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| | | |  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | STENY GETS A WIN; YOUNGKIN’S WEEK GETS WORSE — “U.S. officials pick Greenbelt, Md., for new FBI national headquarters,” scooped by WaPo’s Perry Stein, Devlin Barrett, Jonathan O'Connell and Lateshia Beachum FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: BIDEN’S RED LINE ON ISRAEL AID — As Washington haggles over security aid for Israel and Ukraine — and faces another potential shutdown — the Biden administration is drawing a new line in the sand on what it’s willing to accept from House Republicans. A White House official told Playbook last night that the Biden administration “will not accept a standalone, Israel-only bill that fails to demonstrate America’s commitment to standing up to Putin and his brutal aggression, and that doesn’t provide urgently needed humanitarian assistance.” Any Israel aid bill that fails to include humanitarian aid and money for Ukraine is a no-go for the White House — an escalation of a stance first sketched out after Speaker MIKE JOHNSON introduced an Israel-only funding package offset by cuts to the IRS. Instead, the White House wants more than $100 billion in aid to be split among Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and border funding. The warning comes ahead of the Nov. 17 government funding deadline, with some on Capitol Hill eyeing Israel aid as a way to ease passage of a shutdown-averting stopgap. Instead the White House is holding firm on a clean continuing resolution, believing Johnson has the goodwill inside his conference to deliver one ahead of the deadline. But time is running out. The White House has no preference when it comes to a CR’s length. The Senate seems interested in a short-term one that would go only into December in hopes of forcing action on a catchall fiscal 2024 spending bill before the holidays. Meanwhile, the House has suggested that it prefers a longer CR. Biden aides say the GOP’s proposed “laddered CR” is already dead.
|  Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis participate in the NBC News Republican Presidential Primary Debate at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Nov. 8, 2023. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images | THE TWO-PERSON RACE FOR SECOND PLACE — There were five Republican candidates on the GOP debate stage last night — but there might as well have been only two. NIKKI HALEY was the apparent winner of the foreign policy-dominated conversation in Miami — not just for the former UN ambassador’s command of world affairs in a time of crisis, but for the clapbacks that have become a hallmark of her debate performances. But for the first time across the three debates we’ve seen, RON DeSANTIS had a good night as well. The Florida governor opened by accusing DONALD TRUMP of being a “different guy than he was in 2016” and failing to fulfill key campaign promises. He landed a solid dig at Haley — who’s overtaken him in New Hampshire and South Carolina and is nipping at his cowboy heels in Iowa — for letting China acquire land in South Carolina while she was governor. (And, lucky for him, the NBC moderators didn’t allow her to respond immediately.) The other three candidates on stage didn’t do much to help their cases. VIVEK RAMASWAMY’s constant trolling of Haley — at times in very personal terms — will probably boost her more than help him. The most viral moment for Sen. TIM SCOTT was arguably when the debate was over and reporters got a glimpse of his long-rumored girlfriend. And while former New Jersey Gov. CHRIS CHRISTIE articulated solid arguments about stopping a possible World War III in Ukraine, the real meaning of being “pro-life,” and saving entitlements before they reach insolvency, we have to wonder if he won over any new primary voters. — Related read: “Who won, who lost and who went ‘unhinged’ in Miami,” by POLITICO staff The dynamic underscores that the GOP primary is turning into a two-way race between Haley and DeSantis — but one for second place. Trump, who once again skipped the debate, still leads everyone in polls, and even if the field coalesces behind just one non-Trump candidate, serious doubts remain about whether they’ll be able to stop him. Let’s unpack some of this… HALEY’S BEST NIGHT YET: Of all the candidates onstage, there’s no doubt that Haley took the most arrows. Yet the attacks only underscored her ability to smoothly parry. When Ramaswamy called her “DICK CHENEY in three-inch heels,” she corrected him. “They’re five-inch heels,” she said before looking at DeSantis and saying that she doesn’t wear them “for [a] fashion statement, but for ammunition.” When Ramaswamy accused Haley of hypocrisy because her adult daughter has used TikTok — "You might want to take care of your family first before preaching,” he sniped — Haley went all WILL SMITH on him (minus the slapping): “Keep my daughter's name out of your voice,” she