| | | | | |  | | By Tara Palmeri, Rachael Bade, Ryan Lizza and Eugene Daniels | Presented by |  | | | | | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | There may be turbulence ahead for Rep. ELISE STEFANIK as she wrestles the GOP leadership post from Rep. LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.) next week. DONALD TRUMP is sold on the New York Republican after her unbending show of loyalty to him (the NYT lays out the latest examples of her fealty here). But some of his MAGA allies outside of Congress — like LOU DOBBS, ANN COULTER and JENNA ELLIS — are less convinced, based on her actual voting record. Read more about that from Tina Nguyen. Stefanik still appears to be in line to win the job, but not a great way to start out with the broader conservative movement. The AP points out that the GOP claims it's "unity" driving the reshuffle, ahem, purge. But what Republican lawmakers seem to be unified about is the fear that they can't win the midterm elections without Trump. As for the former president, he's still trying to sneak back on Twitter. He was smacked down for his latest backdoor attempt. RIP, @DJTDESK. Life is at least a little less "Stormy" for him, with the FEC dropping the investigation into the hush payments made to women during the campaign. (Unfortunately for Trump, FEC < DOJ.) And while President JOE BIDEN remains mystified by the GOP dysfunction, the storyline may end up being a distraction from his infrastructure push as he tours the country pointing out how much it's falling apart. (We're still waiting for him to compare one of his stops to a "third-world country.") Speaking of NYC, more below on how Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.) has yet to weigh in on the mayor's race — despite pleas from the progressive base. But first, a look at the leader of the People's Republic of Florida as a boss … RON DESANTIS is looking ahead to reelection next year and quite possibly a 2024 bid for president — but he's left behind a trail of former disgruntled staffers and has no long-standing political machine to mount a national campaign, DeSantis vets say. We talked to a dozen or so onetime aides and consultants to the Florida governor, and they all said the same thing: DeSantis treats staff like expendable widgets. He largely relies on a brain trust of two: himself and his wife, CASEY DESANTIS, a former local TV journalist. Beyond that there are few, if any, "DeSantis people," as far as political pros are concerned. Yes, DeSantis recently hired highly regarded operative PHIL COX. But there's no savant that he's been through the trenches with, like a KARL ROVE or DAVID AXELROD — let alone an army of loyalists. That's probably not fatal to his White House prospects, but it can't help. A few key nuggets from our reporting: — A "support group" of former DeSantis staffers meets regularly to trade war stories about their hardship working for the governor. The turnover in his office and among his campaign advisers is well known among Republicans: In three of his five full years in Congress, he ranked in at least the 70th percentile in terms of highest turnover in a House office, according to data compiled by Legistorm. In the governor's office, he has only two staffers who started with him when he was a junior member of Congress. — Within six months of taking office as governor in 2019, DeSantis fired five staffers. One was a 23-year-old scheduler who'd been with him since the beginning of his gubernatorial race. Shortly after she was sent packing, an unnamed member of DeSantis' administration was quoted in a Florida blog trashing her performance. A month later, his deputy chief of staff left, prompting Florida reporters to press him about the rapid churn in his operation. — Another story relayed to us by five former staffers: At the beginning of his administration, DeSantis directed the Florida Republican Party leader to fire a party official who had cancer — on that person's first week back from surgery. — DeSantis often blames his staff for his own blunders, we're told. After DeSantis went on Fox News in 2018 and implored Florida voters not to "monkey this up" by supporting his African American Democratic opponent for governor, he and his wife chewed out his campaign staff for not cleaning up the mess, according to three former staffers. Shortly after, DeSantis brought in a whole new group of advisers. — Aides would lure DeSantis to staff meetings with cupcakes, saying that it was a colleague's birthday to get him to attend. In the gubernatorial primary, DeSantis visited his campaign headquarters just a couple of times. On election night, he entered the war room after his win and remarked, "Wow, I didn't know this many people worked for me," according to four former staffers. DeSantis' office didn't respond directly to these specifics, but called the line of questioning a false narrative. His chief of staff, ADRIAN LUKIS, sent a 5-page document with statements from 14 current and former staffers, consultants and GOP party leaders praising DeSantis, including his former chief of staff SHANE STRUM. "Throughout my time as Chief of Staff, the Governor empowered me to make sure that everyone who worked for him had the best interests of the state at heart," Strum wrote. "We didn't tolerate leakers, and we didn't tolerate grifters. Fortunately, aside from some individuals