Document 0bdv967DR6QRDVQy9bda9DKm

To: Jackson, Ryan[jackson.ryan@epa.gov] From: Anna Palmer Jake Sherman Daniel Lippman Sent: Wed 7/12/2017 10:51:35 AM Subject: POLITICO Playbook, presented by Better Medicare Alliance: W.H. UNDER SIEGE, again - REINCE comes under fire, but why? - CROWLEY: `Trump Jr.'s love affair with Moscow' - McCONNELL's legislative wish list - SCARBOROUGH leaves GOP - B'DAY: Ryan Lizza View ojJinjiw | Add to your address book. Today's POLITICO Playbook presented by Better Medicare Alliance 07/12/2017 06:47 AM EOT By JAKE SHERMAN (sherman@politico.com; @JakeSherman), ANNA PALMER (anna@politico.com; @apalmerdc) and DANIEL LIPPMAN (daniel@politico.com; @dlippman) Listen to the Playbook Audio Briefing | Subscribe on iTunes | Visit the online home of Playbook Driving the Day Good Wednesday morning. SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL told lawmakers to expect to stay in session through the first two weeks of August. Here what he'd like to see accomplished in the coming weeks, according to several K Streeters: clear executive branch nominations, repeal and replace Obamacare, pass the National Defense Authorization Act, lift the debt ceiling and reauthorize the FDA user fee structure. -- HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADERS have stopped short of saying they'll stay in session -- and privately, some have vowed to stick to the schedule and leave for the summer at the end of July. We assume they'll have to stay in session for the first week of August. Hope you bought refundable plane tickets! THE UPSIDE of Congress staying in session: Lawmakers show they're working. THE DOWNSIDE: If they get nothing accomplished, they look incompetent. McConnell wants to clear a bunch of Trump administration nominees. But we're skeptical that will break through with voters. Aides tell us they need to accomplish something tangible. FROM THE WHITE HOUSE - @realDonaldTrump at 6:19 a.m. : "My son Donald did a good job last night. He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!"... at 6:32 a.m.: "Remember, when you hear the words 'sources say' from the Fake Media, often times those sources are made up and do not exist." -- ACTUALLY, THIS IS NOT TRUE. We don't know any reporters who make up Sierra Club v. EPA, 1:17-cv-01906 ED_001523_00002587-00001 sources. We don't make up sources. And Trump's White House often asks to be quoted on background -- which means identifying a source by a vague title, like "White House aide" or "administration official." And this story about the president's son is not based on a "source." It's based on emails that Donald Jr. sent and later released, to The president also retweeted a Fox News tweet that featured Jesse Watters saying Donald Jr. is a victim and a Fox & Friends segment praising Mitch McConnell. THE MAIN BAR - THE NYT STORY THAT STARTED THIS ALL - A1 - "Russian Dirt on Clinton? 'I Love It,' Donald Trump Jr. Said," by Jo Becker, Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo. http://nyti.ms/2tHvMYB THE WHITE HOUSE UNDER SIEGE STORIES... - POLITICO'S TARA PALMERI and JOSH DAWSEY: "White House aides feeling 'helpless' as Trump Jr. scandal blossoms": "White House aides feel blindsided by the bombshell revelations around Donald Trump Jr.'s campaign meeting with a Russian lawyer, while the president is using his relatively light schedule to watch TV and fume about the latest scandal, according to interviews with half a dozen White House officials and advisers. Unlike prior Russia-related controversies, the White House is not minimizing the political ramifications of Trump's eldest son's decision to meet with the Kremlin-linked lawyer after being offered information that he was told would 'incriminate' Hillary Clinton as 'part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump.'" "But top West Wing aides are exasperated by their limited ability to steer the damage control and the risk that more damaging news has yet to emerge. One Trump adviser said the White House was 'essentially helpless' because the conduct happened in an 'anything goes' campaign that had few rules. This person said he had spoken to several people in the White House on Tuesday, and that 'none of them knew anything about Donald Trump Jr.'s meetings,' despite the fact that top adviser Jared Kushner was also present for the controversial Trump Tower sit-down. Many of the White House aides had previously dismissed the Russia stories as 'conspiracy bullshit,' this person said, but that this scandal was not being dismissed as that." http://politi.co/2tGPK5R - NYT'S PETER BAKER and MAGGIE HABERMAN: "Rancor at White House as Russia Story Refuses to Let the Page Turn": "As Air Force One jetted back from Europe on Saturday, a small cadre of Mr. Trump's advisers huddled in a cabin helping to craft a statement for the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., to give to The New York Times explaining why he met last summer with a lawyer connected to