McDaniel in the lion’s den

By Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels and Ryan Lizza

With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross

Ronna McDaniel speaks at a campaign event for Mehmet Oz in Malvern, Pa., on Oct. 15, 2022. | Laurence Kesterson, File/AP Photo

The biggest moment yet in the 2024 election cycle happens later this week in Dana Point, Calif., where RNC members will choose their next leader — and incumbent Chair RONNA McDANIEL faces an unexpected fight for a fourth two-year term.

McDaniel is still the favorite, but the race has turned contentious: Attorney HARMEET DHILLON, who backed DONALD TRUMP’s attempt to throw out the 2020 election results and represented him before the House’s Jan. 6 panel, is challenging McDaniel, blaming her for the GOP’s abysmal midterm performance. (MyPillow CEO MIKE LINDELL is also running, but few RNC members take him seriously.)

The race has made for some of the strangest bedfellows we’ve seen in the modern GOP: Dhillon has attracted such Trump diehards as activist CHARLIE KIRK, Arizona GOP Chair KELLI WARD and Stop the Steal organizer CAROLINE WREN, as well as some Never Trumpers who believe that McDaniel is too beholden to Trump.

It seems unlikely there’s enough there to squeeze McDaniel out. She has more than 100 of the 168 RNC members publicly backing her, while Dhillon’s camp claims 60 (most of whom have not gone public). But (1) the bitter tenor of the fight, (2) the enormous stakes for the GOP going into the 2024 elections and (3) the uncertainty of a secret-ballot election have elevated the contest into a political battle royale.

We caught up with McDaniel this weekend ahead of Friday’s decisive vote. She projected two messages: unity and certainty, arguing that Republicans cannot afford division and distraction — and a sudden leadership overhaul — with the first presidential primaries just about a year away.

“We just can’t afford to take our foot off the gas,” she said, projecting confidence she would prevail over Dhillon.

McDANIEL’S PITCH: Rebutting accusations that the RNC fumbled the midterms, McDaniel said that her efforts to build the party infrastructure “made it a better election than it would have otherwise been.”

She deflected blame for the underwhelming 2022 results to individual candidates and campaigns, arguing those blaming her for losses “don’t understand what the RNC’s job actually is.”

“We build the ground game,” McDaniel said, pointing to an overall national turnout where 4 million more Republicans voted than Democrats and where the top-performing statewide candidates in the key presidential battlegrounds of Arizona, Georgia and New Hampshire were Republicans.

That, she said, “tells me that the infrastructure we built made it so a Republican could get to the finish line. But the difference between why one Republican did and didn’t is down to the campaign, the candidate and messaging, which the RNC does not have control over.”

Some of McDaniel’s detractors have compared the RNC to a sports team, arguing that after a losing season, it’s the coach that gets the boot. Said McDaniel, “The coach gets to pick the players, and the coaches call the plays, and the RNC gets to do neither of those things.”

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AN UGLY CAMPAIGN: McDaniel denounced the scorched-earth tactics on display in the RNC campaign, accusing her opponents of spreading “mistruths” about her bribing members and making threats against her supporters. One Dhillon ally published RNC members’ contact information, encouraging GOP voters to hound them to oppose McDaniel, while Kirk, a MAGA activist with a massive following, threatened in an email to RNC members last month to replace them with activists who “better represent the grassroots voice.”

“It’s intentionally inflaming passions based on things that aren’t true,” McDaniel said.

Dhillon has alleged that the ugliness runs both ways. POLITICO first reported earlier this month about a whisper campaign targeting Dhillon’s Sikh faith — one that burst into the open late last week when a Dhillon supporter, North Dakota committeewoman LORI HINZ, emailed the entire RNC membership to allege bigotry in the McDaniel camp.

McDaniel has repeatedly condemned any such insinuations, and she did so again to Playbook — citing attacks she herself has received as a Latter-day Saint: “I deplore it if it’s happening to Harmeet. … I certainly am not condoning it.”

The nastiness bodes ill for 2024, McDaniel warns, and she insisted she’s not only preaching unity but trying to practice it, too.

“I’m not having people attack Harmeet. I’m not giving up her phone number or doxxing people who support her,” she added. “Her campaign reflects exactly what I’m talking about with Republicans attacking other Republicans to the point that we can’t come together after.”

THE TRUMP QUESTION: While Dhillon has won backing from many MAGA stalwarts, a group of Trump skeptics is arguing McDaniel doesn’t push back on Trump enough. In an email to RNC members first reported by WaPo, Tennessee committeeman OSCAR BROCK wrote that “the reality is that every time Donald Trump says jump, Ronna asks, ‘How high?’”

The criticism has put McDaniel in an awkward spot. While she’s privately pushed back on Trump at times, touting that publicly would ruin her chances among the still-Trump-friendly RNC electorate.

