NEW … Get up, get ready and call your sources. MARK MEADOWS is expected on Capitol Hill today for a meeting with Senate Republican leaders as they try to craft a Covid relief bill.
MCCONNELL SPEAKS: “McConnell says stimulus deal could take ‘a few weeks,’ putting millions with expiring jobless aid in limbo,” by WaPo’s Jeff Stein and Erica Werner: “The White House and Democrats have said they want a deal by the end of the month, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suggested Friday that reaching an agreement could take several weeks, a timeline that could leave many unemployed Americans severely exposed.
“‘Hopefully we can come together behind some package we can agree on in the next few weeks,’ McConnell said at an event in Ashland, Ky.” WaPo
THREE PEOPLE TO WATCH TOMORROW: MARK MEADOWS is on ABC’s “This Week,” Treasury Secretary STEVEN MNUCHIN is on “Fox News Sunday” and NANCY PELOSI is on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
THE STATE OF TRUMP’S CAMPAIGN is a bit like the state of the Covid relief talks: behind, stalled and not moving. Polls have him behind in several battleground states; he had to cancel the Republican convention, one of the few moments before the election to inject energy for his supporters; and GOP allies are publicly calling for him to put forward a clear and concise plan to combat the coronavirus that is ravaging the country.
THE NEW 2020 BATTLEGROUND: Culture wars in the suburbs. The Trump team is bringing its “law and order” messaging directly to middle America, linking JOE BIDEN to anarchy in the streets. It’s a bit of a tough message since Trump is the one in the White House as protests are erupting in cities across the country. Tina Nguyen on how Trump is using unrest in Portland as a campaign ad
IT’S NOT GOING TO BE EASY. Trump has a lot of ground to recover. Recent polls have shown Trump could be hit hard in the suburbs, which could upend not only his own attempt for a second term, but the future of the GOP.
— TO WIT: DAVID SIDERS: “Donald Trump’s suburban horror show”: “It was in the suburbs two years ago that Democrats built their House majority, ripping through Republican-held territory across the country, from Minnesota and Texas to Georgia, Virginia and Illinois. It would be bad enough for the GOP if that had been a temporary setback. But with the prospect of a second straight collapse in the suburbs this year, it is beginning to look like a wholesale retreat.
“‘We can’t give up more ground in the suburbs nationally without having a real problem for our party,’ said Charles Hellwig, a former chair of the Republican Party in Wake County, N.C., describing a landscape in which ‘every year, every month, every day, we get a little bluer.’”
— “Trump plays on fears in play for the suburbs,” by AP’s Sara Burnett and Michael Rubinkam: “In tweets, campaign ads and new policies, Trump is trying to win over suburbanites by promising to protect their “beautiful” neighborhoods from the racial unrest that has gripped some U.S. cities this summer. He’s sent federal agents to stem violence in cities, warned of a way of life being “obliterated,” and raised the prospect of falling property values.
“It’s a strategy with deep roots in presidential politics, racist overtones and some record of success. But even some GOP strategists and Republican voters note it doesn’t account for the rapid demographic changes in the suburbs and may be misreading the top concerns of voters he’s trying to retain.”
— DEEP DIVE: “Operation Diligent Valor: Trump showcased federal power in Portland, making a culture war campaign pitch,” by WaPo’s Marissa J. Lang in Portland, Ore., Josh Dawsey, Devlin Barrett and Nick Miroff
MEANWHILE, DOWN BALLOT — “House GOP’s pleas to Republican National Committee for financial help go unanswered,” by WaPo’s Rachael Bade, Josh Dawsey and Michelle Ye Hee Lee: “Senior House Republicans are pleading with the deep-pocketed Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign to provide financial help as Democrats vastly outraise the GOP, but top campaign officials are so far declining to commit.
“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has been prodding the RNC to write a check to the National Republican Congressional Committee — a request he has made multiple times. McCarthy specifically has asked Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, to make a financial commitment to the House GOP, according to several officials familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely describe private conversations.
“But Kushner, who oversees such decisions and has a greater say than RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, has refused thus far, the officials say. While the Trump campaign and the RNC have brought in record amounts of money, some Trump officials see donating to the House as a wasteful investment as the GOP’s chances of reclaiming the majority sharply deteriorate. Their decline in fortunes can largely be attributed to Trump’s sagging support over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the sliding economy.” WaPo
THE LATEST ON SCHOOLS REOPENING — “CDC Issues Coronavirus Guidelines for Reopening Schools,” by WSJ’s Caitlin McCabe and Leslie Brody: “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encouraged U.S. schools to reopen for in-person learning this fall, updating its guidelines as the nation’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 145,500 and several states reported record single-day fatalities.
