| | | | |  | | By Eugene Daniels, Rachael Bade and Ryan Lizza | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | ABOUT LAST NIGHT — We told you yesterday about how progressives were playing defense in a spate of primaries. This morning, the left looks to be largely in retreat based on returns out of Oregon. Centrist candidates prevailed in a pair of Democratic primaries for Portland-area House seats, with state Rep. JANELLE BYNUM denying progressive JAMIE McLEOD-SKINNER a second chance against GOP Rep. LORI CHAVEZ-DeREMER, and state Rep. MAXINE DEXTER beating SUSHEELA JAYAPAL in the race to succeed Democratic Rep. EARL BLUMENAUER. Portland-area DA MIKE SCHMIDT, meanwhile, is trailing Republican-turned-independent NATHAN VASQUEZ by 12 points. Takeaways from Madison Fernandez and Ally Mutnick Elsewhere … In Georgia, Fulton County DA FANI WILLIS and Superior Court Judge SCOTT McAFEE, both key figures in the state’s case against DONALD TRUMP, both easily won their races. … BRIAN JACK and MIKE DUGAN are headed for a June runoff to determine who likely succeeds Rep. DREW FERGUSON (R-Ga.). … And in California, VINCE FONG won a special election to finish out KEVIN McCARTHY’s House term, “paving the way for him to claim a second victory in November’s general,” Jeremy White writes. MAN ON THE MOVE — RAJ SHAH will leave his post as Speaker MIKE JOHNSON’s communications director later this summer, Axios’ Juliegrace Brufke scooped late last night. Said Johnson in a statement: “I am grateful Raj agreed to step up and serve. He has become a trusted advisor and built an incredible communications team. Raj has fulfilled his commitment to us and I wish him continued success.”
|  Kenyan President Wiliam Ruto is getting the full red-carpet treatment at the White House over the next 72 hours. | AP | AFRICA’S CONSOLATION PRIZE— In just a few hours, President JOE BIDEN will welcome Kenyan President WILLIAM RUTO to the White House for an official state visit, and it’s a big ole deal. Ruto is getting the full red-carpet treatment over the next 72 hours: a bilateral meeting and news conference with Biden, a “fireside chat” with VP KAMALA HARRIS, a visit to Capitol Hill where he’ll meet Speaker MIKE JOHNSON and other top leaders, a session this evening with top CEOs, and the centerpiece: a state dinner tomorrow night — the first for an African leader since GEORGE W. BUSH hosted the president of Ghana in 2008. What Ruto is hoping to get out of the trip is pretty straightforward: Beyond the prize of simply getting major facetime with a U.S. president, with all of the domestic and global political dividends that entails, Ruto will be looking for development aid and help dealing with Kenya’s foreign debts, much of it owed at crushingly high interest rates to China. As for Biden, the imperatives are manifold. It’s the 60th anniversary of U.S.-Kenyan relations, there’s a need to celebrate one of Africa’s most stable democracies and shore up a bulwark against creeping Chinese and Russian influence, and there’s a desire to reward Ruto for his willingness to help manage conflagrations on the continent and, recently, in Haiti. And frankly, the U.S. needs to be nice to its friends in Africa right now: Just this month U.S. troops were evicted from Niger, and Biden’s close support for Israel has strained relationships with South African and other nations, as WaPo’s Katharine Houreld notes. The White House, as it is wont to do, is playing down the realpolitik of the visit and playing up the more high-minded desire to celebrate a long-lasting symbiotic relationship that could serve as a model for other African nations. “We're not going to be friends with other countries just based on some sort of perceived global power competition,” one administration official told us last night. “That's not how we're approaching it. That's not what we think.” But leaders in Kenya and its peer nations will certainly be thinking about the practicalities — and the extent to which Washington’s rhetoric toward African countries can be trusted. There’s a major unkept promise, in fact, hanging over Ruto’s visit — one that has experts viewing the state visit as a bit of cleanup. At his December 2022 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, Biden set lofty goals for his administration’s dealings with the continent. Many have been met. The administration says it is well on its way to reaching a $55 billion investment commitment, for one, and it has backed adding the African Union as a permanent G20 