| | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade and Eugene Daniels | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | FOR YOUR RADAR — “Tropical Storm Milton could become major hurricane before Florida landfall,” by Tampa Bay Times’ Shreya Vuttaluru ABOUT LAST NIGHT — “Trump’s return to Butler marks a dramatically changed race,” by Meridith McGraw and Lisa Kashinsky
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VP Kamala Harris is sitting for a series of interviews this week. | Mark Schiefelbein/AP | DON’T CALL IT A ‘MEDIA BLITZ’ — After avoiding the media for neigh on her whole campaign, VP KAMALA HARRIS is … still largely avoiding the media. That’s not the Playbook lead her team is gonna want to read this morning after announcing at 5 a.m. that she’s blitzing the airwaves with unscripted sit-downs in the coming days. A quick rundown of her plans … Today: Harris’ taped interview with podcast “Call Her Daddy” — centered on reproductive rights — goes live. … Tomorrow: Her sit-down interview with Bill Whitaker, taped Saturday, airs on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” … Tuesday: Harris heads to New York to appear on “The View,” “The Howard Stern Show” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” … Thursday: Harris flies to Nevada for a Univision town hall. Let’s be real here: Most of these are not the types of interviews that are going to press her on issues she may not want to talk about, even as voters want more specifics from Harris. Instead, expect most of these sit-downs to be a continuation of the “vibes” campaign Harris has perfected. We’re not saying there’s no value in these — “60 Minutes” and the Univision town hall are sure to be substantive. Each of these shows has millions of viewers or listeners — especially women and young voters, key constituencies for Harris. (Recent episodes of “Call Her Daddy” — just for a touch point — were titled “Is He The One?” and “Blow Jobs, Hall Passes, & Frat Daddies.”) But Harris is already doing bonkers numbers with women and young voters, making us wonder why she’s going back to a constituency that already favors her. (To be fair to her team, Stern’s audience is mostly male.) The campaign, of course, sees these as opportunities to drive up turnout. Notably, Harris’ running mate TIM WALZ is shaking things up. This morning, Walz headed into the belly of the beast, making a rare Democrat appearance on “Fox News Sunday.” (More on this below…) Walz will make his late-night TV debut on Monday sitting down with JIMMY KIMMEL and, later, will appear on “60 Minutes.” The announcement comes as Democrats have begun fretting that Harris’ risk-averse, buttoned-up campaign strategy could blow back a la HILLARY CLINTON 2016. They’re pushing her to do more authentic, unscripted engagements with real voters — and yes, hard-hitting journalists, as much as she may want to avoid it. And while “60 Minutes” and the Univision town hall are certainly steps in the right direction, don't expect this blitz to assuage the bed-wetters. More from the Times THE NEW GATEKEEPER: DON. JR — Plenty of ink has been spilled this presidential election cycle on DONALD TRUMP’s inner circle — particularly SUSIE WILES and CHRIS LaCIVITA — restoring and enforcing order in what has otherwise long been a chaotic, dog-eat-dog Trump world. But in case you haven’t noticed, there’s another key player throwing his weight around behind the scenes: Trump’s son, DON JR. This morning, in fact, WSJ’s Molly Ball dubs Don Jr. “the crown prince of MAGA.” And the opening anecdote captures it all: Don. Jr bragging about what Molly calls “muscling his buddy” on the ticket: Vance, sitting right next to them all disheveled from a late night of debate prep the morning of the VP debate. “I expended about 1,000% of my political capital” convincing his father to select Vance, Don Jr. tells her. “Making the argument, getting others who believe the same thing to do that — you know, just a constant barrage. I can be pretty persistent when I need to be.” We’ll note right here that a lot of Republicans were not happy about the Vance pick — and still aren’t. They think he caters to Trump’s worst instincts and does little to expand the tent to new, on-the-fence voters. And we can’t tell you how many Republican lawmakers have privately bashed Vance to us — most recently over the Springfield conspiracy theory — refusing to, of course, say the same thing on record for fear of reprisal. But a bit of bad news for those types: Don. Jr is making pretty damn clear that he’s planning to play a key role if his dad wins the White House. More from Molly: “Though he keeps up a packed schedule campaigning for next month’s election, Trump Jr.’s primary focus is what happens afterward. He is working to make sure the next Trump administration and GOP Congress are stocked with more JD Vances — and to keep out those who might hinder an aggressive second-term agenda.” The quote: “What I want to do is work on the transition, and it’s not about placing people,” Don Jr. told her. “It’s about blocking the people who would be a disaster in that