the Russian government. Participants on the plane and back in the United States debated how transparent to be in the statement, according to people familiar with the discussions. Ultimately, the people said, the president signed off on a statement from Donald Trump Jr. for The Times that was so incomplete that it required day after day of follow-up statements, each more revealing than the last. ... The Russia story has become the brier patch from which the president seemingly cannot escape. ... Advisers said the president was annoyed not so much by his son as by the headlines. Sierra Club v. EPA, 1:17-cv-01906 ED_001523_00002587-00002 "But three people close to the legal team said he had also trained his ire on Marc E. Kasowitz, his longtime lawyer, who is leading the team of private lawyers representing him. Mr. Trump, who often vents about advisers in times of trouble, has grown disillusioned by Mr. Kasowitz's strategy ... The strain, though, exists on both sides. Mr. Kasowitz and his colleagues have been deeply frustrated by the president. And they have complained that Mr. Kushner has been whispering in the president's ear about the Russia investigations and stories while keeping the lawyers out of the loop, according to another person familiar with the legal team. But one person familiar with Mr. Kasowitz's thinking said his concerns did not relate to Mr. Kushner. The president's lawyers view Mr. Kushner as an obstacle and a freelancer more concerned about protecting himself than his father-in-law, the person said. While no ultimatum has been delivered, the lawyers have told colleagues that they cannot keep operating that way, raising the prospect that Mr. Kasowitz may resign." http://nvti.ms/2sOYfsx PERHAPS the most important detail of the day is Peter and Maggie's reporting that shows the White House crafted Don Jr.'s statement. - WAPO'S PHIL RUCKER and ASHLEY PARKER: "'Category 5 hurricane': White House under siege by Trump Jr.'s Russia revelations": "The White House has been thrust into chaos after days of ever-worsening revelations about a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a lawyer characterized as representing the Russian government, as the president fumes against his enemies and senior aides circle one another with suspicion, according to top White House officials and outside advisers. President Trump ...is enraged that the Russia cloud still hangs over his presidency and is exasperated that his eldest son and namesake has become engulfed by it, said people who have spoken with him this week. ... "Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and senior advise r; Jared Kushner, her husband and another senior adviser; and first lady Melania Trump have been privately pressing the president to shake up his team -- most specifically by replacing Reince Priebus as the White House chief of staff, according to two senior White House officials and one ally close to the White House. ... After this story first published, Josh Raffel, a White House spokesman, said in a statement on behalf of Kushner and Ivanka Trump: 'Jared and Ivanka are focused on working with Reince and the team to advance the President's agenda and not on pushing for staff changes.'... One White House official went so far as to stop communicating with the president's embattled son, although this official spoke sympathetically about his plight, casting Trump Jr. as someone who just wants to hunt, fish and run his family's real estate business." http://wapo.st/2sOAC3G BY THE \NAY ... Say what you want about Reince, but he has nothing to do with the scandals engulfing this administration. His job is literally impossible: he has to impose order on a president who thrives off chaos. - JONATHAN LEMIRE and JULIE PACE of the AP: "As Russia scandal touches his son, Trump privately rages": "The public has not laid eyes on the president since his return from Europe Saturday. But in private, Trump has raged against the latest Russia Sierra Club v. EPA, 1:17-cv-01906 ED_001523_00002587-00003 development, with most of his ire directed at the media, not his son, according to people who have spoken to him in recent days. The only comment from Trump on the matter for much of the day came in a brief statement via spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who said Tuesday that the president believes his son is 'a high-quality person.'" http://bit.lv/2uhCt5n * ***** A message from BMA: HEALTH CARE POLICY ALERT: We can all agree that high need, high cost patients deserve the right care. And with Medicare Advantage, seniors and people with disabilities are getting the high-value care they need through flexible benefits and specialized care. Learn more: NORM EISEN and RICHARD PAINTER, ethics chiefs for Obama and Bush, in the NYT: "Did Donald Jr. Break the Law?": "It raises a host of potential criminal and other legal violations for Donald Jr. and others involved, including his brother-in-law Jared