many of them have forgotten that he’s been here before. This morning, Rachael and Playbook producer Bethany Irvine are up with a deep dive on DeSantis’ low-profile House tenure, interviewing over a dozen of his former colleagues about his six years among the back benches. The man some of them called “Ronny D” was known for being quiet and keeping to himself — and for largely avoiding the national media while fellow Freedom Caucus founders JIM JORDAN (R-Ohio), MARK MEADOWS (R-N.C.) and MICK MULVANEY (R-S.C.) created national platforms for themselves. If DeSantis was known for anything among his colleagues, it was for his talent as a hitter on the congressional baseball team. But some of those closest to him said his untapped potential — and ambition — was evident. Colleagues described a workhorse who’d always have his nose over a stack of papers and a voracious student of political inside baseball who came early to populist proposals that would, years later, become the centerpiece of Trump’s first presidential campaign. DeSantis, his friends said, grew frustrated by the internal politicking that required junior Republicans to ally themselves with party leadership in order to gain power or get bills passed. He ended up quitting the GOP whip team, pushing proposals that senior Republicans rolled their eyes at — like impeaching the IRS commissioner — and trying to recruit BEN CARSON to run for speaker after JOHN BOEHNER’s sudden resignation in 2015. Ultimately, he used his time on Capitol Hill as a stepping stone to a statewide run — and beyond. Good Monday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
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Amazon provides prepaid college tuition for nearly 1 million hourly employees and delivery partners. “The fact that they offer tuition, you just can’t beat that,” said Billy, who is earning his bachelor’s degree. Learn more. Sponsored by Amazon   | | | MONDAY MUST-READ — Our colleague Betsy Woodruff Swan has an eye-popping story up this morning on a previously unreported DHS domestic-intelligence program, “one of many revelations in a wide-ranging tranche of internal documents reviewed by POLITICO. “Those documents also reveal that a significant number of employees in DHS’s intelligence office have raised concerns that the work they are doing could be illegal. Under the domestic-intelligence program, officials are allowed to seek interviews with just about anyone in the United States. That includes people held in immigrant detention centers, local jails, and federal prison. “DHS’s intelligence professionals have to say they’re conducting intelligence interviews, and they have to tell the people they seek to interview that their participation is voluntary. But the fact that they’re allowed to go directly to incarcerated people — circumventing their lawyers — raises important civil liberties concerns, according to legal experts. That specific element of the program, which has been in place for years, was paused last year because of internal concerns.” The details on the “Overt Human Intelligence Collection Program” are just one revelation from the documents concerning the department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, which is rife, Betsy reports, with “widespread internal concerns about legally questionable tactics and political pressure.”
| | BIDEN’S MONDAY:
9:30 a.m.: The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief.
11:10 a.m.: Biden will depart the White House en route to the 2023 International Association of Fire Fighters Legislative Conference, which he will headline at 12:15 p.m.
Press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE will brief at 1:30 p.m.
VP KAMALA HARRIS’ MONDAY (all times Eastern):
1 p.m.: The VP and second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF will depart Los Angeles en route to Denver.
5 p.m.: Harris will participate in a moderated discussion on the climate crisis.
7:25 p.m.: Harris will depart Denver en route to D.C.
THE SENATE will meet at 10 a.m. to take up ROBERT BALLOU’s judicial nomination, with a cloture vote at 5:30 p.m.
