The shoes keep dropping in Georgia

By Eli Okun

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. PRESIDENT — Just a few hours after the end of VLADIMIR PUTIN’s 70th birthday, a major explosion today set ablaze the only bridge connecting Crimea to Russia, killing three people and causing parts of the crucial supply route to collapse. Ukraine didn’t take credit in so many words, but some officials bragged about it indirectly. More from CNN … Alleged video of the blast

Herschel Walker’s Georgia Republican Senate bid has suffered a brutal week — and new hits keep coming. | Meg Kinnard/AP Photo

GEORGIA ON MY MIND — You know things are bad when Bloomberg writes a paragraph explaining state election rules for replacing a nominee.

HERSCHEL WALKER’s Georgia Republican Senate bid has suffered a brutal week after an allegation surfaced that he’d paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion — and new hits kept coming Friday. (The answer to the replacement question, by the way: Can’t happen. Walker will be on the ballot.)

NYT’s Maya King, Lisa Lerer and Jonah Bromwich confirmed the reporting of The Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger about the abortion in 2009 — and revealed that the woman now alleges Walker encouraged her to have a second abortion two years later. She refused, giving birth to a now 10-year-old boy with whom she says Walker has had a minimal relationship. (POLITICO has not independently verified the reporting.)

Until Friday, Walker claimed he didn’t know the identity of the woman making the abortion allegation, and his campaign said he never paid for an abortion. Talking to NBC’s Marc Caputo, Walker had a somewhat different message: “I’m not saying she did or didn’t have one [an abortion]. I’m saying I don’t know anything about that. I don’t know.”

Both Walker’s campaign and the woman shared text messages Friday between his wife, JULIE BLANCHARD, and the woman, which lay out an ongoing (and newly strained) relationship: “You know I have continually tried to bridge a better relationship between you and Herschel,” Blanchard wrote after the woman asked if she knew about the abortion.

Sollenberger’s latest story includes new text messages shared by the woman between Walker and their son, whom she says he’s met only thrice. The messages lay out a heartbreaking narrative, apparently showing Walker lying to the boy in July about how many half-siblings he has, and Walker frequently sending unanswered texts that simply say, “Love you.”

“What’s my favorite color?” the boy texted Walker last fall, per Sollenberger. “What grade am I in?And how old am I.” The next day, Walker wrote back, “God bless you, love you.”

For Walker, who’s been a public critic of absentee fathers in the Black community and a hardline abortion opponent, the ongoing barrage of messy family details — and ensuing media circus — could threaten his campaign to unseat Sen. RAPHAEL WARNOCK. One Republican in the state texted Bloomberg’s Billy House an image of a sinking ship.

But, but, but: Don’t count Walker out just yet. Georgia is a newly purple state in a red-tinted year, and in an era of hyper-polarized politics, scandal ain’t what it used to be.

For the first time, DONALD TRUMP is jumping in to boost Walker financially, per Meridith McGraw . MAGA Inc., the new super PAC using Trump’s war chest in the midterms, put down $750,000 on Friday for a new ad that avoids mention of Walker: “From D-Day to drag queen story time, America has lost its way,” it says instead. “Radical Democrats are indoctrinating our children to hate America — opening our borders and crushing working people with taxes.”

And on the campaign trail, Walker is leaning into an unapologetic conservative message attacking excessive “wokeness” in society, AP’s Bill Barrow reports from Emerson. “Walker says those who don’t share his vision of the country can leave, and he blasts his opponent … and the Democratic Party as the real purveyors of division.”

Related reads: The Atlantic’s Ronald Brownstein in Atlanta on the Democratic fight to turn out young voters of color. … Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser on MAGA Inc.’s new TV ads in Arizona and Nevada. … Jessica Piper on why MAGA Inc.’s last-minute entry into the campaign will have a limited impact.

Good Saturday morning from Spring Mills, Pa., where the first thing we heard as we pulled up to a nearby Sheetz was a complaint about the price of gas under President JOE BIDEN. Thanks for reading Playbook. Reach out at eokun@politico.com, or drop a line to the rest of the team: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.

