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By Will Steakin |
Presented by |
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With help from Eli Okun, Ali Bianco and Irie Sentner Good Monday morning, and happy Labor Day. This is Will Steakin. The Playbook Podcast and Playbook PM are off today for the holiday, but we’ll be back in your feeds tomorrow. Get in touch.
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DRIVING THE DAY |
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an event with the South Carolina Democratic Party at the Center for African American History & Culture in Aiken, South Carolina Friday, September 4, 2026. | Sean Rayford for POLITICO |
LANCASTER, S.C. — Gavin Newsom spent the past year building a national image around his sharp, sometimes over-the-top approach to taking on President Donald Trump. Now he’s trying on a different role: Democrats’ chief consoler. At stop after stop on his latest Southern swing over Labor Day weekend, Newsom leaned into the anxiety and exhaustion Democrats have been carrying through the Trump era. “People really were in doubt about the future. I mean, all that stacking distress, everything that we have, you have been through ever since you saw the escalator move down,” Newsom said at one stop, giving a rhetorical embrace to Democratic voters. Other times, the hugs were literal. In North Charleston, a young woman in the front row held up a sign reading “HOLD ME!” Newsom walked over mid-speech and obliged.
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In South Carolina, Gov. Gavin Newsom embraced a young woman who held up a sign reading “HOLD ME!” | Will Steakin/POLITICO |
“The world’s on fire,” Lindsay Hazlehurst told Playbook after the hug. “That’s why it’s kind of like, ‘Hold me. Is this a safe place? Am I in a bunker?’ It’s kind of just like that.” Is he auditioning for comforter-in-chief? “It’s just a way of humanizing a moment and not politicizing a moment,” Newsom told Playbook.
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Newsom hit Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina on his “Take It Back” swing — his first Palmetto State visit since it earned the leadoff spot on the 2028 Democratic presidential nominating calendar. Over six South Carolina stops, Newsom campaigned for state legislative candidates and gubernatorial nominee Jermaine Johnson and helped raise more than $300,000 for the state party. But Newsom’s open arms extended to the party’s left flank, too. Amid Democrats’ civil war over the insurgent left, Newsom took a different tack from potential 2028 rivals like Rahm Emanuel, who has urged the party to distance itself from democratic socialists. “No, I’m for a big-tent party,” Newsom said when asked whether Democrats should distance themselves from DSA, adding that he’s “not alarmed” by its rise. “It’s where a lot of the energy in the party is. So why would you ever dismiss that?”
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Newsom cited campaign finance, child care and Medicare for All as positions where he sees broad overlap between DSA and other Democrats. What about Hasan Piker, whose show Newsom has said he’d go on? “He’s not on my bingo card,” Newsom said, noting he no longer plans to appear on Piker’s stream. “It’s not someone — I’m not chasing him, quite the contrary. And he can’t stand me, so he’s no fan of mine.” Newsom also looked to tamp down a budding 2028 rivalry with Pete Buttigieg. Before Newsom’s swing, senior aide Izzy Gardon took an online jab at Buttigieg after his own recent South Carolina trip: “First time in SC in 3 years? Nice!” Newsom made clear he wasn’t thrilled. “Awkward sitting in front of Izzy — I didn’t like that,” Newsom said with Gardon beside him. “I told him that, because that’s not reflective. I have great admiration for Pete.” Newsom’s take on his potential 2028 rival: “Whoever is running for president of the United States is going to have to confront Pete Buttigieg because he is uniquely positioned. He’s a unique talent. He’s next-level intellect.”
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The trip offered a preview of what a Newsom 2028 pitch might look like — still a relentless fighter against Trump, citing his redistricting efforts, but rooted in empathy that Democrats have been on a losing streak and need to switch things up. He remains coy about running in 2028, telling Playbook “fate” will decide. The other name on voters’ lips across South Carolina? Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.). “Jon Ossoff is a young man, he’s a fighter. That’s what we need,” a voter named Karry told Playbook at St. Stephen AME Church.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an event with the South Carolina Democratic Party at the Center for African American History & Culture in Aiken, South Carolina Friday, September 4, 2026. | Sean Rayford for POLITICO |
But the trip drew knives from some intraparty rivals. Aides to three other potential 2028ers privately reached out to Playbook during Newsom’s South Carolina travel to take jabs at his mostly white crowds. “Is Gavin Newsom the new Pete Buttigieg?” one told Playbook. Speaking of Newsom: If Newsom does launch a presidential campaign, his next-door neighbor Nevada will be critical in delivering him a path to the nomination. This November is already providing a test of his viability in the early state, POLITICO’s Samuel Benson reports from Las Vegas. GOP Gov. Joe Lombardo is holding Newsom up as a boogeyman as he runs for reelection against state AG Aaron Ford, who’s accepted Newsom’s endorsement. Lombardo is blaming Newsom for high fuel prices and betting that Nevadans — one-fifth of whom were born in California — will turn against Ford because of his embrace of the California governor.
