| | | | |  | | By Eli Okun | | | DOCU-DRAMA — Special counsel JACK SMITH is close to finishing his federal investigation into DONALD TRUMP’s handling of classified materials, WSJ’s Aruna Viswanatha, Sadie Gurman and C. Ryan Barber report. Though it isn’t yet clear whether Smith will charge Trump with a crime, the former president’s “close associates are bracing for his indictment and anticipate being able to fundraise off a prosecution.”
|  Speaker Kevin McCarthy told his conference that a deal is nowhere close. | Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Photo | READING THE TEA LEAVES — As debt ceiling negotiations continue, the latest signals from House Republicans don’t give much reason to hope for a resolution anytime soon.
- The GOP negotiators, Reps. GARRET GRAVES (La.) and PATRICK McHENRY (N.C.), emphasized again that they need the White House to agree to cut — not just freeze — spending.
- Even so, McCarthy continues to face pressure from his right flank. Rep. CHIP ROY (R-Texas) voiced displeasure at the idea of any compromise with Democrats, per CNN’s Melanie Zanona.
- Then, there’s … whatever this is: House Republicans “paused during their private weekly meeting on Tuesday to bid for … Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s used chapstick,” Olivia Beavers reports. “Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) placed a winning $100,000 bid, as confirmed by her spokesperson.”
But, but, but: Burgess Everett notes an important bit of context: “Debt limit talks between White House and House Rs are oscillating between productive meetings and near-breakdowns, which is actually not that unusual for a big negotiation.” “Everybody needs to relax,” said Senate Minority Leader MITCH McCONNELL, who sounds calmer than most. “The president and the speaker will reach an agreement. It will ultimately be passed on a bipartisan vote.” X MARKS THE FRAUGHT — America’s eyes are turning toward another Fast X — and this one stars Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN, not VIN DIESEL. The Treasury Department is scrambling to save money and stretch the government’s coffers a bit longer to stave off the X-date at which the U.S. will teeter into default, WaPo’s Jeff Stein, Rachel Siegel and Tony Romm scooped. Treasury is asking other agencies whether they might have flexibility in when they can make upcoming payments, with “increasingly urgent” attempts to find some breathing room and make it to June 15 (and then possible to July). But some hard-line House conservatives don’t accept the June 1 timeframe Yellen has laid out, CNN’s Manu Raju reports.
- Rep. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.): “I don’t believe that the first of the month is a real deadline. I don’t understand why we’re not making Janet Yellen show her work.”
- Rep. RALPH NORMAN (R-S.C.): “June 1st? Everybody knows that’s false.”
The break-glass option: “Court sets legal showdown on debt limit 14th Amendment argument,” by Josh Gerstein: “U.S. District Court Judge RICHARD STEARNS set a May 31 hearing on a lawsuit filed by a federal workers [union] contending that the 14th Amendment empowers Biden and other officials to sidestep the standoff.” Good Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at eokun@politico.com.
| | | | A message from Altria: The future of Tobacco Harm Reduction. More than 70% of U.S. adults 21+ surveyed support Tobacco Harm Reduction as the right path forward for tobacco regulation. And two out of three believe the FDA should focus its efforts on Tobacco Harm Reduction. See the poll results here. | | | POLITICAL VIOLENCE WATCH — Police arrested a 19-year-old Missouri man who they said smashed a U-Haul truck into Lafayette Park security barriers across the street from the White House, likely intentionally, late last night. SAI VARSHITH KANDULA allegedly had a Nazi flag and made threats against Biden and VP KAMALA HARRIS. He was slapped with several charges, including assault with a dangerous weapon and threatening harm. CBS’ Brian Dakss and Jordan Freiman report that Kandula didn’t seem to have significant criminal history or be on any watch lists. NOTABLE NOMINATION — “Biden nominates Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh to lead NSA, Cyber Command,” by Lara Seligman and Maggie Miller TRUMP CARDS HAPPENING TODAY — Trump will appear remotely this afternoon at a court hearing in the Manhattan criminal case against him, which will focus on the protective order for evidence in the case. The judge will emphasize that Trump can’t use the discovery process to attack witnesses. “It will be the first time in American history a former president has appeared virtually for a criminal court hearing,” notes CBS’ Graham Kates. 2024 WATCH WILD STORY — “How Vivek Ramaswamy helped make Martin Shkreli the ‘pharma bro,’” by Daniel Lippman: VIVEK “RAMASWAMY’s hedge fund firm invested with the since-infamous [MARTIN] SHKRELI. Later, he would say he was ‘pathologically incapable of telling the truth.’” The most amazing part came when Daniel reached out to Shkreli: “Reached by phone, Shkreli demanded money from POLITICO and its parent company Axel Springer to cooperate. ‘I will tell you everything I know. And in exchange, I suppose your company would do something for me,’ he said, later adding ‘The really juicy stuff I know is something that I could potentially sell to the National Enquirer or to monetize that myself.’ “When told that POLITICO does not pay for interviews, he said: ‘I’m just struggling [to understand] what’s in it for me. … I’m gonna need a sweeter deal than that. I have this new software. If you plug that, maybe we got a deal then.’ “He then offered money to write a positive story about him, saying, ‘If I bless your Cash App like five bands [$5,000], will you say some nice shit about me?’” FIGHT, FLIGHT OR FREEZE? — When Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS finally makes his presidential campaign official, he’s not planning to take on Trump directly very often, NBC’s Natasha Korecki reports. The plan is that “DeSantis will be judicious, or as his team puts it, ‘strategic’ about crossing into Mar-a-Lago territory. The governor will mostly ignore the daily Trump taunts and will take the former president head-on only in specific circumstances — particularly on policy.” More on the coming campaign: “How DeSantis plans to jolt the GOP presidential primary and seize back the narrative,” by CNN’s Steve Contorno: “Just as in 2019, DeSantis’ political team is plotting an unpredictable, relentless blitz of the political map designed to quickly get the Republican in front of thousands of primary voters, stir the pot and invite contrasts between the 44-year-old governor and the campaigns of the aging front-runners in each party.”
| | | | DON’T MISS POLITICO’S HEALTH CARE SUMMIT: The Covid-19 pandemic helped spur innovation in health care, from the wide adoption of telemedicine, health apps and online pharmacies to mRNA vaccines. But what will the next health care innovations look like? Join POLITICO on Wednesday June 7 for our Health Care Summit to explore how tech and innovation are transforming care and the challenges ahead for access and delivery in the United States. REGISTER NOW. | | | | | CONGRESS IMMIGRATION FILES — Playing the role of Sisyphus in this Congress are Reps. MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR (R-Fla.) and VERONICA ESCOBAR (D-Texas), who today rolled out a 500-page, bipartisan immigration reform package, WaPo’s Marianna Sotomayor and Theo Meyer report. Attempting to jumpstart action on an issue that’s been moribund in Congress for decades, Salazar and Escobar know their task is difficult. But the bill would make headway on a number of issues, including $25 billion in border security funding, faster asylum processing, easier legal immigration and pathways to citizenship for some adult undocumented immigrants. It remains to be seen if this could muster enough support in either chamber to make it to the floor and pass. As of now, the prospects look slim. But this is the most significant immigration policy bill to come along in a decade. And notably, Salazar says a discharge petition to bypass a recalcitrant House GOP leadership isn’t off the table. ANOTHER BLOW FOR SECTION 702 — “FBI’s Misuse of Foreign Spying Law Complicates the Push to Renew It,” by WSJ’s Dustin Volz and Byron Tau: “The revelation that the Federal Bureau of Investigation used a foreign-spying tool to search for information about defendants in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the 2020 GEORGE FLOYD protests has set back the Biden administration’s effort to win reauthorization of a law it says is a critical tool for national security, lawmakers in both parties said.” MORE POLITICS PRIMARY COLORS — Rep. ELISSA SLOTKIN may be the Democratic frontrunner in the Michigan Senate race, but the field is getting crowded nonetheless: State Board of Education President PAMELA PUGH is the latest entrant today, The Detroit News’ Melissa Nann Burke reports. Pugh touts her resume, the fact that she’s already won two statewide races and the glaring absence of Black women in the Senate. THE COMEBACK KID? — If a special election ends up being called to replace Rep. GEORGE SANTOS (R-N.Y.), former Rep. TOM SUOZZI (D-N.Y.) is leaning toward accepting Democratic party leaders’ nomination for his old seat, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. But he’s not likely to enter a primary. House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES, Rep. GREGORY MEEKS and state party chair JAY JACOBS have all been in talks about what will happen if Santos leaves early. Still, Suozzi’s selection is far from a sure thing, given his beef with Gov. KATHY HOCHUL. ROBERT ZIMMERMAN is another possibility, as are the multiple other Dems already running to take Santos on. SEEKING JUSTICE — The DSCC officially sued West Virginia Gov. JIM JUSTICE today to seek his official calendar/schedule dating back to 2017, as we’ve previewed in Playbook recently. The filing WAR IN UKRAINE LOOK WHO’S BACK — “Send for Agent BoJo! Boris Johnson dispatched to Texas to shore up Republican support for Ukraine,” by Annabelle Dickson in Dallas: “Pro-Ukraine think tankers on Monday brought [former British PM BORIS] JOHNSON to a private lunch in Dallas, Texas, to meet two dozen of the state’s leading conservative figures, including politicians, donors and captains of industry. The message Johnson was there to deliver was simple: America must stay the course in Ukraine.”
