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Presented by AARP: Playbook is POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the day in Washington Aug 18, 2018 View in browser
By Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer and Daniel Lippman

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DRIVING THE DAY
IT'S A SATURDAY IN AUGUST. Want to see HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER KEVIN MCCARTHY biting into pork at the Iowa Pork Tent? We got you covered. Photos, from the Des Moines Register ... And another ... And one more... The full gallery. McCarthy was with Rep. David Young (R-Iowa) Friday.

ON AMERICA'S FRONT PAGES ... COLUMBUS DISPATCH: "Black lung is back: As cases of disease increase, mobile testing unit stops in Ohio to offer screening for coal miners" ... DALLAS MORNING NEWS: "Trump to offer lifeline to coal"

KOFI ANNAN DEAD AT 80 ... AP/GENEVA: "Kofi Annan, one of the world's most celebrated diplomats and a charismatic symbol of the United Nations who rose through its ranks to become the first black African secretary-general, has died. He was 80. His foundation announced his death in Switzerland on Saturday in a tweet, saying he died after a short unspecified illness.

"Annan spent virtually his entire career as an administrator in the United Nations. His aristocratic style, cool-tempered elegance and political savvy helped guide his ascent to become its seventh secretary-general, and the first hired from within. He served two terms from Jan. 1, 1997, to Dec. 31, 2006, capped nearly mid-way when he and the U.N. were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001." AP

A message from AARP:

POLITICO's series "The Deciders" takes a closer look at voters over 50 this cycle through original polling, cutting-edge data visualization, and POLITICO's award-winning on-the-ground narrative storytelling and photojournalism. This voting bloc will have the largest impact on the 2018 midterms.

-- REMEMBERING LEONARD BOSWELL ... via the Des Moines Register's Barbara Rodriguez: "Former Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell, a longtime Democrat whose political career spanned decades, has died, a family spokesman confirmed Friday to the Des Moines Register. ...

"Boswell had been an iconic figure in Iowa Democratic politics for a generation.

He served 16 years in the U.S. House of Representatives until his defeat in 2012 to former Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Latham. The unusual race between two incumbents came after redistricting cost Iowa a House seat." DMR

THE WHITE HOUSE'S LATEST OBSESSION ... WAPO'S KAREN DEYOUNG and JOSH DAWSEY: "White House drafts more clearance cancellations demanded by Trump": "The White House has drafted documents revoking the security clearances of current and former officials whom President Trump has demanded be punished for criticizing him or playing a role in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to senior administration officials.

"Trump wants to sign 'most if not all' of them, said one senior White House official, who indicated that communications aides, including press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Bill Shine, the newly named deputy chief of staff, have discussed the optimum times to release them as a distraction during unfavorable news cycles.

"Some presidential aides echoed concerns raised by outside critics that the threatened revocations smack of a Nixonian enemies list, with little or no substantive national security justification. Particular worry has been expressed inside the White House about Trump's statement Friday that he intends 'very quickly' to strip the clearance of current Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations." WaPo

SPEAKING OF UNFAVORABLE NEWS CYCLES ... AP'S DARLENE SUPERVILLE: "AP source: It's not just audio, Manigault Newman has video": "It's not just audiotapes. Omarosa Manigault Newman has a stash of video, emails, text messages and other documentation supporting the claims in her tell-all book about her time in the Trump White House, a person with direct knowledge of the records told The Associated Press Friday.

"Manigault Newman has made clear that she plans to continue selectively releasing the pieces of evidence if President Donald Trump and his associates continue to attack her credibility and challenge the claims in her book, 'Unhinged.'" AP


A message from AARP:


POLITICO Magazine's series "The Deciders" takes a closer look at voters over 50 in key battleground states this election cycle. Learn more at politico.com/thedeciders.

HOW TRUMP CAME UP WITH THE SPACE FORCE, via L.A. Times David Cloud and Noah Bierman: "The concept had been pushed unsuccessfully since 2016 by a small group of current and former government officials, some with deep financial ties to the aerospace industry, who see creation of the sixth military service as a surefire way to hike Pentagon spending on satellite and other space systems.

"A few days after the San Diego speech, Trump took a phone call at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida from Rep. Mike D. Rogers, an Alabama Republican who is chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces. He had been promoting the space force to Trump and his advisors for months. 'This is something we have to do,' Rogers said he told Trump. 'It's a national security imperative.' 'I'm all in,' Trump replied, according to Rogers. 'We are going to have a space force.'" LAT

WAR REPORT -- "Officials worry Trump may back Erik Prince plan to privatize war in Afghanistan," by NBC News' Carol E. Lee, Courtney Kube and Josh Lederman: "President Donald Trump is increasingly venting frustration to his national security team about the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and showing renewed interest in a proposal by Blackwater founder Erik Prince to privatize the war, current and former senior administration officials said. ...

