| | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade and Eli Okun | | Presented by |  | | | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | |  Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is emerging as a power broker for a cadre of conservative senators. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Sen. MIKE LEE (R-Utah) is announcing that he will moderate a candidate forum for the Senate GOP leader contenders on Nov. 12 at 6:30 p.m at the Capitol — less than 24 hours before votes are set to be cast. The member- and member-elect-only meeting will be a “family discussion” posing questions to all the candidates to succeed MITCH McCONNELL, Lee wrote in a letter that was just sent out to senators. Lee is emerging as a power broker for a cadre of conservative senators who want to see big changes inside the Republican conference, and it appears that candidates JOHN CORNYN (Texas), JOHN THUNE (S.D.) and RICK SCOTT (Fla.) are all paying heed: “Each of the current candidates has agreed to participate, and should another candidate emerge, they will be given that same opportunity,” Lee wrote, adding that he won’t participate in the questioning himself. Read the letter APPOINTMENT READING — TED JOHNSON is going to vote for DONALD TRUMP. His brother, FRED, will vote for VP KAMALA HARRIS. They haven’t spoken in over two years, though they still profess to love each other. Their disagreement is like thousands of families that have broken apart over politics during the Trump era. But what really split the Johnson brothers is something deeper than politics — it’s about the pain caused by generational trauma and the massive cultural dislocation of watching their once-booming hometown fade away. That’s what Michael Kruse captures in a major new POLITICO Magazine story: Politics has become the proxy war that has exacerbated personal struggles and impeded reconciliation. LIZ CHENEY FALLOUT — More Democrats today decried Trump’s comment that the former representative is “a radical war hawk — let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?” The Harris campaign’s IAN SAMS said on MSNBC that it was in line with Trump’s view of his political opponents as enemies. GABBY GIFFORDS, who knows from guns shooting at her, posted on X that America must “reject Trump’s calls for violence and retribution.” ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN denounced Trump’s remarks on CNN as “dangerous.” But the Trump campaign retorted that people were manufacturing outrage by twisting his point about foreign policy. More from Andrew Howard JOBS DAY — The latest October jobs numbers showed hiring plummeting from September and came in well below economists’ expectations, casting a new — if unclear — damper on what has looked like a robust economy recently. Just 12,000 jobs were added last month in the smallest month of growth since 2020, though unemployment held steady at 4.1 percent. August and September numbers were also revised lower. More from WaPo There are some significant asterisks to the data, because major hurricanes and labor strikes (especially at Boeing) may have caused temporary hits to hiring. Or the numbers may be a fresh sign that the labor market is softening more than expected. Along with this week’s optimistic inflation report, that could be further cause for the Fed to lower interest rates at its next meeting. Despite the murkiness of the numbers amid one-time disruptions, Republicans were quick to declare the report evidence of Harris’ (and President JOE BIDEN’s) failed leadership, Victoria Guida and Sam Sutton write. The Trump campaign called it a “catastrophe.” Biden, on the other hand, touted the longer-term trends of falling inflation and broad economic growth. Related read: “Working-Class Voters Are Pivotal. Both Candidates Are Vying for Their Support,” by NYT’s Jeanna Smialek: “Kamala Harris’s plans offer a bigger boost for the working class, but Donald Trump seems to be convincing voters.” SURVEY SAYS — The final Detroit Free Press poll of Michigan finds Harris leading by 3 points. USA Today/Suffolk clock a tied race in Pennsylvania. Susquehanna Polling & Research has great numbers for Republicans in Nevada: Trump up 6 and SAM BROWN taking a narrow Senate lead. And in its final House projections , the Cook Political Report suggests the majority is a toss-up — forecasting anywhere between a five-seat GOP gain to a 10-seat Democratic gain. In the Senate, meanwhile, Cook predicts a Republican majority of one to four seats. MORE TURMOIL AT WAPO — HUGH HEWITT has quit the newspaper, where he was a columnist, after storming off a live online show today, the N.Y. Post’s Ariel Zilber and Josh Christenson scooped. Watch the video HEADS UP — “Marc Benioff is in talks to sell Time to Antenna Group,” by CNBC’s Alex Sherman and Stephanie Ruhle Happy Friday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop us a line at rbade@politico.com and eokun@politico.com.