member. High-level officials ranging from Harris and first lady JILL BIDEN to multiple Cabinet secretaries have made Africa trips since. But Biden himself has yet to go after pledging to make a trip within a year. He’s right now the first Democratic president since LYNDON JOHNSON not to set foot on the continent while in office. Administration aides struggle to explain why Biden hasn’t kept his promise. There’s obviously been international crises that have required his attention, and they note they’re still working on figuring something out. But with the G7 and D-Day anniversary trips on the books next month and this little election thing coming up, it’s looking logistically impossible this year. CAMERON HUDSON, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Africa Program, called it a “self-inflicted wound” and said there’s no substitute for the goodwill a presidential visit can engender. Think BILL CLINTON in Rwanda or Bush in Liberia after civil wars in those countries as enduring statements on the value of democracy. “Africans are used to a certain lack of high-level attention from the United States,” Hudson said. “So the fact that he created that expectation and then reneged on that expectation, and disappointed them has created a sense of disappointment.” As you can imagine, the administration disagrees, with the Biden official framing things as a question of symbolism vs. substance: “At the end of all of this, ten years from now, what are we more grateful for — the substantive work that was done or this one trip that the president made?” Another expert, Hudson Institute senior fellow JOSHUA MESERVEY, agreed the actual deliverables tend to be most important. But, he added of the trip, “You should really kind of keep that promise, especially when you're using the promise as evidence of your interest and attention and care.” Related reads: “How a post in Kenya could vault this former tech CEO into Cabinet consideration,” by Nahal Toosi … “The escalating fight over US assistance to Haiti ahead of Ruto’s visit,” by Matt Berg Good Wednesday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
| | | | A message from INVEST IN OUR LAND: In 2022, Congress invested $20 billion in conservation funding to support America's family farms. These funds help strengthen family businesses, lower costs, increase profits, and protect against the growing threat of extreme weather – and they are now at risk. Help protect the future of American farms.
Learn more at InvestInOurLand.org. | | | JUST IN — “Norway, along with Ireland and Spain, to recognise Palestinian state,” by Reuters’ Nerijus Adomaitis and Gwladys Fouche: “Non-EU member Norway has long said it would recognise Palestine as a country only if it could have a positive impact on the peace process, in step with what the United States has said on the issue.” TRAGEDY OVERNIGHT — “Tornado kills multiple people in Iowa as powerful storms again tear through Midwest,” by AP’s Hannah Fingerhut, Scott McFetridge and Margery A. Beck FUN ONE — “Meet Trump’s ‘Human Printer,’” by The Bulwark’s Marc Caputo: “Whenever Donald Trump brandishes a stack of papers or reads a printout of a social media post, he’s relying on the work of NATALIE HARP. Harp, 32, occupies a unique role in the history of presidential campaigns: aide who travels with a portable printer (plus paper and rechargeable batteries in a large bag) whose job is to feed Trump a steady stream of information on 8.5x11″ pieces of paper. That way, the 77-year-old doesn’t have to strain his eyes on a smartphone to read all the news that’s fit to print in MAGAville.” Interesting tidbit: Harp was the “junior staffer” who reposted the “unified Reich” video to Trump’s Truth Social account on Monday, Marc reports. ELECTION PREVIEW EVENT: THE FUTURE OF TAXATION — Join POLITICO live at Union Station or virtually today at 8:30 a.m. for a look ahead at how the elections could shape the corporate tax structure, the child tax credit and other key policies. With Trump-era tax breaks set to expire in 2025, whoever wins control of Congress and the White House will have the ability to revamp the tax code and with it reshape the landscape for business and social policy. Hear from Rep. SUZAN DelBENE (D-Wash.), Heritage's STEPHEN MOORE, Urban Institute VP TRACY GORDON and Georgetown professor DOROTHY BROWN. Register to watch
| | | | A message from INVEST IN OUR LAND:   Congress may roll back $20B in conservation funding that helps protect America's farmers from the effects of extreme weather.