scolded. “You’re just scum.” Haley also threw some elbows herself. She jabbed DeSantis for backpedaling on entitlement reform and accused him of “joining [JOE] BIDEN and [NANCY] PELOSI” in refusing to address the nation’s debt. And after Ramaswamy argued that “Ukraine is not a paragon of democracy,” and that its war with Russia is not representative of “some sort of battle between good and evil,” she was quick with a comeback. “I am telling you: [Russian President VLADIMIR] PUTIN and [Chinese President] XI [JINPING] are salivating at the thought that someone like that can be president,” she scoffed. VIVEK THE SNAKE: Since the first debate, Ramaswamy’s brand has been “chaos agent.” But last night, he took that caricature to a whole new level. He accused the press of rigging the election; attacked the moderators while suggesting that they should be replaced by JOE ROGAN, TUCKER CARLSON and ELON MUSK; even falsely suggested that Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, who is Jewish, is a Nazi. In one telling episode, he singled out RNC chair RONNA McDANIEL for a string of GOP election losses since she took over in 2017, and asked her to step down: “Ronna, if you want to come on stage tonight … look the GOP voters in the eye and tell them you’ll resign, I’ll turn over and yield my time to you.” (NOT SO) GREAT SCOTT: The South Carolina senator was far from the centerpiece of the debate, but he did have some, er, surprising moments, including a rather callous-sounding case for U.S. aid for Ukraine: “It is actually degrading the Russian military. We have been very effective using our resources and our weaponry and the incredibly high price of Ukrainian blood to achieve that objective.”
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Learn how Amazon innovates for sellers. | | | CAREFUL TREADING ON ABORTION: Abortion — perhaps the dominant issue in this week’s elections — went unmentioned for the first 90 minutes of the debate. When it eventually came up, Scott pressed his colleagues to join him in supporting a nationwide ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy without acknowledging the fact that voters rejected that policy Tuesday, including in Virginia, where the issue propelled Democrats to flip the state House and hold the Senate. Scott may not have internalized the warning from the election results, but other candidates did. Asked about abortion’s salience in this week’s elections, Ramaswamy blamed Republicans in Ohio — where voters enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution — for not offering "an alternative amendment" on ballots as a countermeasure, then went on an odd tangent about "sexual responsibility for men." (Wait, what?) Meanwhile, Haley’s past refusal to engage with the possibility of a nationwide abortion ban — which she has insisted is politically impossible to enact — went from looking like a dodge to looking savvy. Last night, she further softened her rhetoric on the matter. “As much as I'm pro-life, I don't judge anyone for being pro-choice,” she said, casting the issue as one best left up to states. Even DeSantis, who signed a six-week abortion ban into law this year, did not reiterate his call for a national ban at 15 weeks. (In fact, earlier yesterday, his campaign manager brushed off questions about that proposal as an “extreme hypothetical being shoved down our throats” during an interview on ABC News Live.) Instead, DeSantis appeared to suggest that states should do things their own way, arguing that while “we're better off when we can promote a culture of life. … I understand that some of these states are doing it a little bit different.” MEANWHILE IN HIALEAH — “Trump says he’s bored by the primary debates, won’t attend the next one,” by Meridith McGraw and Alex Isenstadt: “Trump’s absence from the debates have given them a second-billing feel. And at times Wednesday night, Trump himself seemed to have his eye on a larger contest as well.” Good Thursday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. What, if anything, do you think the debate changed? Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza. DEAN’S LIST — “Dean Phillips hires top Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang advisers,” by WaPo’s Michael Scherer and Tyler Pager: “JEFF WEAVER, an architect of [Sen. BERNIE] SANDERS’s presidential campaigns, has agreed to work as a senior strategist for Phillips, while ZACH GRAUMANN, who managed [ANDREW] YANG’s 2020 campaign, has agreed to serve in a senior role, according to two people briefed on the plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters that have not been announced. “STEVE SCHMIDT — who aided Phillips’s launch and previously served as a top adviser to JOHN McCAIN’s 2008 presidential campaign — plans to decamp from Phillips’s orbit to form an independent super PAC … [which] will focus on supporting Phillips through advertising in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan.”
