| | | | |  | | By Garrett Ross | | | | 
Scott Olson/Getty Images | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | TRUMP TO THE BUCKEYE STATE — Former President DONALD TRUMP will appear at a rally tonight with J.D. VANCE , his endorsee in the Ohio GOP Senate primary making a Hail Mary push to win the nomination. Before Trump's endorsement, Vance was lagging in the polls, short on cash and seen as an almost assured loser. But Trump's nod,as our Natalie Allison reported Friday, has changed his fortunes "dramatically" and "upended one of the most contentious Republican primaries in the nation." Just over a week later, "more than $5 million in new donations have poured into a pro-Vance super PAC" and Vance "has taken the lead in polling for the first time since entering the crowded Republican primary in July." Still, Trump isn't leaving anything to chance. The former president knows that this is the first major test of his post-presidency political power. If Vance loses, Trump will look weak and like he's losing his grip on the GOP. It's why the president is going the extra mile tonight — and why his son, DONALD TRUMP JR., has been campaigning like crazy for Vance this week and will keep at it next week. There's been intense blowback to Trump's endorsement of Vance, who previously criticized the president and is viewed by some as a "Never Trumper" who's now pandering to the ex-president. Asthe Columbus Dispatch notes, "thirty-three 2016 Trump delegates penned a letter calling on the former president to reconsider." "Unlike the other candidates in this race, J.D. Vance has not developed relationships with Republican voters and grassroots leaders that are crucial to win," the letter read. "This endorsement of J.D. Vance is a betrayal to not only your Ohio supporters but Trump supporters across our great nation!" The reaction has been most intense among allies of JOSH MANDEL, who was considered the frontrunner for a long time before Trump's endorsement. Mandel plans to stump with Sen. TED CRUZ (R-Texas) next week and boasts the support of Club for Growth — which has landed on the ex-president's bad side. Maggie Haberman reported earlier this week that when Trump learned the conservative group was still running ads highlighting Vance's past criticism of him, he "had his assistant send [DAVID] McINTOSH a text saying, 'Go f— yourself.'" The reply from the Club? "We are increasing our ad buy," a spokesman told our colleague Natalie. Consider it war: "Dave McIntosh motivated Don Jr. to not only push J.D. over the finish line but tear down Mandel in the process," a source familiar told our Meridith McGraw. MEANWHILE … The Ohio Values Voters is asking supporters to vocally protest Vance at the Trump rally tonight. As Meridith notes, the call to action sets up something of a MO BROOKS 2.0 moment, when Brooks was booed on stage with Trump following the former president's endorsement. (Trump has since unendorsed Brooks.) "Ohio Value Voters urges Ohioans to boycott the Trump Rally in Delaware County this Saturday, April 23rd," a memo reads. "However, [if] you decide to attend, when President Trump introduces JD Vance, make your voices heard by letting Trump know, JD Vance is Wrong for Ohio. Booing is entirely appropriate!" TRUMP STICKS WITH MCCARTHY — FOR NOW: House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY's quick moves at damage control after explosive reporting from NYT's Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns seem to have done the trick for now. If you happened to be cut off from the internet the past two days and missed it, McCarthy was caught on tape saying after the Jan. 6 attack that he thought the ex-president should resign — after explicitly denying hours earlier he had said any such thing. The former president toldWSJ's Alex Leary and Lindsay Wise that while "he wasn't pleased to learn of Mr. McCarthy's comments in the House leadership call…. the California Republican had never ultimately advised him to quit" — and the pair's relationship remains intact. Trump argued that McCarthy quickly changed course "when he found out the facts" and remained loyal. Here's what Trump said: "He made a call. I heard the call. I didn't like the call. But almost immediately as you know, because he came here and we took a picture right there — you know, the support was very strong. … I think it's all a big compliment, frankly. They realized they were wrong and supported me." A few other interesting tidbits from the interview: On McCarthy's bid for speaker: "Asked whether he still supported Mr. McCarthy for speaker, should Republicans win control of the House in November, Mr. Trump didn't answer directly. 'Well I don't know of anybody else that's running and I think that I've had actually a very good relationship with him,' Mr. Trump said. 'I like him. And other than that brief period of time, I suspect he likes me quite a bit.'" On McCarthy's suggestion to his members that Trump agreed he bears responsibility for the attack: "No, that's false. I never claimed responsibility," Mr. Trump said in the interview. (Thought bubble on this one: Someone here is lying. Either Trump is now— or McCarthy misled his members in suggesting Trump was showing remorse right before a critical impeachment vote… Moreon this here.) This isn't over by any means. Trump changes his mind about people all the time, and January 2023 (when a speakership vote will occur) is a long way off. McCarthy also has enemies in Trump world who will try to turn the president against him in the coming months. But in the meantime, McCarthy's bid to shore up support among his members is going well. Here's a sampling of some allies who have come forward already: — Rep. NANCY MACE (R-N.C.): "Water under the bridge. This is kind of a story I don't think that's going anywhere, but I support him wholeheartedly." — Rep. ASHLEY HINSON (R-Iowa): "Republicans are going to take back the majority in November and when we do, Kevin McCarthy will be our Speaker." — California Republican Party Chair JESSICA MILLAN PATTERSON: "When Republicans take the House, I have no doubt that he will be the next Speaker of the House." ( h/t Lara Korte)