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Click here & learn more. | | | | | 9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | |  VP Kamala Harris is with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro for her final ad in the state. | Carlos Osorio/AP Photo | 1. THE CLOSING MESSAGE: As Harris focuses on all-important Pennsylvania in the last days of the election, her final ad in the state features her together with popular Gov. JOSH SHAPIRO, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Julia Terruso reports. They portray the election as a choice between chaos and common-sense getting things done. She’s running a similar ad in North Carolina with Gov. ROY COOPER. On the flip side, the last ad from MAGA Inc. leans into Trump’s overarching message (consistent since 2016!) that he will “fix it” after Biden and Harris “broke it,” Natalie Allison and Meridith McGraw scooped. 2. IMMIGRATION FILES: There are good numbers for Democrats in the latest data from the southern border, where the tally of migrant arrests in October remained fairly steady at 54,000, Reuters’ Ted Hesson scooped. That was slightly higher than in September, but overall the numbers of border-crossers have returned to Trump-era levels amid Biden’s asylum crackdown and tougher Mexican enforcement. But as both Trump and Harris have moved to the right on immigration and promised restrictions, the U.S. has failed to stem major human-trafficking networks in Latin America — which now “are creating an ever-more-efficient pipeline to get people there,” WaPo’s Mary Beth Sheridan reports in a big dispatch from Huehuetenango, Guatemala. 3. CABINET CHATTER: ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. has recommended that Trump consider Florida Surgeon General JOSEPH LADAPO as HHS secretary, ABC’s Jonathan Karl, Will Steakin and Katherine Faulders report. The controversial RON DeSANTIS ally drew national attention for voicing skepticism of vaccines and flouting federal guidance by recommending against young men getting the Covid mRNA vaccines. In Harris world, meanwhile, RAY McGUIRE could be in the mix for Treasury secretary, Bloomberg’s Amanda Gordon, Heather Perlberg and Sonali Basak report. The Wall Street veteran has become a trusted adviser to Harris; he would make history as the first Black Treasury head. 4. DISINFORMATION DIGEST: Though foreign entities are trying to mess with the U.S. election through disinformation campaigns, plenty of the viral lies online are American as apple pie, NBC’s Ken Dilanian reports from a new Network Contagion Research Institute study. On both the right (Haitian immigrants eating pets) and the left (Trump’s assassination attempt being staged), baseless conspiracy theories have spread via social media networks driven by American activists, tapping into networks of real people who behave like bots. One of the latest conservative falsehoods centered on a Pennsylvania postal worker who was simply doing his normal job, WSJ’s Scott Calvert reports. JEN EASTERLY, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is a crucial figure in protecting the election — and, perhaps more challengingly, getting Americans to trust it, Bloomberg’s Katrina Manson writes in a new profile . Easterly, who has taken a somewhat unorthodox approach, is “a former Army officer who can solve a Rubik’s Cube behind her back and strums out cybersecurity advice on her guitar.” But the reality is that federal officials can do only so much to respond to election lies, since state and local officials are largely in charge, NBC’s Ryan Reilly, Sarah Fitzpatrick, Tom Winter and Michael Kosnar report. Related read: “Staff at US voting machine firms prep for doxxing, misinformation and ‘swatting,’” by Reuters’ A.J. Vicens