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- Could Christmas be safe from a shutdown for a change? That’s the upshot of the latest House machinations on a continuing resolution, with Johnson being counseled on the right to back a two-step “laddered” stopgap that would set up staggered deadlines for different parts of the government, while appropriators want him to do a straight punt into 2024. In neither case would a deadline hit before January under the latest thinking, so Hill staffers might actually be able to book holiday travel once a CR passes. More in Huddle
- Several of the House’s most liberal members are facing potential primaries over their positions critical of Israel — most recently Rep. JAMAAL BOWMAN (D-N.Y.), who is reportedly about to face a challenge from Westchester County Executive GEORGE LATIMER. Those embattled members got a partial vote of confidence last night from House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES, who told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner that he’s prepared to expend campaign resources to protect “many” of the incumbents: “That's what House Democratic leadership has traditionally done,” he said. “That's what House Democratic leadership should continue to do."
- Sen. J.D. VANCE’s quest to stake out a new brand of realist defense hawk continues in a new memo, distributed today to his Senate colleagues and obtained in advance by Playbook. The Ohio Republican, who has emerged as a leading skeptic of ongoing support for Ukraine, raises alarms about U.S. stockpiles of key weapons, including the Patriot and Iron Dome air defense systems, and the probability that they might not be sufficient to support a multi-theater conflict — such as simultaneous shooting wars in Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
At the White House Biden will receive the President’s Daily Brief in the morning and depart the White House en route to Rockford, Ill., where he will deliver remarks on union jobs in the afternoon. In the evening, Biden will participate in a campaign reception in Chicago. He will return to the White House later. VP KAMALA HARRIS will travel to Boston to deliver remarks on union jobs in the afternoon and later will attend a campaign reception before returning to D.C. in the evening.
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Issue 1 supporters cheer as they watch election results come in, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, in Columbus Ohio. | Sue Ogrocki/AP | ABORTION ON THE BALLOT — In contest after contest and state after state, Americans are repeatedly and resoundingly showing that they don’t support abortion bans. The victories Tuesday night built on abortion-rights triumphs in Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan last year — yet more evidence that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe is backfiring on conservatives, our colleagues Alice Miranda Ollstein, Megan Messerly and Jessica Piper report. Data deep dive: “Support for abortion cuts across party lines, performing significantly better at the ballot box than Biden and other Democrats. In fact, abortion outruns Biden most in the most Republican areas, according to a POLITICO analysis of election results from the five states that have had direct votes on abortion rights. In those five states — California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio — every county that voted for Biden also voted for abortion rights.” And Republicans seem to be catching on after yet another disappointing showing for the party, NBC’s Sahil Kapur reports: “The National Republican Senatorial Committee ‘is encouraging Republicans to clearly state their opposition to a national abortion ban and their support for reasonable limits on late-term abortions when babies can feel pain with exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother,’ said a source familiar with NRSC strategy.” More top reads:
2024 WATCH
