The Playbook Podcast

In a September interview with CBS’ Scott Pelley for “60 Minutes,” President Joe Biden blasted Donald Trump for taking sensitive classified materials with him to Mar-a-Lago. When he learned the news, Biden said he instantly wanted to know “how that could possibly happen.” He worried that the documents contained information “that may compromise sources and methods.” He was flummoxed how “anyone could be that irresponsible.”Now, four months later, those same pointed reactions are aimed at Biden after the revelation yesterday that a trove of classified documents were discovered in the garage at his home in Wilmington, Del. — prompting AG Merrick Garland to appoint former U.S. Attorney Robert Hur as special counsel to probe Biden’s handling of classified documents.For the White House, it’s a burgeoning political nightmare that comes just as Biden tries to draw a contrast with the new House Republican majority, which the administration is eager to cast as chaotic and irresponsible.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

January is a time of new beginnings in Washington. A new Congress. A new Republican-led House. A new speaker, Kevin McCarthy. New investigations into Biden by GOP-helmed committees.And now, in light of all of the above, there’s a new effort from the White House to go on offense against Republicans like never before.Like so many Washington trends these days, it started with a tweet. “It’s a giant tax cut for rich tax cheats. Bill #1 from the new House GOP,” Ron Klain, the very online White House chief of staff, wrote in a Monday afternoon tweet about an effort to roll back Biden’s IRS funding boost. Later that evening, VP Kamala Harris echoed the sentiment, accusing House Republicans of “rushing to … allow too many millionaires, billionaires and corporations to cheat the system.”On its face, those messages can seem fairly run-of-the-mill. Playbook deputy editor Zack Stanton and co-author Eugene Daniels discuss how a closer look reveals the change at hand — one informed by a few key calculations.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

Most listeners to this show or readers of the Playbook newsletter didn’t know Blake Hounshell, but all of you were influenced by him.He nurtured and mentored dozens of young journalists who now populate virtually every significant news organization. He plucked brilliant academics from obscurity and turned them into influential writers. He shaped the world of online political news, newsletters and social media for over a decade at Foreign Policy, POLITICO and The New York Times. He put together the current incarnation of Playbook. He helped create POLITICO Magazine. He taught beat reporters how to become longform storytellers. He relentlessly spotted and recruited new talent. He was a terrific reporter with a rare breadth of knowledge — just go read his archive of stories over the last two years at the Times.“Blake had lots of insights,” our Sam Stein noted to us last night. “And observations. And advice. He was informed but inquisitive; hyperactive but not overbearing. Those were qualities that made him a great editor. “What made him a brilliant one was that he loved to stir up shit. When … he hired me for the role of White House editor, he said he was eager to cause ‘some good trouble.’ He loved to push the envelope. He wanted to build: stories and newsrooms and products. And he did. Great ones. What a wonderful legacy to leave.”We lost Blake yesterday. It was sudden and baffling. His friends were texting and emailing with him — about dinner plans and story ideas and a new class he was set to teach at NYU. He was tweeting. And then he was gone. He committed suicide after a long struggle with depression. Blake was a singular figure in Washington journalism, and we asked those who knew Blake best to share some remembrances of him. We were ultimately overwhelmed by the extraordinary array of Playbookers whose lives he had touched — so many, in fact, that we’re hard-pressed to share them all here. Uncut, those tributes run to 13 pages, and we’d love to hear more still: playbook@politico.com. Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

For President Joe Biden, it was an inconvenient discovery — and the potential source of considerable future political, if not legal heartburn. The Justice Department is investigating how and why classified documents from Biden’s time as veep made their way from the White House to a think tank, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, where he used to have an office.CBS’ Adriana Diaz, Andres Triay and Arden Farhi scooped the news last night, and White House special counsel Richard Sauber confirmed the November discovery and subsequent federal probe, noting in a statement that Biden’s “personal attorneys have cooperated with the Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives.”Nedless to say, newly empowered Republicans see the circumstances here as a hell of a lot more than inconvenient — seizing on superficial similarities between this discovery and the August search and seizure of more than 100 classified documents from President Donald Trump’s home in Florida.

