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Presented by Charter: Playbook is POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the day in Washington Oct 30, 2018 View in browser
By Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman and Daniel Lippman

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DRIVING THE DAY
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP LAST NIGHT ... FOX NEWS' LAURA INGRAHAM: "How does it help expand your base to call [the media] the enemy of the people? How does it help America heal in times like this?"

TRUMP: "It's a very good question. ... It's my form of telling the truth. Here's my problem. We have a lot of supporters. You know that better than anybody, all you have to do is look at your ratings, OK? But you know it better than anybody. Those supporters know that they're lying. I watched 'Meet the Press' this weekend. Everything was so falsely put. Putting words in people's mouths."

-- THE PRESIDENT also said the government is going to build "tent cities ... all over the place" to house people who are seeking asylum in the United States. And he said he already has events scheduled in the inner cities to appeal to black voters. The 21:17 video

-- REUTERS: "Trump says he expects 'great deal' with China, but more tariffs if not"

THE WHITE HOUSE says the president will go to Florida, Missouri, West Virginia, Montana, Florida, Indianapolis, Georgia, Tennessee and Ohio between now and Election Day. This seems to be mostly a play for the Senate and gubernatorial races.

TRUMP told Axios' Jim VandeHei and Jonathan Swan that he plans to eliminate birthright citizenship, a move that will certainly spark court challenges. Axios

Happy Tuesday. ELECTION DAY is ONE WEEK FROM TODAY! We'll sit down with VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE at 10:30 this morning. Livestream

ELENA SCHNEIDER in Matthews, N.C.: "Dems regain momentum in final days of battle for House": "The Republican Party base has been electrified by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings and a campaign blitz from President Donald Trump. But the burst of enthusiasm has not reversed the trajectory of the midterms for the House GOP, which remains on the verge of losing its majority next week.

"Some Republicans deep in Trump country have regained ground. But the handful of bright spots have been outweighed by a tidal wave of Democratic spending and voter support in the closing weeks of the midterm election, according to public and private polling, interviews with strategists from both parties and a POLITICO analysis of TV spending figures. In recent days, House Republicans have rushed to fortify a surprise collection of GOP-held districts in a half-dozen states that were never expected to be competitive.

"They indicate a Republican Party, swamped by cash-flush Democratic candidates and outside groups, still losing support among women and suburban voters ahead of the midterms and struggling to bring home voters that helped put the GOP in control of the House for most of the last quarter-century." POLITICO

-- ONE THING TO WATCH: "Some Republicans also acknowledged that their party's 'problems right now are with suburban women, and these developments in the last week affect them more than other demographic groups,' said Jason Roe, a Republican consultant. 'It's important for us to get them focused back on the key issues, the economy and immigration.'"

RACHAEL BADE and JOHN BRESNAHAN: "Senior House Republicans have tentatively scheduled leadership elections for the week after the midterms, a quick turnaround that favors the current leadership structure.

"House Republicans are eyeing Nov. 14 for leadership elections, according to three senior Republican sources familiar with the schedule. GOP lawmakers don't yet know whether they'll be in the majority or the minority, though the latter seems likely." POLITICO

REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP SCENARIOS, AS WE SEE THEM AT THE MOMENT ... MAJORITY: Kevin McCarthy runs for speaker, Steve Scalise for majority leader and there's a contested election for No. 3, the GOP whip, between Patrick McHenry of North Carolina and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state. MINORITY: Things get a lot more complicated here. There will be one fewer spot in the leadership structure. But in a close minority, you'd assume McCarthy and Scalise move up. If it's a blowout, all bets are off and the entire leadership gets shaken up.

WE ALSO HEAR: Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney is running for House Republican Conference chair.

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Charter is ensuring every employee earns a minimum wage of $15 per hour. It is the right thing to do for our employees, customers, and our company. policy.charter.com

ON THE TRAGEDY IN PITTSBURGH ... TRUMP and FIRST LADY MELANIA TRUMP are traveling to Pittsburgh today.

-- AP'S ADAM GELLER, ALLEN BREED and MARYCLAIRE DALE in Pittsburgh: "'I'm going to die:' Survivors relive horrors at Tree of Life": "Up in the choir loft, alone, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers whispered to a 911 dispatcher on his cellphone.

"Below him, down in the sanctuary, eight of his congregants had been felled by a gunman's bullets. Up here, though, Myers couldn't see them - or any of the other horrors going on beyond his hideaway. He could only listen. He waited for another round of semiautomatic gunfire, but all was silent. Then he heard what he feared even more.

"Could that be footsteps? Myers rushed into the loft's bathroom, barricading himself inside. Days earlier he had used a blog posting to urge members of his Tree of Life congregation to celebrate life's moments while they had the chance: 'None of us can say with certainty that there is always next year,' he wrote. Now, Myers wondered if he should hang up with 911 and make a video to tell his wife and children he loved them, while he still had time. 'I'm going to die,' he thought." AP

-- WAPO'S PHIL RUCKER, ASHLEY PARKER and JOSH DAWSEY: "Trump and aides struggle to balance midterm attacks with empathy after synagogue massacre": "Trump's anger at the media boiled over during the weekend as news organizations delved into mail-bomb suspect Cesar Sayoc's avid support of the president. The Florida man attended Trump rallies and decorated the windows of his white van with positive images of Trump and Vice President Pence, and pictures of the president's Democratic foes with crosshairs over their faces or bodies.

"Trump was upset by the degree to which the media focused on Sayoc's support of him, according to an adviser, and he channeled that anger on Twitter, where Monday he blamed the media for the nation's divisions and declared the 'Fake News Must End!' ...

"Trump's advisers privately concede that the president is not particularly good at projecting empathy - and that he does not believe his supporters expect him to seem soft or emotional. Trump was deeply uncomfortable visiting the family of a dead soldier early in his presidency, aides have said, and he has made awkward gestures, such as flashing a thumb's up, during hospital visits and other somber occasions." WaPo

-- THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE showed up to Adas Israel on Connecticut Avenue for a vigil, per WaPo.

IN PLAIN SIGHT -- "On Social Media, No Answers for Hate," by NYT's Sheera Frenkel, Mike Isaac and Kate Conger: "On Monday, a search on Instagram, the photo-sharing site owned by Facebook, produced a torrent of anti-Semitic images and videos uploaded in the wake of Saturday's shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

"A search for the word 'Jews' displayed 11,696 posts with the hashtag '#jewsdid911,' claiming that Jews had orchestrated the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Other hashtags on Instagram referenced Nazi ideology, including the number 88, an abbreviation used for the Nazi salute 'Heil Hitler.'

"Over the last 10 years, Silicon Valley's social media companies have expanded their reach and influence to the furthest corners of the world. But it has become glaringly apparent that the companies never quite understood the negative consequences of that influence nor what to do about it - and that they cannot put the genie back in the bottle." NYT

THE STEP BACK ... ANDREW RESTUCCIA: "After ISIS, Trump struggles in wake of new domestic terror": "No one was talking about terrorism when President Donald Trump sought to remind Americans about it earlier this month, warning without evidence that a migrant caravan in Central America headed toward the U.S. border had been infiltrated by 'unknown Middle Easterners.' It was a short-lived attempt to revive fears about Islamic terrorism, one quickly turned upside-down by two major domestic attacks with no apparent links beyond America's borders, and which Trump has struggled to address politically

"While the radicals of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, were an ideal foil for Trump during his 2016 campaign - when he fired up supporters with talk of ruthless airstrikes, a Muslim ban and even torture - he now finds himself awkwardly confronting a home-grown threat for which critics say he bears some responsibility, and which defies the simple-sounding solutions he offered for fighting ISIS."

"In political terms, Trump has been a victim of his own success: The multinational military campaign launched against ISIS in 2014 has succeeded in devastating the radical terrorist group's infrastructure and has recaptured nearly all the territory ISIS once controlled in Syria and Iraq. The pace of the group's attacks in Europe and the U.S. have dramatically slowed." POLITICO

FOR YOUR RADAR -- "Pentagon sending 5,200 troops to border week before midterms," by AP's Robert Burns, Colleen Long and Jill Colvin: "The Pentagon said it's sending 5,200 troops to the Southwest border in an extraordinary military operation ordered up just a week before midterm elections in which President Donald Trump has put a sharp focus on Central American migrants moving north in slow-moving caravans that are still hundreds of miles from the U.S.

"The number of troops being deployed is more than double the 2,000 who are in Syria fighting the Islamic State group." AP

2018 WATCH -- THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY -- "Inside the making of 2018's most brutal campaign ad," by Reena Flores and Derek Robertson: POLITICO

THE JUICE ...

-- FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: BLUE ENGINE MESSAGE & MEDIA and JDA FRONTLINE are merging to form a bipartisan agency focused on communications and digital and issue advocacy. The firms will operate under their own names through the end of the year and will relaunch with a new name in 2019. Blue Engine's Erik Smith, David Di Martino and Allison Clear Fastow, along with JDA Frontline's Trevor Francis, will serve as founding partners of the combined firm, which includes a team of 25.

A message from Charter:

"It's helped me provide for me family ... we don't live paycheck to paycheck like with other jobs." - James Saaristo, Charter Field Technician policy.charter.com

TRUMP'S TUESDAY -- The president and Melania Trump will leave the White House at 2:30 p.m. en route to Pittsburgh. They will return to the White House later today.

-- PENCE is going to Birmingham, Ala., for an NRSC event in the late afternoon and will be back in D.C. this evening.

TAKE THE PLAYBOOK ELECTION CHALLENGE -- See if you can correctly pick the winning candidates in some of the most competitive House, Senate and gubernatorial races in the country. Sign up today!
PLAYBOOK READS


PHOTO DU JOUR: A memorial for those killed at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue stands outside the temple Monday. | Matt Rourke/AP Photo

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER'S MARISA GUTHRIE: "Megyn Kelly, NBC Grapple Over Money and NDA in Exit Talks": "Among the issues the sides are haggling over: money and a non-disclosure and non-disparagement clause. Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Kelly is resisting an NDA." Hollywood Reporter

KNOWING MAXINE WATERS -- "Why Republicans actually like Maxine Waters," by Zach Warmbrodt: "President Donald Trump has mocked Maxine Waters as a 'low IQ person,' and she has called for the president's impeachment. But Republicans who work with the California Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee see something different: a rare deal-maker in a polarized Congress.

"Waters, who would chair the committee if Democrats win the House, has shown a surprising willingness to work across the aisle and with industry groups, even helping to deliver White House-backed legislation to ease regulations and crack down on China.

"'There are many, many things that Maxine and I are completely, diametrically the opposite on," said Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), who is in the running to be the committee's Republican leader. 'But I have dealt with her enough on issues to understand she can see the whole picture. It is possible to negotiate with her and she'll keep her word. That's an important thing in Congress. Not everybody does that anymore.'" POLITICO


FACT CHECK -- "Exclusive: Defense firms see only hundreds of new U.S. jobs from Saudi mega deal," by Reuters' Mike Stone: "Every time President Donald Trump mentions the $110 billion arms deal he negotiated with Saudi Arabia last year, he quickly follows up, saying 'It's 500,000 jobs.' But if he means new U.S. defense jobs, an internal document seen by Reuters from Lockheed Martin forecasts fewer than 1,000 positions would be created by the defense contractor, which could potentially deliver around $28 billion of goods in the deal." Reuters

SPY GAMES -- "Czechoslovakia ramped up spying on Trump in late 1980s, seeking U.S. intel," by The Guardian's Luke Harding in Prague: "The communist intelligence service in Prague stepped up its spying campaign against Donald Trump in the late 1980s, targeting him to gain information about the 'upper echelons of the US government', archive files and testimony from former cold war spies reveal.

"Czechoslovakia's Státní bezpe\u010dnost (StB) carried out a long-term spying mission against Trump following his marriage in 1977 to his first wife, Ivana Zelní\u010dková. ... Ivana's father, Milo\u0161 Zelní\u010dek, gave regular information to the local StB office about his daughter's visits from the U.S. and on his celebrity son-in-law's career in New York. Zelní\u010dek was classified as a 'conspiratorial' informer." Guardian
PLAYBOOKERS
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Lauren Zelt, managing director of public affairs at FP1 Strategies. A fun fact about Lauren: "I left high school prior to my senior year to pursue a career as a professional ballerina. I danced in the Corps de Ballet at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and in the Professional Division at Pacific Northwest Ballet. Navigating the dance world gave me a good foundation for working in politics." Playbook Plus Q&A

BIRTHDAYS: Ivanka Trump is 37 ... Maggie Haberman ... Andrea Mitchell, NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent and anchor of MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" ... former Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) is 61 ... Scott Fay ... Mitch Stewart, a founding partner at 270 Strategies ... Lindsay Jancek ... Paul Rosen, partner at Crowell & Moring in Los Angeles and former Obama DHS chief of staff ... Rebecca Schieber of Locust Street Group (hat tip: Fred Brown) ... Washingtonian's Laura Mullen ... David Beckwith ... U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands Pete Hoekstra is 65 ... Jeff Larson ... David Krone ... Lizette Alvarez ... National Journal staff correspondent Ally Mutnick (h/t Zach Cohen) ...
POLITICO's Bill Mahoney, Tarai Zemba and Sophia Socarras ... POLITICO Europe's Annabelle Dickson ...

... Nu Wexler, policy communications manager at Facebook ... Tim Roemer, senior counselor at APCO Worldwide and former U.S. ambassador to India, is 62 ... Boeing's Alexandra Viers ... former Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.) is 57 ... Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) is 67 ... Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) is 63 ... AARP's Josh Rosenblum ... Mary Sullivan ... Christine Zdelar ... Connor Brantley ... Jeremy Seth Gold ... James Richardson, managing director at Dentons ... Coy Knobel ... Chris Lynch ... Edwin Foulke ... Richard Marks ... Michael Petricone ... Samantha Turner ... Jeremy Holden ... Joe Sterling is 68 ... Ruth Tecle ... Brian Schildroth ... Justin Hage ... Ian Millhiser, justice editor at
ThinkProgress ... Lauren Callahan ... Sam Bilotta ... Evan Reese ... Nicholas Watson (h/t Teresa Vilmain)

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