| | | | |  | | By Ryan Lizza, Rachael Bade and Eugene Daniels | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | BIDEN’S CASH EDGE DISAPPEARS — Yesterday, we hit the latest FEC filing deadline for presidential campaigns, super PACs and party committees. And the topline is that after an enormous wave of donations triggered by his criminal conviction in New York, DONALD TRUMP has nearly erased President JOE BIDEN’s much-ballyhooed cash advantage, as Jessica Piper and Madison Fernandez report this morning. By the numbers …
- $141 million: amount raised by Trump and the RNC in May
- $81 million: amount raised by Biden and the DNC in May
- $116.5 million: amount of cash on hand for the Trump campaign at the start of June
- $91.6 million: amount of cash on hand for the Biden campaign at the start of June
The flood of post-conviction donations to Trump — including $70 million raised online in the first 48 hours after the verdict, per his campaign — “has the potential to dramatically reshape the presidential race,” WaPo’s Maeve Reston and Clara Ence Morse write. HOW THE OTHER HALF GIVES — Trump world’s apres-felony avalanche of cash wasn’t all low-dollar contributions. TIMOTHY MELLON, “a reclusive heir to a Gilded Age fortune,” donated $50 million to MAGA Inc., “the day after the former president was convicted of 34 felonies,” NYT’s Shane Goldmacher and Teddy Schleifer write, “an enormous gift that is among the largest single disclosed contributions ever.” As for Biden’s big-time backers, MIKE BLOOMBERG delivered his financial support in the form of a $19 million check to the pro-Biden Future Forward PAC, accompanied by “a max-out donation of $929,600 to the Biden Victory Fund, an amalgamation of Biden campaign and Democratic Party committees,” WaPo’s Michael Scherer and Tyler Pager report.
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Bob Bauer is Joe Biden’s personal attorney and has had a long career as one of the Democratic Party’s top campaign lawyers. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW: BOB BAUER — Joe Biden has fled Washington for Camp David to prepare for next week’s debate with Donald Trump. White House aides won’t say how many days the president will remain at the mountain retreat and left open the possibility that he may hunker down there until he’s ready to leave for the debate in Atlanta on Thursday. As he boarded Air Force One yesterday, Biden gave a big thumbs-up when asked how debate prep was going. Debate camp is shrouded in secrecy, but yesterday we sat down with one of the few people who knows its inner workings. Bob Bauer is Biden’s personal attorney and has had a long career as one of the Democratic Party’s top campaign lawyers. But these days, he may be best known for playing Trump during Biden’s mock debate sessions. In a new book, “The Unraveling: Reflections on Politics without Ethics and Democracy in Crisis” ($26), Bauer writes about that process four years ago, when his job was to attack and impugn Biden the way he expected that Trump would onstage. Bauer is presumed by Biden aides to be reprising his Trump role over the coming days — though because of the code of omerta among debate camp participants, Bauer declined to confirm his participation. But he still had plenty to say. On portraying Trump in past debate prep sessions with Biden: “This is not a ‘Saturday Night Live’ impression. You don't want to detract from the serious business of prepping the candidate. … You don't want the candidate preparing for an argument that the candidate's not going to hear.” On the ideal model for next week’s debate: “Let’s start with it being a Kennedy-Nixon format — without an audience. Let's take down the … politics of audience — that is to say, the hooting and the endless effort on the part of moderators to warn the audience if they really need to be quiet and not create any kind of commotion. This is a serious format. It’s a format in which the candidates can be heard, but they're the only ones who are heard and they're performing for the country, not performing for a select audience, some of whom were fortunate enough to receive tickets to the event.” On the criticism that this ‘cut the mic’ format has set the debates back 60-some years: “I don't know that we set things back. I mean, the Kennedy-Nixon debate was considered a significant debate. … But there's still spontaneity, because each candidate — when the time comes back to them to respond — has to make a decision about how to answer something that was misrepresented in their view on the other side or they hadn't heard before. So there is a requirement of doing more than just reading set speeches — which, by the way, is impossible anyway because they can't bring written material with them to the podium. The ‘spontaneity’ that I have in mind when I hear you use the term is something — again, I have to be honest … is informed by the press's desire for a gaffe, a slip-up, a big moment that is used then to define the entire debate.” On the looming legal challenges he’s preparing for in November: “We're seeing — and have seen — election officials say, ‘If I'm not satisfied with the outcome here, I may not certify; I'll just block it.’ And you saw that play out very dramatically in Michigan in 2020. That is something that we might see more of this time around.” On what he couldn’t say in his new book: “I was mindful there's an attorney-client privilege. I want to respect their client confidentiality. … I have stories I would have loved to put in the book.” Listen to the full interview on Playbook Deep Dive here, or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or where you get your podcasts. SPEAKING OF THE DEBATE — Nearly every major network has signed on to simulcast next week’s presidential debate hosted by CNN, a rare instance of agreement among the competitive TV landscape, L.A. Times’ Stephen Battaglio reports. As of yesterday, Fox News, Fox Business, ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, Telemundo, NewsNation, Scripps News and Newsmax had all agreed to CNN’s terms to broadcast the event. Related read: “Trump and Biden cram final prep and ready attack lines ahead of next week's debate,” by NBC’s Hallie Jackson, Jake Traylor, Olympia Sonnier, Monica Alba, Ali Vitali and Adam Edelman Happy Friday. It’s the first full day of summer. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
| | | | A message from U.S. Travel Association: Each year, 10 million passenger flights carry travelers safely from point A to point B — wherever that may be. Secure biometric technology makes air travel even safer and more seamless. The majority of recent air travelers are comfortable using biometrics to board a plane, get through security or check-in for a flight, making the air travel experience efficient and hassle-free. Learn more. | | | DANCE OF THE SUPERPOWERS — “U.S. and China hold first informal nuclear talks in 5 years, eyeing Taiwan,” by Reuters’ Greg Torode, Gerry Doyle and Laurie Chen: “The Chinese representatives offered reassurances after their U.S. interlocutors raised concerns that China might use, or threaten to use, nuclear weapons if it faced defeat in a conflict over Taiwan.” CAPITAL LETTER — “Why Washington Is Waiting on ‘Super Mario,’” by Victoria Guida: “Normally, a white paper by an Italian technocrat recommending policy changes on economic governance in Europe wouldn’t get much notice on this side of the Atlantic. But MARIO DRAGHI is not just any European, and this isn’t just any paper.” AN IMMIGRATION FLIP-FLOP? — In an interview on the “All-In” podcast yesterday, Trump suggested that foreign students who graduate from college in the U.S. should receive a green card so they can stay in the country. “You graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically as part of your diploma a green card to be able to stay in this country, and that includes junior colleges too,” Trump said. It’s unclear if Trump’s suggestion on Thursday also applies to those who came to the country illegally. More from Kierra Frazier
| | | | A message from U.S. Travel Association:   | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | On the Hill The Senate and House are out. What we’re watching … For months, House Energy and Commerce Chair CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS (R-Wash.) has been carefully assembling and building bipartisan support for a sweeping new online privacy bill that would respond to some of the broad public concerns about the tech industry’s business practices. With that effort in its final throes — and their committee ready to vote as soon as next week — McMorris Rodgers and Rep. FRANK PALLONE (D-N.J.) released a new draft of the American Privacy Rights Act yesterday. But it emerged amid news, scooped by Olivia Beavers, that Majority Leader STEVE SCALISE had declared the measure dead on arrival on the House floor. Now we’re watching if that long-awaited markup even happens, and if not, what’s next (if anything) for tech regulation on the Hill. At the White House Biden will receive the President’s Daily Brief in the morning. VP KAMALA HARRIS will travel to New York City, where she is scheduled to deliver remarks at the Constitutional Convention of the UNITE HERE union. In the afternoon, Harris will tape an interview with MIKA BRZEZINSKI for “Morning Joe.” In the evening, Harris will participate in a campaign reception before returning to D.C.
