| | | | |  | | By Eugene Daniels, Rachael Bade and Ryan Lizza | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | OVERNIGHT MILESTONE — The midnight deadline having passed, it’s now officially too late to remove scandal-plagued Republican gubernatorial candidate and Lt. Gov. MARK ROBINSON from North Carolina’s ballots. More below on the eye-popping allegations THE ELECTION IS NOW — In-person early voting starts today in Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia. THE MAN WHO WOULD BE AG — Adam Wren’s profile of MIKE DAVIS — the conservative lawyer and Twitter pugilist who some in DONALD TRUMP’s inner orbit want to see as the next attorney general — is worth reading in its entirety. One scene we can’t shake, at a Republican Convention afterparty: “‘I want you to be my father’s attorney general for all four years,” [DON JR.] told Davis, grinning. … “As I pecked notes on my phone, the woman who had told us to stop staring scolded me for chronicling the exchange and began recording me. She demanded that I delete the notes or give her my phone. When I tried to leave, she recruited four men to block the elevators. They stared menacingly at me and demanded I turn over my phone or delete my notes. … I explained to the woman I had to catch a flight to go home to my family in the next few hours. ‘You should have thought about your kids before you did what you did,’ she replied. “After roughly 15 minutes of this standoff, I searched for another exit. I ran down a hallway into a stairwell. Two people followed me. When I was out on the street, Davis called me. By this point, Davis had confronted the aide near the elevators and dressed her down. … “Davis had sworn to me he was not really serious about retaliating against journalists and throwing them in ‘gulags.’ Now, he seemed rattled that others in Trumpworld might not be in on the joke.”
|  Brian Fallon has been instrumental in some of the biggest left-of-center messaging campaigns of the last decade | Alex Keeney/POLITICO | THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW: BRIAN FALLON — VP KAMALA HARRIS’ abbreviated campaign has meant, in effect, that she’s had to build the plane while flying. And one of the chief engineers of that effort — one of her most trusted aides de camp — is Brian Fallon. You may not know him by name, but you probably know his work. Whether as a top aide to CHUCK SCHUMER or HILLARY CLINTON or, more recently, as cofounder of court-reform group Demand Justice, Fallon has been instrumental in some of the biggest left-of-center messaging campaigns of the last decade — culminating in his work this year crafting a presidential effort unlike any other. Yesterday, we sat down with him to talk through some of the biggest dynamics shaping Harris’ campaign. You can find the full interview on this morning’s episode of “Playbook Deep Dive,” but what follows are key excerpts, edited for length and clarity. On their path to victory in battleground states: “We're truly competing to win everywhere. And we're probably spending more time in Pennsylvania than anywhere else. … She's campaigning in rural parts of the commonwealth. She's campaigning in red counties where we could expect Trump to win, but eating into his margin might be the difference in winning statewide. … She was in Savannah, Georgia, a couple of weeks ago. … We're going to go to markets and we're going to go to interior counties and we're going to go to red, red parts of the map where a Democrat might not win. But it serves two purposes to go there: One is you can erode the margin of victory, which could help translate to a statewide victory. But second, it also sends an important message symbolically that you're campaigning everywhere, that you're trying to be a president for all Americans. … That'll continue to be a feature of her campaign schedule in the weeks to come.” On whether they’re worried about turning off young liberals by touting the support of Republicans like LIZ and DICK CHENEY: “We're not seeing that empirically. We're not seeing that in the data. … We're not seeing that we're suffering in terms of erosion from core supporters because of the fact that she's embracing support from across the aisle. But also, I think another reason why we don't expect that to be a concern is because … she isn’t abandoning core principles or beliefs. … [T]hey agree on the important things, which is: preserving our democracy, that Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president of the United States, and that we should not be bowing down to foreign dictators like VLADIMIR PUTIN.” On whether he thinks that Republican support of Harris will last: “If she wins, I fully expect that in the first 100 days, we'll go back to arguing about exactly how to ensure common sense gun safety rules and … how we're going to handle the expiration of the Trump tax cuts.”
