| | | | |  | | By Ryan Lizza, Rachael Bade and Eugene Daniels | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | |  The political project last night for Barack and Michelle Obama was to honor the legacy of Joe Biden and graciously pivot to a celebration of Kamala Harris. | AP | CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR — Keynote speaker BARACK OBAMA took the Democratic National Convention stage at 11:02 p.m. last night, barely missing East Coast prime time. More on Dems’ battle with the clock BLURRING OVER BIDEN — Obama’s rise can be charted through his convention history: In 2000, after losing a congressional primary that depleted his bank account, a friend urged him to go to Los Angeles for the DNC. When he tried to rent a car his credit card was declined. He had a low-level pass that didn’t allow him past the arena hallways and he couldn’t get on the lists for any of the afterparties. “I ended up leaving early, and that was the stage when I was really questioning whether I should be in politics,” he once told David Axelrod. Four years later, he was delivering his famous keynote speech in Boston for JOHN KERRY. Four years after that he was accepting the Democratic Presidential nomination himself. His speeches have been a major highlight of the last five conventions, and last night’s address had Democrats on the floor comparing it to 2004. (One of us was there in Boston 20 years ago and concurs that the electricity in the room was similar.) Obama has hardly been seen in public this year, but he played a behind-the-scenes role in shepherding the transition from Biden to Harris this summer. We have heard mixed opinions about how bad the rift between Biden and Obama is, with some plugged-in Democrats here telling us it might never be fully repaired and others saying it is already healing. But nobody disputes the rift. And so the political project last night for Barack and MICHELLE OBAMA, who spoke first, was to honor the legacy of JOE BIDEN and graciously pivot to a celebration of KAMALA HARRIS. With that in mind, it was jarring when Michelle opened her speech with an implicit jab at the Biden era. She noted that “something wonderfully magical is in the air” and described it as “a familiar feeling that’s been buried too deep for far too long.” What was it? “The contagious power of hope” and the “exhilaration of once again being on the cusp of a brighter day.” From the Biden perspective, those lines stung. “It was an implicit rebuke of the Biden era,” said one White House aide. It was as if Michelle were lumping together the Biden and Trump eras as one long gloomy period. The delegates around us on the floor did not seem to be paying attention with that level of nuance — or perhaps they agreed — because the reception for Michelle was rapturous. She quickly pivoted to attacking DONALD TRUMP, and her contempt for him seemed visceral. She got off the line of the night: “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?” Barack Obama was far more delicate with the unique politics of the situation. He spent five paragraphs of teleprompter text extolling the virtues of Joe Biden and his record and, finally, his decision to suspend his reelection campaign. “I am proud to call him my president,” he said, “but even prouder to call him my friend.” And then he delivered the line that pivoted the entire convention from the Biden era to the Harris era: “Now the torch has been passed.” Like Michelle, he pilloried Trump in ways that neither of them had seemed eager to do in the prior nine years that Trump has been a candidate and president. It was closer, in fact, to Obama’s brutal White House Correspondents’ Dinner roast of Trump back in 2011. Last night, he joked about Trump’s “weird obsession with crowd size” while holding his hands a few inches apart. If there is a political strategy at play here, it may be to try and win Harris some of the benefit of a challenger. Because Trump has never really gone away, Biden’s presidency has been partially defined by his ever-present opponent. Like Michelle, Barack at times seemed to gloss over the difference between the last two presidents — or at least frame Harris as someone disconnected from either of them. “America is ready for a new chapter. America’s ready for a better story,” Obama said. “We are ready for a President Kamala Harris.” This is a sneaky way to frame Harris as the fresh-faced challenger to Trump and deny the former president the mantle of change agent in this election. Because Trump is better known than Harris is, he suffers more of the downside risks of an incumbent and the Obamas cleverly exploited this political opening. ALTITUDE — “The Obamas’ Approach to Trump: Make Him Small,” by John Harris: “The central question of the 2024 election, of course, isn’t what the Obamas think is the most effective way to confront Trump. … But they did provide a template for making him seem more prosaic that might fit into larger case Harris and vice presidential nominee TIM WALZ are making — putting less emphasis on the threat he poses to democracy than the one they say he poses to the middle class’s desire for economic security and a return to normality in civic life.” The coverage: POLITICO: “Obama steps back into the spotlight — and absolutely skewers Trump” … NYT: “With Democrats Rapt, the Obamas Assail Trump and Appeal to Hope and Unity” … WaPo: “Obamas electrify Democrats at Chicago convention” … WSJ: “Obamas Try Again to Help Defeat Trump, Elect the First Female President” … AP: “Obamas close DNC’s second night with rousing Harris endorsement and pointed warnings about Trump” Good Wednesday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