Learn more at InvestInOurLand.org. | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | On the Hill The Senate is in. Energy Secretary JENNIFER GRANHOLM will testify before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee at 10 a.m. The House will meet at 10 a.m. Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN will testify before a House Appropriations subcommittee at 10 a.m. and the House Foreign Affairs Committee at 2 p.m. 3 things to watch …
- Democrats are preparing to dig into Justice SAMUEL ALITO following a NYT report that an upside-down U.S. flag flew outside his house around the time of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Rep. STEVE COHEN (D-Tenn.) introduced a censure resolution yesterday, Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER told reporters he’s considering options, and the Demand Justice advocacy group is launching a six-figure campaign than includes digital and television ad buys calling on Alito to recuse himself from any election-related cases. It began last night with the projection of the “Stop the Steal” flag on the Supreme Court building.
- An intercameral dispute over a potential Capitol invite for BENJAMIN NETANYAHU might come to a head today. House Speaker MIKE JOHNSON has been exploring the possibility of inviting the Israeli PM to deliver his first joint address in nine years. But the politics of such an invite are complicated, to say the least, for Senate Democrats. Johnson told reporters yesterday he’d given Schumer a Tuesday deadline to consent to a joint request before inviting Netanyahu to address the House alone. Schumer told reporters he remains in discussions with Johnson over the timing.
- We’re back on House attendance watch: Fong’s win was supposed to give Johnson a little breathing room after spending the past few weeks with a two-vote majority. But Rep. GREG MURPHY (R-N.C.) announced yesterday he’ll be out indefinitely for surgery to remove a brain tumor. “The prognosis is excellent, and I hope to be back to work full-time soon,” he said in a statement. Good news, but will his vote matter in the interim? With House leaders considering a contempt vote on AG MERRICK GARLAND, it just might: As Olivia Beavers reports, the whip starts this week, and it’s a close call.
At the White House Biden will receive the President’s Daily Brief in the morning. In the afternoon, Biden will welcome Kenyan President William Ruto to the White House, where the two will participate in a meeting with CEOs and other business leaders. Press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE will brief at 1 p.m. VP Harris will receive briefings and conduct internal meetings with staff.
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Joe Biden took Donald Trump to task over a now-deleted video that the former president posted. | Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO | BIDEN’S BITE — During a swing through New England yesterday for campaign fundraisers, Biden took Trump to task over the now-deleted video that the former president put out including a phrase — “unified Reich” — that nodded to Nazi Germany. “It is not the first time Trump has gone down this road,” Biden said at his final event of the night, a more than 300-person fundraiser in Boston’s Seaport district, our colleagues Lisa Kashinsky and Jonathan Lemire report. “Folks, it can’t be any clearer. The threat Trump poses is greater the second time around than it was the first.” He didn’t stop there: Biden also said Trump is “obsessed with losing in 2020, he’s clearly become unhinged. Just listen to him, he wants to become a dictator on Day One,” Biden said at his last event. “Well I’ll say what he can’t — there’s no place for violence in American politics. None.” POLL POSITION — Meanwhile, a pair of new polls this morning spell more trouble for Biden. Swing state struggles: A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult survey finds that Trump leads Biden leads 48% to 44% across polling in seven battleground states, though Biden is close in the “blue wall” states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and is running tighter than other recent polls in some Sun Belt states. More from Bloomberg … The poll It’s the stupid economy: A new Harris poll published by The Guardian this morning finds that “nearly three in five Americans wrongly believe the US is in an economic recession.” The bad news for Biden is “58% of those polled saying the economy is worsening due to mismanagement from the presidential administration.” More from The Guardian More top reads:
- The Congressional Leadership Fund is reserving $141 million in fall ads on behalf of GOP House candidates, WaPo’s Michael Scherer reports. “The initial spending plans are nearly $20 million larger than similar reservations that the group made in 2022, while focusing on a much narrower battleground map.”
- COREY LEWANDOWSKI is officially back on the payroll. The top Trump hand pulled in $20,000 from the Republican National Committee last month, Natalie Allison writes.
- KERRY KENNEDY is leading the chorus of family voices opposing ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., reflecting “her outsize role is an outgrowth of the affection she has displayed toward her brother since they were children … and the disappointment she feels now,” NYT’s Adam Nagourney writes.