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Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on a recently unsealed indictment including four felony counts against former President Donald Trump on Aug. 1, 2023, in Washington. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images | CANNON FODDER — A three-day series of hearings in the Trump classified documents case is set to kick off today — and special counsel JACK SMITH’s entire case against the former president is effectively on trial, Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein write. Though U.S. District Judge AILEEN CANNON has paused the case indefinitely and seems many months away from preparing it to go before a jury, she has scheduled a multi-day hearing in her Fort Pierce, Florida, courtroom focused on whether Smith was unconstitutionally appointed or is otherwise acting without legal authority. “The claim is a far-fetched bid by Trump to scuttle the case altogether. Numerous courts have rejected nearly identical constitutional challenges to other special counsels. And in a case that has moved like molasses for a year, Cannon’s decision to devote substantial time and resources to the argument is just the latest, and perhaps most blatant, example of her unusual approach.” Any signal from Cannon about how she views the appointment issue will be carefully dissected because it could threaten Smith’s entire operation. For planning purposes: “The hearing on Trump’s challenge to Smith’s authority is set to begin Friday and to continue Monday morning. Later on Monday, Cannon plans to hear arguments on Smith’s request for an order barring Trump from lying about the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago that led to the criminal charges in the case. And then, on Tuesday, Cannon has scheduled an additional hearing on another Trump motion that could derail the case.” Related read: “For Judge in Trump Documents Case, Unusual Rulings Are Business as Usual,” by NYT’s Alan Feuer and Eileen Sullivan: “Cannon, who was appointed by Mr. Trump in his final days in office, has made a number of decisions that have prompted second-guessing and criticism among legal scholars following the case. Many of her rulings, on a wide array of topics, have been confounding to them, often evincing her willingness to grant a serious hearing to far-fetched issues that Mr. Trump’s lawyers have raised in his defense.” 2024 WATCH
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Lorenzo Davis cuts Uniqua Woodson's hair while talking to Percy Eddie, at his barber shop of ten years, Zoe's Barber Elite & Beauty Salon, on June 4, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. | Photos by Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO | WILL THE CREAM RISE FOR BIDEN? — Biden has paid plenty of attention to Milwaukee — perhaps more than most other cities — but the enthusiasm isn’t entirely mutual, Brakkton Booker reports from Milwaukee. Polls show that Biden is running behind his 2020 performance in the Cream City and surrounding county, and there’s one big reason why: Black voters in Milwaukee. “An influential bloc that can determine if the state remains blue or flips this fall, these voters have serious and lingering doubts about Biden and whether he’s delivered on his promises to them.” While there’s little concern that Trump could take the city this fall, Biden’s problem here is a “distillation of the challenges facing his reelection campaign nationally: In traditionally Democratic redoubts, polls suggest alarmingly low levels of support among Black and Latino voters.” More top reads:
- “Biden settles on a message against Trump: He’s even worse than before,” by WaPo’s Michael Scherer: “The notion that the former president changed — becoming more self-obsessed, more dangerous and more extreme — has … been seeded throughout Biden’s campaign, the result of months of polling, focus groups and ad testing, his advisers say.”
- Blueprint is REID HOFFMAN’s hot new Democratic data and polling outfit “whose findings have upended much of the conventional political wisdom this election year,” N.Y. Mag’s David Freedlander writes. “[T]he firm’s findings are making their way to the upper reaches of the Biden campaign and those of Democratic congressional-campaign offices, and they seem to be having a result.”