| | | | A message from The American Beverage Association: At America's beverage companies, we are committed to reducing our plastic footprint. That's why we're carefully designing our plastic bottles to be 100% recyclable, including the caps. Our goal is for every bottle to become a new one, so they don't end up in our oceans, rivers and landfills. This Earth Week, visit EveryBottleBack.org and learn more about how our bottles are made to be remade. | | | Good Saturday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop me a line here, or get in touch with the rest of the team: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
|  Getty Images | A GREAT SATURDAY LISTEN —If you missed our latest episode of the Playbook Deep Dive podcast, do yourself a favor and listen. You don't hear members of Congress speak like this to a reporter often — it's the opposite of a talking-points interview. (A drink or three with Ryan didn't hurt.) Rep. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-Ariz.) gave brutally honest takes on fellow Arizonan (and potential 2024 primary rival) KYRSTEN SINEMA, the horrors of what he experienced in the Iraq War and during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot (including his intention to kill attackers if it came to that), any why many white liberals are clueless about Latino voters. Have a listen here:
| | | BTW, happy birthday to Deep Dive! We launched the first episode a year ago today. (Ryan and our spectacular audio team of Jenny Ament and Kara Tabor reflected on the one-year mark here.) We're pretty proud of what we've already done with it and we have no intentions of slowing down! Subscribe!
| | | | A message from The American Beverage Association:   Not all plastic is the same. At America's beverage companies, we're designing our bottles to be 100% recyclable – including the caps. And we're making investments in communities across the country to help improve recycling infrastructure so we can get #EveryBottleBack. | | | PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN AND VP KAMALA HARRIS' SATURDAY: The president and vice president have nothing on their public schedules.
| | | | DON'T MISS ANYTHING FROM THE 2022 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO is excited to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage and insights from the 25th annual Global Conference. This year's event, May 1-4, brings together more than 3,000 of the world's most influential leaders, including 700+ speakers representing more than 80 countries. "Celebrating the Power of Connection" is this year's theme, setting the stage to connect influencers with the resources to change the world with leading experts and thinkers whose insight and creativity can implement that change. Whether you're attending in person or following along from somewhere else in the world, keep up with this year's conference with POLITICO's special edition "Global Insider" so you don't miss a beat. Subscribe today. | | | | | PHOTO OF THE DAY
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President Joe Biden hands Tulalip Tribes Chair Teri Gobin a pen after signing an executive order during an event at Seward Park in Seattle on Friday, April 22. | AP | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | 9 THINGS WE READ THAT STUCK WITH US: 1. BIDEN'S JUGGLING ACT: During his trip to the Pacific Northwest on Friday, Biden announced some initiatives for his climate agenda and touted the administration's work on infrastructure. But the president also made an unexpected, if obvious, admission, NYT's Katie Rogers writes: "He also said out loud what his advisers have been saying privately for weeks: The immediate demands of the presidency, including the seismic forces of a pandemic and a war in Ukraine, have consumed more of his time than he had anticipated and taken him away from the domestic agenda he wants to sell." 2. SUCCESSION: Democrats are already jockeying for Sen. DIANNE FEINSTEIN's seat, expecting that it will soon be open for the first time in a generation — you just won't hear many of the would-be candidates discussing it in public. "Most everyone is operating under the assumption that Feinstein will not run for reelection in 2024. Contenders are stockpiling cash and quietly assessing their options. A general reluctance to publicly encourage Feinstein to step down hasn't stopped people from keeping open lines of communication to Gov. GAVIN NEWSOM in the event the senator resigns and the Democratic governor gets to handpick her replacement," Jeremy White reports. 