| | | | |  | | By Eugene Daniels and Rachael Bade | Presented by Kidney Care Access Coalition | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | JUST POSTED — “Ben Bradlee’s posthumous advice to Jeff Bezos: You need to sell the Washington Post,” by John F. Harris: “The job of a news organization, and especially Washington-based ones, is to cover the schema of power. [JEFF] BEZOS is too powerful — and has too many diverse interests across too many spheres — for any news organization he owns not to be plausibly compromised in the minds of its employees and its audience. … The Post has a breathtaking conflict at the center of what should be its news agenda.” Read on for much more on the latest WaPo turmoil IS THIS IT? — “Israel attacks Iran military targets, Tehran says damage 'limited,'” by Reuters’ Parisa Hafezi, Emily Rose and Ahmed Tolba: “The risk of a wider conflagration between heavily armed Israel and Iran has convulsed a region already on fire with warfare in Gaza and Lebanon, but Tehran's initial response appeared muted.”
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Kamala Harris brought out Beyoncé for a rally in Houston on Friday night. | Annie Mulligan/AP | STAR SEARCH — Good morning from Houston, where VP KAMALA HARRIS spent last night in Texas railing against the state’s abortion bans, attacking her rival and being introduced by the most famous musician in the world, BEYONCÉ. (Don’t argue with us.) Meanwhile, less than 200 miles away in Austin, former President DONALD TRUMP last night rambled away for nearly three hours with the most popular podcaster in the world, JOE ROGAN, while a rally crowd awaited — and awaited and awaited — in northern Michigan. Their dueling Friday schedules were almost a perfect encapsulation of how the campaigns are thinking about winning this razor-thin election. The Harris campaign is under no illusions that Texas will end up colored blue on the post-election map. The point of the visit was to break through a frantic media environment and try to recapture the energy that characterized the early days of her campaign. Star power is a big part of that. Beyond Queen Bey, Harris has been joined on the trail by BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN and BARACK OBAMA in recent days. MICHELLE OBAMA headlines her Michigan rally tonight, with appearances from comedian GEORGE LOPEZ and performances from MANÁ and LOS TIGRES DEL NORTE on tap. The idea is to make these final events feel less like political rallies and more like cultural moments. “It’s all about pulling out every stop,” former Obama campaign manager JIM MESSINA told us. “That’s why she’s in Texas with Beyoncé — it’s a reminder of what’s at stake and a push to keep the energy up as we head to the finish line.” There was no musical performance last night (alas), but there were dire warnings delivered to the 30,000 attendees about the stakes of the election. “I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician, I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said. “A mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in. A world where we have the freedom to control our bodies.” Harris launched into attacks about Texas’ strict abortion laws, calling it “ground zero in the fight for reproductive freedom” and warning he would go further if elected again: “Please know, no one is protected if there is a Trump national abortion ban.” Trump has embraced his own approach to star power. His lengthy visit with Rogan is the capstone of his long effort to capture young men, the foundation of the talker's enormous audience. Much of the rambling conversation found Trump hitting on familiar territory: repeating debunked election fraud claims, attacking the hosts of ‘The View,’ railing against the polls that don’t have him ahead (more on all that below). He also floated eliminating the income tax entirely, replacing them with tariffs: “Sure, why not.” He said his biggest mistakes in his life were hiring “bad people or disloyal people.” And he also mused about life on Mars. While the podcast is likely to be heard by millions, he left thousands of his faithful waiting for hours up in Traverse City. When he finally showed up, three hours late, he blasted Harris for holding a “dance party with Beyoncé” and explained to the dwindling crowd that he had “prioritized other means of reaching voters,” as our colleague Lisa Kashinsky put it last night. “I am so sorry,” he told the crowd. “We got so tied up, and I figured you wouldn’t mind too much because we’re trying to win.” FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — The Harris campaign tomorrow will roll out their third and final closing-argument ad, focused on the economy. “It’s all about getting unchecked power while you pay the price,” a voiceover says in the spot, which highlights threats to health-care coverage, Social Security and Medicare. It will join ads on reproductive rights and Trump’s fitness for office in heavy battleground state rotation. Said Harris spokesperson IAN SAMS, “Another Trump term is just too big a risk for America, with plans that give Americans higher costs, fewer opportunities, and less freedoms. We are making sure voters know that.” Watch “Pay the Price” Good Saturday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Do you have a copy of a certain unpublished presidential endorsement editorial? Drop us a line: Rachael Bade and Eugene Daniels.
| | | | A message from Kidney Care Access Coalition: Today, dialysis patients can be forced off the health coverage that works best for them – even impacting coverage for their spouse and kids.
The Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act (S. 5018 and H.R. 6860) is a bipartisan and bicameral bill that will restore protections for dialysis patients and ensure that these patients and their families have a choice in their coverage.
The time for Congress to act is now.
https://www.kidneycareaccess.org/ | | | |  WaPo's decision not to endorse in the presidential race has lit up a firestorm. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP | WHAT’S UP WITH WAPO — The fallout from the Washington Post’s decision to cease making presidential endorsements, coming just 11 days before votes are counted, continues to course through 1301 K Street and beyond. Ultimate responsibility for the decision lay with Bezos, the Post itself reports, citing four knowledgeable sources, with CEO WILL LEWIS and ed-page chief DAVID SHIPLEY gamely selling the decision to a furious staff. The uproar within Postieland has been predictably fierce. A joint statement from WaPo columnists calling the retreat a “terrible mistake” grew from eight to 17 signatures overnight. Ed-page stalwarts RUTH MARCUS and KAREN TUMULTY each filed concurring dissents. Cartoonist ANN TELNAES mocked the paper’s swaggering slogan. And after former editor MARTY BARON kicked off the backlash yesterday, other Post alumni joined in. DAVID MARANISS called the decision “contemptible.” Another former editor, MARCUS BRAUCHLI, told the Daily Beast it “looks, whatever the reasoning, gutless or craven.” And Post titans BOB WOODWARD and CARL BERNSTEIN said the cop-out “ignores the Washington Post’s own overwhelming reportorial evidence on the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy.” But, but, but … Nearly 24 hours after the no-endorsement decision leaked, there does not appear to be a wave of mass resignations coming. (Only editor-at-large ROBERT KAGAN has cut ties with the paper so far.) What remains to be seen is the impact on the Post’s bottom line, with subscription cancellations reaching into the thousands, per NPR’s David Folkenflik . But it appears to be a price Bezos is willing to pay — whether to reposition the Post away from its center-left heritage or, more cravenly, to protect the billionaire’s business interests from a potential Trump restoration. (Notably, the Post covered a brief meeting yesterday in Austin between Trump and top execs from Bezos’ Blue Origin space firm.) The big picture … “The endorsement itself is not so important: I bet there aren’t many subscribers to high-end American newspapers who are still uncertain about how they’ll vote next month,” Michael Schaffer writes. “But as a sign of how elite institutions grapple with a political environment in which one side has vowed retribution against enemies, it feels like a big warning sign, one that Lewis’ terse statement is not doing anything to chill.” The big winner … LA Times owner PATRICK SOON-SHIONG, whose own endorsement meddling has been suddenly pushed into the background. TheWrap reported yesterday that Soon-Shiong spiked not only a Harris endorsement, but a “Case Against Trump” editorial series. Unlike WaPo, neither the LAT news or editorial pages have in any way acknowledged the controversy.
| | | | A message from Kidney Care Access Coalition:   The Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act will right a wrong and ensure dialysis patients and their families aren’t forced off their health insurance. https://www.kidneycareaccess.org/ | | | | | WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY | | On the trail Harris will tape an interview with CBS’ Norah O'Donnell at 2:50 p.m. Harris will hold a rally with Michelle Obama in Kalamazoo, Michigan, at 4:45 p.m. Minnesota Gov. TIM WALZ will deliver remarks at a Native Americans for Harris-Walz get-out-the-early-vote celebration in Window Rock, Arizona in the afternoon before holding a rally in Phoenix in the evening. Trump will be in Novi, Michigan, for a campaign rally at noon. He will travel to State College, Pennsylvania, for a rally at 4 p.m. Sen. JD VANCE (R-Ohio) will be in Atlanta for a rally at 11 a.m. He will travel to Erie, Pennsylvania, for a rally at 4:30 p.m. and will hold a town hall in Harrisburg at 7:30 p.m.
