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Presented by Google: Playbook is POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the day in Washington Sep 24, 2018 View in browser
By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer, Daniel Lippman and Eli Okun

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SOMETHING IS HAPPENING WITH ROD ROSENSTEIN. That seems clear. AXIOS' JONATHAN SWAN is reporting Rosenstein -- the No. 2 at DOJ, who oversees the Russia probe -- has offered his resignation. Others are reporting it's in flux.

-- THE AXIOS STORY: ''Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has verbally 'offered to resign' in discussions with White House Chief of Staff Kelly, according to a source close to Rosenstein, but as of now, it's unclear whether his resignation has been accepted. The source said it's possible nothing happens today.'' Axios

BUT, BUT, BUT -- JOSH GERSTEIN (@joshgerstein): ''BOIL TO SIMMER? Rosenstein hasn't resigned and hasn't been fired yet, a source familiar says. Attending an NSC principals committee meeting right now at WH, source says.''

-- NBC'S PETE WILLIAMS says Rosenstein is still deputy AG.

STATEMENT FROM THE WHITE HOUSE: ''At the request of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, he and President Trump had an extended conversation to discuss the recent news stories. Because the President is at the United Nations General Assembly and has a full schedule with leaders from around the world, they will meet on Thursday when the President returns to Washington, D.C.''

-- NOTE: Trump and Rosenstein meet Thursday. Kavanaugh's hearing is scheduled for Thursday. Trump is raising millions for the NRCC Thursday. Thursday will be a big day.

IF HE GOES ... FIRED VS. RESIGNED. This is going to be a big debate over the next few days. Swan is as sourced as anybody on the White House beat, so this would appear to be a pretty firm report. If Rosenstein is fired, that would be politically toxic to many on Capitol Hill.

-- THE PRACTICAL DIFFERENCE: Trump can use the Vacancies Act to appoint someone to be deputy attorney general if Rosenstein does, indeed, resign. (That person would not, however, automatically oversee the Russia probe.) If not, there is a line of succession that would likely place Noel Francisco as DAG.

WAPO'S DEVLIN BARRETT, ASHLEY PARKER and CAROL LEONNIG: ''One Trump adviser said the president has not been pressuring Rosenstein to leave the job, but his resignation had been a topic of private discussions all weekend. The person said Rosenstein had expressed to others that he should resign because he 'felt very compromised' and was now a potential witness in the Russia probe rather than a supervisor, according to a person close to Trump.'' WaPo

FLASHBACK -- JOSH GERSTEIN on April 13: ''What happens if Trump fires Rosenstein?
Ousting the deputy attorney general is widely seen as a way to eliminate the Russia investigation overseen by Robert Mueller'': POLITICO

-- @SenatorLeahy: ''Saturday Night Massacres don't need to happen on a Saturday. If President Trump fires DAG Rod Rosenstein or forces his resignation, he will come one giant leap closer to directly meddling with the Special Counsel's Russia investigation. ...

... ''It is more urgent than ever that the Senate pass S.2644, the bipartisan bill to protect the independence of the Special Counsel. If we do not defend the rule of law in these moments, we risk losing it.''

THE LATEST ON KAVANAUGH -- ''Trump and GOP allies hit back at new accusations,'' by John Bresnahan, Eliana Johnson and Rebecca Morin: ''With Kavanaugh's fate hanging in the balance, the White House is changing tactics, going on the offensive to save its embattled pick for the high court ... 'For people to come out of the woodwork from 36 years ago and 30 years ago and - never mentioned it, all of a sudden it happens - in my opinion, it's totally political. It's totally political,' Trump said.'' POLITICO

-- VOX'S ZACK BEAUCHAMP: ''Brett Kavanaugh and the Supreme Court's looming legitimacy crisis'': ''The American public has long had a deep and abiding faith in the Supreme Court as the last say in our public legal disputes. ... But in recent years, the public has soured somewhat on the Court. ... Now experts say the political firestorm surrounding Kavanaugh's nomination could tip this trend toward a full-blown crisis. ...

