| | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels and Ryan Lizza | Presented by the Coalition to Preserve American Jobs | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | | 
After an assassination attempt, Donald Trump himself called on Americans to “stand United, and show our True Character as Americans.” | Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo | THE LATEST — DONALD TRUMP this morning thanked his supporters and said “it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.” … FBI identifies Pennsylvania shooter as 20-year-old THOMAS MATTHEW CROOKS, a registered Republican who also donated to a liberal group in 2021. … President JOE BIDEN expected to make on-camera remarks after briefing from homeland security and law enforcement officials. …Trump campaign officials say RNC will go on as planned. … ICYMI: Playbook’s special late-night edition THE MORNING AFTER — In the hours after a would-be assassin’s bullets narrowly missed Trump, America’s leaders are grappling with a choice: to embrace and exacerbate the divisions that have racked our politics, or to call for calm — a national lowering of the rhetorical temperature. This morning, thankfully, there are early signs that many are choosing the latter course. Trump himself called on Americans to “stand United, and show our True Character as Americans.” MELANIA TRUMP implored Americans to “look beyond the left and the right, the red and the blue.” And Speaker MIKE JOHNSON implored the nation to “turn the rhetoric down.” “Obviously, we can’t go on like this as a society,” Johnson said on NBC. “We’ve got to turn the temperature down in this country. And we need leaders of all parties on both sides to call that out.” But just 12 hours ago, we’ll note, the landscape looked entirely different. Republican after Republican reacted with fury and recriminations to the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, which resulted in minor injuries to Trump but left one rallygoer dead and two others hospitalized. The incendiary remarks came from some of the most prominent members of the GOP, including some vying to be Trump’s running mate, who spoke with no knowledge about the shooter’s motives:
- “This was an assassination attempt aided and abetted by the radical Left and corporate media incessantly calling Trump a threat to democracy, fascists, or worse,” said Sen. TIM SCOTT (R-S.C.)
- “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination,” said Sen. J.D. VANCE (R-Ohio).
- “They tried to impeach him. They are trying to imprison him. Now, they have tried to assassinate him,” said Rep. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.).
- “Democrats wanted this to happen,” said Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.).
- “Joe Biden sent the orders,” said Rep. MIKE COLLINS (R-Ga.), adding that Biden should be prosecuted for inciting the assassination attempt.
This morning, however, top Republicans are sending a clear message to cool it. Trump campaign leaders SUSIE WILES and CHRIS LaCIVITA wrote in an internal campaign memo that they “will not tolerate dangerous rhetoric on social media.” LaCivita himself deleted a posting where he said, “they tried to keep him off the ballot, they tried to put him in jail and now you see this,” as WaPo’s Michael Scherer notes. Same for Rep. MIKE KELLY (R-Pa.) — a Butler native who was at the rally — who scrubbed, “We will not tolerate this attack from the left,” from an early post. But not everyone is rising to the moment. DONALD TRUMP JR. wrote on X this morning that “Dems and their friends in the media knew exactly what they were doing with the ‘literally Hitler’ bullshit!” He added that if “Democrats got their way, my dad would be dead right now. Don’t let them memory hole it.” THE ISSUE TO WATCH — If there’s one thing with the potential to unite or divide Washington right now, it’s security. Partisans on both sides are wondering the same thing: How the hell did a gunman get a rifle on a roof within 150 yards of a former president and presumptive nominee? There are some signs of emerging comity: Reps. MIKE LAWLER (R-N.Y.) and RITCHIE TORRES (D-N.Y.) say they will jointly submit legislation that would enhance Secret Service protections for all presidential nominees. Johnson and other Hill Republicans are demanding immediate answers from the Secret Service, with Oversight Chair JAMES COMER (R-Ky.) already summoning Director KIMBERLY CHEATLE for testimony July 22 — the first day Congress is back in session. But on another front, the response has been sharply partisan — with Republicans accusing Democrats of playing politics with Trump’s security by proposing to withdraw his Secret Service detail if sent to prison. “This should be a sobering reminder to them & others on the Left that their rhetoric & actions matter.” Homeland Security Chair MICHAEL McCAUL (R-Texas) wrote, attacking the bill introduced in April amid Trump’s hush money trial by Rep. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-Miss.). Thompson pushed back, saying his bill would have had no impact on Trump’s protection in Pennsylvania: “It aims to clarify lines of authority when a protectee is sentenced to prison and is in the custody of another law enforcement agency,” he said, per Kerry Picket of The Washington Times. Thompson, we’ll also note, is facing heat for a staffer’s ugly Facebook remark in the immediate aftermath of the shooting: “I don’t condone violence but please get you some shooting lessons so you don’t miss next time ooops that wasn’t me talking,” wrote field director JACQUELINE MARSAW. Marsaw removed the post under orders from Thompson’s office, she told local news station WJTV: “I got overwhelmed in the moment. I am a diehard Democrat,” she said. We’ll just say: Now more than ever, it doesn’t hurt not to post. Good Sunday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
| | | | 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. | | | WHAT WE’RE THINKING ABOUT — We’re not even 18 hours past this event of significant national trauma, and we have more questions than answers about what’s going to happen next. Here’s a few of the questions on our minds here at Playbook:
- Will Biden make a grand gesture? At a moment where his opponent is not only a victim of shocking violence but also projecting determination and resolve, how will the president demonstrate leadership? More to the point, how will he demonstrate that he is the uniter he has long portrayed himself as? He’s set to speak at 1:30 p.m.
- How will Trump reemerge? His campaign says the show will go on in Milwaukee, culminating in his acceptance speech Thursday. But will he seize this moment of great national sympathy to appeal to a broader group of Americans than he’s accustomed to speaking to — perhaps through a major televised interview with a blue-chip network interviewer?
- Will the MAGA rally ever be the same? Last night’s event was quintessential Trump: a big, raucous, outdoor rally in rural America attended by thousands. It would stand to reason that the Trump campaign and Secret Service would have second thoughts about staging another anytime soon. But will the candidate insist otherwise?
- Does this affect Trump’s VP calculations? We were expecting a running-mate announcement as soon as last night. Now we’re not so sure what to expect. Does his brush with mortality change his thinking on who might be best for the job? Does it affect the theatrics of what has been envisioned as an “Apprentice”-style announcement?
- Will Democrats talk differently about democracy? In the finger-pointing that immediately followed the shooting last night, many Republicans blamed rhetoric on the left calling Trump a “threat to democracy.” We’re wondering if that talk gets muted at all — and how the violence of Jan. 6 will be discussed in this new and sobering context.
- Will this be a political slam dunk for Trump? We do know that the shooting is galvanizing the GOP ahead of their convention this week. The image of Trump praising his fist on stage in defiance has “electrified and emboldened” the party, as our Jonathan Martin wrote overnight, “while it sobered Democrats who were already nervous about the threat of political violence and their diminished prospects this fall.”
- Or maybe not? Some Democrats we were in touch with last night agreed with snap Republican predictions that Trump could only benefit. But not all are convinced, given that little seems to have shaken the neck-and-neck polling. As one Democratic aide texted us early this morning, the fence-sitters “think Trump is nuts and Biden is too old. I don’t think this makes them shift to Trump.”
- What about Biden’s prospects? The bigger question for Democrats right now is whether the events in Pennsylvania end the effort to dump Biden from their ticket — or supercharge it. In the hours before the shooting, Biden continued to project defiance in calls with key Hill caucuses, even yelling at Rep. JASON CROW (D-Colo.) for questioning his ability to lead on national security matters.
MORE BIG READS …
- “A Nation on Edge Fears an Election Careening Toward an Ugly Finish,” by WSJ’s Aaron Zitner and Clare Ansberry: “A nation barely removed from the violent end to the 2020 election, which included several deaths tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, has since been whipsawed by a cascade of jolts to the system. … Now, America is faced with the realization that political violence has struck at a moment when the nation is on the cusp of deciding its next president.”
