| | | | |  | | By Eugene Daniels, Rachael Bade and Ryan Lizza | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | EURO EARTHQUAKE — Voters in the European Parliament elections veered sharply to the right in results announced yesterday, with many of the continent’s ruling centrist parties making major retreats. The results were most profound in the EU’s twin-pillar nations, with steep losses in Germany for Chancellor OLAF SCHOLZ’s Social Democrats and allied Greens while the far-right National Rally swamped President EMMANUEL MACRON’s party in France, prompting him to call snap national elections culminating on July 7. Full results As a practical matter … “In a Continent that has sought to exorcise the ghosts of fascism for eight decades, the scale of the presence of far-right will be one of the hottest topics of conversation. Even though they are highly unlikely to be able to coordinate as a unified group inside the European Parliament — thanks to divisions on topics such as Russia — they will still be able to influence the overall direction of the EU, on everything from immigration to climate policies,” our European colleagues write. Same as the old boss … It appears likely that European Commission President URSULA VON DER LEYEN will be able to hold on to her job. Her center-right European Peoples’ Party remains the largest in parliament, and she should be able to piece together a coalition with parties to her left, Reuters’ Jan Strupczewski reports. Cool your takes … Yes, there are shades here of the U.K. Brexit vote, which landed as a geopolitical earthquake around this time in 2016 — presaging DONALD TRUMP’s shocking victory six months later. But there are also reasons the parallel isn’t quite so neat: The far-right parties of Hungarian President VIKTOR ORBAN and Dutch PM GEERT WILDERS underperformed expectations yesterday, and British voters will themselves weigh in on July 4, with very few expecting a good day for the ruling Conservatives.
|  VP Kamala Harris was eager to discuss just how little daylight Democrats are going to leave between Donald Trump and whomever he picks as his No. 2. | Sean Gallup/Getty Images | READ ’EM AND VEEP — The closer that Trump moves to naming a 2024 running mate, the closer Democrats are watching and scrutinizing his potential choices. That includes VP KAMALA HARRIS, who called up Playbook this weekend to weigh in on Trump’s emerging shortlist following reports last week that he’s launched a formal vetting process. Harris mostly withheld comment on the particular names Trump is reporting considering — with North Dakota Gov. DOUG BURGUM, former HUD Secretary BEN CARSON, Sens. TOM COTTON (Ark.), MARCO RUBIO (Fla.), TIM SCOTT (S.C.) and J.D. VANCE (Ohio), as well as Reps. BYRON DONALDS (Fla.) and ELISE STEFANIK (N.Y.) among the Republicans getting a once-over. What she was eager to discuss in the brief interview was just how little daylight Democrats are going to leave between Trump and whomever he picks as his No. 2. “What we know is that Donald Trump wants an enabler. He doesn't want a governing partner. He doesn't want another MIKE PENCE, and I think that is clear,” Harris said. “The litmus test is, are they going to be absolutely loyal to Trump over country or their oath of office, or, frankly, the American people?” Our big takeaway from the chat and other reporting is that Harris (and the JOE BIDEN-Harris campaign and allied Democratic organizations) are mobilizing to ensure any candidate is lashed directly to Trump and to forestall any effort by the presumptive GOP nominee to use his new running mate to sand down his sharp edges in swing voters’ eyes. “Everyone on that list has supported a Trump abortion ban in their state or has called for a national ban,” Harris said. “In fact, many voted this week in the Senate against the right to contraception. That's how far down the road they are.” Harris made one exception to comment on a particular potential Trump pick — to call out Donalds, who made wistful comments about the relative strength of Black families during the Jim Crow era at a Philadelphia campaign event last week. “It's sadly yet another example of somebody out of Florida trying to erase or rewrite our true history,” she said, referring to the state’s interventions under Gov. RON DeSANTIS into Black history curriculums. “I went to Florida last July to call out what they were trying to do to replace our history with lies. And apparently there's a never ending flow of that coming out of that state.” Harris’ direct engagement on Trump’s VP