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Presented by Amazon: POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. | | | | |  | | By Garrett Ross | | | | 
Tree limbs and palm fronds litter a parking lot in Cooper City, Fla., on Wednesday, Sept. 28. | Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo | HURRICANE IAN LATEST — Our colleague Andrew Atterbury reports from Tallahassee, Fla. : “With mere hours until the Category 4 hurricane makes landfall, Florida’s top officials said that bridges are now closed in some of the areas facing the greatest threat: Collier, Charlotte and Sarasota counties on the west coast. Scores of Floridians evacuated ahead of the massive storm, but for those that didn’t, they are now being directed to stay indoors at the risk of facing maximum winds clocking in at 155 miles per hour.” (Note: Category 5 status starts at 157 mph.) Gov. RON DeSANTIS: “If you are in any of those counties, it’s no longer possible to safely evacuate. It’s time to hunker down and prepare for this storm.” — “Don't ‘gouge the American people,’ Biden warns oil industry as Ian nears,” by Ben Lefebvre YIKES — Per AP: “The Nord Stream pipeline leaks pumping huge volumes of natural gas into the Baltic Sea could emit the equivalent of one third of Denmark’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions,” the head of the Danish Energy Agency said today. HUNGER AIMS — President JOE BIDEN rolled out his administration’s plan to tackle hunger in America this morning and kicked off the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health — the first presidential conference on hunger since RICHARD NIXON’s in 1969. The centerpiece of the plan is the aim to end hunger in the country by 2030. “This goal is within our reach — just look at how far we’ve come on child poverty,” Biden said. More from WaPo
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Biden speaks during the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, at the Ronald Reagan Building on Wednesday, Sept. 28. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo | In an awkward moment, our colleague Meredith Lee Hill reports that Biden appeared to reference the late Rep. JACKIE WALORSKI (R-Ind.), who was a co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus and a leading voice on nutrition issues. “Jackie, are you here?” Biden said after thanking Rep. JIM McGOVERN (D-Mass.), Sen. CORY BOOKER (D-N.J.) and Sen. MIKE BRAUN (R-Ind.). “Where is Jackie?” Watch the 15-second clip LOL — Fox News’ @ChadPergram: “On the Senate floor, Dem NM Sen BEN RAY LUJÁN was presiding. When he recognizes [ MITCH] McCONNELL to speak, Lujan refers to him as the ‘Majority Leader.’ McConnell replies ‘Thank you. I haven't given up hope.’” FUN ONE — “How Lizzo came to play a president’s crystal flute on a D.C. stage,” by WaPo’s Theresa Vargas: “A day before Lizzo’s public performance, she spent a private afternoon at the Library of Congress, playing several flutes from its impressive collection.” Good Wednesday afternoon.
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| BIG PICTURE DEMOGRAPHIC DATA — “Pa. Republicans are gaining on Democrats in registered voters. We look at what that really means,” by the Philly Inquirer’s Julia Terruso and Jonathan Lai: “A decade ago, Pennsylvania Democrats outnumbered Republicans by one million registered voters, or about 13 percentage points. This year it’s down to 540,000, about six percentage points.” More details: “Republicans have added voters across Pennsylvania, in virtually every county that isn’t anchored by or near a large city. Much of the growth is in small or medium-sized counties. Many new Republicans are Democrats and independents who switched parties and have likely already been voting Republican for years. Democrats have far fewer party-switchers coming their way, and are instead pulling in new voters, especially young ones. That long-running trend spiked following the Supreme Court decision over-turning a constitutional right to abortion.” SIREN IN CHICAGO — “Many Black voters in some of Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods are frustrated that Democrats haven’t curbed persistent crime or fixed the economic problems that underpin it, prompting some to weigh sitting out upcoming elections,” WSJ’s Joshua Jamerson and Chad Day report . “Republican policies to bolster employment opportunities and law enforcement appeal to some Black voters, though many remain reluctant to back GOP candidates because they disagree with them on other issues and dislike their affiliation with former President Donald Trump.” THIS IS STILL HAPPENING — “Activists Flood Election Offices With Challenges,” by NYT’s Nick Corasaniti and Alexandra Berzon: “Groups in Georgia have challenged at least 65,000 voter registrations across eight counties, claiming to have evidence that voters’ addresses were incorrect. In Michigan, an activist group tried to challenge 22,000 ballots from voters who had requested absentee ballots for the state’s August primary. And in Texas, residents sent in 116 affidavits challenging the eligibility