Not surprisingly, it’s not a topic she was eager to discuss: “I’m running a unity campaign, and part of that is, as party chair, not attacking other Republicans,” she said. “I just think that’s what the Democrats want us to be doing.”

Nor was she up for questions about Trump dragging down Republicans in the midterms: “I’m not for the blame game at all,” she said. “I mean, he endorsed [Sens.] TED BUDD and J.D. [VANCE], right?”

McDaniel was eager, however, to address claims, recently aired by WaPo, that she has argued to RNC members that she is best equipped to manage Trump — and keep him from splintering the GOP by running as an independent or forming a third party should he lose the nomination.

It’s “just a ridiculous assertion,” she said. “I have known President Trump for six years — there is no way I would ever say I can manage or control” him.

But she acknowledged discussing a new rule that would require any candidate who participates in RNC-sanctioned debates pledge to support the eventual nominee. Such a promise, she said, would include not only Trump but “a lot of people who are saying they’re running and would never support President Trump.”

McDaniel said she is committed to keeping the RNC neutral in the 2024 primary, though her supporters are questioning whether Dhillon will do the same. Some have privately asked members what they think the RNC would look like under Dhillon, who has suggested she will hire MAGA hardliners to run the organization.

Asked about the Trump-y cast surrounding Dhillon, McDaniel declined to engage herself: “That’s for the press to point out,” she said. “I’m just going to speak for myself, which is: The RNC has to stay neutral, and I’ve shown that.”

Good Monday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. If this weekend was any indication of the coming week’s news pace, we’re all going to be needing some caffeine. More importantly: If you’re a voting RNC member, we want to hear from you. Email: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

People participate in the annual National Women's March on Sunday, Jan. 22, in Washington, D.C. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

ALL POLITICS

DEMOCRACY WATCH — The false election fraud conspiracy theories afflicting large swaths of the electorate are continuing to reverberate across the infrastructure of American elections, Zach Montellaro reports this morning, and they’re coming for some of the fundamental, nonpartisan underpinnings of the system.

“The latest example comes from Alabama and its newly elected secretary of state, WES ALLEN. His first official act upon taking office earlier this month was unusual: The Republican fulfilled a campaign promise by withdrawing Alabama from an obscure interstate compact that helps states maintain voter rolls, citing data security concerns,” Zach writes. The compact has been a “genuine bipartisan success story” — but it came under attack from the likes of The Gateway Pundit, and Louisiana led the way in pulling out.

IN THE WILDERNESS — Florida Democrats got thrashed in November — and if you thought that would spur the party to regroup and fight back, you thought wrong. Instead it’s in “a state of disorder, with no clear leader, infrastructure, or consensus for rebuilding,” WaPo’s Sabrina Rodríguez and Michael Scherer report. Some Democrats see little hope for the party even contesting the Sunshine State in the presidential race next year. And there’s no clear pick for a Senate nominee or, more pressing, a state party chair.

2024 WATCH — Virginia Gov. GLENN YOUNGKIN shocked many when he canceled a potential Ford electric vehicle battery factory in his state, citing its ties to China. But some observers see it as a 2024 play to distance himself from Chinese business links, especially given his own history at the Carlyle Group, NBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald reports. In doing so, Youngkin gave away an expected 2,500 manufacturing jobs as part of the $3.5 billion project.

THE HOTTEST CLUB — The Club for Growth is a crucial MAGA heavyweight, but it’s increasingly unaligned with Trump himself — and DAVID McINTOSH tells Axios’ Josh Kraushaar that most Republicans he talks to want “a new standard-bearer.” The Club is also gearing up to make a big splash in Senate GOP primaries: backing Rep. JIM BANKS over MITCH DANIELS in Indiana, Rep. ALEX MOONEY over Gov. JIM JUSTICE in West Virginia and Rep. MATT ROSENDALE in Montana.

THE WHITE HOUSE

KNOWING JEFF ZIENTS — The incoming White House chief of staff’s time as Covid response czar offers clues to how he might lead the West Wing: with a focus on logistics, operations, implementation and organization, Adam Cancryn reports. Zients, a former corporate executive, won plaudits for his work distributing vaccines and ultimately restoring normalcy to much of the country — and criticism for the ways in which he fell short against a still-circulating virus.

ANDY SLAVITT: “Getting the right decision made and getting it made quickly, that was a hallmark … It’s the unsexy stuff, but he thrives at that.”

— “The decision to pick Zients surprised some internally given that there were differences in Biden’s and Zients’ management styles early on in the administration,” CNN’s Jack Forrest and Kaitlan Collins report. “But Biden was impressed with his job as the coronavirus response coordinator.”

