| | | |  | | By Adam Wren | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Bethany Irvine, Ali Bianco and Rachel Umansky-Castro Happy Saturday morning — and college football conference championship weekend. This is Adam Wren, writing from Indianapolis, where the top two teams in the country — the Indiana Hoosiers and the Ohio State Buckeyes, will face off in the Big Ten Championship. Get in touch with your predictions.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
Turning Point drew what it said was more than 200 people to its Indianapolis rally for redistricting Friday, a fraction of Indiana's own Pete Buttigieg's crowd in September. | Adam Wren/POLITICO | THE NEXT RIGHT: Over the next week, we’ll learn a lot about the strength, vitality and future of Turning Point USA, the conservative student movement founded by Charlie Kirk. For starters, Erika Kirk, his widow and now TPUSA’s CEO, is set to rack up at least six appearances on Fox News as she promotes her late husband’s book, “Stop, in the Name of God: Why Honoring the Sabbath Will Transform Your Life” ($26.99). But it’s also because the organization is staking a lot of political capital — and its potential legacy — on the outcome of the redistricting debate in Indiana, where state House Republicans passed a new map on Friday that supporters say would all but guarantee a 9-0 Republican congressional delegation, from the current 7-2 split favoring the GOP. The latest: The Indiana Senate is expected to take a final vote by Thursday. But it’s not at all clear that the chamber has the votes. On Friday evening, as Republican senators face rolling threats of violence, Trump truthed out the names of nine senators who he said “need encouragement to make the right decision” on the map. All of this has become an animating cause for Turning Point. In the final days of his life, Kirk took up redistricting, threatening primary opponents for resistant Hoosier Republicans. “Fight,” he posted to X on August 18. Scene-setting: On Friday morning, Turning Point Action made good on that threat, announcing it would partner with other Trump-aligned PACs to dedicate an “eight-figure spend” to “primary people that are standing in the way of the president’s agenda.” “We look at Indiana as a test case and a cautionary tale — potentially one or the other, it’s their choice,” Andrew Kolvet, spokesperson for Turning Point, told Playbook. “This is a super high priority, and we’re going to be working with the local, grassroots to make sure their voices are heard and their priorities are not steamrolled by an out-of-touch elected class.” All of it, Kolvet said, is in service to one of Kirk’s longtime goals: “a Republican party that’s as conservative as its voters,” he’d often say. “He’d become increasingly convinced that the swing states had been the focus, while deep-red states had been underserved,” Kolvet said.
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Explore our ongoing work. | | | | Whether Turning Point still has the sway to accomplish that vision in red states like Indiana faced a test Friday. After days of promoting a redistricting rally at the Indiana statehouse and blasting out emails to its grassroots network, the organization turned out what it says was more than 200 people, a relatively sparse crowd compared to the approximately 1,000 who gathered to see Indiana’s own Pete Buttigieg for an anti-redistricting rally in September. “Well, this says it all,” Buttigieg ribbed on X on Friday. Not all of the crowd even came from Indiana, Turning Point said, with some traveling from neighboring Illinois and Ohio. What they’re saying: Brett Galaszewski, Turning Point Action’s national enterprise director, who organized Friday’s rally, called the turnout “outstanding” and the “flare signal that we needed” to pressure holdout Republicans ahead of this week’s expected vote. Vibe check: Turning Point and their allies have described the debate in Manichean, light vs. dark, good vs. evil language. At the rally, many attendees wore white t-shirts that read LIVE LIKE CHARLIE (1993-2025) and sported Matthew 25:21 "Well done, good and faithful servant!" as counter protestors shouted “cheaters.” “There's an extra added emphasis on this,” Galaszewski said, “knowing that this was near and dear to Charlie's heart, knowing that in his final days on this earth, he was talking about this in a very public way.” Whatever the outcome, the redistricting wars in Indiana are shaping up to be the first big political test of Turning Point’s political power — at least outside of its home state of Arizona — in the wake of Kirk’s death. The hosts of Kirk’s eponymous show leveraged its massive audience Friday to focus on Indiana, too. They also deployed a “strike force” of TPUSA students to meet with Indiana Republican senators who hadn’t yet made their stance public. “If this thing passes next week and the 9-0 map is what ultimately comes across the table and is what we can implement in Indiana, well, this is all over with,” said Galaszewski, who traveled to Indiana to whip senators and organize the rally. And if it doesn’t? “Then this thing could turn into a multiple year battle making Indiana kind of the epicenter of conservative politics,” Galaszewski says.
