| | | | |  | | By Ryan Lizza, Rachael Bade and Eugene Daniels | Presented by ExxonMobil | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | MUST READ — “Exclusive: US prepared ‘rigorously’ for potential Russian nuclear strike in Ukraine in late 2022, officials say,” by CNN’s Jim Sciutto, whose new book, “The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China, and the Next World War” ($30), is out next Tuesday.
|  The Biden campaign's big post-SOTU move is kicking off with a major new ad buy. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | BONSIGNORE’S FIRST BIG BET — JOE BIDEN’s campaign is going on the air today with a new ad, part of a $30 million, six-week buy in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina. It’s called “For You,” and it has three big themes:
- It tackles the age question head on: “I’m not a young guy — that’s no secret.”
- It ticks through a list of five core Biden accomplishments: leading the Covid recovery, lowering prescription drug prices, passing an infrastructure deal, combating climate change and fighting for abortion rights.
- It sprinkles in digs at Trump throughout: The spot shows Trump fumbling with a large book as Biden dings him for failing to pass a promised infrastructure bill. On abortion, Biden doesn’t mention the Supreme Court, instead bluntly asserting, “Donald Trump took away the freedom of women to choose.”
The spot is aimed at “voters of color and young voters,” per the campaign, a clear acknowledgment of Biden’s struggles among two core Democratic groups. Its placement will have “a heavy emphasis” on social media but will also include traditional cable networks such as ESPN, TNT, FX and Comedy Central. It’s the first big salvo in what is expected to be a billion-dollar media campaign led by PATRICK BONSIGNORE of Blue Sky Strategy, who is reprising his role leading Biden’s advertising effort. GOING VIRAL — Some serious questions are being raised about the details of a graphic story told by Sen. KATIE BRITT (R-Ala.) during her response to Biden’s State of the Union on Thursday night. It started with this TikTok video from former AP reporter Jonathan M. Katz, who argues persuasively that the lurid tale of sex trafficking and rape Britt described to highlight the horrors of the Biden border record actually occurred during the presidency of GEORGE W. BUSH and, despite Britt’s suggestion, happened in Mexico. Britt spokesperson SEAN ROSS emailed us a statement in response but did not answer our question about whether Britt was referring to KARLA JACINTO ROMERO, whom Katz identifies as the likely victim at the center of the story. Britt met with Romero, a prominent international anti-sex trafficking activist, during a trip to the southern border with two Senate colleagues in January 2023. The senators released a video that included some details of Romero’s account of forced prostitution in Mexico from age 12 to 16, a story she also told in testimony to Congress back in 2015. (More about Romero in this bio.) “The story Senator Britt told was 100% correct,” Ross said in part. “And there are more innocent victims of that kind of disgusting, brutal trafficking by the cartels than ever before right now. … And here at home, the Biden Administration’s policies are leading to more and more suffering, including Americans being poisoned by fentanyl and being murdered. These human costs are real, and it’s past time for some on the left to stop pretending otherwise.”
| | | | A message from ExxonMobil: At ExxonMobil, we’ve captured more CO2 than any other company, so we have the expertise to help some of the most carbon-intensive sectors. With more than 30 years' experience, we’re a global leader in carbon capture and storage. Now, we’re advancing projects around the world, including in Louisiana and Texas, to help us and our customers reduce emissions. Let’s deliver. | | | THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW: KATIE ROGERS — JILL BIDEN still hasn’t forgotten when KAMALA HARRIS essentially accused Joe Biden of being a segregationist. MELANIA TRUMP might not move back to Washington full time if DONALD TRUMP wins the White House in November. And HILLARY CLINTON’S advisers say she never could have gotten away with how LAURA BUSH handled the Iraq War. These are just some of the insights NYT’s Katie Rogers gleaned from writing her new book, “American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden” ($30). Rogers sat down with Ryan for this week’s episode of Playbook Deep Dive where they covered everything from the first lady’s role in staffing, campaigning and policy decisions to serving as the president’s enforcer. We also discussed the time Rogers’ editors sent her to Arkansas to report a story about the Bidens that she didn’t want to cover — and how it ended up forcing Jill and Joe to confront an uncomfortable truth about their family.
