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POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | |  | | By Rachael Bade and Eli Okun | |  “Kellyanne Conway never told me that she thought we lost the election,” Donald Trump claimed. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images | Former President DONALD TRUMP is denying a key anecdote in KELLYANNE CONWAY’s new book: that his former top adviser ever told him point-blank that he lost the election. In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed that if Conway had said that to him, he would have booted her from his inner circle. — What he said: “Kellyanne Conway never told me that she thought we lost the election. If she had, I wouldn’t have dealt with her any longer — she would have been wrong — could go back to her crazy husband,” Trump wrote. “Writing books can make people say some very strange things. I wonder why?” The full post here — The context: The denial comes a day after our Meridith McGraw scooped that in her new memoir, Conway wrote that Trump lost the 2020 election, and that she “may have been the first person Donald Trump trusted in his inner circle who told him that he had come up short this time.” The he-said, she-said isn’t particularly surprising. Trump isn’t exactly known for his dedication to facts, and has denied stories from around this time that have been conveyed by other top allies, including that he admitted to House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY he did bear some responsibility for the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. LATEST GUN TALK ON THE HILL — Sens. JOHN CORNYN (R-Texas) and CHRIS MURPHY (D-Conn.) are meeting today to talk about gun reform, per CNN’s Lauren Fox . Murphy also said he’s talked to Sen. RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.) about the post-Parkland bill he signed while serving as Florida governor, which raised the age to purchase an assault rifle to 21, per Andrew Desiderio. But Democrats are warning that they’ll give Republicans only so long to make progress on negotiating a package — and if talks fails to progress after a few weeks, they’ll start getting senators on record with floor votes. — Meanwhile, as expected, the House-passed domestic terrorism bill went down in the Senate this afternoon as Republicans blocked it in a 47-47 vote, way short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster. ON THE SENATE FLOOR — Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER today blasted Texas Gov. GREG ABBOTT: “Yesterday, after BETO O’ROURKE confronted Texas Gov. Abbott’s press conference, the MAGA governor gave some empty platitudes about healing and hope. He asked people to put their agendas aside and think about someone other than themselves. My God. How dare he? What an absolute fraud the governor of Texas is. And this is the same Gov. Abbott who tomorrow — tomorrow — will go speak at the NRA convention in Houston. Gov. Abbott, will you ask your MAGA buddies and your NRA pals to put aside their agendas and think of someone other than themselves, like you asked the families to do?” GOOD NEWS FOR BIDEN — Sen. ANGUS KING (I-Maine), who helped tank DAVID CHIPMAN’s nomination to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, announced today that he’ll support President JOE BIDEN’s replacement choice, STEVE DETTELBACH. King said he thought Dettelbach would balance “reducing gun violence while respecting the Second Amendment and the rights of law-abiding gun owners.” That doesn’t mean Dettelbach is a done deal. The White House will likely need every Senate Democrat lined up as a yes. And as NBC’s Frank Thorp tweeted, the nominee still has to meet with Mr. No JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.), who said he’ll wait to make his decision until after the huddle. He told Thorp this ahead of the meeting: “I think it’s important to have the right person in that place. Because there’s so many people in danger every day.” Sen. JON TESTER (D-Mont.), who also hadn’t backed Chipman, hasn’t yet said he’ll support Dettelbach either. Good Thursday afternoon.
| | | | DON'T MISS DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | MORE UVALDE FALLOUT HOW IT HAPPENED — In the wake of the mass school shooting in Texas, many Republicans are calling for stepped-up school security rather than gun restrictions. But Juan Perez Jr. reports that Robb Elementary was among the schools that had already added security in recent years: It “had a robust security protocol that counted social media threat-monitoring software and a small campus police force among its defenses by the time of Tuesday’s nightmare.” — AP’s Jake Bleiberg, Jim Vertuno and Elliot Spagat break down the questions about the police response to the shooting, which have been muddled by conflicting information about what went down and when. “During the siege, which ended when a U.S. Border Patrol team burst in and shot the gunman to death, frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the school, according to witnesses,” they report. Authorities are now looking into the police response, per the Austin American-Statesman’s Tony Plohetski. HOT ON THE LEFT — HERSCHEL WALKER on how to stop school shootings, on Fox News : “They talked about doing a disinformation. What about getting a department that can look at young men, that’s looking at women, [that’s] looking at just social media? What about doing that, looking into things like that, and we could stop that that way? But yet they want to just continue to talk about taking away your constitutional rights. And I think there are more things we need to look into. This has been happening for years, and the way we stop it is by putting money into the mental health field, by putting money into other departments, rather than departments that want to take away your rights.” Some thoughts on this: This isn’t the first time Walker’s answers to easy-to-predict questions have sounded a bit garbled and confusing. Now that he’s the Senate GOP nominee in a critical swing state, it will be interesting to see if Republicans in Washington do more to help him polish his political interview skills. ALL POLITICS GUESS WHO’S BACK — Former Interior Secretary RYAN ZINKE, trying to stage a return to Congress, is facing attacks from the right about his military career — almost the exact same ones that Democrats lobbed at him nearly a decade ago, AP’s Matthew Brown reports from Butte, Mont. This time, it’s part of an effort to instead elevate a more conservative/MAGA opponent in the June 7 primary — even though Zinke himself was a Trump Cabinet member. “Zinke is still acting as the front-runner,” Brown reports. But he’s also facing ongoing questions about the time he spends out of Montana and ethics investigations during his Interior tenure. 