| | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade, Ryan Lizza and Eugene Daniels | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | QUOTE OF THE DAY — A senior administration official to WSJ’s Alex Ward and Nancy Youssef on the possibility of an Iranian attack on Israel: “We truly don’t know if they will do it, when they will do it, and with what force they will do it. We don’t have firm answers for all of that right now … But we believe an attack of some sort could very well come, potentially soon and without much notice.” MARK YOUR CALENDARS — TIM WALZ yesterday committed to a CBS-hosted vice presidential debate against JD VANCE on Oct. 1 in New York City. Vance, meanwhile, said he “strongly suspects” that he will participate in the debate, barring some stipulations, he told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham last night.
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In a North Carolina speech yesterday, Donald Trump said he is “not sure” that the economy is the “most important subject” in the 2024 election. | Matt Kelley/AP Photo | THE REFORMED ‘BLOWHARD’ SMASHING THE RESET BUTTON — For supporters of DONALD TRUMP who believe his campaign is in need of a reset, little that happened yesterday offered much encouragement. Trump said he is “not sure” that the economy is the “most important subject” in the 2024 election, in a North Carolina speech ostensibly centered on underlining his economic message. More from NYT’s Michael Gold … Lisa Kashinksy on Trump’s economic gambit … WSJ on the new tariffs Trump floated On BRIAN KILMEADE’s Fox radio show, Trump adviser CHRIS LaCIVITA shrugged off NIKKI HALEY’s suggestion that the campaign “needs to focus” and instead suggested the media was obsessing over “stuff out from five years ago” at the expense of Trump’s policy proposals And running mate JD Vance was dismissive when asked about Republicans who believe Trump needs to stay on message and engage in fewer personal attacks, telling CNN’s Kit Maher that “we’d much rather have an American president who is who he is, who's willing to offend us, who's willing to tell us the truth, who isn't a fake.” But even as Trump’s innermost circle may not see the need to smash the reset button, it’s wholly apparent to others in MAGA world. Take VIVEK RAMASWAMY. In a slew of recent TV appearances and radio interviews, the 2024 GOP also-ran-turned-Trump surrogate is sounding the alarm about the tone and message of the Trump campaign, encouraging the former president — and the party writ large — to focus on policy rather than personal attacks. Given the messenger, this comes as something of a surprise. During the GOP primary, Ramaswamy trolled his opponents with relish. There’s a reason CHRIS CHRISTIE once dubbed the pugnacious pol “the most obnoxious blowhard in America.” And yet, in a roughly 45-minute call with Playbook yesterday, Ramaswamy was clear-eyed about where things stand. He not only delivered a warning to Republicans, but acknowledged his own shortcomings in the primary, claiming to be something of a changed man who’s learned a lesson or two on how not to run a campaign — lessons he hopes Trump will internalize. ON THE GOP MESSAGE: In Ramaswamy’s view, Republicans are not talking enough about Harris’ policy stances, something he calls a “missed opportunity.” Harris, he notes, has an extensive record Republicans can assail — from her past support for eliminating private health insurance to banning fracking — while drawing a policy contrast with the GOP. “I think if we’re able to say … ‘This is our vision for the entire United States’ … then we go down the list and say, ‘Here are the policies that Kamala Harris has [not only] stood for in the past but that she has actually taken steps to implement …. I think we can win this thing not only by a small margin, but still in something that resembles a landslide.” He added: “But that’s not up to anybody else but us. And so that’s the work we have cut out for our own side. And if we do it, I think we win. And if not, I think we lose.” Ramaswamy says he’s personally delivered this message to Trump. Multiple times. And he says Trump has been “receptive.” After Harris selected TIM WALZ to be her running mate, Ramaswamy says he called up Trump and suggested it was the perfect chance to “shift the focus to policy.” “That is the first presidential-style decision that we've actually seen her make,” he said. “She could have gone the direction of a centrist, a moderate like JOSH SHAPIRO. She didn’t. She made an affirmative decision to say, I want to go in the direction of somebody who has instead increased taxes in the states that he led … at least helped fuel a wave of violent rioting and protesting in his state, one of the most climate policy-forward governors.” Ramaswamy insists Trump is starting to heed the advice. We’re not so sure. Since Walz’s nomination, the former president has made headlines for complaining about crowd sizes, obsessing over Biden (who isn’t running), railing about the 2020 election result and calling Harris dumb — even reportedly referring to her as a “bitch” in private. Trump, we’ll note, has scheduled a second news conference in as many weeks this afternoon in Bedminster. His last one was not exactly a model of campaign discipline. We’ll see if he takes the opportunity to reset the reset of the reset. Good Thursday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