“The health agency, under pressure from the White House to support the opening of schools, added language in its recommendations stressing the importance of children returning to classrooms. The revised materials also said Covid-19 poses lower risks for children than for adults and that limiting instruction to remote learning could hurt students.
“Yet the CDC also kept most of the previous version of its guidelines, including advising schools that decide to reopen to take steps like increasing physical distance between students, keeping students in small groups and wearing cloth face coverings that would reduce the risk of the coronavirus spreading. School administrators across the nation are now making decisions about whether to reopen fully in person, stick to remote learning or try a combination of the two.” WSJ
Good Saturday morning.
It’s time for updated internet regulations to prevent election interference. We’ve more than tripled our security and safety teams to 35,000 people, added 5-step political ad verification and partnered with security researchers, other tech companies and law enforcement to combat foreign election interference. What’s next? We support updated internet regulations.
NYT’S PETER BAKER — “‘Mugged by Reality,’ Trump Finds Denial Won’t Stop the Pandemic”: “He insisted that it was safe, that people could go back to work, that schools could reopen, that he could hold packed indoor campaign rallies, that he could even hold a full-fledged, boisterous, bunting-filled nominating convention as if all were well.
“Only now, it is all crashing down around President Trump. The president who shunned masks and pressured states to reopen and promised a return to the campaign trail finds himself canceling rallies, scrapping his grand convention, urging Americans to stay away from crowded bars and at long last embracing, if only halfheartedly, wearing masks.
“It may not be the death of denial, but it is a moment when denial no longer appears to be a viable strategy for Mr. Trump. For more than three years in office, he proved strikingly successful at bending much of the political world to his own vision of reality, but after six months the coronavirus pandemic is turning out to be the one stubborn, inalterable fact of life that he cannot simply force into submission through sheer will.”
— ANITA KUMAR: “‘Make America Normal Again’: Trump backers plead for a virus plan”: “President Donald Trump restarted the White House coronavirus briefings. He urged Americans to wear masks. He even scrapped his party’s convention. To many of his own allies, it’s still not enough.
“Trump’s political allies, alarmed by his sinking poll numbers, are warning that the president’s best chance to get reelected is to outline more detailed plans to conquer the coronavirus he keeps trying to wish away. They are advising him to offer people something concrete they can look to as the pandemic surges in dozens of states, eroding months of progress.
“‘The message has to be about the path forward,’ said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally.” POLITICO
CORONAVIRUS RAGING … MORE THAN 4 MILLION Americans have been infected with the coronavirus. MORE THAN 145,000 Americans have died.
— NYT: “73,400 New Coronavirus Cases in U.S., Nearing Single-Day Record”
— LAT: “L.A. County reports 1,900 more coronavirus cases and 44 additional deaths,” by Leila Miller: “Los Angeles County, which has carried much of the toll of the statewide surge of the coronavirus, reported more than 1,900 additional cases Friday and 44 new deaths related to the virus. There are 1,928 people hospitalized with confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county, with 29% in intensive care, according to the county’s Department of Public Health.
“Officials noted that reporting delays from labs contributed to lower numbers reported and that the number of cases is expected to increase in the coming days. So far, L.A. County has identified a total of more than 168,000 cases of the virus and more than 4,300 deaths.”
— “Renters brace for evictions as moratorium ends,” by Katy O’Donnell: “Columbus, Ohio, has turned part of its convention center into an evictions court. Denver is creating a handful of designated campsites for homeless people. And Milwaukee saw a 17 percent increase in eviction filings last month after a state ban lapsed.
“Cities across the country are bracing for a surge of evictions as a four-month federal moratorium that has protected millions of tenants from losing their homes in the middle of the pandemic expires Friday at midnight, with no relief in sight from Congress.” POLITICO
RACE FOR THE VACCINE — “Corporate Insiders Pocket $1 Billion in Rush for Coronavirus Vaccine,” by NYT’s David Gelles and Jesse Drucker: “The race is on to develop a coronavirus vaccine, and some companies and investors are betting that the winners stand to earn vast profits from selling hundreds of millions — or even billions — of doses to a desperate public. Across the pharmaceutical and medical industries, senior executives and board members are capitalizing on that dynamic.
“They are making millions of dollars after announcing positive developments, including support from the government, in their efforts to fight Covid-19. After such announcements, insiders from at least 11 companies — most of them smaller firms whose fortunes often hinge on the success or failure of a single drug — have sold shares worth well over $1 billion since March, according to figures compiled for The New York Times by Equilar, a data provider.” NYT
UNREST IN OREGON GROWS … “Portland protests draw thousands, intense federal response, gas Friday,” by The Oregonian/OregonLive’s Piper McDaniel, Ted Sickinger and Alex Hardgrave: “Thousands of Portlanders amassed late Friday downtown and witnessed another tense face-off with federal officers, who used tear gas and shot impact munitions toward protesters.
