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Presented by the National Association of Manufacturers: Playbook is POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the day Dec 14, 2018 View in browser
By Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman, Daniel Lippman, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross

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BULLETIN -- NYT's Maggie Haberman tweeted that CHRIS CHRISTIE has taken himself out of contention for White House chief of staff. Christie's statement

MEDIAWATCH -- CNN'S OLIVER DARCY: "The Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine critical of Trump, to shutter after 23 years": "The announcement came after the magazine's editor-in-chief, Stephen Hayes, met privately with Ryan McKibben, the chairman of The Weekly Standard's publisher, MediaDC.

"The closing of the magazine represents a broader shift in conservative media. Outlets on the right that are critical of Trump have lost influence or changed their tone, while media organizations on the right supportive of the President have flourished. In a note sent to staff Friday morning, Hayes referenced the difficulty conservative news organizations critical of Trump have had in recent years." CNN

SEN. JON KYL (R-ARIZ.) RESIGNING DEC. 31 ... Announcement from Gov. Doug Ducey

-- JAMES ARKIN: "Two prospects are GOP Rep. Martha McSally, who lost a campaign for Arizona's other Senate seat earlier this year, and Kirk Adams, Ducey's former chief of staff and a former speaker of the Arizona House." POLITICO

THE INVESTIGATIONS ... MICHAEL COHEN SPEAKS -- "Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen says Trump knew it was wrong to make hush-money payments during campaign," by ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Eric Avram, Eliana Larramendia and James Hill: "Donald Trump directed Michael Cohen to arrange hush-money payments with two women because then-candidate Trump 'was very concerned about how this would affect the election' if their allegations of affairs became public, the president's former personal attorney said in an exclusive interview with ABC News. ...

"[W]hen asked if he thinks the president is telling the truth about the Russia probe, Cohen replied simply, 'No.'" With video: ABC

-- THE DAILY BEAST'S ASAWIN SUEBSAENG, MAXWELL TANI and LLOYD GROVE: "Jared Kushner Replaced Michael Cohen as Trump's National Enquirer Connection": "Shortly after the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner was handed a task considered critical to the president's operations. In addition to serving as a senior adviser in the White House, he would also be playing the role of the main conduit between Trump and his friend David Pecker." Daily Beast

Happy Friday afternoon. White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told reporters this morning on the chief of staff search: "We expect him to make an announcement pretty quickly. ... Obviously, if the president and the chief of staff make another deal and extend it, they can do that. It's their prerogative to do so," per pooler Hunter Walker of Yahoo.

WHAT'S ON THE PRESIDENT'S MIND -- @realDonaldTrump at 11:35 a.m.: "China just announced that their economy is growing much slower than anticipated because of our Trade War with them. They have just suspended U.S. Tariff Hikes. U.S. is doing very well. China wants to make a big and very comprehensive deal. It could happen, and rather soon!"

THE LATEST IN WISCONSIN ... AP'S TODD RICHMOND and SCOTT BAUER in Madison: "Walker to take action on lame-duck bills Friday afternoon": "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was prepared Friday to sign a sweeping package of Republican-written legislation that restricts early voting and weakens the incoming Democratic governor and attorney general, brushing aside complaints that he is enabling a brazen power grab and ignoring the will of voters.

"Walker announced that he intended to take action on the bills at noon on Friday, just 24 days before he leaves office ... Walker has been urged by Democrats and Republicans, including Democratic Gov.-elect Tony Evers and former Republican Gov. Scott McCallum, to reject the legislation. Walker, who was defeated by Evers for a third term, has said he's considering some partial vetoes, but he hasn't given specifics." AP

2018 WATCH -- THE LATEST IN NC-09 ... "N.C. congressional candidate sought out aide, despite warnings over tactics," by WaPo's Amy Gardner and Beth Reinhard: "State and local investigators say that whether [Mark] Harris knew that his campaign may have engaged in improper tactics has become a focus of the expanding probes into whether election irregularities affected the 9th District election, in which Harris leads Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes. ...

"Party leaders are now backing away from Harris and trying to limit the fallout of a scandal that has delayed certification of the last undecided federal contest of the 2018 election cycle." WaPo

A message from the National Association of Manufacturers:

End the HIT now! Americans already struggle with rising health care costs. Congress must protect Americans from the Health Insurance Tax (HIT), the Medical Device Tax and the "Cadillac" Tax. After 2019, the HIT will impact approximately 140 million Americans, increasing health care costs for manufacturers and workers. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c0dbadefb8a522e2a001644bb766706f698064b36d24d1383afcea68650ff32795c68e66a798709fde8cb42310e75c0b

2020 WATCH -- THE ATLANTIC'S ELAINA PLOTT: "Trump's Distractions Don't Deter His Sharp Campaign Focus": "According to two sources familiar with the matter, Bob Paduchik is leaving his post as co-chair of the Republican National Committee to oversee the [Trump] campaign's Ohio operations. ...

"Paduchik marks the campaign's first major hire in a crucial state-Trump trounced Hillary Clinton in Ohio in 2016 but could face trouble in his reelection bid, as uncertainty about the effect of the president's steel and aluminum tariffs continues to build." The Atlantic

-- ALEX ISENSTADT (@politicoalex): "More: I'm told that Tommy Hicks Jr. - a close ally of Jared and the Trump kids - is expected to become RNC co chair."

-- ALSO: Nick Trainer is joining the Trump re-election campaign as director of delegates and party organization. He previously worked in the White House Office of Political Affairs.

-- ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION'S GREG BLUESTEIN: "Ossoff strikes populist tone as he mulls Senate bid"

2016 NEVER ENDS -- "Why won't Jill Stein pay her fines?" by the Center for Public Integrity's Dave Levinthal: "Jill Stein is flush with cash left over from both her 2016 Green Party presidential campaign and subsequent vote recount effort. But Stein has yet to use a dime of it to clear about $53,000 in outstanding fines levied on her campaign for habitually submitting financial disclosures after federal deadlines ... Asked about their scofflaw status, the Stein campaign basically said it's racking up fines faster than it can manage to deal with them." CPI

IMMIGRATION FILES -- "Nielsen: Girl's death in border patrol custody 'a sad example of the dangers' migrants face," by Caitlin Oprysko: "Nielsen on Friday painted the incident as a cautionary tale that could have been avoided had the girl and her father entered into the U.S. legally.

"'This family chose to cross illegally,' she said. 'They were about 90 miles away from where we could process them. It took a such a large crowd, it took our border patrol folks a couple times to get them all.' ... Though there is no evidence that the girl's death was exacerbated by the conditions she was held in by CBP, her death has prompted fresh calls for reviews of the detention centers for migrants caught crossing the border illegally." POLITICO

-- "The Trump Administration Is Quietly Denying Federal Housing Loans To DACA Recipients: The Department of Housing and Urban Development hasn't announced a formal policy denying FHA loans for DACA recipients, but lenders tell BuzzFeed News that's the guidance they're getting from officials," by BuzzFeed's Nidhi Prakash: BuzzFeed

MATTHEW CHOI: "Sarah Sanders: Trump had nothing to do with inauguration spending": "'The biggest thing the president did, his engagement in the inauguration, was to come here and raise his hand and take the oath of office.' ... The response comes after The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Thursday that federal prosecutors in Manhattan were investigating whether Trump's inaugural committee misspent some of the record-breaking $107 million it had raised that year." POLITICO

TRADE WARS -- "China Seeks to Defuse Trade War With Reversals on Cars and Corn," by Bloomberg: "China took more steps to defuse trade tensions with the U.S., confirming it will remove the retaliatory duty on automobiles imported from America and preparing to restart purchases of American corn. ...

"Despite the latest concessions, there remains doubt in Washington and Beijing over whether China is willing to water down its plans to match and exceed U.S. industrial strength, which are one of the root causes of the current fight." Bloomberg

ON THE WORLD STAGE -- NBC'S COURTNEY KUBE and DAN DE LUCE: "Top secret report: North Korea keeps busting sanctions, evading U.S.-led sea patrols": "The finding underscores the Trump administration's struggle to maintain economic pressure on North Korea amid a diplomatic bid to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and missile arsenal. The smuggled fuel provides a crucial lifeline for the regime's economy and armed forces.

"The U.S. Pacific Command assessment, labeled 'Top Secret,' found that the presence of warships and surveillance aircraft deployed by an eight-nation coalition since September has forced North Korea to adjust its tactics at sea, including transferring oil farther away from the Korean Peninsula and often in other countries' territorial waters." NBC

-- "Chinese Hackers Breach U.S. Navy Contractors," by WSJ's Gordon Lubold and Dustin Volz: "Chinese hackers are breaching Navy contractors to steal everything from ship-maintenance data to missile plans, officials and experts said, triggering a top-to-bottom review of cyber vulnerabilities. ... The data allegedly stolen from Navy contractors and subcontractors often is highly sensitive, classified information about advanced military technology." WSJ

CLICKER -- BEYOND THE BELTWAY ... "After Parkland, a New Surge in State Gun Control Laws," by NYT's Maggie Astor and Karl Russell: "After the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., in February, Congress did not act. But state legislatures did, passing 69 gun control measures this year - more than any other year since the Newtown, Conn., massacre in 2012, and more than three times the number passed in 2017. ... [A] report also found a decrease in measures enacted to expand access to firearms - a major change from the year after the Newtown shooting ...

"Laws addressing domestic abuse, bump stocks and background checks were popular." NYT

OPIOID FILES -- STAT'S DAVID ARMSTRONG and ANDREW JOSEPH: "Purdue's secret OxyContin papers should be released, appeals court rules"

WILBUR INC. -- FORBES' DAN ALEXANDER: "How Wilbur Ross Lost Millions, Despite Flouting Ethics Rules": "Under pressure, Ross promised to sell off all his equity holdings, a move that proved to be costly. He ultimately dealt one of his most valuable assets, a roughly $25 million interest in a shipping fund, for less than half of what it was worth, according to documentation reviewed by Forbes. That deal alone wiped about $15 million off Ross' personal fortune, enough to erase any gains he had reaped from his ethical misadventures." Forbes

JOSH GERSTEIN: "Judges skeptical of legal push to force Trump to reveal personal debts": "Since last year, Washington attorney Jeffrey Lovitky has mounted a one-man battle to get Trump to re-file his financial disclosure forms to separate his personal debts from those owed by businesses he owns. ... [A] three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals sounded set to turn aside the case ... [because] Lovitky sued Trump as president, not as an individual, but the financial disclosure at issue in the case was submitted in May 2016 when Trump was a candidate and private individual." POLITICO

TV TONIGHT -- Bob Costa sits down with NYT's Maggie Haberman, NBC's Kristen Welker, WaPo's Seung Min Kim and CNN's Jeff Zeleny on PBS' "Washington Week" at 8 p.m.

MEDIAWATCH -- Michael Owen will be deputy editor for The Atlantic's digital team. He previously led NYT's digital presentation, programming and audience strategies team.

TRANSITION -- John F.W. Rogers, a top Goldman Sachs executive, has been elected as chairman of the board of directors of the Atlantic Council.

HOLIDAY PARTY CIRCUIT -- SPOTTED at the POLITICO Playbook holiday party at the National Restaurant Association last night: Dawn Sweeney, Guy Benson, Heather Podesta, Lindsay Walters, Christina Sevilla, Lauren French, Gloria Dittus, Tammy Haddad, Michael Meehan, Alice Lloyd, Patrick Mellody, Jay Driscoll, Andrew Kovalcin and Ben Chang.

-- SPOTTED at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce holiday party last night: Josh Holmes, Matt Haller, Ben Jenkins, Benny Johnson, Caitlin Carroll, Brendan Buck and Rebecca Berg, Brittany Martinez, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), Bruce Miller, Alexandra Kendrick, Jim Jaworski, Rob Green, Alex Skatell and Kelley Hudak.


A message from the National Association of Manufacturers:

The Health Insurance Tax (HIT) increases insurance premiums for a family of four by almost $500 a year. Congress delayed the HIT for 2019, but middle-class families, including manufacturing workers, need Congress to act now to delay it again-or even better, end it altogether. With rising health care costs, families cannot afford added expenses, especially when the HIT does nothing to improve health care outcomes. Americans do not want the government collecting taxes off their health care. In fact, 70 percent say they oppose the HIT. It is nothing more than a sales tax on health coverage-a tax we cannot afford. Learn more about why manufacturers oppose the HIT at
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c0dbadefb8a522e28bf2e7b163bed9ac20d387f8f6b54b1833ddc6303f2c058fc65789d45a6084f6c3ac44d751bea50e

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