| | | | |  | | By Garrett Ross | | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | HAPPENING TONIGHT — DONALD TRUMP is set to stump for Ohio GOP Senate candidate J.D. VANCE in Youngstown tonight. (More from the Cincinnati Enquirer) — "In Ohio, Vance scrambles to ramp up campaign after mounting GOP criticism," by WaPo's Annie Linksey from Ottawa, Ohio — Related read: "Rally With Trump? Some G.O.P. Candidates Aren't Thrilled About It," by NYT's Michael Bender and Maggie Haberman: "The question of how to handle Mr. Trump has so bedeviled some Republican candidates for Senate that they have held private meetings about the best way to field the inevitable calls from his team, according to strategists familiar with the discussions."
|  This week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis arranged for two planes full of Venezuelan migrants to be sent to Martha's Vineyard, provoking a wave of outrage and calls for legal action against the Florida governor. | Jeff Swensen/Getty Images | DARING DESANTIS — On Tuesday, Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS received the NYT Magazine treatment. In a big takeout — headlined "Is Ron DeSantis the Future of the Republican Party?" — Matt Flegenheimer painted a deeply reported picture of a political operator who has fashioned himself into a singular force in the Republican Party — perhaps the only one who can rival Trump at his own game. "DeSantis, who was never considered a leading culture warrior as a young congressman — once privately dismissing the party's old-guard preoccupation with sexuality — has steered his state to the vanguard of right-wing social causes," Flegenheimer wrote. As if to prove the point, on Wednesday DeSantis arranged for two planes full of Venezuelan migrants to be sent to Martha's Vineyard, provoking a wave of outrage and calls for legal action against the Florida governor. One of the biggest questions has been why the plane was chartered from Texas, and whether that will come back to bite DeSantis. But on Friday, he explained it this way: "He said state officials [have] 'had people in Texas for months' trying to figure out how migrants are reaching his state after crossing the border and how they might intercept them and divert them," WaPo's Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Maria Sacchetti and Lori Rozsa write. "He said it is difficult to find newcomers once they leave the large groups crossing the border and switch to traveling in cars or buses. Stopping them in Texas made that easier, he said." As for the migrants, it's still a bit unclear exactly how they ended up in Martha's Vineyard — but all reporting indicates that none of the migrants on board knew they were destined for the island. "JULIO HENRIQUEZ, an attorney who met with several migrants, said they 'had no idea of where they were going or where they were,'" AP's Rodrique Ngowi, Gisela Salomon and Claudia Torrens report . "Two flights to Martha's Vineyard stopped in the Florida Panhandle, Henriquez said. While on board, migrants got brochures and maps of Massachusetts. "An unsigned letter told migrants to notify U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of address changes, though U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is actually responsible for tracking migrants, Henriquez said." Related read: "Migrants Flown to Martha's Vineyard Say They Were Misled" And the issue likely isn't going away anytime soon: DeSantis on Friday "said he intends to use 'every penny' of the $12 million his state budgeted to relocate migrants and set the expectation for buses and 'likely more' flights full of migrants paid for by the state," per CNN's Steve Contorno. Our colleagues Shia Kapos, Lara Korte and Lisa Kashinsky spoke to experts to get a sense of where this may be headed and whether litigation is a possibility. The short answer is: It's hard to say. While there is some question about the legality of DeSantis' shuffling of migrants, it falls into a major gray area. Here's a snapshot of the responses they found in their reporting: Chicago attorney STEVEN BLOCK: "If they're being transported against their will, it calls into question the human trafficking statutes. So far, nothing indicates they're being held captive. They're not being handcuffed and put on