The Playbook Podcast

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wanted today to be the GOP’s moment to put up or shut up on the bipartisan infrastructure deal. But based on our conversations with sources involved Tuesday night, it probably won’t be. Republicans will vote against a motion to proceed to the BIF if the text isn’t done by the time of the vote.  But members of the bipartisan group are optimistic that if the BIF...

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework has had an entire political life that few pieces of legislation enjoy: a much-ballyhooed agreement after months of closely watched discussions, a ceremony at the White House, a presidential trip to a swing state where BIF was celebrated. Yet after all of that drama, it could be as if BIF never existed. And, it’s no secret that Rep. Jim Banks is ambitious. Th...

Chuck Schumer seems to be channeling Mitch McConnell these days. The Senate majority leader is taking a gamble worthy of the last guy to have his job by scheduling two major deadlines this week to force action on President Joe Biden's agenda. It’s a hardball move meant to test whether Republicans who say they want bipartisanship mean it — but also to strong-arm his own ideologically diverse caucus...

It’s fair to wonder whether Caitlyn Jenner is running for governor of California or filming another reality show. Well, it turns out she’s doing a little bit of both. Jenner is showing up at campaign events and rallies with a film crew like famous candidates often do — but she’s also brought the crew to an interview with Sean Hannity and to an appearance at CPAC. And, a pair of stories up from CNN...

Back in 2019, when the House Intelligence Committee was about to kick off public hearings for Donald Trump's first impeachment, Trump and his allies pressed Kevin McCarthy to yank centrist Republicans from the panel and install the president’s most vocal allies instead. McCarthy wouldn’t do it. A year-and-a-half later, McCarthy is in essentially the same position: about to decide which Republicans...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer proclaimed Tuesday night that Democrats are “very proud” of the $3.5 trillion budget agreement he had just unveiled, before adding: “We know we have a long way to go.” “Long” is one way to put it. “Painstaking” and “treacherous” are a few others. Here are the dynamics we’re watching as the whipping operation gets underway. Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITIC...

It was after 9 p.m. on Friday, and staff for the bipartisan Senate infrastructure working group were hammering out legislative text over Zoom. Suddenly, the girlfriend of a staffer for Sen. Angus King walked into the room to announce they had a visitor. In walked the senator himself to thank those on the call for their hard work. Thought No. 1: These people really know how to live it up on a Frida...

The Uprising’s Hunter Walker scooped that the likely next mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, is headed to the White House today to meet with President Joe Biden, Attorney Garland Merrick Garland and other local leaders to discuss what the White House calls its “comprehensive strategy to reduce gun crimes.” And, another story to keep an eye on this week: the ongoing struggle by the administration...

The White House is scheduled to issue an executive order Friday to promote competition throughout the U.S. economy in the most ambitious effort in generations to reduce the stranglehold of monopolies and concentrated markets in major industries. And, It’s Donald Trump's most frequent complaint: people profiting off his name. The latest offender? His son’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle. Aides told...

With Congress gone, Joe Biden, our low-key president, has been the main story in Washington. He’s already addressed two major issues this week: how to respond to the Delta Covid-19 variant, and attempting to sell the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework and his American Families Plan to Trump-voting skeptics in Illinois. Today, he grapples with two big foreign policy dilemmas: He’ll receive an upda...

Back when Biden’s aides were debating whether to have a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the pro-meeting side argued that if he ignored Putin, the Russian leader was more likely to act out and create headaches for the new administration. A little engagement and attention, the argument went, might forestall the worst behavior. So far, it’s hard to see how Putin has reined in anything s...

With the House and Senate on break, President Joe Biden will be at the center of political coverage this week — and the three big Biden stories are Afghanistan, Covid-19 and infrastructure. All three issues share something in common: They are monumental policy and political challenges with enormous long-term consequences for America (and the world). Six months into his presidency, there has been m...