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BATTLE FOR THE SENATE

GRANITE STATE SIREN — The NRSC is pulling $2.7 million in ad spending from New Hampshire, where DON BOLDUC is having trouble catching Sen. MAGGIE HASSAN, Natalie Allison and Burgess Everett report. The Senate GOP campaign arm is instead running an ad in conjunction with Bolduc. But the race is competitive, and the Senate Leadership Fund is still spending big. The NRSC will redirect the money to other top states.

KFILE STRIKES AGAIN — Wisconsin Democrat MANDELA BARNES says in a new ad that it’s a “lie” he wants to defund the police and abolish ICE. But CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck dig up his social media posts from 2018 and 2019 that indicate otherwise: He said “I need that” about an “Abolish ICE” T-shirt and said “the wrong ICE is melting” in remarks to a local group, among other instances.

BUCKS THE TREND — Pennsylvania Democrat JOHN FETTERMAN heads to Bucks County for a rally this weekend, “a test of Fetterman’s working-class appeal in a region known as pro-union,” the Philly Inquirer’s Julia Terruso reports. The bellwether purple county could be pivotal in November.

— More broadly, the tightening race in Pennsylvania puts a lot of pressure on Fetterman’s claim that he could improve Democrats’ performance with rural, working-class white voters, NYT’s Trip Gabriel reports from Murrysville. Republican attacks on his privileged upbringing could undercut his everyman brand. And after his stroke, “his campaign has been forced to pivot from relying on Mr. Fetterman’s charisma before crowds … to a strategy focused heavily on social media and television ads.”

DEPT. OF ADVANCE FAILS — Pennsylvania Republican MEHMET OZ held a fundraiser Thursday at a museum where he stood (and was photographed) in front of one of ADOLF HITLER’s cars, Jezebel’s Susan Rinkunas reports. The California event, hosted by Rep. MATT GAETZ’s (R-Fla.) brother-in-law, also featured NRSC Chair RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.) and Nevada’s ADAM LAXALT. JORDAN PETERSON called in, too.

UP FOR DEBATE — The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has five takeaways from Barnes’ tete-a-tete Friday with Sen. RON JOHNSON. … And The News & Observer has five takeaways from the first showdown between CHERI BEASLEY and Rep. TED BUDD in North Carolina.

— Meanwhile, Oz and Fetterman won’t debate until Oct. 25 — which Oz’s campaign calls too last-minute for many voters. The Inquirer’s Julia Terruso, Jonathan Lai and Jonathan Tamari dig into the numbers and surmise that most voters still won’t have cast a ballot by then, though.

BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE

REDISTRICTING VS. RED WAVE — Illinois Democrats gerrymandered the state’s House map to gain a seat and get some breathing room in retiring Rep. CHERI BUSTOS’ district. But in a tough year for Democrats, they’re now staring down unexpectedly difficult races in the 13th and the 17th, Shia Kapos reports from Chicago. Republicans REGAN DEERING and ESTHER JOY KING are proving to be strong candidates, and Dems worry that “as economic concerns spook voters,” seats they thought they’d taken care of could give the party a fright.

HOT ADS

Via Steve Shepard

— Pennsylvania: The first ad from the Trump-linked MAGA Inc. picks up on Republicans’ crime attacks against Fetterman. He “wants ruthless killers, muggers and rapists back on our streets, and he wants them back now,” a narrator says.

