The Playbook Podcast

“For some of Ukraine’s most ardent backers, even talking about diplomacy amounts to appeasement,” Gideon Rachman, the chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times, noted last week.Thirty House Democrats led by Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Pramila Jayapal learned this lesson the hard way on Monday, after they sent President Joe Biden what they believed was a nuanced and carefully worded letter endorsing direct diplomacy with Russia to end the war in Ukraine. They condemned Russia’s “outrageous and illegal invasion of Ukraine,” reiterated their support for “a free and independent Ukraine,” and they were clear that American “military and economic support” should continue. Unlike House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, they did not hint at voting against future aid packages.But their use of the D word precipitated a torrent of criticism — mostly from fellow Democrats — that had some of them backtracking within hours. (In one notable example, former CPC co-chair MARK POCAN told a constituent the missive was written amid different circumstances in July, adding, “I have no idea why it went out now. Bad timing.”)Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio. 

15 days left until Election Day. … 7,501,492 early votes already cast as of 10:20 p.m. Sunday, per the United States Elections Project.And Playbook editor Mike Debonis and deputy editor Zack Stanton preview the packed debate schedule around the country, including the highly anticipated debate between Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz on Tuesday. Plus, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsement of Colorado Republican Joe O'Dea is a notable boost for the moderate and a sharp contrast with Trump, who blasted O’Dea in a feud last week. “A BIG MISTAKE!” Trump responded on Truth Social.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Our colleague Natalie Allison got her hands on some new polling data out of Nevada that shows the closely watched race between Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican Adam Laxalt tightening even further. “Laxalt has inched ahead of Cortez Masto by 2 percentage points, within the poll’s margin of error, a gain from a month ago when he was down 3 percentage points, according to a poll conducted this week by the conservative Club for Growth and shared exclusively with POLITICO.”And even as the national trend seems to have tilted in the GOP’s favor in recent days, Alaska’s independents seem poised to swing dramatically toward the Democrats — and that could be an ominous sign for Republicans throughout the nation, David Siders reports from Wasilla.

There’s a reason White House chief of staff RON KLAIN checks AAA’s survey of gas prices every single morning.For all the well-informed punditry about whether this or that issue will be the terrain upon which 2022 rises and falls, today — with 19 days left until Election Day — it seems that the most salient issue in the election for most voters could be pretty straightforward: It’s the gas prices, stupid.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

We definitely have Georgia on our minds here at Playbook. The Senate race in the Peach State — pitting Sen. Raphael Warnock against football legend Herschel Walker — is likely the most consequential Senate race on the map this year. Early voting begins today.There’s nothing better as a reporter than getting out of the swamp to see what voters are thinking and saying for yourself — so Playbook's Eugene Daniels headed to Atlanta for a check-in. In a special dispatch after his trip, Eugene chats with Playbook Deputy Editor Zack Stanton about what he found.There's a sense that the scandal-ridden Walker is sucking up all the political oxygen in the state. Even Warnock campaign aides admit surprise when reporters call to talk about the sitting senator and not about Walker’s travails.In a story out this morning, Eugene explores how Warnock is a man in two worlds. At Ebenezer, no one calls him “senator.” It’s “reverend,” and members of his flock will correct you immediately. But while he enjoys a deep connection with his congregation, some Black political strategists worry that Warnock has not yet secured the broad support he’ll need from Black voters to earn a full term.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

For a minute there, Donald Trump wasn’t the dominant political story. In between peak coverage in August of the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago home and Thursday’s public vote by the Jan. 6 committee to subpoena the former president, there were long stretches when Trump wasn’t the main character of the midterms.In some ways he still isn’t. As NYT’s Blake Hounshell and Alyce McFadden point out, Jan. 6 “is practically invisible on the nation’s airwaves, despite nearly a billion dollars in overall ad spending this year.” POLITICO’s Jordain Carney, Sarah Ferris, and Ally Mutnick note that “Democrats have aired just two dozen spots focused on threats to democracy this cycle, in roughly 16 different battleground districts.” But even if he didn’t appear in a single ad — and there are plenty that include him —  Trump still looms over everything in politics.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Since the very first hearing of the House Jan. 6 committee, the panel has vowed to do three things: (1) correct the historical record of the aftermath of the 2020 election; (2) present the case that former President Donald Trump was at the center of a scheme to overturn the results of a free and fair election; and (3) outline an ongoing attack on American democracy. This afternoon, they’re set to tie all three together in what is expected to be the committee’s final televised hearing. The hearing itself will “feature evidence that Trump’s allies were pushing him to declare victory on Election Day 2020 even before the votes were counted, and that Trump was warned of the unfolding violence at the Capitol before he tweeted an inflammatory attack on then-Vice President Mike Pence,” as our Nicholas Wu and Kyle Cheney write in their preview this morning.But of perhaps equal importance is the hearing’s place in the broader arc of post-insurrection Washington. And FDA reporter Katherine Foley joins the show for this week's astrology readings.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

It’s perhaps the most precious campaign resource in all of American politics — a presidential fundraising visit. So why, with less than four weeks till Election Day, is President Joe Biden pointing Air Force One at Oregon this weekend? And, senior campaigns and elections editor Steve Shepard joins the show to talk about the tactical battle over campaign advertising in Ohio, Arizona, Pennsylvania and North Carolina ahead of the midterms. Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

This morning we have the first scoop from Robert Draper’s latest book, “Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind" ($29), which will be released Oct. 18.It’s been widely reported that Donald Trump and Kevin McCarthy had a fiery exchange on Jan. 6, 2021. But Draper adds a dramatic and newsworthy new detail about the House GOP leader’s side of the conversation, one that makes his later submission to Trump even more undignifying.And the latest scoop from Playbook’s own Rachael Bade and co-author Karoun Demirjian appears in The Washington Post today, sourced from their new book, “Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump” ($28), also on sale Oct. 18.Two weeks after Trump’s second acquittal, McCarthy yelled so forcefully at Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) for going public about his Jan. 6 call with Trump that he made the Washington Republican burst into tears.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Last night at a fundraiser in New York City, President Joe Biden issued a stark warning about the risks of nuclear war in Ukraine.“First time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, we have a direct threat of the use [of a] nuclear weapon if in fact things continue down the path they are going,” Biden told donors at the home of investor James Murdoch. “I’m trying to figure out what is [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's off ramp? … Where does he find a way out? Where does he find himself in a position that he does not not only lose face but lose significant power within Russia?”And it's the most common topic in ads for Democratic congressional candidates and their allies this cycle: abortion rights — and, more specifically, the GOP’s designs on a nationwide abortion ban. Inasmuch as there is a unifying Democratic message this cycle, this is it. In districts as disparate as suburban Omaha and heavily Catholic rural Texas, Dems and their allies have spent more than $25 million in broadcast TV ads depicting Republicans as “extremists who would imprison doctors and force women who have been raped to carry pregnancies to term,” our Ally Mutnick reports this morning.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.