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7 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR 1. SCARY STUFF: Patrick Havas was accused of trying to attack Amy Acton while armed with two guns yesterday, per the Plain Dealer. The Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee was at the Canfield Fair when the incident happened. Acton’s campaign said multiple other people were injured, though she was unharmed. Havas was arrested on assault and other charges. 2. WAR REPORT: A top Iranian official said the country will soon unveil an “exclusion zone” from the U.S. naval blockade toward the Strait of Hormuz, sanctioning ships that come through, per the AP. As the conflict remains roughly stalemated, another Iranian leader continued to warn of aggressive retaliation against U.S. attacks, per Reuters. What went wrong: “Deadly Iran wedding strike likely due to U.S. bomb missing a nearby target,” by WaPo’s Alex Horton and Joyce Sohyun Lee: “The Pentagon is investigating the high likelihood that an explosion in southern Iran that destroyed a home hosting a wedding celebration was caused by a U.S. bomb that missed a nearby target … Six bombs dropped by U.S. Navy jets traveled on a tight pathway toward [a communications] tower and all struck the site except for one, which appeared to go astray.” 3. RETURN TO SENDER: For the third time, the Justice Department returned to the Supreme Court yesterday to seek the green light for its sweeping new mail voting regulations, per POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson set a Wednesday deadline for others to respond. 4. UKRAINE LATEST: There was no sign of immediate significant progress in Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday, but Kushner said they wanted to return to a trilateral format with the U.S., Ukraine and Russia, per CNN.
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Susan Collins on Maine, Trump and the GOP’s future Jonathan Martin heads to Perry’s Lobster Shack for a wide-ranging conversation with Sen. Susan Collins on her reelection fight, the politics of the middle and the Republican Party’s path ahead.
Watch now. |
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5. THE MAINE LINE: Troy Jackson has an uphill battle against Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in terms of name recognition and local connections, POLITICO’s Jessica Piper reports from Windsor, where she observes Collins getting local-celebrity treatment and lots of praise for her appropriations largesse. Jackson has been badly outspent on TV ads and is still introducing himself to voters. But there are also signs of some former Collins supporters jumping ship over her GOP loyalty. 6. IMMIGRATION FILES: Dozens of people are being deported back to gang-ridden Haiti essentially broke and without having gotten their valuables back, NYT’s Frances Robles reports from Cap Haitien. There, many “are now marooned in an unfamiliar place,” with no money to get back to their hometowns. … In Eufaula, Oklahoma, WaPo’s Silvia Foster-Frau has an interesting dispatch from embedding with state troopers who are making immigration arrests at traffic spots in partnership with ICE. 7. THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR: “Inside the Battle to Save One Pioneering General From Hegseth’s Purge,” by NYT’s Adam Entous and Greg Jaffe: “It amounts to one of the most consequential chapters in [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth’s campaign to drive out those he sees as out of step with his priorities, a leadership purge that his critics say is driven by ideology, identity and suspicion of those with tenuous ties to former military leaders that he does not like. And it shows the intensity of the behind-the-scenes battle to save one general. The more General [Christopher] Donahue’s allies pushed, the more Mr. Hegseth’s opposition seemed to harden.”
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TALK OF THE TOWN |
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TOP TALKER — “Senate aide’s lobbying side gig raises ethics questions,” by POLITICO’s Jacob Wendler: “A senior staffer for Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) has quietly worked as a lobbyist for Meta and other high-profile clients — an unusual agreement that experts say raises questions about ethics and possible conflicts of interest. Robert Skjonsberg, who has worked for Rounds for over a decade, is registered to lobby the South Dakota Legislature on behalf of more than a dozen clients.” Rounds’ office said they consulted with Senate Ethics and are following its guidance. BILL OF HEALTH — Former New York Gov. George Pataki has restrictive airway disease as a result of his exposure at Ground Zero on Sept. 11, he told the N.Y. Post’s Vaughn Golden. PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro’s special grand jury probe is examining the city government’s supervision of children, from social workers to cops to school truancy to protection from abuse, WaPo’s Perry Stein and Paul Schwartzman report. SCENE SETTER — Sales have fallen off at MAGA merchandise and apparel shops during President Donald Trump’s second term, WSJ’s Terell Wright reports from Boones Mill, Virginia. Economic struggles, the Iran war and Trump’s unpopularity have taken a bite out of business. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Alex DiNino, senior director of programs and partnerships at POLITICO, and Rachel DiNino, head of strategic content and development at Capitol Point Group and Team Hallahan, welcomed Henry Loran DiNino on Aug. 27. He came in at 8 lbs, 5 oz. Pic … Another pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Anthony Tata … NYT’s Shawn McCreesh and Michael Duffy … Peggy Noonan … Bloomberg’s Zoe Tillman … POLITICO’s Zoya Sheftalovich … Sawyer Hackett … Lockheed Martin’s Stuart Holliday … Bill O’Leary … CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez … Kate Andersen Brower … Busara Advisors’ Reuben Brigety … Joe Klein … Johan Propst of Rep. Brad Sherman’s (D-Calif.) office … Chris Padilla … Meredith Raimondi of the National Council of Urban Indian Health … Jeff Schrade … Robert Blizzard of UpONE Insights … Nick Ciarlante … Jason Oxman of the Information Technology Industry Council … Sam Iacobellis … CBS’ Melissa Quinn … Mia Saponara … Erin Mendelsohn of Alpine Group Partners … Elizabeth Fox … NEA’s Brandon Rettke … Craig Higgins of House Appropriations … Matthew Grill … Eric Kanter of Rep. Adam Gray’s (D-Calif.) office … Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies America’s Robin Reck … John Walker … former Rep. Ryan Costello (R-Pa.) … Nathaniel Reed … Madeline Meeker of HHS … John Catsimatidis … NBC’s Stefanie Cargill … Gayle Tzemach Lemmon 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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