| | | |  | | By Ali Bianco | Presented by American Advancement | With help from Rachel Umansky-Castro
|  | THE CATCH-UP | | | 
VP JD Vance hosting "The Charlie Kirk Show" marks an unprecedented and candid appearance for a sitting vice president. | Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP | The shockwaves following the death of Charlie Kirk are cementing into anger and calls to action by key figures of the MAGA movement, of which Kirk was a central and mobilizing force as the country enters the first full week since Kirk’s killing. In a wide-ranging appearance on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” VP JD Vance used the platform to recount stories about his time with Kirk — as he attempted to fill in “for someone who can’t be filled in for,” he said in his opening remarks. It was an unprecedented and candid moment for a sitting vice president — who spoke with visible emotion while crediting Kirk for his political ascension. Vance and his guests at times also blasted what they called “left-wing extremism,” which they vowed to fight against. Speaking for nearly two hours, Vance slammed what he called the “incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism that has grown up over the last few years.” As he concluded the show, Vance spoke passionately about the reactions following Kirk’s killing, noting his gratitude to Democrats who reached out to offer their condolences. “I am desperate to wrap my arms around them as we all unite to condemn political violence,” Vance said. He excoriated what he said was the “fringe” wing of the far left and vowed to use the levers of government to stamp out organizations that he said fueled political violence. The podcast included a who’s who of MAGA voices — from top White House officials like HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Susie Wiles, Karoline Leavitt and Taylor Budowich to conservative media stalwart Tucker Carlson. White House senior adviser Stephen Miller pledged to use “every resource” across the federal government to combat what he called a “vast domestic terror movement” on the left, which he said is pushed by NGOs. The messaging aligns with President Donald Trump’s vow to launch investigations into leftist organizations — though he did not offer any specifics. Trump is due to sign a presidential memorandum at 4 p.m., where a waiting press pool is certain to ask for more details. But Kirk’s death has only crystallized his status as a mobilizing force. The response among his supporters since Kirk’s death “signal not only how conservatives see Mr. Kirk as a martyr, but also their view that his assassination could be a watershed moment that will propel their cause and cement both conservative and conservative Christian values in American life for decades to come,” NYT’s Emily Cochrane writes. It’s also creating a vacuum for turning out young voters that many conservatives, Trump and Leavitt chief among them, acknowledge were essential to the GOP’s gains in 2024, WSJ’s Eliza Collins and Meridith McGraw report. THE INVESTIGATION: As Kirk’s conservative followers search for a way forward, the FBI is moving ahead with its prosecution of suspect Tyler Robinson, who is set to appear in court this week, per WaPo’s Niha Masih. FBI Director Kash Patel also finds himself at the center of the swirl of the fallout following perceived missteps during the search for the shooter when he announced hours after Kirk’s death that they had a subject in custody — whom they later released. “The job of the FBI is not just to manhunt the actual suspect who did the killing or suspects, but it's also to eliminate targets and eliminate subjects who are not involved in the process,” Patel said on “Fox & Friends” this morning, defending the bureau’s response. “Could I have worded it a little better in the heat of the moment? Sure. But do I regret putting it out? Absolutely not.” Patel also said that DNA hits from a towel and a screwdriver recovered from the scene were “positively processed” for Robinson. Still, the desire for retribution and answers over Kirk’s death is spilling out beyond the case.
- On the Hill, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is leading a group of lawmakers calling for a select committee to investigate “the money, influence, and power behind the radical left’s assault on America and the rule of law” after Kirk’s death. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) penned a letter to the Education Department asking to end federal funding to public schools who don’t fire teachers who voice criticism of Kirk.
- Airline companies — American, Delta and United — all said they have fired employees for praising Kirk’s death, per CBS’ Kris Van Cleave.
The mourning and fallout will continue for the remainder of the week — starting with a vigil at 6:15 p.m. hosted by Speaker Mike Johnson in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall. Also at 6 p.m., AG Pam Bondi will appear on Katie Miller’s podcast. And this mourning period for the GOP will hit its peak this weekend as Trump, top GOP lawmakers and activists converge in Arizona for Kirk’s funeral — an event that’s sure to be a quandary for the Secret Service, which has already faced pressure for their responses to political violence in the assassination attempts against Trump last year, CNN’s Betsy Klein writes. Good Monday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Send me your thoughts to abianco@politico.com.
