The Playbook Podcast

For the fourth time in eight days, the U.S. shot down a flying object yesterday. The latest kill came above Lake Huron, near the border with Canada, after it had flown over part of Michigan, The Detroit News’ Melissa Nann Burke and Kim Kozlowski report. The Pentagon said an F-16 fighter jet took the object down with a Sidewinder missile at around 20,000 feet after determining that it posed no “kinetic military threat” but could potentially interfere with flight safety or conduct surveillance.

Our Paul McLeary, Olivia Olander, Lara Seligman and Alexander Ward write that defense officials remain mum on the topic, “raising questions over the threat the objects could have represented to civilians across North America, what the purpose of the objects was, and why there has been a rash of detections and responses with fighter planes and guided missiles.”

Since 2009, the president has almost always sat down for an interview with the network broadcasting the Super Bowl. But ahead of Sunday’s big game, Fox News is worried Biden is freezing them out, Variety’s Brian Steinberg scooped. Though Fox didn’t demand any conditions for the interview, the White House hasn’t committed, and “executives at Fox News are proceeding as if it will not” happen.

And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott's “Rescue America” plan, which states, “All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years,” with no exceptions for Social Security and Medicare: “This is a bad idea. I think it will be a challenge for him to deal with this in his own reelection in Florida, a state with more elderly people than any other state in America.”

More McConnell: “Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy said Social Security and Medicare are not to be touched, and I’ve said the same. And I think we’re in a more authoritative position to state what the position of the party is than any single senator.” (h/t AP’s Seung Min Kim)

Scott world’s response, via longtime Scott spokesman Chris Hartline: “Lol. Rick Scott knows how to win Florida a hell of a lot better than Mitch McConnell does. Some DC Republicans can keep parroting Democrat lies, but that won’t stop Rick Scott from fighting for conservative principles instead of caving to Biden every day.”

Reminder: After Biden called out “some Republicans” Tuesday for wanting to sunset Social Security and Medicare, Scott called the suggestion “a lie” but has not changed the wording of his plan.

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Raghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.
Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

After feeling lightheaded, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was admitted to GWU Hospital yesterday and stayed overnight for observation. “Initial tests did not show evidence of a new stroke, but doctors are running more tests,” his office announced in a statement.

And as President Joe Biden visits Florida today, “he’s bringing more than just talking points,” writes Gary Fineout. “Biden will be giving beleaguered Florida Democrats a glimmer of hope that the rest of the party hasn’t written off the nation’s third most populous state after a crushing midterm. … [Dems say] Biden’s visit shows that Florida is still part of his re-election calculus.”

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Raghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.
Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

President Joe Biden had a few goals last night:

1. Remind his audience of his accomplishments over the last two years;

2. Reiterate his positions in the spending debate (no negotiations over the debt ceiling and no touching Social Security and Medicare);

3. Detail the most popular highlights of his 2023 agenda; and

4. Expose his congressional GOP opposition as unreasonable and chaotic.

The speech accomplished the first three goals if you listened or read it carefully. But it will be best remembered for the dramatic clashes with jeering members of the GOP which may have done more than Biden ever could have hoped to accomplish goal No. 4. 

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Raghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.
Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

In his prior trips to the House rostrum, President Joe Biden was flanked by symbols of unified Democratic power in Washington: VP Kamala Harris over his right shoulder and then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi over his left. 

When Biden arrives tonight for his State of the Union address, things will look different. A newly minted Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, will look down on Biden in a visual reminder of how power has shifted in Washington — and how Biden’s presidency will have to shift along with it.

Yes, tonight’s address comes just weeks before Biden expected to announce his reelection campaign. Softening inflation, persistent growth and record-low unemployment have given him a strong economic record to sell even as he suddenly finds himself battling Republicans on a new front over his willingness to confront China.

But we’re told not to expect a red-meat, campaign-style speech. Instead, expect a traditional presidential call for unity — and a subtler pitch for steady leadership over partisan chaos as Washington heads into a high-stakes standoff over the debt limit and long-term fiscal planning.

