BRUNCH EDITION -- THE NEW CONCERN on the Hill -- MANAFORT tick tocks -- GOP preps ‘break glass’ emergency plan -- CLINTONS on Martha’s Vineyard -- WEEKEND READS and LISTENS Presented by Amazon

Driving the Day

Good Saturday morning! The new concern inside the highest levels of Republican politics is that Hillary Clinton will raise $1 billion for Democrats and the party will train some of their efforts -- and that money -- on defeating House and Senate Republicans. Party leaders privately concede that the Senate could be lost either way. But senior House Republicans say they’re in good shape across the country, and see no evidence that the control of the chamber is in play.

But if Democrats turn on the “spigot,” as one top Republican told us, and focus their money on Congress, the GOP is in trouble. House Republicans are already expected to lose between 10 and 25 seats, depending on the environment. To be fair, Trump had a solid fundraising month last month, and Republicans are eager to see whether he keeps pace. And they’re also eager to see if he will stick on message, develop a more robust ground game, keep his focus on Hillary Clinton and wage the kind of disciplined campaign that has a chance of being successful in the fall.

--“House GOP Campaign Group Sees Drop in July Donations,” by WSJ’s Michelle Hackman: “House Republicans’ campaign arm raised $4.6 million in July, a sharp decline from previous months that threatens to place the group at a significant disadvantage against its Democratic counterpart leading up to the November election. Officials with the [NRCC] attributed the drop—from $9.3 million in June—in part to a difficult environment during the two parties’ national conventions. ... The [DCCC] raised $12 million in July, continuing a historic fundraising streak for a presidential year when Democrats don’t control the House. ... This cycle, the NRCC has raised a total of $114.5 million through July, compared to $133 million for the Democrats.” http://on.wsj.com/2bExu2g

**SUBSCRIBE to Playbook: http://politi.co/1M75UbX

-- “Republicans prep ‘break glass’ emergency plan as Trump tumbles,” by Alex Isenstadt: “Republicans, worried about preserving their House and Senate majorities in the face of fierce headwinds, are accelerating their plans to distance themselves from Donald Trump – and may soon concede, if only implicitly, his defeat. Party strategists are mapping out blueprints for down-ballot candidates, in TV ads and on the campaign trail, to present themselves as checks on a Hillary Clinton presidency. It’s an approach that would essentially admit a Trump loss. In interviews, nearly one dozen Republican operatives said they had begun poll-testing the idea ... to gauge how the public would react to it.

“It would represent a remarkable step – one not seen since 1996, when down-ballot Republicans, resigned to Bob Dole’s loss, campaigned as backstops to Bill Clinton’s second term. ... In recent days, a debate has begun to simmer among the party’s operatives about whether it will soon be time for the [RNC] to cut Trump off and redirect resources to congressional lawmakers. ... American Crossroads ... has tested to see how voters would feel about Republicans casting themselves as being a check and balance to Hillary Clinton ... The [NRCC] ... has requested that imperiled candidates begin polling to see how voters in their districts would respond to a check-based campaign.” http://politi.co/2bBHwke

EIGHTY DAYS until Election Day 2016! Campaigns will file their finance reports today. Donald Trump is in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Hillary is having a fundraiser (i.e. “Summer Reception”) tonight at the home of Carol and Frank Biondi in Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard. Per the invite, it costs $27,000 to attend as a host, $2,700 to be a “fighter” and $1,000 as an “advocate.”

--@realDonaldTrump tweeted last night at 8:17 p.m.: “#WheresHillary? Sleeping!!!!!” ... @albamonica replies at 8:19 p.m.: “Hillary and Bill Clinton are having dinner on Martha’s Vineyard to celebrate his 70th birthday, per an aide.” ... @emilynussbaum then replied: “Trump is seriously underestimating how pro-sleep most people are.”

TO BE FAIR -- Clinton sleeps in hotels on the road. Trump typically flies back to New York or stays in homes in Florida or California when he campaigns.