| | | | A message from American Advancement: Democrats have a three-part plan for 2026: take back Congress, stop Trump's momentum, and erase his agenda. If Republicans lose the majority, President Trump's historic achievements vanish. Extending premium tax credits helps working families afford health care—and it's how Republicans keep promises that earned their majority. Republicans must protect these credits to protect the majority and the MAGA agenda. The choice is clear: defend our families, defend our future and defend our majority. Learn more. | | | | | | 9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | 1. SHUTDOWN SHOWDOWN: House Republicans are already lining up in opposition to the stopgap funding legislation that is expected to drop this week, POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill reports. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a consistent dissenter for many of the GOP’s plans, said this morning he plans to oppose the continuing resolution unless it includes more spending cuts. Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) said on X she’s also a no given that the CR leaders are eyeing would expire right before the Thanksgiving holiday. What will Dems do? The NRCC rolled out an ad campaign against 25 House Democrats in competitive districts calling for voters to pressure Democrats to avert a shutdown, Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind scoops. The ads’ main message: “Tell Democrats: Don’t hold the government hostage to put illegals before us.” The latest on lawmaker security: Senate Majority Leader John Thune is inviting the Senate sergeant at arms and the chief of Capitol Police to brief senators at lunch tomorrow on security, Axios’ Hans Nichols scooped. 2. TIKTOK ON THE CLOCK: U.S. and Chinese officials have reached an agreement for a framework deal on TikTok after two days of talks in Madrid, WSJ’s Rebecca Feng and colleagues write. It’s a concession that comes as China is pushing for a formal visit from Trump. Trump praised the meeting on Truth Social, saying, “A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save. They will be very happy!” Trump also said he’ll be speaking with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday, where the two leaders will complete the deal, per Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The details: Vance participated in a call yesterday with Trump, Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer about their meeting with China, per the Daily Signal’s Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell. Vance played a big role in the strategy to reach the deal, and both he and Trump favored using their leverage to hammer out the framework during the talks. In the background: “Nvidia Broke Antitrust Law, China Says, as Tensions With U.S. Mount,” by NYT’s Meaghan Tobin 3. TRUMP’S ECONOMY: Trump is calling for companies to not report their quarterly earnings, resurrecting the idea from his first term to shift the earnings reports to every six months, WSJ’s Natalie Andrews and Corrie Driebusch report. It’s bound to stir controversy with investors, who rely on the data for transparency. “This will save money, and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies,” Trump said on Truth Social. Trading places: India and the U.S. will hold trade talks tomorrow, New Delhi announced today, “raising hopes for a breakthrough weeks after [Trump] imposed punitive tariffs on the South Asian nation for buying Russian oil,” Reuters’ Manoj Kumar reports. Knowing Stephen Miran: “How Trump’s Provocative Economist Crashed the Federal Reserve,” by WSJ’s Sam Goldfarb and Matt Grossman: “Two years ago, Stephen Miran’s career in finance seemed to reach a dead end. The investment firm he co-founded was closing, having never really gotten off the ground. Now he is at the forefront of President Trump’s bid to remake the Federal Reserve. … The rapid rise of the 42-year-old Harvard-educated economist from relative obscurity on Wall Street to the upper echelon of U.S. monetary policy stems from his deep-rooted devotion to the president’s economic agenda and knack for stirring up debate with provocative arguments.” 4. WAR AND PEACE: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on the second day of his visit to Israel, said today that a diplomatic end to the war in Gaza may not come — throwing cold water on the idea that Hamas will negotiate surrender, NYT’s Michael Crowley reports. Speaking with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in a news conference this morning, they presented a unified front as frustration over Israeli strikes has grown across the region — and within the White House, WaPo’s Adam Taylor and colleagues write. “We are focused on what happens next,” Rubio said. Incoming: Rubio will briefly head to Qatar tomorrow before meeting Trump in London. In the news conference, Rubio called on Qatar to continue as a key mediator to end the war, while Netanyahu did not rule out the possibility of future strikes, saying Israel will target Hamas “wherever they are,” per Reuters. And the Qatari jet gifted to the U.S. to be used as the new AF1 is currently being modified by the Air Force, CBS’ Eleanor Watson reports.
