| | | | |  | | By Adam Wren | Presented by Kidney Care Access Coalition | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | TRUMP’S GARDEN PARTY — Tonight, DONALD TRUMP will do something he’s dreamed of for a long time and rally his faithful in the “world’s most famous arena”: Madison Square Garden. Yes, it comes at a heavy cost: His campaign has to pay more than $1 million. Yes, he is all but certain to lose New York. But for the Queens native, playing it big in Manhattan is perhaps the apotheosis of his movement, his raison d’être. (He’s talked about the prospect of doing it for three straight presidential campaigns.) More from NYT’s Matt Flegenheimer and Maggie Haberman NEW NATIONAL LIKELY-VOTER POLLS — ABC News/Ipsos: VP KAMALA HARRIS leads Trump, 51 percent to 47 percent. Fascinating breakdown of key demographics … CBS News/YouGov: Harris over Trump, 50 percent to 49 percent. In battleground states, it’s tied at 50 percent apiece. … Emerson: Tied at 49 percent. … TIPP: Tied at 48 percent.
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Never Trumpers are having probing conversations about where their movement will go after the election. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | NEVER TRUMP FACES THE EVER AFTER — We’re nine days away from the end of the presidential election (and potentially a few days more away from knowing the victor). But within one of the defining political factions of our era, the possibility of a Harris win is already prompting an existential question: Are we in the last gasps of the Never Trump movement? Never Trumpers are having probing conversations about that very question. “I would trade anything for me to not have to beat the drum of a Trumpian threat anymore,” TIM MILLER, host of The Bulwark Podcast and former adviser to Our Principles PAC, told Playbook. One of the biggest bets of Harris’ hundred-day campaign is that if she can capture even 5 to 10 percent of NIKKI HALEY’s protest vote share — which the Harris campaign believes could swing the race in places like Pennsylvania and North Carolina — she can win the White House. Take Pennsylvania, for instance: There, Haley won 16 percent of Republicans in a closed GOP presidential primary after dropping out of the race. That’s roughly 157,000 voters — almost double the size of JOE BIDEN’s margin of victory over Trump in the state in 2020. CHARLIE SYKES, the Never Trump conservative and former talk radio host, has spent time with Harris for events on the campaign trail, and says he is taken with the “seriousness with which they’re trying to create a big tent — which is not the vibe we had from Democrats in the past.” “Standing there with LIZ CHENEY, we’re all really aware of how unusual this alliance is, and I think it just underlines the five-alarm emergency of the campaign,” he told Playbook. If it doesn’t work, of course, there is certain to be significant second-guessing of the strategy — and the time — the Harris campaign invested into wooing disaffected Republicans. But even if it does work, it’s an open question just how durable this alliance is if Harris wins and Trump recedes from center stage. “This group of voters has made themselves known,” said HEATH MAYO, a conservative activist who founded the advocacy group Principles First. “They’re showing up at rallies. They’re convening separately. We’ve hosted dinners around the country in several states. So I think it is a segment of voters that has sort of found a collective identity and built a community. And when that happens, I don’t think it goes away easily.” Far from dissolving, Never Trump could “be more energized if it is responsible in some of these states for dealing a knockout blow to Trumpism in places like the Pennsylvania suburbs and Arizona,” Mayo said. If that happens, would the movement have the power to extract policy concessions from a potential Harris administration? “This is the million-dollar question,” Mayo said. “After she wins, how do we use this political leverage — because we will have delivered her the White House — how do we use that leverage to communicate what it looks like for a Harris administration to tack in our direction? What does that mean for NATO and our commitments to our allies abroad? What does the foreign policy look like? What does an economic policy look like?” OLIVIA TROYE, a former Trump administration national security official, said Harris has signaled she wants to foster the coalition on more than just a transactional level. “She’s been very receptive on domestic stuff, immigration, and in the homeland security space,” Troye said. “I have no reason to believe that she won’t fulfill the promises that she’s made about commitments. She said she wants to establish a bipartisan advisory council. She’s really been committed to this outreach.” Others are more skeptical. From its earliest days, the Never Trump movement has been an odd duck in American politics, a hodgepodge coalition that exists to achieve a political outcome that would obviate the need for its own existence. “It’s not a coherent ideological group in the way that nativists are, or socialists are,” Miller told Playbook. “It’s never been a coherent ideological grouping. And there were people that were on the farthest right of the pre-Trump party, and there were people like me on the squishiest center of the pre-Trump party, together because our objection to Trump was not along an ideological valence.” Asked how a President Harris would govern in light of this constituency, the Harris campaign pointed Playbook to her recent remarks in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, during which she pledged to be “a president for all Americans,” and added that she wanted to “fix problems, which means working across the aisle.” And that’s one reason to think that this ad hoc coalition has permanently realigned with Democrats — Cheney, after all, gave $2.5 million to American Bridge 21st Century, the Democratic research shop, as Trumpian Republicans revel in pointing out. Even in a world where that happens, there would still be a conceivable use case for the coalition. “I would like to think that we could kind of close up the stand, have a garage sale and go back to our lives,” Sykes told Playbook while driving to Ripon, Wisconsin, the birthplace of the Republican Party. “Then the conservatives in the Never Trump movement would shift into the loyal opposition again. But I don’t see that happening.” Related: “Four Lessons From Nine Years of Being ‘Never Trump,’” by NYT’s David French Good Sunday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop me a line: awren@politico.com.
