| | | | |  | | By Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza and Rachael Bade | Presented by Vapor Technology Association | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | WHAT MURIEL BOWSER IS READING — Michael Schaffer’s latest: “Is DC Doomed — Or About to Become Something New?: A quarter-century comeback is over. Can dog parks and condos on K Street usher in a new golden age?”
|  The stakes for Joe Biden's State of the Union address next week are incredibly high. | Getty Images | WHAT BIDEN NEEDS TO DO IN THE SOTU — A presidential State of the Union is really about two things: contrast and vision — what are your plans, and what is the other side promising? That duality is on full display in the runup to President JOE BIDEN’s SOTU next Thursday. The stakes for Biden are incredibly high: It’s likely to have the largest viewing audience of any speech he’ll give before the November election, and with the possibility of debates this fall appearing shaky at best, it may well be the largest TV audience he’ll have in 2024, period. Combine that with widespread concerns about his age and fitness — fair or not, poll after poll relays the reality that this is gnawing at voters, and cannot be ignored — and you have the makings of a high-wire act without much of a safety net. How do you approach an election-year SOTU speech? We asked someone who knows firsthand: JIM MESSINA, who managed President BARACK OBAMA’s 2012 campaign. He pointed to two main things Biden needs to accomplish: (1) “Voters want to see him do his job. They want to see him talk about this stuff. They want to answer any age questions they may or may not have,” Messina tells Playbook. (2) “They want to hear what he’s going to do to make their lives better. And this is a format where you can be really expansive about that and really drill down.” Baked into both of those tasks is this: “It's also a chance to contrast himself with the other side. … I used to say to Obama: Is this a referendum on the incumbent? The incumbent usually loses. If it's a choice, the incumbent usually wins, and you start to set that choice up in this period.” How will he go about doing all of that? (1) DOING HIS JOB: Biden didn’t wait for the speech to take on arguably his biggest policy vulnerability — immigration — with a trip yesterday to Brownville, Texas. There we saw a preview of the message he’s likely to send Thursday, talking up the Senate’s bipartisan border legislation as the “toughest, most efficient, most effective border security bill this country has ever seen.” And in an attempt to pluck the issue from the quiver of his predecessor DONALD TRUMP — who did a split-screen event 300 miles down the Rio Grande — he challenged the likely GOP nominee to work with him to support the bill: “Instead of playing politics with the issue, why don’t we just get together and get it done?” To show that he’s taking the issue seriously, the White House is chewing over possible new executive actions aimed at owning the issue, some of which sound downright … Trumpian, our colleagues Myah Ward, Eli Stokols and Lisa Kashinsky report — including potential significant changes to asylum policy. Meanwhile, on the other big issue pressing down on Biden — the war in Gaza — it’s looking increasingly certain that he won't be able to show up Thursday with a cease-fire deal in hand, as Jonathan Lemire and Alexander Ward report. Biden, they write, “will be forced to tackle the crisis … with a diplomatic resolution remaining painfully elusive and with evidence mounting that it’s harming him politically back home.” (2) MAKING PEOPLE’S LIVES BETTER: Though the SOTU speech will be rewritten until the very last moment, last night, a White House official gave Playbook a bit of a preview of its major themes and issues. “The President will talk about whose side he is on and the work ahead to make life better for every American: Lowering costs — giving people more breathing room. Lowering health care premiums and taking on the drug companies to lower the cost of prescriptions drugs. Making the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share — putting the middle class first,” the official wrote us in an email. Other themes you can expect: “Saving our democracy, protecting women’s reproductive health — rights and freedoms are on the ballot. Uniting the country — unity agenda: privacy and big tech, curb fentanyl, help veterans, end cancer.” He’s getting no shortage of advice on what to say and how to say it. On the left, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Data for Progress have been conducting research and presenting the White House with polling on specific messaging that both would work for the SOTU and in the general election. At the end of 2023, they warned the White House that “Bidenomics” was going nowhere fast. Since then, they’ve returned with poll-tested sentences served on a platter. “One big takeaway was that every economic issue — including health care — has to be talked about through the prism of costs and prices, not aspirational stuff like universality,” PCCC co-founder ADAM GREEN tells Playbook. “That's just not where people's heads are right now.” The biggest recommendation Green and his team took to senior aides at the White House was building on Biden’s best moment in last year’s SOTU: protecting Social Security. It’s an issue where Democrats have lost their edge in the polls, and Green said Biden’s best play is connect the program with taxing billionaires. “The single line there is: ‘Republicans want to cut taxes for billionaires and cut Social Security. Democrats want to protect Social Security from cuts and ensure billionaires pay their fair share in taxes,’” Green said. (We can’t help but note that Biden has already used a similar line publicly at least twice.) FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: AFTER THE SOTU, SWING STATES: Expect Biden to use the speech to slingshot him back onto the campaign trail. A person familiar with the president’s travel plans tells Playbook exclusively that Friday and Saturday after the speech, Biden will head to the Philly and Atlanta areas for campaign events that will underscore and build on his message. Happy Friday. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
| | | | A message from the Vapor Technology Association: President Biden: Your administration is working against you.