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| | | | 9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US 1. ONE TO WATCH: “Supreme Court to rule on Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship,” by POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein: “The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether President Donald Trump’s plan to end automatic birthright citizenship for children born on U.S. soil is unconstitutional. The justices announced Friday they will take up the issue, with arguments likely in April and a decision expected by the end of June. … The Trump administration returned to the high court in September, asking the justices to take up the substance of the birthright fight and rule that Trump’s policy is constitutional.” 2. JAN. 6 PIPEBOMB UPDATE: The suspect accused of planting pipe bombs in D.C. in front of the RNC and DNC headquarters before the Jan. 6, 2021 riot — Brian Cole Jr. — appeared in court yesterday, facing charges of transporting the explosive device and attempted malicious destruction, WaPo’s Emma Uber and colleagues report. He’ll be held in jail until his next hearing on Dec. 15. The top federal prosecutor said yesterday that Cole confessed to planting the devices and that he believed the 2020 election had been stolen, in an hours-long conversation with law enforcement, per AP’s Eric Tucker and colleagues. The aftermath: Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, spent much of Thursday “basking in praise” over Cole’s arrest after five years, while saying his past claims the pipe bombs were an “inside job” were just talk for his podcast, NYT’s Glenn Thrush and Alan Feuer write. Not everyone on the right is as convinced as Bongino, though, after years of conspiracy theories about the riot at the Capitol. 3. ROAD TO 2026: The president is hitting the road next week to tout his economic agenda, as Trump has insisted that prices are down and branded himself the “affordability president” while labeling affordability a “con job” by Democrats, WaPo’s Naftali Bendavid writes, even as his approval rating spirals. Meanwhile, a focus group of New Jersey and Virginia voters who swung for Trump in 2024 and for Democrats in 2025 say they’re unhappy with both parties, and instead stressed candidate quality and a platform beyond being anti-Trump, NBC’s Ben Kamisar and Bridget Bowman report. Live from New York: NYC council member Chi Ossé announced yesterday he’s dropping his primary challenge against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, NYT’s Nicholas Fandos and Shane Goldmacher report. Ossé was exploring a bid against Jeffries following Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s win, but Mamdani intervened by asking the Democratic Socialists of America not to back Ossé. 4. AMERICA AND THE WORLD: In the FIFA World Cup, the U.S. will first face off against Paraguay, Australia and the winner of a European playoff that could elevate Slovakia, Kosovo, Turkey or Romania, WSJ’s Joshua Robinson reports. Local governments are now gearing up for what matches they’ll be hosting when FIFA’s match schedule releases today — “the most consequential 24-hour waiting period of the multi-year planning process,” POLITICO’s Sophia Cai and Ry Rivard write. Reactions pour in: Playbook talked to some of the most soccer-crazed politicos out there to see how they felt about the group draw. “I think they were given a very manageable group,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy told Sophia. Indiana GOP Sen. Todd Young told your Playbook author, “The Aussies are a fiercely competitive and sport-crazy ally. They seem to over-perform on big stages, and this is the grandest soccer platform of all. … We will of course remain close friends — at least off the field — after the final whistle blows.” And Paraguay? “A question mark,” Young said. “South American teams are, as a rule, known for their unmatched ‘estilo,’ so we should be attuned to flashes of brilliance. But Paraguay isn’t a soccer blue blood like Brazil or Argentina. Our team will need to be prepared to face a scrappy Paraguayan team.” Trading spaces: At the event, Trump met Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in person for the first time, where they talked about co-hosting the cup but also trade and tariffs, AP’s Will Weissert reports. The pair also spoke with Canadian PM Mark Carney, who told reporters that all three leaders agreed to work to renew the current North American trade agreement, per WSJ’s Paul Vieira.