| | | | A message from USAFacts: Americans deserve clear, trustworthy facts to make up their minds on today’s most pressing issues. In this new series, USAFacts Founder Steve Ballmer walks through the data on immigration, the economy, healthcare, and much more, to help you inform your perspective. Get the numbers, not rhetoric, topic by topic. | | | |  The Harris campaign held a rally in Wisconsin last night as the DNC continued in Chicago. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images | THE SHOW GOES ON — While Dems gathered en masse in Chicago, Harris and Walz were actually about 90 miles north of the city, holding a campaign rally in all-important Wisconsin — a sign of how seriously the campaign is taking the sprint to November, Myah Ward writes from Milwaukee. The message from Harris mirrored much of what was said on stage in Chicago yesterday. She called her campaign a “fight for the future” and “for freedom … like the freedom for a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have the government tell her what to do.” It was a notable location for the rally, too. Harris and Walz scheduled their stop for the Fiserv Forum, where Republicans held their convention a little over a month ago — a fact Walz was eager to point out. “Not only do we have massive energy in our convention, we have a hell of a lot more energy where they had their convention. Right here,” Walz said. “That other guy is going to be so sad tonight, so sad.” Trump, meanwhile, kept up his counterprogramming blitz, appearing in Michigan yesterday, where he attacked Harris on two themes that he’ll likely focus on during the remaining months of the campaign:crime and immigration. “While Democrats have been pushing a message of optimism and unity at their convention in Chicago, Trump painted the United States as crime-ridden and attacked Kamala Harris’ record as a ‘lawless Marxist’ prosecutor in San Francisco and blamed her for allowing ‘hordes of illegal alien criminals to stampede into our country,’” Meridith McGraw writes.
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POLITICO / CNN Grill at the DNC. Chicago, Ill., Tuesday, August 20, 2024. | SPOTTED chatting yesterday at the CNN-POLITICO Grill: Norm Eisen with George Conway, Tom Nides and Juleanna Glover; Alastair Campbell and Ed Luce; Sophia Bush and Alex Levy; David Urban and Sam Feist; Adam Green and Zolan Kanno-Youngs; Rob Flaherty and Alex Kellner. Pic … Another pic ... Another pic Also SPOTTED at the Grill: Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Reps. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.), Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) and Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Govs. Jared Polis, Janet Mills and Maura Healey, Mayor London Breed, Jack Schlossberg, Anthony Anderson, Danai Gurira, Busy Philipps, Bryan Cranston, Uzo Aduba, Yvette Nicole Brown, Danny Meyer, Tim Daly, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Maulik Pancholy, Justin Mikita, Ashlee Rich Stephenson, Brianna Keilar, British Ambassador Karen Pierce, Chris Wallace, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Kara Swisher, Scott Galloway, Tammy Haddad, Sam Feist, Ron Brownstein, Susan Rice, Michael Cohen, Walter Isaacson, TJ Ducklo, Peter Hamby, Kate Bedingfield, Jim Acosta, Jonathan Swan, Claudia Conway, former Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), former Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), Wolf Blitzer, Nia-Malika Henderson, Gene Sperling, Audie Cornish, Tim Daly, Jon Cryer, Samantha Barry, Mandana Dayani, Manu Raju, Max Tani, Rosemary Boeglin, Alexandra LaManna, Heather Podesta, Stephen Kessler, Marc Caputo, Courtney Rice, Viet Shelton and Justin Chermol. TODAY AT THE GRILL — 2:40 p.m.: Sen. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-Ill.), with Anne McElvoy … 3 p.m.: JEN O’MALLEY DILLON, Harris-Walz campaign chair, with Eugene … 3:30 p.m.: Mayors ERIC ADAMS of New York, ANDRE DICKENS of Atlanta and BRANDON JOHNSON of Chicago, with Suzanne Lynch … 4:30 p.m.: Acting HUD Secretary ADRIANNE TODMAN, with Victoria Guida … 4:50 p.m.: Rep. SUZAN DelBENE (D-Wash.), DCCC chair, with Sarah Ferris … 5:30 p.m.: Sen. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-Ga.), with Brakkton Booker … 6:15 p.m.: Sen. TINA SMITH (D-Minn.), with Rachael … 6:30 p.m.: Pennsylvania Gov. JOSH SHAPIRO, with John Harris (all times CDT) DNC QUOTABLES … — BARACK OBAMA on the wardrobe of tonight’s headliner, Tim Walz: “You can tell those flannel shirts he wears don't come from some political consultant, they come from his closet. And they have been through some stuff.” — DOUG EMHOFF on his first contact with Kamala Harris: “For generations, people have debated when to call the person you are being set up with. And never in history has anyone suggested 8:30 a.m. And yet, that is when I dialed. I got Kamala's voicemail and I just started rambling. ‘Hey, it's Doug. I'm on my way to an early meeting. Again, it’s Doug.’ … By the way, Kamala saved that voicemail and makes me listen to it on every anniversary.”
