| | | |  | | By Adam Wren | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Ali Bianco, Irie Sentner and Makayla Gray Happy Saturday. This is Adam Wren, writing in from the blue-skyed middle of the country, where I cannot seem to find a cloud. Will March really go out like a lamb? Get in touch.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
Streamer Hasan Piker speaks to members of the media at an election night watch party for Zohran Mamdani on Nov. 4, 2025. | Bing Guan for POLITICO | Hasan Piker’s new role as a midterm surrogate and potential influence on the 2028 presidential race is driving a wedge in the Democratic Party. News first reported in Playbook that the far-left political streamer with millions of followers — and a record of what critics like center-left think tank Third Way call anti-American, antiwomen, anti-Western and antisemitic comments — will stump in Michigan with Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed next month launched an avalanche of criticism from Republicans and Democrats. El-Sayed’s opponents, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Rep. Haley Stevens, lambasted El-Sayed, with Stevens telling Jewish Insider“someone who’s campaigning with someone like that is not going to win in Michigan” and McMorrow saying Piker “says extremely offensive things in order to generate clicks and views and followers, which is not entirely different from somebody like Nick Fuentes,” comparing him to the antisemite nationalist influencer. Piker’s rise as a Democratic influencer and surrogate coincides with the party’s long search for a path out of the wilderness, particularly in recapturing young men. But it also comes as both the Republican and Democratic parties ask fundamental questions about how big their tents should be. In an interview with Playbook, Piker downplayed accusations that have been leveled against him, like center-left think tank Third Way, whose leaders wrote in a WSJ op-ed that Piker had a history of anti-American, antiwomen, anti-Western and antisemitic comments. Piker said Third Way was “losing their institutional relevance.” He also said he’s merely channeling, not changing, the attitudes of the Democratic base. “I’m a megaphone, right?” Piker told Playbook. “There are a lot of Barbs and Deborahs out there in Minneapolis, for example, that have never encountered me, and yet they share that frustration with the failures of establishment liberalism all the same.” The debate over Piker’s place within the party is set to play out across the 2028 field, too. Playbook surveyed 14 potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates, asking whether they would appear on a livestream with Piker if invited. Only three definitively said they would. The no column: Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) all said they wouldn’t go on Piker’s stream through spokespeople. The yes column: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Rahm Emanuel. “It’s not on the agenda right now, but the Governor has never shied away from debating anyone, anywhere,” Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon told Playbook. Said an Emanuel spokesperson: “Rahm is always willing to have difficult conversations with anyone about the future of the country, and to tell people he disagrees with why they’re wrong.” Aides to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declined to comment. Aides to former VP Kamala Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, did not respond. (Ocasio-Cortez has already appeared, but a spokesperson did not return a request for comment). So who does Piker like for 2028? He’s got a short list. “I said [Georgia Sen. Jon] Ossoff will be my dark horse pick, depending on how he presents himself if he has ambitions for higher office. I do love [UAW President] Shawn Fain personally. I like an outsider pick. I like Ro Khanna. I like AOC. I actually like [Sen.] Chris Van Hollen, quite a bit as well, even.” And the criticism cuts both ways. “At the end of the day, of course, I have disagreements with every single one of these candidates,” Piker said. “No candidate is perfect.” But Piker’s increasing coziness with prominent Democrats also comes as some in the party argue he poses a problem for them. “Piker is close to — but not over — the Nick Fuentes line, where going on his show itself is indefensible,” Third Way co-founder Matt Bennett, who’s been sounding the alarm about Democrats’ affiliation with Piker, told Playbook. Bennett added that Democrats “take on all of his baggage if they don’t overtly reject” him, which he said is “dangerous because it empowers the right and gives them an incredibly powerful tool to hit Democrats with that’s very bad.” Asked about some of his controversial past comments, Piker didn’t retract any of them. Asked if he had ever misspoken: “Misspoken? No. Taken out of context? Absolutely.” He did point to one particular quote of his about the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which he noted often comes up when he’s criticized. “One of the quotes that they love floating around is the Oct. 7 quote where I said, like, rape’s happening, like the conversation around, like, sexual violence taking place on Oct. 7 doesn't change the dynamic for me. And I was talking about genocide. I was like, this doesn't justify genocide at all,” Piker said. As for the other quotes he catches heat for? “No, I stand by them,” Piker said. All of this comes ahead of Piker’s appearance on a livestreamed, Choose Your Fighter rally organized by Progressive Victory at 6:30 p.m. Khanna is among the list of attendees. Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Planter was originally billed as a participant, but he pulled out of the event. (A person familiar told Playbook that Platner’s planned appearance was a miscommunication.) On Sunday, Piker will rally with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at a tax-the-rich rally.
