| | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels and Ryan Lizza | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | JUST POSTED — “Democrats Plan $100 Million Push on Abortion Rights to Win House,” by WSJ’s Natalie Andrews: “In a memo to donors, the House Majority PAC outlined the Reproductive Freedom Accountability Fund, which it said will be spent in swing districts across the country for advertising and voter mobilization.”
|  Jury deliberations in Donald Trump's New York hush money trial will begin in just a few hours. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images | FULL COURT PRESS — It’s shaping up to be a busy and dramatic day in the legal world: Jury deliberations in DONALD TRUMP’s New York hush money trial will begin in just a few hours. Questions surrounding Supreme Court Justice SAMUEL ALITO and his wife, MARTHA-ANN, continue to mount. And a ruling down in Florida is shining a spotlight on the contentious relationship between special counsel JACK SMITH and federal judge AILEEN CANNON. Let’s unpack all this: In the Big Apple … Prosecutors typically have the upper hand in criminal trials, as our colleague Kyle Cheney told us for today’s Playbook Daily Briefing. But, given who the defendant is, Manhattan DA ALVIN BRAGG and his deputies are leaving nothing to chance. Prosecutor JOSHUA STEINGLASS took almost five hours to refresh the jury’s memory on virtually every piece of evidence they’d introduced throughout the past six weeks as he made a final appeal for convictions. After defense attorney TODD BLANCHE pummeled the credibility of key witness MICHAEL COHEN — dubbing him the “MVP of liars” — Steinglass argued, in essence, that it doesn’t matter; other evidence supports a guilty verdict. We’d be shocked to see a verdict before lunchtime, but court watchers think this all could move very quickly. If it’s not over today, very few are expecting it to stretch past the week’s end, given the jury’s eagerness yesterday to wrap up arguments and start deliberations. Speaking of signals from the jury: Chances of an actual acquittal seem remote for Trump and his legal team. But they are more confident that the former president could avoid conviction by another avenue: a hung jury resulting in a mistrial. All it takes is one skeptical juror, and Trump’s team is eyeing one in particular who they are hoping might deliver, Marc Caputo scooped in the Bulwark. This person, Caputo writes, “has appeared to nod along in seeming accordance with the defense at times” and “lit up” when Sen. J.D. VANCE (R-Ohio) and some of Trump’s other high-profile surrogates showed up at the courthouse. “Another insider pointed out the juror could barely suppress a smile when [Blanche] appeared to trip up Cohen on the witness stand during a heated exchange,” Caputo continues. Of course, all the eye contact might simply be good manners, as Caputo notes. But it appears that the Trump team isn’t the only group singling this someone out. “There’s one juror that people are worried about and I share the worry,” a Democratic former DOJ official, HARRY LITMAN, tweeted yesterday. “Can't identify her or him per judge’s orders but seems less engaged and slightly irritable.” Fun fact: At the trial’s outset, the NYT broke down the media diets of the 18 seated jurors and alternates, as revealed in voir dire. Only one listed Truth Social as a news source.