"A year after Trump's strategy announcement, his advisers are worried his impatience with the Afghanistan conflict will cause him to seriously consider proposals like Prince's or abruptly order a complete U.S. withdrawal, officials said.

"In an interview with NBC News, Prince said he believes Trump advisers who oppose his plan are painting 'as rosy a picture as they can' of the situation on the ground, including that 'peace is around the corner' with recent U.S. efforts for peace talks with the Taliban. He said he believes Trump's advisers 'over-emphasize the fluff and flare of these so-called peace talks.' ... 'I know he's frustrated,' Prince said of the president. 'He gave the Pentagon what they wanted. ... And they haven't delivered.'" NBC News

TRIAL UPDATE ... "Manafort trial Day 14: Jury 'scared' as it heads home without a verdict," by Darren Samuelsohn and Josh Gerstein: "Paul Manafort's trial will stretch into a fourth week, as jurors headed home Friday without reaching a verdict for the second straight day and the judge overseeing the case alluded to 'threats' the jury may be receiving.

"'I had no idea this case would incite this emotion,' U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III said in an open court hearing, responding to a motion from seven news organizations, including POLITICO, seeking access to sealed materials related to the trial that would have publicly identified the jurors. Ellis denied the motion, telling the courtroom that jurors were 'scared' and 'afraid.'

"As a result, Ellis said, he didn't 'feel right' releasing the names of the 12-person jury. But Manafort's team left court on Friday pleased that deliberations would spill into a third day, with Manafort lawyer Kevin Downing telling reporters it favored his client. Manafort is facing 18 counts of bank and tax fraud in the first case special counsel Robert Mueller has brought to trial as part of his wide-ranging probe of 2016 Russian election interference. Jury deliberations are scheduled to resume Monday at 9:30 a.m." POLITICO

-- @ericgeller: "Politico reporters covering the Manafort trial are doing a Reddit AMA right now. Here's @dsamuelsohn describing a plan he considered for delivering news of the Manafort verdict using binoculars and colored paper." The tweet

A message from AARP:


Will voters over 50 decide 2018? Visit politico.com/thedeciders to learn more.

SCOOP -- "GOP fundraiser Broidy under investigation for alleged effort to sell government influence, people familiar with probe say," by WaPo's Carol D. Leonnig, Devlin Barrett, Ellen Nakashima and Josh Dawsey: "The Justice Department is investigating whether longtime Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy sought to sell his influence with the Trump administration by offering to deliver U.S. government actions for foreign officials in exchange for tens of millions of dollars, according to three people familiar with the probe.

"As part of the investigation, prosecutors are scrutinizing a plan that Broidy allegedly developed to try to persuade the Trump government to extradite a Chinese dissident back to his home country, a move sought by Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to two of the people.

"They also are investigating claims that Broidy sought $75 million from a Malaysian business official if the Justice Department ended its investigation of a development fund run by the Malaysian government. The Malaysian probe has examined the role of the former prime minister in the embezzlement of billions of dollars from the fund." WaPo

MARC SHORT SPEAKS OUT - "Former White House Director Of Legislative Affairs Discusses New Job At UVA": NPR'S MARY LOUISE KELLY: "... President Trump has repeatedly launched attacks on the press -- calling it fake news, calling American news media the enemy of the American people. So I'm asking, do you disagree with him on that point?"

SHORT: "I think I just said that I think that a free and fair press is essential to American democracy. I do not believe they're an enemy of people. So I think I've answered that question. But I also do believe the president is frustrated by what he views is an extreme bias against his administration and feels that -- some studies have said more than 90 percent the coverage is negative. And I think that is a source of enormous frustration for him." NPR

SPOTTED: Kellyanne Conway on a Friday JetBlue flight from DCA to Nantucket on Friday ... Tom Donohue at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs on Friday ... former RNC Chairman and MSNBC contributor Michael Steele sitting in first class of United 694 from San Francisco to Kailua, Hawaii
PLAYBOOK READS
MARC CAPUTO: "Palm Beach billionaire's past legal fights haunt bid for governor"

MEDIAWATCH -- "Alex Jones of Infowars Destroyed Evidence Related to Sandy Hook Suits, Motion Says," by NYT's Elizabeth Williamson: "Lawyers for the families of two Sandy Hook shooting victims are accusing the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars media business of intentionally destroying evidence relevant to the defamation cases against him, according to a motion filed on Friday in a Texas court. Mr. Jones is being sued by the families of nine Sandy Hook victims for spreading false claims that the 2012 shooting at the elementary school in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 first graders and six adults was a government-backed hoax, and that the families of the dead were actors.