| | | | A message from Comcast: Did you know that most of the data on your smartphone travels over WiFi, not cellular? Thanks to WiFi innovation by Comcast, our customers connect over a billion devices to our network each year. Unlicensed spectrum is key to a fast and secure WiFi experience at home and on the go. Comcast leads the way by developing cutting-edge WiFi gateways that maximize our multi-gig broadband network and spectrum made available by the FCC. Learn more. | | | |  In a slew of recent TV appearances and radio interviews, Vivek Ramaswamy has sounded the alarm about the tone and message of Donald Trump's campaign. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | ON HIS MESSAGING EPIPHANY: Ramaswamy says he understands where Trump — who we all know is notorious for lashing out when feeling attacked — is coming from. He says he did the same thing in his own primary but has since learned from it. During the first debate, Ramaswamy said he was “shocked” when all the candidates trained their fire on him. “And the approach that I took in response is, ‘Great! … If you hit me, I'm going to hit you back ten times harder.” Now he feels differently. “It’s not that I would say, ‘don’t fight back when you’re hit,’ but you’ve got to do more than that. I think if you want to lead this country, you’ve got to show people why you're going to be a leader of the entire nation. Even the very people who are assailing you at every step of the way.” Asked about why he’s had a chance of heart, Ramaswamy said some former colleagues and friends confronted him over his burn-it-all-down style on the primary trail. They told him the man they saw on the national stage was not the one they knew privately — that the nation only saw the fighter. Not the entrepreneur. Not the potential leader. “It's had a big impact on my own thinking around things,” he said. “The fact that I was able to do well was in part because of the fact that I was a fighter for the entire campaign and, you know, was unvarnished, presented a raw version of myself. Do I regret that? No, I don’t. … But I think it is also true that at the end of the process, I think people got to see a small fraction of who I was and not the fuller picture.” As he reflected on the campaign, we weren’t sure if he was talking solely about himself — or sending a message to Trump. Maybe both. Could Ramaswamy simply be trying to make himself over ahead of his next quest for office? Possibly. In our interview, he acknowledged he’s been in touch with GOP senators, including RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.) and MIKE LEE (R-Utah), about possibly joining them in Washington someday. He’s also cozying up to Ohio Gov. MIKE DeWINE, who would choose Vance’s replacement in the chamber if Trump is elected in November, getting face time with the relatively moderate governor recently at the convention. He’s also still interested in serving in Trump’s cabinet — or maybe running for governor. (“On the ground in Ohio, what I get far more of is people encouraging me to think about being the next governor of Ohio and using my executive skill sets in that direction,” he told us.) But Ramaswamy said his future plans can wait. Mostly he just wants Republicans to win this fall — and for goodness sake, start talking policy. To listen to excerpts from the interview, download this morning’s episode of Playbook Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts or Spotify KAMALANOMICS COME INTO VIEW — In her widely anticipated speech set for Friday, VP KAMALA HARRIS is expected to call on Congress to pass a federal ban on price gouging as part of her economic platform to lower grocery prices and everyday costs, Meredith Lee Hill reports. “Harris’ proposals show how she would expand Biden’s focus on price gouging and food costs, according to the plans detailed by her campaign. In addition to her push for the first-ever federal ban on price gouging by food corporations, she would also direct the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to investigate and levy penalties on food companies that violate the federal ban, the campaign official said. “Harris is also set to argue that Trump’s plans, including threats to slap new, broad tariffs on U.S. imports, will only drive up costs for food and other everyday items, the campaign official said.” One sector that will be watching the rollout closely is the big-dollar Democrats, Sam Sutton and Adam Cancryn write. “Donors and Democratic financiers will be clamoring for any indication that the California Democrat would adjust Biden-era economic policies — areas that have been dominated by allies of Wall Street foe Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.).”