buses. So it's unlikely that federal criminal trafficking statutes will come into play." Cambridge lawyer SUSAN CHURCH: "There is absolutely the possibility of both civil and criminal liability if people were lied to about where they were going, what they were going to get when they got there." University of Chicago law professor NICOLE HALLETT: "People want to see this as a fight between the states because that's how Abbott and DeSantis are setting it up. … But the real question is whether migrants have a claim against Texas or Florida. And that depends on the facts." Good Saturday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop me a line: gross@politico.com. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: Did you know: 39% of insured Americans say they don't understand what's covered by their insurance. Health insurance coverage should be predictable and transparent, and insured Americans agree. Learn more from our latest Patient Experience Survey report. | | | MAR-A-LAGO LATEST — DOJ on Friday asked a federal appeals court to lift a judge's order blocking criminal investigators from accessing about 100 documents with national security classification markings that were recovered from Trump's Mar-a-Lago compound, Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney write . "The filing was an unsparing rejection of [U.S. District Court Judge AILEEN] CANNON's handling of the entire matter, saying it has jeopardized national security, is based on flimsy or baseless interpretations of executive privilege and could enable further obstruction of efforts to recover additional missing documents." — And then there's this: NYT's Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush have an absolute doozy of a story up peeking under the hood to see what's really going on with Trump's legal team as the former president "faces potential prosecution on multiple fronts" and his team of lawyers squabble amongst each other and face their own legal woes. They focus on emails obtained between Trump's lawyers and ERIC HERSCHMANN , a former Trump White House lawyer, who is now being called to testify before a federal grand jury. "For weeks this summer, Mr. Herschmann tried to get specific guidance from Mr. Trump's current lawyers on how to handle questions from prosecutors that raise issues of executive privilege or attorney-client privilege. "After ignoring Mr. Herschmann or giving him what he seemed to consider perplexing answers to the requests for weeks, two of the former president's lawyers, M. EVAN CORCORAN and JOHN ROWLEY, offered him only broad instructions in late August. Assert sweeping claims of executive privilege, they advised him, after Mr. Corcoran had suggested that an unspecified 'chief judge' would ultimately validate their belief that a president's powers extend far beyond their time in office." Haberman and Thrush also note that BORIS EPSHTEYN has emerged as the de facto "quarterback" of the legal teams — even as the former Trump campaign aide had his phone seized by the FBI last week in its sweeping investigation into Jan. 6. In the emails, Herschmann did not hold back: "I certainly am not relying on any legal analysis from either of you or Boris who — to be clear — I think is an idiot," he wrote. "When I questioned Boris's legal experience to work on challenging a presidential election since he appeared to have none — challenges that resulted in multiple court failures — he boasted that he was 'just having fun,' while also taking selfies and posting pictures online of his escapades." — "Trump team told National Archives that Mar-a-Lago boxes only contained news clippings," by CNN's Jamie Gangel: "A former top official in the Trump White House counsel's office told the National Archives last fall that, according to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, there were only 12 boxes of records at Mar-a-Lago and they were just filled with newspaper clippings, a source familiar with the matter told CNN."
| | | | A message from PhRMA: New research examines how insured Americans navigate unclear and unaffordable insurance coverage. | | | | | BIDEN'S SATURDAY: At 10:10 a.m., the president and first lady JILL BIDEN will depart the White House en route to London, where they are scheduled to arrive at 5:05 p.m. EDT.
