Subject: Playbook PM: U.S. wallops Iran with sanctions
From: "Anna Palmer Jake Sherman Daniel Lippman" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2018 10:43:07 -0600
List-Id: <1376319.xt.local>

Presented by AARP: Playbook is POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the day in Washington             Aug 06, 2018 View in browser                   
 By Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman, Daniel Lippman, Eli Okun and Akela Lacy 
             
Presented by
             
THE PRESIDENT at 11:38 a.m.: "Kris Kobach, a strong and early supporter of mine, is running for Governor of the Great State of Kansas. He is a fantastic guy who loves his State and our Country -- he will be a GREAT Governor and has my full & total Endorsement! Strong on Crime, Border & Military. VOTE TUESDAY!"

-- KOBACH is running against Gov. Jeff Colyer. Republicans have privately expressed concern that Kobach could lose to a Democrat in the fall.

VACATION SEASON ... POOLER ASHLEY PARKER of the Washington Post sent an email at 10:28 a.m. that the White House called a photo and travel lid. That means there will be no public events today. The president is at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.

JUST POSTED ... NBC NEWS' ANNA SCHECTER: "Kristin Davis, the 'Manhattan Madam' who says she provided prostitutes to New York's rich and famous, is scheduled to testify before Special Counsel Robert Mueller's grand jury in Washington, DC, later this week, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

"Last week an investigator on Mueller's team questioned Davis about Russian collusion, said the source. Davis declined to comment. Her lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.

"Davis, 41, told NBC News in July that someone in Mueller's office called her attorney to ask her to speak to investigators, and that she believed it was because of her ties to former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone. She also said she had no knowledge of Russian collusion." NBC

UPDATE ... THE OHIO special election tomorrow has drawn a whopping $8.4 million in outside spending. The DCCC has spent $629,853. The NRCC has spent $1.3 million and the Congressional Leadership Fund has spent $3.1 million. 

NYT'S ALEX BURNS in DUBLIN, OHIO: "In Ohio Election, Republicans Test a Midterms Rescue Plan: Polarization": "The hook-shaped district, long dominated by business-minded Republicans, might appear an unlikely arena for harsh rhetoric and dystopian commercials about gun confiscation and migrant gangs. ... 

"But Republicans say their messaging is intended to polarize the electorate and exploit the national Democratic Party's leftward shift, jolting complacent conservatives and denying [Danny] O'Connor ... the chance to win over disaffected Republicans." NYT

COOK POLITICAL REPORT'S DAVE WASSERMAN: "Mapping Democrats' Path to 218: The Eight Types of Races That Will Decide the House"

BREAKING -- "U.S. restores some Iran sanctions lifted under nuclear deal," by WaPo's Carol Morello: "Administration officials said the sanctions that have been waived for the past two and a half years will be snapped back officially on Tuesday morning at one minute past midnight.

"From that moment on, Iran will be prohibited from using U.S. dollars, the primary currency used for international financial transactions and oil purchases." WaPo

-- DAVID HERSZENHORN: "Europe vows to fight for Iran deal as U.S. renews sanctions": "The EU is taking legislative action, activating a so-called 'blocking statute,' in a bid to protect EU businesses from the renewed U.S. sanctions. But it is unclear how effective it will be in calming the fears of companies, many of which have far greater commercial ties to the U.S. than Iran." POLITICO Europe
       
A message from AARP:
 
Will Arizona swing blue this election and what is the role of Hispanic voters over 50? The latest issue of "The Deciders," looks at Maricopa County Arizona to ask if voter turnout or identity politics will decide the day? Visit politico.com/thedeciders to learn more.
         
ON THE WORLD STAGE -- "U.S. allies cut deals with al-Qaida in Yemen," by AP's Maggie Michael, Trish Wilson and Lee Keath: "Again and again over the past two years, a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and backed by the United States has claimed it won decisive victories that drove al-Qaida militants from their strongholds across Yemen and shattered their ability to attack the West. Here's what the victors did not disclose: many of their conquests came without firing a shot.

"That's because the coalition cut secret deals with al-Qaida fighters, paying some to leave key cities and towns and letting others retreat with weapons, equipment and wads of looted cash, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. Hundreds more were recruited to join the coalition itself.

"These compromises and alliances have allowed al-Qaida militants to survive to fight another day - and risk strengthening the most dangerous branch of the terror network that carried out the 9/11 attacks. Key participants in the pacts said the U.S. was aware of the arrangements and held off on any drone strikes." AP

Good Monday afternoon. OOPS ... OUR APOLOGIES -- Playbook subscribers were accidentally sent our Illinois Playbook this morning. But you should be subscribed to and reading all the Playbooks anyway! Sign up for Illinois Playbook, written by Shia Kapos.

WHAT'S ON TRUMP'S MIND -- @realDonaldTrump at 10:13 a.m.: "'Collusion with Russia was very real. Hillary Clinton and her team 100% colluded with the Russians, and so did Adam Schiff who is on tape trying to collude with what he thought was Russians to obtain compromising material on DJT. We also know that Hillary Clinton paid through...." 

... at 10:25 a.m.: "....a law firm, eventually Kremlin connected sources, to gather info on Donald Trump. Collusion is very real with Russia, but only with Hillary and the Democrats, and we should demand a full investigation.' Dan Bongino on @foxandfriends Looking forward to the new IG Report!"

... at 10:52 a.m.: "Great financial numbers being announced on an almost daily basis. Economy has never been better, jobs at best point in history. Fixing our terrible Trade Deals is a priority-and going very well. Immigration on Merit Based System to take care of the companies coming back to U.S.A."

HEADS UP -- "Saudi Arabia expels Canadian ambassador over criticism," by AP's Jon Gambrell: "Saudi Arabia expelled the Canadian ambassador on Monday and froze 'all new business' with Ottawa over its criticism of the ultraconservative kingdom's arrest of women's rights activists - yet another warning to the West reflecting Riyadh's newly assertive foreign policy.

"The sudden and unexpected dispute bore the hallmarks of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ... Analysts say the dispute between Riyadh and Ottawa shows Saudi Arabia won't accept any outside criticism and will continue flexing its muscles abroad, especially as the kingdom enjoys a closer relationship with President Donald Trump." AP

-- BEN HUBBARD (@NYTBen): "Saudi state media now reporting that the kingdom will suspend its scholarships for Saudi students to Canada."

VALLEY TALK -- "Tech Firms, Embattled Over Privacy, Warm to Federal Regulation," by WSJ's John McKinnon and Marc Vartabedian: "The effort by tech coalitions ... comes after the industry has fended off many types of federal action on privacy for years. The likely elements of the legislation, which are taking shape in talks among industry representatives, Trump administration officials and lawmakers, would include several features that politically powerful tech companies are urging.

"Importantly, the legislation would almost certainly pre-empt state regulation of online privacy, by states ... Compared with the California law and new privacy rules in the European Union, the new U.S. legislation is likely to be less stringent. ... Federal legislation likely would hand much of the work of writing detailed privacy rules to the Federal Trade Commission." WSJ

-- "Facebook and Apple iTunes Ban Alex Jones as Internet Giants Silence Infowars," by The Daily Beast's Jamie Ross: "Shortly after Apple confirmed it has removed the vast majority of the loudmouth shock jock's podcasts from iTunes, Facebook published a blog post explaining that it had 'unpublished' four of the Infowars host's most active pages for violating its hate-speech rules." The Daily Beast

-- CNN'S OLIVER DARCY (@oliverdarcy): "It appears YouTube has removed the Alex Jones Channel for violating its guidelines."

THE INVESTIGATIONS ... "New York race could spark new Trump investigation," by Yahoo News' Hunter Walker in White Plains, New York: "On Nov. 6, voters in the Empire State will select a new attorney general, and all of the leading Democrats running for the office are eager to take on Trump by either continuing Mueller's work or mounting an entirely new investigation against the president.

"In an interview last Thursday, Tish James, the leading Democratic contender, told Yahoo News that she should be one of the president's top fears." Yahoo

-- "Meet Trump's friend and fixer: David Pecker, the tabloid king," by The Guardian's Lucia Graves: "For Pecker, Trump offered access to power. And for Trump, who came up through tabloid media, Pecker offered a continuation of his mythos." The Guardian

RUSSIA WATCH -- "After Rand Paul meeting, Russian lawmakers agree to Washington visit," by Rebecca Morin: POLITICO

FOR YOUR RADAR -- "Can Unions Win in Missouri?" by WSJ's Kris Maher and Eric Morath: "Unions are outspending opponents in a bid to defeat a right-to-work law in Missouri ahead of a referendum that will serve as a barometer of popular support for organized labor. A union-backed group in the state has spent $15.2 million ahead of Tuesday's vote to undo the law passed by the Republican-led legislature in 2017." WSJ

2018 WATCH -- "Meet Bill Nelson, the Under-the-Radar Senate Candidate in Florida. He's the Incumbent," by NYT's Patricia Mazzei in Stuart, Florida: "Faced with a formidable challenge by the wealthy governor, Mr. Nelson, a three-term incumbent, has been pushed into the unexpected position of underdog ... 