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| |  Joe Rogan's podcast offered Trump a massive platform to push baseless claims about 2020 and tee off on his former advisers. | Gregory Payan/AP | THE DONALD TRUMP EXPERIENCE — Podcasts have proved to be the new territory of the campaign trail this year — and Trump’s long sitdown with Rogan delivered a lot of his classic talking points to the talker’s highly engaged, primarily male audience. They included his baseless claims of a stolen election, which Rogan invited, and slashing taxes — but Trump also took the opportunity to lash out against his former chief of staff JOHN KELLY, who has come out against the former president this week, calling him a “bully.” He also said he thought his former national security adviser JOHN BOLTON was an “idiot,” though he said he actually ended up being “great.” “He was good in a certain way, he was a nut job,” Trump said. On polling: “Oh, I’m going to get myself in trouble. So I really don’t believe too much in them.” On the hosts of ABC’s “The View”: “Some of these women, they’re so, they’re so stupid.” On whether alien life exists: “I interviewed jet pilots that say they saw something. … There’s no reason not to think that Mars and all these planets don’t have life.” More from Natalie Allison, Meridith McGraw, Irie Sentner and Kierra Frazier “At one point Mr. Rogan tried to lead Mr. Trump, who has described his meandering, digression-laden speaking style as ‘the weave,’ back to the point,” NYT’s Michael Gold, Tim Balk and Simon Levien write. “‘Your weave is getting wide,’ Mr. Rogan said. ‘You’re getting wide with this weave.’” RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE BUBBA ON THE TRAIL — “‘Explainer-in-Chief’ Bill Clinton Makes the Economic Case for Harris,” by Jonathan Martin in Rocky Mount, North Carolina: “Nearly eight years after Clinton’s wife lost to Trump, the Democratic Party — and if we’re being honest the press corps, too — is still struggling with how to handle an aberrant figure in a country that seemingly grows more desensitized to his behavior the more outrageous it gets. “WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, though, seems to have settled on an answer. And it recalls one of his best lines from the 1992 presidential race, when the right was bearing down on him. Republicans, he said to voters then, care more about my past than your future. Framed for today: focus more on their insulin than his bombast.” LETTER FROM A SWING STATE — “Arizona Could Hinge on These Unpredictable Voters. Harris Should Be Worried,” by Rowan Moore Gerety for POLITICO Magazine: “Latino men in particular may prove to be especially important in this election, as the group that is most up for grabs and the most unpredictable in terms of turnout. … And with 10 days to go before the election, it is becoming clear Latino men are also a particular vulnerability for Harris.” BUSINESS DECISION — “How Donald Trump Is Making Big Promises to Big Business,” by NYT’s Shane Goldmacher, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan: As he fishes for campaign cash, Trump “is sometimes making overt promises about what he will do once he’s in office, a level of explicitness toward individual industries and a handful of billionaires that has rarely been seen in modern presidential politics.” HACK JOB — Hackers from China targeted phones used by Trump and Vance “as part of what appears to be a wide-ranging intelligence-collection effort,” NYT’s Devlin Barrett, Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman report. “Investigators are working to determine what communications data, if any, was taken or observed by the sophisticated penetration of telecom systems.” SWING-STATE DISPATCHES — “‘No choice’: Even swing-state voters who find Trump dangerous are willing to vote him into power over economic woes,” by the Boston Globe’s Sam Brodey … “In Wisconsin and across the country, Democrats look to the suburbs to save them,” by Semafor’s David Weigel in Waukesha UNEXPECTED HEADLINE OF THE DAY — “The Christians Preaching the Case for Kamala: ‘Trump Undermines the Work of Jesus,’” by Rolling Stone’s Alex Morris” RACE FOR THE HOUSE TURNING THE TABLES — Democrats in California are trying to rev up Republican base voters in the Central Valley district to remind them that their incumbent GOP Rep. DAVID VALADAO once voted to impeach Trump, putting the message in a new ad campaign and mailers in the district, Ally Mutnick reports. Watch the ad A NEW YORK MINUTE — Ahead of his big Madison Square Garden event tomorrow, Trump is planning to participate in a virtual telephone rally today with Republican House candidates who are running to flip a pair of suburban New York City districts, Nick Reisman reports. Related read: “NY Republican in critical House race spent huge sums of campaign cash on steakhouses, booze, Ubers and a foreign hostel,” by CNN’s Gregory Krieg and Em Steck REMEMBER THE MAINE — “This purple swath of Maine could determine control of Congress,” by WaPo’s Joanna Slater in Wilton, Maine RACE FOR THE STATES ON THE BALLOTS — A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that votes in federal elections must be received by state officials by the time polls close, striking down a Mississippi law that allowed ballots to arrive after Election Day, Kyle Cheney, Zach Montellaro and Josh Gerstein report . However, it’s unclear if the decision will apply on Nov. 5 or only in future elections. Meanwhile, Republicans in Pennsylvania are appealing a state Supreme Court decision that would allow voters to still vote if their mail ballot is rejected, Zach Montellaro writes.
| | | | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | | 5 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US
|  Elon Musk was working illegally as he launched his career, according to a new report. | Matt Rourke/AP | 1. MUSK READ: Despite railing against “open borders” in his alongside his support for Trump, ELON MUSK, who was born in South Africa, “worked illegally in the United States as he launched his entrepreneurial career after ditching a graduate studies program in California, according to former business associates, court records and company documents obtained by The Washington Post,” Maria Sacchetti, Faiz Siddiqui and Nick Miroff report. “What Musk has not publicly disclosed is that he did not have the legal right to work while building the company that became Zip2, which sold for about $300 million in 1999. It was Musk’s steppingstone to Tesla and the other ventures that have made him the world’s wealthiest person — and arguably America’s most successful immigrant.” 2. THE COST OF ACTIONS: NYC Mayor ERIC ADAMS is facing down a “dangerous erosion in his political standing” in the new NYT/Siena polling, with a majority of voters saying he should resign from office in light of the indictment against him on federal bribery and corruption charges, NYT’s Nicholas Fandos and Ruth Igielnik write. The breakdown: “The poll found that 53 percent of registered voters think Mr. Adams, a Democrat, should step down, while 40 percent favor him serving out the remaining 14 months of his term. … And in a hypothetical primary next year, registered Democrats put Mr. Adams in third place behind former Gov. ANDREW M. CUOMO and LETITIA JAMES, the state attorney general.” 3. FOR THOSE KEEPING TRACK: The U.S. Army “released an almost entirely redacted version of the police report describing” that dustup at Arlington National Cemetery involving a member of Trump’s campaign, AP’s Lolita Baldor writes . “The four sentences visible in the executive summary of the report released under court order Friday block out a key word that appears to describe the Trump campaign staffer shoving the cemetery employee out of the way. It does say the Trump staffer used both hands while trying to move past the cemetery employee. Both the names are redacted, and the sworn statement the cemetery worker gave to police is completely blacked out.” 4. BACKSTORY: “‘Pure Hell’: The Painful Legacy of Boarding Schools for Native Americans,” by NYT’s Michael Levenson: “Biden formally apologized on Friday for the abuses that generations of Native American children suffered at the schools, calling the mistreatment ‘one of the most horrific chapters in American history.’ “For more than 150 years, from the early 1800s to the late 1960s, the federal government removed thousands of Native American children from their homes and sent them to hundreds of boarding schools across the country. The schools were designed to erase the children’s tribal ties and cultural practices. Children were given new names, forcibly converted to Christianity and punished for speaking their Native languages. Many were physically and sexually abused.” 5. WAR IN UKRAINE: “Ukraine Is Striking Deeper Inside Russia—and Reshaping the War,” by WSJ’s Yaroslav Trofimov: “Several times over the past three months, swarms of as many as 150 Ukrainian drones flew hundreds of miles into Russia, slamming into missile storage facilities, strategic fuel reservoirs, military airfields and defense plants. Once considered exceptional, these deep strikes now barely register in the news. Yet, Ukrainian officials and some of their Western backers increasingly see the pain that long-range attacks inflict as a game-changer that could force President VLADIMIR PUTIN into negotiating an acceptable peace.”