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JOIN WEDNESDAY FOR A TALK ON U.S.-CHINA AND XI JINPING’S NEW ERA:  President Xi Jinping will consolidate control of the ruling Chinese Communist Party later this month by engineering a third term as China’s paramount leader, solidifying his rule until at least 2027. Join POLITICO Live for a virtual conversation hosted by Phelim Kine, author of POLITICO’s China Watcher newsletter, to unpack what it means for U.S.-China relations. REGISTER HERE.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

The Supreme Court justices pose for their official portrait Friday after the first week of the new term. | Alex Wong/Getty Images

9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US

1. BIG ABORTION RULINGS: Some abortions will remain legal in Arizona and Ohio after courts in both states put temporary holds on more restrictive laws Friday. The Arizona Court of Appeals halted enforcement of an 1864 law that bans almost all abortions; a 15-week ban remains in place, but Planned Parenthood said it would begin offering the procedure again, per the Arizona Republic. And an Ohio judge blocked a new fetal “heartbeat” law for now; a 22-week ban remains in place, per the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

2. CLAMPING DOWN: A new White House policy makes it official: The Biden administration is putting tighter limits on drone strikes used for counterterrorism outside of war zones, reversing a Trump-era move, NYT’s Charlie Savage reports. The policy “suggests that amid competing priorities in a turbulent world, the United States intends to launch fewer drone strikes and commando raids away from recognized war zones than it has in the recent past.”

3. LINCOLN LOGS: Nebraska Gov. PETE RICKETTS said Friday he won’t appoint himself to fill Sen. BEN SASSE’s seat if and when he leaves Congress, per the Omaha World-Herald. But political observers still think Ricketts is interested in becoming a senator: He could wait for his successor to tap him for the role instead.

4. HOT DOCS: “How Trump Deflected Demands for Documents, Enmeshing Aides,” by NYT’s Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt: “Mr. Trump, still determined to show he had been wronged by the F.B.I. investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia, was angry with the National Archives and Records Administration for its unwillingness to hand over a batch of sensitive documents that he thought proved his claims. In exchange for those documents, Mr. Trump told advisers [last year], he would return to the National Archives the boxes of material he had taken to Mar-a-Lago … Mr. Trump’s aides never pursued the idea. But … Mr. Trump spent a year and a half deflecting, delaying and sometimes leading aides to dissemble.”

5. MIGRANT FLIGHT FALLOUT: The Miami Herald’s Mary Ellen Klas and Nicholas Nehamas got their hands on documents underpinning Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS’ controversial move to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, which show that he may have violated state guidelines. Records say the mission was “to relocate out of the State of Florida foreign nationals who are not lawfully present in the United States” — but the migrants “never set foot in Florida,” the Herald notes. The documents also show careful planning for the stunt beginning in July.

6. FOR YOUR RADAR: The House Ethics Committee announced Friday that Rep. CAROLYN MALONEY is under investigation. No details have been revealed yet, and the investigation doesn’t necessarily indicate wrongdoing. But the panel is following up on a June referral from the Office of Congressional Ethics for the House Oversight chair, who will leave Congress in January. More from The Hill

7. JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH: The Fulton County, Ga., special grand jury investigation is now asking for testimony from MICHAEL FLYNN, NEWT GINGRICH, ERIC HERSCHMANN and others, per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. They’re all related to the probe into the effort to subvert the 2020 election.

— But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is thwarting some of DA FANI WILLIS’ efforts, indicating that she may not be allowed to force Texans like SIDNEY POWELL and PHIL WALDRON to testify, NYT’s Danny Hakim and Richard Fausset report this morning. “[I]t looks to some Georgia observers like a pattern of Texas Republicans meddling with Georgia when it comes to the fate of Mr. Trump.”

— KELLI WARD, the Arizona GOP chair, may have to hand over her phone records to the House Jan. 6 committee after a judge Friday rejected Ward’s claims trying to put the order on hold, per the AP.

— Whoa: MICHAEL FANONE’s new book alleges that Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) told police officers, “You guys should have shot them all in the head,” referring to Jan. 6 rioters, Nick Wu reports for Congress Minutes.

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8. THE ARIZONA ‘AUDIT’: “Arizona GOP raised record money with misleading pitches on election audit,” by WaPo’s Josh Dawsey and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez: “The text message [from Kelli Ward] suggests that Arizona GOP leaders had no intention of using donations to help pay for the audit effort, despite what it had been telling its supporters in fundraising pleas. In the end, the $6 million audit was bankrolled through a separate fundraising effort by election denier groups, along with $150,000 in initial taxpayer money.”