"Panicked Democrats started appealing to Mr. Nelson's team earlier in the summer to ratchet up the campaign. ... The senator has recently become more visible, helped in part by heavy media coverage of the Trump administration's unpopular policy of separating families." NYT

-- "Is There Still A Place For Antiestablishment Republicans? A Mississippi Senate Seat Depends On The Answer," by BuzzFeed's Alexis Levinson in Philadelphia, Mississippi: BuzzFeed

-- "Democrats May Have Finally Found The Candidate To Take Down Scott Walker: Can a wisecracking, occasionally cringe-inducing black firefighter finally capture the Democrats' Wisconsin white whale?" by HuffPost's Kevin Robillard in Superior, Wisconsin: HuffPost

FOGGY BOTTOM READ ... "How Heather Nauert's unlikely rise at the State Department has made her a top contender for White House press secretary," by Business Insider's Eliza Relman: "Tillerson 'completely shut her out,' adding that she was viewed 'as a spy for the White House.' Nauert, who maintained the trust of the White House throughout, reportedly considered resigning on multiple occasions. ... 

"Since former CIA Director Mike Pompeo took over at the department, 'it's been a complete 180' for Nauert, who now travels and works closely with Pompeo, the senior department official said. ... Nauert, 48, is generally well-liked by her State Department colleagues, and widely viewed as a competent spokesperson who has diligently educated herself on the dizzying range of international issues with which the department deals." Business Insider

THE ADMINISTRATION -- JELENA MCWILLIAMS PROFILE -- "New FDIC Leader Joins Push to Re-Evaluate Banking Rulebook," by WSJ's Ryan Tracy: "Washington's newest senior bank regulator is turning her agency's agenda in the direction of policies being proposed by other Trump-appointed officials, adding momentum to a push to revisit rules adopted after the 2008 financial crisis. ...

"Ms. McWilliams said Friday that her top priorities are examining the regulatory burden on small banks, speeding up her agency's review of bank-charter applications, and helping banks introduce new financial products for underserved communities." WSJ

AFTERNOON READ -- FRANK FOER on the cover of September's Atlantic, "How Trump Radicalized ICE: A long-running inferiority complex, vast statutory power, a chilling new directive from the top-inside America's unfolding immigration tragedy": "Under the current administration, many of the formal restraints on ICE have been removed. In the first eight months of the Trump presidency, ICE increased arrests by 42 percent.

"Immigration enforcement has been handed over to a small clique of militant anti-immigration wonks. This group has carefully studied the apparatus it now controls. It knows that the best strategy for accomplishing its goal of driving out undocumented immigrants is quite simply the cultivation of fear. And it knows that the latent power of ICE, amassed with the tacit assent of both parties, has yet to be fully realized." The Atlantic ... The cover

NEW YORK MAGAZINE'S FRANK RICH: "In 2008, America Stopped Believing in the American Dream": "Today's America is instead marked by fear and despair more akin to what followed the crash of 1929 ... It's not hard to pinpoint the dawn of this deep gloom: It arrived in September 2008, when the collapse of Lehman Brothers kicked off the Great Recession that proved to be a more lasting existential threat to America than the terrorist attack of seven Septembers earlier. The shadow it would cast is so dark that a decade later, even our current run of ostensible prosperity and peace does not mitigate the one conviction that still unites all Americans: Everything in the country is broken." New York
 ... The cover of the issue, which devotes 27 pages to the impact of the 2008 crash 10 years out

BUSINESS BURST -- "PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi to Step Aside," by WSJ's Jennifer Maloney: "She will leave the CEO role on Oct 3. and the role of chairman early in 2019. Ramon Laguarta, a 22-year PepsiCo veteran who was promoted to president last year, will take over as CEO." WSJ

SACHA BARON COHEN'S LATEST -- "Sacha Baron Cohen pranks former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio into debating gun control with a Shopkins toy," by WaPo's Bethonie Butler: WaPo

GARY COHN BEAT -- "Gary Cohn Is Happy in the Hamptons, Golfing and Crypto Investing," by Bloomberg's Amanda Gordon: Bloomberg

MEDIAWATCH -- "The Peacock Patriarchy: From his $20-million-a-year perch, Matt Lauer turned NBC into his personal playground. Then, suddenly, he was gone. But Lauer's axing has only raised unsettling questions about the network's leadership, its boys'-club culture, and how it covered the #MeToo moment," by David Usborne in Esquire. Esquire

-- FIRST IN PLAYBOOK -- CONNIE CHUNG, the former anchor and reporter for CNN, MSNBC and all three main broadcast networks, is working on a memoir about her life and work in journalism. She said it will detail some "Me Too" moments. The book will touch on her parents' journey from China, her Chinese-American upbringing and the "parallels" between the Watergate investigation and the Mueller investigation, said Chung, who covered Watergate.