|  A new timeline in the upside-down-flag controversy is calling into question the Alito family’s version of events. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo | Back in D.C. … A new timeline in the upside-down-flag controversy is calling into question the Alito family’s version of events — and threatening to drag this controversy out as the Supreme Court takes up a pair of critical Jan. 6 related cases. In statements to Fox News, Alito insisted his wife raised the flag in reaction to a neighbor calling her the “c-word” and posting signs personally targeting her. But the NYT’s Jodi Kantor spoke with the neighbors in question, reviewed police records and even retrieved a recorded phone call to the Fairfax County Police, which together tell a different story. While the neighbors admitted using the vulgarity toward Martha-Ann Alito, that raw exchange happened well after the upside-down flag — a “Stop the Steal” symbol — flew outside their house, Kantor found. Furthermore, the neighbors said, none of their signs attacked either of the Alitos personally. The story is full of other buzzy nuggets — including neighbors’ claims that Martha-Ann Alito instigated the harassment and “appeared to spit toward [their] vehicle” as they passed the Alito home on one occasion. But it’s the factual inconsistencies that threaten to prolong the story and fuel more calls for Justice Alito’s recusal from the pending Jan. 6-related cases. Keep an eye on Senate Judiciary Committee Chair DICK DURBIN, who is under withering pressure from fellow Democrats and activists to do more to probe the dustup (as well as reports, also from Kantor, that the Alito family also flew a second politically provocative flag outside their Jersey Shore vacation home) after initially expressing hesitance to tackle the matter. A recent column from WaPo’s Jennifer Rubin captured the mood on the left, blistering the Illinois Democrat for a “weak-kneed response” and “passivity in the face of Supreme Court corruption.” (On the flip side, the WSJ editorial board mocked him yesterday for demanding a meeting on court ethics with Chief Justice JOHN ROBERTS: “The real Chief should tell the fake chief to stay in his constitutional lane.”) We reached out to Durbin last night. No response. And down in Florida … In a brief, sharply written order, Cannon yesterday slapped down Smith’s gag order request — made last week after Trump falsely claimed FBI officials were given a green light to kill him during last year’s search of Mar-a-Lago. While Cannon didn’t rule out granting Smith’s request in the future, she chided the special counsel for flouting a rule requiring him to confer with Trump’s team before filing his request. It's just the latest hostile exchange between Cannon and Smith’s team, exposing yet again what Kyle described to us as a “prickly relationship” that has become something of a spinoff storyline to the classified documents trial. Cannon has taken shots at Smith’s team in her rulings, even when she agrees with them, and has sparred with prosecutors in court. (Last week, she told one of Smith’s deputies to “just calm down” as he refuted claims of prosecutorial misconduct.) Legal eagles are closely watching Smith’s next move as he likely contemplates whether to risk exacerbating the tensions by taking the gag-order dispute and potentially other pre-trial matters to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. But Cannon’s decision to seize on a technicality could complicate that decision — and further drag out the process of scheduling the trial that she has indefinitely postponed. Related read: “Emerging Portrait of Judge in Trump Documents Case: Prepared, Prickly and Slow,” by NYT’s Alan Feuer Good Wednesday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: The 340B drug pricing program is supposed to help vulnerable patients access medicines at qualifying hospitals and clinics. It’s meant to be a safety net for those who really need it. So why is the 340B program padding profits for large hospitals, PBMs and chain pharmacies? Let’s fix 340B so it can help the patients that need it most. Let’s fix 340B. | | | BEING THERE — “How We Survived the Trump Trial,” by Erica Orden and Ben Feuerherd: “As the Trump trial winds down, we’ve finally developed a series of hacks to make the process as painless as possible. Now we know the answer to questions like: Should I pack a tent to set up on a New York City sidewalk at 3 a.m. to ensure a spot in line? Can I really bring myself to eat in the bathroom?”
|  Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) fended off a tight primary challenge for his 23rd Congressional District seat last night. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | ABOUT LAST NIGHT — Texas voters weighed in on a handful of closely watched primary fights and runoffs that in many cases tested how far to the right politics in the Lone Star State have moved. Gonzales hangs on: GOP Rep. TONY GONZALES fended off a tight primary challenge for his 23rd Congressional District seat, declaring victory just after 11 p.m. Eastern time last night. Final election night tallies had Gonzales prevailing over BRANDON HERRERA by just 407 votes, 50.7% to 49.3%. Gonzales’ victory over conservative online personality BRANDON HERRERA marks a win for the more establishment wing of the party, given Herrera’s support from the likes of House Freedom Caucus Chair BOB GOOD (R-Va.) and Reps. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.) and ELI CRANE (R-Ariz.). Speaker MIKE JOHNSON and Texas Gov. GREG ABBOTT had jumped in to back Gonzales. More from Ally Mutnick, Liz Crampton and Mia McCarthy Speaker squeaks it out: Texas House Speaker DADE PHELAN, who drew the ire of a group of far-right GOP lawmakers in his chamber, outlasted challenger DAVID COVEY — who had the backing of Trump, Lt. Gov. DAN PATRICK, AG KEN PAXTON and former Texas Republican Party Chairman MATT RINALDI — in a race that became a touchpoint for the new politics of the Republican Party, the Texas Tribune’s Zach Despart writes. “In doing so, he avoided the ignominious fate of becoming the first House speaker to lose a primary in 52 years. … Phelan, 48, who has seen his popularity plummet among Republicans since he backed the impeachment of Paxton on corruption and bribery charges exactly one year and one day ago, was defiant in his victory speech at JW’s Patio in Beaumont.” On the border: JAY FURMAN, a Navy veteran, won the right to take on embattled Democratic Rep. HENRY CUELLAR in the 28th Congressional District, taking down LAZARO GARZA in a runoff. “Furman still faces a steep challenge in going after Cuellar,” the Texas Tribune’s Matthew Choi and Robert Downen write. “Furman reported raising over $195,000 ahead of the runoff, including over $150,000 in loans from his personal funds” and “had only about $2,000” in the bank before the runoff race. Speaking of Cuellar: Two of the congressman’s close family members saw mixed results in last night’s balloting. Brother MARTIN CUELLAR handily won reelection as Webb County sheriff, while sister ROSIE CUELLAR lost her bid for nomination for a Texas House seat. More results: “Craig Goldman wins GOP runoff in outgoing U.S. Rep. Kay Granger’s district,” by the Tribune’s Choi and Downen … “Texas House runoffs bring wave of GOP incumbent defeats, give Abbott votes for school vouchers,” by Jasper Scherer | | | | A message from PhRMA:   Let’s fix 340B so it can help the patients that need it most. | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | On the Hill The Senate and the House are out. What we’re watching … In Capitol Hill’s never-ending fiscal wars, austerity-minded spending hawks have tended to be the loudest voices in the GOP. But today Sen. ROGER WICKER (R-Miss.) is making a full-throated case for a “defense investment plan” aimed at growing the military and rebuilding its associated industrial base. In a NYT op-ed out this morning, the top Armed Services Republican calls for an additional $55 billion in fiscal 2025 military spending, toward a goal of raising defense spending from 2.9 percent of GDP to 5 percent over the next five to seven years. “It would be a significant investment that would start a reckoning over our nation’s spending priorities,” he writes. “We do not need to spend this much indefinitely — but we do need a short-term generational investment to help us prevent another world war.” At the White House Biden will receive the President’s Daily Brief in the morning. In the evening, the president will travel to Wilmington, Delaware. Press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE will gaggle aboard Air Force One en route to Philadelphia. VP KAMALA HARRIS will travel to Colorado in the evening. On the trail Biden and Harris will travel to Philadelphia in the afternoon to participate in a campaign rally at Girard College, where they are set to launch Black Voters for Biden-Harris. More from the Inquirer
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As president, some of Donald Trump's policies hindered access to contraception and now some of his allies want him to go further. | Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO | CONTRA CONTRACEPTION — Trump says he won’t ban birth control if he secures another four years in the White House this November. But that doesn’t mean he will leave the issue untouched. As president, some of his policies hindered access to contraception and now some of his allies want him to go further, Alice Miranda Ollstein and Megan Messerly report. “Their ‘Project 2025’ blueprint includes proposals to remove requirements that insurance cover male condoms and emergency contraception, and instead require coverage of natural family planning methods. Taken together, the policies highlight the many ways a second Trump administration could hamper access to contraception, short of a blanket ban. The impact would also be much greater now that roughly one-third of states prohibit nearly all abortions.” The details: “As part of their 2025 wish list, conservatives want to overhaul which forms of birth control insurance companies must cover for patients at no cost under the Affordable Care Act. For instance, they have drafted plans to allow insurers to drop coverage of emergency contraception, such as Plan B pills, which some on the right believe are abortifacients because they make it harder for fertilized eggs to implant in the uterus.” More top reads:
- The DNC announced yesterday that Biden will be nominated through a “virtual roll call” vote ahead of the August convention to ensure he appears on the Ohio ballot this November, Lauren Egan writes, after Republican officials in the state failed to implement a workaround allowing for the traditional tally. “Ohio’s ballot deadline is Aug. 7, two weeks before the DNC planned to hold its official presidential nomination at an in-person convention in Chicago.”