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Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker speaks onstage at the CNN-POLITICO Grill during the 2024 DNC Convention on Aug. 20 in Chicago. | Rod Lamkey Jr. for POLITICO | — Illinois Gov. JB PRITZKER on Chicago hosting the next DNC, at the CNN-POLITICO Grill: “I know there are local pressures, and they're going to say, ‘Oh, we're bidding on 2028 already,’ but it has happened. It hasn't happened in recent history. Chicago's a great city to have a convention. I mean, want to bring every convention I possibly can to the city of Chicago.” — Harris deputy campaign manager ROB FLAHERTY on the “feral 25-year-olds” running the campaign’s social media, at the CNN-POLITICO Grill: “Our job as the campaign is to be aware of the meme without being the meme. … How do you sort of wink and nod at what's happening on the internet without … making it like it’s propaganda for the campaign or anything like that.” — Teamsters President SEAN O’BRIEN on not getting invited to speak at the DNC, on Fox News: “I could take it personally, but I honestly think maybe my invitation got lost in the U.S. Postal Service and next time they should try to ship with UPS — it’ll guarantee delivery.” — Sen. MARK WARNER (D-Va.) on whether his home state is in play for Trump, at the CNN-POLITICO Grill: “If the Trump campaign decides to spend a whole lot more money in Virginia and put their nonexistent field operation all in Virginia, it wouldn't make me or TIM KAINE too upset.” — ANITA DUNN on Biden’s speech getting bumped out of prime-time Monday night, at the CNN-POLITICO Grill: “We haven’t run a live campaign since 2016, and clearly we may have forgotten a little about how to do it. … It is what it is.” — British Ambassador KAREN PIERCE on Harris and Emhoff as neighbors, at the CNN-POLITICO Grill: “They very kindly invited my husband and me to their 50 years of hip-hop party. I am very sorry to say we were totally out of place, but we had a great time.” MORE DNC READS …
AND A DNC LISTEN … WaPo compiled a Spotify playlist of all the roll-call songs
| | | | A message from USAFacts:   Want to know the facts on immigration, taxes and spending? Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO and owner of the LA Clippers, shares facts and data, you make up your mind! | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | On the Hill The Senate and the House are out. What we’re watching … The KEVIN McCARTHY “revenge tour” ended with a whimper last night: Rep. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.) fended off AARON DIMMOCK, a McCarthy-backed primary challenger, by a 45-point (!) margin. As Gary Fineout notes, Dimmock’s attempts to weaponize allegations of illegal drug use and paid underage sex — charges that Gaetz denied and the Justice Department declined to prosecute — fell flat. Gaetz still has to face a House Ethics probe, but he is fully reveling in last night’s result: “Sign me up for the next Revenge Tour,” he posted on X. At the White House Biden will receive the President’s Daily Brief. On the trail Trump and Vance will be in Asheboro, North Carolina, for a rally.
| | | | Follow ongoing storylines on how the election will shape policy debates beyond 2024. Our nonpartisan insights prepared our subscribers to navigate a changed political landscape. Learn more about POLITICO Pro. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | AMERICA AND THE WORLD
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken is working to cement a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas. | Kevin Mohatt/Pool Photo via AP | MIDDLE EAST LATEST — U.S. and Israeli officials are warning that a proposed cease-fire “bridging” deal is on the brink of collapsing, and there is no clear immediate alternative agreement that could be put forward in its place, Erin Banco reports. “The current proposal — pulled together by the U.S., Israel, Egypt and Qatar over several weeks in July — is the strongest form of the deal to date, the officials said, because it includes terms that are tailored to the demands of both Hamas and Israel. Israel has signed on, but Hamas says in public statements it will not accept the pact. “That has U.S. officials increasingly worried that this proposal will falter just as earlier ones did, with Hamas and Israel at odds and no clear path to end fighting or bring hostages home, the officials said. That’s a much more dire assessment than what U.S. officials are presenting publicly.” More top reads:
- A senior Iranian military official said that “retaliation against Israel over the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran may be long in coming and take any number of forms, suggesting that an attack against Israel may have been placed on hold,” NYT’s Farnaz Fassihi reports.