The FDA is going rogue, trying to force your hand on menthol cigarettes—and that's just the start.
Unelected bureaucrats have been politicizing public health for years, and are ignoring science by banning flavored vapes which are the most effective tool to stop smoking.
President Biden—it's time to take back control of your Cancer Moonshot and public health equity agenda.
Learn More | | | SHUTDOWN SHUT DOWN — Congress narrowly avoided a partial government shutdown as the House and then the Senate passed a continuing resolution yesterday to keep the lights on, sending it to Biden’s desk. The votes were 320-99 and 77-13, respectively. The stopgap — yet another one — gives negotiators until March 8 and March 22 to land two different packages of spending bills. More from Caitlin Emma and Jennifer Scholtes PAGING ELIZABETH WARREN — Victoria Guida’s latest: “Does America Need More Big Banks?: 15 years after the Great Recession, Washington still can’t decide how big banks should be.” THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW: CARLOS LOZADA — Carlos Lozada is a columnist for The New York Times, and before that, the longtime nonfiction book critic for The Washington Post, where he won the Pulitzer Prize for melding “warm emotion and careful analysis in examining a broad range of books addressing government and the American experience.” Well, he’s now collected nearly a decade of such reviews in what he calls “The Washington Book: How to Read Politics and Politicians,” which was released this week. So what does Carlos’ close reading of the likes of Biden, Trump, BARACK OBAMA, MIKE PENCE, RON DeSANTIS and many others reveal about our politics in 2024? It turns out quite a lot. On this week’s episode of Playbook Deep Dive, host and co-author Ryan Lizza sat down with Carlos to find out more. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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| | | | | A message from the Vapor Technology Association:   | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | On the Hill The Senate is in. The House is out. 3 things to watch …
- The latest turn of the screw in what promises to be a long-running process to replace Senate GOP Leader MITCH McCONNELL is a request from 10 conservative senators for a special GOP conference meeting later this month “to develop a mission statement and goals for the Conference, and a process to elect a new Senate Republican Leader.” Among those notably not signing on to the request: Sen. STEVE DAINES (R-Mont.), who is reportedly a favorite candidate of Trump’s.
- The hottest trend in the House GOP right now is un-retiring. Rep. MARK GREEN (R-Tenn.) yesterday reversed plans to step away from Congress after he said he “received countless calls from constituents, colleagues, and President Trump urging me to reconsider.” He joins fellow Republican Reps. MATT ROSENDALE (Mont.) and VICTORIA SPARTZ (Ind.) in U-turning on their plans for the 119th Congress.
- With tax season well underway, time’s running out to get the big House-passed tax package through the Senate, and it’s unclear if Republicans there will be game to let it through. Sen. MIKE CRAPO (R-Idaho), the top Finance Committee Republican, yesterday detailed a list of concessions he’d like to see. But another Finance member, THOM TILLIS (R-N.C.), blasted the deal in a Wednesday WSJ op-ed, saying the House GOP “got played by Senate Democrats doing the bidding of the Biden administration.”
At the White House Biden will hold a bilateral meeting with Italian PM GIORGIA MELONI at 1 p.m., and head to Camp David in the evening. VP KAMALA HARRIS will travel to Durham, North Carolina, to make an announcement at 12:40 p.m. about investments in small businesses and entrepreneurship, along with Deputy Treasury Secretary WALLY ADEYEMO and North Carolina Gov. ROY COOPER. She’ll return to D.C. afterward.