MUSICAL CHAIRS — JEN O’MALLEY DILLON won’t run it back as campaign manager for a Biden reelection bid: She’ll remain in her White House role, focused on political strategy from there, Bloomberg’s Josh Wingrove and Jennifer Jacobs scooped. MIKE DONILON is weighing whether he should leave the White House for the campaign.

DOCU-DRAMA — After classified documents were found at Biden’s think tank in November, his lawyers told the Justice Department that they didn’t think official records from his vice presidency had gone anywhere else, NYT’s Charlie Savage reports. That belief came from the lawyers interviewing people who’d packed up Biden’s office. It also helps clear up why, two months later, more documents are continuing to be found elsewhere.

CONGRESS

A DISH BEST SERVED COLD — House Republicans hated the Jan. 6 committee — but they might borrow some of its tactics as they ramp up oversight and investigations, Jordain Carney and Kyle Cheney report this morning. Democrats set plenty of new precedents in Congress (and ensuing court battles) last session, and some in the GOP are eager to deploy them for their own ends, though moderates want to lower the temperature.

OVERSIGHT AND SOUND — House Oversight Chair JAMES COMER (R-Ky.) tells the Washington Examiner’s Marisa Schultz that he wants to dive into who bought HUNTER BIDEN’s artwork and who donated to the University of Pennsylvania. “We’re trying to figure out who these anonymous sources are that are sending so much money to the Biden family schemes,” Comer said.

COMING OUT SWINGING — Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER plans to take the fight to House Republicans over the debt limit in a floor speech today, his office previewed. “The debt limit is a first big test for House Republicans if they will practice what they preach,” he’ll say. “House Republicans should follow their own new rules to pass their extreme cuts and debt limit bill through regular order — that means committee markups and then open amendments on the floor.”

JUST POSTED — “Early rift over immigration exposes House GOP’s tough path to consensus,” by WaPo’s Marianna Sotomayor and Theodoric Meyer

JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH

IN THE STATES — Democrats in Connecticut, New York, Virginia and elsewhere are introducing statehouse bills to ban people who are convicted of insurrection-related crimes from holding public office or even jobs like police officers, AP’s Maysoon Khan reports from Albany. The bills were inspired by the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, though some are broader in scope. GOP critics call the legislation unnecessary.

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JUDICIARY SQUARE

SCOTUS WATCH — NBC’s Lawrence Hurley examines an interesting protest discrepancy: People who get arrested for interrupting the Supreme Court are subject to much harsher punishment, like a criminal conviction and a night in jail, than those who do so in Congress. The court’s police are considered tougher in such matters than the Capitol Police as they seek to quell an “uptick in disruptions inside the courtroom.”

HISTORY LESSON — “On 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, clerks who witnessed history reflect on ruling,” by NBC’s Mary Pflum and Antonia Hylton

POLICY CORNER

SO MUCH FOR THAT — After some people floated the idea of the Treasury Department minting a trillion-dollar coin to get around the debt ceiling, Secretary JANET YELLEN threw cold water on the prospect yesterday, suggesting the Fed might not play along. “It truly is not by any means to be taken as a given that the Fed would do it, and I think especially with something that’s a gimmick,” Yellen told WSJ’s Andrew Duehren en route to Lusaka, Zambia.

More from Yellen: With an infusion of new funding, Yellen says she has plans for the IRS to be “completely redone,” Reuters’ Andrea Shalal reports from Lusaka.

TOP-ED — U.S. Chamber of Commerce President SUZANNE CLARK vows to go on offense against the FTC’s plan to ban non-compete clauses, she writes in a WSJ op-ed. Clark trains her ire more on the FTC’s arrogation of significant regulatory power than on the specific proposal itself, writing that the commission under chair LINA KHAN “isn’t content to live under the legal strictures imposed by elected representatives and the Constitution.”

WAR IN UKRAINE

HAPPY TANKS-GIVING — Germany’s foreign minister signaled a potential softening in its opposition to sending German-made tanks to Ukraine, saying yesterday that Berlin wouldn’t block Poland from delivering the Leopard 2 tanks it has, per the AP. “If we were asked, we would not stand in the way,” ANNALENA BAERBOCK said on French TV. Ukraine has been pleading for Western tanks, but its allies couldn’t hammer out an agreement at a meeting last week.

FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE — Russian military intelligence officers were behind a recent series of letter bombs in Spain aimed at the U.S. Embassy, the Spanish PM and more, U.S. and Western allies have assessed, NYT’s Edward Wong, Julian Barnes and Eric Schmitt report. “The apparent aim of the action was to signal that Russia and its proxies could carry out terrorist strikes across Europe.”

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

PAGING JOE MANCHIN — “Germany and France Push for Huge Spending to Compete With U.S.,” by Bloomberg’s Ania Nussbaum, Samy Adghirni and Michael Nienaber: “German Chancellor OLAF SCHOLZ and French President EMMANUEL MACRON met in Paris Sunday to discuss how the European Union should respond to President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act … The EU’s response will likely include giving member states more latitude to invest in their own companies and would redirect existing EU money to firms in need. They’ll also discuss how far-reaching any plan will be and, importantly, if it will include new money.”