we had to part with early in the administration, the Governor has had a strong and loyal team, who he appreciates." But many former DeSantis aides we spoke with told a different story. They did not want to be quoted by name because of potential professional repercussions. "Loyalty and trust, that is not a currency he deals in," one said. "It's him and Casey. But everyone else is like a disposable piece of garbage." It's not just staffers whom DeSantis has cycled through, but political consultants who ran his four campaigns. They include top D.C. political hands like BRAD HEROLD at Something Else, BARNEY KELLER at Jamestown & Associates, pollster TONY FABRIZIO and Trump's top aide SUSIE WILES. Wiles now oversees Trump's political operation. Say this much for DeSantis: Whatever he's doing has worked for him so far. In eight years, he's risen from 34-year-old freshman congressman to governor of a powerhouse state and potential heir apparent to Trump as leader of the Republican Party. But the leap from running for Congress or governor to seeking the presidency is obviously huge. And DeSantis, at least as it stands now, would not bring a band of loyal staffers to a grueling national campaign. Rep. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.), who led his gubernatorial transition, put it this way: "To date, he's risen in part due to his willingness to bet on himself over the political-industrial complex." Happy Friday and thanks for reading Playbook, where we're just thankful Mike Zapler is our boss. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri. | | A message from Blue Cross Blue Shield Association: The racial health disparity crisis in the U.S. is unconscionable and unacceptable. That's why Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies are working to reduce disparities in maternal health by 50% in 5 years – part of our multi-year commitment to promote health equity. | | | COULD AOC CHANGE THE GAME IN THE MAYOR'S RACE? It's now or … in the next two weeks. Time is dwindling until the June 22 primary in the New York City mayoral race, and progressive activists and operatives say they need Ocasio-Cortez. So far she's stayed out of the contest. But with a fragmented field, no clear progressive frontrunner since the SCOTT STRINGER scandal broke and the use of ranked-choice voting for the first time, an AOC endorsement could help progressives mount a serious campaign behind a single candidate such as DIANNE MORALES or MAYA WILEY against poll leaders ANDREW YANG and ERIC ADAMS. "She has the potential to have an enormous impact on this race," said Democratic operative NEAL KWATRA. "She has the unique ability to stitch together what I would call more 'normy white liberals,' progressives and Latinos — those three voter blocs right now are still very much in flux." AOC endorsed in the lower-profile comptroller race in March. Progressives say if she's going to weigh in, now is the time so they can campaign off of it. Not that progressives are expecting a splash endorsement from the star congresswoman. "I think AOC is interested in national politics first and foremost," said Democratic Socialists of America leader SUSAN KANG. "I think she is probably wanting to be careful about potentially alienating people. … She's going to have to work with whoever wins." AOC's spokesperson declined to comment. 'RACE TOUCHES EVERYTHING' — White House reporters have access to the highest seat in the country — and they're a small group. An even smaller group within that? Reporters of color. On today's episode of "Playbook Deep Dive," EUGENE is in conversation with fellow Black White House correspondents APRIL RYAN (TheGrio) and AYESHA RASCOE (NPR) about everything from microaggressions to death threats — to Ryan's fiery encounters with Trump. "Covering the White House from BILL CLINTON to now, race touches everything," says Ryan. "Everything." | 
| Kicking off the episode, former journalist CAROL MCCABE BOOKER takes us back to the 1950s, when ALICE DUNNIGAN was the first and only Black woman sitting in the White House briefing room. The longest President DWIGHT EISENHOWER went without answering her questions? About two years. Listen to the full story on today's episode of "Playbook Deep Dive" | | | | A message from Blue Cross Blue Shield Association:   Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies are committed to creating a more equitable health care system. See how we're promoting health equity. | | | BIDEN'S FRIDAY — The president will receive the President's Daily Brief at 10:30 a.m. Then it's jobs day: He'll deliver remarks about the April jobs report at 11:30 a.m., receive the weekly economic briefing with VP KAMALA HARRIS at 1:45 p.m. and meet with his "Jobs Cabinet" at 3:15 p.m., with Harris attending. Biden and Harris will also have lunch together at 12:30 p.m. Biden will leave the White House at 5:30 p.m. for Camp David. — Harris will host Mexican President ANDRÉS MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR for a virtual bilateral at 10 a.m. — The White House Covid-19 response team and public health officials will brief at 10:30 a.m. Press secretary JEN PSAKI will brief at 12:30 p.m. with Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN. THE HOUSE will meet at 10:30 a.m. THE SENATE is out. | | | | SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" TODAY: Power is shifting in Washington and in communities across the country. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. The Recast is a twice-weekly newsletter that explores the changing power dynamics in Washington and breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics and policy in America. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country and hear critical new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out, SUBSCRIBE . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | | 
