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Presented by UnitedHealth Group: Playbook is POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the day in Washington Sep 19, 2018 View in browser
By Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman, Daniel Lippman and Eli Okun

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THE LATEST ON BRETT KAVANAUGH ... PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP told reporters this morning, "Look, if [Christine Blasey Ford] shows up and makes a credible showing, that will be very interesting and we'll have to make a decision. But I can only say this: He is such an outstanding man. Very hard for me to imagine that anything happened."

ON CAPITOL HILL -- ELANA SCHOR and BURGESS EVERETT, "GOP presses Kavanaugh vote with accuser's testimony in doubt": "Republican senators are giving Christine Blasey Ford a stark choice as they prepare to weigh her sexual assault allegation against Brett Kavanaugh: Talk to us on Monday, or risk losing your chance to do so before we vote. ...

"Asked if he will cancel the hearing if Ford does not attend, Grassley said he doesn't have to make that choice yet. And another Judiciary Committee Republican told reporters he believes Ford might still come." POLITICO

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL'S TAKE -- AP'S ALAN FRAM and LISA MASCARO: "'Monday is her opportunity,' Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday, a line that was echoed by other Republicans throughout the day. McConnell expressed confidence that Kavanaugh would be confirmed. 'I'm not concerned about tanking the nomination,' he said."

SENATE JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN CHUCK GRASSLEY SPEAKS -- @ChuckGrassley: "Dr. Ford shouldn't be threatened or insulted & she deserves to be heard. I expect my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to be respectful & treat this situation with the sensitivity it deserves ... We're going to continue to try to hear from Dr. Ford in any format she's comfortable w open session/closed session/private staff interviews/public staff interviews bc her information is very important. We've provided an opportunity for her to put her story fwd on Monday ...

"If Senate Dems think they need the FBI to investigate, why didn't they alert the FBI on July 30? As soon as I learned of the allegations from the Washington Post on Sunday I moved swiftly to follow up on Dr. Ford's allegations As the FBI has said its role here is complete ... Cmte investigators are following up on the leads from Dr. Ford's allegations & news stories No other OUTSIDE investigation is necessary for the Cmte to do its investigation. Don't know why Dems are refusing to cooperate in the cmte's investigation I hope Dems will join me."

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN DEFENDS HERSELF -- @SenFeinstein: "President Trump, Dr. Blasey Ford did not want her story of sexual assault to be public. She requested confidentiality and I honored that. It wasn't until the media outed her that she decided to come forward. You may not respect women and the wishes of victims, but I do."

AP'S GARANCE BURKE and MARTHA MENDOZA: "Kavanaugh accuser's colleagues point to her integrity"

NYT'S JONATHAN MARTIN: "For Red-State Democrats, Accusation Against Kavanaugh Scrambles Midterm Calculus"

Good Wednesday afternoon. TRUMP IS IN NORTH CAROLINA to survey the response to Hurricane Florence. "The money will come as fast as you need it. ... In moments of despair we've witnessed the true character of the American people," he said, per pooler Peter Nicholas of WSJ.

-- FROM POOLER MARK LANDLER OF NYT: "During his briefing at Marine Air Station Cherry Point, President Trump asked a state official, 'How is Lake Norman doing?' Assured that it was doing fine, he replied, 'I love that area. I can't tell you why, but I love that area.'

"There is a Trump National Golf Club on the shores of Lake Norman, which is near Charlotte, NC."

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MORE THOUGHTS FROM TRUMP -- "Trump eviscerates Sessions: 'I don't have an attorney general,'" by The Hill's John Solomon and Buck Sexton: "President Trump in an Oval Office interview with Hill.TV launched one of his most ferocious broadsides to date against Jeff Sessions, suggesting the attorney general was essentially AWOL and performing badly on a variety of issues ...

"The president has long excoriated Sessions for his March 2017 decision to recuse himself from the Russia collusion investigation. But on Tuesday he suggested he is frustrated by Sessions' performance on far more than that. 'I'm not happy at the border, I'm not happy with numerous things, not just this,' he said." The Hill

-- Asked this morning if he was considering firing Sessions, Trump said, "We are looking at lots of different things," per pooler Francesca Chambers of the Daily Mail.

FLORENCE FALLOUT -- "'We need help': N.C. towns plead for dam, levee upgrades after second major flood in two years," by WaPo's Sarah Kaplan in Lumberton, N.C.: "When it inundated North Carolina in 2016, meteorologists called Hurricane Matthew a '500-year rain event,' the kind of downpour that was likely to occur once every half-millennium. But then, just two years later, here came Florence, a '1,000-year event' that hit all the same places in all the same ways, if not harder.

"Local officials say improvements recommended in the aftermath of Matthew must be implemented in the wake of Florence so their communities will be ready when the next hurricane comes. But some residents wonder whether it is worth the risk to stay." WaPo

AMERICA FIRST POLICIES is running an ad, which includes the NYT anonymous op-ed! The 30-second spot, on which the group is spending $350,000

HEADLINE THE PRESIDENT WILL LIKE -- "Trump Hit Iran With Oil Sanctions. So Far, They're Working," by NYT's Clifford Krauss in Houston: "Nearly two months before American oil sanctions go into effect, Iran's crude exports are plummeting. International oil companies, including those from countries that are still committed to the nuclear agreement, are bailing out of deals with Tehran. And remarkably, the price of oil in the United States has risen only modestly while gasoline prices have essentially remained flat." NYT

2018 WATCH -- "GOP frets about prospects for picking up Indiana Senate seat," by AP's Brian Slodysko in Indianapolis: "Groups that typically back GOP candidates, such as the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, are sitting on the sidelines. [Mike] Braun's recent three-stop 'solutions' tour - spread out across three days - was ridiculed by Democrats, who pointed to [Sen. Joe] Donnelly's seven-day, 40-stop trek in August.

