| | | | | |  | | By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer, Garrett Ross and Eli Okun | Presented by |  | | | BREAKING … OKLAHOMA GOV. KEVIN STITT has tested positive for Covid-19 -- the first governor in the country to report contracting the virus. -- TULSA WORLD: "He said he does not second-guess his personal choices not to wear a mask despite testing positive. … "Stitt was asked Wednesday whether his exposure likely came from the [June 20 Trump] rally, where he did not wear a mask. Stitt and Health Commissioner Lance Frye said the event was too long ago, adding that the exposure could have been at any point in the past two weeks." NEW … THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN has a new 30-second ad positioning JOE BIDEN and his policies as unsafe for America. -- SCRIPT: "The radical left-wing mob's agenda? Take over our cities. Defund the police. Pressure more towns to follow. And Joe Biden stands with them. Cutting police funding. [Biden on cam]: 'Yes, absolutely.' Eliminating cash bail. Letting criminals back on the street. Violent crime exploding. Innocent children fatally shot. Who will be there to answer the call when your children aren't safe?" The 30-second clip -- THERE IS A THEORY in the White House and among TRUMP aides that BIDEN'S healthy lead is only due to the fact that the campaign has not yet tried to define the former VP. The counterargument to that is he's been in public life for 50 years, and he's pretty well defined. THIS AD represents an effort to further frame BIDEN. … IT FRAMES BIDEN from a different angle than the super PAC ad we featured in this morning's Playbook, which cast him as responsible for racist policies and out of step with progressive racial values. The campaign and super PACs can't coordinate, of course. MEANWHILE … MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY'S latest polling in Pennsylvania has BIDEN up by 13 points in the state -- 53% to 40% among registered voters. -- THE GENERIC HOUSE BALLOT shows 49% supporting the Democratic candidate and 45% for the Republican candidate. The poll was conducted from July 9-13 among 401 registered Pennsylvania voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. The poll VP MIKE PENCE is holding a "Tax Day" call with reporters today at 3:45 p.m. to talk about BIDEN'S economic proposals. NEW … CHRIS WALLACE will interview President DONALD TRUMP for "Fox News Sunday" this week. POST-BARI WEISS' RESIGNATION, THE ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA is creating a hotline for Jews to "report cases of harassment" at the New York Times, to allow people to "receive legal guidance on how to defend themselves." Release CASH ON HAND UPDATE, filed today … Sen. JOHN THUNE (R-S.D.): $12.8 million … Sen. DOUG JONES (D-Ala.): $8.7 million … Rep. CHARLIE CRIST (D-Fla.): $3.1 million … Sen. JERRY MORAN (R-Kan.): $2.3 million. … Sen. MARK WARNER (D-Va.): $9.2 million. … Rep. LAUREN UNDERWOOD (D-Ill.): $3.1 million. JEFFREY SPRECHER -- husband of Sen. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-Ga.) -- gave $468,500 to the NRSC Targeted Victory Fund. | | | | A message from The National Association of REALTORS®: The National Association of REALTORS'® 1.4 million members are proud to follow a Code of Ethics that sets a higher standard for fairness in housing than any law. Backed by a culture of accountability, it extends to our work on Capitol Hill, where we advocate for meaningful change. Learn More. | | | LATEST FROM THE PRESIDENT, on Peter Navarro's anti-Anthony Fauci op-ed, per pooler Francesca Chambers of McClatchy: "I get along very well with Dr. Fauci. … That's Peter Navarro, but I have a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci." THE STATE OF ALABAMA and WALMART both announced new mask mandates today. Good Wednesday afternoon. HUAWEI OR THE HIGHWAY -- "Trump administration to restrict visas of Huawei employees," by John Hendel FLYNN'S RETURN? -- "Trump says he would welcome Michael Flynn back to his administration," by Max Cohen: "'He's gone through hell. He's been destroyed, but he'll make a comeback,' Trump told CBS News during a Tuesday White House interview. 'He's gonna make a great comeback.' When asked if he would take Flynn back at the White House, Trump replied, 'I would.'" POLITICO … The clip TRUMP'S TAXES -- "Trump Raises New Objections to Subpoena Seeking His Tax Returns," by NYT's William Rashbaum and Benjamin Weiser: "Days after the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a defeat to President Trump, clearing the way for the Manhattan district attorney to seek his tax returns, his lawyers on Wednesday renewed their efforts to block or at least narrow access to the records. "Mr. Trump's lawyers wrote to the federal judge in Manhattan who originally presided over the case, saying they plan to argue that district attorney's subpoena was too broad and politically motivated." NYT ICYMI … HUNT FOR A VACCINE: "Moderna coronavirus vaccine shows promising results in early clinical trial," by Zachary Brennan -- KNOWING SARAH GILBERT: "Covid Vaccine Front-Runner Is Months Ahead of Her Competition: The University of Oxford candidate, led by Sarah Gilbert, might be through human trials in September. AstraZeneca has lined up agreements to produce 2 billion doses. Could this be the one?" by Stephanie Baker on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek BRANCHING OUT -- "New York offers to share