AMERICA AND THE WORLD
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Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday compared himself during a CNN interview to Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. | Abir Sultan/AP Photo | SAYING THE QUIET PART — Top officials in the Biden administration are voicing growing fears that Israel is “disastrously squandering its opportunity for victory against Hamas, losing its best chance to eliminate the group’s hold on Gaza and threat to the Israeli people,” our colleagues Alexander Ward, Erin Banco and Lara Seligman report. “Top officials are publicly calling Israel’s strategy in Gaza self-defeating and likely to open the door to Hamas’ return — a level of criticism of the Middle East ally not seen since the war began in October. The officials say Israel’s government has failed to hold parts of Gaza after clearing them, has turned the civilian population and the rest of the world against it with widespread bombing and inadequate humanitarian aid, and enabled Hamas to recruit more fighters.” Boisterous Bibi: Netanyahu yesterday compared himself during a CNN interview to WINSTON CHURCHILL and FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT “as he assailed the International Criminal Court for requesting an arrest warrant against him and his government’s top defense official for alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip,” Eric Bazail-Eimil writes. More top reads:
- Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY sits down for an interview with NYT’s Andrew Kramer in Kyiv: “Over 50 minutes at the ornate House With Chimeras in the presidential offices, he spoke with a mix of frustration and bewilderment at the West’s reluctance to take bolder steps to ensure that Ukraine prevails.”
- The Pentagon’s pier program to deliver aid to Gaza is at risk of failing “unless Israel starts ensuring the conditions the humanitarian groups need to operate safely,” the U.N. World Food Program warned yesterday, per AP’s Ellen Knickmeyer and Samy Magdy.
| | | | A message from INVEST IN OUR LAND:   Invest In Our Land | | | TRUMP CARDS MORE DOCU-DRAMA — Newly unsealed documents yesterday revealed that attorneys for Trump discovered four documents labeled as “classified” in his personal bedroom at Mar-a-Lago four months after the FBI raided the estate. “That revelation was among several cited by U.S. District Judge BERYL HOWELL in a newly unsealed 2023 opinion that found prosecutors had presented compelling evidence that Trump knowingly stashed national security documents in his home and then tried to conceal them when the Justice Department tried to retrieve them,” Kyle Cheney writes. “Throughout the opinion, Howell — who was chief judge of the Washington, D.C. federal district court at the time — described with varying degrees of incredulity how four documents with classification markings could have been discovered in Trump’s private quarters months after prosecutors had subpoenaed them and the FBI conducted its own exhaustive search of the property.” Read the 87-page opinion POLICY CORNER
|  A public fight between Scarlett Johansson and OpenAI is steering straight into a live debate in Washington over artificial intelligence. | Mike Coppola/Getty Images | THE BRAVE NEW WORLD — The drama unfolding between SCARLETT JOHANSSON and OpenAI over the company’s use of voicing that sounds remarkably similar to Johansson’s is steering “straight into a live debate in Washington about one of the most unnerving uses of artificial intelligence,” Mohar Chatterjee writes. “But it’s not clear that even an A-list celebrity can shake loose Washington’s perennially stuck approach to Big Tech.” The tension seems to have jolted Biden into the debate, however. The president posted a statement on X, saying that AI companies “must earn our trust” before they can “transform the lives of people around the world.” He continued: “I commit to do everything in my power to promote and demand safe, secure, trustworthy, and responsible innovation – that includes the use of AI-generated audio. I ask that AI companies join me in that commitment.” SCOTUS WATCH — “The shadow war on the administrative state,” by Declan Harty, Josh Sisco and Josh Gerstein: “The court’s ruling on Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, a case challenging the power of in-house federal judges, could hobble a whole range of agencies in unpredictable ways, cutting the powers of antitrust enforcers, labor regulators and consumer finance watchdogs. Driven by an alliance of tech billionaires, conservative legal activists and the business lobby, the legal campaign that has arisen around Jarkesy is a little-appreciated but significant version of the ‘war on the administrative state’ that Donald Trump promised but largely failed to deliver.” THE WHITE HOUSE PLIGHT OF THE HUNTER — As HUNTER BIDEN prepares for his trial set to get underway on June 3, he could “face testimony from his ex-wife and his brother’s widow, with whom he became romantically involved, according to new filings from federal prosecutors that illustrate just how messy the seemingly simple court case could turn,” WaPo’s Matt Viser reports.
