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Presented by ExxonMobil: Playbook is POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the day in Washington Oct 09, 2018 View in browser
By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer, Daniel Lippman, Garrett Ross and Eli Okun

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AXIOS' JONATHAN SWAN SCOOP: "Trump has accepted Nikki Haley's resignation": "President Trump has accepted Nikki Haley's resignation as UN Ambassador, the two said Tuesday morning in a public Oval Office meeting. She will exit at the end of the year, Trump said. ... Haley discussed her resignation with Trump last week when she visited him at the White House, two sources said. Her news shocked a number of senior foreign policy officials in the Trump administration." Axios

TRUMP AND HALEY IN THE OVAL OFFICE ... TRUMP said HALEY had done a "fantastic job" and signaled he would welcome her back: "We're all happy for you in one way, but we hate to lose you. Hopefully you'll be coming back at some point -- maybe a different capacity, you can have your pick."

-- Offering a reason for her departure, HALEY said: "I'm a believer in term limits. I think you have to be selfless enough to know when you step aside and allow someone else to do the job."

-- HALEY continued, pre-empting expected questions: "No, I am not running in 2020. What I can promise you is that I'll be campaigning for this one," pointing to Trump. "I look forward to supporting the president."

-- HALEY also gave effusive praise for JARED KUSHNER, calling him a "hidden genius that no one understands," and said she wished more people recognized the work he and IVANKA TRUMP do behind the scenes. "We're a better country because they're in this administration."

-- TRUMP on potential replacements: "We have a number of people who would very much like to do it. It's a great position ... I think it's become maybe a more glamorous position than it was two years ago." He added that a successor would be named within "two or three weeks." More from Eliana Johnson and Rebecca Morin

-- HALEY'S RESIGNATION LETTER was obtained by the WaPo. The letter ... Key quote: "I will surely not be a candidate for any office in 2020."

NIKKI HALEY'S FINANCES: She has two bank accounts with between $16,000 and $65,000 in cash. Her husband made between $50,000 and $100,000 from properties worth between $500,000 and $1 million. DEBT: Between $1.525 million and $2.065 million.

TEA LEAF READING ... WAPO'S JOHN HUDSON (@john_hudson): "Haley had an increasingly diminished role as Pompeo filled the Tillerson vacuum, Bolton asserted himself on UN issues, and the US began withdrawing from key UN institutions/programs, chipping away at her clout." ... "Haley's influence at UN was blunted by Trump policy decisions that many other nations opposed, including recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, cutting aid to Palestinians and announcing a U.S. withdrawal from the U.N. HR Council. Notably, Haley *supported* those moves."

Good Tuesday afternoon. ANTHONY FOXX is joining Lyft as chief policy officer and adviser. He was the Transportation secretary under Barack Obama.

NEW TRUMP SUPER PAC ADS ... AMERICA FIRST ACTION is spending $1.36 MILLION in Missouri, knocking Sen. Claire McCaskill for supporting an "energy tax." The last line of the ad: "I bet Claire McCaskill's private plane is warm." The 30-second spot ... It is also spending $1.37 MILLION in Indiana, knocking Sen. Joe Donnelly for outsourcing. The 30-second spot

PYONGYANG TO PALM BEACH? ... "Trump considers Mar-a-Lago for Kim summit," by Matthew Choi: "'I think the speed is amazing,' Trump told reporters Tuesday at the White House. 'You have no nuclear tests, no rockets. And we have a very good relationship with Chairman Kim. I like him, he likes me.' Trump added that discussions are underway for a second summit and that both he and Kim would enjoy having one on his Mar-a-Lago property." POLITICO

HEADS UP -- THE WEATHER CHANNEL: "Hurricane Michael Intensifies to Category 2; May Be Florida Panhandle's Strongest Landfall in 13 Years Wednesday"

WHAT'S ON THE PRESIDENT'S MIND -- @realDonaldTrump at 12 p.m.: "Hurricane on its way to the Florida Pan Handle with major elements arriving tomorrow. Could also hit, in later stage, parts of Georgia, and unfortunately North Carolina, and South Carolina, again... ...Looks to be a Cat. 3 which is even more intense than Florence. Good news is, the folks in the Pan Handle can take care of anything. @FEMA and First Responders are ready -- be prepared! #HurricaneMichael"

... at 12:07 p.m.: "FLORIDA -- It is imperative that you heed the directions of your State and Local Officials. Please be prepared, be careful and be SAFE! #HurricaneMichael"

A message from ExxonMobil:

Over the next five years, ExxonMobil plans to invest $50 billion in the U.S. economy. That kind of investment will not only create jobs in energy but also help support millions of American jobs in other industries. EnergyFactor.com

AP'S JESSICA GRESKO and MARK SHERMAN: "Court mood is jovial as Kavanaugh takes his place on bench": "Brett Kavanaugh took the bench with his new Supreme Court colleagues for the first time Tuesday in a jovial atmosphere that was strikingly at odds with the tension and rancor surrounding his high court confirmation.

