| | | | |  | | By Eli Okun | | | |  Larry Elder threatened to sue the RNC to stop the debate. | Scott Olson/Getty Images | UP FOR DEBATE — The RNC released the physical lineup for the GOP presidential debate tomorrow night in Milwaukee. With DONALD TRUMP out of the picture, Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS and VIVEK RAMASWAMY instead are jointly at the center of the action, Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser reports. Moving out to the left and right, respectively, they’re winged by MIKE PENCE and NIKKI HALEY; CHRIS CHRISTIE and Sen. TIM SCOTT (R-S.C.); and finally ASA HUTCHINSON and North Dakota Gov. DOUG BURGUM. Meanwhile, the candidates who did not make tomorrow night’s debate stage in Milwaukee are fuming today at the RNC, whose refusal to specify which polls would count toward its requirements left some campaigns in the dark until last night.
- LARRY ELDER threatened to sue the RNC to stop the debate, arguing that he had qualified and that the committee should have accepted polls from Rasmussen to qualify. “The RNC Committee on Debates meets in Milwaukee today. Are they even aware their leaders are keeping voices off the stage that qualified?” Elder continued. “I’m calling for a discussion and a vote of the full committee on the rigged polling criteria set by the anti-conservative, anti-Trump RNC establishment.”
- PERRY JOHNSON also threatened legal action against a “corrupt and rigged” process, laying out a lengthy timeline of the RNC’s decision not to count polls that Johnson thought should qualify him.
- WILL HURD, who also fell short on polling, blasted the RNC not only for opaque qualification metrics but for the requirement to sign a pledge supporting the ultimate GOP nominee. “I have said from day one of my candidacy that I will not sign a blood oath to Donald Trump,” Hurd posted on X, calling the RNC’s approach “antithetical to the democratic process.”
Will any of the excluded candidates drop out over the failure to make the stage? Miami Mayor FRANCIS SUAREZ, who’s one of them, had called on candidates to do just that earlier in the month. His spokeswoman told Bloomberg’s Gregory Korte that “Suarez will have an announcement about the future of his campaign” at some point today. The debate is a test not just for the candidates, but for Fox News too, which now has its highest-profile opportunity to restore some of its image since the massive Dominion Voting Systems defamation settlement, WaPo’s Jeremy Barr reports. Though moderators BRET BAIER and MARTHA MacCALLUM say they don’t want to be the story, their performance will be a big moment for Fox News’ news division, often overshadowed by its opinion wing. THE POLICY PRIMARY — While the other GOP candidates dither, Trump is continuing to make radical new plans for a second term — including universal 10% tariffs on all foreign imports, which would risk “a massive escalation of global economic chaos,” WaPo’s Jeff Stein reports. Though his proposals are still a work in progress, Trump’s protectionist ideas are expected to be front and center in his economic pitch against President JOE BIDEN. If implemented, they could spark global trade wars and elevated prices, experts warn: “Economists of both parties say Trump’s tariff proposal is extremely dangerous.” BIDEN’S THUMBS UP FOR SISKEL — The next White House counsel will be ED SISKEL, an Obama White House alum and former Biden adviser who most recently has been chief legal officer for Grosvenor Holdings, the president announced today. Siskel will succeed STUART DELERY next month. The White House selected him in part because he helped lead the legal response to GOP congressional investigations into Solyndra and Benghazi during the Obama administration, CNN’s Jeremy Diamond reports, experience that could prove relevant amid House Republicans’ ongoing Biden probes. (The Chicagoan is also the nephew of the late film critic GENE SISKEL.) Good Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at eokun@politico.com.