| | | | A message from Venture Global: Who says Americans don't build big things anymore? Through innovation, Venture Global is delivering American energy at a fraction of the cost, in a fraction of the time. That's Venture Global. That's Unstoppable Energy. ventureglobal.com | | | | 9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US 1. DHS STATE OF PLAY: Late last night, House Republicans snubbed the Senate-passed bill to end the DHS shutdown, moving ahead with their own plan that has little chance of becoming law and further extending the already record-breaking shutdown, POLITICO’s Riley Rogerson and colleagues report. All Republicans and three Democrats — moderate Reps. Don Davis (N.C.), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.) and Henry Cuellar (Texas) — voted to temporarily extend all DHS funding through May 22. As of today, the shutdown is the longest in history. Inside the department: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin — sworn in earlier this week — has already moved to rescind one of his predecessor Kristi Noem’s most controversial policies, WaPo’s Marianne LeVine and colleagues report. Internal memos show that Mullin is moving to rescind a rule that required Cabinet-level approval for all contracts about $100,000, a policy that received bipartisan backlash from critics who said it caused massive delays, including for emergency funding. Outside the department: “DHS confirms that Lewandowski left the department along with Noem,” by POLITICO’s Eric Bazail-Eimil: “Corey Lewandowski, the Trump 2016 campaign manager who served as an unpaid adviser to [Noem] for the past year, is no longer working at DHS, the department said Friday. … A statement confirmed his departure from DHS but did not specify any future government role for Lewandowski, who was photographed with Noem this week in Guyana during an official visit she made to the South American country.” 2. IRAN LATEST: The war in Iran has officially reached its one-month mark, and the violence shows few signs of slowing down. Iran struck Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia last night, wounding 12 U.S. troops, two seriously, per U.S. officials, in a combined missile and drone attack that represented “one of the most serious breaches of American air defenses in the course of the” war, NYT’s Chris Cameron and Eric Schmitt report. The attack from Tehran came in retaliation to Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and a promise from Tel Aviv to “escalate and expand” its military campaign, per AP. Brace for escalation: Nate Swanson, who spent nearly two decades in the U.S. government, including most recently as the National Security Council’s director for Iran, told POLITICO’s E&E News’ Scott Waldman in an interview this week that the next step in the conflict is “likely escalations” — and that “the war is probably going to go on longer than anyone anticipated.” Read the full Q&A Coulda predicted this: “Trump considers renaming Strait of Hormuz after either America or himself — once he evicts Iran,” by N.Y. Post’s Marisa Schultz and colleagues: “The renaming concept gained traction by unlikely means — after an image of an apparently phony Truth Social post purportedly authored by the president showed a map of the strait with the new name. … A White House official said that the rebrand is ‘not real… for now!’ … A second White House official more tepidly called it an ‘interesting idea’ not under consideration ‘at this time.’”
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| | | | 3. DEMS’ COMEBACK TOUR: Majority Democrats, the group focused on reshaping and revitalizing the Democratic Party, has launched a “Built to Last Tour” focused on going to communities that have been “overlooked” by the party, Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), the group’s chair, told Playbook. “The party is out of power because it’s out of touch,” Auchincloss said. “Majority Democrats are going to the places that Democrats used to win and need to win again, and we're having hard conversations about how we need to fix ourselves.” Over the course of the next six months, Majority Democrats will make stops in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, New Mexico and Arizona. Along the way, Majority Democrats is highlighting candidates from its companion organization, The Bench. Already this month, the group made stops in Iowa with Sarah Trone Garriott and Josh Turek, Michigan with state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Matt Maasdam, Minnesota with Rep. Angie Craig and Pennsylvania with Bob Brooks. The organization has already released “The Baseline Report,” a kind of autopsy that screened voters who switched from backing former President Joe Biden to Trump or dropped off after 2020. Majority Democrats will hold its next town hall on April 9 in Cincinnati, Ohio, with Mayor Aftab Pureval and Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin. 4. MAGA FRACTURES: “The war in Iran is driving a generational divide between MAGA men at CPAC,” by POLITICO’s Liz Crampton from CPAC in Grapevine, Texas: “While Trump’s decision to join Israel in attacking Iran has rallied war hawks and his older supporters, it has alienated many of the young men who swung toward the GOP in 2024. That split is resonating among not only the rank-and-file, but also conservative media influencers and some corners of the White House.” 