| | | | A message from Kidney Care Access Coalition: Today, dialysis patients can be forced off the health coverage that works best for them – even impacting coverage for their spouse and kids.
The Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act (S. 5018 and H.R. 6860) is a bipartisan and bicameral bill that will restore protections for dialysis patients and ensure that these patients and their families have a choice in their coverage.
The time for Congress to act is now.
https://www.kidneycareaccess.org/ | | | | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG , who is in contention for a foreign policy role in a Harris administration, has now raised more than $15.3 million for the Harris Victory Fund in his personal capacity, according to a person with knowledge of his efforts across some two dozen events. He’s expected to make a final swing with two events in the coming days. SUNDAY BEST … — Sen. JD VANCE (R-Ohio) on whether he believes Reps. NANCY PELOSI (D-Calif.) and ADAM SCHIFF (D-Calif.) are greater threats than Russia and China, on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “The biggest threat we have in our country, it’s not a foreign adversary, because we can handle these guys. We can handle foreign conflicts. We can’t handle — look, under Nancy Pelosi’s long life in public leadership, the United States has gone from the preeminent industrial power of the world to second, next to China. That fundamentally belongs on Nancy Pelosi's shoulders.” — Vance on the warnings from JOHN KELLY and others that Trump is a fascist, on CNN’s “State of the Union”: “It’s about policy. It’s not about personality. … The people who have attacked Donald Trump the most vociferously on foreign policy will say, ‘Well, he’s a dictator,’ when what they really mean is … Trump wouldn’t listen to the leadership of the military when they wanted him to start ridiculous conflicts. That is a consistent theme.” … Jake Tapper: “So all those 10 people, including the former vice president, MIKE PENCE, all of these people have this horribly damaged worldview, and they’re all just going after Donald Trump because they want to send people into war? That’s really your argument?” Vance: “Absolutely.” — Vance on the Iran-Israel attacks, on CBS’ “Face the Nation”: “The reason that Iran has all of these weapons to fire at Israel is because they have a lot of money. And where do they get that money from? From the easing of oil sanctions and from the release of a lot of money that the Biden-Harris administration had effectively locked up. They released it, and the promise of releasing it is that somehow it would make the Iranians a better partner, would maybe get them a little bit more on the trajectory to being a reasonable country. That’s not happening.” — Vance on NATO, on “Meet the Press”: “We would stay in NATO … Some of the countries have done a lot. But actually, some of the countries relative to GDP have done very little in Ukraine, and that’s important.” TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week’s must-read opinion pieces.
| | | | A message from Kidney Care Access Coalition:   The Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act will right a wrong and ensure dialysis patients and their families aren’t forced off their health insurance. https://www.kidneycareaccess.org/ | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | At the White House Biden has nothing on his public schedule. On the trail Trump will hold his Madison Square Garden rally in NYC at 5 p.m. Harris is in Philadelphia. She spoke at a Black church service this morning, before stopping by a barbershop to talk with young Black men, hitting a Puerto Rican restaurant and having a community rally at a youth basketball center at 5:20 p.m. She’ll return to D.C. in the evening. Minnesota Gov. TIM WALZ will speak at events in Las Vegas focused on reproductive freedom, Native Americans and Latinos, including an appearance with KAITLYN JOSHUA and a watch party for the Raiders game. He’ll return to St. Paul at night.
