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Presented by Better Medicare Alliance: Playbook is POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the day Nov 27, 2018 View in browser
By Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman, Daniel Lippman, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross

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SNEAK PEEK ... DCCC CHAIRMAN BEN RAY LUJAN and Dan Sena, the committee's executive director, will give a presentation this evening detailing the breadth and depth of the Democrats' electoral romp: 8.1% victory lead in the national popular vote, and an expected 40 net seats. The DCCC raised $272 million and of that $106.3 million online.

-- LUJAN WILL talk about the 101 districts the DCCC invested in. ... $63 million spent on female candidates ... $39 million on non-white candidates ... $25.6 million on veterans and CIA veterans ... and $9.2 million on LGBTQ candidates.

HEADS UP ... THE HOUSE DEM SCHEDULE ... DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP ELECTIONS kick off tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. in the CVC auditorium. That will last until noon. It then moves to 1100 Longworth, the cavernous Ways and Means Committee room.

Happy Tuesday afternoon. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is briefing on camera at 1 p.m.

MORE LAYOFFS ... INDIANAPOLIS BUSINESS JOURNAL: "Foxconn subsidiaries to lay off 155 manufacturing, assembly workers in Plainfield"

THE LATEST IN GEORGIA ... AP: "Candidate-backed group challenges Georgia election process"

NEW ... THE INVESTIGATIONS ... THE GUARDIAN'S LUKE HARDING and DAN COLLYNS: "Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy": "Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 - during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump's push for the White House.

"It is unclear why Manafort wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. But the last meeting is likely to come under scrutiny and could interest Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who is investigating alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers." The Guardian

-- @wikileaks: "Remember this day when the Guardian permitted a serial fabricator to totally destroy the paper's reputation. @wikileaks is willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange."

-- BURGESS EVERETT: "Mueller protection bill could get Senate vote": "Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said several times on Hugh Hewitt's radio show that the chamber could vote on a bill that would codify some protections for special counsel investigations, a key demand of Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who has said he will oppose all judicial nominees until he gets his vote.

"Without Flake, the 51-member GOP has no margin for error on some nominees; a vote this week to install Thomas Farr on a District Count in North Carolina is in danger due to opposition from Democrats and undecided moderates who are concerned he is hostile to voting rights." POLITICO

WAR REPORT: "3 U.S. Soldiers Killed by Explosion in Afghanistan," by NYT's Rod Nordland in Kabul: "The deaths took place near Ghazni City, in the southeastern province of the same name, from the detonation of a roadside bomb, the military said in a statement. A witness said the bomb went off as an American convoy passed on the highway. ...

"The three soldiers killed on Tuesday were not identified, in line with American policy to wait until 24 hours after the next of kin are notified, but they were believed to be part of a Special Forces unit fighting the Taliban in Ghazni Province. The military said the four Americans who were wounded in the explosion were evacuated for medical treatment. It was the worst attack on American troops in Afghanistan in a year when a total of 13 have been killed, many of them in insider attacks, blamed on infiltrators or turncoats among allied Afghan military forces." NYT

WHAT'S ON THE PRESIDENT'S MIND -- @realDonaldTrump at 7:30 a.m.: "The Phony Witch Hunt continues, but Mueller and his gang of Angry Dems are only looking at one side, not the other. Wait until it comes out how horribly & viciously they are treating people, ruining lives for them refusing to lie. Mueller is a conflicted prosecutor gone rogue...."

... at 7:42 a.m.: "....The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite. He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other. Heroes will come of this, and it won't be Mueller and his..."

... at 8:07 a.m.: "....terrible Gang of Angry Democrats. Look at their past, and look where they come from. The now $30,000,000 Witch Hunt continues and they've got nothing but ruined lives. Where is the Server? Let these terrible people go back to the Clinton Foundation and 'Justice' Department!"

... at 8:32 a.m.: "Polls are open in Mississippi. We need Cindy Hyde-Smith in Washington. GO OUT AND VOTE. Thanks!"

A message from Better Medicare Alliance:

Seniors need Congress to act now. Delay of the 2020 Health Insurance Tax (HIT) would preserve affordable access to needed coverage and care for seniors, individuals with disabilities, and low-income beneficiaries in Medicare Advantage. Learn More.

AT THE PENTAGON ... "The Pentagon's Massive Accounting Fraud Exposed," by The Nation's Dave Lindorff: "For decades, the DoD's leaders and accountants have been perpetrating a gigantic, unconstitutional accounting fraud, deliberately cooking the books to mislead the Congress and drive the DoD's budgets ever higher, regardless of military necessity. ...

"The fraud works like this. When the DoD submits its annual budget requests to Congress, it sends along the prior year's financial reports, which contain fabricated numbers. The fabricated numbers disguise the fact that the DoD does not always spend all of the money Congress allocates in a given year. However, instead of returning such unspent funds to the US Treasury, as the law requires, the Pentagon sometimes launders and shifts such monies to other parts of the DoD's budget." The Nation

HMM ... "'Fox & Friends' Fed Interview Script to Trump's EPA Chief, Emails Show," by The Daily Beast's Maxwell Tani: "Former [EPA] administrator Scott Pruitt was clearly taken aback last year when occasional Fox & Friends fill-in host Ed Henry grilled him about a number of ethical scandals facing his administration. ...

"In past interviews with President Trump's favorite cable news show, the then-EPA chief's team chose the topics for interviews, and knew the questions in advance. In one instance, according to emails revealed in a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the Sierra Club and reviewed by The Daily Beast, Pruitt's team even approved part of the show's script. Fox & Friends has long been a friendly venue for Trump and his allies, but the emails demonstrate how the show has pushed standard cable news practices to the extreme in order to make interviews a comfortable, non-confrontational experience for favored government officials." The Daily Beast

WAPO FACT CHECK -- SALVADOR RIZZO: "Trump's false claim that Obama had the same family separation policy"

WSJ'S NICK TIMIRAOS: "Fed Shifts to a Less-Predictable Approach to Policy Making": "They will be deciding whether and when to raise interest rates more on the basis of the latest signs of economic vigor-such as in inflation, unemployment and growth-and less on forecasts of how the economy is expected to perform in the months and years to come, they've indicated in interviews and public comments. This could mean increased uncertainty for markets about the likely path of interest rates more than a few months or even weeks ahead." WSJ

ON THE WORLD STAGE -- BEN SCHRECKINGER: "The foreign media that dare not speak Trump's name": "Several autocratic regimes with which the U.S. has tense relations - including China, Turkey, North Korea and Russia - have avoided the Al Jazeera route, directing their state-controlled outlets not to criticize Trump by name, according to former government officials and regional experts. Instead, these state-controlled outlets find scapegoats other than Trump himself, including his advisers, the 'Deep State,' and former President Barack Obama. Or they simply avoid mentioning the president at all, instead complaining about U.S. policy in the abstract.

"This posture - a departure from how those same outlets covered Obama - represents an understanding that nothing sets off the president like a challenge to his ego, and that one nasty headline dropped on his desk could have real policy implications." POLITICO

RACHAEL BADE: "Freshman Dems demand more power from Pelosi": "In a letter drafted by Rep.-Elect Elissa Slotkin being circulated among the incoming freshman class, the new members call on Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leaders to give them slots on the influential Appropriations, Rules, Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce and Financial Services panels. The letter, obtained by POLITICO, also requests monthly meetings from leadership to 'ensure that the legislative priorities of our constituents are heard.'" POLITICO ... The letter

DEPT. OF MAKING MOVES -- "Fmr. WH aide for Gulf affairs joins top Saudi-linked DC lobbying firm," by i24News: "Kirsten Fontenrose, former National security Council Director for the Persian Gulf will advise SPG (Sonoran Policy Group) at a senior level and oversee all of their Gulf and African work.

"SPG, headed by Robert Stryk, is a registered foreign lobbying firm, that is helping countries modernize and export American capitalism, as marketing materials obtained by i24NEWS show. In 2017, the firm was the top recipient of Saudi Arabian money in Washington -- over five million dollars." i24 News

TOP-ED -- JOE BIDEN and MICHAEL CARPENTER in POLITICO MAGAZINE: "Foreign Dark Money Is Threatening American Democracy": "The fact that we don't know exactly how much foreign dark money is being channeled into U.S. politics is precisely why we need to reduce our vulnerabilities. There is ample evidence of dark money penetrating other democracies, and no reason to believe we are immune from this risk. ...

"With a new Congress about to be sworn in, there's an opportunity to finally end the permissive environment for foreign dark money in this country. Campaign finance reform is certainly a necessary part of the solution, but so too is disclosure of beneficial ownership and greater transparency in real estate transactions." POLITICO Magazine

MEDIAWATCH -- Holly Otterbein will be a 2020 presidential campaign reporter at POLITICO. She is currently a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

-- Alana Goodman will be an investigative political reporter at the Washington Examiner. She previously was at the Daily Mail. ... Keith Koffler will be a senior editor at the Washington Examiner. He previously worked at the Examiner, but left to write "Bannon: Always the Rebel."

-- Steven Perlberg is leaving BuzzFeed, where he covered media and politics, to do freelance reporting in Germany.

TRANSITIONS -- Cassandra Kuball will be a VP in Edelman's D.C. office. She previously was senior director for trade and industry affairs at the Corn Refiners Association. ...

... Mark Tesone is now a principal and Evan Medeiros is now a senior adviser at the Asia Group. Tesone most recently worked for the State Department in India. Medeiros previously worked at Eurasia Group and is an Obama NSC alum. ...

WEEKEND WEDDING -- Curtis Tate, a McClatchy and WSJ alum who is now a transportation reporter for NorthJersey.com, married Michael Paul Vine, an HR professional for the Dallas Independent School District. The couple were introduced through friends at the University of Kentucky. Pic

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Doug Band, a co-founder and president of Teneo who served as chief adviser for former President Bill Clinton from 2002 to 2011, and Lily Band, a former investment banker at Morgan Stanley, recently welcomed Alexander Band, their fourth child. He joins brother Max, 8, and sisters Sophie, 7, and Elle, 5.

-- Andy Stone, policy communications manager for Facebook and a DCCC alum, and Kathryn Frazier, an agent at TTR Sotheby's, on Friday welcomed Phoebe Rose Stone, who came in at 8 lbs 14 oz, 21.5 inches long. Pic

-- OBAMA ALUMNI - Michael Wear, chief strategist at The AND Campaign (a new Christian political education and advocacy group) and an Obama WH and 2012 campaign alum, and Melissa Wear, head of society programs for The British Council, on Saturday welcomed Saoirse James Wear. Pic ... Another pic

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