3. WARNING SIGNS FOR DEMS: One of the most critical demographics for Dems to hold onto any hope of stemming their expected midterm losses is young voters — specifically millennials and Gen Z. But the problem is, this group isn't a reliable count for midterm elections, NBC's Sahil Kapur reports . "After youth turnout soared to record levels in 2020, fueled by Biden's progressive agenda and a desire to send President Donald Trump home to Florida, Democratic strategists are sounding the alarm about the lack of enthusiasm among young voters. They fear it could cause dissatisfied younger Americans to sit out the 2022 elections and deliver a walloping for the party. Preventing that, they say, will require more investment and outreach, as well as policy wins or evidence that Democrats are fighting for issues they care about." Flashback, April 10: "Democrats turn to their Gen Z whisperer as youth support wobbles," by Elena Schneider 4. THE PRE-MIDTERM VIEW FROM 1600 PENN: At the White House, staffers are already suspecting a shellacking in November and gearing up for what comes after: "The White House is preparing for a potential barrage of Republican-led congressional investigations next year, hiring new staffers and positioning itself to respond to aggressive inquiries if the GOP takes control of one or both chambers of Congress," WaPo's Tyler Pager reports . "Senior officials have begun strategizing on how various White House departments, especially the counsel's office, may be restructured to respond to an onslaught of investigative requests if Democrats lose control of the House or the Senate in November's midterm elections, as many in both parties expect." 5. TO MASK OR NOT TO MASK: Is the White House really planning to fight the ruling that resulted in a federal travel mask mandate being dropped? "Legal specialists raised another possibility: The administration may instead be buying time and thinking about trying to erase the ruling — a move that would allow it to protect the powers of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to respond to a future crisis — but without reviving a mask mandate," NYT's Charlie Savage and Sharon LaFraniere write. 6. THE NEW GOP: On Friday, Florida GOP Gov. RON DESANTIS revoked a special status for Disney within the state. (Our colleague Andrew Atterbury has more on that.) But NYT's Katie Glueck and Frances Robles take a step back , writing that the "move illustrated just how drastically the G.O.P. has transformed from the days when its leaders often moved in lock step with the nation's largest businesses. The episode also showed how major companies have felt rising pressure to take a stand on heated political issues. Over the last decade or so, and especially after former President Donald J. Trump's ascent, leading Republicans have increasingly seen political benefit in criticizing corporate America." Speaking of the Sunshine State … 7. THE CULTURE WARS: NYT's Dana Goldstein and Stephanie Saul got their hands on some of the textbooks that the Florida government outlawed last week. "Using online sample materials provided by publishers to Florida school districts, The New York Times was able to review 21 of the rejected books and see what may have led the state to reject them. Because Florida has released so few details about its textbook review process, it is unknown whether these examples led to the rejections. But they do illustrate the way in which these concepts appear — and don't appear — in curriculum materials." The results: "In most of the books, there was little that touched on race, never mind an academic framework like critical race theory." 8. JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH: There were two key stories on the Jan. 6 select committee's work that you should be aware of … — First, Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu report that GOP lawmakers were more closely involved in the pre-Jan. 6 planning than previously known. "Deposition excerpts … suggest that some of Trump's top allies in Congress were frequently present in meetings where a handful of strategies to prevent Joe Biden from taking office were discussed, including efforts to replace the leadership of the Justice Department with figures who would sow doubts about the legitimacy of the election." Among those named: Reps. SCOTT PERRY (R-Pa.), LOUIE GOHMERT (R-Texas), JIM JORDAN (R-Ohio), MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.) and numerous members of the House Freedom Caucus. — And the committee has also "received apparently inconsistent testimony from key witnesses on a notable point: just how much effort it took IVANKA TRUMP to persuade her father to criticize the attack," Betsy Woodruff Swan reports. 9. CAWTHORN ON THE HOT SEAT: Our colleague Michael Kruse uncovered some photos of MADISON CAWTHORN partying in lingerie. FWIW, Cawthorn is taking it in stride: "I guess the left thinks goofy vacation photos during a game on a cruise (taken waaay before I ran for Congress) is going to somehow hurt me? They're running out of things to throw at me… Share your most embarrassing vacay pics in the replies," he tweeted in response. But others were quick to point out that the photos run counter to Cawthorn's rhetoric — from transphobic remarks he has made on the House floor to his calls to "restore masculinity" in society. And WSJ's Natalie Andrews writes in a story posted this morning that voters' confidence in the freshman lawmaker "has been shaken by a series of gaffes," and that these have "left him vulnerable in the GOP primary." A bonus item, cause this lede is too good not to include: From our colleague Caitlin Oprysko: "The strippers themselves are in need of some stimulus. Chippendales, the famed male dancer troupe, has turned to K Street to help it tap into a potential new round of federal pandemic aid."
