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For months, aides to President Joe Biden have been backchanneling to keep OPEC from cutting oil exports and, in turn, raising oil and gas prices around the world.So much for all that.On Wednesday, OPEC+ announced that it will cut oil production by 2 million barrels per day starting next month — a move that “sharply undercuts President Biden’s effort to avoid an increase in gas prices ahead of the midterm elections, while setting back his push to constrain the oil revenue Russia is using to pay for its war in Ukraine,” write NYT’s David Sanger and Ben Hubbard.And two days after setting the political world aflame with its report that in 2009, Herschel Walker — who is running for U.S. Senate in Georgia while touting his opposition to abortion rights — paid for his then-girlfriend to obtain an abortion, the Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger lit more kindling on Wednesday night: “She Had an Abortion With Herschel Walker. She Also Had a Child With Him.”Plus, FDA reporter Katherine Foley stops by to dissect the stars for House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.). Happy birthday!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.

President Joe Biden will arrive this afternoon in Fort Myers, Fla., where he will survey the damage from Hurricane Ian via helicopter and then receive a briefing on disaster response and recovery efforts from state and local officials, including one of his most bitter political rivals: Gov. Ron DeSantis.The president and the governor have talked on the phone several times. They’ve complimented each other. Florida Playbook author Gary Fineout calls it “a rare moment of bipartisan calm” in his preview from Tallahassee.So what explains the detente — especially the mature reaction from DeSantis, who has defined himself by an own-the-libs style of politics?And it looks as though Elon Musk will go ahead with the $44 billion purchase of Twitter that he first proposed in April. Recall that Musk tried to abandon the deal weeks later and soon found himself in messy litigation with the company. The judge in the case has ruled against Musk at nearly every turn and, with a deposition and trial looming, Musk appears to have reversed course yet again.Twitter is enormously consequential to American politics and media, and the takeover by Musk will have major implications. He’s such a micromanager that when Tesla was having production issues he famously camped out on a factory floor to help solve assembly problems.Despite all his tweets, we don’t know the full picture of what Musk plans for the platform. But he has made a few things clear.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.

Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker promised Monday night that he would file a lawsuit this morning against The Daily Beast, after the website’s Roger Sollenberger reported that Walker paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion in 2009.The woman, who was not identified, provided Sollenberger with a receipt for the procedure, a get-well card signed by Walker and an image of a personal check signed by Walker for $700. The Beast reported also that it corroborated the woman’s claims with a close friend who took care of her after the procedure.And campaign guru Steve Shepard shifted POLITICO Election Forecast ratings for 23 House and governor races in a column sent to Campaign Pro subscribers Monday night. That so many races are in flux isn’t necessarily surprising with Election Day just five weeks away. What is surprising is how those 23 races are shifting: Twelve went toward Republican candidates, while 11 went toward Democrats.Plus Playbook's Eugene Daniels chats with Maggie Haberman about her new book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America” ($32), released today.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.

AP’s Meg Kinnard and Adriana Gomez Licon: “A revived Hurricane Ian set its sights on South Carolina’s coast Friday and the historic city of Charleston, with forecasters predicting a storm surge and floods after the megastorm caused catastrophic damage in Florida and left people trapped in their homes.“With all of South Carolina’s coast under a hurricane warning, a steady stream of vehicles left Charleston on Thursday, many likely heeding officials’ warnings to seek higher ground. Storefronts were sandbagged to ward off high water levels in an area prone to inundation.And the Senate battlefield is narrowing, and leaders in both parties agree that control of the upper chamber is coming down to two (very different) Sun Belt swing states: Nevada and Georgia.“Democrats' most straightforward path to keeping the majority still means bringing back their so-called Core Four battleground senators: Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Mark Kelly of Arizona, Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada,” Burgess Everett and Natalie Allison report this morning. “And while Hassan and Kelly are breathing a bit easier these days, Cortez Masto and Warnock are sweating it out in extremely tight races.”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.

 A new Gallup poll set for release today shows a drop in approval of and confidence in the Supreme Court. Gallup previewed some of the key findings for Playbook: The topline: “Less than half of Americans say they have ‘a great deal’ or ‘a fair amount’ of trust in the judicial branch of the federal government, representing a 20-percentage-point drop from two years ago, including seven points since last year.”And as it made landfall in Florida on Wednesday, Hurricane Ian forced roads to close, rained in torrents, flooded vast coastal areas, spawned tornadoes and forced locals who hadn’t already escaped harm’s way to bunker down.One thing the hurricane didn’t stop? Negative campaign ads. Plus, FDA reporter Katherine Foley stops by to dissect the stars for NASA Administrator and former senator Bill Nelson who turns 80 today. Happy birthday!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.

