| | | | |  | | By Ryan Lizza, Eugene Daniels and Rachael Bade | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | WHAT GOP ATTORNEYS GENERAL ARE READING — “Biden to Make Second Attempt at Large-Scale Student Loan Forgiveness,” by WSJ’s Andrew Restuccia: President JOE BIDEN “is planning to outline the broad strokes of the new proposal during a speech on Monday in Madison, Wis. … The proposed regulation is expected to outline several categories that would qualify borrowers for debt relief, including financial hardship, the people said.” BIDEN IN BALTIMORE — The president is visiting the site of the fatal Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse today, where he is slated to deliver remarks about the recovery and rebuilding efforts and meet with family members of the six workers who perished. What he is NOT planning to do — as was widely anticipated — is announce an emergency appropriations request for Congress. Instead, White House Budget Director SHALANDA YOUNG is asking the leaders of the Hill transportation committees this morning to “join us in demonstrating our commitment to aid in recovery efforts by authorizing a 100 percent Federal cost share for rebuilding the bridge.” That would set up future appropriations requests once the costs of replacing the bridge become clear. Read the letter
|  The White House declined to specify how U.S. policy might change if Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t heed Biden’s demands to relieve the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo | DEMS TAKE AIM AT ISRAEL AID — The White House declined to specify how U.S. policy might change if Israeli PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU doesn’t heed Biden’s demands to relieve the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and finish negotiating a cease-fire with Hamas. But Democrats were quick to offer a long list of policy options. Sen. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-Md.) has been pushing the administration to enforce a National Security Memorandum issued by Biden in February that is supposed to condition the transfer of military weaponry on Israel’s adherence to humanitarian benchmarks. “I was glad to see the president indicate that he's going to monitor compliance and base U.S. policy going forward on the government meeting these requirements,” Van Hollen tells Playbook. “That suggests no more ‘anything goes’ when it comes to policies towards the Netanyahu government.” Van Hollen has three U.S. policy tools he wants Biden to use:
- Suspending “the transfer of offensive weapons” to Israel if it fails at “reducing civilian harm” or “getting desperately needed assistance to people in need.”
- Adopting a new approach at the U.N. Security Council, where the U.S. has blocked resolutions critical of Israel for months. “I think what the president is saying now is, ‘no more blank check,’” he said.
- Speaking up. “A lot of these conversations have happened behind closed doors,” he added. “But I think elevating these to the public domain would be important.”
Van Hollen will be with Biden in Baltimore today to survey the response to the bridge collapse, and said he will “take the opportunity to talk privately with the president about all of this.” He has some increasingly vocal backup among his colleagues: Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.) said yesterday she would suspend the sale of F-15s to Israel. On CNN, Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) said, “Israel should not be getting another nickel in military aid until these policies are fundamentally changed.” THE POST-CONVO FALLOUT: Hours after Biden’s conversation with Bibi, he got some results. In the middle of the night Israel time, the government announced that it would significantly increase aid deliveries from Jordan and open up a key port on the Mediterranean and the long-sealed Erez border crossing in the north. Washington was abuzz last night with talk of how the quick moves by Netanyahu — who was immediately condemned by his right-wing national security minister, ITAMAR BEN GVIR, for acceding to Biden’s requests — would affect prospects for the foreign aid supplemental next week when Congress returns. “There are two conversations afoot now,” Sen. CHRIS MURPHY (D-Conn.) tells Playbook. “Is there increased interest in conditioning aid upon certain humanitarian relief commitments? And is there a consensus around funding direct humanitarian relief?” The Ukraine/Israel/Taiwan aid bill passed the Senate with 70 votes, but a lot has