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THERE’S ALWAYS A CATCH -- “Not all Clinton charities bound by new set of rules,” by Boston Globe’s Annie Linskey, the pride of Greenwich: “Big chunks of the Clinton family’s charitable network would be exempt from a self-imposed ban on foreign and corporate donations if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, loopholes that highlight the complexity of disentangling her from the former first family’s myriad potential conflicts of interest. The most prominent of the exceptions applies to the Boston-based Clinton Health Access Initiative, which in 2014 accounted for 66 percent of spending by the Clinton network of charities. ... At least two other Clinton-related charities also aren’t immediately affected by Thursday’s decision to limit donations. They include the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, an entity cofounded by the American Heart Association and the Clinton Foundation, and the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, a joint venture between Bill Clinton and Canadian mining billionaire Frank Giustra.” http://bit.ly/2bExyPG

JUST POSTED -- KING OF DEBT (h/t Alex Burns) -- “In Maze of Trump’s Empire, Unknown Ties and $650 Million in Debt,” by Susanne Craig in tomorrow’s Times: “On the campaign trail, Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has sold himself as a businessman who has made billions of dollars and is beholden to no one.

“But an investigation by The New York Times into the financial maze of Mr. Trump’s real estate holdings in the United States reveals that companies he owns have at least $650 million in debt — twice the amount than can be gleaned from public filings he has made as part of his bid for the White House. The Times’s inquiry also found that Mr. Trump’s fortunes depend deeply on a wide array of financial backers, including one he has cited in attacks during his campaign.

“For example, an office building on Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, of which Mr. Trump is part owner, carries a $950 million loan. Among the lenders: the Bank of China, one of the largest banks in a country that Mr. Trump has railed against as an economic foe of the United States, and Goldman Sachs, a financial institution he has said controls Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, after it paid her $675,000 in speaking fees.” http://nyti.ms/2bq2u7h

BEING THERE -- “Donald Trump Visits Flood-Damaged Louisiana Area,” by NYT’s southern correspondent (based in New Orleans) Campbell Robertson in St. Amant, Louisiana: “If Donald J. Trump were looking for those fed up with the national media and the Obama administration, he had some fertile ground in flood-wrecked southern Louisiana. Over the week leading up to a visit here by Mr. Trump on Friday, a sentiment burned that the flooding, which has left thousands of people in shelters, has been unconscionably overlooked on the national level. The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge published an editorial on Wednesday slamming President Obama for not interrupting his vacation to visit the flood-stricken areas, comparing his absence to President George W. Bush’s much-derided flyover of a flooded New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Into this came Mr. Trump.” http://nyti.ms/2blfMTx

VIDEO DU JOUR – From conservative group ForAmerica: “In 2005 Senator Barack Obama had a lot to say about President Bush’s flyover of Katrina-ravaged Louisiana. In 2016, Golfer-in-chief Obama cannot be disturbed from his vacation while Louisiana suffers from epic flooding.” 1-min. video http://bit.ly/2b40ljI

DETROIT FREE PRESS: “Donald Trump woos black voters: 'What the hell do you have to lose?'”: “On his second visit to Michigan in less than two weeks, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Friday blasted Democratic policies he said have destroyed Detroit and other urban centers and called for African Americans to support him, saying blacks cannot expect change otherwise. Speaking to a predominantly white audience of about 6,000 people, Trump appealed directly to blacks for votes. ‘You live in poverty,’ he said. ‘Your schools are no good. You have no jobs. What the hell do you have to lose?’” http://on.freep.com/2bK5dub

NEW HILLARY VIDEO -- “Hillary for America is launching a new video on social media called ‘No Regrets’ that reveals the real Donald Trump’s record of making divisive and insulting remarks and then refusing to say he regrets them or apologizing.” 90-second video http://bit.ly/2bbsNND

--MICHELE BACHMANN and her husband Marcus were at a Trump fundraiser in Minnesota. The Star Tribune’s @patricktcondon: “Michele and Marcus Bachmann are here. She told reporters she’s met privately with Trump and is advising him on foreign policy.”