''If the Court loses legitimacy, either with the public as a whole or with one particular party, then political actors might be tempted to ignore it - which has happened before.'' Vox

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Good Monday afternoon. THE NEW YORKER'S JANE MAYER: ''How Russia Helped Swing the Election for Trump'': ''Few people, including Trump's opponents, have publicly challenged the widespread belief that no obtainable evidence can prove that Russian interference changed any votes. ... 'Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President-What We Don't, Can't, and Do Know,' by Kathleen Hall Jamieson ... dares to ask-and even attempts to answer-whether Russian meddling had a decisive impact in 2016. Jamieson offers a forensic analysis of the available evidence and concludes that Russia very likely delivered Trump's victory. ...

''Her case is based on a growing body of knowledge about the electronic warfare waged by Russian trolls and hackers-whom she terms 'discourse saboteurs'-and on five decades' worth of academic studies about what kinds of persuasion can influence voters, and under what circumstances. ... Jamieson makes a strong case that, in 2016, 'Russian masterminds' pulled off a technological and political coup. Moreover, she concludes, the American media 'inadvertently helped them achieve their goals.''' The New Yorker ... $16.96 on Amazon

THE INVESTIGATIONS -- ''Roger Stone sought contact with WikiLeaks' Julian Assange, email suggests,'' by ABC's Ali Dukakis: ''The July 31, 2016, email appears to be an explicit attempt by Stone to connect with Assange using [Jerome] Corsi and [Ted] Malloch as intermediaries. ... The email was sent just nine days after WikiLeaks made public the first batch of stolen Democratic Party documents allegedly obtained by hacker Guccifer 2.0, later identified as Russian state hackers. It appears to bolster the assertion that Stone, a prominent Trump ally, was attempting to communicate with Assange about the politically explosive leaks.'' ABC

IN TURTLE BAY ... Trump told reporters at the U.N. this morning that a second summit with Kim Jong Un would likely happen ''quite soon.''

AND AT A ''GLOBAL CALL to Action on the World Drug Problem,'' he described the drug trade as ''the lifeblood for vicious trans-national cartels'' and called for efforts to end trafficking and bolster addiction treatment. He also moderated his tone on the U.N. itself: ''I've always said the United Nations has tremendous potential, and that potential is being met. Slowly but surely, it's being met.''

-- ''AP review: Drug prices keep going up despite Trump pressure,'' by Linda A. Johnson and Nicky Forster: AP

2018 WATCH -- ''A G.O.P. Senate Candidate Highlights His Drug Industry Career. Should He?'' by NYT's Katie Thomas and Nick Corasaniti: Bob ''Hugin, a Republican mounting a surprisingly strong challenge to Senator Robert Menendez in New Jersey, has made his career at Celgene a cornerstone of his campaign, with television advertisements boasting that he 'chose a life of service' in the Marines and 'leading a health care company that develops cancer medicine.' ...

''But Mr. Hugin's professional career could also prove to be a liability ... An examination of Celgene's aggressive promotion of Revlimid and its predecessor, Thalomid, while Mr. Hugin was a top executive at the company, including its chief executive for six years, reveals many of the controversial financial and legal tactics that have tarnished the industry's reputation, from marketing drugs for unapproved uses to raising prices and fighting off generic competitors.'' NYT

-- MCCLATCHY'S KATIE GLUECK: ''Veterans are running as Democrats, and the GOP is scrambling to respond''

TRADE WARS -- BEN WHITE: ''Trump's trade wars start biting GOP ahead of midterms'': ''The economic fallout from Trump's skirmishes with China, Canada, Mexico and the European Union risk making an already tough cycle for Republicans even more brutal ...

