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By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer and Daniel Lippman

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DRIVING THE DAY
2028 WATCH ... OVERHEARD Thursday at a POLITICO photoshoot at Harvard: REP.-ELECT ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.) joking about running for president. PHOTOG: "What are you, twenty...?" AOC: "29. I just turned 29." PHOTOG: "Happy birthday." AOC: "Thank you! Thank you!" PHOTOG: "You can't even run for president for another six years."

AOC: "No, not for a long time. Thank God. Although we've been joking that because the Equal Rights Amendment hasn't been passed yet, the Constitution technically says he cannot run unless he's 35. ... So what we'll do is we'll force the Republican Party to pass the Equal Rights Amendment by threatening to run for president."

PHOTOG: "That is awesome. All the people who say a literal interpretation of the Constitution is the only thing you should be paying attention to." AOC: "Exactly, all those Constitutionalists, I will keep vigilance."

-- NOTE: The Constitution does not say "he". It says "any person."

NEW ... SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS will sit down with ELIANA JOHNSON at the SIXTH ANNUAL WOMEN RULE SUMMIT Tuesday afternoon at the Four Seasons. The event is packed with the most powerful women in Washington.

JOINING US WILL BE: Newly elected women like Democrats Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Deb Haaland of New Mexico and Republican Carol Miller of West Virginia. New York GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik, who is planning a major effort to elect women to Congress, and outgoing Utah GOP Rep. Mia Love will be discussing the future of women in the Republican Party. And, Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) will sit together for a conversation.

RNC CHAIRWOMAN RONNA MCDANIEL will be interviewed by CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN. "On the Basis of Sex" actress Felicity Jones, director Mimi Leder and writer Daniel Stiepleman, actress and activist Piper Perabo and leading women from Pfizer, Uber, Goldman Sachs, the Washington Nationals, the Apollo Theater, Rock the Vote, LEGO, the Smithsonian and many more will be joining us on stage. #RULEWITHUS Check out the full agenda and bookmark the livestream

MUELLER MAKING MOVES -- "Trump Says 'No Collusion' After Mueller's Filing on 'Synergy,'" by Bloomberg's Bob Van Voris, Greg Farrell, and David Voreacos: "Michael Cohen spoke with a Russian national who repeatedly proposed a meeting between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the early months of Trump's presidential bid, and offered 'political synergy' for the campaign, according to a filing by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office. Trump tweeted early Saturday that there had been 'NO COLLUSION!'

"The unidentified Russian, claiming to be a 'trusted person' in the country, told Cohen that a meeting between Trump and Putin could have a 'phenomenal' impact politically and for Trump's business aspirations to build a skyscraper in Moscow, according to the filing. There is 'no bigger warranty in any project than consent of [the president of Russia],' the person told Cohen, according to Mueller's filing." Bloomberg

-- WAPO'S DEVLIN BARRETT and MATT ZAPOTOSKY: "Court filings directly implicate Trump in efforts to buy women's silence, reveal new contact between inner circle and Russian": "Federal prosecutors filed new court papers Friday directly implicating President Trump in plans to buy women's silence as far back as 2014 and offering new evidence of Russian efforts to forge a political alliance with Trump before he became president - disclosures that show the deepening political and legal morass enveloping the administration. The separate filings came from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and federal prosecutors in New York ahead of Wednesday's sentencing of Trump's former personal lawyer,
Michael Cohen.

"Taken together, the documents suggest that the president's legal woes are far from over and reveal a previously unreported contact from a Russian to Trump's inner circle during the campaign. But the documents do not answer the central question at the heart of Mueller's work - whether the president or those around him conspired with the Kremlin. The documents offer a scathing portrait of his former lawyer as a criminal who deserves little sympathy or mercy because he held back from telling the FBI everything he knew. For that reason, prosecutors said, he should be sentenced to 'substantial' prison time, suggesting possibly 3½ years." WaPo

FROM 30,000 FEET: GARRETT GRAFF in WIRED, "The Mueller Investigation Nears the Worst Case Scenario": "Special counsel Robert Mueller and investigative reporters have uncovered and assembled a picture of a presidential campaign and transition seemingly infected by unprecedented deceit and criminality, and in regular-almost obsequious-contact with America's leading foreign adversary. ...

"Put together all the clues, and Occam's Razor comes to mind: The most obvious scenario is the most likely scenario. And the most likely scenario now is that there was no division between the apparent Trump-Russian collusion on business matters and in the election. The coincidences are piling up. The conversations are piling up. And Mueller's evidence is clearly piling up as well." Wired

Good Saturday morning. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP will be in Philadelphia this afternoon for the 119th Army-Navy game. Kickoff is at 3 p.m. on CBS.

WAPO: "Redskins, D.C. working with Congress to slip stadium provision into spending bill"


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AYERS WATCH -- NANCY COOK, ANDREW RESTUCCIA and GABBY ORR: "Nick Ayers is Trump's next chief of staff - unless his enemies can stop him": "For the past month, Nick Ayers has been a White House chief of staff in waiting. President Donald Trump informally offered Ayers a job as his top aide during a private huddle at an election night party in the White House residence last month. Several White House staff and advisers were within earshot and overheard the conversation, which included First Lady Melania Trump, and its details were described to POLITICO by two people briefed on them. It seemed like a done deal, except for one complication: The position wasn't open yet.

"John Kelly was still hanging on to the job, however tenuously. White House officials now believe that will finally change, saying they expect Kelly to exit any day now. That would seem to clear the way for Ayers. But the lag time allowed a month-long lobbying campaign both for and against the 36-year-old Ayers, currently Vice President Mike Pence's top aide. Ayers' detractors - who consider him nakedly ambitious and untrustworthy - have lobbied Trump against following through on the offer.

"Some top White House aides have even threatened to resign if he does not. 'People are threatened by Nick's age and his reputation as this young political savant,' said one former White House official. 'He has the endorsements of Jared [Kushner], Ivanka [Trump], and Pence, but not a lot of fans beyond that. That's not to say the majority of the West Wing will empty out, but there are a few staffers who will leave because of him.'" POLITICO

-- WSJ's PETER NICHOLAS, MICHAEL BENDER and REBECCA BALLHAUS: "The president told one of his associates on Thursday night: 'Stop calling John [Kelly] for anything. Call Nick. He's my guy,' a person familiar with the conversation said." WSJ

-- BLOOMBERG'S JENNIFER JACOBS: "Trump has made it known that he will not force Kelly out but is prepared to let him leave in his own time, people familiar with the situation said. Some think Kelly's departure may come quickly, though it could also slip until after the holidays ... Kelly wasn't seen at the White House during the day on Friday, but did attend a senior staff dinner in the evening, one of the people said. Kelly did not make an announcement about his plans, and Trump, in his remarks at the gathering, was very gracious to him." Bloomberg

-- CNN'S EVAN PEREZ and DANA BASH: "Exclusive: Mueller investigators questioned John Kelly in obstruction probe"

THE RESISTANCE 2.0 -- "GOP power grabs pour gas on 'resistance' in key Midwest states," by Daniel Strauss: "Republican efforts to weaken incoming Democratic governors in Michigan and Wisconsin have reignited the grass-roots fervor that flipped both states in November, turning the typically sleepy post-election period into a key organizing moment ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

"Liberal groups in both states are organizing demonstrations filling the capitols in both states to oppose GOP legislators stripping power from the governor's offices before new Democratic governors take their posts. Local chapters of Indivisible, the national 'resistance' group founded after President Donald Trump's 2016 win, reactivated their members weeks after the election to protest the legislation, while MoveOn.org has texted members in key Wisconsin state Senate districts urging them to contact Republican politicians to complain. And Wisconsin Gov.-elect Tony Evers and the Wisconsin Democratic Party have raked in money with online fundraising appeals highlighting the fight over the
past two weeks." POLITICO

2020 WATCH -- "As her DNA test still reverberates, Sen. Elizabeth Warren's political operation shows fissures," by WaPo's Matt Viser: "Mindy Myers, who was one of the primary architects of Warren's political rise and has remained one of her close advisers, had been expected to play a senior role in the senator's campaign. But she has been in talks with several rival campaigns and is planning to meet soon with Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Tex.), who is considering a presidential run. Myers ran Warren's 2012 U.S. Senate campaign and then served as her senate chief of staff, giving her a deep understanding of Warren's strengths and weaknesses." WaPo

MORE ON THE INVESTIGATION FRONT -- NYT's ADAM GOLDMAN and SHARON LAFRANIERE: "Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, lied to federal investigators about his contacts with Trump administration officials and his interactions with a Russian linked to Moscow's intelligence services, the special counsel's office said on Friday. He also lied about a $125,000 payment made through a political action committee to cover a debt he owed, prosecutors working for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, said in a partly redacted court filing explaining why they withdrew last week from a plea agreement they had reached with Mr. Manafort in September.

"They also claimed he misled investigators pursuing a case unrelated to Mr. Mueller's investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential race and whether the Trump campaign conspired with the Kremlin's operations." NYT

-- JOSH GERSTEIN: "The legal battle that could undermine law at center of Mueller probe": "A little-noticed legal showdown in California poses a threat to a law seen as the backbone of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of 2016 Russian election interference. Ravi Singh, an Illinois-based political consultant and self-proclaimed 'campaign guru,' is challenging a decades-old federal law barring foreign involvement in U.S. elections. He calls the provision unconstitutional, insisting Congress can't regulate the role played by non-citizens in state and local elections.

"Legal scholars say the appeal represents a serious challenge to the statute. And while Mueller has yet to charge anyone with a direct violation of the law, his team alludes to the statute in several legal filings. And many legal experts have cited the foreign donations ban to rebut claims by some pro-Trump partisans and even Trump himself that 'collusion' with Russia in the midst of a campaign would not be a crime." POLITICO

CLICKER - "The nation's cartoonists on the week in politics," edited by Matt Wuerker -- 10 keepers

PLAYBOOK READS


PHOTO DU JOUR: A demonstrator stands alone with a French flag during clashes Saturday in Paris. Crowds of yellow-vested protesters angry at President Emmanuel Macron and France's high taxes tried to converge on the presidential palace. | Rafael Yaghobzadeh/AP Photo

BEN SCHRECKINGER, "Wild theories and empty seats at CPAC-style conference for the MAGA set": "At the first-ever American Priority Conference on Friday morning, Anthony Scaramucci - who served a brief stint as the Trump White House's communications director - addressed a married couple from Virginia, telling them that the author of the fantastical Internet conspiracy theory QAnon has 'been dead accurate about so many things,' adding: 'When you find out who he is, you're not going to believe it.' ... On Thursday, speakers mostly addressed two- to three-dozen attendees amid a sea of hundreds of empty chairs in a ballroom." POLITICO

AT LANGLEY -- "CIA Names First Woman to Lead Clandestine Operations," by WSJ's Warren P. Strobel and Dustin Volz: "CIA Director Gina Haspel has chosen an agency veteran and close ally to be the first woman to run the part of the agency that recruits spies overseas, gathers intelligence and engages in covert actions authorized by the White House, an agency spokesman said Friday. Elizabeth Kimber will assume control of the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Operations, until recently a male-dominated bastion also known as the clandestine service. ...

"Little is known publicly about Ms. Kimber's CIA career, most of which she spent in the operations branch and which included stints dealing with Russia and terrorism, a person familiar with the matter said. Her LinkedIn page, which describes her merely as a 'senior executive' in the U.S. government, says she received a bachelor's degree from Hamilton College in New York and speaks French." WSJ


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K-STREET FILES - "Juul tries to make friends in Washington as regulators circle," by Lorraine Woellert and Sarah Owermohle: "Facing lawsuits from parents of teenage vaping-product users and threats of crackdowns from regulators over kid-friendly packaging and flavors, Juul Labs has gone on a hiring spree on K Street, ramping up its lobbying spending fourfold in recent months. The San Francisco company that's become synonymous with vaping - 'juuling' is now a verb - has hired political hands in Washington and started a political action committee that has donated to members of Congress and state attorney-general candidates." POLITICO

VALLEY TALK -- "Uber Joins Lyft in Race to Tap Investors," by WSJ's Greg Bensinger and Maureen Farrell

GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman:

-- "The Last Curious Man," by Drew Magary in GQ: "The enormous life of Anthony Bourdain, according to those who knew him best." GQ

-- "150 Minutes of Hell," by Lizzie Johnson in the S.F. Chronicle: "The inside story of death and survival as the Carr Fire's tornado of flames stormed Redding - and changed firefighting in a warming California." SF Chronicle (h/t Longform.org)

-- "Isabel Wilkerson on Michelle Obama's 'Becoming' and the Great Migration" - N.Y. Times: "The former first lady's long-awaited new memoir recounts with insight, candor and wit her family's trajectory from the Jim Crow South to Chicago's South Side and her own improbable journey from there to the White House." NYT ... $19.50 on Amazon

-- "An American Surfer Goes Rogue To Claim The Baltic Sea's 'Last Wave,'" by Jessica Camille Aguirre in Deadspin - per Longreads.com's description: "What a story: A Californian living in Germany discovers a ferry wake you can surf on the Baltic Sea. He was even making a movie about it. The German surfers who'd already surfed that and other Baltic waves were offended by the American's repackaging of German history. Maybe they were talking about two different kinds of truth." Deadspin

-- "Reconsidering the Jewish American Princess," by Jamie Lauren Keiles in Vox: "How the JAP became America's most complex Jewish stereotype." Vox (h/t Longform.org)

-- "How to Be an Artist," by Jerry Saltz in NYMag: "33 rules to take you from clueless amateur to generational talent (or at least help you live life a little more creatively)." Vulture

-- "Skiing & Booze: Does Colorado Have A Drinking Problem?" by Tracy Ross in 5280: "Centennial Staters love their après-ski almost as much as they love skiing itself. But has the thrill of the party surpassed the joy of the adventure? Inside the culture of drinking that permeates our great outdoors." 5280 (h/t Longreads.com)

-- "The Congressman Who Created His Own Deep State. Really," by Zach Dorfman in POLITICO Magazine: "When he feared communists were infiltrating America, Larry McDonald took extreme measures - building his own intelligence-gathering arm." POLITICO

-- "Roger Stone, Political Animal," by Matt Labash in Nov. 2007 in the Weekly Standard: "Being a skilled confidence man is both a blessing and a curse. If you truly excel at the long con, raising it to a form of art, marks will never know they've been taken. But if you become renowned for such artistry, when it is synonymous with your very name, people never believe you're off the grift, even when you're playing straight. Such is the life of Roger Stone." TWS

-- "Delta Buckles Up For Turbulence," by Shawn Tully in the print edition of Fortune (print headline: "Soar While You're Ahead"): "CEO Ed Bastian helped make Delta the most profitable and reliable of the U.S. Big Three airlines. Can he keep it flying high if the economy slows down?" Fortune

-- "Miracle At Tham Luang," by Sean Flynn in GQ: "The story of the Thai cave rescue-in which a team of young soccer players and their coach survived for 18 days before being extracted by divers-got even more unbelievable the closer we looked." GQ (h/t TheBrowser.com)
PLAYBOOKERS
SPOTTED: Steve Bannon on the customs line to enter Belgium at the airport in Brussels. He's speaking at a conference on migration in Brussels ... Rudy Giuliani in first class on a 9 a.m. Delta flight from DCA to LGA, pre-boarding before other passengers ... Anthony Scaramucci waiting to board an American flight from DCA to LGA this morning ... Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Jim Sciutto having lunch on Friday at Rasika.

BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Jim Trippi (hat tip: Jon Haber)

BIRTHDAYS: Kerri Kupec of DOJ public affairs and former Kavanaugh confirmation team spokesperson ... Rachel Sklar ... Lizzie O'Leary (h/ts Ben Chang) ... Marc Burstein, senior executive producer at ABC News ... World Bank President Jim Yong Kim is 59 (h/t Dan Lee) ... Ann Coulter is 57 ... AP's Pablo Martinez Monsivais ... Honey Sharp ... Judd Legum ... POLITICO's Danica Stanciu and Annie Yu ... Ginny Badanes, director of strategic projects, cybersecurity and democracy, for Microsoft ... Brie Sachse, head of Siemens USA's public affairs ... Cayman Clevenger ... Stephen Spaulding of Common Cause ... Nick Colvin ... Steve Bouchard (h/t Jon Haber) ... Preston Hill ... Kevin Carski, Bush 43 WH
alum ... BBC's Samantha Granville ... P. Lynn Scarlett ... WaPo publicist Brooke Lorenz (h/t sister Taylor) ...

... Sabrina Siddiqui of The Guardian ... Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) is 51 ... former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) is 77 ... Sylvester Okere ... Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner, NBC News White House producer ... Al Williams is 68 ... Michael Shapiro ... M. Dolon Hickmon ... Courtney Johnson ... Luis Rosero ... Karen Keller of the Smithsonian ... B.R. McConnon of DDC ... Emily Leaman ... Solange Uwimana ... Alison Matarazzo Edwards ... Long Ellis ... Jen Minton ... Anna Waterfield ... Tom Bush ... Courtney O'Neal ... Austin James ... Jeff Neubauer ... Steve Day ... Jackie Gran ... Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett is 65 ... Nancy Balz (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)

THE SHOWS, by @MattMackowiak, filing from Austin:


NBC

"Meet the Press": Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) ... Wis. Gov.-elect Tony Evers ... Sen. Angus King (I-Maine). Panel: Kimberly Atkins, Eddie Glaude, Jr., Jonah Goldberg and Peggy Noonan

ABC

"This Week": Larry Kudlow ... Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) ... Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). Panel: Terry Moran, Alex Castellanos, Julie Pace and Shawna Thomas

CBS

"Face the Nation": Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) ... U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer ... Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) ... Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) ... Christine Lagarde ... report from CBS News' Elizabeth Palmer from Yemen

CNN

"State of the Union": Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) ... Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.). Panel: Nina Turner, Rick Santorum, Jennifer Granholm and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.)

Fox

"Fox News Sunday": Larry Kudlow ... Sen. Angus King (I-Maine). Panel: Jason Chaffetz, Guy Benson, Jane Harman and Charles Lane

Fox News

"Sunday Morning Futures": Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) ... House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) ... Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.)

Fox News

"MediaBuzz": Sara Fischer ... Mollie Hemingway ... radio show host Richard Fowler ... Anthony Scaramucci ... Charlie Gasparino ... Emily Jashinsky

CNN

"Inside Politics": Panel: Jeff Zeleny, Eliana Johnson, Manu Raju and Seung Min Kim

CNN

"Fareed Zakaria GPS": Panel: Nick Burns, George Osborne and author and The Economist's Sophie Pedder ("Revolution Francaise: Emmanuel Macron and the Quest to Reinvent a Nation") ... author Kai-Fu Lee ("AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order") ... Michael Lewis

CNN

"Reliable Sources": Panel: Carl Bernstein, Susan Glasser and Jeff Goldberg ... Rachel Abrams ... Max Boot and David Zurawik ... The Correspondent founder Rob Wijnberg

Univision

"Al Punto": Current and former workers at Trump National Golf Club Victorina Morales and Sandra Diaz ... asylum seeking parent with a daughter with disability Juan Alberto ... John Feeley and Jorge Castañeda ... musician Cristian Castro

C-SPAN

"The Communicators": GAO director of contracting and national security acquisitions Cristina Chaplain (R), questioned by Alyza Sebenius ... "Newsmakers": U.S. Chamber of Commerce EVP and chief policy officer Neil Bradley, questioned by Kate Davidson and Jeff Stein ... "Q&A": PublicAffairs Books founder Peter Osnos

MSNBC

"Kasie DC": Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) ... Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) ... Pat McCrory ... Dallas Woodhouse ... Catawba College's Dr. Michael Bitzer ... Jonathan Lemire ... John Podhoretz ... Susan Del Percio ... Shelby Holliday ... Anna Schecter ... Karine Jean-Pierre ... Maria Teresa Kumar ... Ken Dilanian... former FBI Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi (substitute host: Steve Kornacki)

Washington Times

"Mack on Politics" weekly politics podcast with Matt Mackowiak (download on iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher or listen at MackOnPolitics.com): House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.)

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