- “Shooting at Trump rally spotlights rising violence that has become America’s political reality,” by Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein: “The attack on Trump is already a defining moment for the country and the 2024 election. And it arrived against the backdrop of a government already inundated by threats that have become facts of the job for members of Congress, judges and other prominent officials. Those threats are punctuated by occasional, but repeated, outbreaks of actual violence.”
- “‘A fundamental security failure’: How did a gunman open fire on a Trump rally?” by NBC’s Jon Schuppe, Janelle Griffith, Rich Schapiro and Dasha Burns: “The assassination attempt, in which Crooks fired multiple shots at the stage from a roof outside the venue’s security perimeter, appeared to be the result of a grave lapse, perhaps the biggest since President RONALD REAGAN was shot and wounded outside a Washington hotel in 1981.”
- “After Trump Shooting, America Reverts to Blaming the Other Side,” by Michael Schaffer: “You might imagine that a possible assassination of a leading presidential candidate would be a scared-straight moment for a nation that has been sleepwalking into a culture of political contempt, delegitimization and tribalism. But before anything, it was right back to reflexive criticism of the media, vitriol for the other side and conspiracy theories.”
SUNDAY BEST … — Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “What we need as a nation, what a democracy is about, is not radical rhetoric. What it is about is a serious discussion of where we are as a nation and how we go forward. … Politics should be kind of boring. … What we have got to see is serious discussion of serious issues, and not this kind of harsh rhetoric that we have heard for the last number of years.” — RNC Chair MICHAEL WHATLEY on security for the convention, on “Fox News Sunday”: “The arena’s set. The security is here. And we feel very comfortable that we’re working with the Secret Service, we’re working with 40 different law enforcement agencies, in terms of what that security is going to look like. And this is going to be a facility where we’re going to be able to have 50,000 delegates and alternates and guests and members of the media, who are going to be here and who are going to be safe.” — Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) on Republicans blaming Democratic rhetoric for the shooting, on “Meet the Press”: “There is a frustration on our side about the way President Trump has been treated. But I’m just grateful today that he’s alive. I mourn for the man who didn’t make it. And we’ll have a chance here to talk about what’s best for America. But let’s just, today, be grateful that our former president, political nominee, survived an assassination attempt. And let’s try to do better here. I don’t want to go down that road right now.” TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces.
| | | | A message from the Coalition to Preserve American Jobs:   | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | At the White House Biden got a homeland security and law enforcement briefing this morning in the wake of the apparent Trump assassination attempt, with Harris attending. He’ll deliver remarks this afternoon.
| | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | | | 
President Joe Biden is still facing intense skepticism from Democrats, but he has gotten support from some prominent progressives. | Valaurian Waller for POLITICO | 9 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR 1. SHOULD HE STAY OR SHOULD HE GO: Facing deep concerns from Democrats about whether he should drop out of the race, Biden got angry on a call with the centrist New Democrat Coalition yesterday, Sarah Ferris reports. “I don’t want to hear that crap,” the president said when Crow brought up voter concerns about his national security leadership. Other members worried about his poor polling, which he largely dismissed. And the call ended quickly before some of his biggest critics could speak. Meanwhile, former Oklahoma Gov. DAVID WALTERS proposed a potential plan to replace Biden if he steps aside, WaPo’s Michael Scherer reports, starting in late July. He’s on the party’s executive committee. And some liberal groups are conducting polling that shows Harris doing better than Biden, NBC’s Yamiche Alcindor reports. But Biden is getting support from a surprising group: progressives. He held a call with the House’s left flank