- In his jockeying for positioning on the Trump VP shortlist, Florida Sen. MARCO RUBIO has taken a measured approach, staying away from the flashy shows of support and instead keeping his movements mostly behind the scenes, NYT’s Michael Bender and Patricia Mazzei write. “But it is unclear whether Mr. Rubio’s quiet campaign will work. The soft touch has perplexed Mr. Trump, who has privately wondered how much the senator wants the job, according to two people familiar with the former president’s thinking.”
- Sen. RAND PAUL’s (R-Ky.) streak of endorsements for Trump may be in jeopardy now that he and ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. have struck up something of a political bromance, the Washington Free Beacon’s Joseph Simonson writes. “Kennedy has had several closed-door meetings in Paul’s Senate office, and is advised by Paul’s chief strategist and former chief of staff, DOUG STAFFORD.”
AMERICA AND THE WORLD
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Israel’s weekend strike in Rafah did not cross the “red line” that Joe Biden set two months ago, according to the White House. | Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images | RESPECTING THE RED LINE — The White House has decided that Israel’s weekend strike in Rafah that reportedly killed nearly 50 displaced Palestinians did not cross the “red line” that Biden set two months ago, our colleagues Alex Ward and Jonathan Lemire report. “The administration made clear in public and in private on Tuesday that the incident, while devastating, would not trigger any serious reprimand from Washington. It’s the strongest indicator yet that Israel is conducting a military operation that the administration can accept, even if U.S. officials don’t like every aspect of it. Meanwhile, another Biden administration official resigned this week over the war, “citing disagreements with a recently published U.S. government report that claimed that Israel was not impeding humanitarian assistance to Gaza,” WaPo’s John Hudson and Michael Birnbaum report. “The outgoing official, STACY GILBERT, served in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. Gilbert sent an email to staff Tuesday explaining her view that the State Department was wrong to conclude that Israel had not obstructed humanitarian assistance to Gaza, officials who read the letter said.” More top reads:
- Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN may be crossing a red line in his war on Ukraine, with the administration “considering two tough new countermeasures: punishing China for supplying key technology to Moscow and lifting limits on Ukrainian use of U.S. short-range weapons to attack inside Russia,” WaPo’s David Ignatius writes. “The fact that such moves are being considered now shows the administration’s growing concern about Ukraine’s vulnerability on the battlefield.”
- “Blacklisted Chinese Companies Rebrand as American to Dodge Crackdown,” by WSJ’s Heather Somerville: “Chinese firms trying to buffer themselves from Washington’s anti-China policies are rebranding and creating U.S.-domiciled businesses to sell their wares as the Biden administration expands the government entity lists that restrict Chinese companies’ business dealings in the U.S., say policymakers and national-security experts.”
| | | | A message from PhRMA:   Let’s fix 340B so it can help the patients that need it most. | | | TRUMP CARDS BIDEN’S BLUSTER — The scene outside the Trump trial yesterday was markedly different, with ROBERT DE NIRO showing up with the Biden campaign to deride the former president. It was the culmination of a decision by the campaign over the weekend to authorize a “guerrilla-style” event in an effort to break through the non-stop cable news coverage of the Trump trial, Natalie Allison and Jonathan Lemire report. “Biden campaign officials acknowledged that holding the surprise press conference was a change in tactics, but said it was not a change of their overall strategy. They also made the decision over the weekend in Wilmington, Delaware, where the Biden campaign is headquartered, to plan more surprise events in the weeks ahead. They plan to be ‘nimble and creative,’ according to one of the people with knowledge of the strategy, as a means to go on offense and break through the media cycle.” CONGRESS SHOW OF SUPPORT — A second delegation of bipartisan lawmakers, this one from the Senate, is in Taiwan this week following a visit from House members. They’re thereto “show support for the island democracy, the first such delegations since the inauguration of a new Taiwanese president and the large-scale Chinese military exercises that followed his swearing in last week,” WSJ’s Molly Ball reports from Taipei. The delegation is led by Sens. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-Ill.) and DAN SULLIVAN (R-Alaska), with the trip marking a “full-circle moment for Sullivan, “who was deployed to the Taiwan Strait as a young Marine officer during the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1996.” WHAT ABOUT BOB? — “Menendez Jurors Hear Audio and See Texts From Seized Phones,” by NYT’s Tracey Tully and Benjamin Weiser: “The text exchanges, along with emails and recordings of voice mail messages and other exhibits, were part of hours of evidence that federal prosecutors presented on Tuesday, in the third week of [Sen. BOB] MENENDEZ’s corruption trial in Manhattan. Prosecutors used the volley of communications to begin to lay out an origin story of not only a romantic relationship but also what they claim was a burgeoning, five-year bribery conspiracy.” MEDIAWATCH MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE — “The Bulwark: How could it be wrong when it feels so center-right?” by WaPo’s Jesús Rodríguez: “Republican apostates have built a safe harbor for anti-MAGA centrists — and anyone else who wants to feel less lonely in the middle.”
