| | | | |  | | By Eli Okun | Presented by the Coalition to Preserve American Jobs | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | |  President Joe Biden is fighting hard to today to reassure his party. | Hannah Yoon for POLITICO | SHOULD HE STAY OR SHOULD HE GO? — With Congress returning to Washington today, the big question is whether Democratic leaders will marshal momentum to tell President JOE BIDEN to drop out of the presidential race. But Biden got a head start this morning, going on offense to declare forcefully that he’s not going anywhere. “I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat DONALD TRUMP in 2024,” Biden wrote in a campaign letter to congressional Democrats. While he said he was “not blind” to voters’ good-faith concerns about his candidacy, he emphasized that now was the moment for Democrats to unite behind him — and that doing otherwise would undermine the democratic will of the primary voters. He also sent a memo highlighting his stepped-up presence on the campaign trail, per CBS’ Nikole Killion and Scott MacFarlane. And he’s delivering a similar message on a donor call this afternoon. Then, in a somewhat Trumpian move, Biden called into MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to rail against the “elites” who want him out of the race. In an energetic phone appearance, he emphasized that he’s “not had many” nights like his debate disaster and that he has the cognitive ability for another term. Biden blasted the “millionaires” and other prominent names who have called for him to drop out (belying the polling that shows significant grassroots support for his departure) and pooh-poohed the credibility of surveys that clearly show he’s losing. Biden’s strategy to try to cleave the conversation about him dropping out along populist, elites-vs.-voters lines may not be backed up by the data, but he nonetheless got some notable support today from members of Congress who said they were sticking with the president. Most significant: Congressional Black Caucus Chair STEVEN HORSFORD (D-Nev.). Michigan Gov. GRETCHEN WHITMER also told AP’s Joey Cappelletti and Isabella Volmert that she wouldn’t run if Biden exited. The Biden campaign is also going full steam ahead with a new ad campaign hitting Trump on abortion, as NYT’s Simon Levien reports, and a JILL BIDEN-led effort to highlight military and veteran families’ support for Biden, as AP’s Darlene Superville reports. Nevertheless, worries remain rampant among Democrats. WaPo’s Ashley Parker reports that “the consensus among Democratic senators is that Biden needs to step down.” Over the weekend, top Wall Street donors worried and discussed whether Biden should withdraw, per NYT’s DealBook. Other donors are starting to turn away and focus on down-ballot races, Emily Ngo reports from New York. And even inside the White House, many aides are “despondent” and fearful, CNN’s MJ Lee reports. The upshot of the past couple of weeks: Biden has stumbled badly in his effort to make the election all about Trump, NYT’s Reid Epstein writes, as he needs to re-convince his own party now before he can persuade the public that Trump poses a threat to the country. What to watch next:
- We’re told that House Armed Services ranking member ADAM SMITH (D-Wash.), who reportedly called for Biden to go during a private conference call yesterday, will be on with CNN’s Jake Tapper at the top of the 4 p.m. hour.
- Trump, meanwhile, who has mostly stayed surprisingly quiet through Biden’s whole snafu, will be on to discuss it all with Fox News’ Sean Hannity tonight, per Brian Stelter.
Good Monday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at eokun@politico.com.
| | | | A message from the Coalition to Preserve American Jobs: IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel is telling 150,000-300,000 small businesses with low risk Employee Retention Credit claims to wait longer for relief they desperately need. That’s wrong.
Former IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig told POLITICO, “The already identified low risk ERC claims, submitted by struggling businesses, should be approved immediately.” American businesses can’t afford to wait longer for overdue aid. Urge the IRS to process low risk ERC claims immediately. Visit ERCSavesJobs.com/take-action. | | | | | 9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | |  The GOP platform is the latest instance of the Republican Party remaking itself in Donald Trump’s image. | Gerald Herbert, File/AP Photo | 1. CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: After weeks of speculation and behind-the-scenes jostling, we have confirmation: Trump’s aides have crafted a Republican Party platform for the convention that pulls back on anti-abortion language and sidesteps a call for a national ban for the first time in 40 years, WaPo’s Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey report. And the platform committee rapidly passed the document today, sending it to the full convention next week. The platform, which amounts to a bitter loss for social conservatives, also removes opposition to same-sex marriage and adds new calls for tariffs and mass deportations. Megan Messerly and Natalie Allison report that Trump wrote some of the language himself. It’s all part of the remaking of the GOP in Trump’s image, and it “reads almost like one of his rally speeches,” the Post writes. As NYT’s Robert Draper wrote earlier today, the 112 delegates on the committee are emerging with a much shorter set of fundamental principles than in previous years — essentially, going in “whatever direction Mr. Trump would like.” We also got new details on the Republican National Convention’s schedule next week: Each day, in order, will center on making America “wealthy,” “safe,” “strong” and “great,” “once again,” per NYT’s Shane Goldmacher. Also on the docket: rapper/model AMBER ROSE will speak, per CNN’s Kristen Holmes. 2. IMMIGRATION FILES: Though Biden came into office promising a much gentler approach to immigration than Trump, he has ended up using many hard-line tactics of his own. To wit: Reuters’ Ben Kellerman, Mica Rosenberg and Ted Hesson report that in fiscal years 2023 and 2024, deportations are now higher under Biden than under Trump. That’s largely due to higher numbers of border-crossers, though deportations are still lower than under BARACK OBAMA. Meanwhile, WSJ’s Jack Gillum and Michelle Hackman reveal that the Biden administration’s alternative to locking migrant children up in detention centers came with its own risks. In 2021, U.S. officials sent many unaccompanied minors to live with temporary guardians even when lower-level caseworkers had raised concerns about the safety or appropriateness of those households. In response, HHS officials “stressed that proposed guardians go through several layers of review.” 3. TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES: “A billionaire is boosting a major defamation lawsuit against Fox News,” by WaPo’s Jeremy Barr: “[REID] HOFFMAN, a co-founder of LinkedIn, has made a multimillion-dollar investment intended in part to help [Smartmatic] sustain its costly litigation [against Fox News and Newsmax]. … In a statement, a Fox representative portrayed Hoffman’s involvement in the case as politically motivated.” 4. CASH DASH: House Democrats’ outside groups said they pulled in $51 million in the second quarter, Ally Mutnick reports. The haul from House Majority PAC and House Majority Forward way surpasses their first-quarter fundraising or their money in the equivalent 2022 quarter, giving Dems a boost as they seek to flip the chamber in November.