"The new justice dived into his new job, asking a handful of questions in the first arguments of the day following a traditional welcome from Chief Justice John Roberts, who wishing Kavanaugh 'a long and happy career in our common calling.'" AP

THE BIG PICTURE -- "Conservative-Dominated Supreme Court Fulfills Nixon-Era Dream," by WSJ's Jess Bravin: "Justice Kavanaugh is expected to provide a consistent vote to implement the conservative movement's legal agenda in a range of areas where the Supreme Court has failed to produce ideologically consistent results, despite Republican presidents having appointed 14 of 18 justices since 1969.

"At minimum, a five-justice majority more sensitive to regulatory and litigation costs on business should tip more outcomes toward industry and employers ... [T]he new majority is likely to show more sympathy for social conservatives resisting the encroachment of gay rights and access to contraceptives, as well as greater tolerance for state initiatives to curb the availability of abortion.

"What's unclear, those experts say, is whether the new majority will act in degrees or represent an epochal change in American law, akin to the post-1937 court that secured the New Deal's constitutional grounding or the civil-rights revolution that began with Brown v. Board of Education in 1954." WSJ

IMMIGRATION FILES -- "AP investigation: Deported parents may lose kids to adoption," by Garance Burke and Martha Mendoza: "Federal officials insist they are reuniting families and will continue to do so. But an Associated Press investigation drawing on hundreds of court documents, immigration records and interviews in the U.S. and Central America identified holes in the system that allow state court judges to grant custody of migrant children to American families - without notifying their parents.

"And today, with hundreds of those mothers and fathers deported thousands of miles away, the risk has grown exponentially. ... [E]ach state court system, from New York to California, runs wardship and adoption proceedings differently - and sometimes there are even variations between counties." AP

-- "Migrant Children in Search of Justice: A 2-Year-Old's Day in Immigration Court," by Vivian Yee and Miriam Jordan: "[T]here are more children showing up more often to federal immigration courtrooms ... at hearings that could determine whether they will be deported, reunited with their parents, or granted the asylum that their parents desperately want for them. They often sit at counsel tables alone, unaccompanied by any family and sometimes without even a lawyer." NYT

THE DAILY BEAST'S KEVIN POULSEN and SPENCER ACKERMAN: "Researchers: No Evidence That Russia Is Messing With Campaign 2018-Yet": "Russian social media trolls are, of course, still promulgating fake news and slapping frantically at America's hot buttons ... But so far, Russia-watchers say the trolls haven't delved into the nitty gritty of 35 Senate campaigns and 435 House races. Nor has the GRU engineered the type of damaging email dumps that tent-posted the 2016 election circus. ...

"[S]ince 2016 the GRU's hackers have mostly gone back to their roots, conducting spying operations, and primarily focusing on Russia's side of the Atlantic. ... Of course, nobody is sounding the all-clear on the midterm election. Russia has an arsenal of disruption capabilities-previously deployed against Ukraine-that the Kremlin could conceivably train on the U.S. in an attempt to sow havoc on election day." The Daily Beast

2018 WATCH ... "The Hidden Money Funding the Midterms," by Maggie Severns and ProPublica's Derek Willis: "In total, super PACs have spent at least $21.6 million this cycle in 78 congressional races before disclosing who donated that money - $15.7 million of it during primary races. In many cases, that disclosure came after voters had gone to the polls. ...

"[W]hile they can't keep donors secret forever, super PACs are increasingly figuring out methods of temporarily masking donor identities that are either legal or fall into gray areas that rarely attract regulators' attention." POLITICO

-- AP'S KEN THOMAS: "Sanders barnstorming country ahead of midterm elections": "Sen. Bernie Sanders is embarking on a nine-state battleground tour on behalf of Democratic candidates competing in the November elections ... The packed October schedule marks the Vermont independent's most extensive stretch of campaigning since the 2016 presidential race. ...