administration. I will cut out so many people, people’s heads are going to spin.” HOW WILL HARRIS VOTE ON PROP 36? — Californians will vote this fall on a slew of politically sensitive ballot initiatives, including a GOP-backed proposal to slap felonies and longer prison sentences on certain kinds of drug and theft offenses, known as Prop 36. One Golden State resident who won’t say how she’ll vote on this? Harris, who has spent much of her campaign touting her background as a prosecutor. Of course, detailing her thinking here would be risky. The proposal divides the party, WaPo’s Justine McDaniel and Anumita Kaur write this morning, with Gov. GAVIN NEWSOM opposing it even as some Democratic mayors support it in hopes it could help stop the state’s epidemics of shoplifting, homelessness and drugs on the streets. (The proposition would also upend an initiative passed while Harris served as state AG.) And of course, we all saw what happened when Trump faced pressure from reporters to reveal how he’d vote on Florida’s ballot initiative axing the state’s six-week abortion ban: He mucked it up, first saying six weeks was too short, then doing a 180 following blowback from the opponents of abortion rights. On the other hand, these are the types of questions undecided voters look to the person running to be president to actually answer, not avoid. As WaPo writes: “As the vice president works to introduce herself to voters during a compressed campaign, a glimpse into how she might vote on issues in her home state could add to voters’ sense of what she would prioritize in the White House.” Good Sunday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade and Eugene Daniels.
| | | | A message from USAFacts: Americans deserve clear, trustworthy facts to make up their minds on today’s most pressing issues. In this new series, USAFacts Founder Steve Ballmer walks through the data on immigration, the economy, healthcare, and much more, to help you inform your perspective. Get the numbers, not rhetoric, topic by topic. | | | NEW JMART — “Mapping the Carville Era, from Bill Clinton’s Alter Ego to Joe Biden’s Bete Noire,” by Jonathan Martin: “The legendary political consultant had just completed a documentary on his career. Then came its most consequential chapter in 30 years.” SUNDAY BEST … — Walz on his string of misstatements and misrepresentations, on “Fox News Sunday”: “I will own up when I misspeak, I will own up when I make mistakes. Let’s be very clear: On that debate stage the other night, I asked one very simple question and Sen. Vance would not acknowledge that Donald Trump lost the 2020 Election. I think [the American people] are probably far more concerned with that than my wife and I used IUI to have our child and that Donald Trump would restrict that.” On whether Trump is lying saying he would veto a national abortion ban: “Yes, of course. … They may see this as an election issue, but we see this as a right of women to make their own bodily decisions. On Trump’s performance as commander-in-chief: “The people who were in the Situation Room with Donald Trump, like JOHN KELLY, his chief of staff, said he shouldn’t be there. He’s a damaged human being. His own defense secretary said he does not understand the situation and he’s incapable of dealing with it, so it’s about character.” Watch the full interview — Speaker MIKE JOHNSON on the current state of political rhetoric and violence, on ABC’s “This Week”: “We do need to turn the volume down. We have to have vigorous debates about policy, but not take it to that level. No one involved in this is a threat to the republic. … We need everybody on all sides to turn the rhetoric down. And let’s have a debate about the records of these candidates, not the rhetoric. Let’s talk about the policies, not the personalities.” On whether he will say unequivocally that Biden won in 2020: “See, this is the game that is always played by mainstream media with leading Republicans. It's a gotcha game. You want us to litigate things that happened four years ago when we're talking about the future. … Joe Biden has been the president for almost four years. Everybody needs to get over this and move forward.” — Sen. TOM COTTON (R-Ark.) on whether he will definitively say that Trump lost the 2020 Election, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “Joe Biden was elected president in 2020. It was an unfair election in many ways.” On whether Trump showed leadership during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack: “I know that President Trump said to the rallygoers who were here on the Ellipse in Washington that day, they should protest peacefully and patriotically.” — FEMA Administrator DEANNE CRISWELL on Trump’s claims that her agency is sending relief money to immigrants in the country illegally, on “This Week”: “It’s frankly ridiculous and just plain false. This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people. You know, it’s really a shame that we’re putting politics ahead of helping people, and that’s what we’re here to do.” TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces.