VP KAMALA HARRIS' SATURDAY: The VP has nothing on her public schedule. | | | | | | JOIN THURSDAY FOR A GLOBAL INSIDER INTERVIEW : From climate change to public health emergencies and a gloomy global economic outlook, the world continues to deal with overlapping crises. How do we best confront all of these issues? Join POLITICO Live on Thursday, Sept. 22 at 10:30 a.m. EDT for a virtual conversation with Global Insider author Ryan Heath, featuring World Bank President David Malpass, to explore what it will take to restore global stability and avoid a prolonged recession. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | PHOTO OF THE DAY
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President Joe Biden shakes hands with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office on Friday, Sept. 16. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | 9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US 1. CASH DASH: JOHN FETTERMAN has the lead over MEHMET OZ in the Pennsylvania Senate race — but the Democrat's campaign is worrying that the margin may shrink absent an influx of cash to keep up with Oz's TV onslaught. "I am writing with a wake-up call," Fetterman campaign manager BRENDAN MCPHILLIPS wrote in an internal memo on Tuesday to big-dollar donors, Holly Otterbein scoops. 2. SIRENS STILL SOUNDING: With the unfounded 2020 election conspiracies about voter fraud behind their sails, "activists around the country are using laws that allow people to challenge a voter's right to cast a ballot to contest the registrations of thousands of voters at a time," AP's Nicholas Riccardi writes . "Election officials say the vast majority of the challenges will be irrelevant because they contest the presence on voting rolls of people who already are in the process of being removed after they moved out of the region. Still, they create potentially hundreds of hours of extra work as the offices scramble to prepare for November's election." — "Breaches of voting machine data raise worries for midterms," by AP's Christina Cassidy 3. DEMOCRACY WATCH: "The U.S. Vowed to Defend Central American Democracy. Autocrats Had Other Plans," by NYT's Anatoly Kurmanaev and Jody García in Guatemala City: "Many nations have slid deeper into authoritarianism and poverty and sent record numbers of migrants to the U.S. southern border, leaving the region's fragile democracies in the worst state since the Cold War, according to former U.S. diplomats and civil society leaders." 4. PROMISES MADE: Biden is returning to one of his 2020 campaign promises as his administration is now "revamping its effort to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, for the first time appointing a senior diplomat to oversee detainee transfers and signaling it won't interfere with plea negotiations that could resolve the long-stalled prosecution of alleged 9/11 mastermind KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMED and four co-defendants," WSJ's Jess Bravin reports. 5. AYATOLLAH AILS: "Iran's Supreme Leader Cancels Public Appearances After Falling Ill," by NYT's Farnaz Fassihi: "[Ayatollah ALI KHAMENEI ] condition was considered critical last week but has improved, and he is currently resting, the person said. His doctors remain concerned that he is too weak to even sit up in bed. As supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei wields huge authority in Iran and would be the final arbiter on issues like the nuclear deal that is currently being negotiated with the United States."
| | | | A message from PhRMA:   New research examines how insured Americans navigate unclear and unaffordable insurance coverage. | | | 6. WAR IN UKRAINE: "Negotiations on whether to send F-16s and Patriots to Ukraine continue — but quietly," by Paul McLeary, Lara Seligman and Lee Hudson — "Russia's Use of Iranian Kamikaze Drones Creates New Dangers for Ukrainian Troops," by WSJ's Yaroslav Trofimov and Dion Nissenbaum 7. PRICES AT THE PUMP: "House Democrats push Biden to unleash even more emergency oil," by CNN's Matt Egan: "In a letter obtained first by CNN, eight House Democrats urged Biden on Friday to immediately scrap his current plan to halt releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve next month." 8. MORE BAKER-GLASSER BOOK DEETS: "Lindsey Graham called Trump 'a lying motherf***er' during Ukraine impeachment, book reveals," by The Independent's Andrew Feinberg 9. BEYOND THE BELTWAY: "Alaska braces for floods, power outages as huge storm nears," by AP's Becky Bohrer, Mark Thiessen and John Antczak CLICKER — "The nation's cartoonists on the week in politics," edited by Matt Wuerker — 16 funnies
