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Today's Playbook Power Briefing presented by the Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs (CAPD)

By JAKE SHERMAN (sherman@politico.com; @JakeSherman), ANNA PALMER (anna@politico.com; @apalmerdc), DANIEL LIPPMAN (daniel@politico.com; @dlippman), ZACH MONTELLARO (zmontellaro@politico.com; @ZachMontellaro)


THIS MORNING was a perfect encapsulation of what drives Republicans in Washington absolutely nuts. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP tweeted this morning: "If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!" TOP REPUBLICANS considered and dismissed this idea a long time ago. They've proceeded on another track, which is a simultaneous repeal and replace of Obamacare that was actually pushed by many conservatives, and embraced by Trump.

BUT TRUMP has revived the repeal then replace strategy - without telling GOP leaders. The hurdles are plentiful: Republicans hardly have any idea what their replace would look like in this context. There are procedural issues. The politics of repealing now and replacing later is tricky - Republicans got walloped for a half-dozen years for repealing and not replacing. This episode is yet another example of the shifting winds that drive Republicans crazy.

-- SNEAK PEEK from @mikedebonis of WaPo, who interviewed Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) today for CSPAN's "Newsmakers." Brady essentially says isn't happening. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=47adc1d37ef1a0062c1b397ab48979b1de0e3bb72c4a52b6816b00a204d1c1bb4b011535d152caebec03e1a9f181f677b19e64a01e661782

ALSO -- It almost doesn't matter what Trump says on this, since he doesn't really have control of congressional strategy.

FIRST TIME IN A LONG TIME? NOT WHAT WE HEAR! -- @realDonaldTrump at 8:55 a.m.: "Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show."

BEHIND THE SCENES -- GABE SHERMAN in N.Y. MAGAZINE: "In mid-April, Scarborough texted with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner about the pending Enquirer story. Kushner told Scarborough that he would need to personally apologize to Trump in exchange for getting Enquirer owner David Pecker to stop the story. (A spokesperson for Kushner declined to comment). Scarborough says he refused, and the Enquirer published the story in print on June 5, headlined 'Morning Joe Sleazy Cheating Scandal!'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=47adc1d37ef1a006c54a8610ce30f96a60cf5d3303ebca5c72d6898aebfa4188a818b184abf238f12a0b7bf5a7dc79189510d3f2355e2533

-- WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE THINKS: "Conway: Media coverage of Trump 'neither productive nor patriotic,'" by Louis Nelson: "Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said Friday that she supports President Donald Trump's use of social media to attack his opponents, especially when so much of the media coverage of him is 'neither productive nor patriotic.' ...

"'I like the fact that the president uses social media platforms to connect directly with Americans and in this case, what [White House spokeswoman] Sarah Sanders said yesterday is true, that the president normally does not draw first blood. He is a counterpuncher as he said on the campaign trail,' Conway said. 'There are personal attacks about his physicalities, about his fitness for office. He's called a goon, thug, mentally ill, talking about dementia, armchair psychologists all over television every day. 'It doesn't help the American people to have a president covered in this light,' she continued. 'I'm sorry. It's neither productive nor patriotic. The toxicity is over the top.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=47adc1d37ef1a00639ea7be75e64d8199bcca7a1ba07d7be32eb9731534c9b8df56b2e49aa7ef6359e5e01870e5b123630bde2e045af1876

-- @AaronBlake: "Kellyanne Conway saying tough media coverage isn't 'patriotic' is a hugely dangerous thing to say"

****** A message from the Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs (CAPD): A new study projects pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) will save Medicare Part D $896 billion over ten years. PBMs drive savings for taxpayers and seniors by negotiating discounts from drug manufacturers; by encouraging the use of lower cost, clinically equivalent drugs; and by providing clinical programs that improve health outcomes. Learn more at affordableprescriptiondrugs.org ******

HERE'S JARED -- "Jared Kushner Told Joe Scarborough: Talk to President Trump About 'Enquirer' Dirt," by The Daily Beast's Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng: "On Friday, MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough made the explosive claim that three of President Donald Trump's most senior White House aides 'warned' the couple that the tabloid The National Enquirer would publish dirt on them unless they "begged" the president to intervene. The Morning Joe co-hosts declined to name the multiple White House officials involved in this bizarre, ongoing feud. But one of those 'top White House staff members' was senior advisor and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, two White House officials
confirmed to The Daily Beast.