| | | | A message from The American Petroleum Institute (API): Fuel Up on Facts about pump prices. Global demand for crude oil drives the prices Americans pay at the fuel pumps. When demand for crude oil (and fuels like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel derived from them) and supply struggles to keep up, retail prices can be affected. Instead of drawing down America’s emergency oil reserves, Washington should enact policies that help develop America’s abundant crude oil reserves to help put downward pressure on gas prices. | | | ALL POLITICS BATTLE FOR THE SENATE — Former Rep. DEBBIE MUCARSEL-POWELL (D-Fla.) today jumped into the race to take on Sen. RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.), Gary Fineout reports from Tallahassee. The reddening state will be an uphill fight for Democrats to flip, but Mucarsel-Powell’s entrance gives national Dems their preferred candidate to make the attempt. Democrats think they see an opening: Mucarsel-Powell is an Ecuadorian immigrant from Miami-Dade, and she plans to hammer the controversial Scott over entitlements and his business record. But Scott has a head start in campaigning, while Mucarsel-Powell will have to get past former Rep. ALAN GRAYSON and PHIL EHR in the primary. BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE — California state Sen. MELISSA HURTADO today jumped into the Democratic primary to try to flip Rep. DAVID VALADAO’s (R-Calif.) seat, KGET-TV’s Luis Garcia reports from Bakersfield. RUDY SALAS, who narrowly lost to Valadao last year, is also running again. The district is Democratic-leaning, but Valadao keeps winning. Hurtado won her state Senate seat by 13 votes in November. 2028 WATCH — Pennsylvania Gov. JOSH SHAPIRO will be the keynote speaker at the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s convention next month, WMUR-TV’s Adam Sexton reports from Bedford. “His willingness to come to New Hampshire is being viewed as good news for the long-term health of the state’s presidential primary.” 2024 WATCH AD WARS — The Biden reelect’s big new ad campaign has started to be placed, with the first TV spots going up tomorrow in several swing states. FLIP-FLOP FILES — The Washington Examiner’s Gabe Kaminsky runs down just how many issues and details on which Ramaswamy has changed his tune, as the surging outsider candidate faces growing scrutiny on the trail. Among them: his voting record; pardons for members of the Biden family; drug decriminalization; Israel; Taiwan; masks; and Juneteenth. “Just because Trump can get away with [changing his position] doesn’t necessarily mean everyone else can,” Kyle Kondik of Sabato’s Crystal Ball tells the Examiner. Speaking of: After Ramaswamy claimed that he’d been misquoted about Jan. 6 and 9/11 in an Atlantic story yesterday, John Hendrickson has the receipts, posting the full audio and transcript of their interview. TRYING TO FIND AN OPENING — “Can South Carolina’s Haley and Scott woo the GOP’s white evangelical base away from Trump?” by AP’s Tiffany Stanley in Charleston THE VOTERS’ VIEWS — The latest NYT opinion focus group with Republican voters offers two very revealing anecdotal conclusions about the state of the primary, as Patrick Healy, Kristen Soltis Anderson and Adrian Rivera write: (1) “In all of the focus groups we’ve done — this is our 41st — Mr. Trump has never come across so well positioned as compared with his rivals as he did in this one.” (2) “All the participants thought that President Biden would lose to the eventual Republican nominee, regardless of who it is. The fear that ‘if we nominate Trump, Biden wins again’ was not present.” — In Iowa, GOP primary voters have mixed and complicated opinions about abortion policy, CNN’s John King reports. Even though most Republicans support at least some restrictions, they’re divided over where to set the cutoff for a ban and uncertain of how heavily the party should focus on abortion.
| | | | GROWING IN THE GOLDEN STATE: POLITICO California is growing, reinforcing our role as the indispensable insider source for reporting on politics, policy and power. From the corridors of power in Sacramento and Los Angeles to the players and innovation hubs in Silicon Valley, we're your go-to for navigating the political landscape across the state. Exclusive scoops, essential daily newsletters, unmatched policy reporting and insights — POLITICO California is your key to unlocking Golden State politics. LEARN MORE. | | | | | TRUMP CARDS FULTON DEFENDANTS START TO FRACTURE … “Trump attorneys guided false electors in Georgia, GOP chair says,” by Kyle Cheney: “Former Georgia Republican Party Chair DAVID SHAFER said attorneys for former President Donald Trump, his campaign and the local GOP were responsible for urging him to assemble a slate of false presidential electors that are now at the heart of a sprawling racketeering case. … To bolster his proposition, Shafer provided new documents that underscore the Trump campaign’s close involvement.” … AND TO SURRENDER: Today, SCOTT HALL and JOHN EASTMAN became the first of the 19 defendants in the Fulton County case to turn themselves in for booking. Eastman said in a statement that his charges “should never have been brought … It represents a crossing of the Rubicon for our country.” BEHIND THE SCENES — NYT’s Jonathan Swan, Alan Feuer, Luke Broadwater