- “To Understand Trump vs. Harris, You Must Know These American Myths,” by Richard Slotkin for NYT
- “The Fog of Disaster Is Getting Worse,” by Juliette Kayyem for The Atlantic
- “Tim Walz, J. D. Vance, and the Politics of Place,” by David Fontana for The New Yorker
- “Jimmy Carter, Champion of Deregulation,” by Phil Gramm for WSJ
- “The Cyber Sleuth,” by Geraldine Brooks for WaPo
- “Donald Trump, You Lucky Dog,” by Pamela Paul for NYT
- “Jack Smith’s October Cheap Shot,” by Elie Honig for NY Mag
- “A way out of this endless war,” by Ehud Olmert and Nasser al-Kidwa for WaPo
- “One Big Decision Awaits the Supreme Court,” by Linda Greenhouse for NYT
| | | | A message from USAFacts:   Want to know the facts on immigration, taxes and spending? Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO and owner of the LA Clippers, shares facts and data, you make up your mind! | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | At the White House Biden has nothing on his public schedule. Harris will have internal staff meetings and briefings. On the trail Trump will hold a rally in Juneau, Wisconsin, at 3 p.m. Walz will deliver remarks at campaign receptions in California in the afternoon.
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Donald Trump is now the oldest major party candidate for president. | Jim Vondruska/Getty Images | THE AGE-OLD QUESTION — With Biden out of the race, Trump is running for president as the oldest person in the history of the U.S. at 78 — and it’s showing. “In fact, it happens so often these days that it no longer even generates much attention,” NYT’s Peter Baker and Dylan Freedman write in a sprawling analysis examining how Trump’s aging manifests. “A review of Mr. Trump’s rallies, interviews, statements and social media posts finds signs of change since he first took the political stage in 2015. He has always been discursive and has often been untethered to truth, but with the passage of time his speeches have grown darker, harsher, longer, angrier, less focused, more profane and increasingly fixated on the past. “According to a computer analysis by The New York Times, Mr. Trump’s rally speeches now last an average of 82 minutes, compared with 45 minutes in 2016. Proportionately, he uses 13 percent more all-or-nothing terms like ‘always’ and ‘never’ than he did eight years ago, which some experts consider a sign of advancing age. “Similarly, he uses 32 percent more negative words than positive words now, compared with 21 percent in 2016, which can be another indicator of cognitive change. And he uses swearwords 69 percent more often than he did when he first ran, a trend that could reflect what experts call disinhibition. (A study by Stat, a health care news outlet, produced similar findings.)” RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE MORE FROM BUTLER — At his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, yesterday, Trump returned to the site where a would-be assassin fired shots toward the former president back in July. In his remarks on Saturday, Trump ticked through roughly 20 minutes on the assassination attempt, then he moved on. “In many ways, Trump’s supporters, who gathered to witness his triumphant return to the farm show grounds where he’d stood mere centimeters from death just 84 days ago, have moved on, too,” Lisa Kashinksy reports from Butler. “They wanted to hear Trump deliver the speech he had planned to in July. They wanted him to talk about immigration. … They also wanted him to address the crime that they believe is running rampant from the southern border to their neighborhoods hundreds of miles away. And so Trump’s own supporters, gathering nearly three months later in the same place where a would-be assassin could have altered the course of the election, confirmed one of this race’s most baffling phenomenons: that the shooting no longer seems to matter.” Related read: “Musk urges Trump supporters to vote during brief appearance at Butler rally,” by Irie Sentner MAILING IT IN — As Republicans pour tens of millions into getting GOP voters to buy into early voting, they’re frustrated that Trump keeps getting in the way, Lisa Kashinsky reports. Republicans have spent the past four years trying to persuade Trump to embrace mail and early voting despite his vilification of the methods. “But with just weeks to go, they have plainly failed to win him over. While Trump has sometimes come around — urging his supporters at rallies, in tele-rallies and through social media posts to take advantage of expanded voting options — Republicans warn his rhetoric is threatening to undermine it all.” PREP WORK — Despite Dems’ stated confidence that Harris will win in November, those in power from the party across the country are “attempting to shield their policy priorities from the reach of a future Trump administration,” WaPo’s Reis Thebault reports, noting that the efforts span from stockpiling abortion pills to cutting climate deals to protecting same-sex