Hurricane Ian is set to reach Florida’s Gulf Coast as early as this afternoon after days of dire warnings about its potential impacts. This morning, the national Hurricane Center said winds had reached 140 mph, strengthening to a Category 4. More than 2 million people are under orders to leave their homes. Said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: “That doesn’t mean you need to go all across God’s creation to evacuate — just get to the higher ground and get into a safe structure.”And he’s been the de facto decision-maker for the Senate Democratic majority, but after a week of holding the line, Sen. Joe Manchin had to admit defeat Tuesday — for now. The West Virginia senator was dead-set on passing a permitting overhaul for energy projects this month, by tying the legislation to a must-pass spending stopgap. Manchin world was convinced the time was right for action, with fresh buy-in from Democratic leaders, combined with long-standing support for the notion of permitting reform among Republicans.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.

Countdown — Six weeks until Election Day!Continuing Resolution released — Full text … Section-by-section summaryNestled into the stopgap spending bill that Congress is aiming to pass to avert a government shutdown this week is over $12 billion in aid for Ukraine, AP’s Kevin Freking reports. What else is in it: “The funding package, which Congress is set to consider this week, will also provide disaster assistance, including for Jackson, Mississippi. … Also in the package is money to help households afford winter heating and funding to assist Afghans in resettling in the U.S.” What’s not in it: Biden’s request for emergency funds to fight Covid and monkeypox. What’s in it for now, but might not be for long: Sen. Joe Manchin's permitting reform bill.IFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis spent his first term becoming one of the most influential Republicans in the country — a likely 2024 contender who’s already shaping his party’s national agenda. But DeSantis still hasn’t faced one of the toughest challenges a Florida leader can encounter: A hurricane. That’s all changing this week as Hurricane Ian barrels toward the state, and, Matt Dixon writes from Tallahassee, “depending on how well the governor responds to the potentially catastrophic storm, DeSantis may emerge more popular or open himself up to criticism.”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.

Playbook editor Mike DeBonis and deputy editor Zack Stanton discuss Maggie Haberman's anticipated book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America. POLITICO's Steve Shepard's must-read this morning, Pollsters fear they’re blowing it again in 2022 and the odds of a government shutdown if Congress can't reach a deal by Friday at midnight.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 wonkiest, most in-the-weeds debate happening on Capitol Hill: The battle over Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-W.Va.) permitting reform bill. It’s also the biggest hold-up in the quest to keep the government from shutting down next week. The measure (aka the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2022) would basically shorten the process to get permits for energy projects. Its inclusion in the must-pass continuing resolution is the result of a deal struck between Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Joe Biden that secured the West Virginian’s support for the reconciliation bill. For Manchin and those Dem leaders, it’s the ultimate compromise: Legislation that would benefit new fossil fuel projects (including specifically approving the Mountain Valley Pipeline planned for West Virginia) and speed up the creation of new clean energy projects.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.

The two big stories in Trump World:1. In a Wednesday night ruling, a three-judge federal appeals panel sided with the Justice Department, blocking “aspects of … Judge Aileen Cannon's ruling that delayed a criminal investigation into highly sensitive documents seized from former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate,” write Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein.Two of the three judges were Trump appointees. Their decision was unanimous. And it was unsparing.From the ruling: “Plaintiff suggests that he may have declassified these documents when he was President. But the record contains no evidence that any of these records were declassified. … In any event, at least for these purposes, the declassification argument is a red herring.” Read the 29-page decisionMeanwhile, here’s Trump on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Wednesday night: “If you’re president of the United States, you can declassify … even by thinking about it.” Video2. New York AG Tish James filed suit against Trump and his three oldest children, alleging a yearslong campaign of deception and large-scale fraud. Her office is seeking to recover about $250 million that it says they netted from the scheme. The juiciest takeaways, via Josh and Kyle … The James-Trump backstory, by Erin Durkin … Forbes’ Dan Alexander: “Exclusive Recording, Documents Bolster Trump Fraud Lawsuit”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.