“The Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse has been the site of repeated overnight confrontations between federal officers embedded inside and demonstrators gathered outside. Many people pushed the fence and some protesters threw objects over it, and at one point early Saturday, a successive series of fireworks sent from the crowd exploded past the courthouse fence. …
“The looming predictability of tear gas deployed by federal officers has prompted protesters to prepare more each night, in part by bringing leaf blowers to deflect the gas toward officers and stop it from spreading.
“The federal force has also refueled the turnout at the demonstrations, which started in late May after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. At least 4,000 people poured Friday night into the city’s core. It was the largest crowd since early weeks of the protests that started 58 days ago.”
— JOIN US: ANNA and JAKE will sit down with Oregon Attorney General ELLEN ROSENBLUM for a virtual Playbook Interview Monday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. Register to watch
RACE TO WATCH — “US Senate primary in Tennessee pits Trump’s candidate against conservative insurgency,” by CNN’s Alex Rogers and Manu Rogers: “President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate in the US Senate race in Tennessee has suddenly found himself in an increasingly competitive primary fight that has divided top Republicans and prompted anger over one GOP senator’s tactics.
“Bill Hagerty was expected to coast to his party’s nomination after the President endorsed him a year ago. But with less than two weeks to go before the Republican primary election, Trump’s former US ambassador to Japan is facing a fierce challenge marked by a late infusion of ad spending, high-profile endorsements and rallies crisscrossing the state. …
“The primary will test the power of Trump’s endorsement in the deep red state, as his political standing has deteriorated over his handling of the coronavirus crisis. It resembles the political battles of the past, with libertarian and tea party-aligned conservatives taking on party leaders and the GOP establishment in divisive primaries that at times threatened their party’s hold on critical Senate seats.” CNN
TRUMP’S SATURDAY — The president will participate in a roundtable with supporters at 5:45 p.m. in Bedminster, N.J.
DACA LATEST — “Judge faults Trump administration’s response to DACA ruling,” by Josh Gerstein: “A federal judge on Friday criticized the Trump administration for a confusing and sluggish response to the Supreme Court’s decision last month invalidating the administration’s attempt to rescind the Obama-era program protecting so-called Dreamers.
“During a telephone hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Grimm said he was troubled that the Department of Homeland Security’s website has yet to be updated to account for the high court’s ruling on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA.
“Grimm also expressed concern about the government’s admission that some new DACA applicants have received letters in recent weeks saying their applications were denied because the Department of Homeland Security isn’t accepting new applicants, even though the Supreme Court ordered the agency to return to the status quo in 2017, when it was accepting new applications.
“Immigrant rights advocates are threatening to move to hold the government in contempt for defying the Supreme Court’s ruling and ensuing orders from other courts.” POLITICO
FOR YOUR RADAR — “Visa, Mastercard Debit Fees Are Hurting Retailers, Sen. Richard Durbin Says,” by WSJ’s AnnaMaria Andriotis and Orla McCaffrey: “Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin is asking the Federal Reserve to probe allegedly anticompetitive practices that are forcing merchants to pay excessive debit-card fees levied during the coronavirus crisis by large networks like Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc.