|  | Listen to this episode of Playbook Deep Dive on Apple, Spotify, Google or wherever you get your podcasts. … Read the Q&A … Some key excerpts: Rogers on Jill Biden and loyalty: “Joe Biden’s inner circle is as much Jill’s domain as it is his. She’s really a gatekeeper for the people who are closest to him, even though she’s not in the West Wing. She’s not stationed there holding open the door to the Oval. But she definitely knows everything that’s going on. … Loyalty is super, super paramount. And if it’s violated, it’s really hard to get that back with both Bidens, especially Jill.” On Jill’s top aide, ANTHONY BERNAL: “Bernal is the most powerful person in that East Wing by far because he has dominion over everything that happens in it, from trips and scheduling, to speeches and messaging. … He has sort of made blueprints for how these trips go, how the president looks when we see him — not just the first lady. So he’s a very interesting figure in the sense that he has a lot of control in the East Wing, certainly, and a lot of control in the West Wing. And the other beat to that is he is known to sort of be very overbearing. He can be aggressive and direct with aides, specifically less experienced ones, and that has at times been a source of a lot of tension in the White House.” On why Melania Trump is not — and never was — a secret member of the #Resistance: “The reality of it is that, after reporting on this, she mirrors her husband’s grievances and channels them in her own way and is, in most cases, not a mediating force for him at all. In fact, the opposite is often true, where if her husband is being attacked, she encourages him to fight back. Charlottesville, she got a lot of credit for in the aftermath. She said, ‘Let the violence stop,’ when her husband said, ‘Both sides have good people.’ But that is really an outlier.” On what Melania was doing on Jan. 6: “I don’t mean to disparage a first lady’s interest in improving the White House complex, but during an unfolding of such violence — it was stunning — as things unfolded that day, she was asked by [STEPHANIE] GRISHAM whether she wanted to say anything to encourage an end to the violence. And she just flat out said ‘no.’ She was busy having photographs of a rug taken that day.” On what Melania’s role might be going forward: “She likes being first lady. … People who know her say that she would absolutely do it over again, but they’re less clear on the details of what that would look like. And in terms of being a campaigner, she’s somebody who has no interest in doing that. I know Trump has said that she will be out there in the near future, but I don’t know. I think I would be surprised to see her out anytime soon on the trail.” Good Saturday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Clocks spring ahead at 2 a.m., per the Uniform Time Act of 1966. Drop us a line if you agree with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine— and MARCO RUBIO — that daylight saving time should be abolished: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza. CASH DASH — There’s more evidence that big-name liberal activist groups are continuing to suffer major fundraising drop-offs as we’ve gotten deeper into the Biden presidency. Recent campaign finance filings show the nonprofit group End Citizens United and its affiliated PAC Let America Vote are facing a significantly worse financial picture for this election year than it did in past cycles. ECU and LAV, which now operate as one organization, together had about $312,000 on hand at the start of February, compared to $3.05 million at the same point in 2022. That stems in part from lower fundraising totals for the group, which has become a big player in House and Senate races as it advocates for campaign finance reform and voting rights. ECU and LAV have raised $9.6 million so far this cycle, compared to $17 million in 2022. They’ve also taken out a $500,000 line of credit. The post-Trump fundraising cliff for many progressive groups is not unique to ECU: Many big organizations, from MoveOn to Fair Fight, have struggled with financial shortfalls and layoffs in recent months. ECU/LAV also raised a lot of money last cycle as part of a campaign to try to get voting rights legislation passed in 2021. “We’re proud of our work supporting campaigns and protecting democracy,” comms director JONAS EDWARDS-JENKS said in a statement, “and we’re confident that End Citizens United // Let America Vote will continue to be a force to be reckoned with this cycle and beyond.”