"Mr. Jones said on his broadcast last week that he had told his staff to delete material after CNN cited Infowars content that violated Twitter's policies, according to the motion filed on Friday. Mr. Jones has been protesting an unprecedented effort this month by Apple, Facebook, YouTube and other services to remove Infowars content from their platforms for violating policies on hate speech, child endangerment and inciting violence." NYT
CLICKER -- "The nation's cartoonists on the week in politics," edited by Matt Wuerker -- 10 keepers


A message from AARP:

POLITICO Magazine's series "The Deciders" takes a closer look at voters over 50 in key battleground states this election cycle through original polling, cutting-edge data visualization, and POLITICO's award-winning on-the-ground narrative storytelling and photojournalism. To date, the series has explored voters over 50 from America's largest retirement community in Florida. This group reflects those Americans who are motivated to vote by a desire to find a bygone era of traditional American values. The series has also explored whether Arizona finally turn blue this cycle? Will it be voter turnout with Hispanic voters over 50 or identity politics that decides the day? These are the questions
at play in two crucial campaigns that will determine whether Democrats actually can win in the Grand Canyon State. Visit politico.com/thedeciders to follow the series and learn more.

GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman, filing from Athens, Greece:

-- "I read six sycophantic pro-Trump books - and then I read Omarosa," by WaPo's Carlos Lozada: "Trump loves to boast that his supporters form a movement 'the likes of which the world has never seen before,' so his acolytes frequently deploy the same superlative. In 'Let Trump Be Trump,' former senior campaign staffers Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie say Trump is a messenger 'the likes of which had never appeared in American politics.' Newt Gingrich, in 'Understanding Trump,' the first of two books he's written on his new political patron, calls the president a force for change 'the likes of which we've rarely seen in American history.' (Newt's a historian, so you know it's true.)" WaPo

-- "The Hedonism of Reading Good Books," by E.J. Hutchinson in the American Conservative: "It's a pleasure that infuses life with richness and it's available for the price of a library card." American Conservative

-- "I Shouldn't Have To Lose Weight For My Wedding. So Why Do I Feel Like A Failure?" by BuzzFeed's Scaachi Koul - per Longreads.com's description: "In this searching personal essay, writer Scaachi Koul conflictedly interrogates her inability to ignore societal pressure and stop wishing she were thinner - along with her inability to get thinner in time for her upcoming wedding, for which her dress is too small." BuzzFeed

-- "The Great Chinese Art Heist," by Alex W. Palmer in GQ - per ALDaily.com's description: "More than 10 million antiquities have disappeared from China, some of them ending up in museums around the world. Why are so many being stolen?" GQ

-- "The Charmed Life of Esther the Wonder Pig," by Jason McBride in the Walrus - per TheBrowser.com's description: "Profile of 'the Kim Kardashian West of the hog world', a pig called Esther, whose popularity on social media enabled her Canadian owners to open a sanctuary around her for 65 more animals, many of them factory-farm refugees." The Walrus

-- "The High-Stakes Race to Create the World's First Artificial Heart," by Mimi Swartz in Texas Monthly: "World-famous Houston surgeon Bud Frazier spent decades developing a revolutionary device that could save millions of lives. In this exclusive excerpt from 'Ticker: The Quest to Create an Artificial Heart,' he attempts to implant it in a human for the first time." Texas Monthly (h/t Longform.org)

-- "The Super Bowl of Beekeeping," by Jaime Lowe in the NYT Magazine: "Almond growing in California is a $7.6 billion industry that wouldn't be possible without the 30 billion bees (and hundreds of human beekeepers) who keep the trees pollinated - and whose very existence is in peril." NYT

-- "BDS: how a controversial non-violent movement has transformed the Israeli-Palestinian debate," by Nathan Thrall in the Guardian: "Israel sees the international boycott campaign as an existential threat to the Jewish state. Palestinians regard it as their last resort." Guardian

-- "The Cool Kid's Philosopher," by Nathan J. Robinson in Current Affairs: "Ben Shapiro's fans apparently think he is very smart. It is not clear why." Current Affairs

-- "Who's Afraid of Tom Arnold?" by Brian Hiatt in Rolling Stone: "On his new show, Roseanne Barr's ex-husband is hunting for evidence to take down Trump. Inside a Hollywood outcast's manic quest." RS

-- "A New Citizen Decides to Leave the Tumult of Trump's America," by the New Yorker's Rebecca Mead: "After decades in New York, I've made the wrenching choice to return to Britain. But England isn't home." New Yorker

