| | | | |  | | By Garrett Ross | | | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | | THE REVIEW IS IN — President JOE BIDEN had this to say about Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER’s speech criticizing the Israeli government: “I’m not going to elaborate on his speech. He made a good speech, and I think he expressed serious concern shared not only by him, but by many Americans,” per WSJ’s Ken Thomas. FASCINATING READ — “Crypto wants to sway the Senate. It’s making headway,” by Jasper Goodman: “[W]ith SBF out of the picture and $80 million dangling from new crypto super PACs looking to reshape the Senate, candidates are jumping back on the industry’s bandwagon. Days after the super PACs announced plans to spend on the U.S. Senate race in Maryland, two leading Democratic contenders are revealing that they’re pro-crypto.”
|  A Georgia judge ruled that Fulton County DA Fani Willis can stay on the case against Donald Trump, though did not completely absolve her of her actions. | Dennis Byron/Hip Hop Enquirer via AP | WHERE THERE’S A WILLIS, THERE’S NO WADE — A Georgia judge this morning ruled that Fulton County DA FANI WILLIS can continue prosecuting her election subversion case against DONALD TRUMP only if she removes one of her lead prosecutors, NATHAN WADE. Fulton County Superior Court Judge SCOTT McAFEE wrote that either Willis’ entire office leave the case or Wade must step aside to prevent an “appearance of conflict” over potential financial improprieties caused by the romantic relationship between Willis and Wade. In effect, McAfee concluded that “Trump and his allies had failed to sufficiently substantiate claims that Willis’ romantic relationship with Wade had created an ‘actual’ conflict of interest that required her entire team being removed from the case,” our colleagues Betsy Woodruff Swan and Kyle Cheney report. “The decision ends, for now, a dispute that derailed the case for more than two months and featured hours of combative testimony from Willis on the witness stand at an evidentiary hearing last month. McAfee has not yet set a trial date.” But a closer reading of the ruling finds an exceedingly sharp tone from McAfee toward Willis, admonishing the prosecutor for her actions and the position that she put herself and the court in. Read the full ruling McAfee repeatedly says Willis used bad judgment and calls into question how forthright she and Wade were about their relationship, even writing that “an odor of mendacity remains.” In declining to rule against her, he points out other avenues for recourse. Late in the ruling, McAfee all but invites the defense to call for a gag order. He criticizes her “unprofessional manner” as a witness at the hearing and smacks her for “cast[ing] racial aspersions” at the defendant for filing the motion. A taste of McAfee’s tone:
- “This finding is by no means an indication that the Court condones this tremendous lapse in judgment or the unprofessional manner of the District Attorney’s testimony during the evidentiary hearing,” McAfee writes. “Rather, it is the undersigned’s opinion that Georgia law does not permit the finding of an actual conflict for simply making bad choices — even repeatedly — and it is the trial court’s duty to confine itself to the relevant issues and applicable law properly brought before it.”
- “Yet reasonable questions about whether the District Attorney and her hand-selected lead SADA testified untruthfully about the timing of their relationship further underpin the finding of an appearance of impropriety and the need to make proportional efforts to cure it. Ultimately, dismissal of the indictment is not the appropriate remedy to adequately dissipate the financial cloud of impropriety and potential untruthfulness found here.”
- “The time may well have arrived for an order preventing the State from mentioning the case in any public forum to prevent prejudicial pretrial publicity, but that is not the motion presently before the Court.”
The Trump response: In a somewhat reserved statement, Trump lawyer STEVE SADOW continued the digs at Willis: “While respecting the Court’s decision, we believe that the Court did not afford appropriate significance to the prosecutorial misconduct of Willis and Wade, including the financial benefits, testifying untruthfully about when their personal relationship began, as well as Willis’ extrajudicial MLK ‘church speech,’ where she played the race card and falsely accused the defendants and their counsel of racism.” Read the full statement Happy Friday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at gross@politico.com.
| | | | A message from Invest in Our Land: Protecting $20 billion of conservation funding in the Farm Bill is an investment into the livelihoods of our nation’s farmers. These funds help strengthen family businesses, lower costs, and increase profits, but most importantly, they protect the future of American farms. Congress: Save conservation funding, and keep farms viable for future generations.