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Raghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.
Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

When President Joe Biden ascends the House rostrum tomorrow to deliver his State of the Union address, the buzz will hover tens of thousands of feet higher, where a Chinese surveillance balloon floated until it was shot down Saturday off the South Carolina coast.

It’s a distraction Democrats aren’t exactly thrilled about. They’ve been hoping Biden could use the biggest bully pulpit of them all to tout their legislative victories of the past two years — moving to cut prescription drug prices, combat climate change, rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, tighten gun laws and protect same-sex marriage. They’re also eager for Biden to highlight a resilient economy and paint a sharp contrast with Hill Republicans while millions of voters tune in to watch.

And yet, thanks to the balloon saga, it’s the GOP that’s relishing the chance to differentiate itself this week.

Playbook editor Mike DeBonis and co-author Rachael Bade discuss what they'll be watching for as the week unfolds. 

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Raghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.
Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

We have our first taste of how different conducting foreign policy will be for President Joe Biden now that Republicans control the House. 

The Pentagon revealed Thursday afternoon that it has detected and is tracking a large Chinese spy balloon floating in the stratosphere above Montana, where it was surveilling a nuclear missile base. The balloon, which entered U.S. airspace on Tuesday, is well above the altitude at which commercial aircraft fly, and Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder insisted that it “does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground.”

Officials also noted that it’s not the first time one of these balloons has been spotted in American airspace in recent years — including during the Trump administration. But another official said the balloon has lingered longer than the others.

“It is appearing to hang out for a long period of time this time around, more persistent than in previous instances,” the official said. 

D.C.-based China correspondent Phelim Kine joins to break down the reaction from Washington in the midst of already high tensions with China.

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Raghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.
Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

“The Cold Calculus Behind the Shrinking GOP Presidential Field.” Would-be Republican White House aspirants face a harsh reality: It’s not just Donald Trump who’s freezing the 2024 field, reports Jonathan Martin. As GOP strategist Scott Jennings puts it: “They don’t have a Trump problem, they have a [Ron] DeSantis problem.”

But consider this: “[T]he history most on the minds of the Republicans considering the race, who are not named Trump or DeSantis, is what happens when there’s a bloody battle between top contenders. Spoiler: It augurs well for a third candidate.”

And this afternoon, a subset of the Congressional Black Caucus will sit down with President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris to officially restart the push for police reform legislation following the funeral of Tyre Nichols, whose death last week at the hands of Memphis police has galvanized advocates for reform.

Black lawmakers have zeroed in on their first and biggest request of Biden: a commitment to talk about policing in next week’s State of the Union. One CBC member told us the group is even considering telling Biden exactly what they want him to say — and that they expect him to bang the drum until legislation hits the Oval Office.

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Raghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.
Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

President Joe Biden and Rep. Kevin McCarthy are scheduled to meet today in the Oval Office at 3:15 p.m.

Keep your expectations in check. 

“Boring,” a top White House official said, when we asked about the first one-on-one session between the president and new House speaker. “First meeting of a hundred to follow.”

McCarthy has set a similarly low bar. “I think the first thing he should do,” McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday, “especially as president of the United States, is say he’s willing to sit down and find a common ground and negotiate together.”

The White House released a memo setting its own limited priorities for the meeting, saying Biden will pose two questions to McCarthy today:

Playbook co-author Rachael Bade stops by to explain what she'll be watching for when Biden and McCarthy meet later today.

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Raghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.
Jenny Ament is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

One month into the House Republican majority, a clear picture is emerging of the problems Speaker Kevin McCarthy will face managing his slim, five-seat majority. (That is, if the chaotic speaker election didn’t make things clear enough.)

Already, Republicans are scrambling to salvage red-meat proposals they’ve been talking about for months, whether it’s cracking down on the southwest border or targeting Omar’s committee seat. Yes, it’s early going, but the new majority’s struggles in passing messaging bills does not bode well for the more consequential legislation that will have to clear the House later on.

“Nothing in a majority this narrow is going to be easy,” Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) said, in what we might call the understatement of the year.

Two key dynamics we’re watching this week...

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