marriage. “This preemptive strategy — ‘Trump-proofing’ — encompasses a wide range of issues and programs that Democratic leaders fear could be targeted in another Trump presidency, based on his previous actions and his current campaign promises.” WELL-OILED MACHINE — “Big Oil Urges Trump Not to Gut Biden’s Climate Law,” by WSJ’s Collin Eaton and Benoît Morenne: “Some executives in the largely pro-Trump oil industry are worried the former president, if re-elected, would side with conservative lawmakers who want to gut the IRA. They fear losing tax credits vital for their investments in renewable fuel, carbon capture and hydrogen, costly technologies requiring U.S. support to survive their early years.” FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Chris LaCivita is headlining a Trump fundraiser with alumni of his first administration in D.C. on Thursday. Tickets go up to $10,000 to be an event chair. JEFF FREELAND and COLE ROJEWSKI are leading the effort. The invite RACE FOR THE SENATE CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ — With a comfortable lead in the polls over his GOP rival STEVE GARVEY, Rep. ADAM SCHIFF (D-Calif.) has much of his Senate campaign on autopilot, opting instead to use his energy boosting other Democrats in tougher races, including California’s most competitive House contests and vulnerable Senate incumbents outside of his home state, Melanie Mason reports from Los Angeles. Schiff has raised more than $7 million to date for Democratic candidates, including Harris’ presidential bid and various party committees, his team said. “His schedule for the closing weeks of the campaign, shared exclusively with POLITICO, includes a barnstorming tour of California’s swing House districts and at least six out-of-state jaunts for events with Democrats in the country’s toss-up Senate races.” HISTORY IN THE MAKING — Rep. LISA BLUNT ROCHESTER (D-Del.) is on the verge of making history as the first Black senator from Delaware. WaPo’s Paul Kane has a fresh look at the moment Blunt Rochester, a self-described “pragmatic optimist,” finds herself in. “Considering only three Black women have ever served in the Senate, Blunt Rochester cannot be considered a throwback to a different era. But her cheery disposition and work at building bridges across the aisle, without clamoring for the spotlight, feel somewhat anachronistic in an era where so many live for trolling the opposing party on social media and scoring hits on cable news.”
| | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | 5 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR
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Current and former officials say the U.S. has long struggled to collect intelligence on Hamas. | Leo Correa/AP | 1. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: Since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel nearly a year ago, the U.S. has increased its intelligence-gathering in the Gaza Strip. “But gaps remain on the very type of intelligence that could be essential to finding a path to ending the conflict,” Erin Banco reports. “One year after the attack, U.S. intelligence agencies are still struggling to understand the inner political dynamics of the Hamas militant group, whether it’s ready for a cease-fire agreement and its longer-term aspirations for Gaza — all questions that policymakers need to answer as they scramble to avoid a full-scale regional war.” U.S. administrations for decades chose not to prioritize intelligence collection and analysis on Gaza and Hamas, and despite some improvements, one year isn’t enough time to make up for that, officials said. “And since the Oct. 7 attack, the Biden administration has continued to prioritize intelligence gathering on other foreign crises, including the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the war in Ukraine and threats from China.” Meanwhile, on the cease-fire proposal and talks that nearly came together last month, NYT’s Ben Hubbard, Maria Abi-Habib, Michael Shear and Edward Wong report that “progress toward a cease-fire was further along than previously known, but it was halted abruptly when Israel killed [HASSAN] NASRALLAH.” Related read: “Mossad’s pager operation: Inside Israel’s penetration of Hezbollah,” by WaPo’s Souad Mekhennet and Joby Warrick 2. HELENE FALLOUT: More than a week out from Hurricane Helene’s initial landfall, “state officials across the Southeast are scrambling to repair damaged electrical lines, roads and bridges affecting tens of thousands across the path of destruction,” NYT’s Troy Closson and Christina Morales report. “The worst fallout is still in western North Carolina, where, in addition to the mass wreckage of destroyed buildings, teams are searching for dozens of missing people, some areas have no potable water, cellphone communication remains spotty, more than 170,000 customers still don’t have power, and hundreds of roads are closed. But at least five other states are grappling with