contact tracers with other states," by Shannon Young in Albany, N.Y.: "Atlanta will be the first city to take advantage of New York's offer for help. With Covid-19 cases rising there, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he's sending a team to assist Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms with coronavirus testing and contact tracing. New York is also in talks with officials from Houston and other cities that have become hotspots for the virus on how it can help with contact tracing." POLITICO THE DEREGULATORY STATE -- "Trump team relaxed training rules for nursing home staff just as pandemic hit," by Maggie Severns: "Shortly after the first coronavirus outbreak ravaged a nursing home in Kirkland, Wash., the Trump administration moved to fulfill a longstanding industry goal — waiving the requirement that nurse's aides receive 75 hours of training and allowing people who study only eight hours online to become caregivers during the pandemic. "The industry had been fighting for years to reduce training requirements, saying they make it harder to recruit staff. The day after the administration announced the change, the industry rolled out a free online training program for certifying the new role — called a 'temporary nurse aide' — that has since been adopted by at least 19 states. Now … advocates for older adults and families of residents say they fear the change was premature, and contributed to the spread of the disease. … "A POLITICO reporter was able to register for the eight-hour program and obtain a temporary nurse's aide certificate, using the internet to look up test answers, in less than 40 minutes." | | | | HAPPENING TOMORROW AT 9 a.m. EDT – REBOOTING THE AMERICAN WORKFORCE : Join POLITICO for a virtual discussion exploring how recovery efforts have affected different sectors of the American workforce and what measures lawmakers need to implement to help Americans get back to work. Featuring a keynote conversation with Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, the program also includes a panel discussion with Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Marianne Wanamaker, associate professor of economics at the University of Tennessee and former chief domestic economist for President Donald Trump's White House Council of Economic Advisors. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | ENVIRO WATCH -- "Trump to Weaken Environmental Rules to Speed Infrastructure Permits," by NYT's Lisa Friedman: "President Trump on Wednesday is set to unilaterally weaken one of the nation's bedrock conservation laws, the National Environmental Policy Act, limiting public review of federal infrastructure projects to speed up the permitting of freeways, power plants and pipelines. "In doing so, the Trump administration will claim hundreds of millions of dollars of savings over almost a decade by significantly reducing the amount of time allowed to complete reviews of major infrastructure projects, according to two people familiar with the new policy. … Revising the 50-year-old law through regulatory reinterpretation is one of the biggest deregulatory actions of the Trump administration, which to date has moved to roll back 100 rules protecting clean air and water, and others that aim to reduce the threat of human-caused climate change." NYT MEGATREND -- "Drug overdoses climbed to record high in 2019, reversing historic progress," by Brianna Ehley: "There were 70,980 reported deaths from overdoses in 2019, surpassing the peak of 70,699 deaths in 2017, according to preliminary CDC data. The numbers represent a 4.6 percent increase from the previous year, a trend that the Trump administration and experts say is continuing." POLITICO MODERN WARFARE -- "Exclusive: Secret Trump order gives CIA more powers to launch cyberattacks," by Yahoo's Zach Dorfman, Kim Zetter, Jenna McLaughlin and Sean Naylor: "The secret [2018] authorization, known as a presidential finding, gives the spy agency more freedom in both the kinds of operations it conducts and who it targets, undoing many restrictions that had been in place under prior administrations. The finding allows the CIA to more easily authorize its own covert cyber operations, rather than requiring the agency to get approval from the White House. … "The finding has made it easier for the CIA to damage adversaries' critical infrastructure, such as petrochemical plants, and to engage in the kind of hack-and-dump operations that Russian hackers and WikiLeaks popularized, in which tranches of stolen documents or data are leaked to journalists or posted on the internet. It has also freed the agency to conduct disruptive operations against organizations that were largely off limits previously, such as banks and other financial institutions." Yahoo THE RECOVERY EFFORT -- "SBA grant program attracting the wrong kind of attention," by WaPo's David Lynch: "The Small Business Administration in recent weeks has been inundated with calls from people claiming to run odd businesses in odd places, all attracted by the prospect of a quick $10,000 advance on a government loan … Suspicious requests from Chicago have grown so numerous that SBA managers recently alerted their front-line staff to be on the lookout for Windy City paperwork. … "At issue is the SBA's Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), a long-standing government program that Congress expanded in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. With