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| | | | 5. WAR AND PEACE: U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are meeting with top Ukrainian officials for a third day of talks in Miami today, AP’s Aamer Madhani and Illia Novikov report. The group is looking to gain ground on a security framework for postwar Ukraine, though the final agreement will largely depend “on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace.” Witkoff and Kushner also briefed the Ukrainians on their talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week, per Axios. The view from Israel: POLITICO’s Felicia Schwartz spoke with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in a must-read interview on the request to pardon PM Benjamin Netanyahu, the rise of Mamdani and U.S.-Israeli relations. “I respect President Trump’s friendship and his opinion,” he told Felicia, before adding, “Israel, naturally, is a sovereign country.” 6. ROCKING THE BOAT: “Boat at center of double-tap strike controversy was meeting vessel headed to Suriname, admiral told lawmakers,” by CNN’s Natasha Bertrand: “The alleged drug traffickers killed by the US military in a strike on September 2 were heading to link up with another, larger vessel that was bound for Suriname … the struck boat planned to ‘rendezvous’ with the second vessel and transfer drugs to it, Adm. Frank Bradley said during the briefings, but the military was unable to locate the second vessel. Bradley argued there was still a possibility the drug shipment could have ultimately made its way from Suriname to the US.” 7. IMMIGRATION FILES: ICE kicked off enforcement operations this week in Minneapolis following Trump’s push to crack down on Somali migrants, CBS’ Camilo Montoya-Galvez and Joe Walsh report. They’ve arrested a dozen people since the operation began, but fewer than half of those detained are Somali, per AP. And in El Paso, another federal judge demanded the administration quickly seek the return of someone they deported, this time a Guatemalan man who was sent back to his home country in violation of an immigration court order, POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney reports. 8. MAHA ON MY MIND: Trump pushed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last night to ‘fast track’ a review of the childhood vaccine schedule and revise it to mirror other countries who recommend fewer shots, POLITICO’s Lauren Gardner reports. The ringing endorsement of Kennedy’s push to further scrutinize vaccines came just hours after the CDC voted to end the universal birth dose recommendation for hepatitis B yesterday. As the top vaccine panel convened, their newly appointed chair reportedly expressed concerns on the panel’s independence, saying he felt like the members are like “puppets on a string,” Lauren and POLITICO’s Sophie Gardner write. Meanwhile, others in the MAHA movement are pushing Trump to fire his EPA Administrator, Lee Zeldin, per NYT’s Maxine Joselow. 9. RELEASING THE FILES: “Judge grants DOJ request to unseal Epstein grand jury records,” by POLITICO’s Erica Orden: “A federal judge in Florida on Friday granted the Justice Department’s request to publicly release grand jury records related to the criminal prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime ally and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith … wrote in a two-page order that the new law requiring the department to disclose nearly all of the investigative records into Epstein held by DOJ and the FBI ‘trumps’ the standard regulations prohibiting the public release of grand jury material.”
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Learn more. | | | | CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 17 funnies
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| GREAT WEEKEND READS: — “The New German War Machine,” by the Atlantic’s Isaac Stanley-Becker: “After World War II, Germany embraced pacifism as a form of atonement. Now the country is arming itself again.” — “In the Line of Fire,” by the New Yorker’s Benjamin Wallace-Wells: “During the Trump era, political violence has become an increasingly urgent problem. Elected officials from both parties are struggling to respond.” — “Doctors call Ozempic a miracle drug. Medicaid officials aren’t so sure,” by POLITICO’s Kelly Hooper: “States are choosing not to cover the new weight-loss drugs, sacrificing a chance to stem cancer, diabetes and heart disease.” — “Powerful Friends,” by High Country News’ Jimmy Tobias and ProPublica’s Mark Olalde: “Elected officials are quick to support public lands ranchers who are accused of breaking rules. As a result, federal agencies pull punches when enforcing regulations.” — “Four immigration courts. One day. And a window into a world the public rarely sees,” by CNN’s Celina Tebor and colleagues: “The waiting rooms of immigration courts are mostly filled with people hoping for a future where they can stay in the United States. But some are done trying.” — “How George Soros changed criminal justice in America,” by WaPo’s Beth Reinhard: “The liberal funder has spent tens of millions of dollars swinging dozens of district attorney races, drawing a backlash from the right.” — “The Operator,” by the Atlantic’s Tim Alberta: “Josh Shapiro has spent his life preparing to lead an America that might no longer exist.” — “Meet the billionaire pushing taxpayer-funded school vouchers,” by WaPo’s Laura Meckler and colleagues: “How Jeff Yass, one of the richest people on the planet, uses politics to press his pet issue: school choice.”