| | | | REGISTER NOW: Join POLITICO and Capital One for a deep-dive discussion with Acting HUD Secretary Adrianne Todman, Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL), Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and other housing experts on how to fix America’s housing crisis and build a foundation for financial prosperity. Register to attend in-person or virtually here. | | | | | 5. BIG MONEY: “Oil Interests Gave More Than $75 Million to Trump PACs, New Analysis Shows,” by NYT’s Lisa Friedman: “[It’s] far more than has been previously known, [according to Climate Power]. … It comes from mine operators, shipbuilders, engineering firms, hedge funds and little-known oil producers. That is just the campaign cash that can be found in public records.” 6. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: The U.S. is trying to work all angles to de-escalate the various wars in the Middle East. Reuters’ Timour Azhari and Laila Bassam report that AMOS HOCHSTEIN asked Lebanon to unilaterally declare a cease-fire with Israel, so that Israel-Hezbollah talks could be jump-started. But that’s not likely to succeed, and Lebanon denied the reporting. In the other conflict, the U.S. is stepping up its demands that Israel improve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Axios’ Barak Ravid reports. The Nov. 13 deadline is fast approaching, and the prospect of punishing Israel with a pause in military aid if it doesn’t comply is “gaining more support inside the State Department.” 7. GOP MVP: If Republicans flip the Senate, as expected, NRSC Chair STEVE DAINES (R-Mont.) will earn a lot of credit, Semafor’s Burgess Everett writes. Using a heavier hand, Daines worked to box out a number of tough sells in a general election and recruited wealthy self-funders to run instead: That’s why we have TIM SHEEHY instead of Rep. MATT ROSENDALE, DAVE McCORMICK instead of DOUG MASTRIANO, and West Virginia Gov. JIM JUSTICE sailing to the Senate. “Daines’ moves blended throwback party-boss politics with Trump populism, and they amounted to a break from RICK SCOTT, the party’s previous Senate campaigns chief who stayed neutral in key primaries.” 8. THE NEW ABORTION RESTRICTIONS: “A Pregnant Teenager Died After Trying to Get Care in Three Visits to Texas Emergency Rooms,” by ProPublica’s Lizzie Presser and Kavitha Surana, part of a series this week looking at Texas women’s deaths: “While [experts] were not certain from looking at the records provided that [NEVAEH] CRAIN’s death could have been prevented, they said it may have been possible to save both the teenager and her fetus if she had been admitted earlier for close monitoring and continuous treatment.” 9. SHOWDOWN IN CHINATOWN: If Trump wins the race, the U.S. and U.K. could be heading for a clash over China, our British colleague Emilio Casalicchio writes in this deep dive. NADIA SCHADLOW, a former deputy national security adviser for strategy under Trump, tells him the more nuanced approach the Labour government in Britain has announced toward Beijing “could have a negative ripple effect across different aspects of the relationship” between Washington and London. But, but, but: Those who lament rising Sinoskepticism in the West will urge PM KEIR STARMER to hold his nerve against pressure from the White House.
| | | | A message from BlackRock:   BlackRock supports retirement plans for roughly half of U.S. public school teachers. Meet Andy, who gives back while securing his future. Watch his story. | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Michelle Steel is facing questions about her use of taxpayer money in Orange County. Kamala Harris’ Jamaican family thinks Donald Trump’s comments about her race are ridiculous. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a celebration of Barry Broman’s new book, “Indochina Hand” ($34.95 ), the second part of his memoirs about life in the CIA, at the Metropolitan Club on Monday: Armen Agas, David Merrill, retired Col. Dennison Lane, Wanda Nesbitt, James Stejskal, retired Col. Nicholas Reynolds, Matt Daley, retired Col. Michael Eiland and various former “cold warriors.” — SPOTTED at District Winery for a dinner Wednesday night featuring a conversation on the future of work with AARP’s Scott Frisch and The Riveter’s Amy Nelson: Alyse Nelson, Rebecca Lee Funk, Rina Shah and Karen Mercer. MEDIA MOVES — Danielle Allen and Robert Kagan, who both resigned from WaPo over Jeff Bezos axing its presidential endorsement, are joining The Atlantic as contributing writers. … Alexandra Skores is now a reporter/writer covering transportation at CNN. She previously was an aviation reporter at The Dallas Morning News. TRANSITION — Rosanna Maietta will return to the American Hotel & Lodging Association as president and CEO. She most recently was chief comms officer and senior counselor to the CEO at the American Clean Power Association. 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 Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