happened since then. As Speaker MIKE JOHNSON grapples with how to act on the issue this month, he already had a lot to consider: the GOP’s revolt against funding for Ukraine, Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE’s (R-Ga. ) threat to force a vote to oust him, whether he should split up the Senate package into multiple bills. But the dynamic that seems to be accelerating with the most velocity is Democrats’ aversion to backing new aid to Israel. A few data points on that this morning: The WSJ pegs the number of current Democratic holdouts on a combined Ukraine/Israel aid package at about 20, citing House Dem aides, and highlights a push from Reps. JAN SCHAKOWSKY (D-Ill.) and JIM McGOVERN (D-Mass.) to push the White House to curb offensive arms transfers until the WCK killings are investigated and Israel does more to protect civilians. That sentiment was echoed by Rep. MARK POCAN (D-Wis.), who told Anthony Adragna “there are a number of people who might have a hard time just voting for the Senate bill as is, especially given what just happened." This raises the real possibility that the only viable option for Ukraine aid is for the House to pass the Senate version. If Johnson opens up the Israel portion of the bill, it could be a mess. Democrats would demand stricter language on conditions, while Republicans have suggested they would ax the $9 billion in humanitarian aid that helped pass the package in the Senate. “That was key to securing a number of votes,” Sen. CHRIS COONS (D-Del.) told Playbook last night. Coons made some news yesterday when he said “we’re at that point” of placing some conditions on aid to Israel during an appearance on CNN. But he, like a number of other Senate Democrats we talked to last night with similar concerns, including Van Hollen, has no appetite to open up the issue in the context of the supplemental. “My hope is that Speaker Johnson is going to just put the Senate supplemental on the floor and pass it,” Coons said. “Because frankly, taking a month to rewrite some completely new proposal that throws in a bunch of different pieces, and send that back to the Senate, risks the real possibility that we won't pass it. And that this whole thing won't get done.” Related reads: “A blinking red light for Israel in American politics,” by Alexander Ward, Jennifer Haberkorn, Adam Cancryn and Jonathan Lemire … “Pentagon defends pace of weapon shipments as Ukraine worries it’s too late,” by Matt Berg … “José Andrés Is Channeling His Grief and Influence to Change Israel Policy,” by WSJ’s Drew Hinshaw, Stephen Kalin and Kristina Peterson Happy Friday. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
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Explore the impact of the metaverse. | | | THE TALK OF THIS TOWN — Michael Schaeffer’s latest: “The Beltway’s Favorite Autocracy Stands Accused of a Shady Smear Campaign” FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: KLAIN WILL BE BACK FOR DEBATE PREP — We were listening to one of our favorite podcasts this week, and one of the show’s self-described hacks posed this question: If there are debates this fall between Biden and Trump, how much will it matter that Biden’s longtime debate coach RON KLAIN won’t be there to get the president in shape? It’s no small matter. Incumbent presidents have been famously unprepared for their first debate. In recent memory, the first debate curse struck Trump, BARACK OBAMA and GEORGE W. BUSH. Usually it has something to do with atrophied political skills brought on by the cocooning effect of the White House. In DAVID AXELROD’s memoir, he noted that Obama chafed at his political team’s insistence on prep and as a result the president almost tanked his reelection with a crappy first debate performance. (He got religion after that, and had boffo second and third debates.) Klain has been the undisputed champion of presidential debate prep in the Democratic Party for years now. And, just as important, he’s a Biden Inner Circle Platinum Elite Level member (little known fact: that card gets you a free upgrade on Amtrak). Given all of this, we were surprised to hear that Klain might sit out debate prep this year just because he’s left the Biden White House and taken a job as chief legal officer at Airbnb. It turns out that even though he’s only been with the company since November, Airbnb has a generous leave policy and Klain is planning to be at any Biden debate camp this fall. “I am saving vacation days to take time off to help POTUS if there are debates,” Klain told Playbook.