- Biden back in March secretly approved a “highly classified nuclear strategic plan for the United States that, for the first time, reorients America’s deterrent strategy to focus on China’s rapid expansion in its nuclear arsenal,” NYT’s David Sanger reports, and “also newly seeks to prepare the United States for possible coordinated nuclear challenges from China, Russia and North Korea.”
2024 WATCH
|  New data from FEC filings shows some big names who have chosen to donate to Donald Trump's campaign. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images | FOLLOWING THE MONEY — TIMOTHY MELLON, one of Trump’s biggest financial backers, gave $50 million to Make America Great Again Inc. in July — bringing his total give to the Trump-aligned super PAC to $115 million since the start of 2023, Jessica Piper reports. That figure — dated July 15, less than a week before Biden dropped out of the presidential race — makes Mellon by far the largest donor to the super PACs backing Trump’s candidacy this cycle. Meanwhile, as big-dollar donors descend on the DNC, there is a shroud of secrecy that is clouding the identities of some of these big names that hasn’t been so in the past. “That’s because, for the first time in modern presidential fund-raising,” NYT’s Teddy Schleifer reports, “neither the Democratic nor the Republican nominee has disclosed the names of so-called bundlers, the people who amass large financial contributions for presidential campaigns and, in the eyes of transparency advocates, wield significant power in campaigns and presidential administrations.” More top reads:
- Trump said he’s “certainly” open to ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. slotting into a potential second Trump administration if he drops his long-shot independent campaign to endorse the former president, he told CNN, adding that he “didn’t know he was thinking about getting out.” (RFK’s running mate, NICOLE SHANAHAN, said the campaign should think about lining up behind Trump yesterday.)
- Trump gave his clearest answer to date on the federal regulation of abortion pills yesterday, telling CBS he would not use the Comstock Act to ban mail delivery of the drugs if elected in November and adding that the “federal government should have nothing to do with this issue.” Prominent conservatives and anti-abortion activists “were outraged by the remark, calling it ‘nonsensical’ and ‘cowardly,’ and warning that it could dampen turnout and enthusiasm on the right heading into a close election,” Alice Miranda Ollstein reports.
| | | | A message from USAFacts:   USAFacts: Data straight from the source. | | | MORE POLITICS PRIMARY COLORS — The primary calendar is nearing its end, with just a handful of states left to vote in their preliminary contests in September. Beyond Gaetz’s big win, here’s the most notable results from the states that set their general election matchups yesterday … In Alaska: Democratic Rep. MARY PELTOLA is hovering right around the 50 percent mark in the at-large jungle primary. It’s a very good sign for her re-election, but she will face three others regardless in November’s ranked-choice runoff. Republicans NICK BEGICH and NANCY DAHLSTROM are second and third with 27 percent and 20 percent, respectively. A third Republican, MATTHEW SALISBURY, is currently 60 votes ahead in the race for the final spot. In Florida: WHITNEY FOX won the crowded Democratic primary in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, setting her on the path to take on GOP Rep. ANNA PAULINA LUNA. … LUCIA BÁEZ-GELLER handily dispatched her well-funded opponent in the Democratic primary in the 27th Congressional District and will face off against GOP Rep. MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR. … THOMAS CHALIFOUX, a well-funded retired Army colonel, won the Republican primary for the 9th District for the right to take on Democratic Rep. DARREN SOTO (D-Fla.). Elsewhere in the Sunshine State: “DeSantis takeover of Florida school boards has big setback,” by Andrew Atterbury … “Andrew Warren one step closer to taking his State Attorney job back,” by Florida Politics’ Selene SanFelice Other notable nuggets: Montana voted to put a measure that would protect abortion rights on the ballot this November, making it the eighth state that will see such a vote this fall, AP’s Amy Beth Hanson writes. More top reads:
- MIKE BLOOMBERG delivered a major boost for House Democrats’ largest super PAC, donating $10 million for Dems’ effort to retake the chamber, Ally Mutnick reports.