9. MEDIAWATCH: “News on Statehouses, With a Twist: Covering All 50 at Once,” by NYT’s Katie Robertson: “As he has observed lawmaking across the country, says REID WILSON, a longtime Beltway journalist, he has sensed a journalistic opportunity: covering the biggest trends at statehouses across the country. … This week, the brainchild of his idea, Pluribus News, started publishing — the latest news start-up directing a gaze toward state capitols.”

CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 14 keepers

Stantis - Tribune

GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Ryan Lizza:

— “Dead Man Living,” by The Atlantic’s Elizabeth Bruenig: “What happened when Alabama tried and failed to kill Alan Eugene Miller.”

— “Elon Musk: ‘Aren’t you entertained?’” Financial Times: “The Tesla chief talks to Roula Khalaf about moving to Mars, saving free speech via Twitter — and why ageing is one ‘problem’ that should not be solved.”

— “The Election-Swinging, Facebook-Fueled, Get-Out-the-Vote Machine,” by Wired’s Nancy Scola: “Former Democratic operative Tara McGowan is sinking millions into Meta’s ad network to build Courier Newsroom, a media powerhouse for the left.”

— “Mike Conner v. The Pain,” by Joshua St. Clair in Esquire: “In 2013, a fire-sprinkler engineer fell five stories from the rafters of a church, shattered 108 bones, and almost died. Then began his battle to walk and live again.”

— “How Democracy Died in Weimar,” by Christopher Browning in The Atlantic: “The way Hitler used ‘the politics of legality’ to gain absolute power after a failed coup is an ominous lesson about the fragility of a republic.”

— “A Fireball from the Sands,” by Robert Macfarlane in The New York Review of Books: “Ecocide, toxic masculinity, fear of death, and more: the Epic of Gilgamesh’s themes could be transcribed from yesterday’s newspaper.”

— “At N.Y.U., Students Were Failing Organic Chemistry. Who Was to Blame?” by NYT’s Stephanie Saul: “Maitland Jones Jr., a respected professor, defended his standards. But students started a petition, and the university dismissed him.”

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Jill Biden shared a story of her mother caring for Biden’s 17-year-old friend who’d had a pre-Roe abortion: “Secrecy. Shame. Silence. Danger. Even death. That’s what defined that time for so many women.”

Katie Porter is writing a book, “I Swear: Politics Is Messier Than My Minivan,” coming out in the spring.

Michael Cohen is on TikTok.

Steve Harvey is trying to get Black men to turn out for Stacey Abrams.

Rudy Giuliani apologized for missing a divorce court date, but the judge warned nonetheless: “A sheriff is on notice.”

IN MEMORIAM — “Heritage Mourns the Loss of Phillip N. Truluck”: “Truluck, former Heritage Foundation executive vice president, chief operating officer, and senior adviser, died Oct. 6 … ‘He was an astute policy analyst, the prime mover behind the development of Heritage’s physical presence on Capitol Hill, and the man largely responsible for the personnel recruitment and development system that has enabled Heritage to have such tremendous intellectual influence in the conservative movement and in Washington,’” said Ed Feulner and Barb Van Andel-Gaby.

OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a dinner at Buck’s Fishing & Camping to celebrate the publication of Maggie Haberman’s “Confidence Man” after the author was interviewed by Kaitlan Collins before a packed house at Politics and Prose on Friday night: Olivia Nuzzi, Sally Quinn, Josh Dawsey, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, John Hudson, and Jake and Jennifer Tapper.

— George Washington’s Mount Vernon celebrated the 21st Spirit of Mount Vernon Sunset reception and dinner on the east lawn of the estate Thursday night. The event included a performance from the U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, an auction and fireworks over the Potomac. SPOTTED: Suzanne Youngkin, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, Kathleen Miller, Frank Wolf, Tom Davis, Shannon and Don McGahn, Ed Gillespie, David Whitestone, Matthew Shay, John Bode, Thomas Kuhn, Michelle Korsmo, Mary Rosado, Reince Priebus, and Susan and John Magill.