list follows efforts that have been underway outside the Biden-Harris campaign for weeks now. Emily’s List launched a project, “On Notice,” to track potential picks’ views on reproductive rights. The DNC is mounting a similar effort to track their views on key economic matters, including extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy. But only Harris will potentially be sharing a debate stage with Trump’s VP nominee, and she made clear she is ready and willing to spar. She reiterated in the interview that she is committed to a CBS-hosted debate set for either July 23 or Aug. 13. (While Trump has not rejected that invitation, he instead accepted a competing Fox News invite on behalf of his future running mate.) “I'm planning on being at the CBS studios … in either July or August,” Harris said. “And let's see if the other side shows up. I'm ready to make the case — whoever he picks, no matter who it is.” SIGNS OF LIFE: Harris’s aggressive moves to define her future rival are of a piece with a broader shift in Biden world over the past month to more proactively confront the ticket’s formidable political challenges. In a piece out this morning, Adam Wren and Elena Schneider chronicle how Biden is “making stylistic changes and fashioning major policy initiatives with an eye on shoring up his political vulnerabilities and projecting vigor from within the campaign.” On the policy side, Biden has moved to address dismal voter attitudes toward his immigration stances by announcing major executive actions that would close much of the U.S. border to asylum seekers. He’s also making bolder foreign policy moves, including giving Ukraine more latitude to strike Russia and making a full-court press for a Gaza cease-fire. On the political side, they write, Biden is showing a new willingness to directly engage with Trump’s legal vulnerabilities, after his team “preemptively moved to ditch the traditional debate structure and force two independent forums with Donald Trump. “He’s begun sitting for interviews with the type of major publications and outlets he had largely shunned. … And he has begun taking more direct steps to reengage Black voters drifting away from him, including with a much-hyped stop alongside [Harris] in Philadelphia.” Good Monday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
| | | FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: UAW FOR OSBORNE — The United Auto Workers are endorsing independent DAN OSBORN’s Senate bid in Nebraska. The backing from UAW President SHAWN FAIN is a boost to the mechanic, who rose to public attention as a union and strike leader and is mounting an uphill bid to unseat GOP Sen. DEB FISCHER. No Democrat is running, but Osborn has spurned endorsements from any political party, making the support from organized labor more important. TODAY IN WILMINGTON — “Hunter Biden’s Lawyers Are Expected to Rest Their Case in Gun Trial,” by NYT’s Glenn Thrush, Eileen Sullivan and Zach Montague: “[T]he jury could begin deliberating by day’s end barring any dramatic moves — like a last-minute decision by [HUNTER] BIDEN to testify on his own behalf.” THE WEEK — Tomorrow: Maine, Nevada, North Dakota and South Carolina hold presidential and/or congressional primary elections. Special election held in Ohio’s 6th Congressional District. … Wednesday: Fed decides on interest rates. May CPI inflation numbers released. … Thursday: Annual G7 summit begins in Fasano, Italy. CFPB Director ROHIT CHOPRA appears before House Financial Services. FAA Administrator MICHAEL WHITAKER appears before Senate Commerce. Trump addresses Business Roundtable’s quarterly meeting in Washington. Possible Supreme Court opinions announced. … Friday: Trump celebrates 78th birthday. Turning Point Action’s “People’s Convention” begins in Detroit. … Saturday: G7 concludes. Ukraine peace conference begins in Bürgenstock, Switzerland. … Sunday: Father’s Day.
| | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | On the Hill The Senate and the House are out. 3 things to watch …
- Trump finally made his pick in the Nevada Senate race, endorsing NRSC favorite SAM BROWN over businessman JEFFREY GUNTER, his former ambassador to Iceland. It happened in a rather curious way: During an hourlong Las Vegas rally speech last night (more on that below), Trump made only a glancing mention of Brown, according to the Nevada Independent. Only later, on Truth Social, did Trump give the Army Purple Heart recipient the “Complete and Total Endorsement” treatment — just 48 hours before Nevada primary polls close.
