| | | | |  | | By Ryan Lizza, Rachael Bade and Eugene Daniels | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | |  Inside the Washington Post, the conversation among reporters centered on whether Will Lewis could continue leading the publication. | Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images | In late April, WILL LEWIS arrived at the former Georgetown home of KATHARINE GRAHAM. Graham was the most revered publisher in the Washington Post’s history. When she was at her peak steering the newspaper through Watergate and the Pentagon Papers, her R Street mansion was an epicenter of power in Washington. Now it’s known for only one thing: the annual Garden Brunch hosted by TAMMY HADDAD on the Saturday morning of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. Lewis is the Post’s recently installed publisher and a bit of a fish out of water. He’s a Brit in Washington. He’s a former RUPERT MURDOCH man running a newspaper built around values at odds with Fleet Street. Everyone goes to Tammy’s brunch to network, but for Lewis the event had perhaps a little more urgency (he had a town to win over) and a little more significance (he was now Graham’s successor). But when he got to the door, Lewis was told he wasn’t on the list and was turned away. Everyone in Washington knows who Will Lewis is now. Though not for the reasons he would like. Inside the Post, the conversation among reporters we surveyed last night centered on whether Lewis could continue leading the publication. Post reporters have responded to the allegations that Lewis breached the wall between the business and editorial sides of the paper with more aggressive reporting on him. “The only way to fix what he broke is to double down on transparency about the whole thing,” one Post reporter told Playbook. The latest attempt landed yesterday at 9:32 p.m. with a piece by Sarah Ellison and Elahe Izadi: “Post publisher draws more scrutiny after newsroom shake-up” The article confirmed two things: First, it matched previous NYT reporting that Lewis told former executive editor SALLY BUZBEE that a proposed Post story tying Lewis to accusations of covering up evidence in the Murdoch phone-hacking scandal in the U.K. “did not warrant coverage and that publishing it represented a lapse in judgment.” Second, and more generally, it revealed that the clash between Lewis’ London-bred rough-and-tumble sensibilities and the Post’s more high-minded culture is even more profound than previously suspected: He can’t seem to figure out where his Fleet Street smarts are necessary and refreshing and where they are toxic and self-defeating. What had Posties especially gobsmacked last night was Lewis’s defense. Ellison and Izadi report that Lewis said in an email that he “did not pressure her in any way.” They continue: “He acknowledged Buzbee had informed him of plans to publish a story but that he was ‘professional throughout.’ He also said he doesn’t recall ever having used the phrase ‘serious lapse in judgment.’ “He described a process, which he said was common, of asking about a story and offering thoughts or input ‘if appropriate,’ and making clear that the decision to publish ultimately rested with the editor. “‘I know how this works, I know the right thing to do, and what not to do. I know where the lines are, and I respect them,’ he wrote.” These comments had the opposite effect of what Lewis intended, confirming for many reporters that there is a serious clash of journalistic values between Lewis and the Post’s newsroom, where it is not considered “common” for the publisher to be “offering thoughts or input” on stories. Lewis then added to his woes by going after NPR media reporter DAVID FOLKENFLIK, who reported yesterday that Lewis had offered to horse-trade him an interview if Folkenflik agreed not to publish an article about allegations “that Lewis had helped cover up a scandal involving widespread criminal practices at media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloids.” Lewis, who works with a comms staff out of the U.K. rather than the Post’s in-house flacks, responded by unloading on Folkenflik. Lews called him “an activist, not a journalist” and claimed that he “had an off the record conversation with him before I joined you at The Post and some six months later he has dusted it down, and made up some excuse to make a story of a non-story.” As a side note, Folkenflik noted in his story that the interview he sought about the Post’s restructuring went to Puck’s Dylan Byers. We asked Dylan if Lewis made any kind of offer similar to what Folkenflik described. “Of course not,” he told Playbook. “And I have never agreed to anything like that and I never would.” The mood at the Post was grim last night with Lewis making owner JEFF BEZOS, who has not always been respected by Post journalists, look BEN BRADLEE-esque by comparison. One reporter noted that Bezos “has been such a decent owner about not interfering in copy and even respecting the process when we’ve published very critical things about his companies.” Lewis’s loss of credibility may be difficult to overcome. “The newsroom is almost uniformly horrified,” the same reporter told Playbook. “Jeff has never touched a story to the best of anyone’s knowledge. And [Lewis] comes in, begins pressuring Sally to not write about him, announces a ‘third newsroom’ in a late-night Sunday email when people didn’t even know we had two newsrooms, gives no respect to Sally on her way out and then berates staffers who ask him basic, fair questions? We all know the Post needs to make money. We understand the need for change. But what kind of change have we wrought?” GATHERING THE CLANS — JMart writes in with this update to a scoop he had back in April: “A group of Republican machers from yesterday and today raised nearly $150,000 Thursday night for House Appropriations Committee Chairman TOM COLE, who’s facing a self-funded primary challenge later this month. The fundraiser, spearheaded by longtime lobbyist RICK HOHLT, was co-hosted by HALEY BARBOUR, REINCE PRIEBUS, KEN MEHLMAN and four other former RNC chairs. Also on the host list for the Charlie Palmer’s dinner: NEWT and CALLISTA GINGRICH, ROY BLUNT, JEFF MILLER, NORM COLEMAN and KARL ROVE and many more GOP bigs.” Meanwhile … Cole’s self-funding conservative primary opponent, PAUL BONDAR, has spent nearly $5 million, per NOTUS’ Reese Gorman.