| | | | CALIFORNIA CLIMATE: Climate change isn’t just about the weather. It's also about how we do business and create new policies, especially in California. So, we have something cool for you: our California Climate newsletter. It's not just climate or science chat, it's your daily cheat sheet to understanding how the legislative landscape around climate change is shaking up industries across the Golden State. Cut through the jargon and get the latest developments in California as lawmakers and industry leaders adapt to the changing climate. Subscribe now. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | | | 
Donald Trump is likely to attend a key hearing today in Florida related to his classified documents case. | Eric Gay/AP Photo | TRUMP CARDS CANNON FODDER — The spotlight of Trump’s various legal sagas returns today to Florida, where, at a major hearing in his federal mishandling of classified documents case, Trump-appointed Judge AILEEN CANNON may make a crucial decision on how much to delay a trial — with significant implications for whether Trump will actually face the music before a potential return to power. Trump is likely to attend the proceedings, Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein preview from Fort Pierce, where various questions will include the jury selection process, witness lists and classified info in filings. But the biggest question is the delay — which seems virtually guaranteed, as nobody expects the current May 20 trial date to stick. In filings last night, federal prosecutors asked for July 8 to kick off the trial, per the AP. Trump’s team continued to insist that it should wait until after the election is over — but, in a surprise, suggested Aug. 12 as an alternative if Cannon isn’t willing to go that far. It was “an abrupt turnabout” from Trump’s lawyers without an immediately obvious explanation, report NYT’s Alan Feuer and Maggie Haberman, who speculate that perhaps Trump is trying to prevent the other big federal trial, on election subversion charges, from happening before November. Trump’s extraordinary success in delaying his various legal reckonings — most prominently with the Supreme Court’s decision to take up his immunity claim — raises pointed questions for the high court, NYT’s Adam Liptak writes. But legal observers also think the court’s framing when it took up the case indicates it will likely reject his argument, CNN’s John Fritze and Tierney Sneed report. CONGRESS THE TIGHTROPE ACT — “Mike Johnson’s quietly trying to neutralize his right flank — by bringing in Trump,” by Olivia Beavers and Ally Mutnick: Inside a Mar-a-Lago meeting where Johnson tried to get Trump on his side regarding Rep. MIKE BOST, J.R. MAJEWSKI, VINCE FONG, Rep. DAVID VALADAO, SANDY SMITH and more. IT’S MITCHCRAFT — “What Did Mitch McConnell Do to America?” POLITICO Magazine: “We asked congressional insiders, historians and political analysts to choose the longtime Senate GOP leader’s most consequential achievement as he prepares to step down.” FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE — The House Oversight/Judiciary deposition of HUNTER BIDEN now has a public transcript. Highlights from Jordain Carney AMERICA AND THE WORLD
|  Palestinians wounded in an Israeli strike while waiting for humanitarian aid on the beach in Gaza City are treated in Shifa Hospital on Thursday, Feb. 29. | Mahmoud Essa/AP Photo | MIDDLE EAST LATEST — Progress toward a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war was scrambled yesterday when more than 100 Palestinians were reportedly killed in an incident while trying to get food aid, NBC’s Raf Sanchez reports. Gazan officials claimed that Israeli troops had massacred the Palestinians, while Israel claimed that many were killed in a stampede or run over by trucks. One witness said he saw dozens of people with gunshot wounds. Biden talked about the tragedy with the Egyptian and Qatari leaders, per Reuters, and told reporters that the news would likely upend his hope that the two sides could reach an agreement for a cease-fire by Monday, per NBC. There were also signs that the incident could unleash more frustration with Israel among fed-up mainstream Democrats: Sen. CHRIS MURPHY (D-Conn.) called for Israel to pause its military operations, immediately and unilaterally, “to get this humanitarian nightmare under control” while working toward a longer-term cease-fire on both sides. TALES FROM GITMO — “C.I.A. Violently Cut Off 9/11 Suspect When He Tried to Talk About Attacks,” by NYT’s Carol Rosenberg, about KHALID SHAIKH MOHAMMED THE WHITE HOUSE WHAT BIDEN IS REALLY LIKE — In the first of a three-part series, WaPo’s Tyler Pager goes inside the Oval Office and into the private conversations that shape Biden’s thinking, painting a very different picture than special counsel ROBERT HUR’s report of a feeble old man. Pager finds that Biden curses and gets angry and that his ideas based on “chance encounters” with Delawareans or his family members can frustrate some of his aides. So does his reliance on headlines from Apple News, which — along with cable TV and print newspapers — is one of his main news sources. The Post reports that Biden