-- "The Strange Rise of Greg Walden, Oregon's Only Republican Congressman," by Nigel Duara in Portland Monthly: "His climb keeps getting weirder and weirder. So what's the cost?" Portland Monthly
PLAYBOOKERS
BIRTHDAYS: Obama economic alumni trifecta: Austan Goolsbee, professor of economics at UChicago, is 49; Jason Furman, professor at Harvard Kennedy School, is 48; and Tim Geithner, president of Warburg Pincus ... Rosalynn Carter ... Bob Woodruff ... Jon Lovett, co-host of "Pod Save America," host of "Lovett or Leave It" and founder of Crooked Media ... Mary Anne Bradfield, former Trump SBA chief of staff ... Dr. Darryl Walker ... Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) is 65 ... Cara Mason ... Vanity Fair's Maya Kosoff ... Politico's Ben Wermund ... Paris Dennard ... Holly Kuzmich, executive director of the Bush Institute ... Mark Edwards is 37 ... former Providence mayor Angel Taveras is 48 ... Louisa
Terrell ... Lee Kamlet ... Scott Haber ... Meera Kallupura ... Lincoln Foran of J.P. Morgan ... Gerry Wallace is 78 ... Bill Tomson ... Ethan Melnick ... Megan Scully ... Connie Hair ... Elizabeth Songvilay ... WSJ DOJ reporter Sadie Gurman (hat tip: Margaret Harding McGill) ...

... Felipe Calderon, the former president of Mexico, is 56 (h/t Jorge Guajardo) ... Simone Pathe, senior politics reporter at Roll Call (h/t Eli Yokley) ... Jeffrey Hiday, director of media relations at RAND Corporation ... Edelman's Megan Michienzi ... David Fishman, managing director and partner at Global Gateway Advisors in New York (h/t Arlette Saenz) ... former U.S. Amb. to New Zealand and Samoa Bill McCormick ... Robert Lynch, CEO of Americans for the Arts (h/t Randy Cohen) ... Elizabeth Letter ... Martin Vaughn ... Betsy Stark ... Gab Forsyth ... J.P. Duffy ... Matt Chandler ... Elizabeth Metraux ... Haley Graves ... Luke Mitchem ... Lou Ventre ... Jordan Baugh ... Shaun Sahloff ...
Elizabeth Hart ... Emily D'Antonio ... William McCormick ... Dan Sullivan, founder and managing director of Montrose Advisors ... Chris Black ... Lauren Smith ... Kim Haddow ... Beth Grupp ... Pat Heinz-Pribyl ... Pam Houston ... Jua Johnson ... Margaret Planner ... Bob Dvorsky.

THE SHOWS, by @MattMackowiak, filing from Austin:

CNN

"Reliable Sources": Jack Dorsey ... Ralph Peters ... Susan Glasser and Sabrina Siddiqui ... Carlos Lozada

NBC

"Meet the Press": John Brennan ... Bishop Lawrence Persico of the Diocese of Erie, Pennsylvania. Panel: Yamiche Alcindor, Hugh Hewitt, Carol Lee and Eugene Robinson

CNN

"State of the Union": James Clapper ... Michael Hayden ... Lisa Monaco ... Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D). Panel: Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), Rick Santorum, S.E. Cupp and Jennifer Granholm

ABC

"This Week": John Bolton. Panel: Chris Christie, Matthew Dowd, Karen Finney and Jason Riley

CBS

"Face the Nation": Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Jennifer Wexton ... Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) ... focus group with Fairfax County, Virginia voters ... Anthony Salvanto. Panel: Amy Walter, Ed O'Keefe and Leslie Sanchez

Fox

"Fox News Sunday": Mick Mulvaney ... Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) ... former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen (Ret.). Panel: Rich Lowry, Guy Benson, Jane Harman and Mo Elleithee

CNN

"Inside Politics": Panel: Julie Pace, Mike Bender, Toluse Olorunnipa and Sara Murray

Fox News

"Sunday Morning Futures": Rudy Giuliani ... Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) ... Tom Fitton. Panel: Ed Rollins and Candace Owens

Fox News

"MediaBuzz": Christina Bellantoni ... Adrienne Elrod ... Ben Shapiro ... Frank Luntz ... Kurt Schlichter ...Joe Flint

Univision

"Al Punto": Former Catholic Priest Alberto Athie and sexual abuse victim Jesus Romero Colin ... Rosario Marin ... Venezuelan politician Julio Borges ... political analyst Juan Hernandez ... Latino Decisions' David Ayón

C-SPAN

"The Communicators": Thomas Hazlett ... "Newsmakers": Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), questioned by Nick Fandos and Alexander Bolton ... "Q&A": John Ferling

MSNBC

"Kasie DC": Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) ... Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) ... Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) ... Marc Lotter ... Kelli Ward ...Jon Meacham ... Nick Confessore ... Shawna Thomas ... Catherine Lucey ... Seung Min Kim ... Rick Tyler ... Ken Dilanian

Washington Times

"Mack on Politics" weekly politics podcast with Matt Mackowiak (download on iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher or listen at MackOnPolitics.com): Tony Fratto.

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