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Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) believes the Biden executive order on asylum is pretty hollow. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW: SEN. CHRIS COONS — On Deep Dive this week, we had a foreign-policy heavy conversation with the Delawarean that touched on Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER’s possibly subversive role in inviting Israeli PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU to speak before Congress, the presidential election in Mexico, and what he thinks would happen if China invaded Taiwan in a Trump versus a Biden administration. And we also talked a lot of politics, including why Coons believes the Biden executive order on asylum is pretty hollow, whether HUNTER BIDEN would be prosecuted if he had a different last name, and why he thinks that while JOE BIDEN has “a little diminished energy,” he believes it “is not evidence of mental feebleness.” Listen to the entire interview: Apple … Spotify
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| Happy Friday. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
| | | | A message from Groundwork Collaborative: Do you think the tax code is fair? We don’t — and it’s time to fix it.
For too long, the tax code has been slanted towards the wealthy and large corporations, and the economy and our country have suffered as a result. The expiration of key provisions of the Trump tax law in 2025 is a rare opportunity to reform the tax code and ensure it is fair, raises revenue, and supports equitable economic growth. Learn more. | | | GEOPOLITICS OF 2024 — “India, Mexico, South Africa Went to the Polls. Here’s What We Learned,” by Matt Kaminski: “5 lessons from 3 consequential elections.” GEOPOLITICS OF 1984 — “Reagan at Pointe du Hoc, 40 Years Later,” by WSJ’s Peggy Noonan: “The speech … was about what it was about, the valor shown 40 years before by the young men of Operation Overlord. … But there was a speech within the speech, and that had to do with more-current struggles.” TALK OF THIS TOWN — Michael Schaffer’s latest: “How Congress Became the ‘Last Plantation’” HUNTER THE HUNTED — “The Ugly Truths About the Hunter Biden Trial,” by Ankush Khardori in Wilmington, Delaware, for POLITICO Magazine: “Almost every federal prosecutor — myself included — will at one point prosecute a case involving the unlawful purchase or possession of a firearm. Along with immigration and drug cases, gun charges are the bread and butter of federal prosecutors, for better or worse. “These cases almost always result in convictions, but they usually end in plea deals, not jury verdicts. The statutes in this area are both broad and punitive, and the elements of the offenses are relatively easy to prove. As a result, there are very few credible lines of defense at trial, and the logic of a guilty plea — which ensures at least some time off of the ultimate sentence — tends to be inescapable.” The courtroom action: “From a truck to a trash can to a stranger’s closet: The odd saga of Hunter Biden’s gun,” by Betsy Woodruff Swan in Wilmington Meanwhile: The president said yesterday in an interview with ABC that he would not pardon his son if Hunter is found guilty as the trial nears a verdict. More from ABC’s Fritz Farrow WHAT TRUMP ALLIES ARE READING — “Federalist Society Head Tells Group He’s Searching for Successor,” by Bloomberg’s Emily Birnbaum: "EUGENE MEYER, who has served as the executive director, CEO or president of the nonprofit organization for more than 40 years, said he is in good health but is beginning the search now in the hopes it will move ‘expeditiously and carefully but without undue pressure.’”
