| | | | | |  | | By Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer | Presented by |  | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | NEW THIS MORNING … NYT/SIENA POLLING: MINN.: BIDEN +9 … NEV.: BIDEN +4 … N.H.: BIDEN +3 … WIS.: BIDEN +5. … ALEX BURNS/JMART: "President Trump's weekslong barrage against Joseph R. Biden Jr. has failed to erase the Democrat's lead across a set of key swing states, including the crucial battleground of Wisconsin, where Mr. Trump's law-and-order message has rallied support on the right but has not swayed the majority of voters who dislike him, according to a poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College." GOOD SATURDAY MORNING. A massive scoop by DAN DIAMOND landed at 10:25 p.m. Friday night: "Trump officials interfered with CDC reports on Covid-19" -- DAN'S STORY deserves a full read, but here are some highlights: "The health department's politically appointed communications aides have demanded the right to review and seek changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's weekly scientific reports charting the progress of the coronavirus pandemic, in what officials characterized as an attempt to intimidate the reports' authors and water down their communications to health professionals. "In some cases, emails from communications aides to CDC Director Robert Redfield and other senior officials openly complained that the agency's reports would undermine President Donald Trump's optimistic messages about the outbreak, according to emails reviewed by POLITICO and three people familiar with the situation. … "[S]ince Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign official with no medical or scientific background, was installed in April as the health department's new spokesperson, there have been substantial efforts to align the [Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports] with Trump's statements, including the president's claims that fears about the outbreak are overstated, or stop the reports altogether. "Caputo and his team have attempted to add caveats to the CDC's findings, including an effort to retroactively change agency reports that they said wrongly inflated the risks of Covid-19 and should have made clear that Americans sickened by the virus may have been infected because of their own behavior, according to the individuals familiar with the situation and emails reviewed by POLITICO. … "In one clash, an aide to Caputo berated CDC scientists for attempting to use the reports to 'hurt the President' in an Aug. 8 email sent to CDC Director Robert Redfield and other officials that was widely circulated inside the department and obtained by POLITICO." BIG DURHAM NEWS … HARTFORD COURANT: "Nora Dannehy, Connecticut prosecutor who was top aide to John Durham's Trump-Russia investigation, resigns amid concern about pressure from Attorney General William Barr," by Edmund Mahoney: "Federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy, a top aide to U.S. Attorney John H. Durham in his Russia investigation, has quietly resigned — at least partly out of concern that the investigative team is being pressed for political reasons to produce a report before its work is done, colleagues said. "Dannehy, a highly regarded prosecutor who has worked with or for Durham for decades, informed colleagues in the U.S. Attorney's office in New Haven of her resignation from the Department of Justice by email Thursday evening. The short email was a brief farewell message and said nothing about political pressure, her work for Durham or what the Durham team has produced, according to people who received it. … "Colleagues said Dannehy is not a supporter of President Trump and has been concerned in recent weeks by what she believed was pressure from Barr, who appointed Durham, to produce results before the election. They said she has been considering resigning for weeks, conflicted by loyalty to Durham and concern about politics." KYLE CHENEY: "Johnson seeks IG probe of wiped Mueller team phones": "Senate Homeland Security Chair Ron Johnson is asking a Justice Department watchdog to probe recently revealed documents that suggest members of special counsel Robert Mueller's team wiped records from their official phones. "Records released by the Justice Department this week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request suggest top Mueller aides erased the information from at least 15 phones, citing forgotten passwords, physical damage and missing hardware." | | A message from Morgan Stanley: 529 Plans and More: A Guide to Education Funding — With education costs rising ever higher, developing a funding strategy today can help ease financial anxiety down the road. A 529 plan is a flexible, tax-friendly tool to save and invest for a loved one's future education expenses. Learn more. | | | WHAT AMERICA IS READING … THE NATION'S