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Michelle Obama delivered a scorching takedown of Donald Trump as she rallied with VP Kamala Harris. | Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO | IN THE MITTEN — Harris and Trump had dueling rallies in Michigan yesterday, trying to lock down their coalitions in an unusually unsettled state this year. MICHELLE OBAMA delivered a scorching takedown of Trump as bad for Americans and made a strikingly explicit appeal for men to support women’s abortion rights and Democrats, Lisa Kashinsky reports from Kalamazoo (“Kamalazoo” for the day). The party needs the Obama or Biden coalition to turn out for Harris. On the other side of the state, Trump pooh-poohed early voting even as he told supporters to do it, The Detroit News’ Craig Mauger reports from Novi. Trump delivered an overt message to Muslim and Arab American voters in the state, bringing up local officials who slammed the Biden administration for the devastation in Gaza, along with his usual campaign messages. In nearby Dearborn, voters haunted by the Middle East wars broadly worry that they have no option aligning with their values, NBC’s Mirna Alsharif reports. And socially conservative Hamtramck Mayor AMER GHALIB’s Trump endorsement has rattled liberals in his city, who’d long pushed it to be welcoming to immigrants, NYT’s Kurt Streeter reports. THE SHOE THAT DIDN’T DROP — Of all the fears about the health of American democracy this cycle, you can cross one off your list. Paid and volunteer election workers have turned out in droves across the swing states and big cities, erasing worries about shortages, CNN’s Marshall Cohen, Curt Devine and Bob Ortega report . That’s crucial to ensuring the smooth operation of the election. The staffers have arrived despite fears of disruption and conspiracy theories attacking election workers. RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE AMERICAN PLUTOCRACY — Eighteen percent of all the presidential campaign fundraising this cycle has come from billionaires — with that number rising to roughly one-third for Trump, FT’s Alex Rogers, Eva Xiao and Sam Learner report. THANKS BUT NO THANKS — Harris’ campaign keeps putting off Biden’s entreaties to campaign directly for her in the last days of the race, Axios’ Alex Thompson reports . Her team sees him as a liability but doesn’t want to say that outright; Biden world argues that he can be an asset with white, working-class voters in the Rust Belt. THE NEW FAITH VOTERS — As younger religious voters increasingly skew male, Trump is calibrating his message to appeal to everyone from Barstool bros to zealous conservative Gen Zers, Adam Wren reports. It isn’t always an easy balancing act of messaging. JOSH SHAPIRO, SURROGATE — “The Other Running Mate,” by N.Y. Mag’s Gabe Debenedetti: “The final campaign stretch is proving to be a practically sleepless one for [the Pennsylvania governor] … In addition to barnstorming, he has done more than 30 television, radio, and podcast interviews, including on local stations.” JOHN FETTERMAN, SURROGATE — In a lengthy conversation with NYT’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro, the Pennsylvania Democratic senator says that “Harris has run a magnificent campaign,” but he’s very worried about Trump’s intense support in the state and ELON MUSK’s involvement. THE VIEW FROM BUCKS COUNTY — Strong disdain for Trump’s character, more than any policy issue, is propelling Harris’ campaign in this swing county with a history of moderate politics, WaPo’s Paul Kane reports from Bristol Township. (But that same legacy gives GOP Rep. BRIAN FITZPATRICK a leg up.) THE VIEW FROM ALIQUIPPA — “This Town Has More Faith in Football Than Politics. Can Walz Make a Difference?” by NYT’s Juliet Macur HOW THE BIG LIE SPREADS — AI-generated trending topics on X are amplifying false conspiracy theories about voter fraud, NBC’s David Ingram reports. The misinformation parroted by the Grok software often mirrors similar ideas that Musk personally spreads. WHAT’S COMING NEXT — “Democrats Ready Thousands of Lawyers for Final Days of Race,” by WSJ’s Mariah Timms and Jan Wolfe CASH DASH — The balance of campaign spending has shifted toward outside GOP groups over the Trump campaign, while Harris’ campaign still spends more than her super PAC backers, Jessica Piper reports. KNOWING THE VP — “The World According to Kamala Harris,” by NYT’s Robert Draper, based on about 100 interviews with people who know her: “First, she is the tenacious eldest child of supremely motivated, risk-taking immigrants … Second, she is the offspring of scientists whose devotion to reason and methodology would guide her in her first career as a law-and-order, linear-minded prosecutor rather than an ideologue. … Third, she is the daughter of an Asian woman and a Black man — a human Venn diagram.” Says WILLIE BROWN about Harris’ guardedness: “She’s still a mystery.” ON THE TRAIL — Harris and Walz will campaign collectively across all seven swing states in the next four days. Their get-out-the-vote concert series will also include MAGGIE ROGERS, MANÁ, GRACIE ABRAMS, LOS TIGRES DEL NORTE, MUMFORD & SONS, REMI WOLF and The National’s MATT BERNINGER and AARON DESSNER. AD ASTRA — “Could the Trump-Musk bromance force a NASA pivot to Mars?” by WaPo’s Joel Achenbach WHAT HARRIS ISN’T TALKING ABOUT — The VP’s campaign has focused little on the student debt cancellation that’s been a big policy priority for the Biden administration, AP’s Collin Binkley and Alia Wong note. Instead, she’s talking more to non-college-educated voters. THE DECIDERS — “A century after Native Americans got the right to vote, they could put Trump or Harris over the top,” by AP’s Graham Lee Brewer in Red Springs, North Carolina BETTING THE FARM — Though Trump’s plans for massive tariffs could seriously disrupt American farmers, many of them are backing him regardless due to concerns about immigration and social issues, WSJ’s Jeanne Whalen and Patrick Thomas find in Cadott, Wisconsin. CARI-ANN BURGESS SPEAKS — “An elections worker wanted to serve her country. A stew of conspiracy theories and vitriol awaited,” by AP’s Christina Cassidy in Reno, Nevada: “Burgess, in her first public remarks since her abrupt departure, told the AP this past week that she was worried about her team and was at a loss on what to do next.”
| | | | A message from Kidney Care Access Coalition:   | | | RACE FOR THE SENATE SO MUCH FOR THE NEW KARI LAKE — The Arizona Senate Republican’s campaign quietly erased five minutes from a video, in which she said conspiracy theories about whether the government controls the weather should be investigated, WaPo’s Azi Paybarah scooped. Lake’s campaign says she does not believe they’re true. AD IT UP — GOP ads in multiple states are explicitly urging Trump supporters not to split their tickets for Democratic Senate candidates, Steve Shepard reports. RACE FOR THE STATES THE ROAD TO MADISON — New maps for the Wisconsin state Assembly that undid a GOP gerrymander give Democrats an outside chance at flipping the chamber. But to get there, Dems will have to win races in rural territory where the party has withered and Republicans have an incumbency advantage, Tyler Katzenberger reports from Wausau. BIG IN BISMARCK — “North Dakota voters may end most property taxes. Government programs could face huge cuts,” by AP’s Jack Dura in Bismarck: “If passed, the constitutional initiative would eliminate property taxes based on assessed value and require the Republican-controlled Legislature to replace the lost revenue. A top legislative panel estimated that total cost to be $3.15 billion every two years — a huge number for a state that passed a $6.1 billion, two-year general fund budget in 2023.” POLL POSITION Virginia: Harris +6, per WaPo/Schar School.
| | | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | |  Israel's retaliatory strikes on Iran and the limited response on both sides have been reassuring to U.S. officials. | Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool Photo via AP Photo | 8 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR 1. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: In the wake of Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Iran, leaders in Tehran said today that they had the right to respond in kind — but both sides seemed to be deescalating tensions overall. The limits on Israel’s response, and their significant impact to Iranian military facilities nonetheless, both come as a kind of relief to the U.S., which sought to shape the Israeli decision in recent weeks, WSJ’s Michael Gordon, Lara Seligman and Nancy Youssed report. In the Israel-Hamas war, however, neither the killing of YAHYA SINWAR nor Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN’s recent visit seem to have moved cease-fire negotiations much — the latest in a long line of frustrations and failures for the Biden administration in the Middle East over the past year, NYT’s Michael Crowley and Edward Wong report. 2. NON-ENDORSEMENT FALLOUT: We’re still learning more about the backstories — and the ramifications — of the leadership decisions at WaPo and the L.A. Times to forgo a presidential endorsement. NYT’s Benjamin Mullin and Katie Robertson report that JEFF BEZOS made the call for the Post despite pushback from WILL LEWIS and DAVID SHIPLEY. In LA, the outspoken daughter of owner PATRICK SOON-SHIONG, NIKA, told NYT’s Soumya Karlamangla and Shawn Hubler that the non-endorsement was a protest against Democrats over Gaza — but her father rebutted that statement, saying she’d played no role. Among the people canceling their subscriptions were LIZ CHENEY, protesting WaPo (per Jane Mayer ), and … some very confused NYT readers, per Max Tani. (LORI LIGHTFOOT canceled her Amazon Prime membership instead.) 3. DANCE OF THE SUPERPOWERS: Another $2 billion in U.S. weapons sales are in the offing for Taiwan, AP’s Simina Mistreanu reports from Taipei. China slammed the move to shore up Taiwan’s defenses, which includes the first-ever arrival of “an advanced surface-to-air missile defense system.” 4. THE REAL-WORLD IMPACT IN SPRINGFIELD: “Their Son’s Death Was Devastating. Then Politics Made It Worse,” by NYT’s Eli Saslow: “This was the version of the country the CLARKS and their two teenage children had encountered during the last year, ever since AIDEN died in a school bus crash in August 2023 … The crash was ruled an accident, caused by a legally registered Haitian immigrant … But as the presidential campaign intensified, former President Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, began to tell a different story. … All of it was antithetical to what the Clarks believed and to the compassion they’d admired most in their son.” 5. AILING AMERICA: The need at food banks in multiple swing states has been steadily rising for years now, lately reaching record highs, NBC’s Shannon Pettypiece reports. Higher prices (especially for housing) in the Rust Belt have made it harder for many families to make ends meet, leading to longer lines and new faces at food banks from rural areas to wealthy suburbs to big cities. 