| | | | A message from ExxonMobil: The world needs ways to reduce carbon emissions. At ExxonMobil, we’re working on solutions in our own operations – like carbon capture and clean energy from hydrogen – that could also help in other industries like manufacturing, commercial transportation and power generation, too. Helping deliver heavy industry with low emissions. | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | At the White House Biden and the first lady will travel to Atlanta to participate in campaign events, before traveling to Wilmington, Delaware, in the evening. Harris will travel to Las Vegas, where she will participate in campaign events, before returning to Los Angeles in the evening.
| | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | 9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US
|  The Senate cleared a six-bill funding package on Friday, sending it to the White House just before the deadline to avoid a partial shutdown. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | 1. SHUTDOWN SCUTTLED: The Senate avoided a partial government shutdown yesterday evening by sending a six-bill, $459 billion funding package to Biden’s desk, our colleagues Caitlin Emma and Jennifer Scholtes write. “The upper chamber passed the measure 75-22 following votes on a handful of Republican amendments that failed on the floor. The bill takes care of budgets for more than a dozen federal departments and independent agencies that handle transportation, energy, housing, agriculture and veterans programs, among others.” What comes next: “Now, facing a deadline of March 22, appropriators and congressional leaders will look to close out work on a much bigger second spending bundle that would fund about 70 percent of the government, including the military and health, education and labor programs.” 2. RNC ROLL CALL: At yesterday’s RNC meeting in Houston, outgoing chair RONNA McDANIEL pressed the party to tweak its messaging on abortion, cautioning that the GOP will not reach independent and swing voters if they don’t on her final day in the post, Natalie Allison reports. “We cannot put our heads in the sand and ignore abortion and the Dobbs decision,” McDaniel said in her parting speech to the committee’s 168 committee members. “Many of our candidates chose to ignore this issue and not talk about it.” “Her guidance for Republicans is to emphasize support for ‘exceptions and reasonable limitations when a baby feels pain,’ while contrasting it with Democrats who she said support ‘no exceptions, no limits, not even when a baby feels pain,’ she reiterated Friday.” 3. PLAYING THE FIELD: As we turn to the general election rematch between Biden and Trump, there is an interesting dichotomy on display: While Biden has the advantage in the ground game, Trump is holding on to a firm lead in nearly every bit of polling. But the former president is ramping up his efforts to catch Biden on the ground, planning a blitz of the battleground states just as Biden’s reelection campaign kicks into high gear, WSJ’s Ken Thomas and Alex Leary write. The view from both sides:
- From Biden world: “Allies of the president said his performance during the prime-time speech, in which he jousted with congressional Republicans, calmed some concerns within the party about his abilities as he seeks re-election at age 81 as the nation’s oldest president.”
- From Trump’s camp: “Trump’s campaign wouldn’t reveal specifics about its key state operations but said it is confident the resources will be in place. … A senior Trump adviser, CHRIS LaCIVITA, said, ‘What advantage they may have in timing they will soon lose on message.’”