Kushner; Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman at the time; and perhaps the president himself. These new facts are a critical inflection point in the Trump-Russia matter. But they should not be exaggerated: The investigation has much further to go before Donald Jr.'s liability, or that of others, can be finally assessed. "The defense that this was a routine meeting to hear about opposition research is nonsense. As ethics lawyers, we have worked on political campaigns for decades and have never heard of an offer like this one. If we had, we would have insisted upon immediate notification of the F.B.I., and so would any normal campaign lawyer, official or even senior volunteer. "That is because of the enormous potential legal liability, both individually and for the campaign. The potential offenses committed by Donald Jr., his colleagues and brother-in-law who attended the meeting, and the campaign itself, include criminal or civil violations of campaign finance laws. These laws prohibit accepting anything of value from a foreign government or a foreign national. The promised Russian 'documents and information' would have been an illegal campaign contribution from a foreign government -- and a priceless one." http://nyti.ms/2uQkHTI FROM 30,000 FEET -- "Trump Jr.'s love affair with Moscow," by Michael Crowley: "While President Donald Trump's handful of trips to Russia have been meticulously scrutinized, a review of his son's public statements spanning several years, as well as social media posts and interviews with Russia experts, shows that Donald Jr. spent far more time in the country than his father did, and developed personal ties there that continued beyond the November election. That might help to explain why Trump Jr. was so receptive to an approach last summer by a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton which, as an intermediary told him in an email, was part of a Kremlin effort to assist his father's campaign." http://politi.co/2uhipzU DARREN SAMUELSOHN, "Trump Jr. delivers 'smoking gun' to Mueller: The email chain released by the president's son shows an intent to collude with Russia, veteran Sierra Club v. EPA, 1:17-cv-01906 ED_001523_00002587-00004 prosecutors and white-collar defense attorneys say": "Two of Donald Trump's most senior campaign advisers -- Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort -- are also included in the 'private and confidential' email exchange, which the lawyers interviewed by POLITICO say exposes them to the same potential federal criminal statutes as Trump Jr., including prohibitions on the solicitation or acceptance of anything of value from a foreign national, as well as a conspiracy to defraud the United States." http://politi.co/2tGYZTu REPUBLICAN frustration on Capitol Hill with the continued drip, drip out of the Trump White House over its Russia scandal is hitting a new high. House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy's (R-S.C.) exasperation was on full display in a brief Fox News interview Tuesday. "If you had a contact with Russia, tell the special counsel about it! Don't wait until the New York Times figures it out!," Gowdy said. "Someone needs to get everyone in a room and say, from the time you saw Dr. Zhivago until the moment you drank vodka with a guy named Boris, you list every single contact with Russia." Still, Gowdy declined to say his oversight committee would investigate Russian interference, leaving that to special prosecutor Robert Mueller. Rachael Bade's full report http://politi.co/2ucchZ3 MOSCOW'S NEW MAN IN D.C. - "Russian diplomacy about to get tougher edge in Washington," by Ali Watkins: "A new -- and likely more aggressive -- chapter in Russian diplomacy is about to begin in Washington with the departure of Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak, whose soft-power approach to D.C. will be taken over by noted hardliner Anatoly Antonov. The switch in what has become one of Washington's most scrutinized jobs comes as the controversy over President Donald Trump and his allies' ties to Moscow intensifies, especially with the revelation that Donald Trump Jr. met with a Kremlin-linked lawyer at the height of the campaign after being told she could provide damaging information on Hillary Clinton as 'part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump.' "The scandal has at times centered on secret meetings with Kislyak - a long-time and well-respected diplomat who held the top post in Washington for nine years before his 2016 meetings with Trump officials made him a politically radioactive figure. The 62year-old Antonov is also a longtime diplomat, but he recently completed a nearly sixyear stint as a deputy in Russia's far more hardline defense ministry. Antonov's arrival is expected to be a noted shift in Washington's diplomatic community, where Kislyak was known as an affable fixture on the embassy party circuit, and an experienced political figure with routine official access to U.S. government circles." http://politi.co/2v9lcqd TRUMP'S TRIP TO PARIS - THE PRESIDENT is going to France for Bastille Day tonight. Here is what he is doing, per a background official to Annie Linskey of the Boston Globe: he is meeting Thursday with Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and then will also hold a bilateral meeting with with French President Emmanuel Macron. Trump and Macron will also hold a news conference. The two, accompanied by their wives, are scheduled to have dinner. "The senior administration official is aware that [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel is [scheduled] to be in Paris earlier on Thursday, but does not expect POTUS to meet with her. 'That's not on the schedule right now,' said a SAO. Trump returns back to Washington Friday. Sierra Club v. EPA, 1:17-cv-01906 ED_001523_00002587-00005 BURGESS EVERETT and JEN HABERKORN - "Reeling Republicans take one last shot at Obamacare": "Twenty-three years ago, President Bill Clinton and Senate Democrats canceled two weeks of the August recess to pass a major health care bill. They got nowhere. Now Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying the same thing with the GOP for the August break, and it may lead to the same result. ... There will be a vote to advance the bill next week, McConnell said Tuesday. And even if it fails, he made clear to his members at a party lunch that there will be no more false starts despite an increasingly downbeat feeling in the caucus. New text of the proposal will be made public Thursday, and a Congressional Budget Office analysis is expected on Monday. 'We're in gridlock,' said Sen. John McCain of Arizona. He added sarcastically: 'Now we're going to look at a new approach. And we're going to get a CBO estimate on Monday. Yay!"' http://politi.co/2uQmJDm - NEW POLITICO/MORNING CONSULT POLL: "Republican voters to GOP: Keep working on Obamacare repeal," by Steven Shepard: "The Republican base wants Senate GOP leaders to continue trying to repeal Obamacare despite recent setbacks, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. A clear majority of Republican voters, 67 percent, want the GOP to continue to work to repeal and replace the health care law, compared to only 21 percent who want party leaders to move on. Among all voters, 40 percent want congressional Republicans to continue to work on a new health care bill, and 47 percent want them to move on. "The poll also suggests that Republicans want Senate GOP leaders to shift gears and work with Democrats to pass a new health care bill. More than half of Republican voters who want the GOP to keep trying to repeal Obamacare, 54 percent, want their leaders to work with Democrats, while just 39 percent want them to work only with other Republicans." http://politi.co/2uQunNQ VALLEY TALK -- "Paying Professors: Inside Google's Academic Influence Campaign," by WSJ's Brody Mullins and Jack Nicas: "Google operates a little-known program to harness the brain power of university researchers to help sway opinion and public policy, cultivating financial relationships with professors at campuses from Harvard University to the University of California, Berkeley. Over the past decade, Google has helped finance hundreds of research papers to defend against regulatory challenges of its market dominance, paying $5,000 to $400,000 for the work ... In some years, Google officials in Washington compiled wish lists of academic papers that included working titles, abstracts and budgets for each proposed paper -- then they searched for willing authors, according to a former employee and a former Google lobbyist." http://on.wsi.com/2tGSz6S THE JUICE ... -- ELIANA JOHNSON is reporting that the Heritage Foundation has hired the Atlanta based executive search firm CarterBaldwin to assist in its efforts to find a replacement for former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) to lead the organization. The full report Sierra Club v. EPA, 1:17-cv-01906 ED_001523_00002587-00006 http://politi.co/2tFCE8O -- HAPPENING TODAY -- FBI director nominee Christopher Wray has his confirmation hearing today. It will be live streamed on Twitter via PBS NewsHour. http://bit.lv/2t3gOJ3 GET SMART FAST with Seung Min Kim and Darren Samuelsohn's piece on "The 6 toughest questions for the next FBI director": http //politi.co/2uhL207 -- SCOOP: "Donna Brazile to publish book on 2016 titled 'Hacks,'" by Isaac Dovere, whose birthday is today: "Brazile will celebrate the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump's election with the publication of her book 'Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House.'... Brazile's publisher Hachette promises a book that is 'equal parts campaign thriller, memoir, and roadmap for the future.' The publisher did not say how much the book deal was worth." http://politi.co/2tdJXkJ Playbook Reads PHOTO DU JOUR: Former Vice President Joe Biden walks through the hallways on Capitol Hill on July 11. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo FOR AVIATION GEEKS -- "Trump rethinking aviation agreements with Gulf countries," by Andrew Restuccia and Michael Grunwald: "The Trump administration is rethinking a pair of international aviation agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar amid allegations that the Persian Gulf nations are unfairly subsidizing their state run airlines, three administration officials told POLITICO. "The administration is facing increasing pressure from three of the biggest American airlines -- Delta, United and American -- to do something about the Gulf carriers' low ticket prices, with the U.S. airlines arguing they can't compete with the UAE and Qatar's deep pockets. "National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, chief of staff Reince Priebus and other senior administration officials have been discussing the issue behind the scenes for months, the officials said. Staffers from the NEC, National Security Council, Transportation Department and other agencies huddled for the latest strategy meeting on the aviation agreements last week while Trump's senior aides were in Europe." http://politi.co/2uhuK7g HOT ON CONSTITUTION AVE. -- "Sources: Cohn is Trump's top candidate to replace Yellen at Fed," by Ben White and Victoria Guida: "President Donald Trump is increasingly unlikely to nominate Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen next year for a second term, four people close to the process said. National Economic Council Director Sierra Club v. EPA, 1:17-cv-01906 ED_001523_00002587-00007 Gary Cohn is now the leading candidate to succeed Yellen as the world's most important central banker... If Trump taps Cohn for the Fed, it could enrage economic nationalists in the White House and some staunchly conservative Republicans on Capitol Hill who don't like the former Goldman Sachs president's background as a Democrat who generally favors free trade." http://politi.co/2vbCnlC TWO GOOD MCCLATCHY STORIES -- "Trump-Russia investigators probe Jared Kushner-run digital operation," by Peter Stone and Greg Gordon: "Investigators at the House and Senate Intelligence committees and the Justice Department are examining whether the Trump campaign's digital operation - overseen by Jared Kushner helped guide Russia's sophisticated voter targeting and fake news attacks on Hillary Clinton in 2016. Congressional and Justice Department investigators are focusing on whether Trump's campaign pointed Russian cyber operatives to certain voting jurisdictions in key states - areas where Trump's digital team and Republican operatives were spotting unexpected weakness in voter support for Hillary Clinton, according to several people familiar with the parallel inquiries." http://bit.ly/2udFhiU --"Lawyer that met Don Jr. had ties to Russian government, spy agency," by Kevin G. Hall: "The Russian lawyer at the center of Donald Trump Jr.'s scandal over possible collusion with Kremlin election meddlers has denied she has ties to the Russian government. But she threatened action by the Russian security service, the FSB, against a rights group working to expose corruption by Russian government officials, according to information in the possession of U.S. prosecutors who had been investigating a large and complex money laundering case involving Russian funds." http://bit.lv/2tM2xlP FUN READ - "Inside the Semi-Secret Life of Rob Goldstone, the Playboy Who Could Bring Down Trump," by The Daily Beast's Gideon Resnick and Kelly Weill: "Before he organized a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-connected attorney, Rob Goldstone was known as a New York City playboy who hosted vodkasoaked parties with younger acquaintances in the Russian Tea Room, a Manhattan restaurant blocks away from Trump Tower. Goldstone, 57, is a British music publicist and former journalist based in the New York area, who has represented musicians including John Denver and Michael Jackson.... [O]ne former member of the scene [said it was the] 'kind of crowd where an apartment party in a loft on Madison Square Park turned into a limo ride turned into illicit substances in the bathrooms at Boom Boom Room, all of it getting paid for... somehow. One of the fixtures in this scene was Rob, who was always the only old guy in the group." http://thebea.st/2tLUUvZ ****** A message from BMA: MEDICARE ADVANTAGE TAILORED CARE MEETS THE NEED OF HIGH COST, HIGH NEED CARE SENIORS: 18.5 million seniors and people with disabilities choose Medicare Advantage for one reason: it gives them the affordable, robust, and individualized health care they need. And with health needs in this country becoming more complex, it's clear that innovative, holistic solutions are required. Sierra Club v. EPA, 1:17-cv-01906 ED_001523_00002587-00008 Under Medicare Advantage, Special Needs Plans (SNPs) specializes care for the health care system's fastest growing and most costly and complex care beneficiaries - frail, disabled, and chronically-ill Medicare beneficiaries. SNPs tailor benefits, provider networks, and prescription drug coverage to best meet the needs of the beneficiaries they serve. In addition to providing Traditional Medicare benefits, SNPs also provide reduced cost sharing and enhanced benefits related social services, wellness and home care. SNPs are designed to address complex conditions by providing better access to specialized care for those who need it most. Learn more: http://www.bettermedicarealliance.org/special-needs-plans ****** TRUMP INC. - "Hackers have been stealing credit card numbers from Trump's hotels for months," by WaPo's Abha Bhattarai: "Guests at 14 Trump properties, including hotels in Washington, New York and Vancouver, have had their credit card information exposed, marking the third time in as many years that a months-long security breach has affected customers of the chain of luxury hotels. The latest instance occurred between August 2016 and March 2017, according to a notice on the company's website, and included guest names, addresses and phone numbers, as well as credit card numbers and expiration dates. The breach took place on the systems of Sabre Hospitality Solutions, a reservation booking service used by Trump Hotels, but did not compromise the Trump Hotels' systems." http://wapo.st/2sOBxRs BEYOND THE BELTWAY - "L.A. is a virtual lock to host 2024 or '28 Olympics after IOC vote," by L.A. Times' David Wharton: "The International Olympic Committee on Tuesday approved an unusual proposal to name two winners in the Summer Games bidding race between Los Angeles and Paris. Gathering at a meeting in Switzerland, IOC members unanimously agreed to the idea of awarding 2024 to one city and 2028 to the other. The decision all but assures that Southern California will get the Olympics back for a third time." http://lat.ms/2tOXT6x MEDIAWATCH -- "Scarborough tells Colbert: 'I'm not going to be a Republican anymore'," by Cristiano Lima: "Joe Scarborough, the longtime Republican political figure and MSNBC host whose public feud with President Donald Trump grew to a fevered pitch two weeks ago amid a series of heated attacks, said he is leaving the Republican Party. Tve got to become an independent,' Scarborough, a one-time Republican congressman and prominent figure in the conservative media sphere, told CBS' Stephen Colbert during an interview airing Tuesday night." http://politi.co/2tLrPkb ... 5-min. video : , i !y ; Hi... Scarborough plays his song "Monkey House" http://bit.lv/2u7VLK5 Playbookers SPOTTED: Valerie Jarrett and Betsy DeVos last night dining at Fiola Mare. They were at different tables ... Rep. Karen Handel (R-Ga.) walking out of a house on Q street near Dupont Circle just before 8 p.m. yesterday, talking on the phone, still wearing her Sierra Club v. EPA, 1:17-cv-01906 ED_001523_00002587-00009 American flag pin ... RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel waiting yesterday at the Pittsburgh airport for a delayed flight to DCA ... Reps. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) and Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) enjoying cigars last night on the patio at Bullfeathers ... Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) walking across Connecticut Avenue yesterday evening headed to Morton's Steakhouse. OUT AND ABOUT -- SPOTTED last night at a dinner and a special screening of "Wonder Woman" at the MPAA, hosted by Carol Melton, EVP of Time Warner: Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Susan Molinari, Deborah Rutter, Deborah Lehr, Sally Quinn, Genny Ryan, Capricia Marshall, Ruth Marcus, Tammy Haddad, Hilary Rosen, Mary Brady, Heather Podesta, Penny Lee, Ann Stock, Amy Weiss, Jennifer Maguire, Melissa Moss, Elizabeth Bagley, Kathy O'Hearn, Sandra Sobieraj Westfall. --Amazon Public Policy celebrated its third annual Prime Day with a party last night at the National Union Building. They served banana daiquiris, ate from a raw bar and munched on popcorn. Pics http://smu.gs/2uh1BJn SPOTTED : Sen. Jim Inhofe (ROkla.), Reps. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), Mike Bishop (R-Mich.) and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Internet Association's Michael Beckerman and Amazon's Jay Carney, Brian Huseman. TRANSITIONS - Alexandra Smith has been named the new executive director of America Rising PAC. She is the former chairwoman of the College Republican National Committee and will be the first woman to lead the organization. Colin Reed will now be a senior adviser at AR, working on tracking potential 2020 Democrats. Katie Glueck's story on changes at the group http://bit.lv/2uQhCTy ... Kristin Lee is joining Facebook's communications team to work on Internet connectivity and access. She most recently served as comms director and senior policy adviser for the Obama White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. ... The Center for International Policy has hired Salih Booker as its new executive director. He most recently was VP of external relations at the U.S. Institute of Peace. ... ... The Herald Group has added Marc Brumer, former comms director for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) as a VP. It has also hired Jason Cannata, formerly with FP1 Strategies, as a director and Seth Guidry, formerly with Lukens Company, has joined as a digital account manager. ... Lara Brown has been formally named the director of GWs Graduate School of Political Management. She's been at GW for four years as a professor and has been the school's interim director for the last year. WEEKEND WEDDINGS -- Sacha Samotin, co-founder of political data analytics firm Applecart, got married this weekend to Laura Resnick , Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University, in a traditional Jewish ceremony at Natirar Estate overlooking the hills of Somerset County, New Jersey. The couple met in 2013 as undergrads at UPenn. Pool report: "Wedding highlights included a hilarious musical homage to the couple by best man Noah Samotin and a speech from the bride's sister, Allison Resnick, quoting Virgil in the original Latin. Former Schwarzenegger/Huntsman/Kasich strategist Matt David was spotted on the dance floor enthusiastically lifting the bride's chair aloft during the Sierra Club v. EPA, 1:17-cv-01906 ED_001523_00002587-00010 hora." Pic http://bit.ly/2uQoqsT -- SPOTTED: Sacha's business partners Matt Kalmans and Anthony Liveris, Audrey Scagnelli, Campbell Curry-Ledbetter, Mitchell Resnick, Luke Thompson, Allan Anders, Elizabeth Ashford and Conyers Davis, Stephen Geer and Szelena Gray. WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Harley-Davidson lobbyist April Canter Bohrer and NAM's David Bohrer (who was a photographer for former VP Cheney) welcomed Mia Bohrer into the world last week. "Mom and baby are doing great; April says papa Dave is a already a 'supreme swaddler and master diaper changer'!" Pic http://bit.lv/2u85hNb BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent for The New Yorker, celebrating with "a quiet dinner at home with my two boys." Asked how the Trump is presidency going: "Off to a brilliant start!" Read his Playbook Plus Q&A: http://politi.co/2sOZ4Sf BIRTHDAYS: Susan Axelrod ... Josh King, former Clinton visual guru, author of "Off Script," and now weekend host of Slate's "Trumpcast" (h/t old White House buddy Jeremy Gaines)... Matt Rosenbaum, Treasury alum now at Paul Weiss, is 31 ... Adam Elias, COS to Rep. Bill Foster (D-lll.)... Politico's Isaac Dovere is 37 ... Beth Lester Sidhu, COO of PE firm The Stagwell Group and a Politico alum ... Brendan Daly, senior director of comms at Save the Children Action Network and former comms director for Nancy Pelosi (h/t Allie Wright and)... Christie Vilsack ... Jason Childress ... Paul Shone (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)... Eric Ueland, who has been nominated to be under secretary of state for management, is 52 ... Thea McDonald ... newly upped entertainment spox Brandon Shaw of Fifteen Minutes Public Relations leaves youth behind ... Eva Brown ... Ginny Justice ... Javier Folger, director of marketing and comms for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (h/t Jon Haber)... ... Alex Levy, president of speechwriting firm A.H. Levy & Co. ... Jordan Gehrke, partner of Vertical Strategies and a Ben Sasse alum ... John Gans Jr. ... David Lerman ... Nicole Narea ... Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) is 63 ... Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) is 41 ... former Rep. Mickey Edwards (R-Okla.) is 8-0 ... former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) is 59 ... Angela Belden Martinez ... Ashley Williams ... CBS News' Mary Walsh ... Gregorio Gomez, investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs ... documentary and news producer and writer Basel Hamdan is 36 ... Jessica Hanks, SVP at DKC ... Brian Schoeneman is 4-0 ... Debbee Keller, director of public affairs at WeWork ... Rachel DiCarlo Currie ... Seton Motley ... writer-producer Brian Grazer is 66 ... actress Michelle Rodriguez is 39 ... Rachel Brosnahan ("House of Cards") is 27 ... Nobel peace prize laureate Malala Yousafzai is 2-0 (h/ts AP) ****** a message from BMA: Better Medicare Alliance is helping to build the future of care through Medicare Advantage. As a community of experts, we're leading the way on health care through research, policy, and grassroots advocacy. Together, we're creating a path forward for innovative, modern health care. Stand with us: Sierra Club v. EPA, 1:17-cv-01906 ED_001523_00002587-00011 SUBSCRIBE to the Playbook family: POLITICO Playbook .L.-ixx ... New York Playbook . ^ri zi>- ... Florida Playbook hi+p /4>c- tt < o/1 /j... New Jersey Playbook http://politi.co/1 HLKItF ... Massachusetts Playbook xx; /xxx Illinois Playbook California Playbook - nJn y.-yy x ! ... 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