THE HOUSE is out. | | | | | | We’re spilling the tea (and drinking tons of it in our newsroom) in U.K. politics with our latest newsletter, London Playbook PM. Get to know all the movers and shakers in Westminster and never miss a beat of British politics with a free subscription. Don’t miss out, we’ve got some exciting moves coming. Sign up today. | | | | | PHOTO OF THE DAY
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President Joe Biden prepares to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., on Sunday, March 5, to commemorate the 58th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday." | Patrick Semansky/AP Photo | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | 2024 WATCH THE RETURN OF TEFLON DON — “No one running for the GOP nomination wants to go after Trump on Jan. 6,” by David Siders and Meridith McGraw in Oxon Hill, Md.: “If any subject is verboten in the early stages of the Republican presidential primary, it’s the insurrection that once served as a defining point in 2024 frontrunner Donald Trump’s career.” WHAT YEAR IS IT AGAIN? — “Fact check: Trump delivers wildly dishonest speech at CPAC,” by CNN’s Daniel Dale ONE TO WATCH — “Manchin 2024 intrigue keeps West Virginia centrist in limelight,” by The Washington Examiner’s Samantha-Jo Roth: Should GOP Gov. JIM JUSTICE challenge Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.), “it would make for a clash of the titans in West Virginia politics and put two longtime colleagues at odds. … Several Republican operatives said they don’t see a scenario in which Manchin and Justice run against each other.” ALL POLITICS FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Accountable.US, a nonpartisan watchdog, is launching a new campaign this morning targeting conservative activist LEONARD LEO as “the real Mr. MAGA.” The campaign is centering on Leo’s time in Trump’s inner circle and his role in overturning Roe v. Wade. “Leonard Leo is the driving force of the MAGA agenda,” said Accountable.US President KYLE HERRIG said in a statement, “His fingerprints are on every part of the political process, and he’s used his vast network of influence and a blank check from a right-wing billionaire to strip Americans of their rights and enrich himself in the process.” See the campaign website RIGHTS REPORT — “Restoring rights for felons a rare bipartisan voting change,” by AP’s Gary Fields in Lincoln, Neb.: “At least 14 states have introduced proposals this year focused on restoration of voting rights, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. An Oregon proposal would allow felons to vote while incarcerated. A Tennessee bill would automatically restore voting rights once a sentence is completed, except for a small group of crimes. Texas legislation would restore voting rights to those on probation or parole.” CPAC ATTACK — “Big tech was a major target at CPAC, but conservatives building alternatives are facing challenges,” by NBC’s Ben Goggin THE WHITE HOUSE BIDEN IN BAMA — Biden traveled to Selma, Ala., yesterday to commemorate Bloody Sunday, the 600-person demonstration there that ended with police officers beating the protesters. “Speaking just at the base of the bridge, Biden pressed for the passage of voting rights legislation. He also reiterated his call for the Senate to eliminate the filibuster to help clear the way for Congress to enact the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act,” Eugene writes from Selma. What Biden said: “Selma is a reckoning. The right to vote and to have your vote counted is the threshold of democracy and liberty. With it, anything’s possible. Without it, without that right, nothing is possible. And this fundamental right remains under assault. I will not let the filibuster obstruct the sacred right to vote.” “Local residents — and those that make the sojourn every year — welcomed the attention,” but, Eugene writes, “every year, residents hope the national attention will last beyond the weekend. They said this year in particular, Biden has the opportunity to help a city that has long struggled to revitalize.” BUTTIGIEG SPEAKS — “Pete Buttigieg starts to rethink how he does his job in wake of Ohio train disaster,” by CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere: “In an exclusive interview with CNN, [Transportation Secretary PETE] BUTTIGIEG acknowledged mistakes. He said he should have gone to East Palestine, Ohio, earlier. He said he failed to anticipate the political fallout from the toxic train derailment, despite months of transportation problems like mass flight cancellations and an air traffic control system shutdown that left many Americans frustrated. But he also punched back at critics, arguing that many of the problems he’s being blamed for are only partially connected to his portfolio and mostly out of his direct control.” A bite from Buttigieg: “Trump’s visit, Buttigieg said, was ‘somewhat maddening – to see someone who did a lot try to gut not just rail safety regulations, but the EPA, which is the number one thing standing between that community and a total loss of accountability for Norfolk Southern and then show up giving out bottled water and campaign swag?’” BUDGET PREVIEW — “Biden Budget to Draw Battle Lines With GOP on Taxes, Spending Ahead of 2024 Campaign,” by WSJ’s Andrew Restuccia and Richard Rubin Related Read: “The Programs You’d Have to Cut to Balance the Budget,” by NYT’s Alicia Parlapiano, Margot Sanger-Katz and Josh Katz CONGRESS HISTORY LESSONS — “The debt-limit time machine: What the last 10 big fights tell us about this one,” by Jennifer Scholtes and Caitlin Emma: “Many Democrats argue there are two significant but nuanced differences between the current debate and past debt-limit deals: first, that the party demanding concessions hasn’t made an offer; second, the growing concern that, this time, Republicans would let the nation default on its debt if they can’t extract their tradeoffs.” THE GOP AGENDA — “House GOP readies its first big agenda push: A massive energy bill,” by Sarah Ferris and Josh Siegel: “The energy package — which they aim to pass the last week of March — is set to include some of the party’s most popular pitches over the past decade, from boosting fossil-fuel production on federal lands to disapproving of President Joe Biden’s block on the Keystone XL pipeline to easing environmental reviews of energy and mining projects.” SOARING SPENDING — “House Committee Budgets Swell as G.O.P. Plans Road Shows Across U.S.,” by NYT’s Annie Karni and Catie Edmondson: “It is part of a well-worn political strategy to reach voters where they live and generate local media attention for activity that would most likely draw little notice in Washington. … But it also has a direct payoff for Republicans, allowing them to reward major donors with publicity and exposure for their businesses.” WATCHING THE WATCHERS — “A surveillance politics storm is building — and Mark Warner's at the eye,” by Jordain Carney and Marianne LeVine: Sen. MARK WARNER (R-Va.) “sits at the heart of what will be a months-long, knockout debate about whether to reauthorize the warrantless surveillance program, known as Section 702, by the end-of-year deadline.” FOR YOUR RADAR — “Effort to Ban Stock Trading Among Executive Branch Officials Renewed,” by WSJ’s Andrew Ackerman and Rebecca Ballhaus: “Sen. JOSH HAWLEY (R., Mo.) is expected to introduce legislation Monday that would ban senior executive branch officials from owning or trading individual stocks.”