| | TALK OF THE TOWN | | SPOTTED: Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed-Simmons walking around the West Wing yesterday, escorted by Kennedy Center general counsel Elliot Berke and hosted by Mark Paoletta. IN MEMORIAM — “Frank Gehry, Titan of Architecture, Is Dead at 96,” by NYT’s Nicolai Ouroussoff: “Frank O. Gehry, one of the most formidable and original talents in the history of American architecture, died on Friday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 96. … Mr. Gehry’s greatest popular success, and the building he will be most remembered for, is the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao … this wildly exuberant, titanium-clad museum was an international sensation when it opened in 1997, helping to revivify the city and making Mr. Gehry the most recognizable American architect since Frank Lloyd Wright.” YIKES: Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said yesterday she was pepper-sprayed by ICE officers during a raid near a restaurant in Tucson. “When I presented myself as a Member of Congress asking for more information, I was pushed-aside and pepper sprayed,” Grijalva wrote on X. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin denied that she was directly peppersprayed, and said instead the lawmaker was in the vicinity of someone who was. MEDIA WATCH: “CNN, Unwanted by Netflix, Is Excluded From a Sale, for Now,” by NYT’s John Koblin: “The 24-hour news channel is conspicuously absent from the media entities that Netflix said on Friday it planned to acquire in its proposed takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. Instead, CNN, along with old-line cable networks like TNT, Discovery, HGTV and the Food Network, will be spun off into a separate publicly traded company that, by next year, will be called Discovery Global. Gunnar Wiedenfels, the chief financial officer of Warner Bros. Discovery, will lead the new company.” OUT AND ABOUT — Despite the snow, it was a packed house at U.S. Soccer Foundation headquarters yesterday for a Bank of America breakfast and panel discussion with policymakers and World Cup host cities, ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Draw. SPOTTED: Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.), Larry Di Rita, Christina Kolbjornsen, Ed Foster-Simeon, Meg Kane, Martin Kerr, Jennifer Roche, Patrick Steel, Lee Satterfield, Stephanie Williams, Mana Shim, Josh Eastright and John Kristick. — Steve Rochlin and Christina Sevilla hosted a holiday chalet bonfire buffet last night. SPOTTED: Yemen Amb. Abdulwahab Al-Hajjri, Fin Gómez and Sarah March-Gómez, Ali and Josh Rogin, Michael Isikoff, David Corn, Cathy Merrill Williams, JP Freiere, Molly Ball and David Kihara, Akbar Ahmed, Matt Kaminski, Bruce Kieloch, Peter Cherukuri and Danielle Most, Raquel Krahenbuhl, Tim Noviello, Sheena and Rodell Mollineau, Jon Decker, Sara Cook, Nikki Schwab, Amirah Sequeira, Bill Duggan, David Lunderquist, Mark Paustenbach, Kimball Stroud, Ben Chang, Adele Smith, Jay McMichael, Jen Simpson, Amir and Hastie Afkhami, Juliet Eilperin and Riikka Hietajarvi. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.) and Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.) … former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo … Michael Beresik … former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood … Bill Greene … Washington Examiner’s Hugo Gurdon … Julian Zelizer … Democracy Forward’s Jacob Bernard … Dave Lugar … Brian Mosteller … Glenn Rushing … Maria Stainer … Nickie Titus … Rachel Skaar of the Solar Energy Industries Association … Justin Melvin of the American Bankers Association … Evelyn Farkas … Thomas Culver … former Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.) … Francis Brennan … Robert Cresanti … Angelica Annino … Kimberlin Love … Nancy Brinker … Sharon Eliza Nichols of Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s (D-D.C.) office … Jeff Parcher … POLITICO’s Maggie Gall, Kaitlyn Ricci, Juliann Ventura and Jamie Dettmer … Jerad Reimers … Trav Robertson THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here): NBC “Meet the Press”: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) … Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) … Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.). Panel: Adrienne Elrod, Sam Jacobs, Peggy Noonan and Susan Page. CBS “Face the Nation”: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ... Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) … Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) … Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) … Scott Gottlieb. ABC “This Week”: Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) … Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.). Panel: Chris Christie, Donna Brazile and Sarah Isgur. Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures”: Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) … Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) … Jamie Dimon … Kevin McCarthy. CNN “State of the Union”: Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) … Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah). Panel: Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), Shermichael Singleton, Jamal Simmons and Kristin Davison. NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt … Rep. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.) … Chris Matthews. Panel: Molly Ball, Margaret Talev and Philip Wegmann. MS NOW “The Weekend”: Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) ... Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) ... Hawaii AG Anne Lopez … Michigan AG Dana Nessel. 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 deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath. Correction: Yesterday’s Playbook incorrectly included an attendee for Fox News Media’s holiday party at the Spy Museum.
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