| | | | |  | | By Garrett Ross | | Presented by |  | | | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | | METRO SECTION MUST-READ — “Little League Scandal Roils Washington, D.C., Elite,” by WSJ’s James Fanelli: “[W]hen the moms and dads of Little Leaguers are law-firm partners, lobbyists and other Beltway heavy-hitters … [t]he result has been a bench-clearing brawl: Parents pitted against each other, a lawsuit, and an investigation by a white-shoe law firm. Baseball-gate even dragged parents’ employers into the bickering.”
|  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is once again raising the specter of ousting the House speaker. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | RINSE AND REPEAT? — House lawmakers approved a $1.2 trillion funding package shortly before noon, sending the massive spending measure off to the Senate with just hours — and a handful of votes — to spare before a partial shutdown. That news, however, was quickly overshadowed when Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) filed a motion-to-vacate resolution targeting House Speaker MIKE JOHNSON — thus threatening, as Olivia Beavers and Jordain Carney report, “a high-stakes vote of confidence” in his leadership after Johnson relied heavily on Democratic votes (185 of the 268 ayes) to pass the spending legislation. The move also threatens a potential reprise of the long and messy succession saga that ensued with Rep. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.) moved last fall to remove then-speaker KEVIN McCARTHY. But there’s a key difference: Greene isn’t yet forcing a vote on her measure, instead telling reporters that it’s a “warning” to Johnson as the House prepares to take up bills on Ukraine aid, surveillance powers and more in the coming months. “The clock has started,” she said. “It’s time for our conference to pick a new speaker.” One big difference this time: Conservative hard-liners are not in lockstep behind ousting Johnson, with Gaetz among several others saying they oppose getting rid of Johnson. Some Democrats, who banded together with the hard right to oust McCarthy, are also suggesting they’d protect Johnson against an MTG-led putsch. Another important fact: The House is now on a two-week recess, returning April 9. More on the minibus: Caitlin Emma and Jennifer Scholtes have more details on the 286-134 vote: “Just 101 Republicans supported the measure, falling short of a majority of the GOP conference. The vote was held less than 36 hours after more than 1,000 pages of bill text was released in the middle of the night, a fact that infuriated conservatives.” The Senate appears on track to pass the bill sometime tonight, though that depends on cutting an amendment deal with a small group of holdouts. One possibility on the table, per Burgess Everett: a Sen. MIKE LEE (R-Utah) joint that would strip out an expansion of the Senate leadership staffs. TAKING STOCK — After a week of headlines questioning his dire financial situation, DONALD TRUMP got a gust of wind behind his sails this morning after shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp. voted to approve a merger deal with Trump Media & Technology, clearing the way for Trump’s Truth Social to begin trading on the stock market. The fine print: As our Declan Harty and Victoria Giuda laid out this morning, Trump won’t actually see the windfall line his pockets for some time to come, but the move is a nice booster for his net worth. “He would own most of the combined company — or nearly 79 million shares,” the AP notes. “Multiply that by Digital World’s closing stock price Thursday of $42.81, and the total value of Trump’s stake could surpass $3 billion. The shares did fall 6% after the merger approval was disclosed.” Happy Friday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. This Kentucky basketball fan is still licking his wounds after a shocking upset at the hands of Oakland University last night. How busted is your bracket? Let me know: gross@politico.com.
| | A message from the American Bankers Association: Credit card points and cash back rewards help Americans save, travel and shop — but some in Congress want to end those benefits, just like they shut down debit card rewards in 2011. The misguided Durbin-Marshall bill would eliminate credit card rewards, reduce access to credit cards and jeopardize consumer privacy. Don’t let lawmakers take away your hard-earned rewards just to pad the profits of corporate mega retailers. Tell Congress to oppose Durbin-Marshall. Act now. | | | | | 7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | |  Mike Johnson is struggling to meet the speaker's standard of fundraising. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | 1. YOWZA: “House Speaker’s Unpopularity With Rich Donors Widens Republicans’ Fundraising Gap,” by Bloomberg’s Steven Dennis, Bill Allison and Billy House: “Johnson, who lacks McCarthy’s fundraising prowess and deep business ties, has dramatically ramped up meetings with donors, traveling to 50 cities in nearly 20 states. But the party’s deficit with Democrats is growing, according to federal filings. The gap echoes a trend at the presidential level in which President Joe Biden is vastly out-raising presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.” So what’s the rub?: “Johnson’s reputation as a devout evangelical Christian who frequently makes biblical references is at odds with the beliefs of some business executives invited to meetings and dinners, one person familiar with GOP fundraising said.” 2. HUR SIDE OF THE STORY: Special counsel ROBERT HUR gives his first interview since the release of his controversial report, in which he slammed Biden’s mental acuity while declining to prosecute the president for his handling of classified documents. “I knew it was going to be unpleasant,” Hur told the New Yorker’s Jeannie Suk Gersen, “but the level of vitriol — it’s hard to know exactly how intense that’s going to be until the rotten fruit is being thrown at you.” Gersen concludes: “As we delved into how he wrote the report — and I shared some of my own concerns about his approach — it became clear to me that we were talking across something of a disconnect, between what the public needs from a special counsel and how a well-trained Justice Department prosecutor conceives of the role.” 3. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: Russia and China this morning at the U.N. Security Council voted to veto a resolution led by the U.S. that voiced support for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war contingent on the release of hostages, Eric Bazail-Eimil writes. “The resolution voiced support for an ‘immediate and sustained’ cease-fire contingent on the release of hostages, calling it ‘an imperative.’ It also condemned the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas and continued attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, while reiterating the need for a two-state solution to solve the decadeslong Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The wording of the resolution was the sharpest to date that the United States has proposed to the world body on the Israel-Hamas war.” 4. DIRTY LAUNDRY: “The A.C.L.U. Said a Worker Used Racist Tropes and Fired Her. But Did She?” by NYT’s Jeremy Peters: “Did her language add up to racism? Or was she just speaking harshly about bosses who happened to be Black? That question is the subject of an unusual unfair-labor-practice case brought against the A.C.L.U. by the National Labor Relations Board, which has accused the organization of retaliating against [KATE] OH. A trial in the case wrapped up this week in Washington, and a judge is expected to decide in the next few months whether the A.C.L.U. was justified in terminating her. If the A.C.L.U. loses, it could be ordered to reinstate her or pay restitution.”