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Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) speaks with reporters about gun violence and the need for gun control legislation outside the U.S. Capitol March 30, 2023. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | HOW HE GOT HERE — In the bitter Democratic primary between New York Rep. JAMAAL BOWMAN and GEORGE LATIMER, the incumbent’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war has been a focal point of the heated debate. Bowman owes his shifting views to a J Street sponsored trip to Israel in 2021, one that he tells our colleague Calder McHugh was a “transformational moment” that left him doubtful about the prospects of a two-state solution — the default stated policy of most Democrats in America and liberal Zionists the world over. That moment could now transform something else entirely. “As coverage of the race focuses on Bowman v. Latimer as a proxy war between the left and the center, between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel power centers in the Democratic Party, between AOC and AIPAC, it’s left out how Bowman’s evolution as a political figure brought us here. His 2021 trip to Israel now serves as a defining moment in his continued evolution — and one that could torpedo his career.” The tally grows: “The onslaught by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and allied groups has made good on a warning delivered to lawmakers like Mr. Bowman after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack: Moderate your views or face a deluge of political attacks,” NYT’s Nicholas Fandos reports. “Now, in barely a month, an AIPAC-affiliated super PAC has spent $14.5 million — up to $17,000 an hour — on the race, filling television screens, stuffing mailboxes and clogging phone lines with caustic attacks.” The Youth movement: “Jamaal Bowman has the youth vote at least,” by Emily Ngo: “Young people were key to the coalition that propelled Bowman into a New York House seat in 2020 over then-Rep. ELIOT ENGEL. And they’ve been critical this year as the very vulnerable lefty firebrand fights to fend off a challenge from Latimer, an establishment Democrat whose base trends much more Boomer.” ELSEWHERE IN THE EMPIRE STATE — “Inside the upstate NY House primary where Dems stand best chance of defeating GOP in November,” by Bill Mahoney in Syracuse: “A purple district in upstate New York that’s crucial for Democrats to retake the House has a major problem — the party has repeatedly botched contests that they should have won. This time incumbent BRANDON WILLIAMS is arguably the most vulnerable Republican in the chamber.” AMERICA AND THE WORLD BIBI VS. BIDEN — The Biden administration and Israeli PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU sparred yesterday over U.S. support for Israel “in the latest sign of tensions between the two allies over the conduct of the war,” NYT’s Daniel Victor and Erica Green write. White House spox JOHN KIRBY underlined the admin’s support and called Netanyahu’s critical comments this week “deeply disappointing” and “vexing.” Netanyahu in response yesterday said he is “willing to absorb personal attacks if that is what it takes for Israel to get the arms and ammunition it needs in its war for survival.” EXPANDING THE ZONE — U.S. officials have told Ukraine that it can use American-supplied weapons to hit any Russian forces attacking from across the border — not just those in the region near Kharkiv, Lara Seligman reports. “The subtle shift in messaging — which officials insist is not a change in policy — comes just weeks after the U.S. quietly gave Kyiv the green light to strike inside Russia in response to a cross-border assault on the city of Kharkiv. At the time, U.S. officials stressed that the policy was limited to the Kharkiv region, among other restrictions.” Related read: “Putin Threatens to Arm North Korea, Escalating Tension With West Over Ukraine,” by NYT’s Paul Sonne: “Putin cast his threat to arm Pyongyang, in violation of United Nations sanctions, as a response to decisions by the United States and its allies in recent months to allow Ukraine to make certain strikes on Russian territory with their weapons.” STUCK IN A RUTTE — “NATO hopes to Trump-proof the alliance with new chief Mark Rutte. It could backfire,” by Miles Herszenhorn MEDIAWATCH WHAT’S UP AT WAPO — “Washington Post publisher Will Lewis retains links to PR firm that bears his initials,” by FT’s Daniel Thomas, Tabby Kinder and Anna Nicolaou: “According to a person close to the executive, [WILL] LEWIS no longer has any commercial interest or involvement in WJLP, having passed on the ownership to his business partners. But as well as retaining his initials, the PR firm has continued to distribute regular emails from Lewis, offering his thoughts on global business and political events. The emails and unchanged branding have caused confusion among people in contact with the agency.” TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week”: Anne Applebaum, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Jonathan Karl and Vivian Salama. SUNDAY SO FAR … ABC “This Week”: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) … Bill Nye. Panel: Reince Priebus, Barbara Comstock, Asma Khalid and Vivian Salama. CBS “Face the Nation”: Robert O’Brien. FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) … Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.). Supreme Court Panel: Jonathan Turley and Tom Dupree. Panel: Francesca Chambers, Katie Pavlich, Ralph Reed and Kevin Walling. Sunday Special: Stephen Breyer. NBC “Meet the Press”: Mitch Landrieu … South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. Panel: Molly Ball, Greg Bluestein, Symone Sanders-Townsend and Carlos Curbelo. CNN “State of the Union”: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. Panel: David Urban, Jamal Simmons, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Bakari Sellers. NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) … Ben Carson … Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Panel: George Will, Hans Nichols and Julia Manchester. MSNBC “The Weekend”: Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.).