yesterday. Sanders gave a big show of support with an NYT op-ed. And WaPo’s Jeff Stein reports on how he and Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.) have helped save Biden so far, including the news that Sanders urged Biden to turn around his fortunes by rolling out plans to help working-class people in the first 100 days of a second term. Survey says: Three major new polls out this morning all paint the same picture of Trump narrowly leading. An NBC national survey has Trump ahead of Biden by 2 points, the same margin as in April, per Steve Kornacki. He would also be up 2 points over Harris. … CBS finds Trump beating Biden in a head-to-head race by 2 points in each of the six swing states Biden won in 2020, and by 4 in North Carolina. … And Fox News finds Trump ahead by 1 point nationally, or by 3 in a multi-candidate field — a reversal from Biden’s lead in June. 2. DEMOCRACY WATCH: “Unbowed by Jan. 6 Charges, Republicans Pursue Plans to Contest a Trump Defeat,” by NYT’s Jim Rutenberg and Nick Corasaniti: “The Republican Party and its conservative allies are engaged in an unprecedented legal campaign targeting the American voting system. Their wide-ranging and methodical effort is laying the groundwork to contest an election that they argue, falsely, is already being rigged against former President Donald J. Trump. … [U]nlike the chaotic and improvised challenge four years ago, the new drive includes a systematic search for any vulnerability in the nation’s patchwork election system. “Mr. Trump’s allies have followed a two-pronged approach: restricting voting for partisan advantage ahead of Election Day and short-circuiting the process of ratifying the winner afterward, if Mr. Trump loses. The latter strategy involves an ambitious — and legally dubious — attempt to reimagine decades of settled law dictating how results are officially certified in the weeks before the transfer of power.” 3. VEEPSTAKES: As of yesterday afternoon, Trump still hadn’t given an official offer to any of his top three running-mate prospects, ABC’s John Santucci, Katherine Faulders and Rick Klein report. But he’d just met at Mar-a-Lago with each of them: Vance, North Dakota Gov. DOUG BURGUM and Sen. MARCO RUBIO (R-Fla.). He’ll have to make a decision before he is nominated in Milwaukee later this week. 4. CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: The Trump campaign rolled out their list of speakers for this week’s convention, Axios’ Lauren Floyd reports. Some have already been reported, but among the notable names are VIVEK RAMASWAMY, DAVID SACKS, TOM HOMAN, CHARLIE KIRK, PERRY JOHNSON, DANA WHITE, FRANKLIN GRAHAM and LEE GREENWOOD. Plenty of Trump family members are on the docket, too, though apparently not Melania. On the flip side, Democrats are preparing to craft their official policy platform, and Lisa Kashinsky and Elena Schneider scooped the party’s draft proposal. The ideas include some of Biden’s main second-term plans, including taxing billionaires, easing access to child care and bolstering green energy, though it doesn’t go for some of the most hot-button progressive ideas and it walks a tricky line on the Middle East. It also focuses heavily on contrasting with Trump.
| | | | 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 that they will have to wait even longer for relief they desperately need. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Former IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig told POLITICO, “The already identified low risk ERC claims, submitted by struggling businesses, should be approved immediately.” Instead of following the law, Commissioner Werfel has unilaterally acted to make our nation’s small businesses unnecessarily suffer for months on end. 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. | | | 5. PRIMARY COLORS: In Minnesota’s most competitive congressional race, a messy GOP primary just got a whole lot cleaner. TAYLER RAHM announced that he’d drop out to work instead as the Trump campaign’s senior adviser in the state, the Star Tribune’s Sydney Kashiwagi reports. That should clear the way for JOE TEIRAB, who is much better funded but lost the party’s grassroots endorsement, to win the primary and take on Democratic Rep. ANGIE CRAIG. The Trump campaign is also tapping BLAKE PAULSON as Minnesota state director. 