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The unofficial guide to official Washington. | | | | |  | | By Ryan Lizza , Rachael Bade and Eugene Daniels | With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross
|  Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) listens to testimony during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing concerning cartels and the U.S. heroin epidemic, on Capitol Hill, May 26, 2016. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images | | | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW: SEN. ED MARKEY — On Thursday, as the 5 p.m. deadline approached for employees to decide whether they were “hardcore” enough to stick it out at ELON MUSK’s Twitter, we sat down with Musk’s chief Washington tormentor: Sen. ED MARKEY (D-Mass.). By the end of our conversation, there were two big developments. 1. On the West Coast, reports started to trickle out that Musk’s ultimatum had backfired spectacularly. Fortune Magazine’s Kylie Robison said up to 75% of Musk’s employees had decided to abandon the company. The Verge reported that “given the scale of the resignations this week, they expect the platform to start breaking soon,” adding: “[T]he team that maintains Twitter’s core system libraries that every engineer at the company uses is gone after Thursday. ‘You cannot run Twitter without this team,’ the employee said.” Twitter’s offices were closed until Monday, and reports suggested Musk was paranoid that departing employees might try to sabotage the company. Platformer’s Zoë Schiffer said the people behind Musk’s signature verification project, which was scheduled to relaunch on Nov. 29, were also out. “This is going to look like a very different company tomorrow,” she reported. Insider’s Kali Hays reported “that the entirety of Twitter’s payroll department has resigned/not elected to sign up for Elon’s Twitter 2.0.” The Times reported that Musk frantically tried to retain top talent in hastily arranged Zooms. “As the 5 p.m. deadline passed, some who had called in began hanging up, seemingly having decided to leave, even as Mr. Musk continued speaking,” according to NYT’s Ryan Mac, Mike Isaac and David McCabe . The Twitter story eclipsed House Speaker NANCY PELOSI’s retirement from Democratic leadership as the top story on the Times and the Washington Post websites. A former Twitter employee told the Post : “I know of six critical systems (like ‘serving tweets’ levels of critical) which no longer have any engineers. There is no longer even a skeleton crew manning the system. It will continue to coast until it runs into something, and then it will stop.” That shocking quote kicked off a wave of users declaring the site dead. Perhaps that’s an exaggeration. “The best people are staying,” Musk insisted late Thursday , “so I’m not super worried.” Assuming the site survives, it will be facing a new level of scrutiny from Congress and regulators. 2. The second big development was that Markey and six Democratic colleagues wrote to the Federal Trade Commission asking it to crack down on Twitter under Musk. “We write regarding Twitter’s serious, willful disregard for the safety and security of its users, and encourage the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate any breach of Twitter’s consent decree or other violations of our consumer protection laws,” the senators wrote. They accused Musk of taking “alarming steps that have undermined the integrity and safety of the platform” and pursuing a “growth-at-all-costs strategy” that has left users exposed to “fraud, scams, and dangerous impersonation.” Markey has emerged as the most public antagonist of Musk in Washington. When Musk briefly sold blue checkmarks, Twitter’s symbol for verified users, Markey teamed up with the Washington Post to test the system. A Post columnist easily set up a fake Markey account that impersonated the senator without any internal controls. Other users spoofed Eli Lilly, GEORGE W. BUSH, Tesla, and Musk himself before Musk pulled the plug on the program. Markey sent Musk a letter demanding answers about the episode. How, he wanted to know , was it so easy to impersonate the senator? “Perhaps,” Musk mischievously tweeted in reply , “it is because your real account sounds like a parody?” Markey was not amused. “One of your companies is under an FTC consent decree,” he responded a few hours later . “Auto safety watchdog NHTSA is investigating another for killing people. And you’re spending your time picking fights online.” Then he added this warning: “Fix your companies. Or Congress will.” The full interview with Markey can be found here on this week’s episode of the Playbook Deep Dive podcast . Here are some key excerpts … — Markey on his initial concerns about the Musk takeover: “I wasn’t sure that he understood the role that Twitter plays in our society and the relationship that it has with the American people. I wasn't sure that he understood that compared to rocket science, democracy is much more complicated , and that this tool — this global town square that is Twitter — is essential to our society operating in terms of people's ability to communicate, especially their political views. And I don't think he understood that there's a reason why Twitter had content moderation personnel … to make sure that the technology was not abused. I wasn't sure that he understood that there's a Dickensian quality to this technology that it can enable; it can ennoble, but it can also degrade and debase.”