| | | | A message from Meta:   | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | On the Hill The Senate and the House are out. What we’re watching … Today, the House Rules Committee is expected to formally announce that it will mark up the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act next week — teeing up a battle between Republicans on the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees as Congress returns next week. Without action, section 702 will expire on April 19. Two of the biggest sticking points “center on warrant requirements on foreign data searches that are related to Americans, as well as a provision preventing data brokers from selling consumer information to law enforcement,” Jordain Carney and Olivia Beavers write. Zooming out, “some conservatives warn that the FISA battle could stir some more malcontent” against Johnson as he staves off Greene’s motion to oust him. At the White House Biden will receive the President’s Daily Brief in the morning. In the afternoon, the president will travel to Baltimore, where he will receive an aerial tour of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge with Maryland Gov. WES MOORE. Later, Biden will participate in a briefing on response and recovery efforts, meet with federal personnel, state and local officials and first responders. At 2:30 p.m., Biden will deliver remarks and afterward will meet with loved ones of the six individuals who died in the bridge collapse. In the evening, Biden will travel to Wilmington, Delaware. VP KAMALA HARRIS will receive briefings and conduct internal meetings with staff.
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|  The centrist organization No Labels is shutting down its long-shot effort to mount a legitimate third-party campaign for president. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images | NO LABELS, NO CANDIDATE — After months of hemming and hawing about a “unity ticket” that untold millions of voters were supposedly eager to see take on Biden and Trump’s reelection campaigns, No Labels is going out with a whimper. The centrist organization is shutting down its long-shot effort to mount a legitimate third-party campaign for president, WSJ’s Ken Thomas and Kristina Peterson scooped. “NANCY JACOBSON, No Labels’ founder and CEO, said in a statement that the organization had vowed it ‘would only offer our ballot line to a ticket if we could identify candidates with a credible path to winning the White House. No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down.’” Since declaring its intentions, the group made offers to 30 potential candidates, including the likes of CHRIS CHRISTIE, NIKKI HALEY, LARRY HOGAN, JOE MANCHIN, KYRSTEN SINEMA, LIZ CHENEY and even DWAYNE “THE ROCK” JOHNSON, the WSJ notes. “Their final attempts to convince Christie to run for president coincided with the death of their 82-year-old founding chairman, former Connecticut Sen. JOE LIEBERMAN, who suffered a fall and died March 27. Organizers said Lieberman’s death was a major blow to the group’s attempt to field a candidate, and the late senator had been heavily involved in recruiting efforts.” There’s always next time: Asked if No Labels would consider a presidential ticket in 2028, [No Labels board of advisers member ANDY] BURSKY said, ‘I wouldn’t rule anything out. The organization has not been beaten by this effort, it has been strengthened by this effort.’” More top reads:
- The JMart effect: Biden allies are stepping up their efforts to recruit anti-Trump Republicans to support the president’s reelection, but “the task is proving difficult,” CNBC’s Brian Schwartz reports. In particular, a number of Biden donors who also supported NIKKI HALEY “have tried to privately encourage her to endorse Biden,” though one person aware of the effort called it an “almost impossible task.”
- In a bizarre sequence yesterday, ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.’s campaign said in an email blast that those rioters facing charges over the Jan. 6 Capitol attack were “activists sitting in a Washington DC jail cell stripped of their Constitutional liberties.” But soon after, the campaign claimed “that Kennedy did not approve of the wording in the email, blaming the ‘error’ on a contractor who the campaign later said has since been terminated,” WaPo’s Meryl Kornfield and Rachel Weiner report. But, of course … “Kennedy himself has previously downplayed the Jan. 6 attack and said he is open to pardoning convicted rioters.”