| | | | A message from Comcast: Unlicensed spectrum is key to a fast and secure WiFi experience at home and on the go. Comcast leads the way by developing cutting-edge WiFi gateways that maximize our multi-gig broadband network and spectrum made available by the FCC. Learn more. | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | On the Hill The Senate and the House are out. What we’re watching … The next United States senator will be GEORGE HELMY, who is said to be New Jersey Gov. PHIL MURPHY’s caretaker pick to replace Democratic Sen. BOB MENENDEZ upon his resignation next week. As Matt Friedman and Daniel Han report for Pros, Murphy could announce the selection of his 44-year-old former chief of staff as soon as Friday. Assuming Helmy is sworn in when the Senate returns to session on Sept. 9 and the new Congress convenes on Jan. 3, he will serve 116 days in office, which would make him 15th on the Senate’s briefest-tenure list — just barely beating out Sen. OLIVER H. PRINCE (D-Ga.), who served 117 days after being appointed to fill a vacancy in 1828. (MO COWAN, currently No. 25 all-time, welcomed Helmy to the short-timers’ club last night.) At the White House Biden will receive the President’s Daily Brief in the morning. In the afternoon, Biden and Harris will deliver remarks on the economy in Prince George’s County, Maryland. On the trail Trump will hold a press conference in Bedminster, New Jersey, at 4:30 p.m. Sen. JD VANCE (R-Ohio) will deliver remarks in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, at 10 a.m. The Green Party’s virtual presidential nominating convention will begin at 3 p.m.
| | | | WELCOME TO THE CNN-POLITICO GRILL AT THE DNC! If you are in Chi-Town next week, join us at the CNN-POLITICO Grill just steps from the United Center for daily events and live programs. Featuring an all-star lineup of the most influential Democrats including Gov. JB Pritzker, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Gov. Roy Cooper and many more surprise guests. In fact, word on the street (West Madison Street, to be precise) is that Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi will be in the neighborhood and could drop by! Don’t miss out on the buzziest conversations and newsworthy events hosted by POLITICO’s top reporters and editors. RSVP HERE. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | AMERICA AND THE WORLD
|  Donald Trump spoke on the phone with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday. | Kobi Gideon/GPO via Getty Images | MIDDLE EAST LATEST — As hopes for getting the cease-fire negotiations back on track continue, “the United States finds itself in an unenviable position: relying on the goodwill of Israel and Hamas — which have resisted a deal for months — and fearing that another setback could trigger an Iranian attack that risks widening the conflict beyond anyone’s control,” WaPo’s John Hudson, Shira Rubin, Karen DeYoung and Susannah George report from Jerusalem. Adding to the complications, Axios’ Barak Ravid reports that Trump “spoke on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU on Wednesday and discussed the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.” A top Hamas leader also told the AP that Hamas “is losing faith in the United States’ ability to mediate a cease-fire in Gaza,” Abby Sewell reports from Doha, Qatar. OSAMA HAMDAN also said the group “will only participate if the talks focus on implementing a proposal detailed by Biden in May and endorsed internationally.” Meanwhile, U.S. officials are indicating that Israel has “achieved all that it can militarily in Gaza,” NYT’s Helene Cooper, Julian Barnes, Eric Schmitt and Adam Rasgon report. The American officials “say continued bombings are only increasing risks to civilians while the possibility of further weakening Hamas has diminished. A “growing number of national security officials across the government said that the Israeli military had severely set back Hamas but would never be able to completely eliminate the group.” Related read: “In Israel, Support Grows for Offensive Against Hezbollah,” by WSJ’s Dov Lieber in Tel Aviv More top reads:
- U.S. officials are “offering more public praise for Kyiv’s surprise incursion into Russian territory, as Ukraine has managed to embarrass Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN, scramble the Kremlin’s military strategy and seize large swaths of land along the border,” Miles Herszenhorn and Joe Gould report. “Sen. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-Conn.), who met with Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY in Ukraine earlier this week, said in an interview Wednesday that the ‘failure to defend Russia is comparable to the complete breakdown that forced Russia to retreat two and a half years ago.’”