BIG INVESTIGATION — “U.S. Investigators Uncovered Alleged Corruption by Mexico’s Former Security Minister Years Before He Was Indicted,” by ProPublica’s Tim Golden

WAR REPORT — U.S. forces captured two Islamic State members in Syria, Central Command said yesterday. It was an “air and ground assault,” per Reuters.

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

TRAGEDY IN MONTEREY PARK — More information emerged yesterday about the mass shooting that killed 10 people at an Los Angeles-area dance studio Saturday night: Police said HUU CAN TRAN was the assassin, and he killed himself yesterday as authorities closed in, per the L.A. Times. Details on the 72-year-old’s motive or background are not yet clear.

ON WISCONSIN — On the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, advocates for abortion rights demonstrated across the country yesterday. But the National Women’s March made Madison, Wis., its focal point this year “to put the state’s upcoming Supreme Court race under a political magnifying glass, underscoring the election’s importance to the abortion debate,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Molly Beck reports. Organizers emphasized that they’re taking the fight principally to state capitals now.

AILING AMERICA — “Families Struggle as Pandemic Program Offering Free School Meals Ends,” by NYT’s Linda Qiu

X MARKS THE FRAUGHT — “Sanders’ Latinx ban wades into community’s generational rift,” AP

MEDIAWATCH 

HEADS UP — “‘Fox News in Spanish’: Inside an upstart media company’s big plans to impact the 2024 election,” by Natalie Allison: “Americano Media, which launched in March, is embarking on an aggressive expansion plan to shape center-right Hispanic opinion during the upcoming election cycle. The network has hired more than 80 Latino journalists and producers, are expanding their radio presence to television, and by the end of the year will have studios in Miami, Las Vegas and D.C. with reporters covering the White House, Congress and embedding in 2024 presidential campaigns.”

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Katherine Clark’s daughter was arrested on an assault charge after clashing with a cop at a Boston protest. Clark called it “a very difficult time in the cycle of joy and pain in parenting.”

George Santos’ official Congress app entry says there’s “little else known about Santos that is verifiably true.”

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Former Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) is joining Mercury as co-chair of the D.C. office and head of the Illinois team.

— Clarissa Rojas is now deputy comms director/national press secretary for the House Democratic Caucus. She previously was comms director for Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.), and is a Darren Soto and Nanette Diaz Barragán alum.

— Max Levy is now director of digital strategy at Democracy Forward. He most recently was digital fundraising director for Abrams for Georgia and One Georgia, and is an EPA and Biden campaign alum.

TRANSITIONS — Jason Prince is now a partner in Crowell & Moring’s international trade and financial services practices. He previously was chief counsel to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. … Adam Weissmann has launched Underscore Strategies, a speechwriting and strategic comms consultancy. He previously was adviser and speechwriting director for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. … Lyman Munschauer is now an EVP at Targeted Victory. He most recently was chief marketing officer at the NRCC. …

… Reed Linsk is now a senior professional staff member for the House Transportation and Infrastructure GOP. He previously was director of government affairs at the Cruise Lines International Association, and is a Duncan Hunter and David Dreier alum. … Beverly Hart is joining the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as director of federal affairs. She previously was legislative director for Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.). … Arielle Thomas is now a government relations manager at NEC Corporation of America. She previously was a government relations and policy manager at Greater Washington Partnership, and is a Commerce and Rush Holt alum.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: POLITICO (16) … Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) … Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) … Norah O’Donnell … POLITICO’s Alex Ward, Annie Snider, Joe Anuta and Jordan Bowen … Scott Mahaskey … HHS’ Loyce Pace …Rolling Stone’s Patrick Reis … Brian Cooke of the Institute of International Education … Bryn Woollacott of Rep. Doug Lamborn’s (R-Colo.) office … Urban Alliance’s Isabella Ulloa … Mike Gallagher of Intrepidity… Erika Gudmundson of Good Comms … Matt Simeon of Locust Street Group … Missy Foxman of the Entertainment Software Association … CNN’s Aaron Pellish … Erik Olson … Laura Keiter of Media Matters for America … Annie Shuppy … Edelman Global Advisory’s Daniel Workman … Tom Daffron … Harvard Institute of Politics’ Amy Howell … Scott Pace … Secure Democracy’s Jay Riestenberg … Antonio Villaraigosa … former Reps. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) (91), Joe Baca (D-Calif.) and Marty Russo (D-Ill.) … Suzanne Kennedy … American Cleaning Institute’s Ryan Heisler … Matthew Hoppler

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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.

Correction: Sunday’s Playbook misspelled the name of former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.

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