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO GLOBAL PLAYBOOK: Don’t miss out on POLITICO’s Global Playbook, our newsletter taking you inside pivotal discussions at the most influential gatherings in the world. Suzanne Lynch delivers the world's elite and influential moments directly to you. Stay in the global loop. SUBSCRIBE NOW. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Reid Hoffman excoriated (at length) his former PayPal pal David Sacks for his Trump support. Tyler Winklevoss explained (at length) on X that he donated “$1 million in Bitcoin” to Trump, and decried the Biden administration’s “war against crypto.” Miriam Adelson donated $1 million to “the Truth and Courage PAC,” which is supporting Ted Cruz’s reelection campaign. Steve Bannon’s bid to dodge jail was denied. SPOTTED: Kari Lake sitting at the bar at Junction in D.C. yesterday afternoon. TRANSITIONS — Antonio White is now director of the Office of Congressional Affairs and Communications at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. He previously was deputy assistant secretary for community engagement at the Treasury Department. … Anna Connelly and Morgan Snyder are joining New Heights Communications. Connelly will be a senior associate and previously was a corporate reputation consultant at FTI Consulting. Snyder will be a comms manager and previously was deputy upstate press secretary for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. … … Trace Mitchell is joining Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) office as general counsel. He most recently was senior counsel for the House Judiciary Committee. … Anne Thompson is joining M+R Win as VP of strategic comms. She previously was comms director for content and engagement at MoveOn. … Bishop Dwayne Royster will be executive director for Faith in Action. He previously was executive director of POWER Interfaith in Pennsylvania. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Miriam W. Bird, senior director of regional public affairs and sustainability at Coca-Cola, and Jeremy R. Bird, area VP of life and annuity brokerage at global insurance brokerage Arthur J Gallagher, in early May welcomed Dominic Warren Bird, who joins big brother Sampson. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) … Chad Wolf … Maury Riggan… NYT’s Elizabeth Williamson and Elizabeth Dias … Mary Beth Donahue … WaPo’s Laura Meckler … Cody Uhing … Shara Mohtadi … CNN’s Madeleine Morgenstern … David Makovsky … Bully Pulpit’s Caroline Weisser … Sanam Rastegar … POLITICO’s Delece Smith-Barrow, Wiktoria Brodzinska and Rachel James … Axios’ Mike Allen … Gary Maloney … Jake Maccoby … Forbes’ Emma Whitford … Max Clarke … Greg Hitt … Sam Nunberg … former Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Marjorie Margolies (D-Pa.) and Dan Burton (R-Ind.) … Kate Kochman … Jill Farquharson … former Oregon Gov. Kate Brown … Procurated’s Marc Sames … Brian Kamoie, celebrating at Arthur Brooks’ Leadership and Happiness Symposium at Harvard … Tony Carrk 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: The June 13 Playbook included an incorrect date for Donald Trump’s Manhattan verdict. It happened May 30.
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