| | | |  | | By Adam Wren | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Bethany Irvine and Ali Bianco On today’s Playbook Podcast: Adam Wren and Megan Messerly sort through shutdown politics and the emerging uneasiness in both parties over the public stances made by some of their respective leaders.
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| Good morning, and happy Friday. I’m Adam Wren. Get in touch. A POINT OF PERSONAL PRIVILEGE: All the best to our departing Playbook editor Zack Stanton, who signed off as a writer on Sunday, but edited his final edition of the newsletter this morning. Zack made Playbook immeasurably better during his four-year tenure. We’ll miss him. APPOINTMENT LISTENING: Kevin Hassett is the director of the National Economic Council and arguably the economist closest to President Donald Trump. Right now, he’s also one of the top advisers tasked with explaining the economic fallout of the government shutdown and forging a path forward. For this morning’s episode of “The Conversation,” he joins our own Dasha Burns to discuss the shutdown, inflation, tariffs, economic growth, federal layoffs and keeping the Federal Reserve independent. Watch on YouTube … Listen on Apple Podcasts In today’s Playbook … — Democrats grow frustrated with the party leadership’s shutdown messaging. — Republicans show unease with Russ Vought’s punitive proposals. — Trump dramatically escalates his war on drugs.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (L) (D-NY) greets Sen. Bernie Sanders (R) (I-VT) before the two spoke at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol March 21, 2024 in Washington, DC. Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders reintroduced the “Green New Deal for Public Housing Act” during the press conference. | Win McNamee/Getty Images | TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW: Welcome to day three of the government shutdown. Again, the Republican-controlled Senate will vote this afternoon on a proposed CR. Again, there’s no sign that enough Democrats will be on board to pass it. Again, there will be hand-wringing, finger-pointing, gnashing of teeth. If it all sounds familiar by now, there’s a good reason for that. There’s a certain Groundhog Day quality to the shutdown, even just a few days in. Even so, there are a few nascent trends worth clocking as we head into the weekend — signs of dyspepsia in both parties over the public stances from some of their most prominent leaders. THE MESSAGING MIASMA: When Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) dropped their three-minute video on Wednesday explaining the stakes of the shutdown, it instantly set ablaze Democratic group chats and X accounts, inspiring no small amount of wishcasting that these two figures could be the voice of the Democratic Party at this moment. But on a deeper level, it revealed that the party — as represented by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — is pinioned by two competing pressures on the shutdown: the demand to fight, and the pressure to be responsible governing partners. The former comes from the party’s base; the latter, from its establishment. The challenge for leadership is this: At this moment, they are fighting. But it’s still not landing with the Democratic base, much of which believes Schumer is prosecuting the case all wrong. “I don’t think it’s unfair to say that communication is not necessarily the strength of the Democratic Party’s leaders right now,” Tommy Vietor, the former Obama-era National Security Council official who now co-hosts “Pod Save America,” told Playbook. “When you think of the most effective leaders in the party, you think about people like AOC or Chris Murphy or Brian Schatz.” View from the center-left: “AOC and Bernie are like a Phish show: they can just jam out in their niche, and fans go wild,” said Liam Kerr, co-founder of Welcome PAC, the centrist Democratic group. By contrast, “Schumer has to do the Super Bowl halftime show and make half the country happy. It’s hard, and he doesn’t have the range. He also will eventually have to cut a deal [with Republicans], while AOC just has to keep growing her email list.” For her part, Ocasio-Cortez reiterated yesterday that Schumer and Jeffries are the party’s leaders, are driving the strategy and are the ones with whom Republicans need to negotiate. “Democratic leadership and Democrats are united to that end,” she told NBC’s Ryan Nobles and colleagues. But beyond communication, and despite Democratic polling strength, there are real reasons to wonder which Democratic messaging will win the day whenever the shutdown concludes. A Pew Research poll found that only 21 percent of voters regard Schumer favorably at a moment when 50 percent have a negative impression. Numbers guru Nate Silver notes that Schumer is the least popular party leader in the shutdown conversation — even as initial polling on the shutdown is pretty good for Dems. Silver shrewdly suggests that “the longer the shutdown drags on, the more Schumer will lose control of the message to AOC, Murphy, Gavin Newsom, and others who have their eyes on the 2028 primary or assuming a party leadership role in the future. Meanwhile, if Democrats cave without more than token concessions, Schumer might be toast.” What to watch for today: “Senate Democrats will meet for a caucus lunch, giving them another opportunity to talk strategy before senators vote this afternoon,” our colleagues at POLITICO’s Inside Congress newsletter note.