Related read: “The Biden-Trump Rerun: A Nation Craving Change Gets More of the Same,” by NYT’s Adam Nagourney and Shane Goldmacher 4. LABEL MAKER: As No Labels continues forward with its plan to stand up a “unity ticket” for the general election, the centrist group is considering putting former Georgia Lt. Gov. GEOFF DUNCAN at the helm, WSJ’s Cameron McWhirter and Kristina Peterson report. “Duncan, 48 years old, served as Georgia’s lieutenant governor from 2019 to early 2023. He was elected to office alongside Republican Gov. BRIAN KEMP. Because Duncan doesn’t have a big national profile, it would likely take considerable effort and money to introduce him to voters around the country.” Kemp also was extended an invitation by the group, which he declined. 5. HIGH AND DRY: “Biden Push to Ease Marijuana Restrictions Sparks Tensions,” by WSJ’s Sadie Gurman: “Under prompting from the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services last year recommended removing marijuana from the nation’s most restrictive category of drugs, where it has been for more than 50 years, alongside heroin and LSD. But some counterparts within the Drug Enforcement Administration are resistant, saying the drug’s medicinal benefits remain unproven and that it has a high potential for abuse, people familiar with the matter said.” 6. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: “How the U.S. military will use a floating pier to deliver Gaza aid,” by WaPo’s Alex Horton: “The U.S. military anticipates that a floating pier, to be built off Gaza’s coastline in coming weeks, will enable delivery of 2 million meals daily to Palestinians facing starvation, the Pentagon said Friday, describing its plan to address the worsening humanitarian crisis there without deploying American personnel directly into the war zone. Construction of the offshore pier and causeway connecting it to land will take as long as 60 days and require about 1,000 U.S. troops, Maj. Gen. PATRICK RYDER, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters.” 7. TIKTOK ON THE CLOCK: House GOP leadership is planning to move forward next week with a vote on the bipartisan TikTok bill, which aims to force ByteDance to sell the social media platform by threatening a ban — even in the face of opposition to the move from Trump, Semafor’s Kadia Goba and Morgan Chalfant report. “House Republican leaders huddled Friday morning to confirm the House would move forward on the TikTok bill with plans to bring it to the House floor under suspension, a maneuver that speeds the process and limits amendments to bills that can win a two-thirds majority vote, according to two sources familiar with the plans.” Biden also weighed in on the bill yesterday, signaling his support for the measure: “If they pass it, I’ll sign it,” he told reporters, per WSJ’s Stu Woo, Natalie Andrews and Kristina Peterson. 8. MISSED WARNING SIGNS: “FBI informant accused of smearing Bidens had past credibility issues,” by WaPo’s Isaac Stanley-Becker: “While mostly based in California, [ALEXANDER] SMIRNOV led a peripatetic life that, according to court documents, included frequent foreign travel to Ukraine, Israel and various European countries. He once listed his home address at a location that appeared actually to be a traffic median, records show. Multiple times, aggrieved business associates grew so suspicious of his activities that they hired private investigators to learn more about him, according to interviews and court filings. “A review of Smirnov’s business record, as well as years of legal disputes involving the 43-year-old, point to what former agents said were problems with his credibility that should have raised red flags for the government long before prosecutors charged him with lying. Especially glaring is the possibility that he was disclosing his government work, they said.” 9. THE CHIPS DIP: “How Congress defanged Biden’s big science push,” by Christine Mui: “The bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act — a law President Joe Biden name checked in his State of the Union address — was designed to flood the microchip industry with cash and shore up America’s commitment to basic research. Two years in, Congress has fully funded subsidies for chipmakers. The big boost in science, however, is way off target. While nearly $53 billion is going into reviving a homegrown semiconductor industry, Congress has gnawed away at the law’s ambitions on fundamental research and development aimed at staying ahead of China and other rivals in competitive fields like artificial intelligence.”
| | | | A message from ExxonMobil:   | | | CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 18 funnies
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| GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Ryan Lizza: — “The Golden Age Of American Jews Is Ending,” by The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer: “Anti-Semitism on the right and the left threatens to bring to a close an unprecedented period of safety and prosperity for Jewish Americans — and demolish the liberal order they helped establish.” — “This Prophetic Academic Now Foresees the West’s Defeat,” by NYT’s Christopher Caldwell: “American leadership is failing: That is the argument of an eccentric new book that since January has stood near the top of France’s best-seller lists.” — “Dark and Stormy,” by Jeffrey Toobin for Air Mail: “The porn star whose testimony could help convict Donald Trump before the election has a new career as a gay icon and no intention of paying the $670,000 that she owes the former president.” — “Laugh Riot,” by Fintan O’Toole for the NY Review of Books: “To understand Trump’s continuing hold over his fans, we have to ask: Why do they find him so funny?” — “Why Trump Will Need A Lot More Than $540 Million,” by Forbes’ Zach Everson: “Even if the ex-president figures out how to pay his mounting legal fees, he’s still going to be scrambling for cash for years to come.” — “Rage, waste and corruption: how Covid changed politics,” by The Guardian’s David Runciman: “Four years on from the start of the pandemic, the drama may have subsided but the lingering effects go on. Are we suffering from political long Covid?” — “The Sea Creatures That Opened a New Mystery About MH370,” by N.Y. Mag’s Jeff Wise: “Could freaky barnacles do what advanced technology couldn’t — find the missing plane?” — “S'more! S'more!” by Business Insider’s Adam Rogers: “His artisanal marshmallows were the greatest. Then he tried to scale them.” — “How Microsoft’s Bing Helps Maintain Beijing’s Great Firewall,” by Bloomberg’s Ryan Gallagher: “The company’s search engine does good business in China, a market Google and Facebook abandoned years ago.” — “Here's Why We Might Live in a Multiverse,” by Scientific American’s Sarah Scoles: “Several branches of modern physics, including quantum theory and cosmology, suggest our universe may be just one of many.”
| | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Jared Moskowitz, uh, was horny on main. Doug LaMalfa knows how to work the SOTU room. George Santos has spurred a bill to revoke expelled members’ House floor privileges. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Rachel Wagley, chief of staff to Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah), and Ted McCann, president of the Article One Group and a Paul Ryan alum, on March 3 welcomed their fourth child, Rose Evelyn McCann, at GW Hospital. She quickly got her first taste of Crumbl Cookie, a cookie company based in Utah’s 1st Congressional District. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) and Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho) … Raj Shah of the Rockefeller Foundation … NDRC’s John Bisognano … Tiffany Muller … Andrew Rafferty … Jake Lipsett … POLITICO’s Adam Aton, Fred William and Laura Bamford … Leah Nylen … Warren Rojas … NBC’s Doug Adams … DOE’s Spencer Thibodeau … Katie Schoettler … Haley Sweetland Edwards … Tom Matzzie … GM’s Reagan Payne Wicker … Harry Fones … Meta’s David Ginsberg … Bailey Mailloux … Lauren Cozzi … Ryan Diffley … Russell Drapkin … Tony Harrington … Sarah Swinehart Massey … Didem Nisanci … Bianca Padró Ocasio … Sadie Weiner … David Hume Kennerly … Kimberly Guilfoyle … Charlie Gibson … Michael Kinsley … EY's Margaret Carlson ... Linnaea Honl-Stuenkel ... Graham Brookie ... Michelle Merlin ... Stefani Jones THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here): FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) … Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Panel: Olivia Beavers, Francesca Chambers, Mollie Hemingway and Juan Williams. Sunday special: Tim Tebow. ABC “This Week”: Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) … Kara Swisher. Panel: Donna Brazile, Sarah Isgur, Averi Harper and Susan Page. CBS “Face the Nation”: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) … Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) … House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries … Gary Cohn. NBC “Meet the Press”: Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) … Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) … Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Panel: Eugene Daniels, Sara Fagen, Marc Morial and Kelly O’Donnell. NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas). Panel: Eliana Johnson, Sarah McCammon, David Drucker and Jeff Maurer. CNN “State of the Union”: Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) … North Carolina AG Josh Stein … Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). Panel: Scott Brown, Scott Jennings, Ashley Allison and Kate Bedingfield. MSNBC “The Sunday Show”: Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) … Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.). 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 Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath. Correction: Yesterday's Playbook misidentified Claudia Urrabazo Beckelman's employer. It is Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.).
| | | | A message from ExxonMobil: Heavy industry accounts for nearly 30% of global carbon emissions. For these businesses, setting and achieving meaningful carbon-reduction goals can be complex. At ExxonMobil, we’ve been working on reducing our own carbon emissions. At our Baytown plant, one of the world’s largest integrated refining and petrochemical operations, we’re working to deploy hydrogen power and carbon capture to reduce emissions by up to 30%. Now, we’re taking solutions like these to others in heavy industry. Using our technologies, we can help these businesses create a plan to make similar reductions. And together, we can deliver a lower-emissions future. Let’s deliver. | | | | | | | 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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