The former president was on a conference call with his advisers Monday discussing his favorite topic — revenge — when he was interrupted with an update on the Manhattan D.A.’s investigation. He would not be personally indicted, Trump was told — only Weisselberg and the Trump Organization would be. Trump was thrilled by what he saw as light charges, and according to one of the advisers on the call,...

Tallies released Tuesday afternoon indicated that New York City mayoral Democratic candidate Kathryn Garcia had come within 2.2 points of leading candidate Eric Adams after ranked-choice tabulations were processed. But, shortly after the results were released, reporters and campaign staffers noticed there were roughly 135,000 more votes counted than those reported on election night. And, the presi...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi surprised Washington when her office announced Monday that she was open to appointing a Republican to fill one of her party’s spots on the select committee to investigate Jan. 6. So instead of eight Democrats and five Republicans on the 13-member panel, it would be a 7-6 breakdown. So who will get the job? Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook. Jenny Ament is the...

The GOP rebellion over President Joe Biden's Thursday veto threat of the bipartisan infrastructure bill seems to have been quelled. ICYMI, on Saturday the White House released a long and windy statement to mollify Republicans who supported the deal. Biden said he supported the deal “without reservation.” On Sunday, three of the five Republicans who negotiated it made it clear that the president’s...

President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a rather daring new strategy Thursday for getting the president’s agenda passed. The gist is this: If Biden’s proposal for “family infrastructure” and climate change doesn’t pass, then neither will the bipartisan infrastructure deal that senators just struck. But the Biden-Schumer-Pelosi playbook also has t...

Joe Biden appears to have all but secured that elusive bipartisan infrastructure deal that both parties have been prattling on about for years. The core group of ten Senate centrists working on the proposal emerged from a meeting with White House officials Wednesday night and declared that they had a working framework. So now what? Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook. Jenny Ament is...

The top legislative priority of progressive Democrats is set to die in the Senate today with barely a whimper of protest from the White House. Republicans will easily filibuster the For the People Act, killing the sweeping elections proposal once and for all. The left, however, is not happy. Progressives are steaming that President Joe Biden didn’t use his bully pulpit to try to move the needle on...

Not to be too dramatic, but this is a big week for democracy. The Senate is back in session today at 3 p.m., and by the end of the week we’ll know a lot more about how broken the upper chamber is. As legislators headed out of town last week, there was some tantalizing progress on bipartisan legislation across three big issues: infrastructure, police reform and voting rights. Raghu Manavalan is the...

Kyrsten Sinema's advisers heard it constantly from her during her 2018 campaign for Senate: “I want to be the next John McCain.” After she won, Sinema called the late senator a “legend” and “my personal hero.” This year, when she voted against a minimum wage hike, she rankled the left by mimicking McCain’s iconic thumbs-down that tanked the GOP’s effort to kill Obamacare. Now Sinema’s commanding t...

As he returns from Europe, President Joe Biden faces a major decision that will have consequences for the rest of his agenda: Does he take a bipartisan compromise on infrastructure and hope the rest of his agenda can pass on reconciliation without assurances from Sinema and Manchin? Or does he move on and go for one big Democrats-only proposal? Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook. J...

President Joe Biden's entire agenda appears to be in jeopardy amid Democratic infighting over how to proceed on infrastructure. That’s a sweeping statement, and it’s possible this all gets sorted out for Democrats after a frenzied Monday in the Senate. But the party ended the day with things looking pretty grim. In short, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is getting squeezed by both ends of his confer...

Senior Democrats were telling us Sunday night they think the White House is actually considering the trillion-dollar bipartisan infrastructure deal floated by 10 centrist senators Friday. First, however, they need to see if their own members can swallow it.  Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook. Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. Irene Noguchi is the executive pro...

 When we talk to European diplomats and officials, they all say the same thing — the Biden presidency is a “sigh of relief” after the “near-death experience” of Trump. This week we checked in with the former U.S. ambassador to the EU, Anthony Gardner, about Biden’s first foreign trip. Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook. Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. Irene N...