|  | On one thing they’re not ruling out: “We still think we might get another debate. … He has a hard time turning down an opportunity to appear in front of that many people.” On the hubbub about Harris’ lack of high-profile interviews: “People should not read too much into what some have described as a shortage or a lack of interviews in the first, like, six weeks of the campaign.” On Harris’ changing views on key issues since 2019: “In that campaign and in that period of time, the Democratic Party … wanted to stand in stark contrast to Donald Trump and outlined positions that showed the depth of our disagreement with Donald Trump. … I think that these were statements reflecting strongly held values that not just she but other Democrats at the time held. But then when you're in it, when you're in the role of governing, you have to make good-faith efforts to try to achieve progress. And, oftentimes, that requires working with people across the aisle.” Listen to the full interview on Apple Podcasts or Spotify AN AHA MOMENT — Last night, Harris campaigned with OPRAH WINFREY in Farmington Hills, Michigan, as The Detroit News’ Craig Mauger and Jennifer Chambers recap. In one striking moment talking about her gun ownership, Harris said that if somebody breaks into her house, “they’re getting shot.” Happy Friday. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
| | | | A message from Instagram: Introducing Instagram Teen Accounts with automatic protections for teens.
Starting in September, Instagram is launching Teen Accounts with built-in protections limiting who can contact teens and the content they can see. Plus, only parents can approve safety setting changes for teens under 16.
This means parents can have more peace of mind when it comes to protecting their teens.
Learn more. | | | YOWZA — “New Court Filings Place Matt Gaetz at a Party at the Center of the Sex Trafficking Scandal,” by NOTUS’ Jose Pagliery: “Rep. MATT GAETZ attended a drug-fueled sex party in 2017 with the 17-year-old girl at the center of the alleged sex trafficking scandal, according to legal documents filed to a Florida federal court shortly before midnight Thursday, which cite sealed affidavits from three eye-witness testimonies. … [She] was a junior in high school … Gaetz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.” FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Sen. ROGER MARSHALL (R-Kan.) has charged taxpayers for multiple flights to and from Sarasota, Florida, where he has a vacation home and two of his adult children live, in a possible violation of Senate rules, Daniel Lippman reports. In expense reports he has filed to the secretary of the Senate and receipts provided by his office, Marshall charged his office for eight trips that included stops in Sarasota or nearby Bradenton and Tampa in 2021, 2022 and 2023 that totaled nearly $4,500. His 2019 disclosure said that he purchased a vacation house in Sarasota, with his latest disclosure still showing his ownership of the same house. In 2021, Marshall’s daughter and her husband bought a $1.2 million house in Sarasota, and Marshall’s son and wife bought a house in Sarasota the following year, according to property records. Senators may only be reimbursed for expenses that are “essential to the transaction of official business while away from the official station or post of duty,” according to Senate rules. Marshall spokesperson CHARYSSA PARENT did not answer repeated questions on what official business was occurring in the Sarasota area that justified the expenses, but said in a statement that noted his 10 committees or subcommittees: “Any official travel logged over the last 4 years has been official travel. Senator Marshall serves on many committees of jurisdiction that take him all over the country.” “Given his personal interest and family interest in Sarasota, Florida, there is reasonable suspicion that he is abusing taxpayer dollars for personal travel,” said CRAIG HOLMAN, a lobbyist for the good-government group Public Citizen. “It is something that the Senate Ethics Committee should take a close look at.”
| | | | A message from Instagram:   | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | On the Hill The House will meet at 9 a.m. to take up multiple bills, including an effort to roll back the Biden administration’s tailpipe emissions rule and a presidential security bill, with votes at 10:30 a.m. The Senate is out. 3 things to watch …
- The glide path to averting a government shutdown is now in sight: Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER yesterday started the process of moving a continuing resolution, but it appears as though Speaker MIKE JOHNSON is acknowledging reality and preparing to have the House move first. Our colleagues on the Hill team report that appropriators are eyeing a CR expiring on Dec. 13. Some funding add-ons — for the Service Service, veterans health care and disaster aid — might be included; the GOP noncitizen voting bill known as the SAVE Act will not.
- A second House discharge petition has succeeded this Congress: Yesterday the 218th member signed on to force a vote on the Social Security Fairness Act, a bill that would eliminate provisions that reduce benefits for some retirees receiving government pensions. It’s a win for Reps. GARRET GRAVES (R-La.) and ABIGAIL SPANBERGER (D-Va.), but it's a costly one: The CBO recently estimated it would add $195 billion to the deficit over the coming decade.