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| GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Ryan Lizza: — "How Chuck Schumer Finally Got His Big Breakthrough," by The New Republic's Grace Segers: "'I know everything about my caucus,' the Senate majority leader enthused. 'I care about them. I love them.'" — "What Will Become of 'America's Blackest City'?" by Michael Kruse, Brittany Gibson and Delece Smith-Barrow for POLITICO Magazine: "In South Fulton, Georgia, two radically different ideas about Black political power are vying for control. The fate of the city hangs in the balance." — "The Flight of the 'Concordski,'" by Air Mail's Sam Kashner: "The espionage and secret history behind the Soviets' attempt to build their own Concorde." — "The Elusive Future of San Francisco's Fog," by NYT's John Branch, Nina Riggio and Scott Reinhard: "Off the California seaboard, ocean and sky create a phenomenon that has long defined life along the coast. … Now, some scientists fear that a timeless companion is fading away as the world warms." — "A Chinese Spy Wanted GE's Secrets, But the U.S. Got China's Instead," by Bloomberg's Jordan Robertson and Drake Bennett: "How the arrest of a burned-out intelligence officer exposed an economic-espionage machine." — "8.5 Miles Per Hour, on a Road With No Limits," by Joseph Bien-Kahn for Sports Illustrated: "Ian Mackay was paralyzed 14 years ago in a bike accident, but he's come to see there's happiness in finding new ways to experience old loves. In his case, that meant getting back on the road, in a record-setting way." — "One Day, Michelle Branch Will Write a Happy Love Song," by The Cut's Kaitlin Menza: "Not today, though." — "Of Gods and Machines," by The Atlantic's Stephen Marche: "The future of artificial intelligence is neither utopian nor dystopian—it's something much more interesting." — "My Chances of Being a Mom Were Fading. Then Two Beautiful Lambs Came into My Life," by A.C. Shilton for Outside: "People say farmers aren't supposed to get emotionally attached to livestock. Uh-huh. When fate sent our writer two newborn sheep with life-threatening birth defects, that kind of thinking was banished from the barn." — "A Hole in the Head," by Zachary Siegel for Harper's Magazine: "Can a brain implant treat drug addiction?" — "Throngs of Unseen People," by David Reynolds for the New York Review of Books: "In the Houses of Their Despair, Terry Alford's history of spiritualism during the Civil War era, suggests an unexpected link between the Lincoln family and that of John Wilkes Booth." — "Mark Plotkin Is Still 'Here,'" by Washington City Paper's Tom Sherwood: "The wild ride of a D.C. journalist's funeral urn."
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don't miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Sarah Sanders revealed that she underwent a successful surgery for thyroid cancer. Gavin Newsom wants to debate Ron DeSantis before the midterms. Ted Cruz got heckled on a plane. Jeff Bezos is no longer the second-richest man in the world. That title now belongs to Gautam Adani. Joe Manchin is excited about the return of the Mothman Festival. PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — "D.C. threatens to shut down Nationals Park, putting events at risk," WaPo OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at Monument Advocacy's 16th anniversary party Thursday night: Reps. Steny Hoyer, (D- N.Y.) Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), Anthony Brown (D-Md.), Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) and Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.), Bruce Andrews,Diana Birkett Rakow, Bill Bailey, Nick Rossi, Dan Chistenson, Andy Blocker, Stacey Hutchinson, Jason Oxman, Alexandra Reeve Givens, Liz Hyman,Desiree Filippone, Matt Haller, Rhonda Bentz, Steve Elmendorf, Joe Pounder, James Min, Mark Bednar, Jordan Evich, JP Dowd, Tim Kurth, Leigh Ann Caldwell, Theodoric Meyer and Kristina Peterson SPOTTED at the inaugural Tech Freedom Awards, presented by the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue at the Renwick Gallery: Dan Goldin, Ziad Dalloul, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, Rep. Frank Mrvan (D-Ind.), Estonian Ambassador Kristjan Prikk, Democratic Republic of Congo Ambassador Marie-Hélène Mathey Boo, Sierra Leone Ambassador Sidique Abou-Bakarr Wai, Tanzanian Ambassador Elsie Kanza, Matthew Sahr Nyuma, Jennifer Bachus, Allison Schwier, Peter Pham, Keith Krach, Bonnie Glick and Elizabeth Economy. TRANSITIONS — Kaitlyn Hobbs Demers has returned to Covington as an associate in their