The Playbook Podcast

Sixteen months after Donald Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill to try to stop the certification of Joe Biden as president, a prominent election denier in Pennsylvania inched closer to becoming the next governor of Pennsylvania. State Sen. Doug Mastriano — who attended and helped organize for the “Stop the Steal” rally, has called for audits of Keystone State votes and has been subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 panel — clinched the GOP gubernatorial nomination. If he wins this fall, he’ll be in a position to nominate the next Pennsylvania secretary of state, a position that oversees elections in the key presidential battleground state.And, one week after catapulting J.D. Vance to victory in Ohio, Trump had a somewhat decent night, though the verdict on perhaps his biggest gamble — supporting Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s tight Senate primary — is still out.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Today is one of the most consequential primary days of the year, with nominating contests in five states — Idaho, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oregon and Pennsylvania — that will tell us a great deal about the direction of the two parties. There are three major storylines that continue to dominate the 2022 primary season: Donald Trump's grip on the GOP Progressive challenges to Biden-like Democratic centrists The rise of anti-democratic and extremist candidates All three storylines collide in today’s most-watched state: Pennsylvania.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Russia has faced a dizzying series of setbacks in its war with Ukraine over the last week: Sweden and Finland are being fast-tracked into NATO membership, which means Russia will soon share an 810-mile border with NATO. More from NYT Ukrainian troops pushed the Russians from the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, and are now approaching the Russian border. Latest from Reuters Russia suffered “catastrophic” losses during a failed river crossing on May 11, according to The Institute for the Study of War, which notes that “the military incompetence displayed in that crossing have shaken the confidence” of influential Russian military bloggers. The UK Ministry of Defense said that the Russian offensive in the eastern Donbas region, the focus of Russian firepower since its retreat from Kyiv, has “lost momentum and fallen significantly behind schedule.” The Brits also claimed that Putin has lost one-third of the troops he sent into Ukraine since the start of the February invasion. On Sunday, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, summed up the implications of these developments: “Ukraine can win this war.”And that is exactly the problem according to a growing number of western officials and analysts who fear the fallout from what French President Emmanuel Macron called the “humiliation” of Russia.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

When GOP Rep. Liz Cheney decided to risk everything politically and serve on Nancy Pelosi's newly created Jan. 6 investigative panel in the spring of last year, she made something of a vow to herself, according to people close with the Wyoming Republican: She would follow the facts wherever they went, and privately press for the panel to leave no stone unturned to get to the truth of the siege of the Capitol. No half-baked probes. No shrinking away from key witnesses, as Democrats had done in their past impeachments of Donald Trump. If she was going to do this, she was going to go all the way — even as some members of the panel, we heard back then, didn’t even want to investigate Trump’s actions that day.On Thursday, Washington saw the latest fruits of Cheney’s labor, when the Jan. 6 committee shocked This Town and subpoenaed five House GOP lawmakers to testify — including the likely next speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Well-placed sources tell us that Cheney — who was booted from her post as No. 3 Republican in the House one year to the day before the subpoenas were issued — was among those pressing hardest for this move, arguing that these GOP members had relevant information and they couldn’t just let them skirt without questioning.Listen to Playbook Deep Dive: ‘He absolutely betrayed me’: Steve Schmidt tells all about John McCainRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio. 

This week was another reminder that while Democrats “control” the Senate, they don’t actually control the Senate. Covid relief was cut from the Ukraine aid bill. A national law to codify abortion protections — should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade — came nowhere close to the 60 votes needed to advance it. And the 50 votes it would take to nuke the filibuster and pass the abortion rights law are also unavailable to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. More from Alice Miranda Ollstein and Marianne LeVine If there are serious negotiations underway to pass a Build Back Better 2.0 in advance of the midterms, they are a well-kept secret.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio

Former President Donald Trump goes 1-for-2 on primary day in Nebraska and West Virginia. And new reporting from inside the Supreme Court, via Josh Gerstein, Alexander Ward and Ryan, as the nine justices are set to gather Thursday for the first time since POLITICO published the draft opinion overturning Roe:“Justice Samuel Alito's sweeping and blunt draft majority opinion from February overturning Roe remains the court’s only circulated draft in the pending Mississippi abortion case, POLITICO has learned, and none of the conservative justices who initially sided with Alito have to date switched their votes. No dissenting draft opinions have circulated from any justice, including the three liberals.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

PRIMARY DAY: WHAT TO WATCH FOR — West Virginia and Nebraska hold primaries today. Like last week’s contests in Ohio, the action is mostly on the Republican side, and the main drama is about former President DONALD TRUMP.WEST VIRGINIA: Two GOP incumbents, Reps. ALEX MOONEY and DAVID MCKINLEY,  are facing each other in a congressional primary because the state lost a seat after redistricting.NEBRASKA: CHARLES HERBSTER, JIM PILLEN and state Sen. BRETT LINDSTROM are the three top GOP primary candidates running to replace the term-limited governor, PETE RICKETTS. The national implications of the race revolve mostly around Trump’s endorsement of Herbster, who has been accused of sexual assault by eight different women.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterKara Tabor hosted this episode of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Happy Monday. Get ready for yet another week dominated by the debate over abortion rights, as the impending decision expected to overturn Roe v. Wade sucks up all the oxygen in Washington. Two major storylines to watch this week, as Democrats gear up to go on offense:1) Senate tees up abortion vote — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is expected to file cloture today on a bill by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) that would enshrine a statutory right to abortion nationwide.2) Democrats seize on McConnell's national abortion ban remarks — Democratic strategists are salivating over comments Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made in a USA Today interview that published Saturday.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio. 

Overturning Roe v. Wade would be the culmination of  former president Donald Trump’s bid to remake the judiciary — the very reason that many social conservatives held their noses and voted for him in 2016. But Trump, “never one to shy away from taking credit for accomplishments, real or imagined, has yet to crow about the majority draft opinion,” our colleagues Meridith McGraw and Jonathan Lemire report. He’s addressed it only “when asked in interviews.”Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

J.D. Vance owes his GOP Senate primary victory in Ohio to two people: Donald Trump and Peter Thiel. Trump’s endorsement put him over the top in a crowded primary, while Thiel’s support — funneled through a super PAC called Protect Ohio Values (aka POV) — enabled Vance to outsource many traditional campaign operations, including polling, advertising, GOTV and, it turns out, opposition research.One big problem with letting a super PAC do everything: Campaign finance law prohibits communication between a candidate’s own committee and a super PAC supporting them.But there are ways around that obstacle. As Alex Isenstadt detailed Tuesday in a fascinating tick-tock of the Ohio race, POV set up an unadvertised-but-public Medium account, where it posted a trove of sensitive documents, polling reports, audio and video for Vance to use. Some of the files are boring, such as b-roll footage the Vance camp could include in ads. But the group also posted extensive opposition research reports — on both his primary opponents and Vance himself.Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook newsletterRaghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.