''The latest impact will begin to hit Monday as new 10 percent tariffs Trump slapped on over $200 billion in imports from China are scheduled to go into effect. ... Economists expect that to translate into higher prices for consumers across the country and special pain for low-to-middle-income voters who make up much of Trump's base - and are least able to absorb increased costs for consumer goods from air conditioners to clothing and furniture.'' POLITICO

-- ''China Says Trump Administration Is a Trade Bully as New Tariffs Take Effect,'' by WSJ's James T. Areddy in Shanghai and Lingling Wei in Beijing: WSJ

ON THE WORLD STAGE -- ''China Is Confronting New U.S. Hostility. But Is It Ready for the Fight?'' by NYT's Jane Perlez in Beijing: ''China has abruptly canceled not only trade talks that were planned this week in Washington but also military-to-military talks scheduled to begin Tuesday. ... As the acrimony and rivalry with the United States have intensified, the immediate worry in Beijing is how the Chinese public, accustomed to a fast-expanding economy, will handle the trade war, and what impact it might have on the ruling Communist Party's overriding concern of domestic stability.'' NYT

HMM ... ''Turkish Intel Will Run 'Operations' Against Political Opponents On U.S. Soil, Erdogan Spokesman Says,'' by The Daily Caller's Chuck Ross: The Daily Caller

RACHAEL BADE: ''Women's caucus rebels against Pelosi's grip'': ''A battle is underway for control of the Democratic Women's Working Group, a little-known caucus aiming to vastly boost its profile and influence in the next Congress. Pelosi and her allies deny the fight is about her. But the mini-rebellion is emerging as another test of the minority leader's newly strained hold on power ...

''[T]he conflict comes down to whether to hold a full-fledged, open election to decide the women's caucus' next leader. It's a sore subject for a group that's 'been under Pelosi's thumb,' as one lawmaker put it.'' POLITICO

NYT'S MARGOT SANGER-KATZ: ''One Big Problem With Medicaid Work Requirement: People Are Unaware It Exists'': ''Arkansas is the first state to test a work requirement, a policy that the administration has encouraged ... The early results suggest that the incentives may not work the way officials had hoped. Arkansas officials, trying to minimize coverage losses, effectively exempted two-thirds of the eligible people from having to report work hours.

''Of the remaining third - about 20,000 people - 16,000 didn't report qualifying activities to the state. Only 1,200 people, about 2 percent of those eligible for the requirement, told the state they had done enough of the required activities in August.'' NYT

SPOTTED: U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell at the Bräurosl tent at Oktoberfest in Munich on Sunday. Pic ... Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on American Airlines Flight 4591 from Burlington to DCA this afternoon.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK -- STATE DEPARTMENT ARRIVAL LOUNGE -- per Daniel Lippman and Ted Hesson: Tom DiNanno starts next Monday as deputy assistant secretary for arms control, verification and compliance. He is currently FEMA's assistant administrator for grant programs, ran the transition at the Trump Department of Homeland Security's National Protection and Programs Directorate and worked as a deputy assistant secretary for critical infrastructure in the Bush DHS.

ENGAGED -- Evan Philipson, AIPAC's Florida political director, on Saturday proposed to Gaby Blyumin, a pediatric clinical pharmacist at Miami Children's Hospital. Evan rented a boat in Miami and proposed on the water during sunset. Pic (h/t Grant Dubler)

WEEKEND WEDDINGS -- Ryan Heath, POLITICO Europe's political editor and former Brussels Playbook author, wed Zachery Bishop, a tech PR consultant for BSA and Amazon at Cambre Associates, in a ceremony in Hydra, Greece. ABC's Tara Palmeri won an ''epic'' bouquet toss. Pic ... Another pic ... The bouquet toss (h/t Brussels Playbook)

-- Allyson Neville, associate director for international humanitarian response policy and advocacy at Save the Children and former lobbyist for the Friends Committee on National Legislation, married Spencer Wahrman, an image scientist at MTEQ, on Saturday in Charlottesville, Va. Pic ... Another pic


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