congressional investigations practice. She most recently was special assistant to the president and chief of staff of the office of legislative affairs at the White House. … Jaime Varela is now federal affairs manager for health and human services for the State of Florida. He most recently was a legislative assistant for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). … Benjamin Bryant is now comms director of American University's Sine Institute of Policy and Politics. He most recently was comms director for Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) and is also a Jack Reed alum. WEDDING — Mike Holtzman, president of SEC Newgate Public Relations, on Monday married Abigail Rose Reedy, an opera coloratura soprano and a model, in a private ceremony in the Mojave Desert. The couple will reside in Woodbridge, Conn., and Manhattan. The couple met when she was performing in Virginia and Mike heard Abigail when he was on a gig with his former boss at the State Department. Pic by Ashley Marie Myers WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Jennifer Mangone, manager of congressional policy for the American Academy of Dermatology Association, and David Mangone, director of policy for The Liaison Group, welcomed August Parker Mangone on Sept. 16. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) … Steve Scully of the Bipartisan Policy Center … David Litt … Richard Wolffe of The Guardian … Anna Taylor … POLITICO's Crystal Thomas … WaPo's Rachel Roubein … DOJ's Anthony Coley … Kimberley Fritts of Cogent Strategies … Bloomberg's Emily Birnbaum … Natalie Edelstein of J. B. Pritzker's gubernatorial campaign … NBC's Henry Gomez ... Marin Cogan … David Wade … Scott Nulty of Shield AI … Cole Lyle … Brian Patrick of Rep. Bill Huizenga's (R-Mich.) office … Don Baer … Palantir Technologies' Morgan Gress Johnson … Steve Kerrigan ... Doug Johnson … Adam Abrams … Carol Kresse … Courtney O'Donnell … former Justice David Souter … retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni … Sergio Rodriguera … former Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) … Mike De Robbio of Olympic Media … Matthew Boyse of GWU and John Hopkins University … T.J. Helmstetter THE SHOWS ( Full Sunday show listings here): FOX "Fox News Sunday": Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C) … Jared Bernstein. Panel: Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Turley. Panel: Josh Holmes, Francesca Chambers, Gillian Turner and Juan Williams. CBS "Face the Nation": Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) … Andriy Kostin … Jeh Johnson … Robert Pape … Major Garrett and David Becker. ABC "This Week": NYC Mayor Eric Adams … Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova. Panel: Heidi Heitkamp, Marc Short, Marianna Sotomayor and Alex Burns. NBC "Meet the Press": Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) … Joe O'Dea … Geoffrey Berman. Panel: Peter Baker, Leigh Ann Caldwell, Al Cardenas and Stephanie Cutter. CNN "State of the Union": UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield … Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) … NYC Mayor Eric Adams. Panel: Susan Glasser, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Daniella Gibbs Léger and Scott Jennings. CNN "Inside Politics": Panel: Kasie Hunt, Amy Walter, Hans Nichols, Seung Min Kim and Priscilla Alvarez. MSNBC "The Sunday Show": Massachusetts state Rep. Dylan Fernandes … Sheryl Lee Ralph … Pennsylvania state Sen. Vincent Hughes … Karen Hobert Flynn … Cecile Richards … Rachel Bitecofer. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and producers Setota Hailemariam and Bethany Irvine. Correction: Friday's Playbook misspelled Josh Siegel's name.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: According to new data, insured Americans are struggling to navigate their health care coverage, particularly the insurer- and PBM-imposed barriers and cost sharing practices that stand between them and their medicines:
· 39% of insured Americans say they don't understand what's covered by their insurance.
· Even with insurance, 15% report they would be unable to afford health care if they were to become seriously ill because of high out-of-pocket costs.
Americans want policy reforms that improve their insurance by providing more predictability and transparency in what is covered and lowering what they pay out of pocket. Read more in PhRMA's latest Patient Experience Survey. | | | | | | | 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 | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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