| | | | Introducing Global Security: POLITICO’s weekly briefing on the policies, regulatory battles and industrial shifts shaping defense and security across continents. We connect what happens in Washington, Brussels and beyond to what gets funded, what gets built and who benefits. Subscribe now to access the free preview edition. | | | | | 5. SANCTIONS WATCH: The European Union is weighing potential sanctions on companies in India and China that facilitate Russia’s oil trade, after Trump said this weekend that he is “ready to go” on sanctions if Europe matches his effort, Bloomberg’s Alberto Nardelli and colleagues write. But they’ll have to figure out how to work through pushback from Hungary and Slovakia, the region’s main importers of Russian oil. G-7 officials are working on drafting a new sanction measure in the next few weeks. To Russia, with love: The U.S. military watched over joint war games between Russia and Belarus today, amid rising tensions with NATO over Russian incursions into different countries’ airspace in their war effort against Ukraine, per Reuters. The concerns over Russian fly overs have Poland calling for a no-fly zone over Ukraine to protect the region, a request that has been rejected multiple times in the past, WaPo’s Kate Brady and David Stern report from Berlin. 6. HOT ON THE LEFT: A progressive organization is “out with a poll finding that more than half of likely Democratic voters prefer socialist-aligned figures like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani to establishment politicians like Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jefrries and Nancy Pelosi,” POLITICO’s Holly Otterbein reports. “Democratic voters also view elected officials who describe themselves as democratic socialists about as positively as those who identify as Democrats, and they prefer democratic socialism to capitalism when written definitions of each are read aloud to them, according to the poll conducted by Data for Progress and shared first with POLITICO.” 7. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: Despite Trump’s apparent threat to continue his D.C. crime crackdown, an official effort would likely require congressional action, which could prove difficult, per Meredith. Meanwhile,Trump’s post this morning alluded to the order that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bower issued formalizing coordination with D.C. and federal law enforcement, but that order did not include ICE, WaPo’s Patrick Svitek and Olivia George write. More on the District: The House Oversight Committee is expected to vote on four bills that have “broad ramifications for justice and policing in the nation’s capital,”, WaPo’s Meagan Flynn writes. “The unusually fast timeline for considering D.C. policy shows just how keen House Republicans are to deliver on a top request from the Trump administration: to treat juveniles suspected of violent crimes in D.C. more harshly.” 8. THE NEW BILL OF HEALTH: A new WaPo-KFF poll shows that American parents “who are choosing to skip or delay vaccines for their children are more likely to home-school their children, be White and very religious, identify as Republican or be under 35,” WaPo’s Lauren Weber writes. Driven by concerns about the vaccines themselves, “1 in 6 parents have delayed or skipped some vaccines for their children, excluding for coronavirus or flu” and 9 percent “have skipped the polio or measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shots, which public health experts say risks large outbreaks of potentially fatal diseases that have been curbed through widespread vaccination.” 9. FOR YOUR RADAR: “Maurene Comey, prosecutor who handled Jeffrey Epstein case, sues over firing,” by POLITICO’s Erica Orden: “Maurene Comey, a longtime federal prosecutor who handled the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases, on Monday sued the Trump administration over her July firing for which she was given no explanation … the lawsuit alleged her termination was ‘unlawful and unconstitutional.’” The lawsuit says that Comey was fired “solely or substantially because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or both.” | | | | A message from American Advancement:  
| | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | Joe Manchin is criticizing top Democrats in a buzzy new book out tomorrow. Arthur Sze has been named the new U.S. poet laureate by the Library of Congress. OUT AND ABOUT — The Progressive Policy Institute hosted “New Directions for Democrats” in Las Vegas over the weekend, with dinner and drinks followed by strategy sessions the second day at the ARIA Resort & Casino. SPOTTED: Jennifer Granholm, Nevada AG Aaron Ford, Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, Doug Jones, Reps. Susie Lee (D-Nev.), Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) and Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), Kendrick Meek, Tim Ryan, Earl Pomeroy, Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson, Antonio Villaraigosa, Sly James, John Cranley, Will Marshall, Lindsay Lewis, Claire Ainsley, Michael Mandel, Diana Moss, Rick Kahlenberg, Ben Ritz, Ed Gresser, David Evans, Ian O’Keefe, Stu Malec, Jolie LiBert, Rachel Canter, Luke Martin, Katie Phillips, Hillary Barrett, Megan Jones, Chris Kelly, Keri Rodrigues, Yvanna Cancela, Matt Cordoni, Mari Manoogian, Meghan O’Hara and Quinting Lacewell. MEDIA MOVES — Marie Beaudette is joining CNN as VP of business and media. She previously worked at the Wall Street Journal. … Jennie Taer is now the immigration reporter at The Daily Wire. She previously worked at the New York Post. … Rebecca Keegan is joining NBC News as a senior Hollywood reporter. She previously worked at The Hollywood Reporter. TRANSITION — Brooke Poole Clark is joining Morgan Lewis as partner in the firm’s energy and project development practice. She previously worked at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. … Alexis Gutierrez is joining K&L Gates as a government affairs adviser in the firm’s public policy and law practice. She previously worked at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. … Shirley Hamilton Hartman is joining The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law as chief development officer. She previously worked at George Mason University. ENGAGED — Samantha Heyrich, policy comms for Capital One, got engaged to Cameron Crawford, archivist for National Archives, this weekend in Old Town, Alexandria. Pic, via Kelly Wilkinson Photography … Another pic Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
| | | | Don’t just keep up with policy shifts — set the pace. POLITICO Pro’s Policy Intelligence Assistant combines unmatched reporting with advanced AI to deliver sharper insights, faster answers, and two powerful report builders that turn intelligence into impact. Try it free for 30 days. | | | | | | | | | Follow us on X | | | | 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 | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment