Subject: POLITICO Playbook, presented by BP: WHAT JARED TOLD INTEL COMMITTEES -- Senate Dems launch ‘A Better Deal’ agenda -- GROWING CONSENSUS: GOP in disrepair -- PRIEBUS ‘sidelined’ – ‘WAR’ in White House on Afghanistan options -- JOE AND MIKA on NYMAG cover
From: "Anna Palmer Jake Sherman Daniel Lippman" <[email-masked]>
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Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2017 04:47:22 -0600
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Today's POLITICO Playbook presented by BP 
    
07/24/2017 06:45 AM EDT
        
By JAKE SHERMAN ([email-masked]; @JakeSherman), ANNA PALMER ([email-masked]; @apalmerdc) and DANIEL LIPPMAN ([email-masked]; @dlippman)
        
Listen to the Playbook Audio Briefing | Subscribe on iTunes | Visit the online home of Playbook
                  Driving the Day         
Good Monday morning. BREAKING AT 6 A.M. -- WHAT JARED KUSHNER IS SUBMITTING TO HILL INTELLIGENCE PANELS -- 4 CONTACTS WITH RUSSIANS -- ANNIE KARNI, "Kushner defends himself ahead of Senate intel meeting: 'I did not collude'": "In pre-written testimony Jared Kushner plans to submit before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday -- a high-stakes, closed-door grilling session that is part of the investigation into possible collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign -- the powerful son-in-law will try to explain away his four contacts with Russian officials during the general election and the transition as innocent interactions. In an 11-page opening statement provided to
 reporters early Monday morning ahead of his 10 a.m. appointment with the Senate, Kushner attempts to exonerate himself, writing: 'I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government.' Instead, Kushner paints a picture of himself as a loyal, overworked, under-experienced senior adviser to his father-in-law during a novice campaign that was never staffed up to win. 

"The former real estate developer also blames the glaring omissions on his financial disclosure forms -- which did not originally include several meetings with Russian officials that have since come to light -- on an honest mistake made by his assistant at the time. And like others in the Trump orbit who met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Inauguration Day, Kushner also said he had trouble remembering the official after their first brief, previously unreported encounter at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. ...

"His second interaction with a Russian official was the now infamous Donald Trump, Jr. meeting with the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, that June. Kushner claims he had no idea what he was walking into. An email from his brother-in-law reminds him of the time change to 4 p.m. for the Trump Tower meeting, and Kushner writes that it was not abnormal to pop into each other's offices for meetings. 'That email was on top of a long back and forth that I did not read at the time,' he writes. 'Documents confirm my memory that this was calendared as 'Meeting: Don Jr.| Jared Kushner. No one else was mentioned.' ... 'I actually emailed an assistant from the meeting after I had been there for
 ten or so minutes and wrote 'Can u pls call me on my cell? Need excuse to get out of meeting,' Kushner writes." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d922cf355eb4552edb6ff0d58716539706c3dababd0d3e054316af7ec2589af281dd1cd6d94e5716afec2f75512f957e14 ... Kushner's full statement http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d933afb2c026dc03b087639a90ced9712ec5220f10383f82fcb72d4e8298e72670f64f3b223cf5a6d9dffa65e1497a8806 

--INTERESTING TIDBITS: KUSHNER says he is "not a person who has sought the spotlight." ... A Russian banker brought him "a bag of dirt" from Nvgorod, the village in Belarus where his grandparents are from. ... He got an email from "Guccifer400," who "threatened to reveal candidate Trump's tax returns and demanded that we send him 52 bitcoins in exchange for not publishing that information. I brought the email to the attention of a U.S. Secret Service agent on the plane we were all travelling on and asked what he thought. He advised me to ignore it and not to reply -- which is what I did. The sender never contacted me again."

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK -- HERE IS A NEW VIDEO OF SENATE DEMOCRATS discussing their new agenda, "A Better Deal." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9076a792907903dd7781c4c5def4ab022e9d6ea95e5ecd1448cbd96d4f812ac8ee383d294d39e82dd3185bf020e97d430 They say their agenda is designed to "boost wages, lower costs, and unrig the economy to make it work for all Americans, not special interests or just the wealthiest few." THE LACK OF A MESSAGE is one of the major gripes of Hill Democrats.

-- HEATHER CAYGLE and ELANA SCHOR: "Democrats launch economic agenda ahead of 2018 campaign": "Democrats are adding pitches aimed at battling corporate overreach to an economic platform that already includes a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan and paid family leave. Party leaders are also proposing a new independent agency to oversee prescription drug prices similar to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau launched by Sen. Elizabeth Warren as well as an independent 'competition advocate' that would police corporate mergers. ... 

"Democrats are launching the agenda under the slogan 'A Better Deal,' which POLITICO reported earlier this month. It's designed as a nod to Franklin D. Roosevelt's 'New Deal,' which helped usher in the modern-day Democratic Party, and also as a dig at Trump, who bills himself as the world's greatest deal-maker." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9a49a92809673625ca3c9ff617517cb48057c2737879e6877f4b981dcdbcbd785e316bc150de2b7800aac39975228f1a2

-- NYT OP-ED: "Chuck Schumer: A Better Deal for American Workers" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9c84211bc588e53ba5ce0889dbca06078f230c3499a27802cbe841bab61981cf0ab4311e7ce94de68fd5973966b4d4b6f

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KEEP IN MIND this is the last scheduled week in session for Congress. The Senate has said it will stay into August, but with the health care bill unlikely to pass, it seems likely they could get out of dodge earlier. 

-- CONGRESS is likely to leave for August recess without passing a budget, spending bills, an infrastructure package, a bill to lift the debt ceiling and tax reform. 52 DAYS in session between now and the end of the year. 

TRUMP'S MONDAY -- PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP is meeting with "victims" of Obamacare, and will speak about the stalled legislation. Trump will then go to Beaver, West Virginia, to speak at the National Scout Jamboree. 

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THE GROWING CONSENSUS -- "GOP despairs at inability to deliver," by Eliana Johnson and Josh Dawsey: "The Republican Party is more powerful than it's been in more than a decade - and yet it has never seemed so weak. Continuing chaos in the White House has been punctuated by the failure to deliver on the GOP's seven-year pledge to overhaul Obamacare, and has many asking whether the party can capitalize on the sweeping victories it has achieved at the federal, state, and local levels. Ahead of this week's crucial Senate vote on health care, White House aides are already considering how to distance President Donald Trump from Congress and how to go after the Republicans who vote no - an idea
 the president seems fond of, according to people who have spoken to him. Several people said he plans to keep up the fight, no matter how this week's vote goes." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d90d4176fdc93474a4aa6618f43c469c64681e40787e44679d6640f7d34806d7a5a2414686134472efc9477cb771afbd9b

-- "Republicans are in full control of government - but losing control of their party," by WaPo's Sean Sullivan and Bob Costa: "Frustrated lawmakers are increasingly sounding off at a White House awash in turmoil and struggling to accomplish its legislative goals. President Trump is scolding Republican senators over health care and even threatening electoral retribution. Congressional leaders are losing the confidence of their rank and file. And some major GOP donors are considering using their wealth to try to force out recalcitrant incumbents. 'It's a lot of tribes within one party, with many agendas, trying to do what they want to do,' Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) said in an interview." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d91799c43fd46255337bf64cc5aeacf1222373142816fd91f38c39022fcfa21d6a718aa43ddf3863612a00860ab2a9e638

TARA PALMERI -- "Priebus sidelined as Washington outsiders' power grows": "Reince Priebus took the punishing job of President Donald Trump's chief of staff with the idea that he would stick it out for at least one year. Six months in, with one of his top allies in the West Wing -- press secretary Sean Spicer -- on his way out, Priebus is in defensive mode, his role diminished and an internal rival hogging the limelight. Trump's decision to bring Wall Street financier Anthony Scaramucci into the role of communications director shows the rising power of political outsiders and the diminished influence of establishment figures -- which Priebus, the former chairman of the [RNC], epitomizes.

"One White House official and two outside advisers said that while Scaramucci was brought into the White House for the communications job, he's considered an internal candidate to eventually succeed Priebus as chief of staff. There are also a handful of outside candidates. The unexpected hire has raised questions of whether more shake-ups are coming, even as the White House has tried to downplay its internal discord. The instability has made it difficult for the administration to fend off questions about ties between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia and to move forward an embattled legislative agenda. 

"Despite frequent reports his position is in jeopardy, Priebus hopes to finish out his year, according to people close to him. He is eyeing another big hurdle this week of getting the health care bill to pass through the Senate, defenders said Sunday." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9945aeecd2b6206a3748ca4635fd4673d3c3c8172ccb930975e14789eb717504ba500e52fdfac5eb051d57b225a5c3715

SUSAN PAGE in USA TODAY: "Just six months after his inauguration, Americans already are split down the middle, 42%-42%, over whether President Trump should be removed from office, a new USA TODAY/iMediaEthics Poll finds." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d972b3b1a164d929ea8ef893ab8ddc14a4c1263eadd1d587b6177a2b4527840f032ced2b5bab54cd71c8b709cf3d05901f 

NYT'S LISA FRIEDMAN: "Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, traveled to his home state, Oklahoma, 10 times over three months this year, largely at taxpayer expense, according to a report released Monday.

"The findings from the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit group founded by former E.P.A. officials, are drawn from Mr. Pruitt's calendar and the travel expenses he has submitted for reimbursement. Obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the documents show Mr. Pruitt spent 43 out of 92 days from March through May in Oklahoma or traveling to or from the state." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9f23e6ebf9f4c0bd4bc4239ec1fa7ecb429cf141c059801f0191800e64f55b50911a6e81d8b7fa252db5b33ae51ea563f 

FROM THE PRESIDENT ... : at 4:09 p.m.: "As the phony Russian Witch Hunt continues, two groups are laughing at this excuse for a lost election taking hold, Democrats and Russians!" ... at 4:14 p.m.: "It's very sad that Republicans, even some that were carried over the line on my back, do very little to protect their President." 

... at 7:57 p.m.: "It's hard to read the Failing New York Times or the Amazon Washington Post because every story/opinion, even if should be positive, is bad!" ... at 8:01 p.m.: "If Republicans don't Repeal and Replace the disastrous ObamaCare, the repercussions will be far greater than any of them understand!" ... at 8:23 p.m.: "Thank you to @LOUDOBBS for giving the first six months of the Trump Administration an A+. S.C.,reg cutting,Stock M, jobs,border etc. = TRUE!"

BARAK RAVID in Haaretz, "Trump Envoy Jason Greenblatt to Arrive in Israel on Monday in Bid to De-escalate Temple Mount Crisis": "A senior official in the Trump administration said that Greenblatt is heading to the region 'to support efforts to reduce tensions in the region.' During his Israel visit, Greenblatt is expected to be in contact with Trump's senior adviser Jared Kushner and keep him updated on the contents of his talks." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9a07bb21e68ae11827607a0bbdff5bb891891f8a06fd3ff51629941537bf538dcecc9b5e58f03116ef9eb4bb3852a6770

-- WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING, Israel sent an emissary to Jordan after an Israeli security guard killed two people who tried to attack embassy personnel. Israel also closed its embassy and consulates in Turkey due to controversy over stepped up security at the al Aqsa mosque. 

BEHIND THE SCENES -- SUSAN GLASSER: "The Trump White House's War Within": "Last Monday, President Trump's senior Cabinet officials and top national security advisers met for a contentious meeting to finally agree on a new strategy for America's longest war. After months of wrangling, they would ask Trump for a modest troop increase and a more intense commitment to the seemingly endless struggle in Afghanistan. 
 
"But the session of the National Security Council Principals Committee, described by two sources briefed on it as a 's*** show' that featured what a third source, a senior White House official, confirmed was a heated debate where 'words were exchanged,' proved no more successful than months' worth of previous Afghan policy debates. Trump refused to sign off on the plan they approved, the sources said, instead sending it back to his national security team demanding more work. ...

"Trump's hesitation is also, according to multiple current and former senior U.S. officials I've spoken with in recent days, a striking vote of no-confidence in his national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, who has been trying and failing for months to sell the president on a new plan for Afghanistan. McMaster has made a major policy review of America's long, failed war there his personal mission, according to the sources, and he pushed hard to get a new strategy that would include the relatively modest troop increases and a commitment to at least another four-year timeline approved in advance of Trump's May summit with NATO allies. But instead, the sources said, Secretary of State Rex
 Tillerson teamed up with Mattis to block McMaster's initial version, which they believed Trump and political advisers wary of the war, notably chief strategist Steve Bannon, would not support without clearer markers of success." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d991e43b18fa54d7969df55b1164e52d0b6c38133e2cde452f70915883fe72dda0f287ea0e69fce47d2f2d215ecbcd0732 

-- Glasser also spoke with Laurel Miller, who recently stepped down as acting special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, for the Global POLITICO Podcast. Transcript http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d95e47261860613c973228f33c2bf7cda4eca45a84e6c28215e7687e38f07b1a37b94619266f64a0321133eea5d2199c81 ... Listen and subscribe http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9f659ea9f3bc169a901a054b47eb2ec1ab3a7a9bf399d83ff025b152f645088dd334871277b319dfec090dca0023dc86d

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK -- ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER was in town on Friday, and he sat down for 45 minutes with Isaac Dovere for the next episode of the Off Message podcast, coming Tuesday. "I wish we could do like John Travolta with Saturday Night Fever, where he starts dancing. He's disco dancing and then all of a sudden, within one year, you have a million more discotheques all over the world," he said. "You wish that you could do the same thing with the environmental issues or in the redistricting or good government practice."
 
On what he thinks of people like Joe Scarborough leaving the GOP because of Trump: "There's love it and leave, or love it and change it. And I believe in changing. Because in my heart, I'm a Republican. So all of the original Republican principles, I'm with that." Schwarzenegger wants there to be a third party, but not sure if he'd get involved: "I would have to see who is involved because a lot of times, you see those Independents and those are wacky guys also. So you've got to be careful who you bring to bed with you. ... Jesse Ventura started out great, but then he became a forehead. I don't know. Something happened." And here's what he said when Isaac asked him why he thinks he seems to
 get under Trump's skin: "I think he maybe sees me on the same level, or he feels threatened by that. I could not even tell you." Subscribe to get the full interview http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9e3f8e15af930441d8cd27e6c5d58d1a17ef4b2adae504fe90e7192d60779585320f84273be203ad1ea17bc9a6fe72955

YIKES! -- "Local governments keep using this software -- but it might be a back door for Russia," by WaPo's Jack Gillum and Aaron C. Davis: "Local and state government agencies from Oregon to Connecticut say they are using a Russian brand of security software despite the federal government's instructions to its own agencies not to buy the software over concerns about cyberespionage, records and interviews show. The federal agency in charge of purchasing, the General Services Administration, this month removed Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab from its list of approved vendors. In doing so, the agency's statement suggested a vulnerability exists in Kaspersky that could give the Russian government
 backdoor access to the systems it protects, though they offered no explanation or evidence of it. Kaspersky has strongly denied coordinating with the Russian government and has offered to cooperate with federal investigators." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d989266b10f4570e5d1197ca3376336fdfbad8a7b67ed27e904ce6f875d7abc164d64d3f9ab97bbc5168e8ae21579ce311

THE JUICE ... 

-- FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Rational360's digital team did an analysis of all members of Congress' Twitter accounts and figured out which reporters and media organizations members followed the most. The top 10 reporters: Chad Pergram, Mike Allen, Chuck Todd, Jake Tapper, Ed O'Keefe, Dana Bash, Manu Raju, Bret Baier, Jake Sherman and Chris Cillizza. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9067c81f6a70a8a521c48ba781d7fe70e24f7793251c21eeb5bbd759054025558959fffdd716f5079cc19c273880745ad

-- FROM MORNING MONEY: LAUNCHING TODAY - John Dearie emails: "I left the Financial Services Forum at the end of June to launch a new 501(c)(3) organization called the Center for American Entrepreneurship (CAE), which will launch ... Monday ... CAE's purpose is to work with policymakers in Washington, and the state and local levels across the country, to enhance policy circumstances for new business formation, survival, and growth. ...

"[W]e currently have funding from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Visa, Wells Fargo, UPS, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs, and are talking with many others." 

PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION -- "Dacha fights for a second beer garden on 14th Street," by WaPo's Rachel Chason. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9d241e853d6f4450a0e9be6e6a1b89dc02af65eaf04b3184b98c7a0ba53ba0dcc4e4e0e771a6feaa57ed0d3ffc5ae073b

                  Playbook Reads         
EZRA COHEN-WATNICK PROFILE -- ROSIE GRAY in The Atlantic, "The Man McMaster Couldn't Fire: Thirty-one year old Ezra Cohen-Watnick holds the intelligence portfolio on the National Security Council -- but almost everything about him is a mystery": "Despite his prominent, and apparently quite secure, position in Trump's NSC, little is known about Cohen-Watnick, who had spent much of his short career as a low-ranking official at the Defense Intelligence Agency. Information about him in publicly available sources is scarce. Few higher-ups from the DIA remember him. Only one picture of him can be found online, a snapshot unearthed by Al-Monitor's Laura Rozen. Unlike other White House officials
 who have become public figures in their own right, Cohen-Watnick never speaks for himself publicly, leaving others to fill the void. ... Some profess not to know him, or ask why anyone would want to write about him. Others simply refuse to discuss him. 'I won't talk to any journalist about Ezra,' said Michael Ledeen, a Flynn confidant who knows Cohen-Watnick well. 'Is it one of your hit pieces?' asked Bannon." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9f546024ad736e79f1edd84ca87d918fe8a20b3eb36e1395721d2ad0df78bd7a4f6bbbfca294ae552d428835c91adac80 ... Pic of Ezra http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9a0bd5fc2ce43e2ef1b07fdab23b044ff1c9ec17b40f2e2c40236ce54939fdb5b6ba11a56195d8b8b02bc5e2e719bfa4b 

 TWO GOOD NEW YORKER pieces that just popped -- "Weathering the Storm: In a summer of disasters, London's first Muslim mayor works to preserve Europe's global city," by Sam Knight: Sadik "Khan is a student of American politics, and in describing the role of religion in his public identity he often paraphrases John F. Kennedy: he is not a Muslim mayor; he is a mayor who happens to be Muslim. He allays your concerns before they have a chance to form. Khan characterizes himself as a feminist. He is the first mayor to walk in the city's gay-pride march. But he is also conscious that he has an obligation to talk about and demystify Islam. ... He will quote passages from the Quran and the Hadith,
 the sayings of the Prophet, when discussing terrorism." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d945cfda257edb57199c898df1398cfcfa33cb6d47e1a0557780de96cb72f9d370dddca3ded4998818e1e65500bdd83456

 -- "Guilty Pleasure: How TV created Donald Trump," by Emily Nussbaum: "As it happens, most episodes of Trump on 'The Apprentice' are curiously hard to find: they're not available to stream or download. Only first-season DVDs are for sale, legally, online-and only used ones. The show is not at the Paley Center for Media's research library, either. (M-G-M, which owns the rights, declined to comment.) ... Rewatching 'The Apprentice' more than a decade later, it's easy to see why it struck a chord. Glossy and upbeat, the show, which d&eacute;buted after 9/11 but before the economic collapse, introduced itself as a stirring advertisement for Wall Street as a meritocracy. Each episode opens with
 the earworm 'For the Love of Money,' by the O'Jays, with its 'moneymoneymoneymoney" groove: 'Talk about cash money! / Dollar bills, y'all.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9536758da66017943db38b5fc19a9dee48b9695a9ecba29d03eea1d9b82eeef31a6713aceeb9f45921fdea535c97ff902

KNOWING MARK MEADOWS -- "Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows takes a seat at the top table," by the Washington Examiner's Al Weaver: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d947f78450ba60248eb06f7b1ff89ca5a2ca62cb4058acac80a2122c7624d1f9c10d3f08523426d25c4e46256f55cc868d

-- INTERESTING NUGGET: Kellyanne Conway on the support Meadows and his wife gave Trump after the Access Hollywood tape last October: "We will always remember how tenacious and loyal Mark and Debbie Meadows were, especially after Oct. 7. They're definitely members of what we call the 'Oct. 8th coalition.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d94ae0410c30084d7d5fed6eea837e47c899a4c4577eb5c2f391c2f6464b4660c4bdf57959bb3a93bab20b265ea7d35336

BUSINESS BURST -- "Wall Street Outlasts Congress on Banker Pay, But Still Loses," by WSJ's Telis Demos and Dave Michaels: Trump administration regulators have signaled they want to abandon long-simmering plans to further regulate pay on Wall Street. But aspects of the Dodd Frank law passed in 2010 under President Barack Obama along with changes in the economics of the banking industry have already resulted in tighter compensation controls. Portions of the Dodd-Frank mandate-including making pay more sensitive to risk and long-term results-have made it into guidelines adopted by the Federal Reserve and other agencies. Banking groups have said their members follow the guidelines, but
 Washington and Wall Street have wrangled for years over whether they need to be locked in with formal rules. 

"Last week, regulators including the [SEC] dropped efforts to craft those tougher provisions from their published agendas. Those proposals included longer deferment periods for bonuses and longer periods of time during which the payouts are subject to potential claw backs. An SEC spokesman declined to comment on the changed agenda. But Republican lawmakers and regulatory officials have long complained that Dodd-Frank included many measures unrelated to the financial crisis that spurred it passage." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9bf6d77d39b3f310ea070db5a679a665b811c2ba7bbec3c1eac5775a60545c1fba72ff98b6e81c32fa49c9f453aeccb5a

OLIVIA NUZZI with her third cover story for NYMag, "Donald Trump Is Not Invited to the Wedding: Joe, Mika, and their star-crossed relationship with the president": "Because Joe and Mika are perhaps the only masochists alive who operate on this schedule and spend this much time together (a 6-to-9 a.m. show; up as late as 10 p.m., crisscrossing the Northeast corridor for meetings, events, and speeches), it can feel as though they exist in their own private universe. Except they don't. Between them breathes a sprawling web of three ex-spouses and six children, ranging in age from 9 to 29 (Scarborough quietly divorced his second wife in 2013, while Brzezinski's marriage ended in 2015). 

"It has historically been a preoccupation for them, then, to keep the matter of their relationship and its inconvenient origins out of the press, which they achieved with near-total success - something one New York tabloid veteran told me was astonishing and 'a lesson for everyone' in how to 'tame the gossips.' 'I think of the gossip world as extremely transactional, and they were very good at dealing with it,' the veteran told me. 'They are total operators: They weren't above trading one item for another. They took their own PR into their own hands.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9c58a2026f4766ae005e5e8928260e27bb68e02c6132b822acd460bc9517035bb63c869e535fb419be1230eea94ff1ba1 ... The cover http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9e0dba7b920c911476046fbfc702098f791990a0c5d11cf8fbd37e37630dc75f385da9a3f7d2457d53f2707d4bc9cc32e

MEDIAWATCH -- "New York Times requests apology from Fox on ISIS story," by David Cohen and Hadas Gold: "The New York Times on Sunday took the unusual step of requesting an apology from a competitor, asking 'Fox & Friends' to retract a report that the Times was to blame for the 2015 escape of an ISIS leader. Fox subsequently updated the story on its website with the NYT letter. 'I am writing on behalf of The New York Times to request an on-air apology and tweet from Fox & Friends in regards to a malicious and inaccurate segment 'NY Times leak allowed ISIS leader to slip away,' wrote Danielle Rhoades Ha, vice president of communications for the Times." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9a9a2ada7721edbff14499f07178aaedd3585c7b5e4fa6bdb0260c78839b381a0fc189ea1adafb5d38dcfffab3e4c1c10

-- "How Trump Got It Wrong in Saying The Times 'Foiled' Killing of ISIS Leader," by NYT's Michael R. Gordon: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9e1713d4879160462d2c1375690918e32dc0ea9a1ef7a14713619614000cbff6d7305bcbee9f5e6780b751190ced17a37 

TV TONIGHT -- "The Beat with Ari Melber," premieres tonight at 6 p.m. on MSNBC. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) will be the show's debut guest.
                  Playbookers         
SPOTTED: Sean Spicer relaxing yesterday afternoon at the Army Navy Country Club pool ... Sen. Marco Rubio and his family enjoying the activities at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's "Superhero Family Day" on Saturday (h/t Laura Lott, president and CEO of the American Alliance of Museums) ... Rep. Luke Messer and family yesterday walking into morning service at McLean Presbyterian Church ... Peter Baker and Susan Glasser at a book party in his honor at Harris Miller and Deborah Kahn's house in northern Virginia, where Peter was born and raised. Former Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) and Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) also attended ... Joe Lieberman last night at Penn Station in Baltimore boarding the
 Acela for D.C. 

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Brandy Zadrozny, senior reporter/researcher at The Daily Beast and Gregory Zadrozny, a senior art director at Showtime, welcomed Veda Louise Zadrozny, their third child. Veda joins 6 year old Sky and one year old Wilder. Pics http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d97e7be8ba2fb2750b3deb80172899dff52c34bb9edb96593581db261fdc154d574c99ea65eadc3703c8b1175c7731d7df ... http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9f1e657a3e6181fb074a2427d396c84968c1514418c0b5305c9f54d9d633cdfe55bd8bc3c505546212c73771472bc4e9a

TRANSITIONS -- MGM Resorts International hired Debra DeShong as VP of global industry affairs. She most recently served as EVP and managing director of public affairs at Subject Matter. ... Brink Lindsey, most recently the VP for research at the Cato Institute, is joining the Niskanen Center as VP and director of the Open Society Project. ...

... Tom Koonce, an executive director at JPMorgan Chase, is joining the bipartisan lobbying firm Rich Feuer Anderson in August. The firm has Amazon, BlackRock, PwC and SWIFT as clients. ... Vinay Vijay Singh is joining KPMG as director of global infrastructure. He was previously deputy assistant secretary at the International Trade Administration in the Obama Commerce Department.

WEEKEND WEDDING -- "Jeremy Bearer-Friend, Thomas Gillespie" -- N.Y. Times: "Mr. Bearer-Friend, 34, was, until recently, the tax counsel in the Washington office of Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts. In August, he is to begin an appointment as an acting assistant professor of taxation at New York University School of Law. He graduated magna cum laude from Brown, and received a Master of Arts in education from the University of California, Berkeley, and a law degree from Stanford. ... Mr. Gillespie, 30, is the assistant director of children's programming at PBS in Arlington, Va. He graduated from the College of William & Mary. ... The couple met in June 2013 through
 OkCupid." With pic http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d901176f300455ba9027ffc218026f49c4c0580ae05b111eeb8019d755463c4f003f416d7f0249eb1e4ac5d3af54a4fd44

-- POOL REPORT from Alex Halpern Levy: "At a historic train depot overlooking the Ohio River, Jeremy, Tommy and a revelrous crew of family and friends from all over the country drank Kentucky bourbon, ate split pea samosas, and danced to the beat of the Beastie Boys. Guests included a large contingent of Warren staffers, the NYT's Dana Goldstein, and a table of former Senate pages (Tommy once worked as a Mitch McConnell page)." Pic http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d90876c8c00c91d609ae35e92c1cf6c291daded38fa0790d7bf0d523006a37b2f2d9899305873244194145dbb017fa6a12 ... Video of Jeremy breaking the glass  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9978275f6070d088d3ee38bad94e49b5504b2fdb585e4e72c08e9f7e1072b95c2723835b6b607cb60d2d2eeb2e4e24ff7 

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Joel Benenson, founder and CEO of Benenson Strategy Group. How he got his start in politics: "Left the NY Daily News in 1994 to work as communications director for then-New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, a giant in Democratic politics. I wanted to be the guy in the room, not the guy writing about the room." Read his Playbook Plus Q&A: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d953971ebb9cbb2099647c24eed8fa1498fc44d2b774df1d245232d39336e5e6477f2f71cb3a63b37e33e77556bb24086f 

BIRTHDAYS: Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) ... political cartoonist Pat Oliphant ... Marc Racicot, former RNC chair and Montana governor ... AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka ... Ryan Sims ... WSJ's Kim "Potomac Watch" Strassel ... John Brabender, chief creative at BrabenderCox ... CNBC's Eamon Javers ... Jennifer Sarver ... Rob Anderson ... Robert Hoopes, president of Vox Global (h/t Josh Alcorn) ... Juergen Baetz, DPA's Africa bureau chief ... Magee Quick McBride, VP at Jefferies ... Mike Sugerman, journalist at CBS in New York (h/t Jon Haber) ... Kathleen Hennessey, WH editor at the AP ... Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) ... Emily Casarona ... Kerri Briggs of ExxonMobil ... Eli Center ... Chris
 Bond, communications director for House Majority Whip Steve Scalise ... Michelle Kessel, producer for ABC's "Nightline" ...

... Barbara Morgan, former communications director for Anthony Weiner, who is now living and working in Denver ... Sarah Citrenbaum ... Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) ... Greg Hittelman, comms director at the Enough Project ... former Rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.) ... Trey Hollern of Porter Novelli ... Colin Peppard ... Will Holloway ... Carmen MacDougall ... Dan Reilly ... Stephen Dinan ... Brian Mooar ... Politico's Katherine Ragsdale ... David Fuscus, president/CEO of Xenophon Strategies ... Maryann Sedlack ... Courtney Carlson (h/t Mom, Margaret) ... Dan Slater ... VJ Sahi ... Jessica Doyle ... Olivia Morgan ... Beth Scully (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)

SUBSCRIBE to the Playbook family: POLITICO Playbook http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d912819989dd47ebffdf3b40c6a8292ee57876caa878a3583fe0a4f66684bf118f7bcf84970ebc2692cb45c918d9f3f785 ... New York Playbook  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d94250c6fb749e101bf0a6109e2ab9c7e99bc880ae62e94da61b0aaa94955afe6ac676dcca35b6ab13bfc7afcc1a7d0656 ... Florida Playbook  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d938bb2855eccc874167cc275c524cfba4ac3b605ce93560be6fb5191b519a7b21acbf91362b35ee0eb09165a274eda69f ... New Jersey Playbook http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9b7f92816c7c8d0701442a2d69cf94489880ebdac5a9ed172482bf5d8ab6783404ac724cff720bce275106a3d20898a37 ... Massachusetts Playbook  http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=d6aabad1029883d9d8438eacea290d824a417eee36d378f6549ca7bc58f9fed84044a3893dedcad9b1a4f28b45b2f1aa70618100ef61636e ... Illinois Playbook 
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