-- "Fox News' 'Hard News' Shows Have a 'Ban' on Sebastian Gorka," by The Daily Beast's Asawin Suebsaeng and Maxwell Tani: The Daily Beast

-- "Fox News Correspondent Conor Powell Resigns: 'Lots of Reporters Are Very Unhappy,'" by The Wrap's Jon Levine: The Wrap

-- Mallory Shelbourne is now covering the Navy and Marine Corps for Inside Defense. She previously covered transportation and breaking news at The Hill.

TRANSITIONS -- Amanda Perez is now senior director of policy at the National Domestic Workers Alliance. She previously was policy director for the Senate Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. ... David Pittman is now health policy and communications adviser at the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations. He was previously a health care reporter at POLITICO.

WEEKEND WEDDINGS -- Quinn Bradlee, an author, co-producer of the film "The Newspaperman" about his father Ben Bradlee (his mother is Sally Quinn) and founder and editor of the web site friendsofquinn.com for young adults with learning disabilities, married Fabiola Roman, former assistant to the president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in a wedding on the Greek Island of Spetses. Pic 

-- Ashley Carter, director of coalitions of Independent Women's Forum and a member of the D.C. Board of Education, married Geoff MacLeay, a professional staff member for the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, in a ceremony at Trump Chapel at the Trump Winery in Charlottesville, Va. Guests were greeted with gold Trump chocolate bars at their table and Trump wine and champagne. Pic ... Another pic

WELCOME TO THE WORLD - OBAMA ALUMNI: Justin Vail, a Obama WH and Claire McCaskill alum who is now an independent public affairs consultant, and Roshni Shikari, an associate at Correia & Puth, welcomed their first child, Zohra Emilia Vail, who was born on Wednesday and came in at 7lb. 1 oz. and is 20 inches long. Pic

-- Ben Grossman-Cohen, global campaign manager for Oxfam America and an Obama 2008 campaign alum, and Cosabeth Bullock, SVP at M+R, recently welcomed Judah Cohen Bullock. Pic ... Another pic

BONUS BIRTHDAY: Kristofer Eisenla, partner at LUNA+EISENLA media. How he got his start in politics: "My first foray into electoral politics was serving as deputy communications director on Howard Dean's presidential campaign during the Iowa Caucus. I interviewed while studying at the London School of Economics and two weeks later, I was on a plane headed to Des Moines, and the rest is history." Q&A
           
A message from AARP:

 
What issues matter most to Hispanic voters over 50. Visit politico.com/thedeciders to read the latest editorial package.
                        
Follow us on Twitter
      
Anna Palmer @apalmerdc
 
Jake Sherman @JakeSherman
 
Daniel Lippman @dlippman
 
Akela Lacy @Akela_Lacy
 
Eli Okun @eliokun
              
Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family
 
 Playbook  |  Playbook PM  |  California Playbook  |  Florida Playbook  |  Illinois Playbook  |  Massachusetts Playbook  |  New Jersey Playbook  |  New York Playbook  |  Brussels Playbook  |  London Playbook 
 
View all our politics and policy newsletters
      
Follow us
                To change your alert settings, please go to http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=f0bb1317adc3d17f2b4960b40de5aed48c08017b9a8b2482e1550a2cba9f9ef86d72645c579ac4e61e6c2a2da38f65a7 or http://click.politicoemail.com/profile_center.aspx?qs=c1c81b2ef644fde1dd3c1f6178ef6a8ea3ee660992025bd4b7147ab73f913a8886851a72ba2a6425d9e2f8215e6f16b2177821607204e6214733850fe3d046a6
This email was sent to [email-masked] by: POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA

To unsubscribe,https://www.politico.com/_unsubscribe?e=00000165-101d-d734-a1e7-7e7f92730000&u=0000014e-f0fe-dd93-ad7f-f8fffbc40000&s=31ccd77065b1e6ba115251b76fe68abeeed53b6da228335d4b23e674793a0cb32c350819ab7969d90377da7400f52f0153a4f48430d5d5880b9e5d47e2e9af72