| | | | POLITICO AND WELT EVENT TUESDAY 7/9: Join POLITICO and WELT for a roundtable discussion on July 9 with the top defense officials in NATO countries that share a border with Russia, including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. These are the crucial officials tasked with armoring these front-line states against Vladimir Putin’s aggressive expansionism. We will discuss how they are adapting to this new period of danger and explore the future of the NATO alliance and their relationship with the United States. Register here. | | | | | 5. DANCE OF THE SUPERPOWERS: “China Outspends the U.S. on Fusion in the Race for Energy’s Holy Grail,” by WSJ’s Jennifer Hiller and Sha Hua: “China is outspending the U.S., completing a massive fusion technology campus and launching a national fusion consortium that includes some of its largest industrial companies. Crews in China work in three shifts, essentially around the clock, to complete fusion projects. And the Asian superpower has 10 times as many Ph.D.s in fusion science and engineering as the U.S. The result is an increasing worry among American officials and scientists that an early U.S. lead is slipping away.” 6. SWING-STATE DISPATCH: In Las Vegas, Democrats are losing major ground with Latino voters — regardless of whether Biden or VP KAMALA HARRIS is the nominee, WaPo’s Sabrina Rodriguez and Ronda Churchill report. They find a familiar story: voters fed up with the election, unexcited about their choices, blaming the Biden administration for not making enough progress on inflation and immigration, and sometimes open to Trump on economic grounds. 7. BIG BEN SHAPIRO PROFILE: “Ben Shapiro, the Right’s Millennial Moses, Builds Empire in Wilderness,” by RealClearPolitics’ Philip Wegmann: “Shapiro believes the right is about to royally screw itself. … He deems the old guard, who populate places like National Review and the Wall Street Journal editorial page, too weak to police the gate. … An overcorrection to the right, Shapiro and company seem to believe, is the only way to wrestle back society from the left. Only by providing an alternative, by eating into the market share of companies that have gone ‘woke,’ can corporations be cajoled into neutrality.” A couple of other bites from the story: Shapiro will testify about Facebook before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. And his podcast is one of the few to which Speaker MIKE JOHNSON says he listens. 8. FACT CHECK: Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate DAVID McCORMICK boasts of having created 1,000 jobs as a businessman. But WHYY-FM’s Carmen Russell-Sluchansky digs into the records and finds otherwise: “[T]he numbers suggest that the company shed local jobs under McCormick while growing overseas operations.” 9. BEYOND THE BELTWAY: “9 Mayors on What Divides America, and What Will Save It,” by NYT’s Mitch Smith: “[D]espite deep concern about the country’s future, the view from city hall was not all bleak. … [M]ayors mostly described a country that was not as divided as the election year rancor suggested. … The mayors spoke soberly about problems facing their cities — violence, climate change, housing instability — but also hopefully about the people and places they led.”
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO GLOBAL PLAYBOOK: Don’t miss out on POLITICO’s Global Playbook, our newsletter taking you inside pivotal discussions at the most influential gatherings in the world. Suzanne Lynch delivers the world's elite and influential moments directly to you. Stay in the global loop. SUBSCRIBE NOW. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Bob Menendez’s trial is beginning closing arguments this afternoon. Greg Lopez will be sworn in as the newest member of Congress this evening. Liz Cheney will receive this year’s Fordham-Stein Prize. Ira Glass doesn’t mind if you listen at double speed. IN MEMORIAM — “Wayne S. Smith, diplomat who resigned over U.S. policy toward Cuba, dies at 91,” by WaPo’s Matt Schudel: “He invited controversy with his outspoken advocacy of restoring normal relations between the countries.” HOT JOB: Rapid response comms manager for the Biden campaign, via Daybook. MEDIA MOVES — Steve Clemons has left Semafor, where he was founding editor at large. He’s instead focusing full time on his events business, Widehall LLC. … Melanie Zanona is joining Punchbowl as a senior congressional reporter. She previously was a Capitol Hill reporter at CNN, and is a POLITICO alum. TRANSITION — Isaiah Menning is now an external affairs manager at the American Conservation Coalition. He is a recent Dartmouth College graduate. 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: Tuesday’s Playbook PM misspelled Ariel Wittenberg’s name.
| | | | A message from the Coalition to Preserve American Jobs:   | | | | | | | 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