2024 WATCH
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Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) is hoping to more than double the child tax credit. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | THE POLICY PUSH — Both the Harris and Trump campaigns have been making the case for boosting the child tax credit. Vance is hoping to more than double it. And Harris has called for at least that, plus paid leave — she even selected Walz as her running mate partly because he enacted those policies in his home state. “It’s a striking pivot from previous election cycles,” Eleanor Mueller writes. “Both sides in a U.S. presidential race are playing up economic programs that would allow workers to better balance their personal and professional lives. That is evidence of growing bipartisan support for so-called care proposals as advocates spend tens of millions of dollars to drive their case home to candidates and the issues poll historically well with voters of both parties. “The new push for care comes after a robust pandemic response that briefly granted millions of Americans access to paid family and medical leave, an expanded child tax credit and subsidized child care. With those programs now lapsed, there’s growing momentum for permanent federal support. One survey found that eight in 10 voters want lawmakers to spend more on policies like paid leave and the child tax credit.” More top reads:
- The Trump campaign is deploying a risky campaign move (once test-driven by the failed campaign of one RON DeSANTIS) by tapping a host of big-money groups “to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to knock on hundreds of thousands of doors across the country — saving the campaign significant money in the process,” NYT’s Teddy Schleifer writes. But there is a fear that the new frontier of campaigning “will lead to the party losing considerable control over get-out-the-vote operations.”
- Google said yesterday that an Iranian government-linked hacking group has targeted officials on both the Biden and Trump campaigns and attacks are ongoing against campaign officials, Maggie Miller reports. The report did not say if the hackers were behind the specific hacked and leaked documents from the Trump campaign that our colleagues reported on. Trump, meanwhile, told reporters in his first public comments that it “looks like it’s Iran” that hacked his campaign.
- Spoiler alert: ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. last week tried to secure a meeting with Harris about a potential spot in a Harris-Walz administration, “perhaps as a Cabinet secretary, if he throws his support behind her campaign and she wins,” WaPo’s Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey report. “Harris and her advisers have not responded with an offer to meet or shown interest in the proposal.” RFK Jr. told NBC4 New York yesterday that he “would consider negotiating his exit from the race if one of his rivals was willing to adopt some of his signature issues and talk about stopping the vitriol.”
- “Black Women Worry America’s Not Ready to Elect One of Them,” N.Y. Mag’s Tariro Mzezewa: “Nearly two-thirds say concerns about the country not being ready to elect a Black woman are true or fair, while 37 percent believe those concerns are exaggerated. Younger Black women ages 18 to 34 are more likely to agree with concerns that Americans are not ready to elect a Black woman.”