“In a letter to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, Mr. Durbin said practices by the large card networks and debit-card issuers are diminishing competition in the online payments marketplace and costing merchants potentially billions of dollars. The letter, which Mr. Durbin’s office sent late Friday, asks the Fed to determine whether the major card networks and debit-card issuers have a shared incentive to limit the transactions processed by lesser-known debit-card networks. The Wall Street Journal reviewed a copy of the letter.” WSJ
SCIENCE: “’Trump owes us an apology.’ Chinese scientist at the center of COVID-19 origin theories speaks out,” by Jon Cohen
We support updated regulations to set clear rules and hold companies, including Facebook, accountable for:— Combating foreign election interference— Protecting people’s privacy— Enabling safe and easy data portability between platforms
MEDIAWATCH — “Local TV stations across the country set to air discredited ‘Plandemic’ researcher’s conspiracy theory about Fauci,” by CNN’s Oliver Darcy
CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 15 keepers
GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Margy Slattery and the staff of POLITICO Magazine:
— “They Agreed to Meet Their Mother’s Killer. Then Tragedy Struck Again,” by Eli Hager in The Marshall Project and The Atlantic: “A Florida family opted for restorative justice over the death penalty for the man who murdered their mom. What happened next made them question the very meaning of justice.” Marshall Project
— “A Brutal Lynching. An Indifferent Police Force. A 34-Year Wait for Justice,” by Wesley Lowery in GQ: “How the murder of Timothy Coggins was finally solved.” GQ
— “In Plain Sight,” by Annie Hylton in Harper’s August issue: “The search for Syrian war criminals in Europe.” Harper’s
— “The Fall of a CBS Showrunner,” by Maureen Ryan in Vanity Fair: “Earlier this month, CBS fired Peter Lenkov, who’d overseen a powerful fiefdom. V.F. spoke to 30 sources about what happens when a network gives somebody a difficult job, then seems to let problems pile up for years because he’s making it money.” VF
— “The Mystery of a Stolen Rare Cello Has a Surprise Ending,” by Stacy Perman in the L.A. Times: “It was Sept. 14, 2013, when a mysterious email bearing the subject line ‘Is this your first cello?’ landed in Christine Walevska’s inbox.” LAT
— “How the Ice Cream Truck Made Summer Cool,” by Colin Dickey in Smithsonian Magazine’s July/August issue: “When [Harry Burt] became the first ice cream vendor to move from pushcarts to motorized trucks … his firm greatly expanded his business (and those of his many imitators) and would change how countless Americans eat — and how they experience summer.” Smithsonian
WEDDING — Brad Bauman, CEO of Fireside Campaigns, and Autumn Campbell, policy director at the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, got married Friday at a small, socially distanced ceremony at Skipper Pier in Deale, Md. They met when Autumn friended Brad on Facebook. The two messaged and Brad asked her out for coffee, for which, according to Brad, Autumn stood him up. They got together the next week and have been together ever since. Pic
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Andrew Feldman, principal at Feldman Strategies, is 31. A trend he thinks doesn’t get enough attention: “Professional athletes are getting access to twice a day testing in some cases meanwhile in many places in America testing is still beyond difficult to access and we don’t get results back for 7-10 days. And let’s not forget to mention that millions of Americans are losing their health insurance, while billions of people in other countries are able to deal with the Covid crisis without fear of losing their healthcare because it is a right no matter your race, class or employment status.” Playbook Q&A
BIRTHDAYS: Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) is 38 … Robert Zoellick, former World Bank president, is 67 … Katie Martin … Brad Karp, chairman of Paul Weiss, is 61 … Amy Holmes is 47 … Liz Benjamin of Marathon Strategies … Arit John … Alex Nguyen, national press secretary for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer … Kirsten Sutton, chief of staff at the CFPB … USAID’s Alison Harding … Judy Keen … Sarah Benzing, chief of staff to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) (h/t Jon Haber) … Tony Welch … Jesse Harris (h/t Teresa Vilmain)… Holly Armstrong … Susan Goodwin … Kelly Laco, RAGA national press secretary … Erin Seidler … Fox News’ Alex Pfeiffer and Katy Ricalde … Kristin Jones … Christine Quinn, president and CEO of Win, is 54 … Mike Nizza, managing editor at Bloomberg Opinion, is 42 …
… Anne Applebaum is 56 … Jake Maguire … Liz Brown, LD for Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) … Clio Grillakis of the Ex-Im Bank … Mark McLaughlin of American Crossroads/Senate Leadership Fund … Scot Davies … Hugo Teufel, chief privacy officer at CenturyLink … Jordan Whichard, director of intergovernmental affairs for North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper … Rebecca Gale … Kevin Elkins … Mitchell Englander … Christian Hulen, senior strategist at the Lukens Company … HuffPost’s Jesselyn Cook … Alan Chartock is 79 … Caroline Black Fanning … Domenic Recchia … David DeSantis … Anne Lykes … Matthew Hamilton … Erica Mills … Austin Brooks … Nicholas Evans … Emily Casarona … Chris Haas … Susan D. Ball … Beneva Schulte … radio talk show host John Gibson is 74 … Corey Vale
THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here):
ABC “This Week”: Mark Meadows … New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. Roundtable: Chris Christie, Rahm Emanuel, Sara Fagen and Yvette Simpson.
CBS “Face the Nation”: Speaker Nancy Pelosi … Scot Gottleib. Battleground Tracker with CBS News Elections and Surveys Director Anthony Salvanto.
CNN “State of the Union”: Brett Giroir … Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) … Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan … Larry Kudlow … Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Fox News “Fox News Sunday”: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin … Tom Frieden. Panel: Guy Benson, Gillian Turner and Juan Williams. Power Player: Ben Folds.
Sinclair TV “America This Week with Eric Bolling”: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) … Pam Bondi, Katrina Pierson and Mercedes Schlapp … KT McFarland … Ken Blackwell. Panel: Ameshia Cross and Sebastian Gorka.