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Amazon is committed to helping all employees grow, offering prepaid tuition, free technical training plus benefits that start on day one. With support from Amazon, Billy is able to earn his bachelor’s degree without losing a paycheck. Read more. Sponsored by Amazon   | | | TRUMP CARDS GEORGIA ON MY MIND — “As Trump Inquiry Continues, Republicans Seek Oversight of Georgia Prosecutors,” by NYT’s Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim in Atlanta: “To FANI T. WILLIS, the district attorney in Atlanta, several bills in the Georgia legislature that would make it easier to remove local prosecutors are racist and perhaps retaliatory for her ongoing investigation of former President Donald J. Trump. To the Republican sponsors of the bills, they are simply a way to ensure that prosecutors enforce the laws of the state, whether they agree with them or not.” Among the measures being considered: A new state oversight board that could oust prosecutors and a lowering of the signature threshold for recall elections. PAUL PONIES UP — “Despite criminal pardon, ex-Trump campaign manager Manafort agrees to pay big to settle civil penalties,” by the Florida Bulldog’s Dan Christensen STEVE DAINES STEPS UP — “Daines walks Trump tightrope as he tries to win back Senate for Republicans,” by WaPo’s Liz Goodwin: “As he takes the helm of the party’s Senate political apparatus, [STEVE] DAINES’S personal connection to MAGA figures like [DONALD] TRUMP JR. has lent him credibility with the base. Meanwhile, more establishment Republicans — still upset over a crop of inexperienced and deeply flawed Trump-backed candidates losing swing-state races in 2022 — are relieved to see him taking an active approach in recruiting and supporting candidates they believe can win a general election.” POLICY CORNER TALES FROM THE CRYPTO — “Texts From Crypto Giant Binance Reveal Plan to Elude U.S. Authorities,” by WSJ’s Caitlin Ostroff and Patricia Kowsmann: “The strategy centered on building a bare-bones American platform, Binance.US, that would license Binance’s technology and brand but otherwise appear to be wholly independent of Binance.com. … But Binance and Binance.US have been much more intertwined than the companies have disclosed, mixing staff and finances and sharing an affiliated entity that bought and sold cryptocurrencies.” FOOD FOR THOUGHT — “Food fight: FDA is redefining ‘healthy’ and food industry is pushing back,” by WaPo’s Laura Reiley: “Under the proposal, manufacturers can label their products ‘healthy’ only if they contain a meaningful amount of food from at least one of the main food groups such as fruit, vegetable or dairy, as recommended by federal dietary guidelines. They must also adhere to specific limits for certain nutrients, such as saturated fat, sodium and added sugars. It’s the added sugar limit that has been the sticking point for many food executives.” AMERICA AND THE WORLD ON THE GROUND — “Russia’s Wagner Troops Exhaust Ukrainian Forces in Bakhmut,” by WSJ’s Yaroslav Trofimov in Chasiv Yar, Ukraine DANCE OF THE SUPERPOWERS — “Pentagon Sees Giant Cargo Cranes as Possible Chinese Spying Tools,” by WSJ’s Aruna Viswanatha, Gordon Lubold and Kate O’Keeffe: “Some national-security and Pentagon officials have compared ship-to-shore cranes made by the China-based manufacturer, ZPMC, to a Trojan horse.” THE ECONOMY FED FILES — “What Will Be Harder for the Fed? Taming Inflation or Its Office Renovation Expenses?” by WSJ’s Andrew Ackerman and Nick Timiraos: “The central bank is in the middle of a long-running project to overhaul three adjacent office buildings overlooking the National Mall into a state-of-the-art campus. The price tag for the endeavor has swelled to nearly $2.5 billion, up from an estimate of $1.9 billion in 2019—an increase of about 34%.” BEYOND THE BELTWAY EAST PALESTINE LATEST — “Railroad in Ohio disaster offers safety concessions before CEO's Hill appearance,” by Tanya Snyder: “A majority of the steps Norfolk Southern is promising relate to addressing overheating wheels — the one potential cause of the derailment that federal investigators have so far implicated in the Feb. 3 accident