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Presented by Delta Air Lines: Playbook is POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the day Nov 16, 2018 View in browser
By Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman, Daniel Lippman and Garrett Ross

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JUST POSTED ... NYT'S MAGGIE HABERMAN and KATIE ROGERS: "Is Mike Pence Loyal? Trump is Asking, Despite His Recent Endorsement"

THE CLIFFHANGER ... JASON SCHWARTZ: "Judge orders White House to return press credentials to CNN's Acosta": "Judge Timothy Kelly, an appointee of President Donald Trump's, said the administration deprived [Jim] Acosta of 'due process' when it stripped him of his press pass after a dispute involving a news conference last week. The judge granted CNN's request for the reporter's access to be temporarily restored while the rest of the case moves forward. ...

"Kelly said Friday that he was not ruling on whether the White House violated Acosta's First Amendment rights but that it appeared officials had yanked his press pass without any advance notice or chance to rebut. The process by which the White House came to its decision was so 'shrouded in mystery,' the judge said, that Department of Justice lawyers arguing the case were not even able to say who inside the White House had made the decision to pull Acosta's pass. ... 'Let's go back to work,' Acosta said to reporters assembled outside the courthouse." POLITICO

-- STATEMENT FROM SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: "Today, the court made clear that there is no absolute First Amendment right to access the White House. In response to the court, we will temporarily reinstate the reporter's hard pass. We will also further develop rules and processes to ensure fair and orderly press conferences in the future. There must be decorum at the White House."

-- SPOTTED: Acosta entering the White House grounds today after the ruling. Pic

CLICK! ... NYT'S MARK LEIBOVICH on SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-MAINE): "Susan Collins Could Do Without the Death Threats"

FORMER REP. DAVID DREIER (R-CALIF.) lost his new Malibu home in the fire. NBC L.A.

Good Friday afternoon. THE SPEAKER RACE ... WAPO'S MIKE DEBONIS (@mikedebonis): ">@RepMarciaFudge says she may not decide to run until AFTER the 11/28 caucus elections."

-- JOHN BRESNAHAN (@BresPolitico): "Pelosi & Marcia Fudge meeting right now. Speaker drama!"

-- RACHAEL BADE (@rachaelmbade): "Per source familiar with this meeting, @RepCummings was the person who set this up/pushed for his two friends to meet. Cummings is a big Pelosi ally but also close with Fudge"

-- WAPO'S MIKE DEBONIS (@mikedebonis): "And @RepMarciaFudge gaggle is over. Says Pelosi asked what she would need from Fudge to win support. Fudge described frustrations in how the caucus is run. She is thinking about it over the holidays and then will make a decision. Still not saying she'd decide before caucus elex."

SPOTTED: Florida Ag Secretary Adam Putnam on the House floor. Putnam recently lost a gubernatorial primary.

ELANA SCHOR: "Grassley to trade Judiciary gavel for Finance": "[Iowa Sen. Chuck] Grassley's departure paves the way for [Sen. Lindsey] Graham to take the helm at Judiciary, giving the South Carolina Republican valuable power over Department of Justice confirmations - including the next attorney general. It also gives the next chairman oversight of the DOJ as it supervises special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into President Donald Trump.

"While Graham's ascension won't be official until the next Congress begins, he openly acknowledged his interest in the Judiciary gavel this summer and predicted that 'there's a deal to be had' on immigration. Even after battling more right-leaning primary challenges in the past, Graham has displayed a bipartisan streak, aligning with Democrats on Judiciary to steer legislation protecting Mueller's job through the committee." POLITICO

MORE RICARDEL FALLOUT ... BLOOMBERG'S JENNIFER JACOBS: "Trump Offered to Nominate Ricardel as Ambassador to Estonia, Sources Say": "[Mira] Ricardel turned down the posting to the Baltic state, two of the people said. It's unclear if the White House plans to offer her any other position. ...

"'It's been an honor to serve the president as deputy national security adviser,' Ricardel said in a statement on Friday. 'I admire the president and first lady and have great respect for my colleagues who are dedicated to supporting the president's policies, and I look forward to working with them in the months ahead.'" Bloomberg

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THE LATEST IN GEORGIA ... AP'S BILL BARROW and KATE BRUMBACK in Atlanta: "Abrams prepares push for new Georgia Gov. vote": "The Democrat's longshot strategy relies on a statute that's never been used in such a high-stakes contest. It is being discussed as Georgia elections officials appear to be on the cusp of certifying Republican Brian Kemp as the winner of a bitterly fought campaign that's been marred by charges of electoral malfeasance. ...

"Allegra Lawrence-Hardy, Abrams' campaign chairwoman, is overseeing a team of almost three-dozen lawyers who in the coming days will draft the petition, along with a ream of affidavits from voters and would-be voters who say they were disenfranchised. Abrams would then decide whether to go to court under a provision of Georgia election law that allows losing candidates to challenge results based on 'misconduct, fraud or irregularities ... sufficient to change or place in doubt the results.'" AP

WAPO'S GLENN KESSLER: "Fact-checking President Trump's wild Daily Caller interview"

ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA ... "North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects testing of unspecified new 'tactical weapon,'" by WaPo's Simon Denyer and Min Joo Kim in Seoul: "North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has inspected a newly developed 'ultramodern tactical weapon,' state media said Friday, without specifying what kind of weapon was tested. ...

"[I]n a positive sign, North Korea announced later Friday that it would deport a U.S. citizen who had been detained since October after being accused of entering the country illegally from China at the behest of the CIA. However, the announcement about the new weapon test marked Kim's first high-profile visit to a military site since the June summit, and the first announcement of any weapons test this year. It comes as Washington's diplomatic efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program appear to have stalled." WaPo

BEN WERMUND: "DeVos' school sexual assault policy boosts protections for the accused": "[Education Secretary Betsy] DeVos' revamp has been among her most controversial and anticipated moves in office and Democrats are sure to pounce on it as they wield newfound control of the House to call the secretary and her aides to testify on Capitol Hill.

"The proposal marks a step into politically fraught terrain for the administration, as sexual misconduct claims - including against President Donald Trump's pick for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, and against the president himself - have galvanized activists in recent months." POLITICO

2018 WATCH -- "Hyde-Smith's campaign says comment about suppressing 'liberal' votes was 'a joke,'" by Caitlin Oprysko: "In a campaign appearance in Starkville, Mississippi, earlier this month, Hyde-Smith told a group that 'there's a lot of liberal folks in those other schools who that maybe we don't want to vote. Maybe we want to make it just a little more difficult. And I think that's a great idea.' ...

"'The great idea she was referring to was the polling places on college campuses,' [communications director Melissa] Scallan said Friday, while also calling it 'irresponsible' that people are sharing the video because whoever shot it 'has an agenda obviously' and because Hyde-Smith's voice is in the recording is 'very hard to hear.' ... Hyde-Smith is in a runoff election with Democrat Mike Espy, a former agriculture secretary during the Clinton administration, to serve the remaining two years of former Sen. Thad Cochran's term." POLITICO

CASH DASH -- "GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson is winning a medal. But are Republicans losing the political money war?" by Center for Public Integrity's Carrie Levine and Dave Levinthal: "[A]delson's Presidential Medal of Freedom - which liberals are mocking as an award for the $113 million Adelson and her billionaire casino mogul husband, Sheldon Adelson, contributed to conservative candidates, super PACs and other political committees during the 2018 midterm elections - comes as some Republicans are fretting about the party's reliance on a handful of aging billionaires. ...

"[S]ome donors and party fundraisers say it's time for the Republican Party to broaden its donor base beyond the super-rich and move away from a fundraising model that requires a lot of personal contact. Many point to the success Democrats have had raising money online." CPI


2020 WATCH -- "Oprah pal and spirituality guru plans 2020 run," by Alex Thompson: "Add one more name to the growing list of Democrats preparing to run for president in 2020: Marianne Williamson - pal of Oprah, spirituality guru and fixture of Hollywood's New Age community. Williamson ... announced on Friday that she's forming a presidential exploratory committee and traveling to Iowa, her fifth trip to the state this year. ...

"While the 66-year-old Williamson is not a familiar name inside the Beltway, it is not her first time dabbling in national politics. In 2014, she raised $2 million in bid to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman in California, running as an independent." POLITICO

NYT'S CECILIA KANG, MATT ROSENBERG and MIKE ISAAC: "Mark Zuckerberg Defends Facebook as Furor Over Its Tactics Grows": "In Washington, Republicans and Democrats threatened to restrain Facebook through competition laws and to open investigations into possible campaign finance violations. Shareholders ramped up calls to oust Mr. Zuckerberg as Facebook's chairman. And activists filed a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission about the social network's privacy policies and condemned [Sheryl] Sandberg, the chief operating officer, for overseeing a campaign to secretly attack opponents. ...

"[W]hile previous scrutiny of Facebook largely focused on its business model and how its platform promotes viral posts and ads, the latest fallout was directed specifically at Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Sandberg." NYT ... Definers Public Affairs' new statement on its Facebook work

AFTERNOON READING -- KEITH KLOOR in POLITICO MAGAZINE: "Anatomy of a Conspiracy Theory: Credible sources say the Las Vegas shooting was a one-man job. But a small band of former government insiders is propagating a wild alternative theory-with dangerous consequences." POLITICO Magazine

MEDIAWATCH -- Jacqueline Corba has started as a producer for CNBC's "Squawk Box." She was previously senior producer of special programming at Cheddar and is a Politico alum.

SPOTTED at a going-away party last night for White House staffers Vanessa Morrone and Ninio Fetalvo at BlackFinn: Mercedes Schlapp, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stephanie Grisham, Mike Dubke, Kellyanne Conway, Caroline Sunshine, Raj Shah, Hogan Gidley, Natalie Strom and Michael Short, Lindsay Walters, Jessica Ditto and Marc Lotter.

SPOTTED at a new-member tour at the National Museum of African American History and Culture hosted by Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) on Thursday: Lucy McBath, Donna Shalala, Katie Hill, Mike Levin, Jahana Hayes, Lauren Underwood, Sharice Davids, Andy Levin, Steven Horsford, Abigail Spanberger, Colin Allred and Mary Gay Scanlon. Pic

ENGAGED -- Lesley Fulop, director of strategic communications at DHS, is engaged to John Byers, deputy COS for Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.). The couple first met at a Ripon 39ers event hosted by the Ripon Society. Pic

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Maribeth Collins, director of legislative affairs at the Competitive Carriers Association and a Bill Shuster and Pat Meehan alum, and Kurt Maldovan, digital engineering director of the Americas at Jacobs, welcomed Vivian Mary, who joins big brother Oliver.


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