PHOTO OF THE DAY: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has a bite of cheesecake as he attends a ribbon cutting and the official opening of Junior's restaurant, which had been closed during the pandemic, on Thursday, May 6, in Times Square in New York City. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images | POLITICS OF LIZ TRUMP VS. THE ESTABLISHMENT — "How Trump is hunting down the GOP's leading families," by David Siders: "In the civil war between Donald Trump and the GOP's waning establishment, no Republican has crossed the former president and come out ahead. Yet as Rep. Liz Cheney's likely ouster from House leadership lays bare, Trump has reserved a special fury for the scions of the GOP's leading families in his attempt to exercise full dominion over the Republican Party. "Whether it's the Cheneys, the Bushes or the lesser bloodlines — such as the Romneys or the Murkowskis — Trump has been relentless in his efforts to force them to bend the knee. Even CINDY MCCAIN, the widow of the late Sen. JOHN MCCAIN — who herself has never run for office — has been knocked down, censured by Trump allies who run the state Republican Party in Arizona. It's the clearest sign that the modern Republican Party hasn't just broken with its traditionalist past. It's shredding every vestige of it." — NUGGET from The New Yorker's Susan Glasser: "[ERIC] EDELMAN revealed that Cheney herself secretly orchestrated an unprecedented op-ed in the Washington Post by all ten living former Defense Secretaries, including her father, warning against Trump's efforts to politicize the military. The congresswoman not only recruited her father but personally asked others, including Trump's first Defense Secretary, JIM MATTIS, to participate." CONGRESS STEFANIK'S RECORD — "She built her career boosting GOP women. Now Stefanik is elevating herself," by Melanie Zanona, Anna Gronewold, Ally Mutnick: "Stefanik's efforts to promote GOP women have not only added to her star power, but also made her particularly appealing to fellow House Republicans as they move closer to replacing Cheney in leadership. In fact, Stefanik turns out to have built something of her own base — an impressive 18 of the 30 female candidates endorsed by her Elevate PAC won their races last year, and some are already lining up behind Stefanik as the next House GOP conference chair. "If Stefanik clinches the No. 3 position next week, as is widely expected, Republicans believe they'll send a message that neutralizes the tricky optics of yanking Cheney from power. It will add new energy to the cause of elevating GOP women, they think, both in the Capitol and at the leadership table." MISSED THAT MCCONNELL MEMO — Rep. MIKE SIMPSON (R-Idaho) seems to have missed Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL'S message that he's "100 percent" focused on stopping the Biden administration. As a three-hour Appropriations subcommittee hearing wrapped up Thursday, Simpson told Energy Secretary JENNIFER GRANHOLM, "You know, one of our jobs is to make sure that you're successful in your job, so we're doing whatever we can to make that happen." Granholm appreciated the olive branch, offering one of her own. "That is so nice," she said. "Thank you so much, and one of my jobs is to make sure you're successful, too. So, let's do that together." (h/t Eric Wolff) MORE ON HIS OPPOSITION MISSION — "Inside Mitch McConnell's personal push to defeat Democrats' voting reforms," McClatchy: "McConnell has conveyed his vehement opposition to the bill repeatedly in public. What's different, conservatives say, is his personal level of commitment behind-the-scenes to educate activists on just how damaging the legislation would be to the future electoral prospects of Republicans. To those involved, they've noticed a level of engagement from the GOP leader they haven't seen before. "Some progressives have warned that McConnell is taking the legislation more seriously than even Democrats are. And the fight is expected to intensify next week, when the Senate Rules & Administration Committee is scheduled to begin marking up the legislation." AMERICA AND THE WORLD THE VIEW FROM ACROSS THE POND — "Biden makes the EU look like the bad guys," POLITICO Europe: "[O]n everything from trade and taxes to coronavirus vaccines, U.S. President Joe Biden is transpiring to be every inch as much of a pain in Brussels' bureaucratic backside as his predecessor — hitting the EU exactly where it hurts, while robbing it of the moral high ground it loves to occupy. Biden's bombshell proposal to waive intellectual property rights on coronavirus vaccines is a perfect case in point … "America's vaccine gambit is not a one-off. In only a few months, Biden has exposed both the folly in the EU's trade policy toward China and Europe's lack of ambition in plans to tax digital multinationals. … A hundred days