| | | | GET READY FOR GLOBAL TECH DAY: Join POLITICO Live as we launch our first Global Tech Day alongside London Tech Week on Thursday, June 15. Register now for continuing updates and to be a part of this momentous and program-packed day! From the blockchain, to AI, and autonomous vehicles, technology is changing how power is exercised around the world, so who will write the rules? REGISTER HERE. | | | | | POLICY CORNER THE BRAVE NEW WORLD — The Biden administration today announced the creation of an agency-spanning Task Force on Kids Online Health and Safety, which aims to help protect youth mental health, privacy and more online, per the Washington Blade’s Christopher Kane. Several departments are also taking new steps to protect kids’ data privacy, root out child sexual abuse content and more. Surgeon General VIVEK MURTHY is also out with a major new public advisory warning about the effects of social media on children’s health, along with a WaPo op-ed and an interview with NYT’s Catherine Pearson and Matt Richtel. “At this time, we do not yet have enough evidence to determine if social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents,” Murthy’s report finds. “We must acknowledge the growing body of research about potential harms, increase our collective understanding of the risks associated with social media use, and urgently take action.” AMERICA AND THE WORLD EVAN GERSHKOVICH LATEST — The WSJ reporter’s pre-trial detention in Russia was lengthened another three months today to at least Aug. 30, WSJ’s Ann Simmons reports. PLAYBOOKERS IN MEMORIAM — Bush and Trump administration alum Monica Noe Filyaw died last month at 52. She was a senior adviser for USAID in the Trump administration, working on Covid-related issues, and previously worked for the State Department, the Interior Department and Howard Baker. Full obituary TRANSITIONS — Alvin Herring will retire as executive director of Faith in Action at the end of the month after five years, Religion News Service’s Jack Jenkins reports. … Clark Dumont is now of counsel to strategic comms firm Montagne Powers. He continues to be principal and counselor of Dumont Communications. … … Sarita Williams is now press secretary for Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). She previously was comms director for Maryland Speaker of the House Adrienne Jones. … Quardricos Driskell will be director of government relations for the Health Management Academy. He previously was VP of public policy and government affairs at the Autoimmune Association. ENGAGED — Peter Lifson, data director at Baker Group Strategies and an NRSC alum, proposed to Meredith Vitale, research analyst for Tennessee state Sen. Richard Briggs, on Saturday, followed by brunch at their first date spot and a celebration with friends off Broadway. They were introduced by a mutual friend in 2020. Pic … Another pic — Harrison Farmer, an attorney at McDermott Will & Emery, proposed to Julie Orsini, a director in public affairs at APCO Worldwide, on Saturday at the Ritz Carlton in Santa Barbara, Calif. They met at Et Voila. Pic … Another pic WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Abe Sutton, a principal at Rubicon Founders and a Trump White House alum, and Leora Sutton, senior software engineer at Ophelia Health, welcomed Maya Anne Sutton on May 16.Pic 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.
| | | | A message from Altria:   Altria is leading the way in transitioning millions of adult smokers from cigarettes to a smoke-free future. | | | | | | | 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 | | | | |