- The Senate will likely spend its last session week before the election dealing with the CR and processing nominations. What it won’t be doing is passing the bipartisan railroad safety bill that is supported by, among others, Ohio Sens. SHERROD BROWN (D) and JD VANCE (R). As the Washington Examiner’s David Sivak reports, the bill appears stuck in election-year mud, with sponsors unable to grow their GOP support as Brown fights for a fourth term.
At the White House Biden will convene his Cabinet for a meeting at 11:30 a.m., with first lady JILL BIDEN joining at the top for an update on the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. Biden will travel later to Wilmington, Delaware, where he’ll meet with Australian PM ANTHONY ALBANESE at 4:45 p.m. On the trail Harris will travel to Atlanta for a campaign event at 3:20 p.m., where she plans to highlight Georgia women who have died due to the state’s abortion ban. Then she’ll head to Madison, Wisconsin, for a campaign event at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, and then back to Washington.
| | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | ALL POLITICS
|  Stunning reporting from CNN reveals GOP Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson made lewd comments a decade ago on an online message board. | Matt Rourke/AP Photo | WHAT’S THAT YOU SAY, MR. ROBINSON? — CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck upended the North Carolina gubernatorial race yesterday with stunning reporting on GOP Lt. Gov. MARK ROBINSON’s comments from a decade ago on an online message board. He denies making these comments, but the conventional wisdom is that they may be career-ending: Robinson called himself a “black NAZI,” said he wished that slavery would return so he could buy slaves, called himself a “perv” who likes watching transgender pornography and recounted spying on women in public showers as a teenager. And so much more, much of it too graphic for CNN to print. Robinson and the North Carolina GOP are doubling down, insisting that he won’t drop out and claiming that the allegations are untrue. With the election approaching rapidly, Sabato’s Crystal Ball shifted its race rating to likely Democratic. Many North Carolina Republicans expressed revulsion if the reporting is true. Natalie Allison adds that Robinson’s email address was found registered on cheating site Ashley Madison, and that Trump’s internal polling has Robinson down by 14 points. More top reads:
- Good poll for Republicans: Inside Elections/Noble Predictive finds Rep. RYAN ZINKE (R-Mont.) ahead by 4 points — and Democratic Sen. JON TESTER leading by only 1 in the district, which is likely a lot less than he’d need to survive.
- Good poll for Democrats: Morning Consult has Democratic Rep. COLIN ALLRED leading Republican Sen. TED CRUZ by 1 point in the Texas Senate race.
- Ratings changes: Sabato’s Crystal Ball shifted Reps. MARY PELTOLA’s (D-Alaska) and MICHELLE STEEL’s (R-Calif.) reelection bids into tossup territory, while Rep. KATIE PORTER’s (D-Calif.) open seat and Rep. MIKE LAWLER’s (R-N.Y.) district moved out of tossup and toward the parties that hold them.
TRUMP CARDS THE TRUMP TRIALS — In his federal criminal election subversion case, Trump’s legal team said in a filing last night that “he plans to prove *all* official conduct by presidents is immune from prosecution and that the Supreme Court has effectively made the Mike Pence pressure campaign off limits,” Kyle Cheney reports. CONGRESS COMING THURSDAY — “Trump assassination attempt task force to hold first hearing,” by Nick Wu
| | | | A message from Instagram:   | | | 2024 WATCH
|  A proposal to mandate hand-counting of all ballots could majorly slow the reporting of results in Georgia. | Mike Stewart/AP Photo | DEMOCRACY WATCH — All eyes will be on Georgia today as the state election board, newly controlled by Trump allies, considers a suite of wide-ranging election rules changes, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Mark Niesse previews. Among the most significant of the last-minute potential changes is a proposal to mandate hand-counting of all ballots, which could majorly slow the reporting of results. It could echo 2020, when extremely slow counting of Pennsylvania’s ballots laid the groundwork for the election fraud lies and conspiracy theories that became a bedrock of Trumpism to take root. “Election directors across Georgia oppose most of the ideas, saying they’re poorly thought-out, expensive and disruptive,” Niesse reports. “They’re calling for a pause on alterations to established procedures, especially after many poll workers have already been trained.” Advocates for the changes say they’re not trying to gum up the works; they merely want to make sure everything is accurate. More on the AP on the proposals More top reads:
- Teamsters fallout: Sen. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-Okla.) and Teamsters President SEAN O’BRIEN now talk regularly, having come a long way from when they almost brawled last year, Axios’ Stef Kight reports. Trump helped broker the peace as Republicans sought to woo the union, and Mullin talked to O’Brien on Wednesday before the Teamsters announced they wouldn’t endorse for president — a blow to Harris. Former Teamsters President JIM HOFFA blasted O’Brien for abandoning Democrats, calling it “a failure of leadership,” per NYT’s Jonathan Weisman.