into the new administration, the Europeans are starting to sense that they are being offered pretty tough love from their ally." | | | |   | | | POLITICS CORNER BIG EXIT — "Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms won't run for reelection," Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "The move is a shocking reversal for Bottoms, a mayor with a rising national profile who had launched her reelection campaign and held a fundraising event featuring President Joe Biden." POLLSTER PROBS — "Polling's Prognosis: Wary Conservatives and Eager Liberals," NYT: "Data for Progress researchers have gotten used to being told to take a hike — and worse — by Trump supporters they try to poll, and the report detailed their difficulties in reaching that group. But perhaps most significantly, it also found that they were having trouble reaching a representative sample of Democrats, as well as Republicans — partly because liberals with strong political views were almost too willing to be polled." HISTORY LESSON — "The Secret Papers of Lee Atwater, Who Invented the Scurrilous Tactics That Trump Normalized," by The New Yorker's Jane Mayer: "An infamous Republican political operative's unpublished memoir shows how the Party came to embrace lies, racial fearmongering, and winning at any cost." JENNER GOES VIRAL … NOT IN A GOOD WAY — "Jenner has hangar pains after Hannity interview," by Carla Marinucci: CAITLYN JENNER "lamented on Fox News that a neighboring private plane owner at her airport hangar is abandoning California because he 'can't take' seeing homeless people anymore. … "'The guy right across, he was packing up his hangar,' Jenner said during the sitdown in her own Southern California plane hangar. 'And he says, "I'm moving to Sedona, Ariz. I can't take it anymore. I can't walk down the streets and see the homeless."' "In less than 24 hours, that comment has drawn more than 5 million views on Twitter and prompted a caustic string of rebukes, potshots and one-liners mocking the TV reality show star as out of touch. It raised the more serious question of whether — in one brief moment — the candidate disarmed one of the Republicans' most effective caricatures of the wealthy Democratic governor as a tone-deaf leader who dined at the French Laundry during the pandemic." DESSERT — "For Bears, California Recalls Are the Perfect Circus," NYT: "By Thursday, editorial boards were fretting, a state senator was fuming, animal rights groups were calling for formal investigations and the Republican candidate who hired the bear, JOHN COX, was fending off questions about whether his rented mascot had been exploited. 'I kissed the bear, actually,' Mr. Cox said. 'It's a very tame bear.'" MEDIAWATCH ONE AND DONE — "Jen Psaki says she talked with the Biden transition team about a roughly one-year term," CNN: "In a candid interview with her former Obama White House colleague DAVID AXELROD on 'The Axe Files' podcast, which came out Thursday morning, Psaki … makes clear that she loves the challenge and the responsibility, but … 'I think it's going to be time for somebody else to have this job, in a year from now or about a year from now,' she says." The full podcast episode FOX AND THE HOUND — "The Fox News Reporter the White House Hates to Love," by Christopher Cadelago in POLITICO Mag: "In one sense, the [PETER] DOOCY saga can be seen as a distillation, in a single reporter, of the challenge facing Fox in the Biden era. Everyone expects the network to be a source of irritation for the new White House, as it was in the Obama years. CEO LACHLAN MURDOCH recently said ratings would improve as the network became Biden's 'loyal opposition,' borrowing a phrase from European parliamentary politics, which didn't go unnoticed among Biden's aides. "But Fox also faces some competition for its conservative viewership from the likes of Newsmax and One America News Network, stridently right-wing networks that made a point of questioning the validity of the 2020 election. … Fox wants a seat in the room, but many of its viewers also want to see a fight. That conflict is embodied in Doocy: a smooth yet aggressive, social media-savvy correspondent who might feel like a fresh face on TV, yet is indisputably of, by and for Fox." ABOUT THE KAMALA-BOOK-MIGRANTS FIASCO — "'This Was Devastating to Everybody': Inside the New York Post's Blowup over a Bogus Story at the Border," by Joe Pompeo in Vanity Fair: "Current and former staffers are still gobsmacked by [LAURA] ITALIANO'S resignation. … The episode appears to reflect larger tensions at the Post . Sources characterized it as a symptom of the intense and ever-growing pressure to crank out the type of cheap content that gets devoured online … That said, I'm told this particular story was assigned for print. "But stories that traffic in the culture wars, fearmongering, and general outrage —like the manufactured Harris scandal, or the vaccine-hysteria the Post recently injected into America's bloodstream, before doing a 180 with a pro-vax front page—tend to perform well in the clickbait economy. … Overall, people just sound really bummed about the whole thing, and about the state of the Post in general. One disenchanted staffer said, 'The Post has always been a balancing act of catering to the masses and the elites. Lately, it feels as if everything is now for the masses.'" TV TONIGHT — PBS' "Washington Week," with new moderator Yamiche Alcindor: Dan Balz, Errin Haines, Weijia Jiang and Jake Sherman. SUNDAY SO FAR …