| | | | On the ground in Albany. Get critical policy news and analysis inside New York State. Track how power brokers are driving change across legislation and budget and impacting lobbying efforts. Learn more. | | | | | 5. KNOWING JONATHAN KANTER: “The Trustbuster Who Has Apple and Google in His Sights,” by NYT’s David McCabe: “Shortly after Jonathan Kanter took over the Justice Department’s antitrust division in November 2021, the agency secured an additional $50 million to investigate monopolies, bust criminal cartels and block mergers. To celebrate, Mr. Kanter bought a prop of a giant check, placed it outside his office and wrote on the check’s memo line: ‘Break ’Em Up.’ Mr. Kanter, 50, has pushed that philosophy ever since, becoming a lead architect of the most significant effort in decades to fight the concentration of power in corporate America. On Thursday, he took his biggest swing when the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple.” 6. LEARNING FROM HISTORY: “What Happened When India Pulled the Plug on TikTok,” by NYT’s Alex Travelli and Suhasini Raj in New Delhi: “The decision by India to cut its population off from TikTok was as sudden as the American efforts, which began in 2020, are protracted. But the motivation was similar — and even more dramatic. Whereas the United States and China are engaged in a new kind of cold war over economic dominance, India and China have had troops standing off at their border since 1962. In 2020, that frozen conflict turned hot. In one night of brutal hand-to-hand combat, 20 Indian soldiers were killed, along with at least four Chinese, which China never officially confirmed. Two weeks later, India switched off TikTok.” 7. INTO THE ARCHIVES: “Obama Feared a ‘One-Term Presidency’ After Passing Health Care Law,” by NYT’s Peter Baker: “He turned out to be wrong, but the fatalism Mr. Obama expressed privately that day captured the weighty consequences of one of Washington’s most high-wire legislative battles in modern times. A new set of oral histories released on Friday, on the eve of its 14th anniversary on Saturday, documents the behind-the-scenes struggle to transform the nation’s health care system to cover tens of millions of Americans without insurance. The interviews of key players in the drama were conducted by Incite, a social science research institute at Columbia University, and were made public as the second tranche of a yearslong effort to document the eventful times under the nation’s 44th president.”
| | | | Easily connect with the right N.Y. State influencers and foster the right relationships to champion your policy priorities. POLITICO Pro. Inside New York. Learn more. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Ronna McDaniel is joining NBC News as a political analyst beginning on Sunday. Candace Owens is out at The Daily Wire after “months of promoting antisemitic ideas.” Mark Warner was very generous when asked if he would contribute to Donald Trump’s legal fund. IN MEMORIAM — “Hal Malchow, data-minded Democratic strategist, dies at 72,” by WaPo’s Emily Langer: “Political science, he argued, should be just that — a science, like medicine or any other, informed by data gathered in randomized controlled trials, the gold standard of laboratory experimentation. … Mr. Malchow worked for every Democratic presidential nominee from Michael S. Dukakis in 1988 to John F. Kerry in 2004, more than 30 U.S. senators and 20 governors, and organizations including the Democratic National Committee, the AFL-CIO, the Sierra Club and Emily’s List, which seeks to help elect women who support abortion rights to office.” OUT AND ABOUT — The Embassy of Norway hosted the 10th Arctic Cool party at the Residence of Ambassador Anniken Krutnes, featuring a rock concert by Suspicious Package and DJ Ben Chang. SPOTTED: Czech Ambassador Miloslav Stasek, Estonia Ambassador Kristjan Prikk, Greece Ambassador Ekaterini Nassika, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), Artur Orkisz, Christina Sevilla, Tim Burger, Josh Meyer, Bryan Greene, Jim Acosta, Liz Landers, Carl Hulse, Jeff Zeleny, Fin Gomez, Steve Rochlin, Raquel Krähenbühl, Kate Sullivan, Maggie Dougherty, Luiza Savage, Kevin Baron, Jonas Ervik and Mirjam Ehl. — Waymo held its first ever safety policy forum at the Google/Waymo D.C. office yesterday, where attendees discussed advancements in autonomous vehicle technology and how AVs improve road safety. SPOTTED: Michelle Peacock, Jane Terry, Pam Fischer, Matt Schwall, David Vise, Jeff Farrah, Diego Deleersnyder, Matt Furlow, Chris MacKenzie, Andre Welch, John Pare, Cameron O’Brien and Paul Wasik. TRANSITION — Meredith Sumpter is joining FairVote as president and CEO. She most recently was CEO and president of the board of both the Council for Inclusive Capitalism and the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism. 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.
| | | | A message from the American Bankers Association:   | | | | | | | 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 politics and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment