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

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BREAKING: JOHN MCCAIN DISCONTINUES TREATMENT ... Statement from his family: "John has surpassed expectations for his survival. But the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict. With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment.

"Our family is immensely grateful for the support and kindness of all his caregivers over the last year, and for the continuing outpouring of concern and affection from John's many friends and associates, and the many thousands of people who are keeping him in their prayers. God bless and thank you all." PDF of full statement

-- @MeghanMcCain: "My family is deeply appreciative of all the love and generosity you have shown us during this past year. Thank you for all your continued support and prayers. We could not have made it this far without you -- you've given us strength to carry on."

-- @cindymccain: "I love my husband with all of my heart. God bless everyone who has cared for my husband along this journey."

HAUNTING HEADLINE FROM THE NYT BREAKING NEWS ALERT: "Senator John McCain will no longer receive care for his brain cancer, his family said, a sign that he is most likely entering his final days."

-- A GOOD TIME to watch "For Whom the Bell Tolls," the HBO documentary about McCain. Trailer

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK ... MEMO FROM TOM PEREZ to DNC delegates ahead of the superdelegate vote Saturday in Chicago: The full memo

MORE IMMUNITY! ... WSJ'S REBECCA BALLHAUS and NICOLE HONG: "Allen Weisselberg, Longtime Trump Organization CFO, Is Granted Immunity by Federal Prosecutors in Michael Cohen Investigation": "Allen Weisselberg, President Trump's longtime financial gatekeeper, was granted immunity by federal prosecutors for providing information about Michael Cohen in the criminal investigation into hush-money payments for two women during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.

"Mr. Weisselberg was called to testify before a federal grand jury in the investigation earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal previously reported, citing people familiar with the investigation.

"The decision by prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office to grant immunity to Mr. Weisselberg escalates the pressure on Mr. Trump, whom Mr. Weisselberg has served for decades as executive vice president and chief financial officer of the Trump Organization. After Mr. Trump was elected, he handed control of his financial assets and business interests to his two adult sons and Mr. Weisselberg." WSJ

WE'RE VERY EXCITED to be headed to Philadelphia next week for a PLAYBOOK ELECTION event with SEN. BOB CASEY (D-PA.) and REP. RYAN COSTELLO (R-PA.). We'll talk about the 2018 midterms, issues shaping the election and the political climate. We invited REP. LOU BARLETTA (R-PA.), the GOP nominee, but his campaign said he cannot make it work. RSVP

Good Friday afternoon. BIG MOVE FOR POLITICO -- MATT KAMINSKI, executive editor of POLITICO Europe, will move to Rosslyn to become POLITICO's first global editor. He'll oversee POLITICO's worldwide expansion into "new coverage areas, new editorial platforms, and potentially even new publications," John Harris wrote to staffers. The full memo

HUGE NEWS FOR POLITICO'S CONGRESS TEAM ... HEATHER CAYGLE and AARON LORENZO -- a POLITICO couple -- are the proud parents of HENRY LORENZO! Henry was "born Thursday at 6:15 pm, 8 lbs 7 oz and a full head of dark hair! We're sleepy but all doing great!" Photo of Aaron and Henry

NYT'S MICHAEL WILSON: "Former Head of C.D.C. Arrested on Sex Abuse Charge": "Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, who ran the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for eight years under President Obama, was arrested in Brooklyn on Friday and charged with sex abuse after an incident in October 2017, the police said.

"There were few details available about his arrest. Dr. Frieden is expected to appear in court later on Friday. He was also charged with forcible touching and harassment of a Brooklyn woman, the police said." NYT

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JUST POSTED -- WSJ'S MARK MAREMONT and ROB BARRY: "Michael Cohen Guilty Plea Reveals Link to Qatari Royal Family": "A $100,000 real-estate brokerage fee that was part of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen's guilty plea Tuesday came from representing a company owned by a member of the Qatar royal family, according to interviews and real-estate documents." WSJ

WHAT'S ON THE PRESIDENT'S MIND -- @realDonaldTrump at 6:04 a.m.: "Our Economy is setting records on virtually every front -- Probably the best our country has ever done. Tremendous value created since the Election. The World is respecting us again! Companies are moving back to the U.S.A."

... at 6:17 a.m.: "'Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.' Jeff, this is GREAT, what everyone wants, so look into all of the corruption on the 'other side' including deleted Emails, Comey lies & leaks, Mueller conflicts, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr......"

... at 6:28 a.m.: "....FISA abuse, Christopher Steele & his phony and corrupt Dossier, the Clinton Foundation, illegal surveillance of Trump Campaign, Russian collusion by Dems -- and so much more. Open up the papers & documents without redaction? Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!"

-- GEORGE CONWAY (KELLYANNE'S HUSBAND) RESPONDS -- (@gtconway3d): "What everyone should want, and the country needs, is a 'President' capable of comprehending what it means to 'take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.' Art. II, S 3."

MORE FROM TRUMP ... at 7:10 a.m.: "Ex-NSA contractor to spend 63 months in jail over 'classified' information. Gee, this is 'small potatoes' compared to what Hillary Clinton did! So unfair Jeff, Double Standard."

... at 7:34 a.m.: "Social Media Giants are silencing millions of people. Can't do this even if it means we must continue to hear Fake News like CNN, whose ratings have suffered gravely. People have to figure out what is real, and what is not, without censorship!"

YIKES -- "Kremlin Sources Go Quiet, Leaving C.I.A. in the Dark About Putin's Plans for Midterms," by NYT's Julian E. Barnes and Matthew Rosenberg: "The officials do not believe the sources have been compromised or killed. Instead, they have concluded they have gone to ground amid more aggressive counterintelligence by Moscow, including efforts to kill spies, like the poisoning in March in Britain of a former Russian intelligence officer that utilized a rare Russian-made nerve agent.

"Current and former officials also said the expulsion of American intelligence officers from Moscow has hurt collection efforts. And officials also raised the possibility that the outing of an F.B.I. informant under scrutiny by the House intelligence committee - an examination encouraged by President Trump - has had a chilling effect on intelligence collection." NYT

CHRIS CADELAGO and DANIEL STRAUSS -- "Trump flips the script on Washington scandal response": "Trump's refusal to hide reflects his unshakeable confidence that he's the only one who can get them to turn out in November, allies say - and the reality that his base won't abandon him, no matter what." POLITICO

THE LATEST ON MARIIA BUTINA -- "Lawyer for alleged Russian agent Maria Butina says texts show claim that she offered sex for job is 'sexist smear,'" by WaPo's Rosalind Helderman: "A lawyer for alleged Russian agent Maria Butina filed a motion Friday arguing that federal prosecutors misconstrued a three-year-old playful exchange between Butina and a male friend in Russia to smear the 29-year old student as a seductress who offered sex for access." WaPo

KNOWING PETER NAVARRO ... MOLLY BALL in Time, "Peter Navarro Used To Be a Democrat. Now He's the Mastermind Behind Trump's Trade War": "His power has grown in recent months. Navarro, 69, won a formal promotion in February. Most of his free-trade opponents on Trump's economic team have left the Administration. The U.S. has moved aggressively to implement his preferred policies ...

"Peter Navarro originally set out to be a politician, not just an adviser to one. But he had a problem: people didn't like him. ... Idealistic but adrift, Navarro found his calling in economic policy. ... [A]fter China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, he started to notice that his MBA students were losing their jobs despite their sterling qualifications. He concluded that China's trade practices ... were putting Americans at an unfair disadvantage. In other words, Navarro seemed to see in China a scapegoat for people like himself: well-credentialed Americans denied access to the success they felt they'd earned." Time

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION -- "E.P.A. Rule Change Could Let Dirtiest Coal Plants Keep Running (and Stay Dirty)," by NYT's Eric Lipton: "[T]he Trump administration's proposed rewrite of climate-change regulations could enable some of America's dirtiest remaining coal plants to be refurbished and keep running for years without adding scrubbers or other modern pollution controls.

"Industry lawyers and former federal officials say the policy shift is one of the most consequential pieces of the Environmental Protection Agency's proposal, made public this week, to replace the Obama-era Clean Power Plan." NYT

WSJ'S HEIDI VOGT: "Under Trump, Consumer Safety Agency Aims to Boost Cooperation With Business": "Ann Marie Buerkle, acting chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission since February 2017, has toned down what businesses describe as the confrontational approach of her Democratic predecessor. Ms. Buerkle, who wrote in 2016 that the commission shouldn't be used to 'bully industry,' says she is trying to more extensively include input from companies in resolving concerns about risky products. ...

"Manufacturers have welcomed the change. ... Critics, including a recently departed commissioner, say Ms. Buerkle has gone too far." WSJ

WHAT THE LEFT IS READING -- "Why So Many Democratic Candidates Are Dissing Corporate PACs," by The Atlantic's Elaine Godfrey: "The promise, which is becoming a sort of progressive litmus test, is designed to excite the base and allows candidates to brag that they aren't beholden to corporate interests. ...

"But while the pledge might help attract voters, it isn't otherwise consequential-at least not yet. Corporate-pac donations don't constitute a significant amount of any Democratic candidate's funding, and nothing precludes candidates from accepting individual donations from corporate executives." The Atlantic

2018 WATCH -- "For Female Candidates, Harassment and Threats Come Every Day," by NYT's Maggie Astor: "Harassment is not new for women in politics, or anywhere else - and men face it too, especially if they are African-American or Jewish. But for women, the harassment is ubiquitous and frequently sexualized, and it has come to the fore this election cycle, partly because so many women are running and partly because more of them are discussing their experiences. ...

"[S]ome candidates interviewed said initially that they had not been harassed - but then, when given examples like menacing social media messages, said yes, they had experienced those things. Just as many have observed in the #MeToo movement that a certain level of misogyny is so expected as to feel unremarkable, these candidates said they saw the messages as par for the course." NYT

-- "Elections board votes down closing Georgia precincts," by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Mark Niesse: "An elections board in southwestern Georgia defeated a contentious proposal Friday to close seven rural voting locations before November's election following overwhelming opposition to the idea. ...