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President Joe Biden walks across the South Lawn before boarding Marine One, Nov. 3, 2023, in Washington. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images | DEMS’ POST-VICTORY WORRIES — While the White House touts Tuesday’s results as proof of an overreaction to Biden’s recent poor poll numbers, there is a budding sentiment among Democrats that this week’s elections could spell some danger for Biden — one way or another. “Tuesday’s results were undeniably good for Democrats. But several strategists and officials who worked on this year’s successful campaigns said they fear there would now be a sense of complacency about November 2024 because of what happened in November 2023,” our colleagues Holly Otterbein, Elena Schneider and Jonathan Lemire report. “Their victories, they warned, didn’t tell us much about the political future of the president, even if they turned on the same hot-button issues that might ultimately help him win again.” And NYT’s Nate Cohn makes the case that both things can be true: “There’s no contradiction between the polling and Tuesday’s election results. There’s not even a contradiction between the polling and the last year of special elections. Put simply: Tuesday’s results don’t change the picture for President Biden heading into 2024.” Cohn continues: “The surveys show millions of voters who dislike Mr. Biden but remain receptive to other Democrats and support liberal causes. The polls also show Democrats with particular strength among the most highly engaged voters, who dominate low-turnout elections like Tuesday’s, while Mr. Trump shows his greatest strength among the less engaged voters who turn out only in presidential races.” More top reads:
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Rep. Dean Phillips speaks with reporters after a Democratic caucus meeting on Capitol Hill, on Oct. 1, 2021, in Washington. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo | THE PHILLIPS-HEAD SCREWDRIVER — Phillips’ last-minute, long-shot presidential bid is causing him some real trouble at his day job, where the Minnesota Democrat’s “fall from grace inside the party is bedeviling colleagues who once respected and even rewarded his bluntness about internal problems,” our colleague Sarah Ferris reports. “Party elders and Biden allies like Rep. JIM CLYBURN (D-S.C.) who pushed to elevate more diverse primary states over white-dominated New Hampshire, are particularly incensed that Phillips has tried to capitalize on their move by exploiting the president’s absence from the ballot in that state. Clyburn, the veteran Black leader, told POLITICO that Phillips’ approach is ‘very, very disrespectful.’” And while Clyburn hasn’t gone so far as to directly appeal to Phillips, the House Democratic leader did. “In a late August phone call, Jeffries informed his friend Phillips that the prospective primary run was starting to attract attention in the party — leaving Phillips out of step with colleagues who’d elected him to the party’s messaging arm, according to two people familiar with the exchange.” More top reads:
- HUNTER BIDEN and JAMES BIDEN, the president’s son and brother, respectively, received subpoenas from House Oversight Chair JAMES COMER (R-Ky.) yesterday as House Republicans push forward with impeachment proceedings. More from Jordain Carney
- China Select Committee Chair MIKE GALLAGHER (R-Wis.) and House Veterans’ Affairs Chair MIKE BOST (R-Ill.) “are calling for the Department of Veterans Affairs to speed up efforts to decrease the agency’s reliance on China for medical supplies,” CNN’s Matt Egan reports.
AMERICA AND THE WORLD THE LATEST IN ISRAEL — “U.S., Israel and Qatar discussing pause in Gaza fighting of up to 3 days, diplomats say,” by NBC’s Dan De Luce, Keir Simmons, Ayman Mohyeldin and Abigail Williams FOR YOUR RADAR — “U.S. Strikes Iran-Linked Facility in Syria in Round of Retaliation,” by NYT’s Eric Schmitt and Helene Cooper TRUMP CARDS TRIAL BALLOON — A new court filing from special counsel JACK SMITH’s team this week reveals that the mob that stormed Congress in Trump’s name will be the centerpiece of his trial, scheduled to begin on March 4, our colleague Kyle Cheney writes. “In a way, Smith is now casting Trump’s trial as a long-awaited collision between two distinct narratives: Trump’s monthslong campaign to use lies about election fraud to pressure state and federal election officials to keep him in power; and the rioters who embraced Trump’s false claims and took violent action on his behalf on Jan. 6.” DAUGHTER DUTY — “Ivanka Trump testifies about loan negotiations that cast doubt on her father’s net worth,” by Erica Orden