- A glimpse into the swirl of Trump world: “How a tall tale about illegal immigrants soliciting kids for sex made it to Donald Trump,” by The Detroit News’ Craig Mauger
CONGRESS
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Rep. Bob Good leads a press conference about support for Israel on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 5, 2024. | Jonah Elkowitz for POLITICO | THE PRICE OF FREEDOM — It’s no secret that the House Freedom Caucus has been a thorn in the side of Republican speakers for years. (Look no further than the ouster of KEVIN McCARTHY at the hands of some of its members.) Enter Freedom Caucus Chair BOB GOOD (R-Va.), who is seeking the help of Speaker MIKE JOHNSON to save his seat. “It gets more awkward from there,” our colleague Olivia Beavers reports. “The embattled Good now wants Johnson’s endorsement and a pledge not to help his primary opponent, who’s trying to turn support for Trump into a wedge issue with the base.” The pinch: “An indebted Good could strengthen Johnson’s hand ahead of a future referendum on his leadership, and on thorny policy fights coming up this month over government surveillance and Ukraine aid. It could also complicate the Freedom Caucus’ attempts to exert leverage in future battles.” “I would think that he would endorse all the incumbents — I want everybody to endorse me, including the speaker,” Good told POLITICO. More top reads:
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Former President Donald Trump received rejections from judges in Florida and Georgia yesterday. | Julia Nikhinson/AP Photo | TICKING THROUGH THE TRIALS — Trump got a dual dose of reality-checking in two of the major cases looming over his reelection bid yesterday. In Florida: Judge AILEEN CANNON rejected, for now, Trump’s argument that he had the right to keep documents under a federal law governing presidential records, Josh and Kyle report. In the same ruling, however, Cannon “shot down a request from special counsel JACK SMITH to promptly reveal whether she agrees with Trump’s claim that the Presidential Records Act … may have authorized him to keep classified records indefinitely even after leaving office.” Read the ruling The evidently “strained dynamic between Smith and Cannon — a Trump nominee confirmed by the Senate in 2020 — has in some ways overshadowed the grave felony counts against Trump,” Kyle and Josh write this morning. “The judge’s handling of the case has led to a furious public debate about her intentions and inexperience.” In Georgia: The judge presiding over Trump’s criminal case in the state denied his bid to throw out the case on First Amendment grounds, rejecting the former president’s longshot argument that the entire case is an attempt to criminalize his political speech, Kyle reports. “The defense has not presented, nor is the Court able to find, any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge SCOTT McAFEE wrote in a 14-page ruling yesterday. Read the ruling More top reads:
- JEFFREY CLARK, a former high-ranking Trump DOJ official, violated ethics rules for lawyers in his attempt to aid Trump’s bid to subvert the 2020 election, a D.C. disciplinary panel said yesterday, which “could lead to the suspension or even permanent revocation of Clark’s license to practice law,” Kyle Cheney writes.
MORE POLITICS BIG MONEY IN BIG SKY COUNTRY — One Nation, a conservative group aligned with Senate GOP leadership, is “dropping millions of dollars hitting Sen. JON TESTER over his immigration record, just days before the Montana Democrat may have to weigh in on the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, our colleague Burgess Everett reports. The group is rolling out a $15.2 million ad buy today, and plans to run the campaign through the summer going after “Tester’s past statements and votes on immigration, criticizing his positions on ‘amnesty,’ the border wall and sanctuary cities.” WILD ONE OUT WEST — Election officials in California yesterday “certified that Santa Clara County Supervisor JOE SIMITIAN and Assembly member EVAN LOW both finished with 30,249 votes, or 16.6% of the total, in the race among 11 candidates” to succeed retiring Rep. ANNA ESHOO (D-Calif.). Their two-way tie for second place — both men trail former San Jose Mayor SAM LICCARDO — means that the November ballot will transform “California’s top-two system into a top-three” race, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Joe Garofoli writes. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Oregon state Rep. JANELLE BYNUM, who is running to take on GOP Rep. LORI CHAVEZ-DeREMER in the 5th Congressional District, raised $500,000 in the first quarter of 2024, according to a release shared with Playbook. SUNDAY SO FAR … CBS “Face the Nation”: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore … Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) … Janti Soeripto … Avril Benoit. CNN “State of the Union”: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) … Tiffany Smiley … Stephanie Cutter … Shermichael Singleton. MSNBC “The Sunday Show”: Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) … Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Michael Whatley … Tal Heinrich. Panel: David Swerdlick, Marc Caputo, Meagan McArdle and Blake Burman.