"According to these officials, Kushner and Scarborough had spoken 'many weeks ago' regarding a then upcoming negative Enquirer article on Scarborough and Brzezinski. Scarborough had 'calmly sought' advice from Kushner, who 'recommended he speak with the president.' But White House sources' accounts of the conversation differed from Scarborough's description and suggestions of more sinister interactions. No hostile threat or attempt at blackmail was made, according to these officials." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=47adc1d37ef1a00698edd10b45d7da092348c4cce0adbdefe3775a5ce132ba04348f7851b8341c2a9ddb38ff51c66da407516c51de44dbcd

PLAYBOOK POLL -- ANY GUESSES on who is the Trump campaign official Joe and Mika wrote in their WaPo op-ed had complained about their boss' "erratic behavior" and is "as close to the Republican candidate as anyone"? Take our anonymous Playbook poll: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=47adc1d37ef1a0068bd7fccb48cbe02c9646a0a55e78eb836becce96f5b76ed7bca07663e4f3d0aad40cfc39a5714bd146540da1722afaca

TRUMP'S MEETING WITH THE SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT -- President Trump greeted South Korean President Moon Jae-in outside the White House a little after 10:15 a.m., and the pool was quickly ushered into the Oval Office.

-- PRESIDENT TRUMP: "We are renegotiating a trade deal right now with South Korea, and hopefully it will be an equitable deal. It will be a fair deal for both parties. It's been a rough deal for the U.S., but I think that it will be much different and will be good for both parties," per pooler Anita Kumar of McClatchy. The president also addressed North Korea, saying "we have many options with respect to North Korea." The pair later gave a joint statement in the Rose Garden.

TRUMP is going to South Korea this year, according to President Moon Jae-In.

JAKE and ANNA will be on ABC's "This Week" Sunday from Washington.

-- TONIGHT ON PBS's Washington Week, hosted by Robert Costa: The New York Times' Yamiche Alcindor, Vox's Sarah Kliff, CBS News' Nancy Cordes and TIME's Michael Scherer.

JARED and IVANKA appear to be heading out of town. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=47adc1d37ef1a006a75d656917dcffcf4bfaf048e676b764b45488b7f544b95855cfd40bb85cadf622dd3bf5ef5b5bc2370ff6be510e0040

D.C. SUMMER CAMP - DANIEL'S POSTCARD FROM ASPEN IDEAS FESTIVAL - Theo Padnos, the freelance journalist who was in captivity for years in Syria, yesterday told David Bradley (who helped with securing his release) to describe when he knew he was in trouble: "There is no marker on the ground. When you cross into that dangerous place, you don't see it until it's much too late. I didn't know what was going on until they were hitting me in the face and I heard somebody say ... 'bring the handcuffs.' And 'where is your pistol?' And I was like: This isn't good. [Laughter] It's a very invisible and hard to detect change and by the time you notice it, it's too late."

-- JULIA IOFFE, an Atlantic staff writer, on a national security panel with David Petraeus and Peter Feaver yesterday: "Trump has been in our lives for about two years. Can we please stop with the battered girlfriend syndrome? ... [T]his constantly waiting for him to become another man at age 70-something, it's just not going to happen. He'll get the nomination, he'll become more presidential. OK. He'll win, he'll become more presidential. Never mind. Once he's inaugurated, he'll certainly become more presidential because he's the president in fact. No, it doesn't happen. The learning curve is steep because throughout his seven decades on this earth, he's been profoundly incurious about the
world in which he lives. On which we all live, unfortunately, with him."

-- SPOTTED IN ASPEN: David Petraeus having dinner last night at American bistro Element 47 in the Little Nell hotel. David Bradley dined at a separate table outside.

-- PETRAEUS ASPEN INTERVIEW - Daniel yesterday interviewed former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus for a Facebook Live video, asking him about ISIS, Syria, Afghanistan and how he would respond if he was asked to serve in the Trump administration: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=47adc1d37ef1a00633203600ef7ddc9371b3dd1ff2a343771a660e9104118a71e3afda9d64058a0661d7d9005147e07a1f2cb0dc4548f6a3

IN GERMANY -- "Germany's Bundestag passes bill on same-sex marriage," by Deutsche Welle's Timothy Jones: "The German parliament, or Bundestag, on Friday passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriages in a snap vote that made it onto the agenda before the summer break after a surprise shift by Chancellor Angela Merkel. The bill passed by 393 to 226, with four abstentions. Merkel herself voted against the bill, although her comments helped bring it about.

"However, more than 70 members of Merkel's conservative bloc must have voted in favor of the bill for it to pass. Merkel later explained her 'no' vote by saying that she understood the definition of marriage in the German constitution as referring solely to unions between men and women. She said, however, that she hoped the vote to approve gay marriage would lead to 'more social peace.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=47adc1d37ef1a0061a4db84c860ee9fc148c4406206da933fe35e7f5d8538b4d2235495bce2e94ec84a02ed86e89bb1b330672dfeba0a384

HMM... -- @EricHolder: "To the career men & women at DOJ/FBI: your actions and integrity will be unfairly questioned. Be prepared, be strong. Duty. Honor. Country." ... @blakehounshell: "Mysterious 3 a.m. tweet from former attorney general. What's he warning about?"

AFTERNOON READ -- "The Short, Unhappy Life of a Libertarian Paradise," by Caleb Hannan in the July/August issue of POLITICO Magazine: "For a city, like the country at large, that was hurting economically, Steve Bach seemed like a man with an answer. What he promised sounded radically simple: Wasteful government is the root of the pain, and if you just run government like the best businesses, the pain will go away. Easy. Because he had never held office before and because he actually had been a successful entrepreneur, people were inclined to believe he really could reinvent the way a city was governed.

"The city's experiment was fascinating because it offered a chance to observe some of the most extreme conservative principles in action in a real-world laboratory. Producers from '60 Minutes' flew out to talk with the town's leaders. The New York Times found a woman in a pitch-black trailer park pawning her flatscreen TV to buy a shotgun for protection [http://nyti.ms/2ursZAj]. 'This American Life' did a segment [http://bit.ly/2t8XWKe] portraying Springs citizens as the ultimate anti-tax zealots, willing to pay $125 in a new 'Adopt a Streetlight' program to illuminate their own neighborhoods, but not willing to spend the same to do so for the entire city. ...

"But it has been five years since 'This American Life' packed up its mics. A lot has changed in that time, not least of which is that the local economy, which nearly drowned the city like a concrete block tied around its balance sheet, is buoyant once again. Sales tax revenue has made the books plump with surplus. Enough to turn those famous streetlights back on. Seven years after the experiment began, the verdict is in-and it's not at all what its architects planned. One of the lessons: There's a real cost to saving money." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=47adc1d37ef1a006b2bc35f3c155c92ae605ad2d9754d553d1cf6a261c16296632ff6efc42cccf9afaaf15b4b7c058a3cca00dccbe6a3a3c

REMINDER FOR THE FOURTH -- "Here Are Some of the Worst Fireworks-Related Injuries Ever Recorded," by Gizmodo's Ryan Mandelbaum http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=47adc1d37ef1a00674708576495370f1d87a70db7221a7debfeef7c9e2396b98ef8e4baa7c0d86c07974268b0b9e5172cdb8cdf935a27451

TRANSITIONS -- Tom Perriello, the former congressman and gubernatorial candidate from Virginia, joined Win Virginia -- a PAC looking to elect Democrats to Virginia's House of Delegates -- as CEO.

WELCOME PARTY -- The Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium, Dirk Wouters and Mrs. Katrin Wouters last night hosted at their Foxhall Road residence a welcome to the neighborhood party for American University President Sylvia Burwell. SPOTTED: Ambassador of Cyprus and Mrs. Diane Konstantinidi, Ambassador of Afghanistan and Mrs. Lael Mohib, Susan Rice and Ian Cameron, Coach Kathy Kemper, Ambassador of Austria and Mrs. Gudrun Waldner, Ambassador of Kazakhstan and Mrs. Kazykhanov, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Greg Myre, Ann and Lloyd Hand, Ambassador of Switzerland and Mrs. Anita Dahinden, Ambassador of the Principality of Liechtenstein and Mrs. Jaeger, Al Hunt, Alphonso and Marcia Jackson.

OUT AND ABOUT -- Democracy Fund celebrated its third anniversary last night with an Independence Day party on the rooftop of its downtown office. Guests enjoyed red, white and blue sunglasses, specialty cocktail "Americana" and ice pops. SPOTTED: Democracy Fund's Joe Goldman, Lauren Strayer and Karla McLean, Ashley Spillane, Mo Elleithee, Adrienne Elrod, Garance Franke Ruta, Veronica Wilson, Todd Flournoy, Christina Sevilla, Neil Grace, Shawna Thomas, Andrea Hailey and David Williamson, Francesca Chambers, David Becker, Mark Strand

SPOTTED at the National Confectioners Association and FamousDC's National Candy Month celebration at Sonoma last night: Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-M.D.), Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), Tony Fratto, Michael Steel, Matt Wolking, Megan Whittemore, Katie Boyd, Amos Snead, Stephanie Genco, Andrew Kovalcin, Joe Maloney, Ben Jenkins, Nathan Imperiale and Josh Schultz.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Ben Marter, communications director for Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and his wife, Jean Marter, director of committee operations for House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.), welcomed baby Kerry Jane on Wednesday. "It's our second and a good thing big brother George already knows the words to Let It Go..." Pic http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=47adc1d37ef1a006df6bf2d7e3d1f0fb141eea62ca940db510ed353fe14a7cd227c85b1edeb77a4e737693099ea0ba1464ea461869d37094 (h/t Huddle)

****** A message from the Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs (CAPD): A new study estimates that Medicare Part D costs would be 58 percent higher without pharmacy benefit managers' (PBMs') clinical tools and price negotiations with drug manufacturers and pharmacies. The study shows PBMs significantly lower premiums and out-of-pocket costs for Medicare beneficiaries. In fact, PBMs are projected to save Medicare Part D $896 billion over the next decade. Thanks to PBMs, Medicare Part D continues to drive savings and value for taxpayers and beneficiaries, ensuring that more than 39 million American seniors can access the prescription drugs they need. Learn more at
affordableprescriptiondrugs.org ******

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