The Playbook Podcast

Most people on Capitol Hill are kissing Christmas — or at least most of December — goodbye this year. “We could be in every weekend between now and Christmas, so … sorry,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow told reporters Monday night. Sen. Patrick Leahy is so worried about being here on Christmas that he and his wife bought a holiday tree for their home in D.C.

Here are some reasons for the growing pessimism.

Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.

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.

The drama surrounding Rep. Lauren Boebert's Islamophobic comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar is about to heat up as lawmakers return from Thanksgiving recess this week. Sources tell us a faction of Democrats is expected to push leadership to strip Boebert of her committee assignments or censure her after she joked about Omar, who is Muslim, being safe to ride with in an elevator because she wasn’t wearing a backpack.

Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.

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.

Amid the swirling speculation that President Joe Biden won’t run again in 2024, Democrats have been atwitter for weeks about whether Biden’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg might mount a campaign. The man, after all, has been front and center in selling the Biden agenda across the nation, and — some suspect — is laying the groundwork for another try for the White House.

Just in time, our Alex Thompson hit the road with the former mayor of South Bend, and found “a man who seems to be in a perpetual hurry.”

Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.

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.

Because we’re POLITICO, Marc Caputo has a story up this morning on Donald Trump's potential 2024 map. Granted, it’s not terribly surprising, centering on the five states that Joe Biden flipped in 2020. But the level of engagement within Trumpworld this far out — that we didn’t necessarily expect. 

“Trump’s shadow campaign … recently polled Trump-Biden matchups in the five states, all of which were decided in 2020 by fewer than 3 percentage points. According to the poll …  the former president led Biden in Arizona by 8 percentage points, Georgia by 3 points, Michigan by 12 points, Pennsylvania by 6 points and Wisconsin by 10 points.

And, With Sean Parnell dropping his campaign for Senate in Pennsylvania, some of his former supporters who are close to Donald Trump Jr. are now pushing hedge fund millionaire David McCormick to run.

Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.

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.

Jonathan Chait’s latest — “Joe Biden vs. the Democrats” — poses this question on the new cover of New York magazine: “Why is a once-popular president with an even more popular agenda in so much trouble?”

And, the Biden White House has become much more attuned to the political damage that the highest inflation since 1992 is inflicting. On Tuesday, the president will make remarks about lowering prices, an issue that now claims the kind of attention previously reserved for fighting the pandemic and promoting his infrastructure and reconciliation bills.

Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.

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.

If a “New York minute” is a few passing seconds, then the opposite is a “McCarthy minute” — something that drags on and on for hours.

On Thursday night, at 8:38 p.m., House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy took to the House floor with a speech designed to delay Democrats’ passage of the Build Back Better package. 

This morning, at 5:10 a.m., some 8 hours and 32 minutes later, he finally stopped talking. 

Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook Deep Dive.

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.

There are three headlines that describe most big events in the 117th Congress so far:

(1) “Dems in Disarray”

(2) “Kevin McCarthy Defends Far-Right Member, Who [fill in the blank]”

(3) “Congress Sends Biden Historic Legislation”

Long stretches of Democratic infighting over policy are punctuated by semi-regular acts of extremism by the fringe of the House Republican Conference. And every so often, a massive spending bill ends up on the president’s desk. 

This was supposed to be a “Dems in Disarray” week, but thanks to Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), it turned into a “McCarthy Defends …” week.

Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.

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.

If you want to know more about the state of the House GOP conference, today should provide a pretty telling snapshot. Ten months after rioters stormed the Capitol hunting for lawmakers, most House Republicans are expected to vote against rebuking one of their colleagues, Paul Gosar, who posted an anime video of himself stabbing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

And, voters have increasing doubts about the health and mental fitness of President Joe Biden, the oldest man ever sworn into the White House, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.”

Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.

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.

It was all smiles and selfies at the White House on Monday as Democrats celebrated passage of the bipartisan infrastructure deal. But rising voter concern about inflation has cast a pall over President Joe Biden's victory lap. 

The White House has tried to frame the president’s agenda as a long-term answer to inflation. A pair of stories this morning in POLITICO, however, underscores why those claims are probably wishful thinking.

Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.

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.

In August, former Trump Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and his wife Hilary Geary Ross sold their 10,000-square-foot home in Woodland-Normanstone for $13 million, according to D.C. tax records. It is the most expensive D.C. home sale of the last 12 months.

The August deal was shrouded in mystery. The purchaser used an LLC called Salona Village Holdings that concealed their identity. The Rosses are barred by a confidentiality agreement from disclosing the real buyer’s name, Geary Ross told Daniel Lippman.

But the secret is out.

Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook.

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.