- Speaker MIKE JOHNSON’s big lift this week will be to get the House Republican Conference united behind his plans to hold AG MERRICK GARLAND in contempt of Congress over the DOJ’s refusal to hand over audio recordings of Biden’s interviews with special counsel ROBERT HUR. The whip count is still soft, Inside Congress reported last week, with some GOP fence-sitters still hoping that a deal can be worked out to avoid a vote. There’s a little time to spare: The Rules Committee will take up the matter tomorrow, meaning the soonest floor vote would be Wednesday.
- It’s a big week for the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. The House version of the annual Pentagon policy bill will head to the floor, though it could get hairy: Conservatives will be watching closely to see which of the 1,352 filed amendments the Rules Committee will tee up for debate. After House Armed Services sidestepped some controversial proposals in reporting an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill, hard-right members will be looking for an opportunity to make their points on the floor. Meanwhile, Senate Armed Services this week starts marking up their own bill, which will be less likely to get caught up in partisan culture-warring.
At the White House Biden will return to the White House from Wilmington, Delaware, and then host a Juneteenth concert on the South Lawn at 7 p.m., with Harris participating and second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF attending. Biden will deliver remarks at 8 p.m.
| | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | 2024 WATCH
|  At a rally in Vegas yesterday, Donald Trump said he would end taxes on tipped income if he returns to the White House. | John Locher/AP Photo | ABOUT LAST NIGHT — At his Vegas rally, Trump made some substantive policy news: He said he would end taxes on tipped income if he returns to the White House. That could be a powerful pitch to service industry workers in Nevada. But Congress would have to comply for Trump’s idea to become reality, WaPo’s Maeve Reston and Julie Zauzmer Weil report. That raises the prospect that tipped wages could become part of the conversation when the potential renewal of Trump’s first-term tax cuts comes up next year. But the rally will probably attract more attention for Trump’s familiar and often inaccurate rhetoric demonizing immigrants and his off-script moments, as he “descended into scorching Sin City on Sunday for his first rally since becoming a convicted felon,” Kimberly Leonard notes. In addition to calling Biden’s executive action on immigration “bullshit,” Trump declared that Capitol insurrectionists were “J6 warriors,” teed off on teleprompters and complained that people focusing on how attendees would handle the extreme heat neglected to think about how it affected him. More top reads:
- Monday listen: Trump is in his second week on TikTok, and already soaring past Biden in both followers and views. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s having more influence. On the “POLITICO Tech” podcast, host Steven Overly called up Republican digital strategist ERIC WILSON to make sense of it all. Listen here
JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH LORDY, THERE ARE TAPES — “Unaired footage shows chaos, anger of congressional leaders amid Jan. 6 evacuation,” by Jordain Carney and Kyle Cheney: “While congressional leaders were at Fort McNair, the footage [from ALEXANDRA PELOSI] shows that top leaders in both chambers, including [NANCY] PELOSI, Senate Democratic Leader CHUCK SCHUMER and then-Senate Majority Leader MITCH McCONNELL, tried to coordinate a military response to the violence. They also had lengthy discussions about whether to convene Congress at the military base to continue certifying the 2020 election results, though they all vastly preferred returning to the Capitol.” AMERICA AND THE WORLD
|  Secretary of State Antony Blinken is going back to the Middle East today, but hopes for a cease-fire deal are looking worse after this weekend. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | MIDDLE EAST LATEST — As expected, moderate BENNY GANTZ announced yesterday that he was leaving Israeli PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU’s right-wing government over its refusal to create a post-war plan for Gaza, per NPR. That’s not enough to bring down Netanyahu’s administration, though — and, in fact, the U.S. had urged him not to leave because it shifts Netanyahu’s coalition further to the right, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports. Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN is going back to the region today, but hopes for a cease-fire deal are looking worse after this weekend, per Mitchell: Israel’s successful rescue of four hostages alive gives Netanyahu more reason to keep fighting, while its massive killing of nearly 300 Palestinians in doing so gives Hamas more reason to oppose Israel. Nonetheless, the U.S. is trying to get the U.N. Security Council to vote today on a resolution urging Hamas to accept the deal on the table, Axios’ Barak Ravid reports. And the U.S. is closing in on offering a major defense pact with Saudi Arabia, WSJ’s Stephen Kalin and Michael Gordon scooped, though it would depend on Israel stopping the war and accepting a Palestinian state. Beltway talker: “Statues near White House vandalized during Gaza cease-fire protest,” by WaPo’s Michael Brice-Saddler