Protect Conservation Funding. | | | | | 7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | |  Bernie Moreno is dismissing an explosive report that surfaced about him in the final days of the contentious Ohio GOP Senate primary. | Joe Maiorana/AP Photo | 1. RAPID RESPONSE: Ohio GOP Senate candidate BERNIE MORENO spoke to our colleague Ally Mutnick in Ashland, Ohio, this morning to discuss the explosive AP story alleging that in 2008 an email tied to Moreno was linked to an account on Adult Friend Finder, a website typically used to arrange sexual encounters, that purported to be “looking for young guys to have fun.” Moreno categorically dismissed the report in the final days of the contentious primary as “salacious lies that are intended to be a last-minute smear campaign.” He continued: “It’s a sick, last-minute attack by desperate people. This is what they do. Look at what they did to Judge [BRETT] KAVANAUGH, look at what they did to President Trump.” Read the original AP story 2. RULES FOR THEE: “Mike Rogers targets China in Senate campaign, but his own connections draw criticism,” by The Detroit News’ Craig Mauger: “While [MIKE] ROGERS has blasted a China-tied battery manufacturer’s plans for a factory in Michigan, his wife is on the board of a company that’s touted its partnership with a China-based entity. And Rogers himself briefly worked for AT&T, which faced pushback for its entanglements with a Chinese telecom giant. The circumstance points to the business relationships that Rogers engaged in over the last decade as a prominent ex-lawmaker, apparently making himself a multi-millionaire, according to a financial disclosure, with a waterfront home in Florida, but potentially complicating his Senate bid in the battleground state of Michigan.” 3. HOT ON THE RIGHT: Republicans have indicated that they are committed to assuaging voters’ concerns over election integrity issues, even as Trump himself continues trafficking in unsubstantiated claims about election rigging. It all amounts to a “tightrope” the party is walking heading into the general election, The Daily Caller’s Reagan Reese writes, noting that the issue is one that GOP voters do care about and one that the RNC is paying attention to. But that’s not the juiciest part of the story: in a dramatic exchange, the NRCC squabbled with The Daily Caller after being asked about the issue. “After sending the Daily Caller a link to an Axios article about get out the vote efforts, and then ignoring multiple follow-up requests for an interview about election integrity, NRCC spokesperson WILL REINERT sent the Caller the following: ‘We’ve complained about your coverage several times to editors, so to tell you the truth, we really don’t care to engage on pieces we don’t care about to help you guys out.’” 4. THE YOUTH MOVEMENT: “The Rough Years That Turned Gen Z Into America’s Most Disillusioned Voters,” by WSJ’s Andrew Restuccia and Eliza Collins: “Young Americans’ entire political memories are subsumed by intense partisanship and warnings about the looming end of everything from U.S. democracy to the planet. When the darkest days of the pandemic started to end, inflation reached 40-year highs. The right to an abortion was overturned. Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East raged. All of the turmoil is being broadcast — sometimes with almost apocalyptic language or graphic video — on social media. By the numbers: “While young people typically vote at lower rates, a small number of Gen Z voters could make the difference in the election. … Roughly 41 million Gen Z Americans — ages 18 to 27 — will be eligible to vote this year, according to Tufts University.”