of more than 6,000 voters in Harris County, which is home to Houston and is the state’s largest county.” BATTLE FOR THE SENATE MASTERS OF HIS FATE — Arizona GOP Senate nominee BLAKE MASTERS in many ways has softened his hard-right campaign, but it’s not quite having the desired effect. “Skepticism from voters in the political center is emerging as a stubborn problem for Mr. Masters as he tries to win what has become an underdog race against Senator Mark Kelly,” NYT’s Jazmine Ulloa reports from Phoenix. What they’re saying: “In nearly a dozen interviews in Phoenix and Tucson, as well as in the purplish Phoenix suburbs of Arcadia, Chandler and Scottsdale, most independent voters expressed views of Mr. Masters as inauthentic, slippery on the issues and not truly dedicated to Arizona.” BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE JOCO DISPATCH — Kansas Democratic Rep. SHARICE DAVIDS got a tough redraw of her district from Republicans this year, setting her up for a tough reelection fight. But, as has become the theme of this year’s elections, the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision leveled the playing field again. “That’s why she is spending the final stretch of the campaign focused on abortion, attempting to keep the same abortion-rights supporters who turned out to vote in August energized to do so again in November,” AP’s John Hanna writes. BATTLE FOR THE STATES IN PENNSYLVANIA — “Former President Trump stumps for Doug Mastriano again during telephone rally,” by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Julian Routh: “Item by item, Mr. Trump hit on some of the biggest themes of the race, framing Mr. Mastriano as a fighter for the ‘Make America Great Again’ agenda that continues to galvanize the GOP base across the country.” IN OREGON — “Oregon gubernatorial candidates clash over guns, abortion,” by Andrew Selsky in Salem, Ore.: “At the debate in Bend, Oregon, [Democrat TINA] KOTEK was alone in saying she would support a gun-control measure that has received enough voter signatures to get on the November ballot. Johnson and Drazan said they oppose it. The measure would require people wanting to purchase a gun to first qualify for a permit and is one of the strictest gun-control measures in the nation.” HOT POLLS — New York: Democratic Gov. KATHY HOCHUL leads GOP Rep. LEE ZELDIN in the gubernatorial race, 54% to 37%, according to a new Siena College poll. And for good measure: Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER is leading Republican JOE PINION, 55% to 36%. More from NYT’s Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Nicholas Fandos HOT ADS With help from Steve Shepard — Virginia: GOP House candidate JEN KIGGANS’ latest ad features a direct-to-camera endorsement from Gov. GLENN YOUNGKIN, who carried Democratic Rep. ELAINE LURIA’s Hampton Roads district by a double-digit margin in his election last year. — Iowa: After weeks of blistering Democratic attacks on abortion (which feature him raising his hand at a debate to say he didn’t support exceptions to restrictions), GOP House candidate ZACH NUNN is up with a response ad. “Look, good people can disagree on abortion,” Nunn says in the ad, calling Democratic Rep. CINDY AXNE’s position “too extreme.”
| | | | DON’T MISS - MILKEN INSTITUTE ASIA SUMMIT : Go inside the 9th annual Milken Institute Asia Summit, taking place from September 28-30, with a special edition of POLITICO’s Global Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive coverage and insights from this important gathering. Stay up to speed with daily updates from the summit, which brings together more than 1,200 of the world’s most influential leaders from business, government, finance, technology, and academia. Don’t miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | TRUMP CARDS There’s a quartet of new excerpts out today from Maggie Haberman’s forthcoming book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America” ( $32) — and they’re doozies. — WaPo’s Josh Dawsey writes that the book offers a peek at the “unusual and erratic interactions between Trump and world leaders, members of Congress and his own aides, along with behind-the-scenes accounts of his time as a businessman.” Some examples:
- “Trump was often crass and profane about world leaders and others in his orbit. He referred to German Prime Minister ANGELA MERKEL as ‘that b----,’ according to the book. When RUTH BADER GINSBURG was dying in 2020, the book says, Trump would sarcastically raise his hands to the sky in prayer and say: ‘Please God. Please watch over her. Every life is precious,’ before asking an aide: ‘How much longer do you think she has?’”
- “Trump gave former New York mayor RUDY GIULIANI (R) control of his legal team because his other lawyers were not willing to go far enough to overturn the 2020 election, Haberman writes. ‘Okay, Rudy, you’re in charge. Go wild, do anything you want. I don’t care,’ Trump said over the phone, as he pushed him to help overturn the results. ‘My lawyers are terrible.’ He frequently berated White House counsel PAT CIPOLLONE , according to the book.”