"Sanders is expected to make a decision on whether to launch another campaign in the coming months and the tour could inform his decision. It will allow him to test the durability of the left-leaning coalition he assembled in 2016 and build relationships with elected officials who could serve as allies should he run again." AP

ON THE WORLD STAGE -- JESUS RODRIGUEZ, "Turkey to search Saudi consulate for disappeared journalist Jamal Khashoggi": "A probe Turkey launched into the case is now expanding with the cooperation of the Saudi government, which reportedly agreed to a search of its Istanbul consulate." POLITICO

HMM ... SPY GAMES -- "Chinese prof in child porn case also under scrutiny for alleged espionage, say officials," by NBC's Tom Winter and Julia Ainsley in Houston: "Until April, Keping Xie, 55, was a gastroenterology professor at Houston's University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where the officials say the FBI is investigating a suspected effort to funnel advanced research from the facility to the Chinese government. ...

"Four U.S. officials briefed on Chinese efforts to conduct economic espionage in the U.S. say Houston's research, scientific, and oil and gas industries are a prime draw for Chinese spies. ... Xie took part in China's 'Thousand Talents' academic talent recruitment program, which is one of several talent programs managed by the Chinese government and linked by U.S. intelligence to espionage." NBC

-- NBC'S KEN DILANIAN: "China's hackers are stealing secrets from U.S. firms again, experts say": "CrowdStrike, other private firms and U.S. intelligence agencies all reported observing a drop-off in Chinese cyberespionage for purely economic purposes after September 2015, when President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to curb the practice. ... But over the last year, as the Trump administration has taken an increasingly tough stand on what it considers unfair Chinese trade practices, thefts of intellectual property from U.S. companies by hacking groups linked to the Chinese government are on the rise." NBC

FOR YOUR RADAR -- BUZZFEED'S VERA BERGENGRUEN: "Today, for the first time in history, a young American can enlist to fight in a US war that started before he or she was born. ... [T]he cost of the US 'war on terror' is being borne by an increasingly smaller number of families, isolated and unnoticed by the rest of the country. At the same time, the US military footprint across the globe has expanded rapidly." BuzzFeed

AP'S RICHARD LARDNER: "Objections blunt momentum for foreign lobbying law overhaul": "A push to give the Justice Department more enforcement authority over the lucrative and at times shadowy world of foreign lobbying is stalled amid opposition from pro-business groups, nonprofits and privacy advocates. ...

"While there's bipartisan support for cracking down on unregistered foreign agents, several of the changes proposed in congressional bills could backfire by sweeping in a host of unintended targets, according to critics. That pushback has effectively kept the legislation from advancing ... One of the most contentious provisions would eliminate a popular loophole that permits lobbyists representing foreign commercial interests to be exempt from the law." AP

MEDIAWATCH -- Kevin Yamamura will be editor of POLITICO Pro's new California vertical in Sacramento. He is currently assistant managing editor at The Sacramento Bee.

TRANSITIONS -- Terry Neal is now EVP and managing director of public affairs at Burson Cohn and Wolfe. He most recently ran Neal Communication Strategies. ... Ben Kochman is now a senior congressional affairs officer for the Department of Transportation. He previously was legislative director for Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas).

WEEKEND WEDDINGS -- Russ Ferguson, a former Senate Judiciary Committee staffer and now a partner at Womble Bond Dickinson, married Claire Magee, corporate counsel at Raycom Media and a POLITICO and Allbritton alum. They met at Georgetown Law School. Ben Stein gave a scripture reading for the couple, who are now off to their honeymoon in Tahiti. Pic

-- Adam Deutsch, foreign affairs officer at the State Department, married Samantha Ondrade, who just completed a clerkship at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The couple wed at Woodend Sanctuary in Chevy Chase, Md. Pic

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Randi Braun, director of new business at POLITICO, and Benjy Braun, managing consultant and data scientist for IBM and an alum of Deloitte and DoD, welcomed Theo Braun. Pic ... Another pic

-- Abby Gunderson-Schwarz, chief of staff for Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.), and Kenny Schwarz, who works at DOJ, welcomed Felicity Lois Gunderson-Schwarz, who came in at 8 lbs, 6 oz, 20.5 inches, and joins big sister Avonlea. Pic ... Another pic

HAPPY 14TH ANNIVERSARY to Bret and Amy Baier. Instapic

BONUS BIRTHDAY: Allison Tucker, communications director for Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) (h/t Vince Zito)

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