| | A message from PhRMA: The biopharmaceutical industry is answering President Trump's call to put America first. PhRMA member companies are investing $500B in new U.S.-based manufacturing and infrastructure, providing financial assistance to 10 million patients annually, and announcing AmericasMedicines.com to connect patients with manufacturer direct purchase programs. See all the ways biopharma is putting America first. | | | | SNAP BACK TO REALITY: All of the above is not to say that Republicans are getting off scot-free. The White House senses political risk when it comes to messaging on health care, and Trump aides are now “discussing proposals to extend Obamacare subsidies on which millions of Americans rely,” WSJ’s Alex Leary and Tarini Parti reported in a smart piece last night. Public vs. private: “The closed-door hand-wringing stands in contrast to the public bravado conveyed by the president and his top advisers,” per the Journal. “The emerging dynamic puts Trump in a bind: He is determined to crush the most concerted Democratic resistance since he regained the White House. But he also has to find a solution to a looming problem that threatens his agenda and the GOP majority in the midterms.” Perhaps the Democrats are caught between the base and the need to govern. But there are (at least) two places where the GOP is getting stuck at the moment. One is the tension between Trump’s “love for a fight” and “his zeal for dealmaking,” as Leary and Parti write. Another comes over the severe cuts OMB Director Russ Vought has championed — including the mass firings of federal workers, rather than simply furloughing them. In those potential cuts, as well as the unilateral rescinding of certain federal funds to blue states, we see a “new front in Donald Trump's scorched-earth approach to power, with the president weaponizing the impasse to punish heavily-Democratic cities and states,” POLITICO’s Melanie Mason and Nick Reisman write this morning. The White House has framed this all as a sort of punishment Senate Democrats have caused by not supporting the continuing resolution to keep the government open. “If [Democrats] don’t want further harm on their constituents back home, then they need to reopen the government,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said yesterday. (One might note that, being Americans, these Democratic “constituents back home” are also Trump’s constituents.) There’s a political gamble here, as POLITICO’s Jordain Carney reported yesterday: “Vought’s actions also risk being a distraction for Republicans, who have sought to stick to a simple message putting the onus on Democrats to reopen the government. Pressed on whether Vought was muddying the waters, [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune said, ‘The only thing I would say about that is yes, and we don’t control what he’s going to do.’” Companion reading: “Why some Republicans are getting cold feet about Trump’s shutdown layoff threats,” by CNN’s Aaron Blake What to watch today: Could we get a mass-firing announcement today? On a Wednesday afternoon conference call with House GOP lawmakers, Vought told them that layoffs would start in a day or two; Friday is now here. Leavitt has a briefing today at 1 p.m.; BOLO for news. A closing thought: Sanders and AOC may well be Phish, as Kerr has it. And Schumer does indeed have to play the Super Bowl. But Trump, who meticulously curates his own playlists, has an even bigger audience to please. One mainstay of his music choices is The Rolling Stones. As they famously sang — and as both Democrats and Republicans are learning this week — you can’t always get what you want.
| | | | A message from PhRMA:  
Biopharmaceutical companies are doing our part to protect American patients and workers with innovative cures, infrastructure investments and providing patient resources. Learn more. | | | | THE SWORD AND THE SHIELD A LITERAL WAR ON DRUGS: In a memo to Congress yesterday, Trump designated drug cartels as “terrorist organizations” and said the U.S. is in an “armed conflict” with them, NYT’s Charlie Savage and Eric Schmitt scooped. “It adds new detail to the administration’s thinly articulated legal rationale for why three U.S. military strikes the president ordered on boats in the Caribbean Sea last month, killing all 17 people aboard them, should be seen as lawful rather than murder.” It also amounts to “an extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers,” AP’s Aamer Madhani and Lisa Mascaro write, “with Trump effectively declaring that trafficking of drugs into the United States amounts to armed conflict requiring the use of military force.” Trump’s declaration “raises stark questions about how far the White House intends to use its war powers and if Congress will exert its authority to approve — or ban — such military actions,” the AP continues. A day earlier, a bipartisan group of senators met privately with the Pentagon’s top lawyer where they pressed Defense officials on a legal explanation for Trump’s strikes on alleged drug boats, WSJ’s Lara Seligman and colleagues report. Some of the lawmakers “expressed concern about the administration’s rationale and urged officials to