|  | — Markey on why he cooperated with the Washington Post piece: “We agreed that it was an excellent idea in order to show that if a United States senator could be impersonated, then anybody could be impersonated. And there were no guardrails, there were no checks, there was no system in place in order to make sure that the public could not be deceived. So I thought that it was an important way to say to the public — but say back to Elon Musk — that this system is broken, it's easily compromised, people are going to get hurt and you have to pull it down and you have to understand what went wrong and that you should not put it back up again until you can explain what the safeguards are going to be.” — Markey on criticisms of his tweet threatening Twitter: “A private sector company is not free to engage in any activity it wants to that enhances its profits even if it harms individuals within our society. No company is free to do that. And so to the extent to which Tesla wants to put autonomous vehicles on the street that can harm people, it is the job of Congress to make sure that if they put those vehicles on the street that they are safe. We have to ask the questions on behalf of innocent Americans, so that the profit-making goals of the company do not result in harm to the general public, the innocent general public. The same thing is true for Twitter.” — Markey on free speech concerns about regulating Twitter: “If Joe Blow says ‘Don't wear a mask. You don't need one. Don't worry about Covid,’ then people can see it's Joe Blow saying, ‘Don't wear a mask.’ If Joe Blow for $8 is able to say it's the CDC, and Twitter certifies that it's the CDC, and Joe Blow then says ‘Don't wear a mask,’ but it says CDC on the tweet, that's dangerous. That's Twitter-enabled. So that's different from speech. Joe Blow can say whatever Joe Blow wants to say within certain boundaries … but you can't say it if it's coming as a representation that it's Eli Lilly or the CDC or other entities that some people trust. That's different. And if Twitter enables that misrepresentation, then that can be harmful.” — On whether he wants Musk to come testify before Congress: “Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. We'll see what his response to my letter is. We'll see what his announcement is on Nov. 29. We'll see what the guardrails are, what the safeguards are, whether or not he has heard the American public in terms of what their expectations are for Twitter moving forward. And at that point, we’ll be able to determine whether or not we're going to need actual public hearings. So much will [depend] on what happens by the end of this month.” Listen to the full episode … and be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . Good Friday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line by 5 p.m. if you are a hardcore Playbook reader: Rachael Bade , Eugene Daniels , Ryan Lizza .
| | | | POLITICO APP USERS: UPGRADE YOUR APP BY DECEMBER 19! We recently upgraded the POLITICO app with a fresh look and improved features for easier access to POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Starting December 19, users will no longer have access to the previous version of the app. Update your app today to stay on top of essential political news, insights, and analysis from the best journalists in the business. UPDATE iOS APP – UPDATE ANDROID APP . | | | | | BREAKING OVERNIGHT — “North Korea test-fires ICBM with range to strike entire US,” by AP’s Hyung-Jin Kim and Mari Yamagughi: “The United States quickly condemned the launch and vowed to take ‘all necessary measures’ to guarantee the safety of its mainland and allies South Korea and Japan.” TALK OF THIS TOWN — Michael Schaffer’s latest Capital City column: “The Political Fight Over the National Mall’s Most Exclusive Real Estate” THE MILLION-DOLLAR QUESTION — “‘A Face-Eating Dragon’: Can Trump Do to DeSantis What He Did to Bush?” by POLITICO Magazine’s Michael Kruse: “[T]he trouble for DONALD TRUMP is that the Trump of today is not the Trump of 7½ years back, and neither is RON DeSANTIS now the same as JEB BUSH was then. In the estimation of aides and advisers to all three men and dozens of insiders, analysts and operatives from Florida to Washington and beyond, DeSantis is arguably stronger than he’s ever been, while Trump is arguably weaker than he’s ever been.” END OF AN ERA — Pelosi made it official on Thursday, announcing that she would step down from her post in Democratic leadership and take her seat on the back benches of Congress to make way for “a new generation” of party leaders as Republicans are set to reclaim control of the House. We covered the