6. KNOWING CHRIS PAVLOVSKI: “How a tech mogul backed by JD Vance now bolsters Trump’s fortune,” by WaPo’s Isaac Stanley-Becker and Drew Harwell: The Rumble founder and CEO “gave technical advice to Trump Media that helped get the company off the ground in early 2021 … Around the same time, Rumble — Pavlovski’s once-obscure video-streaming site — received a cash infusion from a cadre of conservative investors, including JD Vance.” 7. THE BRAVE NEW WORLD: “The new dark money: How influencers get paid big bucks to court your vote,” by WaPo’s Cat Zakrzewski: “Political campaigns and their surrogates are pouring millions of dollars into social media influencers with scant regulatory oversight or public transparency … Online influencers who usually traffic in makeup, crocheting or parenting are earning thousands of dollars for a single TikTok or Instagram post on behalf of groups backing Vice President Kamala Harris or former president Donald Trump. … Critics say the lack of transparency … could be abused by political groups to manipulate public opinion, and that federal election rules have failed to keep pace.” 8. JOHN ROBERTS’ WORLD: “Supreme Court ignites wave of lawsuits against federal regulations,” by WaPo’s Tony Romm: “Between June and mid-October, [three recent rulings] have factored into more than 150 new or ongoing legal challenges, according to court records analyzed by The Washington Post and data amassed by Democracy Forward. … The lawsuits touch on virtually every aspect of the U.S. economy, especially federal labor law.”
| | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Tim Walz are playing “Madden” together on Twitch. Rahm Emanuel is watching the Japanese election with the intensity of a DCCC chair. Dana Bash has taken the long way to the top. Jessica Tarlov is a rare liberal breakout on Fox News. Donald Trump is angling for the McDonald’s vote. Debbie Dingell played beer pong ahead of the MSU-UM game. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. George Helmy (D-N.J.) … Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) … Matt Drudge … Vanity Fair’s Michael Calderone … Judy Smith of Smith & Co. … Zoe Chace of “This American Life” … Richard Clarke … Stuart Roy of Strategic Action Public Affairs … Phil Anderson of Navigators Global and the Ukraine Freedom Alliance … Mike McCurry of Public Strategies Washington and Wesley Theological Seminary (7-0) … Clark Reid of Commerce … Henry Olsen … Lora Ries of the Heritage Foundation … Emily Vander Weele of Weber Shandwick ... George Landrith … Jack Kalavritinos of JK Strategies … Nina Easton … Bryan Wells of the Stanton Park Group … Ora Rosenbaum of The Next 50 and the Indivisible Project … Annika Olsons of the Air Traffic Controllers … Ali Watkins … John Seibels of the House Natural Resources GOP … Christian Stellakis 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 Kidney Care Access Coalition: A June 2022 Supreme Court ruling undermined long-standing statutory protections for dialysis patients by allowing employer group health plans to force dialysis patients on Medicare before they would have otherwise chosen. When they transition from their employer health plan to Medicare, their family could also be forced off their coverage. This causes an unnecessary and costly disruption to these families – at a time when they are also managing a life-threatening disease.
The Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act is a bipartisan, bicameral bill to simply restore these critical protections for patients and their families. The bill ensures families can choose their coverage, protects private health insurance, and prevents Medicare from being overburdened.
Over 40 organizations, including those representing patients, providers, the disability community, and communities of color, are calling on Congress to pass the Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act.
https://www.kidneycareaccess.org/ | | | | | | | 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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