devise a stronger legal case” amid “growing concern on Capitol Hill that the administration has gone beyond its legal authority.” But but but: Hours after the memo was first reported, the White House insisted that the president “was merely explaining the legality of his actions — not setting new policy,” POLITICO’s Leo Shane and colleagues report. LEGAL EAGLES: Lawyers inside the U.S. attorney’s office prosecuting former FBI Director James Comey are “unnerved by what they see as an unprecedented push by President Donald Trump to inject politics into their staffing and charging decisions” and are concerned that it could “jeopardize national security investigations,” WaPo’s Salvador Rizzo reports. Among those pushed out are “two longtime prosecutors who had risen to leadership positions within the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia” and had previously “worked as senior advisers to Lisa Monaco.” One of them, Michael Ben’Ary, “was the lead prosecutor in the case of Mohammad Sharifullah, who is accused of plotting the Abbey Gate attack that killed 13 U.S. service members and dozens of people who were being evacuated from Afghanistan in 2021.” | | | | 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. | | | | | BEST OF THE REST BALE-OUTS: Trump is “considering providing $10 billion or more in aid to U.S. farmers as the agriculture sector warns of economic fallout from his far-reaching tariffs,” WSJ’s Brian Schwartz and colleagues report. “A senior administration official said the discussions have centered on $10 billion to $14 billion in aid. The aid likely would go toward helping soybean producers, as well as other parts of the farm economy.” Why soybean farmers? In response to Trump’s tariffs, Beijing has retaliated by cutting off American soybean farmers’ access to Chinese markets. “Trump said earlier this week that he planned to push Chinese leader Xi Jinping to buy U.S. soybeans to help struggling American farmers,” per the Journal. “The two leaders are scheduled to meet on the sidelines of a summit in South Korea in the coming weeks.” The Trump administration is planning to “roll out the first tranche of bailout payments for farmers in the coming weeks,” POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill reports. But the timing of the “actual aid rollout is also tricky given that it’s unlikely to happen or even be possible during the ongoing government shutdown that’s shuttered vast swaths of the Agriculture Department.” TRAIL MIX: Corey Lewandowski, a longtime Trump ally, “is considering a run for New Hampshire governor — as the White House weighs primarying GOP Gov. Kelly Ayotte over her resistance to redistricting,” POLITICO's Lisa Kashinsky and colleagues scooped. "Governor is the only job in Politics I would ever consider giving up what I am currently doing for,” Lewandowski told POLITICO in a text message. He did not say whether he had discussed the matter with the White House. “Everyone says being a Governor is the best job in Politics. I agree,” Lewandowski added in a post on X last night. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Cash dash: Rep. Brandon Gill’s (R-Texas) reelection campaign raised $1.15 million in the third quarter of this year. ABORTION IN AMERICA: The FDA gave the green light to a second generic option for the abortion pill mifepristone on Tuesday, just hours before most of the federal government shut down — and despite widespread Republican opposition to the drug’s availability, POLITICO’s Lauren Gardner reports. Last month, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary sent a letter to Republican attorneys general pledging to conduct a full review of the drug’s safety, per the AP. Opponents of abortion rights met news of the approval with outrage, with some prominent GOP lawmakers calling on increased scrutiny of the FDA; Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) posted to X that he has “lost confidence in the leadership at FDA.” A spokesperson for HHS told the NYT in a statement that “the FDA has very limited discretion in deciding whether to approve a generic drug. By law, the Secretary of Health and Human Services must approve an application if it demonstrates that the generic drug is identical to the brand-name drug.” CRONKITE, MURROW, RATHER, SCHIEFFER … WEISS?: Paramount will announce on Monday that it is acquiring online opinion-news outlet The Free Press and will bring aboard Bari Weiss to serve as editor-in-chief of CBS News, per the NY Post’s Alexandra Steigrad. Weiss will “report directly” to Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison. RUSSIA-UKRAINE LATEST: Russian President Vladimir Putin warned at an international forum yesterday that supplying U.S. cruise missiles to Ukraine will signal a “qualitatively new stage of escalation, including in relations between Russia and the U.S.,” AP’s Vladimir Isachenkov reports. Putin also stated that Russia has no aspirations to invade NATO nations despite recent concerns around Russian drone incursions into Poland and Denmark, per NYT’s Nataliya Vasilyeva. SHADES OF DADT: “Kash Patel fires FBI agent trainee for displaying gay pride flag,” by MSNBC’s Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian: “FBI Director Kash Patel on Wednesday fired an agent in training for displaying a gay pride flag on his desk while appointed to a field office in California last year … The trainee, who previously worked as an FBI support specialist in Los Angeles, received a letter — dated Oct. 1 and signed by Patel — claiming he had displayed an improper ‘political’ message in the workplace during his assignment in California under President Joe Biden, according to a copy of the letter shared with MSNBC.” | | | THE WEEKEND AHEAD POLITICO “The Conversation”: Kevin Hassett. CBS “Face the Nation”: Speaker Mike Johnson … Ben Hodges. NBC “Meet the Press”: Speaker Mike Johnson … House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries … Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Panel: Ryan Nobles, Anna Palmer, Marc Short and Neera Tanden. CNN “State of the Union”: Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.). Panel: Reps. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Xochitl Hinojosa and Shermichael Singleton. ABC “This Week”: Peter Chiarelli … James Stavridis. Panel: Donna Brazile, Reince Priebus, Jay O’Brien, and Leigh Ann Caldwell. NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) … Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.) … David Shulkin. Panel: Bill Sammon, Charles Lane, Jessica Taylor and Jasmine Wright. FOX “Fox News Sunday” guest-anchored by Gillian Turner: Panel: Michael Allen, Doug Heye, Susan Page and Juan Williams. Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures”: Devin Nunes … Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.). Panel: Matt Taibbi and Mike Davis. | | | | 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. | | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | Hakeem Jeffries took to the NYT to blast Charlamagne Tha God as “Charlatan the Fraud.” The radio host has previously mocked Jeffries’ ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, referring to him recently as “AIPAC Shakur.” The strange statue of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein reappeared on the National Mall just days after being removed, per WaPo. OUT AND ABOUT — The City of Urbino, Italy, presented the Urbino Press Award for excellence in journalism to Steve Clemons, editor-at-large of The National Interest, last night at the Italian Ambassador’s residence. NYT’s Helene Cooper also held a discussion with Clemons about his approach to convening, the ideas industry and journalism. SPOTTED: USTR Jamieson Greer and Marlo Greer, Sens. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), John Bresler, Joe and Gayle Manchin, Paul Dabbar, David and Holly Petraeus, David and Katherine Bradley, Heather Podesta, Stephen Kessler, Adrienne Arsht, Franco Nuschese, Gianluca Battaglia, Paolo Mastrolilli, Faryar Shirzad and Janet Whittaker, Benedetta Guerrera, Sebastian Rotella, Richard Vague, Marlene Colucci and Stephen Renna. TRANSITIONS — John Foote is now a partner in Sidley Austin’s global arbitration, trade and advocacy practice. He previously worked at Kelley Drye & Warren. … La Shelle Dozier is joining The Council of Large Public Housing Authorities as CEO. She previously worked at the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. … Erika Dinkel-Smith has joined 617MediaGroup to lead their government affairs practice. She previously worked in the Biden White House. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy … Rep. Craig Goldman (R-Texas) … LA Mayor Karen Bass … Rev. Al Sharpton … Zeteo’s Asawin Suebsaeng … AP’s Darlene Superville … WaPo’s Maegan Vazquez … POLITICO’s Kimberly Leonard and David Harrison … NOTUS’ Ursula Perano … Logan Dobson of Targeted Victory … Backstory Strategies’ J. Toscano … Jake Braun … Jonathan Lamy of Live Nation … Katie Whelan … Sally Painter of Blue Star Strategies … former Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) … Michael Medved … former Reps. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.), Dave Obey (D-Wis.) and Charlie Melançon (D-La.) … Eric Reller … Ruben Gonzales of Penchina Partners … Mark Hamrick … Steve Keen of Independent Community Bankers of America … Eric Wolff … NBC’s Yasmin Vossoughian … former Alabama Gov. Bob Riley … Tusk Strategies’ Bradley Tusk and Cristóbal Alex … Tim Gowa … Freddie Mac’s Darren Sharpe … Sarah Feinberg … DNC’s Bre Booker Maxwell 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. | | A message from PhRMA: Biopharmaceutical companies are doing our part to protect American patients and workers by investing in U.S.-based manufacturing and infrastructure, providing patient assistance and launching AmericasMedicines.com to connect patients and businesses to direct purchase programs.
We will also continue to work with the administration and Congress to address the real reasons U.S. medicine prices are higher by requiring PBMs to share savings with patients, fixing the 340B hospital markup program and forcing foreign governments to pay their fair share for medicines. | | | | | | | | 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 | Canada Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | |
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