5. NO KINGS, TAKE THREE: Today is another day of nationwide “No Kings” Trump resistance rallies protesting “wannabe kings [and] their billionaire cronies,” as the organization itself puts it. The flagship rally — located in Minneapolis in the wake of Trump’s immigration crackdown that resulted in the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal agents — will feature progressive celebrities including Jane Fonda, Bruce Springsteen and Maggie Rogers. But will it matter?: “A Challenge for ‘No Kings’ Protests, the Third Time Around,” by NYT’s Jeremy Peters: “[A]s the third ‘No Kings’ demonstration gets started, it’s an open question whether posting another big number will be enough to influence the course of the nation’s politics. Can the protests harness that energy and turn it into victories in the November midterm elections? How can they avoid a primal scream that fades into a whimper?” 6. WHY FLYING STILL SUCKS: Trump came into office promising a return to the “golden age” of aviation — and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy even urged Americans to dress accordingly. So why have travelers been beset with hourslong TSA lines, soaring airfares, runway near-misses, equipment fires and the back-to-back years of multiple airline fatalities for the first time in two decades? POLITICO’s ace aviation reporter Oriana Pawlyk investigates. 7. LOOKING AT CHICAGO: Dozens of municipalities nationwide are looking to the playbook Chicago used to manage the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown there last fall as they navigate their own unwanted ICE crackdowns, POLITICO’s Shia Kapos reports. “Officials from Alameda, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland as well as smaller cities throughout Illinois say they have looked to Chicago as a model for how to respond to federal immigration agents.” 8. INVESTIGATION ENDED: “CISA drops probe into failed polygraph test opened by former chief,” by POLITICO’s John Sakellariadis: DHS “has closed an investigation into seven career staffers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who arranged a counterintelligence polygraph exam that the agency’s former acting director failed, according to three current and one former officials with knowledge of the matter. … The development marks a major vindication for the staffers, who were informed this week they had been cleared of wrongdoing and were welcome to return to CISA.” 9. NOT SO FAST: “Anthropic still in trouble despite court win, lawyers and lobbyists say,” by POLITICO’s Brendan Bordelon: “Supporters of Anthropic’s stand against the Pentagon were quick to celebrate the 43-page order from U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, which found that the Trump administration improperly punished Anthropic by labeling it a supply chain risk for restricting the Defense Department’s use of its Claude AI model to surveil U.S. citizens or empower autonomous weapons. … But while Thursday’s decision is a win for Anthropic, several lawyers and lobbyists said it will do little to lift the cloud of uncertainty that’s settled on both the company and the broader tech sector.”
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| | | | CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 18 funnies
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RJ Matson - CQ Roll Call | GREAT WEEKEND READS: — “Hassan Took a Bike Ride. Now He’s One of the Thousands Missing in Gaza,” by Wired’s Mahmoud Mushtaha: “In a place denied access to basic forensic technology—and where people disappear into Israeli detention—the fate of thousands remains unknown. One of them is an autistic teenager.” — “‘I Am the News’: The Absurd Drama (and High Stakes) of the Don Lemon Affair,” by NYT’s Matt Flegenheimer: “It could feel as if Lemon and Trump had a common goal: to make Don Lemon the face of American journalism — unmistakable proof that today’s press is either hopelessly timid and compromised (except Don Lemon) or stocked with bad-faith lefties cosplaying as proper newspeople (like Don Lemon).” — “Could the Girls of Camp Mystic Have Been Saved?” by N.Y. Mag’s Kerry Howley: “Dozens died in a Texas flood, dividing families over whether it was an act of God or adult failure.” — “‘Get Down! Get Down! They’re Gonna See Us!’: Six Months of Hiding From ICE,” by Wired’s Maddy Crowell: “[F]or all the Orwellian levels of surveillance ICE has at its disposal, the apparent randomness of many immigration raids suggests an agency unready to harness its own godlike technologies.” — “The Fake Cartier and the Fake Rockefeller,” by N.Y. Mag’s Jen Wieczner: “How a pair of blue-blood impostors turned party crashing in the Hamptons and Palm Beach into a business.” — “The Horrors That Could Lie Ahead if Vaccines Vanish,” by ProPublica’s Lucas Waldron and Patricia Callahan, with illustrations by Daniel Zender: “Imagine what would happen if even the people who wanted shots couldn’t get them.” — “Robyn, on Her Own,” by The New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino: “Robyn’s songs are rarely played on American radio, and she is surrounded by the kind of good will given only to the underdog. Her trajectory is unique: she was a commodity at sixteen, a flop at twenty-one, an indie darling at twenty-six, and a cult icon at thirty-one. Then, unusually, in the second half of her career, she began to reveal herself in new ways.”