has a particular concern about the epidemic of loneliness among young Americans: “In the early months of his presidency, as the pandemic dragged on with its stifling restrictions, President Biden often delivered a favorite monologue to aides,” Pager writes. “High school seniors were missing prom and graduation. He wanted to know how college students went on dates. Specifically, Biden wondered how young people could ‘make love’ under the circumstances, according to two aides who heard the president use that phrase multiple times during his first year in office.” LOOK WHO’S BACK — Biden yesterday nominated former Labor Secretary MARTY WALSH for the U.S. Postal Service’s Board of Governors. Walsh tells Lisa Kashinsky at Massachusetts Playbook that he’ll remain head of the NHL Players Association and would be a volunteer for the Postal Service board if confirmed by the Senate, forgoing the role’s salary. 2024 WATCH HEADS UP — In an interview with Sean Hannity last night, Trump newly dangled the prospect of a 15-week abortion ban: “More and more I’m hearing about 15 weeks,” he said. “I haven’t decided yet.” Video JUDICIARY SQUARE
|  Jack Teixeira, who is accused of leaking highly classified military documents social media, is expected to plead guilty in his federal case on Monday. | Margaret Small via AP Photo | TWO BIG GUILTY PLEAS — A pair of astonishing national security cases that damaged U.S. interests are now set to conclude with admissions of guilt. JACK TEIXEIRA plans to plead guilty at a hearing Monday morning, federal prosecutors revealed in a filing yesterday in the leaked documents case, the Boston Globe’s Shelley Murphy reports. The 22-year-old airman is expected to be sentenced to some prison time, though the guilty plea will reduce what prosecutors had initially sought. Down in Florida, former U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia VICTOR MANUEL ROCHA said he’ll plead guilty to having worked as an illegal agent for Cuba during a long diplomatic career for the U.S., the Miami Herald’s Jay Weaver reports. It’s a surprise twist that will shorten what had looked like it could be a lengthy legal proceeding.
| | | | CONGRESS OVERDRIVE: Since day one, POLITICO has been laser-focused on Capitol Hill, serving up the juiciest Congress coverage. Now, we’re upping our game to ensure you’re up to speed and in the know on every tasty morsel and newsy nugget from inside the Capitol Dome, around the clock. Wake up, read Playbook AM, get up to speed at midday with our Playbook PM halftime report, and fuel your nightly conversations with Inside Congress in the evening. Plus, never miss a beat with buzzy, real-time updates throughout the day via our Inside Congress Live feature. Learn more and subscribe here. | | | | | POLICY CORNER BIG CLIMATE REVERSAL — “Biden’s EPA postponing major piece of power plant climate rule,” by POLITICO’s E&E News’ Jean Chemnick: “[T]he rule coming out in April will no longer include limits for existing gas-fired plants — the country’s top generator of electricity.” PAGING MIKE GALLAGHER — “Raimondo would ‘consider’ banning Chinese companies if Congress OK’d authorities,” by Alex Ward and Maggie Miller INFLATION REDUCTION ACT IN ACTION — “High-income earners who skipped out on filing tax returns believed to owe hundreds of millions of dollars to IRS,” by CBS’ Aliza Chasan MEDIAWATCH FIRST AMENDMENT WATCH — A judge held former CBS and Fox News journalist CATHERINE HERRIDGE in contempt of court yesterday for refusing to identify a source, per WaPo’s Jeremy Barr. She’ll have to pay an $800 daily fine, though it’s been stayed for now. BEYOND THE BELTWAY IVF FALLOUT — “House, Senate pass temporary fix to shield IVF clinics in wake of ruling that embryos are unborn children,” by AL.com’s Mike Cason TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week”: Leigh Ann Caldwell, Adam Harris, Ed O’Keefe and Nancy Youssef. SUNDAY SO FAR … NBC “Meet the Press”: Nikki Haley … Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.). Panel: Geoff Bennett, María Teresa Kumar, Marc Short and Ali Vitali. NewsNation “The Hill Sunday with Chris Stirewalt”: Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) … Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.). Panel: Christine Rosen, Bob Cusack, David Drucker and David Swerdlick. ABC “This Week”: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) … Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) … José Andrés. Panel: Donna Brazile, Reince Priebus, Leigh Ann Caldwell and Jonathan Martin. CBS “Face the Nation”: Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) … Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) … Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) … ATF Director Steven Dettelbach. FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) … Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). Panel: Stef Kight, Marie Harf, Josh Wingrove and Garrett Ventry. MSNBC “The Weekend”: Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. CNN “State of the Union”: Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Panel: Scott Walker, Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, Doug Heye and Karen Finney.
