| | | | |  | | By Ryan Lizza, Rachael Bade and Eugene Daniels | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | THE BLOODSHED RESUMES — “Israeli offensive shifts to crowded southern Gaza, driving up death toll despite evacuation orders,” by AP’s Najib Jobain, Bassem Mroue and Cara Anna THE SARTORIAL SANTOS — “The Clothes That Unmade George Santos,” by WSJ’s Jacob Gallagher: “The Republican congressman with fashion flair is partly undone by his expensive taste.”
|  An opinion from Judge Tanya Chutkan, who ruled that Donald Trump is not immune from criminal prosecution, is a crucial turning point. | Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images | WHAT WILL SCOTUS DO? — The Trump trials can be confusing. With so much procedural action occurring across so many cases in so many jurisdictions, it’s often difficult to know when something truly important has happened. It’s worth pausing and highlighting those hinge moments in these complicated cases when they arise. Last night’s opinion by Judge TANYA CHUTKAN, who ruled that DONALD TRUMP is not immune from criminal prosecution, is one of those crucial turning points. First, recall that Trump’s general strategy across these cases is twofold:
- Argue that he’s immune from any post-presidential accountability for his actions as president.
- Delay the proceedings until he wins the 2024 election and then dismisses the cases.
Chutkan delivered a massive blow to the first part of this strategy. But what happens next at the appeals and Supreme Court level with respect to her decision could determine the fate of strategy No. 2. Chutkan’s opinion is the first by a federal court to hold what probably seems obvious to most: A former president is not immune from criminal prosecution for crimes committed while serving as president. This was no technical legal matter but a sweeping opinion written in language that leaned on the most sacred historical touchstones of American history: the founding ideals about the role of a king versus a president, the Federalist Papers and GEORGE WASHINGTON. And the opinion was studded with pointed quotes about the nature of tyranny and the rule of law. (For example, from Justice FELIX FRANKFURTER: “If one man can be allowed to determine for himself what is law, every man can. That means first chaos, then tyranny.”) Here’s Chutkan’s already much-quoted summary of her decision: “Whatever immunities a sitting President may enjoy, the United States has only one Chief Executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass. Former Presidents enjoy no special conditions on their federal criminal liability. Defendant may be subject to federal investigation, indictment, prosecution, conviction, and punishment for any criminal acts undertaken while in office.”
| | | | A message from Google: AI is helping to prevent blindness in diabetic patients. ARDA, Google Research's AI-powered diabetic retinopathy screening tool, helps clinicians prevent blindness by expanding access to screening at scale, supporting over 250,000 screenings to date. Learn more. | | | Here she is on Trump’s argument about impeachment: “Under Defendant’s reading, if a President commits a crime that does not fall within that limited category, and so could not be impeached and convicted, the President could never be prosecuted for that crime. … The constitutional limits on impeachment’s penalties do not license a President’s criminal impunity.” On whether not immunizing criminal conduct would chill presidential action: “Every President will face difficult decisions; whether to intentionally commit a federal crime should not be one of them.” On whether future presidents will be overwhelmed with criminal prosecutions: “As Defendant acknowledges, he is the only former President in United States history to face criminal charges for acts committed while in office. … Despite Defendant’s doomsaying, he points to no evidence that his criminal liability in this case will open the gates to a waiting flood of future federal prosecutions.” She has no patience for what she sees as Trump’s patently absurd claims about the First Amendment shielding him: “In his Constitutional Motion, Defendant first argues that the Indictment should be dismissed because it criminalizes his speech and therefore violates the First Amendment. But it is well established that the First Amendment does not protect speech that is used as an instrument of a crime, and consequently the Indictment — which charges Defendant with, among other things, making statements in furtherance of a crime — does not violate Defendant’s First Amendment rights.” Again and again she comes back to the simple principle that all Americans are equal before the law and that Trump should be treated like anyone else when it comes to criminal conduct. But what happens next could determine how true that is. Trump’s plan is to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court. The clock is now ticking. If the appeals court and then the Supreme Court drag things out and delay appeals of Chutkan’s historic decision, it could disrupt the schedule of the trial, which is slated to start March 4. If the higher courts expedite these appeals, the trial could start on time. If it wasn’t apparent already, it is now clear that the most important decision determining the course of the 2024 election could be one made by the Supreme Court. More: “Trump’s Georgia trial should be kicked to 2029 if he wins the election, his lawyer says,” by Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney … “Federal Judge Rejects Trump’s Immunity Claims in Election Case,” NYT Good Saturday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
| | | | A message from Google:   ARDA, Google Research's AI-powered diabetic retinopathy screening tool, is helping clinicians prevent blindness in diabetes patients. Learn more. | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | At the White House President JOE BIDEN has nothing on his public schedule. VP KAMALA HARRIS is in Dubai for COP28, where today she delivered the U.S. statement, took part in a leaders’ session on the energy transition, had meetings with Egyptian President ABDEL FATTAH EL-SISI and UAE President Sheikh MOHAMMED BIN ZAYED, and delivered remarks about the Israel-Hamas war. On the trail Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS today will finally hit his 99th of 99 Iowa counties with a stop in Newton, but he’ll share the state spotlight with Trump, who’s got an event slated for Cedar Rapids, AP’s Michelle Price and Thomas Beaumont preview.
| | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | | |  EPA Administrator Michael Regan’s new methane emissions rules could become one of the administration’s signature initiatives to stave off climate catastrophe. | Mark Schiefelbein, File/AP Photo | 9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US 1. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: The restart of heavy fighting in the Israel-Hamas war comes despite Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN’s efforts to warn Israel about Palestinian civilian casualties, Bloomberg’s Courtney McBride reports. Intensified bombing in southern Gaza, to which many people fled in recent weeks, threatens a densely populated area. And WaPo’s Yasmeen Abutaleb reports that it’s unclear whether the urgent U.S. pressure campaign on Israel has made any impact on its conduct. But will there be any consequences if Israel disregards American counsel? Experts say it remains to be seen “whether Biden would be willing to distance himself or break with Israel if it does not heed the American exhortations,” per WaPo. And at the same time, WSJ’s Jared Malsin and Nancy Youssef scooped that the U.S. has sent Israel about 15,000 bombs and 57,000 artillery shells in the past two months, including 100 massive, 2,000-pound “bunker buster bombs.” 2. RETIREMENT WATCH: “McCarthy, Laboring to Adjust to Life After the Speakership, Eyes Exiting Congress,” by NYT’s Annie Karni: “Over the past two months, [KEVIN] McCARTHY has given the life of a rank-and-file member a hard look and discovered it to be a painful existence … These days, Mr. McCarthy, famous for his preternaturally sunny California disposition, has been hard to cheer up. … He has also struggled to make peace with the idea that it’s time to go, even as California’s Dec. 8 filing deadline to run for re-election draws near and his colleagues expect him to leave.” 3. MAJOR CLIMATE MOVES: As COP28 tackles the global climate crisis in Dubai, the Biden administration today announced a significant new crackdown on the oil and gas industry’s planet-warming methane emissions, Ben Lefebvre, Alex Guillén and Zack Colman report. The EPA rules could become one of Biden’s signature initiatives to stave off climate catastrophe; the agency says they’ll prevent 810 million metric tons of carbon dioxide through 2035. The looming question is whether they can survive the conservative Supreme Court. At the same time, the U.S. announced it will devote another $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund, which goes toward climate projects in developing countries, Reuters’ Nandita Bose and Valerie Volcovici scooped. 4. LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE: “The US is scrambling to avoid another foreign policy crisis — this time in Congo,” Erin Banco scooped: “A top U.S. intelligence official presented a detailed proposal to the leaders of Congo and Rwanda last week for a pact to reduce fighting in eastern Congo — and promised to help enforce the deal. The leaders largely signed off on the U.S. plan … The readout shows that the U.S. is playing a much more active role than previously disclosed in trying to calm tensions in the increasingly volatile region, where conflict between Congolese forces and rebels backed by neighboring Rwanda is threatening to escalate into all-out war between the countries.” 5. REDISTRICTING ROUNDUP: Will legal challenges to gerrymanders net Democrats additional congressional seats in Georgia and Florida? A new plan from Georgia Republicans yesterday seeks to avoid that prospect by redrawing the lines to add a majority-Black district while keeping the state delegation’s partisan composition the state, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Mark Niesse and Maya Prabhu report. And a Florida appellate court sided against a legal challenge to the map DeSantis forced into existence, per the News Service of Florida. Next come the pivotal moments in court: whether a skeptical judge will accept Georgia Republicans’ plan (or, more pointedly, whether the legal fight will drag on past the election), and whether the Florida Supreme Court will overturn yesterday’s ruling. 6. TRUMP’S EPOCHAL SHIFT: “Trump’s Second-Term Plans: Anti-‘Woke’ University, ‘Freedom Cities,’” by WSJ’s Andrew Restuccia and Aaron Zitner: “The former president is laying plans to wield his executive authority to influence school curricula, prevent doctors from providing medical interventions for young transgender people and pressure police departments to adopt more severe anticrime policies. … He has pledged to marshal the power of the government to investigate and punish his critics. It is a governing platform barely recognizable to prior generations of Republican politicians … [T]he second-term agenda outlined by Trump could require waves of new federal intervention.”