| Gray TV | "Full Court Press": Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) … Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. | FOX | "Fox News Sunday": Michael McConnell … Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.). Panel: Karl Rove, Susan Page and Jonathan Swan. Power Player: Newton Minow. | CBS | "Face the Nation": Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo … Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) … Neel Kashkari … Scott Gottlieb … Michael Lewis. | ABC | "This Week": Anthony Fauci. Panel: Chris Christie, Rahm Emanuel, Yvette Simpson and Jane Coaston. | MSNBC | "The Sunday Show": Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.) … Rachel Bitecofer … Daina Ramey Berry … Ibram X. Kendi … Deon Jones … Ty Seidule. | CNN | "Inside Politics": Panel: Molly Ball, Astead Herndon, Kaitlan Collins and Paul Kane. | NBC | "Meet the Press": Panel: Cornell Belcher, Hallie Jackson, Danielle Pletka and Jake Sherman. | | | | | | DON'T MISS OUT ON OUR NEW PLAYBOOK DEEP DIVE PODCAST: Washington is full of whispers, colorful characters and little-known back stories that even D.C. insiders might not know. Playbook Deep Dive is a new, weekly podcast that pulls back the curtain on the stories behind the power. From Congress and the White House to bar stools and backrooms, POLITICO's top reporters and Playbook authors bring you the most compelling and confounding stories that explain what's really going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | TRUMP BOOK CLUB: Over the past few months, Trump has sat down with a slew of marquee journalists for their upcoming books on his presidency. But one non-journalist also got a sit-down for her upcoming memoir: West Wing insider Kellyanne Conway. Last month, Conway interviewed (if that's the word) Trump at Mar-a-Lago for her book that's being published by Simon & Schuster. The night before, she had dinner with Melania and Trump. Meanwhile, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has finished the outline of his book on his time in the White House and is looking for publishers. Rudy Giuliani, who's under federal investigation, told us that he, too, is writing a book, but we've been asking around about who will publish it and haven't gotten an answer. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Kiki McLean will be treasurer of the Democratic Governors Association for the 2021-22 cycle, a volunteer position. She's a longtime public affairs and political strategist who has worked on several presidential campaigns. — BOOK CLUB: Peter and Susan Osnos' Platform Books and Harvard Business Review Press are producing a new major book about George Soros to be released in March, titled "George Soros: A Life In Full—Survivor, Billionaire, Speculator, Philanthropist, Philosopher, Political Activist, Nemesis of the Far Right, Global Citizen." It will be written by various experts including Sebastian Mallaby, Darren Walker and Orville Schell. TRANSITIONS — Irving E. Daniels, Jr. is now a managing director at Prime Policy Group. He previously was SVP for external affairs at the Community Financial Services Association of America. … Steven Blattner will be legislative director for Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.). He previously was a government relations consultant at Becker & Poliakoff. … … Chris Towner will be research director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. He previously was senior director of budget and data analytics at First Focus on Children. … Eva Lukonits will lead the social media strategy at the Ocean Foundation. She most recently was the press officer at the Hungarian Embassy. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Heather Cable, comms manager at the Pew Charitable Trusts, and Andrew Fake, portfolio manager at Freddie Mac, welcomed Stella Grace last week. Pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) and Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) … Fox's Brian Kilmeade … Angela Morabito of Campus Reform (3-0) … NBC's Mark Murray … Keith Stern of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office … Caitlin Carroll of Sen. Richard Burr's (R-N.C.) office … Bruce Haynes of Sard Verbinnen … John Scofield of S-3 Group … Colm O'Comartun of 50 State … Nichole Francis Reynolds … Nickie Currie of Amgen … Israeli Embassy's Eyal Naor (45) … RNC's Christian Schaeffer … Jim Steinberg … Andrea Purse … U.S. Travel Association's Chris Kennedy … Blake Roberts ... Brad Wolters … Vincent Harris of Harris Media … former Utah Gov. Gary Herbert … Rob Saliterman … former Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.) … Noelle Garnier … Patrick MacDonnell … Liz Savage Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Mike Zapler and producers Allie Bice, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross. | | A message from Blue Cross Blue Shield Association: Reluctance about vaccines can be higher in communities of color due to a long history of inequitable health treatment. Learn how we are using Blue Cross and Blue Shield data to identify social vulnerabilities and replace hesitancy with hope. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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