WILD VIDEO -- Protesters try to stop Trump’s motorcade in Minneapolis. http://bit.ly/2b5SOlq

Playbook Reads

PHOTO DU JOUR: Donald Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, help unload supplies for flood victims during a tour of Gonzales, La., on Friday. | AP Photo

TICK TOCKS -- the WSJ, NYT and POLITICO all had tick tocks of Paul Manafort’s departure. Note this detail: The stories are pretty clear that Roger Ailes is central to Trump’s decision-making process. His campaign denied he was an adviser when Maggie Haberman and Ashley Parker reported it a few days ago.

--FAN FAVORITE -- NYT A1, “Paul Manafort Quits Donald Trump’s Campaign After a Tumultuous Run,” by Maggie Haberman and JMart: “Weeks of sliding poll numbers and false starts had sapped Mr. Manafort’s credibility inside the campaign. A cooling relationship with Mr. Trump — who had taken to calling Mr. Manafort ‘low energy,’ the epithet he once used to mock a former rival, Jeb Bush — turned hot last weekend when the candidate erupted, blaming Mr. Manafort for a damaging newspaper article detailing the campaign’s internal travails, according to three people briefed on the episode…

“It was an article in The New York Times last weekend — about frequent but frustrated efforts by Mr. Trump’s top advisers to curtail his pugilistic instincts — that set off the series of events leading to Mr. Manafort’s departure. On Saturday, Mr. Trump raged at Mr. Manafort, holding him responsible for the article, according to people familiar with the episode. On Sunday, Mr. Trump hastily convened a meeting of paid and unpaid advisers including the pollster Kellyanne Conway; Roger Ailes, the ousted Fox News chairman; and Stephen K. Bannon, the chairman of Breitbart News, a conservative website. Mr. Manafort was present for part of the meeting.” http://nyti.ms/2bv8FIF

--WSJ front page, “How the Trump Shake-Up Went Down,” by Monica Langley: “Donald Trump was in an SUV speeding to the airport at 6:30 Friday morning when he called campaign Chairman Paul Manafort. They discussed the good news—favorable reviews of a speech the Republican presidential nominee had given the night before in North Carolina. Then they turned to the bad news: Mr. Trump expressed concern that the attention being paid to consulting Mr. Manafort had done for a pro-Russian party in Ukraine had become a major distraction that could hurt his campaign. ‘I don’t want to be a distraction,’ said Mr. Manafort, who had been warned the previous night about growing unease in the Trump camp over the Ukraine issue. He said he was prepared to resign immediately to ‘get out of the way.’ … Not all Republicans believe this latest move will help revive his campaign. …

“[L]ast Saturday night, at a fundraiser at the East Hampton, N.Y., home of New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, Mr. Trump met privately with billionaire hedge-fund manager Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah. They recommended that Mr. Trump install new people at the top—fast—and recommended he speak with Mr. Bannon ... Mr. Trump and Mr. Manafort were already scheduled to meet the next day at Mr. Trump’s residence at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., with former Fox News head Roger Ailes and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani … When the campaign manager arrived, Mr. Bannon was already there—to Mr. Manafort’s surprise.” http://on.wsj.com/2blerMA

--POLITICO, “Inside the fall of Paul Manafort,” by Ken Vogel and Marc Caputo:“Earlier this month, Paul Manafort met with Donald Trump and suggested that they put in place a succession plan for the upper ranks of the Republican nominee’s flailing presidential campaign ... Trump’s adult children and son-in-law Jared Kushner ... [concluded] that the distractions were outweighing the benefit of keeping Manafort on board ... They had pushed to elevate Conway to campaign manager, in part, because Ivanka Trump believed the campaign was too much of an all-boys club to begin with ... Also, she liked the way Conway was able to manage her father. ‘Kellyanne is not a campaign manager in the traditional sense of the word. She got the title as part of combat pay,’ said one source ...

