Schiff just came out and said it

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Jul 17, 2024 View in browser   By Jeremy B. White, Dustin Gardiner and Sarah Ferris Schiff and Pelosi are longtime political allies. | Tom Brenner/Getty Images Rep. Adam Schiff’s rise to the doorstep of the U.S. Senate was powered by his dogged pursuit of former President Donald Trump and his tight bond with Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. Both of those factors figured in Schiff’s bombshell statement today that he believes President Joe Biden must step aside. The Los Angeles Democrat, who is all but certain to win the seat long held by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, became the latest House member to back a top-of-the-ticket swap, citing his “serious concerns about whether the president can defeat Donald Trump in November.” Schiff became the third California Democrat to publicly exhort Biden to exit, following Rep. Scott Peters and frontline Rep. Mike Levin. In warning that another Trump term would “undermine the very foundation of our democracy,” Schiff enlarged on the theme that propelled him to national prominence. Schiff saw his profile and fundraising explode as he helped lead Democrats’ anti-Trump resistance, and he touted that experience in his successful Senate primary campaign, pitching himself as California’s sturdiest bulwark against Trumpism. Now, Schiff has become the most prominent House Democrat to publicly call for a change lest Biden’s stumbles empower Trump and imperil democracy. It’s especially notable because Schiff is a (likely) future U.S. senator who is closely aligned with the party’s establishment — including Pelosi, who has been at the center of the party’s existential drama. The former speaker from San Francisco is a longtime Schiff ally. She tried to get him appointed California attorney general in 2021 and then gave his Senate bid a vital boost with an early endorsement last year, helping Schiff consolidate support from donors and California Democrats at the expense of Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee. Pelosi and Schiff’s respective teams would not say whether Schiff informed Pelosi or received her blessing before calling for Biden’s retirement, but it would be highly unlikely for Schiff to blindside his patron. Pelosi has not explicitly told Biden to step aside, but she’s regularly fielded concerns from anxious caucus members and has indicated it may be time for Biden to go — a position she has taken in part because of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries’ reluctance to do so, according to a Democratic strategist working on a California race. In other words, Democrats are interpreting Schiff’s stance as another signal from party leadership. Now they’re watching how many members will follow his lead. “It gives people a little bit of cover,” said an aide to a frontline Democrat. “He’s a team player. It’s permission.” IT’S WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. This is California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check on California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to lkorte@politico.com, callen@politico.com, tkatzenberger@politico.com or wventeicher@politico.com.   Understand 2024’s big impacts with Pro’s extensive Campaign Races Dashboard, exclusive insights, and key coverage of federal- and state-level debates. Focus on policy. Learn more.     WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY SOCIAL STANDOFF — A federal appeals court sounded skeptical of California’s law seeking to shield young people from social media’s harms, previewing another legal setback for Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature’s efforts to rein in Silicon Valley. Ninth Circuit judges aligned themselves with a lower court’s ruling that blocked a 2022 law exposing social media giants to legal liability if they don’t design their products to protect kids from harms like addiction and mental illness. Justices echoed concerns that the law’s requirements infringe upon the speech rights of private companies. “The objective is one we can only laud, but we are dealing with the First Amendment here,” said Judge Milan Smith, arguing the law “forces the private parties to opine” what type of content harms kids. An adverse ruling would be a blow to Newsom. The governor pushed NetChoice to drop its lawsuit in an open letter accusing the industry of downplaying the “real harms our children face on the internet” by “callously mocking this law,” and first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom has publicly assailed the challenge. Speaking of Newsom’s tangles with tech: The Ninth Circuit also heard X’s challenge to a law requiring social media platforms to share their content moderation policies. Newsom has been publicly battling with frenemy and X owner Elon Musk after the tech titan threatened to relocate two of his companies’ headquarters from California to Texas in response to a new state law aimed at protecting the privacy of transgender schoolchildren. ON THE BEATS UCLA graduating students wave a Palestinian flag during the commencement ceremony inside Pauley Pavilion on UCLA campus, in Los Angeles, on June 14, 2024. | Damian Dovarganes/AP GOING OFFLINE: The University of California is poised to restrict faculty posts online, a move spurred by academic departments criticizing Israel on their homepages. A committee of the system’s governing board voted today to ban departments from issuing opinion statements on their landing pages, unless those messages have to do with the entity’s day-to-day operations. The full board must approve the proposal on Thursday, but that step is often perfunctory. “I get people coming to me, showing me what's on these websites, and frankly, it is embarrassing that the university, and that any governmental website, has this kind of stuff,” said UC Regent Richard Leib. Board members forwarded the proposal in response to posts such as one by the UC Santa Cruz Critical Race & Ethnic Studies Department, which states that there’s an “ongoing genocide in Gaza” and that there are “efforts across campuses to silence speech about Palestine.” Several regents have noted the policy is “content neutral,” though their action on the issue has been widely viewed as a direct consequence of heated campus debates over Israel. — Blake Jones California State Sen. Scott Wiener speaks during a news conference in San Francisco, Friday, Jan. 26, 2024. | Eric Risberg/AP UNION TOWN — The California Labor Federation decided to not endorse state Sen. Scott Wiener for reelection today, Playbook has learned, in the latest instance of labor resistance to the ambitious San Francisco Democrat. The Fed similarly declined to back Wiener in 2020. Wiener’s aggressive housing agenda has repeatedly gotten him crosswise with building and construction unions, who believe bills streamlining construction undercut labor standards. The non-endorsement push was spearheaded by a longtime Wiener foe, San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council chief Larry Mazzola. It was backed by the Teamsters and United Autoworkers after Wiener voted against their bill restricting autonomous vehicles. “He wants to build housing at all costs, and at all costs means without building trades workers,” Mazzola said in an interview. “Other unions stood with the building trades against Scott Wiener.” The union passover won’t affect Wiener’s near-certain reelection. But it does mean that whenever Pelosi retires and Wiener runs for Congress — as is widely expected — local unions may back a different Democrat. WHAT WE'RE READING TODAY President Joe Biden walks on stage to speak during the NAACP national convention Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Las Vegas. | David Becker/AP — Biden tested positive for Covid today while campaigning in Las Vegas. He is returning to Delaware to isolate. (POLITICO) — Residents of Butler, Pennsylvania are grappling with political division, grief and anger after a shooter opened fire on a Trump rally last weekend. (Los Angeles Times) — California cities and counties are ignoring a recent state law that aimed to fix unsafe homeless shelters. (CalMatters) AROUND THE STATE — San Diego’s budget experts are skeptical of a plan to turn a warehouse into one of America’s largest homeless shelters. (San Diego Union-Tribune) — Long Beach airport and convention center concession employees could see an “Olympic” wage standard as part of potential pay changes ahead of the 2028 Games. (Long Beach Post) — San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen resigned from a powerful city committee amid a spat with fellow Supervisor Aaron Peskin over a proposed ballot measure that would boost police officer retirement benefits. (San Francisco Chronicle) — compiled by Tyler Katzenberger   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

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