news as it broke in Playbook PM , but here are the can’t-miss reads on her history-making career: — The Pelosi legacy, part I: “She is perhaps more proud of a milestone bigger than her power of persuasion: being the first person since SAM RAYBURN in 1955 to lose the gavel, then claw it back,” writes Sarah Ferris . “By the time she leaves leadership, Pelosi will have steered the party through a tumultuous two decades that started with the Iraq war and ran through the 2008 recession, the Iran nuclear deal, a pandemic and the fall of Roe v. Wade. She will almost certainly maintain her record of having never lost a floor vote on legislation.” — The Pelosi legacy, part II: “The legislative accomplishments range from massive expansions of health care to hundreds of billions of new dollars to fight climate change. She led the response to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and she gaveled shut two impeachment roll calls of Donald Trump,” WaPo’s Paul Kane writes before sharing this staggering statistic : “She estimates that she had to raise about $1 million a day, five days a week, and aides believe she’s raised nearly $1.3 billion for Democratic campaigns the past 20 years.” — Pelosi on her new role: “I have no intention of being the mother-in-law in the kitchen, saying, ‘My son doesn’t like the stuffing that way. This is the way we make it,’” Pelosi told reporters Thursday. But as the S.F. Chronicle’s Joe Garofoli and Shira Stein write , “it will be hard for someone who dominated the House Democratic caucus for two decades to suddenly recede into the back benches.” Related: “Dems set to mostly avoid leadership battles as Pelosi departs,” by Nicholas Wu CLICKER — “Portrait of a Speaker: Nancy Pelosi’s Most Enduring Moments,” by NYT’s Catie Edmondson
| | PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN’S FRIDAY:
10:15 a.m.: The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief.
1:30 p.m.: Biden will deliver remarks and meet with business and labor leaders, with Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN also in attendance.
Press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE will brief at 2:45 p.m.
VP KAMALA HARRIS’ FRIDAY (all times Eastern):
9:15 p.m.: The vice president will participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders Retreat in Bangkok, Thailand. | | PHOTO OF THE DAY
|  Nancy Pelosi receives a standing ovation as she announces she will not seek reelection to Democratic leadership in the next Congress on Thursday, Nov. 17. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images | | | PLAYBOOK READS | | MORE MIDTERMS FALLOUT STILL UNCALLED — “Republican Boebert’s tight race likely headed to recount,” by AP’s Jesse Bedayn in Denver: “With nearly all votes counted, the incumbent [Rep. LAUREN] BOEBERT leads Democrat ADAM FRISCH by 0.16 percentage points, or 551 votes out of nearly 327,000 votes counted.” STILL UNWILLING — “Lake refuses to concede in Arizona governor’s race she lost,” by AP’s Jonathan Cooper THE WHITE HOUSE ON THE WAY OUT — Two of Biden’s top economic lieutenants, BRIAN DEESE and CECILIA ROUSE, are preparing to exit the administration, Bloomberg’s Nancy Cook scoops . Deese is expected to step away from his post as director of the NEC “sometime next year, most likely in the spring or summer.” And Rouse, who was the first Black chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, will leave “early in 2023 to return to Princeton University.” Who’s taking over: Some in the administration are discussing Deputy Treasury Secretary WALLY ADEYEMO to take Deese’s place, but GENE SPERLING is also seen as a contender. BEHIND THE SCENES — “Inside the White House’s months of prep-work for a GOP investigative onslaught,” by CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, Priscilla Alvarez, Jeremy Herb, Sean Lyngaas, Zachary Cohen and Kylie Atwood CONGRESS GOING TO THE MATTRESSES — “‘You’ve gotta have a war every five or 10 years,’” by Burgess Everett: “It’s not every day that a senator quotes a famous mob movie to describe the state of his political party after a week of infighting. ‘You’ve gotta have a war every five or 10 years to get rid of the bad blood,’ Sen. JOHN KENNEDY (R-La.) said, paraphrasing a line from ‘The Godfather’ to paint a picture of Senate Republicans. ‘And then you start over.’” THE NEW MAJORITY — “Far-right House Republicans, led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, seek to cut off Ukraine aid,” by CNN’s Melanie Zanona WARREN TURNS THE SCREWS ON SBF — “‘Greed and deception.’ Elizabeth Warren demands Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX turn over trove of records,” by CNN’s Matt Egan MORE POLITICS ZELDIN EYES RNC CHAIRMANSHIP — “Zeldin moves closer to bid for GOP chair,” by Holly Otterbein: “[Rep. LEE] ZELDIN , whose strong performance in the New York governor’s race last week may have helped the GOP take back the House, emailed committee members Thursday about his potential bid. The email, first obtained by POLITICO, said that he is ‘very seriously considering’ running for leadership of the party. ‘It is time for our party to retool, transform, win back the Presidency in 2024, expand our number of Republican held seats in Congress, and elect the maximum number of down ballot races across the country,’ Zeldin said in the message.” 2024 WATCH NEW JOHN HARRIS COLUMN — “Trump Is No Longer Enjoying Himself — And It Shows” : “The 2022 version of Trump is less fun and less interesting than the person who rode the golden escalator seven years ago.” CLIP AND SAVE — “Whitmer has ‘no interest in going to D.C.,” by Joey Cappelletti and Will Weissert in Lansing, Mich. TRUMP CARDS AT THE TRUMP ORG TRIAL — “Trump Organization Finance Chief Details the Birth of Tax-Fraud Scheme,” by NYT’s Jonah Bromwich, Ben Protess and Lola Fadulu: “The criminal trial of Donald J. Trump’s family business took an emotional turn Thursday as one of the former president’s most loyal executives laid bare the machinery of a sprawling tax fraud, scoring points for both prosecution and defense during hours of illuminating testimony. The executive, ALLEN H. WEISSELBERG, several times bolstered Manhattan prosecutors’ contention that the scheme benefited not just himself, but the Trump Organization. He testified that the off-the-books luxuries he and other executives received saved the company money in taxes.” FOR YOUR RADAR — “Writer Who Accused Trump of Rape to File New Defamation Lawsuit,” by NYT’s Benjamin Weiser FOLLOW THE MONEY — “GOP operative found guilty of funneling Russian money to Donald Trump,” by WaPo’s Rachel Weiner: “JESSE BENTON, 44, was pardoned by Trump in 2020 for a different campaign finance crime, months before he was indicted again on six counts related to facilitating an illegal foreign campaign donation. He was found guilty Thursday on all six counts.” JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH FULL STEAM AHEAD — “Jan. 6 panel brushes off Trump 2024 in critical final sprint,” by Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu: “The select committee is preparing to make some of its weightiest decisions — ones that could not only provide new evidence about Trump’s attempt to subvert the election, but also spoon-feed his political rivals plenty of attack fodder.” POLICY CORNER THE LOAN LURCH — “Biden Administration to Make It Easier to Dismiss Student Loans in Bankruptcy,” by WSJ’s Gabriel Rubin AMERICA AND THE WORLD GRINER BEGINS SENTENCE — “Griner has begun serving sentence in Russian penal colony,” by AP’s Eric Tucker THE SAUDI SHIELD — “U.S. moves to shield Saudi crown prince in journalist killing,” by AP’s Ellen Knickmeyer and Matthew Lee: “The Biden administration declared Thursday that the high office held by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince should shield him from lawsuits for his role in the killing of a U.S.-based journalist, a turnaround from Joe Biden’s passionate campaign trail denunciations of Prince MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN over the brutal slaying. The administration said the prince’s official standing should give him immunity in the lawsuit filed by the fiancée of slain Washington Post columnist JAMAL KHASHOGGI and by the rights group he founded, Democracy for the Arab World Now.” CLIMATE FILES — “Climate talks hit ‘breakdown’ over finance, fossil fuels as time dwindles,” by WaPo’s Sarah Kaplan, Evan Halper and Timothy Puko in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt BEYOND THE BELTWAY DeSANTIS DOWNLOAD — “‘Positively dystopian’: Florida judge blocks DeSantis’ anti-woke law for colleges” by Andrew Atterbury TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week”: Peter Baker, Leigh Ann Caldwell and Errin Haines. SUNDAY SO FAR … ABC “This Week”: Paul Ryan. Panel: Mary Bruce, Heidi Heitkamp, Ramesh Ponnuru and Rachael Bade. CBS “Face the Nation”: Mike Pence. FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) … Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) Panel: Guy Benson, Josh Kraushaar, Jeff Mason and Marie Harf. CNN “Inside Politics”: Panel: Nia-Malika Henderson, Jonathan Swan, Margaret Talev and Jonah Goldberg. NBC “Meet the Press”: Panel: Peter Baker, Brendan Buck, Kimberly Atkins Stohr and Anna Palmer. MSNBC “The Sunday Show”: Olivia Troye … Miles Taylor … Joan Walsh.