6. ONE TO WATCH: “Fears grow about election deniers’ influence after bizarre decision in Nevada race,” by CBS’ Madeleine May: “Washoe County Board Commissioner CLARA ANDRIOLA won her primary in June by nearly 19 points over her main challenger, MARK LAWSON. Lawson requested a recount, which showed the initial tally in the race was valid. And yet, at Tuesday’s commission meeting, Andriola sided with two other Republican commissioners in agreeing to not certify the results of her own election. … The vote this week represented the latest sign that local officials could be persuaded by election deniers to delay or withhold certification of election results.” 7. IMMIGRATION FILES: “Many Aging Migrants Pay Taxes. They Stare Down a Retirement With No Benefits,” by WSJ’s Adolfo Flores and Arian Campo-Flores: “A growing number of undocumented immigrants are hitting retirement age without savings or the cushion of Social Security or Medicare, making up a contingent of baby boomers who are financially insecure and poised to strain community services. Many opt to continue working until they are physically unable, while others rely on help from younger family members. Some are making plans to head back to their native countries.” 8. LITTLE ROCKET MAN: In response to new joint nuclear deterrence guidelines from the U.S. and South Korea, North Korea responded yesterday in typically bombastic fashion that they would pay “an unimaginably harsh price,” per AP’s Hyung-Jin Kim. KIM JONG UN’s government claimed, without evidence, that the guidelines were a pretext to invade or declare nuclear war on North Korea. 9. FENTANYL FILES: “America’s front line against fentanyl is a Golden Retriever named Goose,” by Reuters’ Ted Hesson in San Diego: “The border crossing is open around the clock and dogs contend with exhaust fumes, hot pavement and unpredictable workdays that can go from routine to tense in seconds. … Despite millions of dollars in technology that allows CBP to scan vehicles and data analytics that help target possible smugglers, a dog’s sense of smell remains a vital tool for uncovering fentanyl and other narcotics.”
| | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | | Jared Polis called for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to get Secret Service protection. Elon Musk and Bill Ackman both endorsed Donald Trump. Marjorie Taylor Greene is facing new stock purchase questions. Volodymyr Zelenskyy didn’t mind Joe Biden’s gaffe about him. Jonathan Swan became an American citizen. IN MEMORIAM — “Abe Krash, Who Fought for a Constitutional Right to Counsel, Dies at 97,” by NYT’s Clay Risen: “He provided the research and drafts that helped bring about the Supreme Court’s landmark Gideon v. Wainwright decision in 1963.” OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at an AI policy breakfast Friday morning at the Henri, hosted by CredoAI’s Evi Fuelle and coinciding with the publication of the EU AI Act: Lucilla Sioli, Kilian Gross, Elham Tabassi, Steph Guerra, Alex Givens, Melika Carroll, Chloe Autio, Addie Cooke, Ruth Berry, Helen Toner, Helen Zhang and Deniz Houston. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: The Washington Free Beacon’s Eliana Johnson … National Retail Federation’s Matthew Shay … Media Research Center’s Brent Bozell … ABC’s Devin Dwyer … CNN’s Daniel Strauss … Mary Lee … Ammon Simon … Mike Panetta of the Beekeeper Group … Meta’s Nkechi Nneji … Axios’ Caitlin Owens … Tigercomm’s Mike Casey … POLITICO’s Kenneth Steele and Mark Cavanagh … Tony Hanagan of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office … Jordan Sekulow ... Corey Solow … former Reps. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and Tom Latham (R-Iowa) … FBI’s Sarah Ruane … Gail Ross … David Shortell … WSJ’s Nicole Friedman … former New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez … Martha Coakley … David Weissman … Elizabeth Bennett … Ted Goodman … Dana Youngentob of Sen. Angus King’s (I-Maine) office … James Davis … Edda Collins Coleman of Axiom Advisors … Chicago Sun-Times’ Tina Sfondeles … Caroline Kelly … Air Mail’s Graydon Carter (75) 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. Corrections: Friday’s Playbook misspelled Rep. Eric Sorensen’s (D-Ill.) name. Yesterday’s Playbook incorrectly described the reporting of a story about the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ call with Biden. Axios first reported that Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) had called on Biden to step aside as nominee in that call. | | | | 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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