| | | | A message from the Vapor Technology Association:   | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Donald Trump said that Greg Abbott is on his VP shortlist. Kristina Karamo took another L in court as she tried to hold onto the Michigan GOP. Ksenia Karelina was denied a judicial appeal in Russia. Chuck Grassley mourned Caitlin Clark’s decision to go pro. Eric Hovde stripped down. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Building Back Together is staffing up for the 2024 cycle, elevating Blake Goodman to comms director and adding Paydon Miller as director of strategic initiatives. Goodman previously was national press secretary. Miller most recently was senior director of comms at We the Action, and is a Young Invincibles and Enroll America alum. — Eric Felipe-Barkin is joining the digital agency VNCS to launch estudio VNCS, which will be a digital-first, English- and Spanish-language creative studio and media buying team in house. Felipe-Barkin is a political admaker/filmmaker who previously has been freelancing as principal at Filmerico. The estudio VNCS team will also include Abby Loisel and Candida Alfaro. NEW NOMINEES — The White House announced several new nominations from Biden, including Judy Chang, David Rosner and Lindsay See as FERC commissioners, Dana Banks as U.S. director of the African Development Bank, Elizabeth Horst as ambassador to Sri Lanka, Joshua Harris as ambassador to Algeria, Troy Fitrell as ambassador to Seychelles and Mary Daschbach as ambassador to Togo. WHITE HOUSE DEPARTURE LOUNGE — Yvanna Cancela is joining the Biden campaign. She previously has been special assistant to the president and senior adviser to the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. MEDIA MOVES — David Gura will return to Bloomberg as host of “The Big Take” podcast, joining Saleha and Sarah. He most recently was a correspondent on NPR’s business desk, and is an NBC/MSNBC alum. … Kristina Peterson is returning to the WSJ’s D.C. bureau as an enterprise reporter, after being laid off as a food and agriculture policy reporter last month. … WaPo’s Taylor Lorenz is launching “Power User,” a video/podcast show with Vox Media, per Axios’ Sara Fischer. TRANSITIONS — Mike Berry is joining the America First Policy Institute as executive director of its Center for Litigation. He previously was VP of external affairs and senior counsel at First Liberty. … Josh Kagan is now a special counsel at Kelley Drye & Warren’s international trade practice group. He previously was assistant USTR for labor affairs. … … Maya Valentine is joining Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester’s (D-Del.) office as comms director. She previously has been comms director for Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), and is a Steny Hoyer alum. … Osiris Morel is now senior manager for federal and state lobbying at Mark Anthony Brands. She most recently did federal and state government relations at Brownstein Hyatt. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) … Reps. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) and Trent Kelly (R-Miss.) ... former Sens. John Breaux (D-La.) (8-0) and Luther Strange (R-Ala.) … Giulia Giannangeli of House Energy and Commerce … Maddison Stone … Stephen Ezell … Adam Brand … Vanessa Cadavillo … POLITICO’s Ali Taki and Tierra Perdue … Lorraine Woellert … Vayl Oxford … NBC’s Bridget Bowman … Kasey Lovett … Meghan Milloy … Eisai’s Elizabeth Brooks … Elizabeth Rhee … former Reps. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) and Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.) … Howard Altman … Jess McCarron … Natalie Szemetylo … Ryan Little … Aaron Sherinian … Lauren Vicary … Exxon Mobil’s Mike Bloomquist … Tom Jones … Brian Arata of Rep. Glenn “G.T.” Thompson’s (R-Pa.) office … ABC’s Ian Sbalcio … Herald Group’s Wyatt Hamilton … Rubi Martinez of Climate Nexus 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. Correction: Yesterday’s Playbook misstated the state GOP Sen. Mike Crapo represents. It is Idaho.
| | | | A message from the Vapor Technology Association: President Biden: Your administration is working against you.
The FDA is going rogue, trying to force your hand on menthol cigarettes—and that's just the start.
Unelected bureaucrats have been politicizing public health for years, and are ignoring science by banning flavored vapes—the most effective tool to stop smoking.
Studies show that e-cigarettes are the most effective tool to help people quit smoking, even when they have no intention to quit.
Dr. Nancy Rigotti (Harvard Medicine) just wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine: “U.S. public health agencies and professional medical societies should reconsider their cautious positions on e-cigarettes for smoking cessation. The evidence has brought e-cigarettes to a tipping point. The burden of tobacco-related disease is too big for potential solutions such as e-cigarettes to be ignored.”
President Biden—it's time to stop the FDA from undermining your Cancer Moonshot and health equity agenda.
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