| | | | A message from Kidney Care Access Coalition:   | | | CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 17 keepers
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| GREAT WEEKEND READS: — “Can the Media Survive?” by N.Y. Mag’s Charlotte Klein: “Big tech, feckless owners, cord-cutters, restive staff, smaller audiences … and the return of print?” — “Is It Fascism? A Leading Historian Changes His Mind,” by Elisabeth Zerofsky for NYT Magazine: “Robert Paxton thought the label was overused. But now he’s alarmed by what he sees in global politics — including Trumpism.” — “Doctors Agreed Her Baby Would Die 3 Months Before She Was Forced to Give Birth,” by Rolling Stone’s Tessa Stuart: “Deborah Dorbert campaigns for Florida’s abortion ballot measure after ‘politicians interfered with me getting my medical treatment.’” — “The Tight-Knit World of Kamala Harris’s Sorority,” by The New Yorker’s Jazmine Hughes: “A.K.A., the oldest Black sorority, expects excellence and complete discretion. How are members responding to their most famous sister’s Presidential campaign?” — “An Immigrant Died Building a Ship for the U.S. Government. His Family Got Nothing,” by ProPublica’s Nicole Foy: “Elmer Pérez was one of many immigrants hired by U.S. shipbuilders to fill the urgent need for skilled labor. These workers do the same jobs and take the same risks as their American counterparts, but are left on their own when things go wrong.” — “Inside the mind of Glenn Beck: Is America headed toward its ‘last exit’?” by Deseret News’ Brigham Tomco: “Beck invited the Deseret News into his home to explain the stakes of the 2024 election.” — “Is Afghanistan’s Most-Wanted Militant Now Its Best Hope for Change?” by NYT’s Christina Goldbaum: “Sirajuddin Haqqani has tried to remake himself from blood-soaked jihadist to pragmatic Taliban statesman. Western diplomats are shocked — and enticed.” — “The New Battle for the Middle East,” by Foreign Affairs’ Karim Sadjadpour: “Saudi Arabia and Iran’s Clash of Visions.” — “A Controversial Rare-Book Dealer Tries to Rewrite His Own Ending,” by The New Yorker’s Tad Friend: “Glenn Horowitz built a fortune selling the archives of writers such as Vladimir Nabokov and Alice Walker. Then a rock star pressed charges.” — “Hidden library in U.P. woods reveals innermost thoughts of visitors,” by The Detroit Free Press’ John Carlisle: “For decades, cabins in the Porcupine Mountains have offered campers a notebook in which to express themselves. Thousands of them have taken up the offer and created a remarkable collection of books.”
| | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | OUT AND ABOUT — Mika Brzezinski hosted over 200 women leaders to celebrate the fourth annual Know Your Value and Forbes 50 Over 50 list and its honorees for a luncheon at the Rainbow Room in New York yesterday. SPOTTED: Rashida Jones, Valerie Jarrett, Brooke Shields, Suze Orman, Mandana Dayani, Huma Abedin, Maggie McGrath, Emma Carrasco, Bonnie Hammer, Laura Jarrett, Symone Sanders Townsend, Katy Tur, Alicia Menendez, Ana Cabrera, Elise Jordan, Randall Lane and Francine Katsoudas. TRANSITION — Diane Yentel will be president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits. She currently is president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Hillary Clinton … Reps. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) (8-0) and Troy Carter (D-La.) … WSJ’s Evan Gershkovich … Katy Tur … NYT’s Mark Landler and Taffy Brodesser-Akner … Kristin Lynch … Jef Pollock of Global Strategy Group … Scott Jennings … FTC’s Rebecca Kern … Jeff Rubin of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy … Hazen Marshall … Jessica Church … Cami Mondeaux of the Washington Examiner … Perry Apelbaum … Amanda Smith … Kim Waskowsky of the House Oversight GOP … Seth Morrow of Targeted Victory … USA Today’s Caren Bohan … Christine Stineman … Craig Frucht of Ascend Digital Strategies … Courtney McNamara of the International Executive Service Corps … NBC’s Bianca Brosh … POLITICO’s Danielle Feldman … Alabama AG Steve Marshall (6-0) … Richard Yamada THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here): CBS “Face the Nation”: Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) … Liz Cheney … Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes … Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Al Schmidt. CNN “State of the Union”: Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) … Liz Cheney. Panel: Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), Scott Jennings, Karen Finney and Kristen Soltis Anderson. NBC “Meet the Press”: Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) … Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Panel: Hallie Jackson, Jonathan Martin, Sara Fagen and Symone Sanders-Townsend. ABC “This Week”: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) … Dan Osborn … Mark Cuban. Panel: Donna Brazile and Chris Christie. FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) … Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. Panel: Josh Holmes, Julia Manchester, Mario Parker and Juan Williams. MSNBC “The Weekend”: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul … Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) … Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.). NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) … New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. Strategist panel: Michael Meehan and Whit Ayres. Panel: Bill Sammon, Tamara Keith, Ramesh Ponnuru and Catherine Lucey. 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.
| | | | A message from Kidney Care Access Coalition: A June 2022 Supreme Court ruling undermined long-standing statutory protections for dialysis patients by allowing employer group health plans to force dialysis patients on Medicare before they would have otherwise chosen. When they transition from their employer health plan to Medicare, their family could also be forced off their coverage. This causes an unnecessary and costly disruption to these families – at a time when they are also managing a life-threatening disease.
The Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act is a bipartisan, bicameral bill to simply restore these critical protections for patients and their families. The bill ensures families can choose their coverage, protects private health insurance, and prevents Medicare from being overburdened.
Over 40 organizations, including those representing patients, providers, the disability community, and communities of color, are calling on Congress to pass the Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act.
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