| | | | A message from Google: ARDA is using AI to support nearly 3k new diabetic retinopathy screenings weekly. Diabetic retinopathy creates lesions in the back of the retina that can lead to total blindness. It’s important to screen people diagnosed with diabetes early, but with over 420 million people with diabetes globally, checking on every patient is an impossible task—especially in countries without enough eye specialists, such as India and Thailand. Google Research is working with multiple partners to make a new AI-powered solution to screening at scale available around the world. This Automated Retinal Disease Assessment, or ARDA, uses artificial intelligence to help healthcare workers detect diabetic retinopathy, with future possibilities of assisting clinicians in identifying other diseases. Read more about Google Research’s AI-powered screening tool. | | | 7. THE UNLIKELY UKRAINE CHAMPION: MIKE JOHNSON’s repeated support for sending more aid to Ukraine has been one of the more surprising facets of his young speakership, WSJ’s Lindsay Wise reports. His advocacy, which people close to him say arises from sincere hawkishness, belies some of his pre-speaker votes against assistance. But Johnson is pushing to link Ukraine aid with border policy changes in a package that he hopes could attract enough Republican support to pass. Now, “how hard he plans to push for tens of billions of dollars in new aid could shape the future of the embattled country.” 8. PARDON ME: “Trump pardoned them. Now they’re helping him return to power,” by WaPo’s Beth Reinhard, Manuel Roig-Franzia and Clara Ence Morse in Fountain Hills, Ariz.: “Never before had a president used his constitutional clemency powers to free or forgive so many people who could be useful to his future political efforts. … [D]ozens of recipients, including [JOE] ARPAIO, have gone on to plug his 2024 candidacy through social media and national interviews, contribute money to his front-running bid for the Republican nomination or disseminate his false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.” 9. ANNALS OF SPREADING DEMOCRACY: Two months ago, the U.S. looked set to relax sanctions on Venezuela in a significant policy shift, in exchange for freer and fairer elections and prisoner releases. But after insufficient progress in Caracas, JOHN KIRBY threatened yesterday to “pause” the relief unless more people are freed from prison — even while he welcomed a Venezuelan announcement that could give opposition politicians greater ability to run in elections, Reuters’ Matt Spetalnick and Steve Holland report. CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 16 funnies
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Chappatte - Political Cartoons.com | GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Ryan Lizza: — “The Chicken Tycoons vs. the Antitrust Hawks,” by Claire Brown in the NYT Magazine: “As part of a broader campaign against anticompetitive practices, the Biden administration has taken on the chicken industry. Why have the results been so paltry?” — “Inside our two-year investigation of the captive tiger industry,” by National Geographic’s Steve Winter with Sharon Guynup: “This journalist duo made a grueling foray into the underbelly of America’s illicit tiger trade. Thanks to their work, the cub-petting industry is a thing of the past.” — “Twitter’s Former Head of Trust and Safety Finally Breaks Her Silence,” by Wired’s Lauren Goode: “From Israel vs. Hamas threats to Donald Trump’s ‘wild’ posts, Del Harvey helped make the platform’s hardest content moderation calls for 13 years. Then she left in 2021 … and disappeared.” — “Ammon Bundy Has Disappeared,” by The Atlantic’s Jacob Stern: “An anti-government extremist seemed on the verge of another standoff with the law. Then he vanished.” — “For decades, a Florida woman had no sense of smell. Can she get it back?” by the Tampa Bay Times’ Lane DeGregory: “As the pandemic stole millions of people’s ‘fifth sense,’ Barbara Walker’s seemed to be coming back. But why?” — “Too much stuff: can we solve our addiction to consumerism?” by Chip Colwell in the Guardian: “Alarmed by the rising tide of waste we are all creating, my family and I decided to try to make do with much less. But while individual behaviour is important, real change will require action on a far bigger scale.” — “The View from Here,” by Airmail’s Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv: “Male Israeli intelligence officers dismissed warnings from the front lines that a Hamas attack was imminent. It had a lot to do with the fact that the soldiers sounding the alarm were women.” — “Rats Have Taken Over Our Cities — And We Can’t Stop Them,” by Eleanor Cummins in Popular Mechanics: “With rodent populations exploding across the globe, exterminators have one last shot to take back city streets from this cunning, resourceful pest.” — “Behind the Tragic, Instagram-Perfect Life of an Ex-Disney Executive,” by WSJ Magazine’s Erich Schwartzel: “When Dave Hollis quit his plum Disney job to join his wife Rachel’s self-help empire, the pair built a business around sharing some of their darkest feelings on social media. The reality was even worse.”
| | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Hakeem Jeffries is stirring future presidential buzz in New Hampshire. Chris Christie may not make the Maine ballot. Amy Kremer has settled with the FEC. Adam Smith’s home was vandalized by activists calling for a cease-fire. John Fetterman said Bob Menendez’s behavior is “more sinister” than George Santos’ — and reiterated that he should be expelled too. Guy Benson welcomed a new baby. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at Third Way’s holiday party Thursday night at La Collina: Reps. Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.), Bill Foster (D-Ill.), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Annie Kuster (D-N.H.), Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Mike Levin (D-Calif.), Deborah Ross (D-N.C.), Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), Wiley Nickel (D-N.C.) and Frank Mrvan (D-Ind.), Matt Bennett, Lanae Erickson, Kate deGruyter, Emily Sternfeld, Scott Fairchild, Angie Kuefler, Baillee Brown, Justin German, Rob Hall, Izzy Klein, Michael Levin, Julius West and Jake Bennett. — SPOTTED on Wednesday evening at the Carlyle Hotel in NYC for a dinner celebrating Argent, the clothing brand first lady Jill Biden has been wearing recently: Sali Christeson, Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin, Katie Couric, Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Rajni Jacques, Betsy Beers, Olivia Nuzzi, Debora Cahn, Helena Christensen, Cari Champion, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Kara Swisher, Laura Brown, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, Nsé Ufot, Malika Andrews, Paola Ramos, Stephanie Young, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, June Crenshaw, Heather McGhee, Hannah Chatalas, Regina Scully, Page Crahan, Katie McGrath, Amy Griffin, Allison Feaster, Aya Kanai, Ai-jen Poo and Taylor Salditch. WHITE HOUSE DEPARTURE LOUNGE — Morgan Mohr is joining the Biden campaign as senior adviser for reproductive freedom. She previously has been senior adviser to the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House. TRANSITION — Michael Lumpkin is now chief of staff of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He most recently was managing director at the Fera Group and also served as a commissioner of the Afghanistan War Commission. ENGAGED — Jon Ostendorff, a comms consultant, proposed to Kate Hunter, a White House and politics editor at Bloomberg News, on Nov. 25 in their living room, in front of the Christmas tree they had spent the day putting up. They met at the UNC campus newspaper, the Daily Tar Heel, in the late ’90s and reconnected decades later. Pic WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Sarah Ferris, senior congressional reporter at POLITICO, and Mike Sullivan, energy policy adviser at PacificCorp, welcomed twins Cody and Julian Sullivan on Tuesday. Pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland … VA Secretary Denis McDonough … Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) … Cal Thomas … U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO Julianne Smith … Bob Carey … CHCI’s Mina Moore … Carrie Wofford … Dan Puskar of the Public Lands Alliance … NBC’s Chris Berend … ABC’s Brad Mielke … Mairéad Lynn of Sen. Bob Casey’s (D-Pa.) office … Rayshon Payton … Andrew Howell of Monument Advocacy … John Hollis … John Bodnovich of the American Beverage Licensees … Kelly (Klass) Bourne of LSG … Mark Irion … former AG Edwin Meese (92) … former Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) (8-0) … former Reps. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.) (7-0) and Pete Gallego (D-Texas) … Floodlight News’ Kristi Swartz … Treasury’s Liz Rosenberg … Stone Phillips … DJ Sigworth … Alex Short … Merck’s Johanna Herrmann (4-0) … Martín Diego Garcia of the Campaign Workshop … Lauren Cross THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here): NBC “Meet the Press”: John Kirby … Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis … Allyson Felix. Panel: Tim Alberta, Stephen Hayes and Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures”: Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) … Texas Gov. Greg Abbott … South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem … Kari Lake. CBS “Face the Nation”: John Kirby … Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) … Chris Christie … Colorado Gov. Jared Polis … Utah Gov. Spencer Cox … Scott Gottlieb. FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown Jr. … John Kirby. Veterans panel: Reps. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) and Seth Moulton (D-Mass.). Panel: Karl Rove, Marc Thiessen and Roger Zakheim. ABC “This Week”: John Kirby … Ron Dermer … Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). Panel: Donna Brazile, Reince Priebus, Maggie Haberman and Julie Pace. CNN “State of the Union”: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) … Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). Panel: Ashley Allison, Kate Bedingfield, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Brad Todd. MSNBC “The Sunday Show”: Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) … Gina McCarthy. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. 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