| | | | DON’T MISS POLITICO’S ENERGY SUMMIT: The future of energy faces a crossroads in 2024 as policymakers and industry leaders shape new rules, investments and technologies. Join POLITICO’s Energy Summit on June 5 as we convene top voices to examine the shifting global policy environment in a year of major elections in the U.S. and around the world. POLITICO will examine how governments are writing and rewriting new rules for the energy future and America’s own role as a major exporter. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Pat Sajak’s looming retirement could have major implications for political advertising. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he had a “visceral reaction against” the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue. David DePape got his chance to speak in court — and was once again sentenced to 30 years in the assault of Paul Pelosi. Chuck Grassley is riding with Donald Trump. Lisa Page and Peter Strzok’s long-running lawsuits against the DOJ were settled. Mike Johnson has an interesting view of his job. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) are joining the speakers lineup for the 20th annual Aspen Ideas Festival, which is slated to kick off on June 23. They join a lineup that includes Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, James Carville, Mike Madrid, Eddie Glaude, Celinda Lake and Sarah Longwell. More on the festival TRANSITIONS — Dani Walker is joining the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic as Democratic press secretary and speechwriter. She previously was a public relations specialist at the American Public Health Association. … Joel Mendelson and Natalia Latif are joining New Heights Communications as directors. Mendelson previously was comms director for Grounded Solutions Network and Jobs with Justice. Latif previously was a senior associate at Fireside Campaigns and is a Mondaire Jones and Sharice Davids alum. … … Travis Brubacker is joining E3G, Inc. as a senior policy adviser. He previously was a research associate at ClearView Energy Partners. … Richard Allen Smith is joining Arnold Ventures as director of public affairs and comms. He was previously a media strategist at the National Education Association. … Arielle Geismar is now co-chair of Design It For Us, a coalition of youth activists supporting policy reforms at the state and federal level. She recently graduated from George Washington University. ENGAGED — Jack Morris, an assistant VP at Link Logistics Real Estate, and Emily Button, director of operations for Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), got engaged on Friday in Indianapolis. The two are high school sweethearts and got engaged in the same place they took their senior year prom photos. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) (7-0) … USA Today’s Terence Samuel and Francesca Chambers … Philip Klein … Lee Satterfield … The Forward’s Jacob Kornbluh … FP1 Strategies and Plus Communications’ Jon Conradi … Matthew Dowd … NBC’s Stephen Sanchez … Adfero’s Reilly Knecht … Todd Flournoy … Instagram’s Dayna Geldwert … Bri Gillis … Alex Ford of Halcyon Strategy … POLITICO’s Mojgan Mehrabi … Annette Guarisco Fildes … Weekly Dystopia’s Chris Johnson … Nucor’s Eileen Bradner … Mary Ryan Douglass … Jacob Alderman … former Reps. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Tom Coleman (R-Mo.) … Birmingham, Ala., Mayor Randall Woodfin … Hailey Lernihan … Pete Seat … Charlotte Ueland 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 included an outdated professional affiliation for Jessica Anderson.
| | | | A message from PhRMA: Hospitals that participate in the 340B program contract with more than 33,000 pharmacies to dispense the program’s drug prescriptions. More than 40% of these pharmacies have financial ties to one of the three largest PBMs – CVS Health, Express Scripts and OptumRx. 340B hospitals and the PBM-owned pharmacies they contract with are profiting off discounted medicines while uninsured patients are left paying full price for their medicines. Let’s fix 340B so it better helps patients. | | | | | | | 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 | | | | |