| | | | On the ground in Albany. Get critical policy news and analysis inside New York State. Track how power brokers are driving change across legislation and budget and impacting lobbying efforts. Learn more. | | | | | 5. THE AID ANGUISH: U.S. officials are eyeing up “a range of bleak scenarios in Ukraine if the military aid President Biden has requested doesn’t materialize, including a catastrophic breakdown of Ukrainian lines in the grimmest contingency and the likelihood of massive casualties in the best,” WaPo’s Missy Ryan, John Hudson, Michael Birnbaum and Dan Lamothe report. Said a senior U.S. official: “This doesn’t go well for Ukraine over time without a supplemental, and it could lead to potential collapse. But here’s the bottom line: Even if Ukraine holds on, what we really are saying is that we are going to leverage countless lives in order to do that.” Related read: “U.S. and Allies Warn Iran Not to Send Missiles to Russia,” by NYT’s Peter Baker 6. PAYING THE BUS FARE: “Texas governor predicted donations would pay for busing migrants out of state. He’s collected less than 1% of that cost,” by CNN’s Blake Ellis, Melanie Hicken, Kyung Lah and Allison Gordon: “CNN found that the largest donation – $900,000 – never made it into the state’s coffers, either because it was a mistake or a prank. Records show that at most, around $550,000 [of the roughly $150 million spent] has been raised to date.” 7. HOW IT’S LANDING: “What China Is Saying About the TikTok Furor in Washington,” by NYT’s Meaghan Tobin and Siyi Zhao: “The fervor has not yet triggered a high-alert response from China’s leaders or prompted retaliatory threats against American companies. Instead, officials in Beijing have blasted the bill but largely reiterated common criticisms of U.S. policy as unfair to China.” That, Tobin and Zhao write, is largely because they hold out hope the push can still be stopped in the Senate or in the courts.
| | | | Easily connect with the right N.Y. State influencers and foster the right relationships to champion your policy priorities. POLITICO Pro. Inside New York. Learn more. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | IN MEMORIAM — “It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved Rahul Chopra, on March 11, due to undiagnosed diabetes and the resulting complications. Rahul’s tenacity and passion to make the world a fairer and more just place led him to a meteoric tenure in Democratic politics, helping lead U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) to victory and maintain the Senate Majority to, most recently, serving as research director at the DCCC in their efforts to win back the House. Rahul’s impressive career was only matched by his ability to befriend everyone he met. His unbounded optimism, kind-heartedness, and instantly recognizable laugh made all of our lives better — and will be greatly missed.” Read the full obituary OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED last night at the D.C. premiere of Max’s “Girls on the Bus” at the Eaton Hotel co-hosted by Eric Schultz, Z Ojakli and Devon Spurgeon: Amy Chozick, Richard Walters, Steve Elmendorf, Katie Benner, Jed Miller, Josh Dawsey, Annie Karni, Eliana Johnson, Stephanie Cutter, Susan Glasser and Peter Baker, Isaac Arnsdorf, Tyler Pager, John Hudson, Jeff Zeleny, Greta Lundeberg , Emily Lenzner, Alex Thompson, Robert Draper, Karen Finney, Caitlin and Alex Conant, Nedra Pickler, Anne Gearan, Sean Crotty, Francesca Chambers, Tamara Keith, Stacey Radnor, Imani Green, Teddy Schleifer, David Litt, Daniella Diaz, Tara Prindiville and James Adams. Pic … Another pic TRANSITION — Morgan Hopkins is joining Josh Stein’s North Carolina gubernatorial campaign as press secretary. She previously was comms director for the Virginia House Democratic Caucus. Editor’s note: Due to a production error, this morning’s Playbook did not include today’s birthdays, so we are including them here: HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) … Sarah Bloom Raskin … Pete Rouse … Amie Parnes … Brendan Buck … Tom Rosenstiel … Ray Locker … Pat Devney of Rep. Ann McLane Kuster’s (D-N.H.) office … Leslie Shedd of the House Foreign Affairs GOP … Jamie Geller … POLITICO’s Devyn Rorie, Alex Samsel, Elizabeth McCormick, Mallory Culhane, Rebecca Graff and Suzanne Lynch … Rishi Banerjee … FERC’s Mary O’Driscoll … Max Neuberger … Heather Joy Thompson … Lisbeth Lyons Black of Women in Print Alliance … Nina Rees … Bloomberg’s John Harney … Jason Lamote … Asher MacDonald … former Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) … Visa’s Cheyenne Hopkins … Ann Miller … Robyn Swirling … Kate Bernard … Jaimey Sexton … BCW’s Cara Rich … Tom Baer … Natalie D’Apolito of the American Cleaning Institute … John Bozzella of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation … Marcus Weisgerber … Rachel Schindler … Leonardo Alcivar 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. Corrections: Yesterday’s Playbook PM included an incorrect guest list for the US-Ireland Partnership/Stripe event Wednesday night, included an incorrect title for John Kirby and misspelled the name of Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.).
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