in East Palestine. But they don’t appear likely to satisfy calls by the administration and lawmakers for broader steps to improve rail safety and working conditions, such as crew size and braking mandates and sick leave time.” CLIMATE FILES — “A New York Town Once Thrived on Fossil Fuels. Now, Wind Energy Is Giving a Lift,” by Jimmy Vielkind in Wellsville, N.Y. MEDIAWATCH POSTIE PALACE INTRIGUE — Semafor’s Ben Smith has an eyebrow-raising report on back-to-back meetings that WaPo publisher FRED RYAN had in February in an effort to secure a Republican presidential debate for his paper. The first meeting, with RNC Chair RONNA McDANIEL, “was constructive, and nobody issued ultimatums,” Smith writes. But after the morning meeting closed, Ryan asked newsroom colleagues, including Executive Editor SALLY BUZBEE, to leave. “Then he began a second meeting with the Republicans on the same subject, but in a different role: Chairman of the Board of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation. Ryan has told colleagues he’ll recuse himself from the library’s decision-making this year. But the perception of his divided loyalties on such a high-stakes project has created a wave of quiet alarm at the top of the Post.”
| | | | DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO MOBILE APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS– DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | IN MEMORIAM — “Judy Heumann, Who Led the Fight for Disability Rights, Dies at 75,” by NYT’s Alex Traub: “Judy Heumann, who spent decades attacking a political establishment indifferent to the rights of disabled people and won one fight after another, ultimately joining and reforming the very establishment she once inveighed against, died on Saturday in Washington, D.C. … Over time, she saw a revolution occur in the government’s involvement in the lives of disabled people such as herself. And she, as much as anyone else, helped bring about that revolution.” OUT AND ABOUT — Steve Bannon hosted the first annual Warriors Ball on Saturday night at National Harbor at the Brass Tap, where Kari Lake and James O’Keefe were featured as “warriors.” SPOTTED: Charles Herring, Erik Prince, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Ginger Luckey, and Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.). TRANSITIONS — Sophia Slacik is now speechwriter for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. She most recently was a digital production assistant for politics at Fox News. … Jeff Naft is now comms director for the House Intelligence Committee. He previously was comms adviser for then-House GOP Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.). … Will Poplawski is now deputy press secretary for the House China committee. He previously was the media and policy director at Polaris National Security. … … Britney Dickerson is now director of comms for Polaris National Security. She previously was comms director for Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.). … Dan Wallace is now strategy director at BCG BrightHouse. He previously was managing director for research and development at the American Immigration Council. … Emma Sprague and Matt White are joining KNP Communications as partners. Sprague and White are co-founders of Upswing Strategies. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reuters’ Jim Bourg … POLITICO’s Minah Malik … David Urban … SKDK’s Jacqui Newman … John Stossel … USDA’s Brandon Chaderton … Anthony Foti … Jonathan Day … David Bradley (7-0) … Sandra Salstrom … former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan (96) … Parker Brugge … Joe Perticone … Brooke Gladstone … NFL’s Brendon Plack … Emily Leviner … Anna Kopperud … Chris Leavitt … Co-Equal’s Karen Lightfoot … Katy Bayless … Kim Moxley … Tim Bergreen … NYT’s Eileen Murphy … Saul Anuzis … former Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) … Pablo Chavez … former CIA Director William Webster (98) … Ari Spinoza Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and producers Setota Hailemariam and Bethany Irvine. Correction: Yesterday’s Playbook misstated Stephen Goepfert's employer.
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