and Maggie Haberman have a detailed account of how MARK MEADOWS maneuvered behind the scenes to cooperate with and hold off special counsel JACK SMITH’s team in recent months. Quietly, Meadows “decided to trust Mr. Smith’s team,” and talked to investigators in both the classified documents and election subversion probes. That has angered some Trump allies, though “he also used the law to push back when he considered the requests to be inappropriate or potentially dangerous to his own interests.” Meadows ultimately evaded federal charges, though not state ones. THE WHITE HOUSE POTUS ABROAD — Biden will head to India from Sept. 7-10 to take part in the G-20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi, the White House announced today. Earlier that week, VP KAMALA HARRIS will travel to Jakarta, Indonesia, for the U.S.-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit. POLICY CORNER DRILLING DOWN — “Biden Revived Rules Designed to Prevent Another Deepwater Horizon Disaster,” by NYT’s Lisa Friedman: “The Department of Interior announced on Tuesday that it had reinstated Obama-era safety rules for offshore drilling that were created in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon catastrophe … The Trump administration weakened those safety measures … Republicans and the oil and gas industry are widely expected to challenge the rule.” THE LOAN LURCH — As student loan borrowers brace for the restart of the payments after a three-year pandemic break, the Biden administration is launching a new effort to make people aware of their options, CBS’ Bo Erickson reports. “The new repayment plan, called the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, will be available to many borrowers with loans held by the Education Department.”
| | | | Enter the “room where it happens”, where global power players shape policy and politics, with Power Play. POLITICO’s brand-new podcast will host conversations with the leaders and power players shaping the biggest ideas and driving the global conversations, moderated by award-winning journalist Anne McElvoy. Sign up today to be notified of the first episodes in September – click here. | | | | | BEYOND THE BELTWAY CLIMATE FILES — “States have big hopes for renewable energy. Get ready to pay for it,” by Marie French in Albany, N.Y.: “In the coming years, people across the state can expect to give up even bigger chunks of their income to the programs — $48 billion in projects is set to be funded by consumers over the next two decades. The scenario is creating a headache for New York Democrats grappling with the practical and political risk of the transition. It’s an early sign of the dangers Democrats across the country will face as they press forward with similar policies at the state and federal level.” EMPIRE STATE OF MIND — The recent influx of migrants into New York poses a political challenge for the state’s Democratic leaders, per a new Siena poll, Bill Mahoney reports from Albany. This could turn into one of the major issues in the state’s contested House races next year, and the survey finds that New Yorkers want to slow the flow of immigrants by a 58% to 36% margin. Strikingly, in a head-to-head Biden/Trump matchup, the president is below 50% — in New York! — leading Trump 47% to 34%. The survey BORDER SONG — On the other side of the country, Texas Gov. GREG ABBOTT’s border crackdown is starting to turn off some locals, NYT’s Edgar Sandoval reports from Eagle Pass. Recent escalatory moves, like floating barriers in the Rio Grande, and at least two deaths near the buoys have some residents saying that Abbott has gone too far. PLAYBOOKERS BOOK CLUB — Nikhil Goyal, sociologist and former senior policy adviser on the Senate HELP Committee, has released a new book, “Live to See the Day: Coming of Age in American Poverty” ($29.99). The book centers on three Puerto Rican children’s experiences growing up in the poorest neighborhood in Philadelphia. MEDIA MOVES — WaPo is adding Shadi Hamid as a columnist and editorial board member and Alexi McCammond as an opinions editor. Hamid previously has been at Brookings, Fuller Seminary and The Atlantic. McCammond previously was a national political reporter at Axios. … John Hewitt Jones is now policy team leader at BGov. He previously was managing editor at FedScoop. WHITE HOUSE ARRIVAL LOUNGE — Brenna Olrich is now associate director of finance at the White House. She most recently was an operations associate at Protect Democracy. … Keenan Skelly is now senior policy adviser for the White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director.. She most recently was CEO of Spark Security Solutions and founder of the XRVillage. TRANSITION — Former U.S. ambassador to Tunisia Gordon Gray is now the Kuwait Professor of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He previously was a faculty member at Penn State’s School of International Affairs. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Jocelyn Francis, a senior legislative assistant for Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), and Austin Francis, senior contract specialist at the Federal Aviation Administration, welcomed Amelia Beatrice Francis on Friday. Pic BIRTHWEEK (was Thursday): Berkeley Mashburn 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.
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