| | | | A message from Groundwork Collaborative:   Do you think the tax code is fair? We don’t — and it’s time to fix it. | | | |  | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | On the Hill The Senate and the House are out. What we’re watching … Sometime today over France, a group of House members — all military veterans, most of them Republicans — will jump out of a vintage C-47 Skytrain and onto the Norman bocage in honor of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. As Olivia Beavers reported for Inside Congress earlier this week, the lawmakers’ leap is generating some anxiety among their fellow House Republicans, who fear not only for their colleagues’ safety, but also for their two-seat majority. Replied participating Rep. DERRICK VAN ORDEN (R-Wis.): “You know what? Some things are worth doing. And if we lose the majority because some of us are paying respect to the Greatest Generation, so be it.” At the White House Biden this morning held a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY. The president later this morning will travel to Pointe du Hoc in Normandy
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|  Donald Trump spent the majority of his speech at a town hall in Arizona yesterday focused on the border. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | TRUMP’S POST-CONVICTION POSITION — In his first campaign appearance since his conviction on hush money charges, Trump spent the majority of his speech at a town hall in Arizona yesterday focused on the border, railing against Biden’s recent executive action. “Broadly denouncing the migrants crossing the border illegally of being violent criminals and terrorists, Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Biden’s recent executive order meant to curb crossings, saying it would be ineffective after Mr. Biden had taken little action for months,” NYT’s Michael Gold and Kellen Browning report from Phoenix. Trump called Biden “the ringleader of one the most vile criminal conspiracies of all time.” Outside of the event, the DNC escalated its rhetoric against Trump, going up with a billboard calling him a “convicted felon” for the first time, CBS’ Olivia Rinaldi writes. “Trump already attacked Arizona's Democracy once. Now he's back as a convicted felon. He's out for revenge and retribution. Trump. Unfit to Serve,” the billboard read. While out west, Trump is swinging through California for major fundraisers in Beverly Hills, Newport Beach and San Francisco over the next three days, Meridith McGraw and Jessica Piper report. Last night’s SF event, which was co-hosted by DAVID SACKS and arranged at the behest of Sen. J.D. VANCE (R-Ohio), cost $500,000 per couple. Back on the East Coast, Trump finds himself with a major polling boost in the latest data from Fox News, which has the former president locked in a tie with Biden in Virginia — a state that Biden won by double digits in 2020. The details: “The poll, released Thursday, shows Biden and Trump with 48% each in a head-to-head matchup in the Old Dominion State. Biden gets strong backing from Black voters (73%), suburban women (58%), and college-educated voters (56%),” Fox News’ Victoria Balara writes. The most striking datapoint: “While Biden leads among Black voters, it is nowhere near where he was in 2020 – according to the Fox News Voter Analysis. In 2020, Biden won Blacks by 81 points, compared to 48 points in the new survey. Trump nearly triples his share among Black voters: 9% in 2020 to 25% today.” More top reads:
- Postcard from the Centennial State: Our colleague David Siders takes a road trip to Colorado Springs, where independents may soon outnumber Republicans and Democrats combined and voters recently elected an independent as mayor. Nationally, the number of independent voters has doubled in the last decade, a sign and symptom of the decline of the two-party system. “[W]e’re only beginning to understand the ramifications,” Siders writes.
- Trump is planning to make a virtual appearance next week at an event hosted by the Danbury Institute, a Christian advocacy organization that wants to ban all abortions and calls the procedure “child sacrifice,” Adam Wren and Megan Messerly write. The organization also seeks to ban same-sex marriage and use the Bible to guide public policy, according to its website.
THE WHITE HOUSE
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White House officials privately pointing frustrated immigration advocates to a part of Joe Biden’s remarks on Tuesday. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo | CROSSING THE BORDER LINE — The Biden administration’s decision this week to tamp down on asylum claims at the border sparked swift outrage from the president’s left. But Biden is already lining up some more moves that could appease progressives, Myah Ward and Lisa Kashinsky report. The admin is considering new actions for undocumented immigrants, with White House officials privately pointing frustrated advocates to a part of Biden’s remarks on Tuesday, where he said in the “weeks ahead,” he would “speak on how we can make our immigration system more fair and more just,” sources tell our colleagues. To wit: A spox for Sen. ALEX PADILLA said the California Democrat has heard directly from administration officials that the president is exploring options. The details: “As part of that effort, White House officials are looking closely at ‘parole in place’ for undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens, which would shield them from deportation and allow them to work legally while they pursue a path to citizenship, the people said, adding that any moves may not come until after Biden’s debate this month with Donald Trump.” As for this week’s executive action, the maneuver is already being leveraged by critics who want to see an even tighter crackdown, Josh Gerstein writes. “A lawyer for the state of Texas, which is fighting to maintain concertina wire along a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border, argued in court Thursday that Biden’s sweeping executive order to suspend the right to make asylum claims undercuts previous administration legal arguments in a suit brought by Gov. GREG ABBOTT.” The real-life impact: “A migrant family is undeterred by Biden’s push to restrict asylum,” by WaPo’s Arelis Hernández: “There was no turning back for a Venezuelan mother and her two children after an exhausting odyssey to reach the border.”