| | | | 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 | | Tammy Duckworth helped secure the evacuation of American doctors from Gaza. Liz Sherwood-Randall gets the glossy mag treatment. Rudy Giuliani is selling his own coffee now. Jim Banks did an interview with the Ruthless podcast live from an Indy 500 practice round. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Ernesto Apreza will be special assistant to the president and press secretary to VP Harris. Apreza was most recently Harris’ deputy press secretary and is a Biden 2020 campaign, Harris 2019 presidential campaign and Hilary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign alum. — The Biden campaign is adding Rhyan Lake and Colin Diersing as deputy comms directors for the VP. Lake is a DNC, Jon Ossoff and Jaime Harrison alum. Diersing is a Demand Justice, Fairness Project and American Bridge alum. TRANSITIONS — Tina Olechowski will be a VP of TV and digital at BerlinRosen’s creative campaigns services division. She has worked on campaigns across the country and is an End Citizens United/Let America Vote and House Majority PAC alum. … Kenvi Phillips will be the inaugural director of the Barack Obama Presidential Library. She most recently was the first director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Brown University Library. … Nikki Cannon is joining CLYDE as VP of public affairs. She previously was senior director at LSG and is a Jerry McNerney alum. … … Elizabeth-Burton Jones is now comms director for Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.). She previously was comms director for Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa). … Ellen Walter is joining the NRSC as director of women’s engagement. She is the founder of The Walter Group and previously was a senior adviser to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. OUT AND ABOUT — AxAdvocacy hosted a reception yesterday evening celebrating the FAA reauthorization at a “Takeoff Into Summer Party” at Succotash. SPOTTED: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), Aaron Reitz, Victoria Ellington, Heather Wingate, Eric Burgeson, Skiffington Holderness, Ashlee Rich Stephenson, Samantha Dravis, David Polyansky, Steve Chartan, Bobby Babcock, Elizabeth Coit, Bob Salera and Gabriella Bucci. — SPOTTED last night at a dinner hosted by Steve Rattner and Maureen White on the rooftop terrace of the Hay-Adams: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jared Bernstein, Lael Brainard and Kurt Campbell, Robert and Elena Allbritton, Mike Allen, Margaret Carlson, Tom Friedman, Mike Froman, David Ignatius, William Lewis, Maya MacGuineas, Terry McAuliffe, Sally Quinn, Neera Tanden and Ben Edwards. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Torrie Matous, chief of staff at Deloitte, and Kyle Matous, director of government relations at Advocacy Associates, welcomed their second child, Thomas Matthew Matous, on May 13. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) … Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), Sharice Davids (D-Kan.), Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.) and John Sarbanes (D-Md.) … POLITICO’s Bianca Robles, Jonathan Wright and Mashal Zafar … Airbnb’s Jay Carney McClatchy’s Michael Wilner … Anthony Reyes … Jillian Lane Wyant of Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-Fla.) office … Invariant’s Drew Griffin … Jimmy Ryan … Kerry Rom of Speaker Mike Johnson’s office … Johnny Srsich of Sam Brown’s Nevada Senate campaign … Jennifer Garson … RAGA’s Johnny Koremenos … Jim Popkin … Brian Weeks … Alex Dilley … NP Strategy’s Tom McMahon … Oren Cass … Bobby Mattina … Jon Jukuri of the National Conference of State Legislatures … Anne Brady Perron … former Rep. Richard Baker (R-La.) … John Michael Gonzalez … Matt Butler ... Bryan Petrich … Lauryn Higgins ... Brandon MacGillis ... Gene Fynes … Julie Orsini of APCO Worldwide … Joe Pompeo … Jon Ward … Richard Keil ... Ron Nehring … Peter Bhatia … Clare Krusing 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.
| | | | A message from INVEST IN OUR LAND: America is strongest when our farmers thrive. That's why Congress made a historic $20B investment in 2022 to support conservation practices that help strengthen farmer livelihoods and mitigate the effects of extreme weather on cropland.
Now, these funds are at risk in the Farm Bill. Some want to direct them toward practices that have proven less effective at helping farmers build resilience against extreme weather and grow healthy soils through climate-smart farming.
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