MEDIA MOVE — Huma Abedin is joining MSNBC as a contributor.

WHITE HOUSE ARRIVAL LOUNGE — Kristina Costa is now deputy assistant to the president for clean energy innovation and implementation. She most recently was senior adviser and speechwriter to Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, and is a Fenway and Obama White House alum.

TRANSITIONS — Mark O’Connell is now VP of government affairs at the Plastics Industry Association. He previously was director of government affairs for Cognizant Technology Solutions. … Brian Devine is now PAC systems manager at AFSCME. He most recently was an account executive at Instil, and is an NGP VAN and DCCC alum. … The Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue has added Emily de La Bruyère and Nathan Picarsic as senior visiting fellows. They are co-founders of Horizon Advisory.

WEDDING — Dana McKinney and David White Jr., via NYT : “Ms. McKinney, 32, who now works as a design critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, is a co-founder of EnFold Collective … and the founder of Studio Kinn … Mr. White, 34, works at the White House Office of Presidential Personnel as a special assistant to the president for National Security Agency personnel. … On Sept. 24, five years to the day of their first date, the couple were wed before 350 guests at Kent Island Resort in Stevensville, Md.”

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. David Kustoff (R-Tenn.) and Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) … Adrienne Watson of the NSC … Rev. Jesse Jackson … Steve Coll of the Columbia Journalism School and The New Yorker … Bill Schneider … National Journal’s Mackenzie Weinger … Dan Dunham … Dan Gallo of MSNBC … Kirk Monroe … Brianne Gorod of the Constitutional Accountability Center … POLITICO’s Katherine Herbert and Andrew Howard … Caroline Nonna Holland … Aaron Hiller of House Judiciary … David Burstein … Shripal Shah of Left Hook … Larry Calhoun of Rep. Kat Cammack’s (R-Fla.) office … Kirk Schwarzbach … Joe Gilson of Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-Iowa) office … Nicole Schlinger … Bully Pulpit Interactive’s Ivanka Farrell … Blain Rethmeier of the Chamber of Digital Commerce … Tom Sheridan … Abdul Dosunmu ... Micah Morris ... Meta’s Riki Parikh ... Dennis Alpert … former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) … Quinn Nii … former HHS Secretary Tom Price … State Department’s Sofia Ramirez … Michael Hershfield … Brian Frosh

THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here):

CBS “Face the Nation”: Kari Lake … Katie Hobbs … Peter Baker … Susan Glasser … Mohamed El-Erian … latest polling with Anthony Salvanto.

CNN “State of the Union”: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin … Bill Richardson … Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). Panel: Mia Love, Nina Turner, Scott Jennings and Bakari Sellers.

FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Stacey Abrams … Jim Gray … Mike Pompeo. Panel: Charlie Hurt, Morgan Ortagus, Susan Page and Juan Williams.

NBC “Meet the Press,” guest-moderated by Kristen Welker: Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) … Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) … Maggie Haberman. Panel: Yamiche Alcindor, Brendan Buck, Maggie Haberman and Jen Psaki.

MSNBC “The Sunday Show”: Denver Riggleman … Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) … Howard Dean … Wes Moore … Wendell Pierce … Sharon Clarke … John Kirby.

ABC “This Week”: John Kirby … retired Adm. Mike Mullen. Panel: Mary Bruce, Terry Moran, Jane Coaston and Yasmeen Abutaleb.

CNN “Inside Politics”: Deuel Ross. Panel: Margaret Talev, Astead Herndon, Laura Barrón-López and David Chalian.

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Correction: Friday’s Playbook misstated Jimmy Draper’s previous job title. He most recently was a staff assistant for the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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The 340B program grew, yet again, hitting a whopping $43.9 billion in sales at the discounted 340B price in 2021. But there has not been evidence of corresponding growth in care provided to vulnerable patients at 340B covered entities. And making matters worse, fresh data show that 340B may actually be driving up costs for some patients and our health care system as whole. The program of today is having the opposite effect of what Congress intended when they created 340B. That’s a problem. It’s time to fix the 340B program. Learn more.

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