"And while Braun, a multimillionaire businessman, took out $6.4 million in loans to fund his primary campaign, he also publicly groused about the cost. Now, with less than two months until the election, he has yet to purchase air time for October, while Donnelly has outspent him by almost double on TV and radio since June ... For years, Republicans have insisted Donnelly's 2012 victory was a fluke caused by GOP nominee Richard Mourdock's incendiary comments about abortion and rape. Many now concede they underestimated Donnelly." AP

HMM ... AGAINST THE RUN OF PLAY -- TEXAS TRIBUNE'S PATRICK SVITEK: "Republican Pete Flores upsets Democrat Pete Gallego in race for Uresti seat"

AD WARS -- "Opioid Crisis Emerges as a Dominant Campaign Theme," by WSJ's Dante Chinni, Joshua Jamerson and Danny Dougherty: "An analysis by The Wall Street Journal found that, so far in 2018, ads containing opioid messaging have aired in congressional and gubernatorial races more than 50,000 times across 25 states. At this point in 2014, there had been only one political TV ad touching on the topic that aired 70 times-in Kentucky's Senate race. ...

"The ads' messages include promising more funds for treatment and stopping the inflow of opioids from elsewhere, among other things. ... And while both parties have taken up the issue in 2018, Republican campaign ads have been more likely to mention it. That's been particularly true in Ohio and Pennsylvania, two of the states that have seen the biggest jumps in overdoses." WSJ

THE INVESTIGATIONS ... "FBI, DOJ Plan Redactions Despite Trump's Document Order," by Bloomberg's Chris Strohm: "While the agencies want to guard against revealing classified sources and methods about the ongoing Russia investigation, doing so could put them in direct conflict with Trump, who as president has the power to override the agencies and declassify material on his own.

"It's too early to say if any officials would resign in protest should Trump do that, one person said. Trump could ask the agencies to go back and scrub the redacted material further." Bloomberg

-- "At CIA's 'Russia House,' growing alarm about 2016 election interference," by WaPo's Greg Miller, excerpted from his book "The Apprentice: Trump, Russia and the Subversion of American Democracy," out Oct. 2: "In phone conversations with Trump, Putin would whisper conspiratorially, telling the U.S. president that it wasn't their fault that they could not consummate the relationship that each had sought. Instead, Putin sought to reinforce Trump's belief that he was being undermined by a secret government cabal, a bureaucratic 'deep state.'

"'It's not us. We get it,' Putin would tell Trump, according to White House aides. 'It's the subordinates fighting against our friendship.'" WaPo ... $19.49 on Amazon

TRADE WARS -- "Trump Has Put the U.S. and China on the Cusp of a New Cold War," by NYT's Mark Landler: "'This thing will last long,' Jack Ma, the billionaire chairman of Alibaba Group, warned a meeting of investors on Tuesday in Hangzhou, China. 'If you want a short-term solution, there is no solution.' ...

"The diplomatic stalemate has many in the business and policy communities considering the possibility that the United States may be in a protracted and economically damaging trade fight for years to come and wondering what, if anything, America will gain." NYT

-- "Walmart is where the trade war comes home," by CNN's Nathaniel Meyersohn: "Target and Walmart will now face a tough choice: They can absorb the higher costs from tariffs by taking a hit to their profit margins, or they can pass some of the price increases on to their customers." CNN

-- "Latest U.S. Tariffs Could Make Auto Parts Pricier," by WSJ's Trefor Moss and Chester Dawson in Shanghai: WSJ

-- ABC'S JORDYN PHELPS (@JordynPhelps): "With a big credit to CTV for the photos, here's Canada's foreign affairs minister arriving in DC last night wearing a t-shirt that read 'Mama doesn't equal chopped liver' on the front and on the back 'Keep Calm and Negotiate NAFTA.'" The pics

CLICKER ... THE STEP BACK -- "Trump's environmental policies rule only part of America," by Alex Guillén, Beatrice Jin and Eric Wolff: "In an increasing number of practical ways, industries such as electric power, automaking, farming and refrigeration must simultaneously operate both in Trump's America and in a much more liberal country. Besides worsening an already-ugly division between Republican- and Democratic-led states, the trend also threatens to burden many of the same businesses that Trump says he's trying to help. ...

"POLITICO compared how states have split on key environmental issues - climate change, vehicle efficiency, pollution from coolants and clean water - with the 2016 presidential election results, and the correlation is striking." POLITICO

AFTERNOON READ -- "Dinesh Unchained: The right-wing populist got his start with puerile antics at the 'Dartmouth Review.' American politics has finally caught up," by The Weekly Standard's Alice B. Lloyd: D'Souza "doesn't whisper when he cops to the mercenary nature of his support for Trump. Back during the 2016 primaries, he and his second wife, Debbie, a Republican activist, favored Ted Cruz, whose father married them that year. ...

"For D'Souza, decline was a choice. He could still be writing serious books, he insists, and enjoying the friendship and favor of the conservative elite. 'I miss that, I miss that,' he says when I ask whether his mind ever wanders back to the days of D.C. dinner party debates and chess matches against conservative luminaries." The Weekly Standard

FROM MORNING MEDIA -- "KRAUTHAMMER'S FINAL BOOK: Daniel Krauthammer writes in the Weekly Standard that his father, the late conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, has one more book coming: 'The Point of It All: A Lifetime of Great Loves and Endeavors.' 'As my father's son, I am of course no impartial observer,' he writes. 'But I know I am far from alone in believing that my father's voice was a uniquely insightful and powerful one in our national discourse.'"

TRANSITION -- Garrett Bess is joining Heritage Action as government relations director. He was previously legislative director for Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.).

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