| | | | A message from The American Beverage Association:   Our plastic bottles are made to be remade. Please help us get Every Bottle Back. EveryBottleBack.org | | | CLICKER — "The nation's cartoonists on the week in politics," edited by Matt Wuerker — 15 funnies GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Ryan Lizza: — "Disinformation Is a Threat to Our Democracy," by Barack Obama on Medium: "Tech platforms need to recognize that their decisions have an impact on every aspect of society." — "America's Most Diva President Had Tiffany Decorate the White House with 'Wrinkled' Disco Balls," by The Daily Beast's William O'Connor: "Upon arriving in the capital to assume the presidency, he said of the White House, 'I will not live in a house like this.'" — "A Daring Dream and a Lifelong Love, Dashed in a Moment of Violence," by NYT's Corina Knoll: "GuiYing Ma built a modest life of service in New York until a shocking attack tore her from her devoted husband." — "A gold rush in the deep sea raises questions about the authority charged with protecting it," by the L.A. Times' Todd Woody and Evan Halper — "Wellness Is Dead. Long Live the Martini," by Emily Sundberg for N.Y. Mag: "'I watch these kids hammering martinis and I'm like, good Lord.'" — "Ghosting the Machine," by Harper's Magazine's Sam Lipsyte: "Humans, robots, and the new sexual frontier." — "One Fan's Search for Seeds of Greatness in Bob Dylan's Hometown," by WaPo's T.M. Shine: "The iconic songwriter has transcended time and place for 60 years. What should that mean for the rest of us?"
| | | | JOIN US ON 4/29 FOR A WOMEN RULE DISCUSSION ON WOMEN IN TECH : Women, particularly women of color and women from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, have historically been locked out of the tech world. But this new tech revolution could be an opportunity for women to get in on the ground floor of a new chapter. Join POLITICO for an in-depth panel discussion on the future of women in tech and how to make sure women are both participating in this fast-moving era and have access to all it offers. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | NEW NOMINEES — Biden announced several new nominees: Cindy Dyer as director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking, Michael Gonzales as ambassador to Zambia, Michael Ratney as ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Geoffrey Pyatt as assistant secretary of State for energy resources. — Biden also announced five new U.S. attorney nominees: Rachelle Crowe for the Southern District of Illinois, Joshua Hurwit for Idaho, Gerard Karam for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Jacqueline Romero for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Phillip Talbert for the Eastern District of California. TRANSITIONS — George Beebe is joining the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft as director of grand strategy. He previously was chief of CIA Russia analysis and is a Dick Cheney alum. … Tony Hernandez is now press secretary for Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.). He previously was deputy press secretary for Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Norma Torres (D-Calif.) … White House's Pili Tobar … Aaron Huertas … Jeff Wiener of Milne, Wiener & Shofe Global Strategies … John Oliver … Hadar Susskind of Americans for Peace Now … Tim Lim … NTIA's Doug Brake … Kindred Motes … Clarine Nardi Riddle of Kasowitz Benson Torres and No Labels … Ted Trippi … Global Women's Innovation Network's Tizzy Brown … Camila Gonzalez of WilmerHale … Darien Flowers … Newsmax's Zachery Michael … POLITICO's Blendi Qatipi and Julian Sharat … Justin White … Chevron's Jennifer Smith … Bloomberg's Paula Dwyer … Vice News' Jesse Seidman … Bill Browder … Michael Moore … Kal Penn … Neil Strauss … Peter A. Joseph … Gideon Lett ... Gus Portela ... Alex Lupica THE SHOWS ( Full Sunday show listings here): CBS "Face the Nation": Ukrainian PM Denys Shmyhal … Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) … European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde … Scott Gottlieb. FOX "Fox News Sunday," guest-anchored by Sandra Smith: Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) … Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas). Panel: Karl Rove, Juan Williams and Jeff Mason. NBC "Meet the Press," guest-moderated by Kristen Welker: Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova … Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) … Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) … Erin McLaughlin reporting from Ukraine. Panel: Peter Baker, Sara Fagen, Errin Haines and Carol Lee. MSNBC "The Sunday Show": Missouri state Rep. Ian Mackey … Jane Mayer … Ivo Daalder … Caroline Randall Williams … Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow … Sophia Nelson … Rob Reiner … Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.). CNN "State of the Union": Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) … Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) … Ashish Jha … Panel: Keisha Lance Bottoms, Scott Jennings, Xochitl Hinojosa and Alyssa Farah Griffin. CNN "Inside Politics": Panel: Julia Ioffe and Susan Glasser. Panel: Catherine Lucey, Eva McKend and Rachael Bade. ABC "This Week": Ukrainian Deputy PM Olga Stefanishyna … retired Gen. John Allen … Michael Osterholm. Panel: Rick Klein, Cecilia Vega, Vivian Salama and David Sanger. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Mike Zapler, deputy editor Zack Stanton and producers Bethany Irvine, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross.
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