"The precinct closure proposal received widespread criticism because it could have reduced turnout in a majority African-American county ... The effort to shut down precincts arose in the middle of the high-profile campaign for governor between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp." AJC

VALLEY TALK -- "Tech Companies Are Gathering For A Secret Meeting To Prepare A 2018 Election Strategy," by BuzzFeed's Kevin Collier: "The meeting [Friday] ... will have a three-part agenda: each company will present the work they've been doing to counter information operations; there will be a discussion period for problems each company faces; and a talk about whether such a meeting should become a regular occurrence." BuzzFeed

HOLLYWOODLAND ... "Hollywood Democrats Plan Big Sept. 24 Fundraiser for House Candidates," by Variety's Ted Johnson: "The event, to be held at Marcy Carsey's home, will raise money for the [DCCC]. Nancy Pelosi is scheduled to attend, along with candidates in the key races." Variety

-- "Bill Maher Contributes $1 Million to Democrats' Senate Majority PAC," by Ted Johnson: Variety

HEADS UP -- "Here Are The 52 Trump Investigations That Democrats Plan If They Win The Midterms," by HuffPost's Paul Blumenthal: "The 52 subpoena requests fell into three categories. First, Trump administration and Trump Organization corruption, conflicts of interest and violations of norms of good governance. Second, the committee's core oversight functions, including agency reorganizations, the issuance of security clearances and the 2020 census. And third, overall issues of waste, fraud and abuse." HuffPost

OOPS -- "Department of Justice Reveals 'Glitch' Shielded Officials From Public Scrutiny," by The Daily Beast's Betsy Woodruff: "A technical glitch kept the Justice Department from reviewing all the email accounts it was supposed to for almost a year, according to a new, previously unreported court filing.

"That means emails from some DOJ officials weren't examined in response to records requests and lawsuits-so key emails that should have been made public months ago could have been inadvertently withheld. The department is now redoing records searches to try to belatedly fulfill requests." The Daily Beast

AP/BEIJING -- "U.S. 'deeply concerned' after China denies U.S. reporter visa": "The Embassy statement did not mention [BuzzFeed's Megha Rajagopalan] by name. ... However, it listed delays in processing foreign journalist visas, travel restrictions and violence at the hands of local authorities among its concerns. It said better access in China was necessary to 'ensure reciprocity' for the open access Chinese media enjoy in the U.S." AP

AFTERNOON READ -- MICHAEL KRUSE in the Friday cover of POLITICO Magazine, "Trump's Long War with Justice: He fought the law-and won. Could he do it again?": "In 1973, the federal government sued Trump and his father, alleging systematic racial discrimination in the rentals at their dozens of New York City apartment buildings. ... The accepted narrative of this case is that Trump and his father lost. ...

"Trump simply waited them out. He emerged in Manhattan, his reputation virtually unscathed, to wrest unparalleled public subsidies to convert the collapsing Commodore Hotel into the glossy Grand Hyatt and then pry additional tax cuts to erect Trump Tower-the one-two punch of projects that constituted rocket propellant for Trump's entire adult existence. His monetary wealth. His life-force celebrity. His extraordinary presidency." POLITICO Magazine

PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION -- WASHINGTONIAN, "The 100 Best Places to Eat Cheap Around Washington, D.C."

TV TONIGHT ... Bob Costa sits down with WaPo's Dan Balz, CNN's Abby Phillip, CBS' Paula Reid and Time's Molly Ball on PBS' "Washington Week" at 8 p.m.

MEDIAWATCH -- "Bloomberg LP ousted top exec who witnessed sex harassment: suit," by the New York Post's Kevin Dugan: "Bloomberg LP allegedly forced out a top executive who claimed she witnessed the sexual harassment of a younger employee as the media giant sought to 'protect' itself from scandal, according to an explosive lawsuit." NY Post

SPOTTED: Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), wearing a backpack, boarding the 8:30 p.m. United flight to Cleveland from DCA. Pic ... John King at the Nantucket airport ... Ainsley Earhardt and Eric Bolling, separately, on a JetBlue flight from JFK to Turks and Caicos

TRANSITION -- Rebecca Coffman is heading to Advoc8, a brand marketing and advertising firm, to do public affairs and business development. She most recently was digital director at In Pursuit Of.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- ERIN BURNETT, anchor of CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront," and DAVID RUBULOTTA, managing director at Citi, on Monday welcomed Owen Thomas Burnett Rubulotta, who joins big sister Colby and big brother Nyle. Pic ... Another pic

-- Sarah Stevens, chief of staff for Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), and Chris Stevens, executive director for the House member caucus the Conservative Opportunity Society, welcomed Jackson Christopher. Pic

Presented by ExxonMobil:

Natural gas has a growing role in the world's energy mix. The energy generated from natural gas is fueling an American manufacturing revival and creating jobs, which helps drive economic prosperity. And as one of the world's largest providers of natural gas, ExxonMobil is committed to its responsible discovery and delivery. Visit the Energy Factor to learn more about the importance of natural gas energy in our world. EnergyFactor.com

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