a spotty track record even in routine operations, the program appears to have been overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the economic catastrophe unleashed by the medical emergency." WaPo VALLEY TALK -- "EU Court annuls €13B Irish tax bill for Apple," by Simon Van Dorpe … What it means OVERSIGHT BATTLES -- "Supreme Court casts a shadow over Congress' power to investigate," by Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein: "Interpretations of last week's bombshell ruling in the House's effort to obtain President Donald Trump's financial records have polarized the legal community and lawmakers, leaving behind uncertainty about the balance of power between Congress and the president at one of the most sensitive moments in U.S. history. … "In short, the Supreme Court has raised, rather than answered, questions about the checks and balances that have kept the country on course since its founding. And the only way to resolve them may be with future legal clashes." POLITICO | | | | JOIN TOMORROW - POLITICO 2020 ELECTION REPORTER ROUNDTABLE: The countdown to Election Day is on, and recent polls show President Trump trailing Joe Biden. Join POLITICO journalists Natasha Korecki, Gabby Orr and Zach Montellaro who will peel back the curtain on the Biden and Trump campaign strategies, discuss key policy platforms and describe how voters are responding. REGISTER HERE | | | | | AFTERNOON READ -- "Stumbling toward wokeness: After George Floyd's death, she wanted to be anti-racist. But what would that mean, exactly?" by WaPo's Robert Samuels in Tulsa AP: "Judge halts execution amid claims inmate isn't mentally fit," by Michael Balsamo and Michael Tarm in Terre Haute, Ind.: "Wesley Ira Purkey, convicted of a gruesome 1998 kidnapping and killing, was scheduled for execution Wednesday at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, where Daniel Lewis Lee was put to death Tuesday after his eleventh-hour legal bids failed. "U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., imposed two injunctions on Wednesday prohibiting the federal Bureau of Prisons from moving forward with Purkey's execution. The Justice Department immediately appealed in both cases. A separate temporary stay was already in place from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals." AP IRAN LATEST -- "With U.S. Backing, U.N. Confronts Tehran Over Nuclear Work," by WSJ's Laurence Norman in Vienna: "Since becoming chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Dec. 3 with strong U.S. backing, [Rafael] Grossi has steered the agency into a deepening confrontation with Iran over enforcement of nuclear-weapons control rules. "Now Mr. Grossi is assessing when to up the ante. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal at IAEA headquarters, he said the agency won't retreat, warning that if Tehran doesn't grant access by the end of this month, it 'will be bad.' 'I keep insisting on the absolute necessity for us to resolve this issue very soon,' he said. This 'isn't going to go away.'" WSJ TROUBLED WATERS -- "Tanker off UAE sought by U.S. over Iran sanctions 'hijacked,'" by AP's Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates: "An oil tanker sought by the U.S. over allegedly circumventing sanctions on Iran was hijacked on July 5 off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, a seafarers organization said Wednesday. "Satellite photos showed the vessel in Iranian waters on Tuesday and two of its sailors remained in the Iranian capital. It wasn't immediately clear what happened aboard the Dominica-flagged MT Gulf Sky, though its reported hijacking comes after months of tensions between Iran and the U.S. David Hammond, the CEO of the United Kingdom-based group Human Rights at Sea, said he took a witness statement from the captain of the MT Gulf Sky, confirming the ship had been hijacked." AP TRANSITIONS -- Tyra Mariani has been appointed president of the Schultz Family Foundation. She currently is president and COO of New America, and is an Obama Education Department alum. … Benjy Messner is launching New River Strategies, a data and analytics firm. He previously worked for Beto O'Rourke's presidential campaign and Precision Strategies. WEEKEND WEDDING -- Alex Schriver, EVP at Targeted Victory and a Bradley Byrne alum, and Tracey D'Antuono, VP at the Bank Policy Institute, got married over the weekend at a small ceremony with family and friends in Charleston, S.C. They met through mutual friends. Pic BONUS BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Gareth Rhodes, deputy superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services and a member of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Covid-19 task force. A fun fact people might not know about him: "Journalism was my first passion. As kids, my older sister Dorie and I hand-wrote a weekly newsletter called The Rhodeside Reader with an extensive circulation to our family of four. It featured everything from recapping the latest on the Elián González saga to hard-hitting investigative journalism about who or what was culpable for an unfortunate Sunday dinner food poisoning incident." Playbook Q&A | | | | A message from The National Association of REALTORS®:   Look for the R to know you have an ally in the fight for fair housing. 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 politics and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