| | | | YOUR GUIDE TO EMPIRE STATE POLITICS: From the newsroom that doesn’t sleep, POLITICO's New York Playbook is the ultimate guide for power players navigating the intricate landscape of Empire State politics. Stay ahead of the curve with the latest and most important stories from Albany, New York City and around the state, with in-depth, original reporting to stay ahead of policy trends and political developments. Subscribe now to keep up with the daily hustle and bustle of NY politics. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Melania Trump is preparing to hold her first major event of the 2024 campaign cycle. Rudy Giuliani is not getting kicked out of his Florida condo. Greg Gutfield reupped his contract with Fox News. Kristi Noem was banned from the Cheyenne River Sioux reservation in South Dakota. Barry Diller is not bullish on Trump Media’s stock. OUT AND ABOUT — Bloomberg News hosted a book party yesterday evening at its Washington bureau to celebrate “The Rebels: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the Struggle for a New American Politics” ($30) by Joshua Green and “Paper Soldiers: How the Weaponization of the Dollar Changed the World Order” ($30) by Saleha Mohsin. SPOTTED: Margaret Collins, Nancy Cook, Jennifer Jacobs, Akayla Gardner, David Chalian, Isaac Arnsdorf, Steve Holland, Tyler Pager, Jeff Mason, Molly Ball and Michael Shepard. TRANSITIONS — Joseph Maher is now a partner at Nixon Peabody, The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch reports. He previously was principal deputy general counsel at DHS, and is a House Jan. 6 committee alum. … Avra Siegel and Liza Heyman are launching Lev Collective, a public affairs firm. The two are both alums of the Obama White House and Meta, where Siegel was director of U.S. public policy programs and Heyman was policy programs manager. … Austin Laufersweiler is joining Lot Sixteen as senior director. He most recently was senior comms manager for the Partnership for Public Service and is an Andy Levin, Michigan Democratic Party and Let America Vote alum. … … David Milestone is joining the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change as managing director of the Americas. He most recently was senior adviser at McKinsey & Company and is a USAID alum. … Millie Tran is joining the Council on Foreign Relations as VP and chief digital content officer. She previously was VP of content strategy and growth at Condé Nast. … Misty Fuller is joining Powell Tate as SVP of health policy and advocacy. She previously was director of public affairs at PhRMA. WEEKEND WEDDING — Brianna Curran, director of executive public engagement at the Environmental Defense Fund and an Aspen Institute alum, and Josh MacDonald, founder and CEO of Gallery Sonder, got married on Saturday at Greystone Mansion & Gardens in Beverly Hills. The couple met in Venice Beach, California, in 2020. Pic by David Swidrak … Another pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: WaPo’s Annie Gowen … Matt Gertz of Media Matters … Mary Katharine Ham … CNN’s Dan Berman … POLITICO’s Maya Kaufman … Jacqueline Usyk … UAW’s Eric Heggie … PBS’ Sam Lane and Yasmeen Alamiri … Jesse Rifkin … NYT’s Jill Rayfield … Shea Miller … Josh Culling of Dezenhall Resources … Sarah Horvitz of Bully Pulpit Interactive … Microsoft’s Howard Wachtel … former FCC Chair Tom Wheeler … former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky … former Reps. Peter King (R-N.Y.) (8-0), Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) and Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) … Terry Szuplat … Adham Sahloul … Luke and Brian Principato … Benjamin Rosenbaum … Rory Heslington of Autos Drive America … John Diamond … Adam Rubenstein … Heather Hopkins of Amazon Web Services … Miles Lichtman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic … Melissa Shuffield … Garrett Marquis … Teri Galvez 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 Emily Cochrane’s news outlet. She works for The New York Times.
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