| | | | Less than one month to go to our POLITICO Live’s Sustainable Future Week! From November 29 to December 1, we will delve into climate geopolitics, the circular economy, green energy, mobility, and tech. Limited spots to join us in Brussels for exclusive closed-door debates and networking moments with top policymakers and industry leaders. Find out who is joining us and register today . | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Alexander Hamilton was arrested . Nancy Pelosi insisted she really likes hot dogs for lunch . SPOTTED: Reps.-elect Tom Kean Jr. (R-N.J.), Erin Houchin (R-Ind.) and Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.), and Reps. Brad Finstad (R-Minn.) and Mike Flood (R-Neb.) addressing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce board meeting on Thursday along with Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Former Sen. Chris Dodd is joining the State Department as special presidential adviser for the Americas. The new role comes after he served as special adviser for the ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles earlier this year. In his new role, Dodd will work to “advance the implementation of key initiatives” Biden laid out at the summit, per the State Department. “Additionally, he will support preparations for the upcoming Cities Summit of the Americas in Denver in April 2023.” WHITE HOUSE ARRIVAL LOUNGE — Radha Adhar is now special assistant to the president in the office of legislative affairs at the White House. She most recently was director of legislative affairs at the Council on Environmental Quality. TRANSITIONS — Noah Yantis is now executive director of the Western Caucus. He previously served as legislative director for the late Rep. Jim Hagedorn (R-Minn.) and is a Mike Bost and John Moolenaar alum. … Andy Oare has joined Shift5 as head of federal marketing. He most recently was director of digital media at the Defense Department. … Steven Concar is now chief of staff for Rep.-elect Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.). He most recently was legislative director for Rep. Brian Mast (R-Flori.) ENGAGED — Jay Tilton, Senate Appropriations committee press secretary, proposed to Heather Szilagyi , a legal fellow at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on the Speaker’s Balcony at the Capitol. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — John Shelton, policy adviser at Advancing American Freedom, and Katelyn Shelton, senior policy adviser at Institute for Women’s Health, welcomed Virginia Claire Shelton yesterday. Pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) … NYT’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg … POLITICO’s Matt Wuerker, Hailey Fuchs, Brooke Sommers and Heidi Przybyla … WaPo’s Theo Meyer … Megyn Kelly … Dan Sadlosky of Raytheon Technologies … Tom Namako of NBC News … Paige Hutchinson of Rep. Colin Allred’s (D-Texas) office … Brian Forest of Arboreal Communications … Drew Brandewie of Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) office … Robert Dougherty of Rep. Pat Ryan’s (D-N.Y.) office … NBC’s Morgan Radford … Ryan Caldwell of J.A. Green & Co. … Brannon Rains of the House Energy and Commerce GOP … Carrie Matthews … former Reps. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) and Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) … Abby Tinsley … Karen Dunn … Deirdre Schifeling … Amber Manko … Abigail Marone … former South African Ambassador Lana Marks … Adali Hernandez of the Trevor Project … Ace Smith … Erica DeVos 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 producers Setota Hailemariam and Bethany Irvine. | | | | 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 political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |  |