2022 WATCH — The latest House ratings update from The Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman moves 10 races toward Republicans and two toward Democrats, with an overall prediction that the GOP will net 20 to 35 seats and retake the chamber. Among the changes: Rep. DINA TITUS’ (D-Nev.) and Rep. KURT SCHRADER’s (D-Ore.) seats shifting into the toss-up column. “Republicans’ House advantage looks as robust as ever,” he writes. “For independent voters, inflation has become such a dominant concern that neither a Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade nor January 6 hearings are likely to drastically alter the midterms’ trajectory.” CASH DASH — Heritage’s new super PAC, Sentinel Action Fund, is making its first investment: $1 million to bolster Walker in the Georgia Senate race with on-the-ground outreach and TV ads, Natalie Allison scoops . Next on its radar: flipping the Democratic Senate seats in Arizona, Nevada and New Hampshire, and making a play in 15-20 House races. In Georgia, “SAF’s voter outreach will involve door knocking, phone calls, text messages and participation in community events from both full-time field staff and a network of volunteers … which will allow the group to have infrastructure in place for future elections in the Southern swing state.” — The down-ballot-focused Republican State Leadership Committee is creating a new joint fundraising committee to bolster its online money efforts, Elena Schneider scoops . Working with Republicans in Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, the State Republican Victory Fund will help build grassroots online fundraising programs, “offset the front-end costs of prospecting for individual donors … [and] share its donor file with state Republican Party organizations, legislative campaign committees and affiliated outside groups.”
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | TRUMP CARDS THE INVESTIGATIONS — An appeals court turned aside Trump’s appeal today and ruled that he’ll have to testify in New York A.G. TISH JAMES’ civil investigation of the Trumps’ business practices, per AP’s Michael Sisak. “Thursday’s ruling could mean a tough decision for Trump about whether to answer questions, or stay silent, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Anything Trump says in a civil deposition could be used against him in the criminal probe being overseen by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.” THE ECONOMY THE UNEMPLOYMENT PICTURE — New jobless claims this week nudged down to 210,000 as the labor market remains strong. But at the same time, new Commerce Department data revised the first-quarter GDP decline from 1.4% to 1.5%. More from CNBC UNDER THE HOOD — The U.S. is much worse at workforce development than its peer nations, one of the factors contributing to supply chain woes and high prices, Eleanor Mueller reports. Congressional Democrats and Labor Secretary MARTY WALSH want to take action to improve the system. But “[i]f policymakers can’t remedy the situation, labor and education experts warn that it could permanently hobble the U.S. economy and impede its ability to compete with other economic powers like China — particularly given how long it can take for changes to produce results.” THE PANDEMIC A NEW APPROACH — The Biden administration today is kicking off a new “test-to-treat” program with federal funding for a site in Providence, R.I., The Providence Journal’s Wayne Miller reports. The idea is to provide people who test positive for the coronavirus instant access to antiviral treatments, if they’re eligible. More sites are coming soon to Illinois, Minnesota and New York. POLICY CORNER ANTITRUST THE PROCESS — A bipartisan tech antitrust bill from Sens. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-Minn.) and CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-Iowa) could come to the Senate floor as soon as next month. But it’s facing a sudden burst of major skepticism from a group of vulnerable Democrats, who worry “that the sweeping legislation is too contentious for an election year and would eat up valuable time Democrats should instead be spending addressing voters’ core concerns,” Adam Cancryn and Emily Birnbaum report. The bill, which would stop Big Tech companies from biasing users toward their own products on their platforms, has gotten pushback from Sen. MAGGIE HASSAN’s (D-N.H.) office, along with separate concern from California’s Democrats. PULLOUT FALLOUT — Several Democratic senators penned an open letter to the Biden administration saying its treatment of Ukrainian refugees had thrown into sharp relief its failures in helping Afghans and others, WaPo’s Abigail Hauslohner reports. PLAYBOOKERS IN MEMORIAM — “Kristine Gebbie, first White House AIDS czar, dies at 78,” by WaPo’s Matt Schudel: “Gebbie, who was named by President Bill Clinton as the country’s first coordinator of AIDS policy in 1993, then left the post after a year, saying the job was poorly defined and had little real authority, died May 17.” — “Literary ‘superagent’ Mort Janklow dies at 91,” by AP’s Hillel Italie: “Janklow, a colorful former corporate attorney who raised high the power of the literary agent as he brokered big advances for publishing, political and entertainment leaders, from Ronald Reagan and Al Gore to David McCullough and Barbara Walters, has died.” MEDIA MOVE — Beth Belton is now a supervising news editor on POLITICO’s policy teams. She most recently was content director at WCG Market Intelligence & Insights, and is a USA Today alum. TRANSITIONS — Ben Feller will be a partner at maslansky + partners. He previously was a partner at Mercury, and is a former AP chief White House correspondent. He’s also publishing his first children’s book, “Big Problems, Little Problems.” … Michael Bennett is now senior account executive at Fenton. He most recently was a deputy press secretary for Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.). Correction: Wednesday’s Playbook PM misspelled Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s (D-Ariz.) name. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | 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 politics and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |  |