| | | | A message from Comcast:   Unlicensed wireless spectrum is key to fast and secure WiFi. Learn more. | | | MORE POLITICS THE FAMILY-PLANNING FRONTIER — “How Christian Conservatives Are Planning for the Next Battle, on I.V.F.,” by NYT’s Elizabeth Dias: “As they see it, their challenge spans generations, not simply a single political cycle. And their approach — including controlling regulatory language, state party platforms and the definition of when life begins — reflects an incremental strategy similar to the one activists used for decades to eventually overturn Roe v. Wade.” HOW IT’S PLAYING — “Democrats launch new spate of abortion rights attacks, this time with receipts,” by Emily Ngo: “Democrats in New York, following significant losses two years ago, are deploying a now-familiar playbook in half a dozen battleground House races: Accuse Republicans of opposing abortion rights, an approach that has worked in tough races across the country. The party is reviving those anti-abortion attacks in New York and say, this time, they have proof of their claims: the incumbents’ voting records.” THE WHITE HOUSE BIDEN HIS TIME — The president is “trying on a new face as a statesman enjoying the twilight of his career” as he plays out the remainder of his term, NYT’s Zach Montague writes. “At least outwardly, in recent days the president has shown a noticeably unencumbered and easygoing demeanor, filling up his calendar with events after a brief lull following his decision to drop his re-election campaign.” And though he has been sure to underscore that he’s still doing high-level decision-making, during an event for content creators yesterday “he also made time to engage, twice walking over to speak to assembled reporters whom he would often rush by during tenser times, and sticking around after the official visit for dinner at a seafood restaurant along with his wife and around a dozen staff members.” Related video: “Biden hosts influencers at the White House, jokes he’s ‘looking for a job,’” AP
| | | | DON’T MISS OUR AI & TECH SUMMIT: Join POLITICO’s AI & Tech Summit for exclusive interviews and conversations with senior tech leaders, lawmakers, officials and stakeholders about where the rising energy around global competition — and the sense of potential around AI and restoring American tech knowhow — is driving tech policy and investment. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Minouche Shafik is resigning as president of Columbia University. Hulk Hogan vs. Jesse Ventura is the unexpected undercard of the 2024 presidential race. Alison Esposito was sued in 2017 “for allegedly arresting and assaulting an infant” in a case NYC settled for $25,000. Newt and Callista Gingrich are living it up in Greece. SPOTTED at the beam signing and placement ceremony for the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, which is set to open in July 2026, in Medora, North Dakota, yesterday: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and first lady Kathryn Burgum, Sens. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), Harold Hamm and Craig Dykers. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Taldi Harrison is joining the Foundation for America’s Public Lands as chief program officer. She previously was director of community and government affairs at REI. — Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons is joining Interfaith Alliance as senior director of policy and advocacy. He previously was comms director at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. MEDIA MOVE — David Nir and his team are launching The Downballot, a new independent election coverage outlet through Substack. He previously was a longtime down-ballot elections reporter for Daily Kos Elections and the Swing State Project. TRANSITIONS — Johanna Silva Waki will be the next executive director of Run for Something. She most recently was VP of strategic partnerships at EMILY’s List. … Jen Daulby is now CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation. She previously was chief of staff for Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.). BIRTHWEEK (was Sunday): National Journal’s Emily Akhtarzandi HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) … Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) … Melinda Gates (6-0) … WaPo’s Leigh Ann Caldwell … Devin O’Malley … former Justice Stephen Breyer … MSNBC’s Richard Hudock ... Maggie Mulvaney … Annie Wolf … Bart Reising … Meg Joseph ... Dara Cohen of Sen. Jacky Rosen’s (D-Nev.) office … Hannah Stone of Salem Strategies ... Karen Finney … Peggy Binzel … Susanne Salkind … Jarrett Lewis … Patrick Gleason of Americans for Tax Reform ... Mary Elizabeth Taylor … Elise Labott … Billy Pitts ... Dentons’ Eric Tanenblatt ... Brett Doyle … ABC’s Mariam Khan ... former Reps. Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.), Elaine Luria (D-Va.) and Judy Biggert (R-Ill.) ... Christopher Loring ... Zahava Urecki … Slade Bond … Jennifer Holdsworth Karp … David Sherman … Linda Ellerbee … CC Jaeger of the Herald Group … Allen Weisselberg … Kevin Hall … AP’s Juliet Linderman … Anup Rao 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.
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