The Playbook Podcast

Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom crushed the recall attempt by a nearly 2-to 1 margin. The coverage: David Siders and Carla Marinucci with how he did it. … AP’s Nick Riccardi with 5 takeaways … LAT’s Steve Lopez on possibly “ the most frivolous waste of time in California election history”And, Stephanie Grisham writes in her upcoming book that she did not believe that the election was stolen and tried to convince Melania Trump there was no grand conspiracy to deny her husband a second term. But a senior Trump aide provided text messages to Playbook suggesting that Grisham was sympathetic to — and in one instance tried to assist — efforts to stop the certification of the election in her home state of Arizona. Subscribe to POLITICO's newest podcast, Global InsiderRaghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

At 1:25 p.m. on Jan. 6, soon after rioters had broken through barricades outside of the Capitol, Melania Trump received a text message from her then-chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham.“Do you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American, but there is no place for lawlessness and violence?” Grisham asked the first lady.A minute later, Melania replied with a one-word answer: “No.” At that moment, she was at the White House preparing for a photo shoot of a rug she had selected, according to exclusive excerpts of Grisham’s forthcoming book, “I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in The Trump White House,” obtained by POLITICO. And late last night, lawmakers, Hill aides and tax lobbyists were sending around a five-page memo outlining House Ways and Means Democrats’ proposed $2.9 trillion in tax increases. The hikes would “amount to the biggest tax increase in decades, and enough to cover most of what even progressive Democrats hope to spend on their coming ‘reconciliation’ package,” our tax team colleague Brian Faler writes.Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden was unsparing about the burdens that the unvaccinated have thrust onto the rest of us: thousands more dead, overflowing hospitals, a rebounding economy showing signs of retreat.Pandemic politics, as Biden called it, are not simple. But eight months into the crisis, any new set of rules offered by the president raises an obvious question: Why didn’t he do this already?The White House calls it a 6-point plan, but there were two big new things that Biden announced:— Vaccinations: Biden is finally leveraging the unilateral power of the federal government to expand vax mandates to some 100 million Americans: all workers at companies with over 100 employees, all federal employees and contractors, anyone who works for a health care provider that receives Medicare or Medicaid reimbursements, any employee at a school that receives federal money from Head Start and a few other programs. — Testing: Biden is using federal authorities to surge the production and distribution of rapid Covid tests, including at-home tests.Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

They started off with a $6 trillion price tag, then lowered it to $3.5 trillion. Now, there’s reporting suggesting Sen. Joe Manchin wants the total for Democrats’ reconciliation plan to drop as low as $1 trillion or $1.5 trillion (though for what its worth some people close to him say his comfort zone is probably closer to $2 trillion).So what exactly will Democrats’ topline number be?And, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised to bring up long-stalled voting rights legislation when the Senate returns.Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

A scoop on the Trump revenge front: Marc Caputo and Alex Isenstadt report that Donald Trump is set to endorse Wyoming attorney Harriet Hageman in her expected primary against GOP Rep. Liz Cheney. the former president’s top target in his attempt to purge the Republican party of his fiercest critics. Caputo and Isenstadt call it “the most important political endorsement yet in Trump’s post-presidency,” while noting that not too long ago Hageman was a staunch supporter of Cheney. As of Tuesday night, Hageman “still had a photo of the two of them together on [her] website.”And, on Tuesday, Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, released a major batch of legislation that he wants stuffed in the Dems’ $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, including proposals on family and medical leave, retirement, child care, trade, elder care, nursing and an expansion of Medicare to include dental, hearing and vision coverage. Progressives cheered.But in no time, a source close to the negotiations reached out to us to dampen the celebration on the left: “Neither the White House or Senate Dems approved the Ways & Means package released today. Negotiations are ongoing.”It is the latest example of a frequent complaint from House staffers: that Biden and his White House have a Senate bias.Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

One challenge in covering the Dems’ $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill is conveying the sheer enormity of it.Nobody really even knows what to call it. Is it a jobs package? A human infrastructure bill? A climate bill? Social welfare legislation? Yes. Because Dems aim to pass into law every major domestic priority on which they can find agreement, it is all of those things and more.The NYT’s Jonathan Weisman today has one of the better distillations of the breadth of this legislation by looking at its “cradle to grave” qualities and how they would affect the relationship between Americans and the federal government.Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

A few reactions and realities the day after the Supreme Court abortion decision... States are already weighing copycat laws on abortions, Covid-19 precautions, and gun restrictions... Democrats feel the limits of their power in trying to protect Roe v. Wade... Even some anti-abortion conservatives think the Texas law is bad for their cause.MEDICARE EXPANSION VS. ACA: Democratic leaders have been spending the August recess privately sparring over which health care programs should get priority in the party’s $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. The fight is expected to drag out for days if not weeks — and pits extra benefits for seniors versus coverage for more low-income individuals... Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to shore up subsidies for Obamacare, while Sen. Bernie Sanders is looking to expand Medicare to include dental, vision and hearing... in the middle, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is trying to persuade Pelosi. Carlos Prieto is a Politico podcast producer.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

BREAKING OVERNIGHT: The Supreme Court, by 5 to 4, declined to block Texas’s law banning abortions after six weeks — a strong but not final indication that the court will soon overturn Roe v. Wade … Conservative majority cites “complex,” “novel” legal technicalities and insists constitutionality can still be reviewed later on … Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s three liberals write outraged dissents describing the law as clearly unconstitutional and blasting the majority for shirking their duty. … The ruling, per AP, “​​for now [strips] most women of the right to an abortion in the nation’s second-largest state.”What you’ll hear today from abortion rights supporters, via former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal (@Neal Katyal): “Congress should tmrw pass legislation to codify Roe. SCOTUS powerless to stop it. If [Republicans] filibuster, great [argument] to get rid of it.”Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

President Joe Biden ended August on Tuesday with a combative speech in which he defended his decision-making on Afghanistan, which has become by far the most controversial turn of his short presidency.He criticized Afghan national security forces for melting away in the face of the Taliban. He insisted that Americans in Afghanistan had “multiple warnings and offers to help them leave.”“Biden is fighting The Blob,” noted our colleague Alex Ward. “That seems to be the messaging here, both in and out of DC.”And, Biden is about to make a sharp pivot from fighting D.C.’s foreign policy Blob to fighting D.C.’s interest group Blob.Two weeks from today, congressional committees are scheduled to complete assembling the myriad pieces of Build Back Better into a single bill — resulting in possibly the largest package of new legislation in American history.Today we start Playbook’s series of deep dives into the major policies of the reconciliation bill by digging into the Dems’ proposals to lower prescription drug costs.

It’s been a month from hell for President Joe Biden. From the Afghanistan pullout mission that led to American casualties, to the spike in Covid-19 hospitalizations — and an accompanying hit to his poll numbers — September can’t come soon enough for the president.After the last soldier boarded a C-17 to depart Afghanistan on Monday, the White House and Democrats are looking for a reset, our colleagues Natasha Korecki, Chris Cadelago and Laura Barrón-López report. The trio write today that Biden and the Democrats are “racing to put the conflict’s tumultuous exit behind them … plotting a way forward that hinges tactically on Biden’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and passage of his sweeping economic agenda on Capitol Hill.Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.