their own intractable problems from impassable highways to ruined farmland.” The new reality: WaPo’s Brady Dennis, Scott Dance, Dino Grandoni, Gerrit De Vynck and Brianna Sacks have a devastating look at the impact across North Carolina: “At least 229 people have died, a total that seems destined to climb higher as communities dig out from oceans of debris. “While the level of loss varies from community to community, and sometimes from street to street, almost everyone who endured this unprecedented storm agrees on this much: In these mountains, Helene will forever mark a dividing line. A before and an after. The end of one era, and the beginning of another that, for now, is full of uncertainty and angst.” Related reads: “Inside the North Carolina mountain town that Hurricane Helene nearly wiped off the map,” by AP’s Allen Breed in Chimney Rock Village
| | | | A message from USAFacts:   USAFacts: Data straight from the source. | | | 3. THE LOAN LURCH: Biden is “planning a pair of economic announcements — including new student loan debt relief — before departing for a trip to Germany and Angola as the White House seeks to harness momentum from recent positive economic data,” Bloomberg’s Justin Sink reports. “Biden is set to announce next week that he’s expanding student debt relief for public workers, according to a senior White House official who described the plans on the condition of anonymity. He’s also expected to reveal federal actions as part of his administration’s efforts to replace the nation’s lead pipes within a decade.” 4. SCOTUS WATCH: “Bruised Supreme Court Returns to Bench With Possible Election Cases Looming,” by NYT’s Adam Liptak: “After three momentous terms in which the court eliminated abortion rights, did away with race-conscious college admissions and created substantial immunity for presidential crimes, the docket is, for now at least, back to a sort of normalcy, promising decisions that will produce sharp divisions among the justices and ripple through American life but fall short of producing the titanic societal shocks of recent years.” Related read: “Ghost guns, transgender care on Supreme Court agenda as election looms,” by WaPo’s Ann Marimow 5. OPENING THE GATES: “Melinda French Gates’s New Life: Abortion Politics and Kamala Harris,” by NYT’s Teddy Schleifer: “At 60, [MELINDA] FRENCH GATES has reinvented herself, surprisingly, as an ascendant Democratic megadonor. She has endorsed political candidates, given more than $13 million to groups supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, had her team talk to Ms. Harris’s advisers about a joint event, and publicly championed abortion rights, an issue she downplayed for decades because it was too politically fraught. Ms. French Gates’s transformation, people close to her say, is due less to a eureka moment and more to a response to the changing circumstances in her home and in the world.”
| | PLAYBOOKERS | | A trove of Dianne Feinstein’s former belongings are going up for auction. Donald Trump was trolled by Georgia Democrats via an airplane flying over yesterday’s Georgia-Auburn game. IN MEMORIAM — “David Burnham, whose police graft exposés inspired ‘Serpico,’ dies at 91,” by WaPo’s Brian Murphy: “David Burnham, an investigative journalist whose work at the New York Times exposed deep-rooted corruption in the city’s police department and explored claims of nuclear industry coverups that inspired the films “Serpico” and “Silkwood,” died Oct. 1 at his home in Spruce Head, Maine. He was 91. The cause was a heart attack after choking on food, said his wife, Joanne Omang.” HAPPY BIRTHDAY: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise … Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) … WSJ’s Eliza Collins … Miami Mayor Francis Suarez … WaPo’s Amy Gardner and Ruby Mellen … Jonathan Alter … Artur Orkisz of the Norwegian Embassy and the American Polish Forum … Ben Kenney … U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Evan Williams and Patrick O’Connor … Ashley O’Sullivan … NAM’s Aric Newhouse … TIAA’s David Nason … Darrell West … CBC’s Alex Panetta … Nicole Venable … Kathleen Connery Dawe of Sen. Angus King’s (I-Maine) office … Steve Grand … Ansley Lacitis and Seth Kolloen of Sen. Maria Cantwell’s (D-Wash.) office … Tracy Sefl … Veronica Smith Wong of Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) office … David Andelman (8-0) … Kristen Gentile of Sen. Bob Casey’s (D-Pa.) office … Shannon Finley of Capitol Counsel … POLITICO’s Sara Schonhardt, Lily Thompson and Cara Collins … Robert Stacy McCain … Wes Anderson of OnMessage … American Conservation Coalition’s Danielle Franz … Robyn Engibous Anderson of Sen. Dan Sullivan’s (R-Alaska) office … Stephanie Genco of Fortescue … Richard LaMura of Rep. Aaron Bean’s (R-Fla.) office … former Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) … Tara DiJulio 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.
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