| | | | A message from Groundwork Collaborative:   Do you think the tax code is fair? We don’t — and it’s time to fix it. | | | MORE POLITICS FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Republicans for the Rule of Law is launching a $2 million ad campaign highlighting conservative voices who argue that the Supreme Court should reject Trump’s claim of “absolute immunity” in the 2020 election subversion case, which the court is considering and is likely to rule on soon. Among the campaign’s offerings are more than 25 first-person testimonial ads from self-identified conservatives. The spots will air on digital and streaming platforms including YouTube and Hulu through June 23. Watch the ads MAKING GOOD — A host of Virginia Republicans are imploring Trump to rescind his endorsement of state Sen. JOHN McGUIRE, who is challenging House Freedom Caucus Chair BOB GOOD in the 5th Congressional District primary, which has grown increasingly contentious ahead of a June 18 vote, Jordain Carney reports. AMERICA AND THE WORLD
|  The ups and downs of Joe Biden's relationship with French President Emmanuel Macron have made the pair of world leaders an interesting power couple. | Virginia Mayo/Pool via AP Photo | FROM PARIS WITH LOVE — As Biden prepares for a rare state visit in France this weekend — the only one scheduled during the election year — the ups and downs of his relationship with French President EMMANUEL MACRON, with whom he often does not see exactly eye-to-eye, have made the pair of world leaders an interesting power couple. “The White House sees him as something of a wild card, and Macron has called for policy options in Ukraine that make the Biden administration nervous. But in spite of their substantive and cultural differences — and across a yawning, 35-year age gap — the two men have come to trust each other in striking ways,” Eli Stokols reports from Paris. More top reads:
- Israeli PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU is set to visit D.C. to address a joint meeting of Congress on July 24, Jordain Carney reports. “Locking down the July 24 date caps off weeks of behind-the-scenes talks on Capitol Hill, where the exact date had remained in flux even after leadership formally issued the invitation to Netanyahu last week.”
JUDICIARY SQUARE WHAT ABOUT BOB? — At the trial for Sen. BOB MENENDEZ (D-N.J.) yesterday, the jury heard details from a former aide to former New Jersey AG GURBIR GREWAL, who detailed a 2019 meeting with Menendez in which the prosecutors allege the senator attempted to disrupt the agency’s work in exchange for bribes. “Whoa, that was gross,” the aide told Grewal at the time. “The testimony was some of the most vivid yet in Menendez’s ongoing corruption trial, offering a behind-the-scenes account of a senator seeming to leverage his influence with one of the state’s most powerful officials,” Ry Rivard writes. TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week”: Thomas Friedman. SUNDAY SO FAR … ABC “This Week”: DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Panel: Terry Moran, Rick Klein, Asma Khalid and Susan Glasser. CBS “Face the Nation”: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) … Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) … Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) … Cindy McCain. FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) … Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.). Panel: Tammy Bruce, Harold Ford Jr. and Lee Zeldin. Sunday Special: Naor Packiarz. CNN “State of the Union”: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer … South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. Panel: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Scott Jennings, Karen Finney and Bryan Lanza. MSNBC “The Weekend”: Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) … Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas). NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) … Ralph Reed. Panel: David Drucker, Sabrina Siddiqui and Mona Charen.