AMERICA AND THE WORLD
|  Donald Trump warned that Jews would bear a lot of blame for not supporting him enough if he doesn’t win the election. | Angelina Katsanis/POLITICO | MIDDLE EAST FALLOUT — Speaking to an audience of Jewish donors last night, Trump pledged to bring back his ban on people coming from Muslim-majority countries and refuse to admit refugees from Gaza and other “terror-infested areas,” per Bloomberg’s Nancy Cook. Trump assailed Harris as the No. 1 person in the world whom “Israel has to defeat” and called Schumer “Hamas all the way.” He vowed to “be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House,” and said he would pull accreditation from universities that don’t “end antisemitic propaganda” in his first week in office. But Trump also warned that Jews would bear a lot of blame for not supporting him enough if he doesn’t win the election. Second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF separately excoriated Trump in an interview with ABC’s Michael Strahan for having said “vile, antisemitic things.” Despite Trump’s sharp pro-Israel stance, a sizable number of Arab American and Muslim voters are considering voting for JILL STEIN instead of Harris, Reuters’ Andrea Shalal reports. Meanwhile in the Middle East, as Israel bombarded Hezbollah positions in Lebanon yesterday, the U.S. tried to encourage restraint, but it’s caught in a tricky position after a wave of exploding electronics injured thousands, ABC’s Shannon Kingston reports. Elsewhere in the region, WSJ’s Alex Ward scooped that the U.S. now expects the Israel-Hamas war to continue without a cease-fire through the end of Biden’s term. And NBC’s Courtney Kube and Dan De Luce scooped that the U.S. claims Iran is helping the Houthis target U.S. Reaper drones. More top reads:
TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week”: Leigh Ann Caldwell, McKay Coppins, Caitlin Dickerson and Zolan Kanno-Youngs. SUNDAY SO FAR … NBC “Meet the Press”: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) … Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) … new national polling. Panel: Peter Alexander, Carlos Curbelo, Stephanie Murphy and Amy Walter. ABC “This Week”: Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.). Politics panel: Donna Brazile and Chris Christie. Panel: Jonathan Karl, Julie Pace and Marianna Sotomayor. MSNBC “The Weekend”: Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) … Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) … Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). CNN “State of the Union”: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer … Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). Panel: Kate Bedingfield, Brad Todd, Jamal Simmons and Erin Perrine. FOX “Fox News Sunday”: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. Assassination task force panel: Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) and Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.). Panel: Kevin Roberts, Julia Manchester, Juan Williams and Doug Heye. Sunday special: Stewart McLaurin. CBS “Face the Nation”: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis … Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Wendy Sherman. Panel: David Drucker, Paul Kane and Sabrina Siddiqui.
| | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Burt Jones’ texts peel back the curtain on election subversion. Louis DeJoy rejected Donald Trump’s claims about mail ballots. Vivek Ramaswamy won’t get on board with the Haitians conspiracy theory. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s office was targeted by protesters. Stevie Wonder has a pre-election tour to fix the nation’s broken heart. Lorne Michaels plans to “reinvent” how “Saturday Night Live” depicts Trump. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a dinner honoring Martin Sheen and his work with “The People’s House: A White House Experience” hosted by Ashley Bittman Dabbiere on Wednesday evening: Daniel Avila-Camacho and Nohora Elena Diaz, Jessica Killin, John Henry Heflin, Carrie Hoernig, Otto Hoernig, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Benjamin Johansen, Anne La Fianza, Mariana La Fianza, Lina Lee, Rob Lee, British Ambassador Karen Pierce and Charles Roxburgh. — Jon Porter and British Counselor for Trade Kirsty McVicar hosted a reception at the private residence of the deputy ambassador for the Vegas Chamber on Wednesday evening, with an acoustic band playing Beatles songs. SPOTTED: Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.), Nevada Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony, Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, Mary Beth Sewald, North Las Vegas Mayor Pamela Goynes-Brown, Henderson Mayor Michelle Romero, Kumud Acharya, RJ Layher, Ricardo Terrazas, Margie Almanza, Drew Feeley and Ashley Jonkey. — SPOTTED at the Congressional 21st Amendment Caucus’ panel discussion and reception to discuss America’s beverage alcohol marketplace and the role of regulation in promoting competition, product diversity and consumer safety on Wednesday night in the Capitol hosted by Caucus co-chairs Reps. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.) and Susie Lee (D-Nev.): Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), Marlin Stutzman, John Bodnovich, Francis Creighton, Amanda Nguyen and Craig Purser. — SPOTTED at the Center for American Progress’ “Building the Future: Innovative Solutions to the U.S. Housing Crisis” summit on Wednesday evening: Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Patrick Gaspard, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Doug Jones, Jerusalem Demsas, Elayne Weiss, Bernard Fulton, Michael Newman, Kristin Eberhard and Kevin Reilly — SPOTTED at The Atlantic Festival welcome reception, hosted by Laurene Powell Jobs, Jeffrey Goldberg and Nicholas Thompson on Wednesday night: Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) and John Curtis (R-Utah), Jamie Dimon, Deputy AG Lisa Monaco, Mitch and Cheryl Landrieu, Susan Rice and Ian Cameron, Anna Deavere Smith and Noah Hawley. — SPOTTED at the Asian American Hotel Owners Association’s congressional reception Wednesday night, part of its national advocacy fly-in, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) as the featured speaker: Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.), Russell Fry (R-S.C.), Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.), Michael Guest (R-Miss.), Mike Ezell (R-Miss.), Bill Foster (D-Ill.), John Duarte (R-Calif.), Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), Jim Costa (D-Calif.), Andy Harris (R-Md.), Michelle Steel (R-Calif.), Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.), Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.). TRANSITIONS — Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper is now a senior adviser at Squire Patton Boggs. … Carl Szabo is joining TikTok’s government relations shop. He most recently was VP and general counsel of NetChoice, which in May kicked TikTok out as a member after pressure from the Hill. … … Filip Jotevski is now national diaspora and ethnic engagement director for the Harris campaign. He most recently was special adviser in USAID’s Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance, and is a DNC alum. … Regev Ortal will be director of government relations at Israel Policy Forum. She previously was a lobbyist for J Street. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Axios’ Stephen Neukam … WaPo’s Caroline Kitchener, Colbert King and Sophia Nguyen … Francesca Craig … CNN’s Van Jones, Kristen Holmes and Cathy Straight … Brent Perrin (4-0) … Climate Imperative Foundation’s Stephanie Epner … Michael Kikukawa … Peter Flaherty … Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt … Scott Kozar … Jennifer Sosa … MSNBC’s Trymaine Lee … Deborah Roberts … Washington Times’ Rowan Scarborough … Shaun Waterman … NPR’s Neda Ulaby and Lauren Hodges … Bloomberg Law’s Drew Singer … Dan Henning of Sirius XM Radio … Adam Howard … Joe Mansour … Sophie Buzzell of Spring Health … TikTok’s Maureen Shanahan Atchison … Graham Vyse … Henry Samueli … Plus Communications’ Brian Wanglin … Cassie Mills of Small Business Majority … Rachel Glasberg of Civic Entertainment Group … Valerie Lapinski … Mark Vlasic 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 Instagram: Introducing Instagram Teen Accounts: a new experience for teens, guided by parents.
Starting in September, Instagram is launching Teen Accounts with built-in protections limiting who can contact teens and the content they can see. Plus, only parents can approve safety setting changes for teens under 16.
So parents can have more peace of mind when it comes to protecting their teens.
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