— “Haberman’s New Book Details Trump’s Transphobic and Anti-Gay Behavior,” by The Daily Beast’s Zachary Petrizzo: “[A] week before the second debate unfolded in St. Louis in 2016, Trump’s close adviser at the time, REINCE PRIEBUS , presented the aspiring political figure with a question on same-sex bathrooms. In playing the role of a female transgender student, Priebus asked Trump whether this hypothetical student could still use the girl’s bathroom. Without missing a beat, Trump said he had a question. ‘Cocked or decocked?’ Trump asked. Offering up a ‘blank stare,’ the group was taken aback.” — “Trump Saw Staffers of Color at White House, Assumed They Were Waiters, Book Says,” by Rolling Stone’s Asawin Suebsaeng and Patrick Reis: “It was January of 2017, and a newly inaugurated President Donald Trump held a reception at the White House to meet with top congressional leaders. Hors d’oeuvres were on the menu. And the new president turned to a row of racially diverse Democratic staffers and asked them to retrieve the canapes, according to a new book. ‘Why don’t you get’ the food, Trump told staffers for Sen. CHUCK SCHUMER, Rep. NANCY PELOSI and others.” — “Trump nearly fired Jared and Ivanka via tweet,” by CNN’s Jeremy Herb
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“The door is always open for growth and opportunities,” said Francisco, who started in an Amazon fulfillment center and is now a trained robotics technician. Read more about the free career growth opportunities Amazon offers. Sponsored by Amazon   | | | CONGRESS NADLER'S UNHEEDED WARNING — Drawing from another upcoming blockbuster book release, Fox News has new details from “Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump” ($35), the new book from Playbook’s own Rachael Bade and WaPo’s Karoun Demirjian. In late 2019, as House Democrats moved closer to impeaching Trump over his dealings with Ukraine, Judiciary Chair JERRY NADLER (D-N.Y.) warned impeachment leader ADAM SCHIFF (D-Calif.) and Speaker NANCY PELOSI that their proposed strategy was flat-out “unconstitutional.” The book includes a scene where Nadler confronts Schiff about their reluctance to allow Trump’s legal team to cross-examine witnesses and present their own evidence. Nadler’s concerns echoed GOP attacks at the time — that Democrats were trampling on Trump’s constitutional right to due process. But Pelosi and Schiff worried Trump would hijack the proceedings and use them as a platform to go after then-candidate Biden. After the two Californians ignored him, Nadler’s aides began calling Schiff’s investigative team the “lawless HPSCI bastards” — a reference to the formal name of Schiff's committee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. 2023 DREAMING — Forget about the top echelon of House Democratic leadership: The race for caucus vice chair is actually the most competitive, Sarah Ferris and Nicholas Wu report. Reps. JOYCE BEATTY (Ohio), MADELEINE DEAN (Pa.), DEBBIE DINGELL (Mich.) and TED LIEU (Calif.) have ramped up their campaigns of late after laying the groundwork for a while. There’s no clear frontrunner yet, and more candidates could yet enter (or depart) the fray. INCOMING — “Democrats brace for a national security brain drain,” by Connor O’Brien: “Democrats on committees with oversight of defense and foreign policy issues are among some of the most vulnerable incumbents … The urgency to retain national security Democrats — many of whom came to Congress in recent years with extensive military, diplomatic or intelligence experience — is compounded by the retirements of senior Democrats, who represent decades of institutional knowledge on military and national security issues.” HEADS UP — “Last Chance for Antitrust Bill to Curb Big Tech Now Hangs on Lame Duck Vote,” by Bloomberg’s Emily Birnbaum and Anna Edgerton THE PANDEMIC MONKEYPOX LATEST — “Unvaccinated individuals 14 times more likely to get monkeypox than vaccinated, new US data shows,” by CNN’s MJ Lee: “That figure reflects the first wave of authoritative data collected by the Biden administration on the efficacy of the monkeypox vaccine that is currently being administered across the United States. … Multiple health officials said that the vaccines data has the administration feeling increasingly optimistic about the efficacy of the two-dose Jynneos monkeypox vaccine – and the possibility of ultimately eliminating the current outbreak in the U.S. altogether.”
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. | | | | | AMERICA AND THE WORLD WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE — The inaugural U.S.-Pacific Island Country Summit kicks off today, a key event to help counter Chinese influence in the Pacific. But two of the countries involved, the Marshall Islands and the Solomon Islands, are prominently defying American efforts to rebuke China and welcome the U.S., Phelim Kine reports . “That public pushback marks a humbling kick-off for the two-day summit and underscores the challenges that the Biden administration faces in redeeming U.S. credibility in a region where China is filling the void created by decades of U.S. disengagement. But the administration is adamant that the two-day summit will deliver tangible benefits.” BEYOND THE BELTWAY IMMIGRATION FILES — “Migrant encounters at the border are higher today than they were before Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star began,” by the Texas Tribune’s James Barragán: “The number of migrant encounters at the Texas-Mexico border has climbed from 109,456 in March 2021, the month the mission began, to 116,976 in August — a slower rate of growth than at other parts of the border but a failure of Abbott’s office’s stated desire to “stop this revolving door and deter others considering entering illegally.” PLAYBOOKERS OUT AND ABOUT — Cornerstone Government Affairs held an event Tuesday night, Salute to Black Congressional and Administration Staff, at their offices in Washington as part of CBC week. SPOTTED: Steven McGann, Glenn Ivey, Kamau Marshall, Lawrence Bell, Gideon Bragin, Nd Ubezonu, Alyssa Mensie, Nicole Varner, Haeyoung Yoon, Josh Davis, Jeffrey Mims, Charles Carithers, Shanetta Paskel, Delora Sanchez Ifekauche, Larry Camm, Deana McRae and Tonya Kinlow. TRANSITION — Amelia Penniman is now comms lead at Watershed. She previously was director of strategic comms and public affairs at Bully Pulpit Interactive. WEEKEND WEDDING — Rhonda Craig, senior director at Betty&Smith, married Wesley Williams , a site reliability engineer at BetterCloud, in downtown Atlanta on Sunday. The two met at a friend’s wedding — Rhonda, a guest; Wesley, a wedding crasher. Wesley asked Rhonda if she had a “plus one” that night. After Rhonda replied “No” he quipped, “You do now.” Pic … Another pic
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