| | | | POLITICO is gearing up to deliver experiences that help you navigate the NATO Summit. What issues should our reporting and events spotlight? Click here to let us know. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Michael Bloomberg is interested in becoming an NBA team owner. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s residency claim to get on the ballot in New York is under scrutiny. George Clooney called Steve Ricchetti last month to complain about Biden’s criticism of the ICC’s actions against Israeli leaders — a case his wife, Amal Clooney, worked on. Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell received a less-than-warm welcome in Pennsylvania. Kohl’s will not be sponsoring any GOP convention events in its hometown of Milwaukee. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at the 80th Anniversary of D-Day Commemoration at the National World War II Memorial hosted by Friends of the National World War II Memorial yesterday: Toby Roosevelt, Rondy Elliott, Jeff Reinbold, Jane Droppa, Ventris Gibson, Will Horton, Alex Kershaw, Melinda Simmons-Healy, Frank Cohn, James Behrend, David Frost, Alain Lafreniere, Jan Novotny, Jakob Rouse, Auriele Bonal, Jean-Olivier Grill, Vlachopoloulos Panagiotis, Peter Nieuwenhuis, Odd-Harald Hagen and Adam Krzywosadki. — Jirair Ratevosian and Micheal Ighodaro hosted a reception for Francisco Ruiz, the newly appointed director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, at their D.C. home yesterday evening. SPOTTED: Jeffrey Crowley, Harold Phillips, Scott Evertz, Jesse Milan, Dafina Ward, Carl Schmid, Juan Carlos Lubriel, Ernest Hopkins, Guillermo Chacon, Jeremiah Johnson, Stephen Lee and Matthew Rose. — SPOTTED at the Swedish Embassy’s National Day Celebration with Swedish Ambassador Urban Ahlin, featuring a rock concert by Suspicious Package, who played ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”: Swiss Ambassador Jacques Pitteloud, Finnish Ambassador Mikko Hautala, Polish Ambassador Marek Magierowski, Czech Republic Ambassador Miloslav Stašek, David Lunderquist, Christina Sevilla, Tim Burger, Josh Meyer, Bryan Greene, Robert Hagemann, Michael Curtis, Mark Vlasic, Eric Raven, Steve Rochlin and Sara Lindstrom. — SPOTTED at a reception Wednesday hosted by Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.) celebrating the Russell Rotunda exhibition about the Tree of Life synagogue shooting, which runs through today: Aaron Keyak, Carole Zawatsky, Adam Fountaine, Liz Amster, Kurtis Miller, Reva Price, Matt Dorf, Megan Ruane, David Reid, Jason Smith, Olivia Scanlon, Finlay Hastings, Zach Marshall, Cam Thompson, Dominick Giannini and Jack Wolfsohn. MEDIA MOVE — Rachel Smolkin will be president and CEO of Oregon Public Broadcasting. She currently is SVP of global news for CNN Digital and is a POLITICO, USA Today and American Journalism Review alum. Read the announcement TRANSITION — Mike Franc is joining the House Budget Committee as policy director. He previously was chief research officer at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity and is a Kevin McCarthy and Heritage Foundation alum. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Mike Pence … Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M) … Reps. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) and Susan Wild (D-Pa.) … Wendy Sherman … WSJ’s Catherine Lucey … State’s Adonna Biel … SKDK’s Stephanie Reichin ... Myra Adams … Vox’s Christina Animashaun … FGS Global’s Lars Anderson (5-0) … NSC’s Dan Erikson … Signal Group’s Chris Ortman … Paul Kelly of the Livingston Group … retired Coast Guard Vice Adm. Brian Peterman … KHQ’s Bradley Warren … Jerry White … Nathasha Lim … David Kim … CNN’s Javier de Diego … Raleigh Miller … Chrissy Barry of Rep. Eli Crane’s (R-Ariz.) office … Duke Energy Corporation’s Kaitlin Kirshner … Ascent’s Dave Abrams … Jessie D’Angelo … Haley Dorgan … Elizabeth Thorp 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 Groundwork Collaborative: In 2017, Donald Trump gave huge tax cuts to the rich and big corporations. He said the benefits would trickle down to regular workers. They didn’t.
In 2025, a lot of Trump’s tax cuts expire. That’s our moment to fundamentally change our tax code to make it more fair, sustain the investments that will create an economy that works for all of us, and foster equitable growth and prosperity.
We’ve missed chances to fix our tax code before. Decades of tax cuts for the rich have skewed the economy in their favor and made it harder to cover the costs of the things we need as a country.
We can’t afford to miss this opportunity to restore a fair tax code, and over 100 civil society organizations agree. | | | | | | | 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 | | | | |