The rules package that will govern how the House operates this session is scheduled for a vote this evening. It’s shaping up as Speaker Kevin McCarthy's first big test in governing what is shaping up to be an ungovernable Republican majority. The package is the closest thing to a contract drawn up between McCarthy and his internal critics. Alongside various side deals dealing with committee assignments, budget policy and other matters, the rules changes define the devolution of power away from leadership and towards the House Freedom Caucus. If tonight’s vote goes down, the entire project unravels.And President Joe Biden will meet with Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador at the North American Leaders’ Summit in Mexico City – the pair are expected to talk through trade issues, drug trafficking, and migration. Playbook editor Mike DeBonis and  deputy editor Zack Stanton break down the day ahead in DC.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

Around Christmas, Texas Republican Rep. Roger Williams’ wife suffered a medical emergency. This week, as she underwent treatment, her husband was eager to be by her side. Instead, he has been stuck in Washington taking failed vote after failed vote in Kevin McCarthy's quest to become speaker.“This is killing him,” one of Williams’ GOP lawmaker friends told us late Thursday night. “I’ve never seen Roger as down as he was yesterday.” Williams isn’t alone. On Thursday, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) felt ill; his colleagues had to convince him it was OK to duck out of the speakership drama and go home for rest. Rep.-elect Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) is eager to return to Texas after his wife gave birth this week. Rep. Kevin Hern's (R-Okla.) mother died this week; he wants to attend her funeral on Saturday.“There’s a lot more at stake than whether Kevin McCarthy’s going to be able to get the gavel,” the aforementioned GOP lawmaker told us. “We’ve got lives that are being impacted right now, and this is tough for people.”There’s been wall-to-wall coverage of the 20 anti-McCarthy rebels. But as the GOP leader faces down what will likely be his 12th failed bid for the gavel today, the story is about to shift to McCarthy’s increasingly tenuous support network. Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

After spending the last 48 hours on life support, Kevin McCarthy's bid for the speakership is seeing a potential revival.Following a rollercoaster of a Wednesday during which the California Republican failed three more times to secure the 218 votes for the gavel, McCarthy and some of his critics finally got in a room and had what both sides are describing as productive conversations.This morning, after slamming coffee at midnight and working the phones until the wee hours, we have a readout of new concessions McCarthy has offered his critics and where things stand.Will this be enough to land McCarthy the speakership? That’s TBD. Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

So how does this end? And how long will it take to end it?Those are the questions towering over the new House Republican majority, which for the first time in 100 years, found itself unable to choose a speaker on the first ballot — or two others afterward.The House is now paralyzed, unable to swear in its members or form committees or adopt rules — let alone pass legislation. And the scary realization for the GOP rank-and-file is that there’s no easy way out of this mess and no sign that one is going to appear anytime soon.Playbook editor Mike DeBonis and co-author Rachael Bade break it all down, plus West Wing Playbook co-author and White House correspondent Eli Stokols stops by to discuss the view from the Biden administration.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

Welcome to the 118th Congress, the new Republican House majority, and one of the most unpredictable and potentially chaotic scenarios we’ve seen on Capitol Hill.The House will gavel in at noon, and following a prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance and a quorum call, the clerk will immediately start the live roll call to elect the next speaker. GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, however, still hasn’t clinched the votes he needs, and the day could drag late into the night, we’re told, as Republicans grapple with choosing their leader.Be prepared for surprises and a lot of drama. Even veteran lawmakers who emerged from meetings with McCarthy on Monday evening weren’t entirely sure how this will all shake out. We’re told that McCarthy’s plan, however, is to continue voting — over and over again — in a bid to wear down his detractors until he gets the gavel.Playbook editor Mike DeBonis and co-author Rachael Bade discuss the long day ahead for Kevin McCarthy.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

The Jan. 6 committee released its final report on Thursday night — an 845-page document drawn from nearly 1,200 witness interviews and reams of hard-won documents that places Donald Trump at the center of the deadly assault. POLITICO's Kyle Cheney and Nicolas Wu write “Trump’s incendiary lies about the 2020 election activated an extraordinary coalition of far-right militants and conspiracy theorists who not only joined the mob but were its vanguard smashing through police lines."Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) — a "Never Kevin" Republican — would likely be dismissed by his colleagues as a gadfly. But given the unexpectedly slim House majority the GOP gained in November, Good and a handful of like-minded conservatives hold McCarthy’s fate in their hands — and stand ready to wield considerable power next year, no matter who ends up as speaker.Playbook co-author Rachael Bade sat down with Good for the Playbook Deep Dive podcast this week to try to understand the rebellion brewing against McCarthy. We learned that Good & Co. are formulating a plan for the Jan. 3 speaker vote. He said Anti-McCarthy members are currently plotting to back Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) on the first ballot to prove McCarthy can’t get the gavel. But once the second ballot is called, they’ll begin coalescing around another, unnamed candidate — a GOP lawmaker most have already agreed upon, Good said, but one that he will not name for fear of hurting this person’s candidacy.While Playbook reported extensively this week on the quiet effort to prepare No. 2 leader Steve Scalise as an alternative, Good stayed mum, explaining that this person, quote “cannot be part of, and they are not part of, the effort to block McCarthy.”