| | TALK OF THE TOWN | | SPOTTED: Paul Manafort in the concourse at Capital One Arena before the UConn-Michigan State game last night. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Stephen Miller were also on hand for the Duke-St. John’s game. Pic MEDIA MOVE — Twenty-two-year NBC News veteran Peter Alexander is leaving the network to join MS NOW as an anchor and chief national reporter, L.A. Times’ Stephen Battaglio reports. “He will have a weekday program and also handle breaking news coverage throughout the day.” An MS NOW spokesperson declined to comment. Watch Alexander’s farewell message TROLL WATCH — “Post reporters called the White House. Their phones showed ‘Epstein Island,’” by WaPo’s Shane O’Neill and Shira Ovide: “After The Post notified Google about the on-screen naming, company spokesman Matthew Flegal said Google identified what he referred to as a ‘fake edit’ in Google Maps that was ‘briefly’ picked up in the call identification feature of some Android phones. … A White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal processes said Friday that the call screen name was external and unrelated to the White House systems.” LOVE IS IN THE AIR — “Giant pandas at the National Zoo flirt with romance as spring heats up,” by WaPo’s Dana Hedgpeth: “[T]wo giant pandas — Bao Li and Qing Bao — are flirting, a sign that zookeepers said means the two bears could successfully mate in the coming years. … If the pair had a cub, it would be a major milestone and mark the first time in decades that a pair of giant pandas has successfully bred naturally at the facility.” SURPRISING NO ONE — “D.C.’s speed cameras are catching super violators. Most have Va. and Md. tags,” by WaPo’s Rachel Weiner and colleagues: “Even as the District’s traffic cameras have multiplied and inspired copycats in other cities, city officials have struggled to get repeat offenders who were caught by that system off the street, particularly those whose vehicles are registered outside the nation’s capital. That may change, though, after high-level conversations among local officials prompted legislation in Virginia and Maryland that would allow cross-border cooperation on the issue.” OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a party celebrating the release of Geoff Bennett’s new book, “Black Out Loud,” ($26.40) at Realm Rooftop Bar: Beth Perry, Anthony Coley, Randall Tucker, Boris Sanchez, Shaniqua McClendon, Garrett Haake and Allison Harris, Jim Acosta, Liz Landers, Haley Talbot, Tom Costello, Phil Lewis, Elliot Williams, Tia Mitchell, Curtis Valentine, Eugene Daniels, Dylan Colligan, Rachel and JB Zorn, Mario Parker, Nick and Camille Gaffney, John Cox, Christopher Sanders, Heather McIlhany, Alberto Pimienta, Terrance Woodbury, Richard Fowler, Don Calloway, Adenike Olanrewaju, Stacey Walker, Wesley Lowery, Fin Gomez and Sarah March Gomez and Charlie and Lisa Lingafelt. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) … Reps. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) (favorite meal: duck confit), Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) and Sheri Biggs (R-S.C.) (favorite treat: a cold coke in a glass bottle) … CBS’ Ed O’Keefe and Bob Kovach … Fox News’ Todd Piro … Tevi Troy … Cheryl Oldham ... Ricky Moxley ... Aaron Davis of BuildStrong America … Hank Paulson ... Tim Phelps … Ted Verrill of Rep. Julia Letlow’s (R-La.) office … POLITICO’s Rex Willis … Abbey Sattele … Keith Nahigian … Bill Gertz … Alexander Grieve ... James Singer … former Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) … Lauren Ehrsam Gorey … former Reps. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) and Kai Kahele (D-Hawaii) … Jake Adelstein … Danielle Banks … Janine Benner … Peter Ambler … Leah Vredenbregt THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here): CBS “Face the Nation”: Tom Homan … Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) … Jerome Adams … Gen. Frank McKenzie … Karim Sadjadpour. NBC “Meet the Press”: Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) … Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). Panel: Adrienne Elrod, Sara Fagen, Andrea Mitchell and Tyler Pager. FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) … Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) … Brent Sadler … Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.). Panel: Tom Dupree and Jonathan Turley. Panel: Leslie Marshall, Tiffany Smiley, Cal Thomas and Josh Wingrove. CNN “State of the Union”: Tom Homan … Sen. Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.). Panel: Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.), Scott Jennings, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Ashley Allison. ABC “This Week”: Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) … Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) … Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz). Panel: Donna Brazile, Chris Christie and Leigh Ann Caldwell. Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures”: NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman … Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) … Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.). MS NOW “PoliticsNation”: Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) ... Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.) ... Rep. Herb Conaway (D-N.J.) ... Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton (D) … Florida State House Representative-elect Emily Gregory (D). NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Gary Gensler. Panel: Tia Mitchell, Shadi Hamid and Abe Greenwald. 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 Giuseppe Macri and deputy editor Garrett Ross.
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