FRONTS: S.F. Chronicle: "Trump's vote claims spook some Latinos" … Tampa Bay Times: "DeSantis loses out on court nominee" … Boston Globe: "State preparing for a huge test with Nov. vote: Mail ballot demand could portend a record turnout" … … Detroit Free Press: "Trump got a few things wrong at Mich. rally" … Grand Rapids Press: "Candidates bid for Michigan voters" NATIONAL FRONTS: WAPO, with the BIDEN/PENCE arm bump … WSJ, with this brutal headline for ANDREW CUOMO: "In Worst-Hit State, Cuomo called All the Shots" … NYT DRIVING TODAY: THE PRESIDENT will leave the White House at 12:50 p.m. for the Trump Hotel for a roundtable with supporters. He'll then head to Andrews, where he'll fly to Reno, Nev., at 4:05 p.m. He'll land in Reno at 6 p.m. Pacific time, and will speak in Minden, Nev. At 9 p.m., he is going to fly from Reno to Las Vegas, where he'll arrive at 10:20 p.m. -- RENO GAZETTE JOURNAL: "Trump rally at Minden Airport today: 5,000 people are expected to attend" SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-Calif.) will speak at a virtual conversation for Arizonans, and will participate in a virtual fundraiser. … A LID has been called in Wilmington, meaning JOE BIDEN is not expected to have any public events today, per pooler MAUREEN GROPPE of USA Today. 52 DAYS until Election Day. BIDEN PLANS … WAPO: "Here's how Joe Biden would combat the pandemic if he wins the election," by Yasmeen Abutaleb and Laurie McGinley: "Joe Biden has created a war-cabinet-in-waiting on the coronavirus pandemic, with major figures from the Obama, Clinton and George H.W. Bush administrations drafting plans for distributing vaccines and personal protective gear, dramatically ramping up testing, reopening schools and addressing health-care disparities. "The effort began six months ago when the campaign consulted David Kessler, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner under Presidents Bush and Bill Clinton, and Vivek H. Murthy, surgeon general under President Barack Obama, on how to run a presidential campaign during a pandemic. "The pair, along with a growing cadre of volunteer health experts, has been working behind the scenes to craft plans that could take effect Jan. 20, when the next president will take the oath of office, said Jake Sullivan, a senior policy adviser on the Biden campaign." ELENA SCHNEIDER and ALEX THOMPSON: "Biden's transition team, fearing Trump's moves, sets massive fundraising goal": "Joe Biden's transition team has expanded its fundraising goal far beyond what Hillary Clinton raised in 2016, anticipating that, should they prevail in November, the Trump administration could actively work against their efforts and that the coronavirus pandemic will make a presidential changeover more difficult than ever. "The Biden transition team is aiming to raise at least $7 million by Election Day and build a staff of at least 350 people, according to a person familiar with the transition's planning, while another person said the total fundraising goal is $7 million to $10 million. "The budget far exceeds the $2.1 million that Clinton raised for her transition planning by Election Day 2016, or the $6.5 million Trump's transition raised before he assumed the presidency. Mitt Romney in 2012 raised $8.9 million for what is considered the most robust prior effort to plan a transition hand-off between two different parties. "Several people involved in raising money for Biden's transition said the pitch to potential donors leans on fears that President Donald Trump will not ease the handover process if he loses. That possible complication, along with the dueling health and economic crises hitting the country, will require more staffing and resources for a Biden administration-in-waiting." SPORTS X POLITICS … NYT'S ALAN BLINDER and JONATHAN MARTIN: "Trump and Biden Seek an Electoral Edge From an Unlikely Source: College Football": "Kevin Warren, the commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, was at his home near Minneapolis one morning this month when President Trump made a hastily arranged call to him. "Warren's league had decided in August to postpone fall sports because of the coronavirus pandemic, and Trump had a message as rife with political considerations as athletic ones: He hoped to see football revived in the Big Ten, a Power 5 conference home to schools like Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin, fabled parts of a sports footprint that overlaps with many of America's presidential battleground states. "'He made it very clear that he would help in any way that he possibly could to help us return to competition,' Warren said on Friday evening in an interview, his first about his conversation with the president on Sept. 1. Taken together, the president's lobbying campaign, amplified with Twitter blasts, and the advertisements of former vice president Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic presidential nominee, blaming Trump for empty stadiums signal the potential potency of college football among some voters in the coming election. … "Trump took interest in the season's viability the day before the Big Ten's decision, retweeting a post by Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence in support of the athlete-driven #WeWantToPlay movement. Lawrence and Trump spoke later in the week by phone, the president said at a news conference on Aug. 15, when he mentioned the recent postponements by the Big Ten and the Pac-12 and said, 'I wish they would come back.' (Clemson, a member of the A.C.C., is playing this season.) "The Big Ten's move left Trump aides bombarded with requests for White House intervention. Many of the pleas went to Timothy Pataki, a senior official who played lacrosse at Ohio State and remained close to the school, among the most vocal in its opposition to the decision not to play on time this fall. Late last month, Pataki contacted Warren and asked whether he would be willing to speak with the president. Trump called the next morning." BIZ SAYS THANKS BUT NO THANKS TO TRUMP … -- NYT'S JIM TANKERSLEY: "Trump's Payroll Tax 'Cut' Fizzles": "More than a month after Mr. Trump signed an executive memorandum to defer the collection of the payroll taxes that workers pay to help fund Social Security, few companies or people are taking part. Trade groups and tax experts say they know of no large corporations that plan to stop withholding employees' payroll taxes this fall. As a result, economic policy experts now say they expect the deferral to have little to no effect on economic growth this year." -- WSJ'S RICH RUBIN: "Some Large Employers Reject Trump's Payroll-Tax Deferral Plan": "Some of the nation's largest employers -- including CVS Health Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and the U.S. Postal Service -- say they won't implement President Trump's payroll-tax deferral plan, opting to leave employee paychecks alone this fall. … "Other large employers, including United Parcel Service Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Costco Wholesale Corp. and Home Depot Inc., say they aren't participating either. Wells Fargo wanted 'to avoid creating a future financial burden for employees,' said spokesman Peter Gilchrist." PORTLAND PRESS HERALD: "Lively U.S. Senate debate puts front-runners Collins and Gideon on the hot seat," by Kevin Miller: "[T]he debate … highlighted major policy differences between the two front-runners on issues such as access to quality health care. 'We need to ensure access and that means maintaining our rural hospitals,' said Collins, who is seeking a fifth six-year term in the Senate. 'The proposal that Sara has endorsed would destroy our rural hospitals.' … "Trump also was a focal point in the debate, with Gideon at one pointing asking Collins a question that the senator has been fielding for months but so far has declined to answer: whom will she support in the upcoming presidential election. "'I don't think that the people of Maine need my advice on whom to support for president,' Collins replied. 'Last week I was on a bus tour all over the state of Maine. Not a single person asked me who should be the next president. What they did say was how grateful they were for the Paycheck Protection Program that I wrote because it preserved their job or their small business.'" POMPEO IN DUBAI … AP/DUBAI: "Warring Afghans meet to find peace after decades of war" AXIOS' BARAK RAVID: "Behind the scenes of the U.S.-brokered Israel-Bahrain agreement": "After the visit in Israel and the UAE last week, [Jared] Kushner and his delegation traveled to Bahrain. A source familiar told me that before that trip Kushner purchased a Torah with his own money as a gift to Bahrain's King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa. … [Avi] Berkowitz entered the meeting with the king holding the Torah and presented it." | | | |   | | | HOUSE PARLIAMENTARIAN TOM WICKHAM -- a 25-year veteran of Congress -- is leaving the position at the end of the month. WICKHAM, an attorney, started in the parliamentarian's office in 1995, just after graduating from the University of Iowa's law school. He is a go-to figure for members of both parties, and an expert on the arcane House. JASON SMITH will be the next parl. -- GEORGIA REP. TOM GRAVES (R) is resigning from Congress in the coming weeks. He was not running for reelection. HAPPENING SUNDAY … LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ, MARC CAPUTO and NATASHA KORECKI will participate in a deep-dive discussion on the battleground states where 2020 will be won or lost. Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith will moderate the panel, during which they'll explore Arizona's swing-state evolution, why Florida Democrats remain terrified and how Wisconsin is haunted by the ghosts of 2016. Watch here. This is part of "POLITICO Live from The Texas Tribune Festival." | | | | JOIN TUESDAY – A PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW WITH BIDEN CAMPAIGN MANAGER JEN O'MALLEY DILLON: Join Playbook co-authors Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman for a virtual interview with Joe Biden's campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dillon, to discuss how her team is adapting to this new election landscape, whether Bob Woodward's new bombshell book will have lasting impact on the campaign, and the Biden campaign's assessment of the state of play in the top battleground states. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | | 
PHOTO DU JOUR: Sgt. Maj. Thomas Payne receives the Medal of Honor from President Donald Trump on Friday. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images | INTERESTING READ … VANITY FAIR: "'He Had a Twisted Umbilical Cord to Trump': Michael Cohen's Daughter Reflects on His Time with the President, and Becoming Trumpworld 'Collateral Damage'" CLICKER -- "The nation's cartoonists on the week in politics," edited by Matt Wuerker -- 13 keepers GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Margy Slattery and the staff of POLITICO Magazine: -- "How My Mother and I Became Chinese Propaganda," by The New Yorker's Jiayang Fan: "Immigrant struggles in America forged a bond that became even tighter after my mother's A.L.S. diagnosis. Then, as Covid-19 threatened, Chinese nationalists began calling us traitors to our country." New Yorker -- "A Pandemic, a Motel Without Power and a Potentially Terrifying Glimpse of Orlando's Future," by WaPo's Greg Jaffe: "The aging motels along Florida's Highway 192 have long been barometers of a fragile economy. … Now they were fast becoming places where it was possible to glimpse what a complete social and economic collapse might look like in America." WaPo -- "How a Massive Bomb Came Together in Beirut's Port," by Ben Hubbard, Maria Abi-Habib, Mona El-Naggar, Allison McCann, Anjali Singhvi, James Glanz and Jeremy White in the NYT: "Fifteen tons of fireworks. Jugs of kerosene and acid. Thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate. A system of corruption and bribes let the perfect bomb sit for years." NYT -- "The Democracy Factory," by Jesse Barron in California Sunday Magazine: "For decades, the vote-by-mail business was a sleepy industry that stayed out of the spotlight. Then came 2020." Cal Sunday -- "They Know How to Prevent Megafires. Why Won't Anybody Listen?" by Elizabeth Weil in ProPublica, from August: "This is a story about frustration, about watching the West burn when you fully understand why it's burning — and understand why it did not need to be this bad." ProPublica -- "Going Postal," by Max Read in Bookforum's fall issue: "Perhaps the best lens to examine compulsive, unproductive, inexplicable use of social media is not technical, or sociological, or economic, but psychoanalytic. In which case, rather than asking what is wrong with these systems, we might ask, 'What is wrong with us?'" Bookforum -- "The End of History and the Fast Man," by Adam J. White in The New Atlantis' fall issue: "Bidding farewell to America's car culture — and its democratic virtues." New Atlantis | | | |   | | | MEDIAWATCH -- CLARE MALONE in N.Y. MAG: "Starting Trouble With Times Media Columnist Ben Smith: 'I like asking weird, awkward questions that don't necessarily make me seem like a good person.'" -- Karl Smith is joining Bloomberg Opinion in a full-time position. He previously was VP for federal tax and economic policy at the Tax Foundation and a columnist at Bloomberg. Talking Biz News BOOK CLUB -- St. Martin's Press has bought former Trump Education Department official Alexandra Hudson's new book, "Against Politeness: Why Politeness Failed America and How Civility Can Save it," which is about why the U.S. needs a collective recommitment to civility to support a free and flourishing society. | | | | The Texas Tribune Festival. At-home edition: We're proud supporters of the 2020 Texas Tribune Festival . Where else could you hear from Hillary Clinton, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Ted Cruz and Willie Nelson at one event? Join attendees from across the country to hear from and talk with politicians, activists, advocates, lawmakers, and media icons about today's biggest news. Stream TribFest, happening just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, from wherever you are. Learn more and buy tickets today HERE. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com. IN MEMORIAM -- Kathleen Bullock, 51, died from brain tumors Sept. 5. Until February she served as White House liaison at the Office of Personnel Management, and then as senior adviser to the chair of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. She also worked for seven years at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Family and friends can visit at 1 p.m. today at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Kensington, Md., with a service following at 2 p.m. -- FT: "Max Wilkinson, journalist, 1942-2020" : "Max Wilkinson, one of the architects of the FT Weekend, was a journalist of prodigious talent. His intellectual rigour and astonishingly wide range of interests, together with a healthy dollop of weekend sizzle, have characterised the publication ever since. … He came up with 'Lunch with the FT', an idea that cut the advertiser out completely but was original enough to see off the forces trying to invade his space. Twenty-six years later it has become as enduring a feature of the paper as the Lex note or Martin Wolf column." BIRTHDAYS: Rep. Trey Hollingsworth (R-Ind.) is 37 … Matt Lewis, senior columnist at The Daily Beast and CNN political commentator … Max Boot is 51 … U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand Scott Brown is 61 (h/t Colin Reed) … Andrea DeVito, coordinating producer for "Fox News Sunday" … POLITICO's Ben Schreckinger, Walt Houseknecht and Adam Banks … Don Fowler, former DNC chair, is 85 … former Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) is 81 … Greg Wetstone … Dave Willett … Johnny Enterline, assistant general counsel at the Sierra Club … Andrew Whalen … Sam Brownback, U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, is 64 … Ed Moy, former director of the U.S. Mint, is 63 … John Stanford, managing partner at Prism Group … Maria Roumel … Desiree Sayle … Emily Lampkin … Melissa Schulman, SVP of government and public affairs at CVS Health … Ethan Klapper, senior audience development editor at Yahoo News … … Max D'Onofrio, comms director for Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), is 31 … David Meis … Liz Wroe, principal at Leavitt Partners … Bryan Langley … Richard Thaler is 75 … Jerry Abramson … Jill Jackson … Natalie Raps … Kimberly Breier … Brett Thompson ... NYT's Kim Severson ... Derek Robertson ... VOA's John Lippman ... Kelsi Browning … Allison Ramiller ... Venable's Alex Botting ... Pam Stevens ... Peter Robbio, SVP at CRC Advisors ... Zach Pohl, comms director for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer … Sarah Jennings, AARP's Midwest regional VP, is 5-0 (h/t Jim Dau) … West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Justice Evan Jenkins is 6-0 … Paul Kanan ... Fred Schuster ... Jason Stverak ... James Faeh ... Khan Shoieb ... Gavin Mathis … Edelman's Mariana Cotlear ... Jason O'Malley ... Amazon's Allison Marshall ... Joseph Voss ... Anne Johnson ... Erin Hood ... Russel Wade … Ali Siciliano ... Microsoft's Nate Yohannes ... Jill Alper (h/t Teresa Vilmain) … Jeff Bloemker THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here): | FOX | "Fox News Sunday": Jake Sullivan … Joe Buck … Steve Cortes. Panel: Brit Hume, Kristen Soltis Anderson and Jane Harman. New Fox polling. Power Player: Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.). | NBC | "Meet the Press": Ronna McDaniel … Peter Strzok … Michael Osterholm. Panel: Al Cardenas, Jeffrey Goldberg and Kasie Hunt. | ABC | "This Week": Jason Miller … Symone Sanders. Panel: Chris Christie, Rahm Emanuel, Yvette Simpson and Kim Strassel. | CBS | "Face the Nation": Sue Gordon … Scott Kirby … Albert Bourla … Scott Gottlieb … John Dickerson … New battleground tracker poll. | CNN | "State of the Union": Peter Navarro … L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti … Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.). | Sinclair | "America This Week with Eric Bolling": Scott Atlas … Bill O'Reilly … Candace Owens … Peter Schweitzer … Diamond and Silk … Daniel Lippman. | Gray TV | "Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren": Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) … Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.). | | | | A message from Morgan Stanley: 529 Plans and More: A Guide to Education Funding: Paying for education has become a major investment — one that often requires years of careful planning. As the costs of education keep rising, you and your family should approach funding educational expenses, such as tuition, extension programs and advanced professional training, like any other kind of investment that needs a strategy built for your specific needs. And the sooner you get started, the better prepared you're likely to be. Learn how a 529 education saving plan and other strategies can help you invest in a loved one's education. Plus, get ideas to help boost a child's or grandchild's financial literacy at home. Learn more. | | | | | | | 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 | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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