| | | MEDIAWATCH WHAT FOX VIEWERS AREN'T HEARING — Few people animate the conspiracy-minded voters who could swing the election to Trump like JEFFREY EPSTEIN. So it’s striking that Fox News edited their interview with Trump “to remove a section in which he appeared to back off a promise to declassify federal files related to” Epstein, as Semafor’s Max Tani revealed last night. “You don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there,” Trump said, though “Fox and Friends” viewers wouldn’t know it. The network “papered over the ambiguity” in his response, Tani reports, “which allows the former president to continue to cater to conspiracy theorists while expressing an entirely different concern — that outlandish conspiracy theories might hurt innocent people mentioned in documents.” The full response was later broadcast on Will Cain’s Fox News radio program. The network didn’t respond for comment. CHAOS AT THE JOURNAL — “Eleven current and former [WSJ] veterans, who spoke to National Review on a condition of anonymity, said that EMMA TUCKER, the Journal’s new editor-in-chief, appears to lack a basic understanding of American government, politics, and culture,” National Review’s Ryan Mills and Brittany Bernstein reports this morning. “They say she seems to be prioritizing less serious lifestyle stories with snappy headlines over hard-hitting accountability journalism. And they worry that several moves she’s made … could lead to readers losing confidence.” Tucker’s team says the changes are tough but necessary. Daniel Lippman scooped last night that Tucker said at a party last year that she hadn’t realized there were two houses of Congress. Tucker denied that reporting and called it “garbage.” TRUMP CARDS
|  Donald Trump will meet with a female NYC probation officer in a virtual interview ahead of sentencing. | Alon Skuy/Getty Images | HAPPENING TODAY — Following Trump’s criminal conviction in his hush money case, he’ll take the next step with a virtual probation interview ahead of sentencing, NBC’s Adam Reiss, Laura Jarrett and Summer Concepcion scooped. From Mar-a-Lago, where he’ll be joined by lawyer TODD BLANCHE, the former president will meet with a female NYC probation officer. It’s a required step before the officer submits a report to Justice JUAN MERCHAN. Doing the probation interview virtually is not common, but Trump’s in-person appearance would also cause a big logistical headache for the office. Following the meeting, Trump’s attorneys are expected to submit their own sentencing recommendation to Merchan on Thursday. CONGRESS VOTING NO, TAKING THE DOUGH — It’s a phenomenon Playbook readers are well aware of: House Republicans who voted against the bipartisan infrastructure law but have happily celebrated its investments in their districts, with varying degrees of hypocrisy or benefit. Katherine Tully-McManus this morning tallies up which swing-district members have seen the greatest investments or spending plans back home despite voting no: GOP Reps. BRANDON WILLIAMS (N.Y.), MARIANNETTE MILLER-MEEKS (Iowa), SCOTT PERRY (Pa.) and DAVID SCHWEIKERT (Ariz.) top the list. BEYOND THE BELTWAY IMMIGRATION FILES — “A home in Ohio for African immigrants with nowhere to go,” by WaPo’s Tim Craig in Cincinnati: “A sizable share of Mauritanians arriving in the United States are settling in a city that has drawn little attention as migration into the country soars … Cincinnati has a reputation for welcoming immigrants from distant lands. … But the arrival of so many people in such a short time has tested that goodwill.” A NAME TO KNOW — The Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has been recently linked to a number of violent crimes around the U.S., as it’s now operating here after years of terror across Latin America, CNN’s Rafael Romo, Belisa Morillo and Laura Weffer report. “The scale of its operations is unknown, but crimes attributed to alleged members of the gang have worried elected officials and some Republican members of Congress have asked the Biden administration ‘to formally designate the vicious Tren de Aragua as a Transnational Criminal Organization.’” ONE TO WATCH IN INDIANAPOLIS — “From women pastors to sexual abuse to Trump, Southern Baptists have a busy few days ahead of them,” by AP’s Peter Smith THE WHITE HOUSE POTUS ABROAD — “Biden visits American cemetery in France that Trump skipped,” by Reuters’ Jeff Mason: “Without mentioning Trump by name, Biden said he would not have come to Normandy without also visiting Aisne-Marne. … He also said he had reached an agreement with French President EMMANUEL MACRON on the use of profits from frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine.” THE ECONOMY FED UP — “Americans Really, Really Hate Inflation — and That’s a Big Problem for the Fed,” by WSJ’s Justin Lahart: “Fed policymakers are poised on Wednesday to leave their benchmark federal-funds rate steady at the highest level in more than two decades, and inflation is the biggest reason. … Americans detest what economists … thought of as relatively modest amounts of inflation.”
| | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | | Louis DeJoy is urging the Postal Service to turn around its troubled overhaul. Cecile Richards opened up about battling brain cancer and the end of Roe v. Wade. Ro Khanna’s very public profile serves two purposes. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Karla Rodriguez is now comms director for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ Bold PAC. She previously was press secretary for Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas). — Abram Olmstead is launching a full-service comms agency, Litenflame. He most recently was head of digital comms for the National Automobile Dealers Association, and is a U.S. Chamber of Commerce alum. TRANSITIONS — Fair Fight Action is bringing back Lauren Groh-Wargo as CEO and adding Max Flugrath as comms director. Groh-Wargo led Fair Fight before stepping away to run Stacey Abrams’ Georgia gubernatorial campaign. Flugrath previously was director of comms at For the Long Term. … Flynn Rico-Johnson is now policy adviser for FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks covering spectrum, space and AI. He previously was deputy chief of staff for Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.). … Jeff Le is joining SecurityScorecard as VP for global government affairs and public policy. He most recently was director of government affairs at Conduent, and is a Jerry Brown and VMWare alum. … … Essam Attia is now a junior partner at the Nimitz Group. She previously was a policy adviser for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). … Joel Burke is joining Mozilla as a senior public policy and government relations analyst. He previously was an AI fellow for Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). … Nicolas Sampedro is now a senior comms associate at Feldman Strategies. He most recently was at Berlin Rosen. WEEKEND WEDDING — Shane Leary, an analyst at Baron Public Affairs and political science doctoral candidate at Baylor University, and Sydney Riley, assistant director for research and programs at the Civitas Institute, got married Saturday at St. Mary’s in Annapolis, Maryland. They met during a Hudson Institute political studies fellowship in 2019 and began dating following a cross-country road trip in 2020. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: CNN’s Jeff Zeleny … Carlos Elizondo … NBC’s Shannon Pettypiece, Kate Snow and Sarah DeCaro … NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe … GSA’s Alex Goldman … WSJ’s Corinne Ramey … ABC’s Ellie Kaufman … Joe Trippi … James Rockas of the American Center for Law and Justice … Jeff Greenfield … Stef Weiss … Michael Daniels … Jennifer Donnelly of the Aspen Institute ... Edelman’s Matthew Streit ... NAM’s David O’Brien ... Philip Recht … Thomas Showalter ... Al Mottur … Kylie Bohman of Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-Mo.) office … Matt Jansen of House Judiciary Dems and Rep. Jerry Nadler’s (D-Ny.) office … Paula Burris of the American Association for Justice … Ben DeMarzo of Rep. Mary Miller’s (R-Ill.) office … POLITICO’s Sadler Gensch and William Shabazz-Smith … J.D. Grom … former Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) … former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) … former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal … former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer … Nicole Hager … Sasha Obama 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. | | | | 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 | | | | |