- Abortion on the ballot: The Arizona Supreme Court yesterday ruled “that a 200-word summary that abortion advocates used to collect signatures for a ballot measure is valid, clearing the way for voters to decide on the constitutional right to an abortion,” AP’s Sejal Govindarao reports from Phoenix.
- West Virginia Gov. JIM JUSTICE is locked in a “mad-dash legal fight as he runs for U.S. Senate to keep a historic West Virginia hotel at his luxury resort before it’s auctioned off next week due to unpaid debts,” AP’s Leah Willingham reports.
BEYOND THE BELTWAY FOR YOUR RADAR — “Utah lawsuit seeks state control over vast areas of federal land,” by AP’s Hannah Schoenbaum and Matthew Brown: “The state’s attorney general said he asked to file a lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court in what is considered a long-shot attempt to assert state powers on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property across about one-third of Utah.”
| | | | 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 | | Kerstin Emhoff is a proud ex-wife. Spike Lee secured his Doug memorabilia. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a convention celebration party hosted by Unite the Country hosted at the Haymaker Pub last night: Valerie Biden, James Biden, Lonnie Stevenson, Tony Abboud, Julianna Smoot, Amanda Loveday, Mark Doyle, Rodell Mollineau, John Costa, Jess McIntosh and Cristóbal Alex. — SPOTTED at a happy hour hosted by MissionWired, DSPolitical, Fenton, and Good Influence at Leña Brava in Chicago: Nat Binns, Ambika Subramanyam, Kati Card, Chrissy Hyre, Matt Hamblin, Alex Stein, David Bergstein, Kristen Orthman, Josh Cook, André Ory, Jess Porter, Keegan Gallery, Patrick Stevenson, Ryan Evans, Marina Orcutt and Laura Carlson. — SPOTTED at a United Airlines open house at the Willis Tower 99th floor last night: Terri Fariello, British Ambassador Karen Pierce, Irish Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, Rosemary Banks, Sheila Johnson, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Reps. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.), San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Michael Halle, James Carville, Walter Isaacson, Bill Daley, Steve Benjamin, John McCarthy, Jenny Kaplan, Rodney Slater and Doug Jones. TRANSITIONS — Meg Spencer is now chief comms officer for technology and global issues for the British Embassy in D.C. She previously was press secretary for Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). … Michael Madowitz is joining the Roosevelt Institute as its first-ever principal economist. He previously was director of macroeconomic policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and the senior economist at the U.S. Congress’ Joint Economic Committee. … Jerita Salley is joining Polsinelli’s corporate M&A practice. She previously was a partner at Wiley Rein. ENGAGED — Matt Fuller, congressional bureau chief at NOTUS, proposed to Hayley Alexander, associate director of government affairs at Lundbeck, last weekend in a quiet corner of the farm at The Inn at Little Washington. They dispute how they really first met, with Hayley contending they met on Twitter when she was a press assistant for then-Rep. Justin Amash. Matt contends they met in person at the Senate Carry-Out, when Hayley was working for the Appropriations Committee. Pic … Another pic WEEKEND WEDDING — Cameron O’Brien and Brenna Kent, both professional staff members for the Senate Appropriations Committee under Vice Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), got married on Saturday in Portland, Maine. The couple met while working in Collins’ D.C. office and playing for the Lobstars in the Senate Softball League. Pic … Another pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) … The Atlantic’s Elaine Godfrey … Peter Hamby of Snapchat and Puck … White House’s Tericka Lambert and Deirdre Kelly … Carli Kientzle … DOD’s Marguerite Biagi … Steve Case of Revolution and the Case Foundation … Ken Mehlman of KKR … Arkansas AG Tim Griffin … Brian Parks of LSG … Jana Winter … Ryan McCormack of Rep. Scott Fitzgerald’s (R-Wis.) office … Joe Minges … Stephen Neuman of American Airlines … Thomas Bradbury of the American Conservative Union … Rubén Olmos of Global Nexus … Mary Ann Naylor … WaPo’s Manuel Roig-Franzia … Pamela Engel … CBS’ Fin Gómez … Ben Howard of the Duberstein Group … Bloomberg Gov’s George Cahlink … David Heifetz of Breakthrough Energy … Francine McMahon … Mary Brady of the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. … Rachel Hirschberg Light … CNN’s Cameron Hough … Teresa Carlson … Jack Kelly … Richard Eddings of Husch Blackwell Strategies … Riter Hoopes … Penelope Hoopes 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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