| | | | PLAYBOOK IS GOING GLOBAL! We’re excited to introduce Global Playbook, POLITICO’s premier newsletter that brings you inside the most important conversations at the most influential events in the world. From the buzzy echoes emanating from the snowy peaks at the WEF in Davos to the discussions and personalities at Milken Global in Beverly Hills, to the heart of diplomacy at UNGA in New York City – author Suzanne Lynch brings it all to your fingertips. Experience the elite. Witness the influential. And never miss a global beat. BE PART OF THE CONVERSATION. SUBSCRIBE NOW. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Steven Mnuchin and Louise Linton welcomed a child. Dean Phillips had an apology for Bernie Sanders. OUT AND ABOUT — Heather Podesta, founder and CEO of Invariant, celebrated her recent marriage to filmmaker Stephen Kessler with a party last night at The Bazaar by José Andrés. The couple met 11 years ago at Tammy Haddad’s White House Correspondents’ Weekend Garden Brunch, got engaged in 2020 and exchanged vows in an intimate ceremony in New York City last month. After paella and passed hors d’œuvres, the newlyweds stood beneath a floral arch to cut a Cap’n Crunch flavored cake and sip champagne. SPOTTED: Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Jim Himes (D-Conn.) and Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Marc Adelman, Adrienne Elrod, Tammy Haddad, Hilary Rosen, Penny Lee, Megan Murphy, Lisa Edelstein, Steve Clemons, Yebbie Watkins, Gina Adams, Paul Tetreault, Eric Jensen, James Hohmann and Annie Linskey, Cathy Merrill, Juleanna Glover, Don McGahn, Irish Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, Monica Dixon and Robert and Elena Allbritton. TRANSITIONS — Nicole Titus is joining NP Agency as an SVP. She most recently was national grassroots fundraising director for the DCCC’s 2022 cycle. … Lauren Chou will be comms director for Debbie Mucarsell-Powell’s Florida Senate campaign. She most recently was deputy director of campaign comms for EMILY’s List. … … Justin Hakes is now VP of public affairs at the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. He most recently was at the Consumer Data Industry Association. … Victoria Graham is joining NASA’s Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs. She previously was director of operations for Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.). WEEKEND WEDDING — Cally Perkins, comms director for Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-Texas) and a CLF alum, and Will Barry, press secretary for the House Financial Services Committee and a Patrick McHenry alum, got married Saturday in DeBordieu, S.C. They met at a Union Pub happy hour. Pic … Another pic WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Tiffany Angulo Smith, a VP at Targeted Victory, and Judd Smith, a senior manager for Amazon Web Services public policy, welcomed Audrey Ofelia Smith, their first child, on Friday. Pic — Sarah Gargagliano Phillips, owner/editor of the Scout Guide Alexandria and a fitness/fashion blogger, and Casey William Phillips, founder of The Hereford Agency, yesterday welcomed Cash William Phillips, who came in at 6 lbs 10 oz and 19 inches and joins big brother Waylon. Pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: POLITICO’s John Harris ... Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) … Nancy Jacobson of No Labels … Sarah Isgur … Endpoints’ Zachary Brennan … AP’s Matt Brown … POLITICO's Walker Livingston ... Hugh Ferguson … Sunshine Sachs’ Claire Tonneson … Peter Roff … Hunter Hall of the Picard Group … Matthew Ellison … Wisconsin state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski … Marcus Switzer … Geoff Verhoff of Akin Gump … HuffPost’s Arthur Delaney … Peter Lichtenbaum of Covington & Burling … Glenn Gerstell … Matthias Reynolds of Targeted Victory ... The Economist’s Idrees Kahloon … Kendra Kostek … API’s Bethany Aronhalt Williams … former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) … Marc Kimball … former Reps. John Katko (R-N.Y.) and Scott Tipton (R-Colo.) … Joel Seidman … Marie Baldassarre of Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-Calif.) office … Charles Kupperman … David Levine of BerlinRosen … Michael Lowder of Volkswagen Group of America … Will Green of Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) office … Kelsey McEvoy … Bill Arnone of the National Academy of Social Insurance … LaWanda Toney of the Education Department 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 Bethany Irvine and Andrew Howard.
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