“‘She’s the candidate manager, which considering how tough it is to manage someone like Donald — who has the temperament of a 12-year-old who always gets what he wants — is a far harder job. So far, it’s working. But it’s only been a few days.’ In addition to wanting Conway to have more of a leadership role, the family also felt that Manafort hadn’t been completely forthright about his international political consulting ... With Manafort gone, attention around the campaign has turned to the fates of [Rick] Gates and a handful of other longtime associates brought in by Manafort, including Doug Davenport, Jim Murphy and pollster Tony Fabrizio. … [An] operative who has worked with the campaign [said:] ‘It’s complete chaos ... ‘No one is in charge.’” http://politi.co/2b67tHt

--“Trump Campaign Manager On Manafort: ‘He Was Asked’ To Resign,” by BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski: “‘He was asked and he indeed tendered his resignation today,’ said [Kellyanne] Conway on WABC radio’s Drive at Five, being hosted by Rita Cosby. ‘Mr. Trump accepted his resignation and wished him well and thanked him for his service. I think it’s as simple as that.’ ‘The last couple weeks have been very rough at the campaign, and Donald Trump was to perhaps — the speeches, focusing on substance, getting into the last 11, 12 weeks, Rita, of a fought-out campaign — and he has every privilege of surrounding himself with the team that he wants.’” http://bzfd.it/2bJU0dc

COREY LEWANDOWSKI’s response to Manafort’s resignation was to retweet Sasha Issenberg (@sissenberg): “Lewandowski is winning so much even he may get tired of winning.” http://bit.ly/2bDr7wd

HUFFPOST banner, linking to Vogel and Caputo’s story: “TRUMP CAMP ‘COMPLETE CHAOS — NO ONE IN CHARGE’”

CARTS? -- “Trump’s New Chief Steve Bannon Called Republican Leaders ‘C**ts,’” by The Daily Beast’s Betsy Woodruff: “Stephen Bannon, the Trump campaign’s new chief executive as of Wednesday, used the phrase two years ago in emails with Breitbart reporter Matt Boyle. Bannon ran Breitbart at the time, and the two schemed about how to get activists to ‘turn on the hate’ as part of a plan to ‘burn this bitch down.’ ... The exchange was on December 16, 2014. In it, Bannon flagged a Roll Call story about a private meeting Rep. Jason Chaffetz held for about a dozen Capitol Hill reporters [but not Breitbart]. Chaffetz was about to become chairman of the powerful Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and the meeting previewed his plans for the committee. ... ‘Leadership are all c**ts,’ he wrote. ‘We should just go buck wild.’” http://thebea.st/2b5RUFM

--WE’RE HEARING lots of folks are doing digging on Bannon.

-- “Reading Breitbart for 48 hours will convince you the world is terrible,” by Adam Gabatt in The Guardian: “I spent two days consuming news exclusively from the rightwing website and found many of the articles were quite benign despite shouty doomsday headlines. Its genius lies in the clever packaging of far-right narratives.” http://bit.ly/2b7yKcv

WASHINGTON, INC. – Podesta Group and Mercury lawyer up -- “Top Firm Hires Outside Counsel In Ukraine-Manafort Lobbying Controversy,” by BuzzFeed’s Rosie Gray: “The situation concerns a period between 2012 and 2014, when the Podesta Group and Mercury Public Affairs worked on behalf of the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine. The Brussels-based nonprofit is closely linked to the Party of Regions, the political party of Ukraine’s pro-Russian ex-president Viktor Yanukovych. ... [The Podesta Group] ‘has retained Caplin & Drysdale as independent, outside legal counsel to determine if we were misled by the Centre for a Modern Ukraine or any other individuals with regard to the Centre’s potential ties to foreign governments or political parties,’ Podesta Group CEO Kimberly Fritts said in a statement.’ ... After Podesta Group gave the above statement to BuzzFeed News, lawyer Ken Gross, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, told BuzzFeed News that ‘Mercury has engaged Skadden to look into the matter.’” http://bzfd.it/2bDJpOI

--“Feds investigate Manafort firm as part of Ukraine probe,” by CNN’s Evan Perez: “FBI and Justice Department prosecutors are conducting an investigation into possible US ties to alleged corruption of the former pro-Russian president of Ukraine, including the work of Paul Manafort’s firm ... The investigation is broad and is looking into whether US companies and the financial system were used to aid alleged corruption by the party of former president Viktor Yanukovych. Manafort, who resigned as chairman of Donald Trump’s campaign Friday, has not been the focus of the probe ... The investigation is ongoing and prosecutors haven’t ruled anything out.” http://cnn.it/2bBEJI0



2016 PLAYERS -- “Top DNC fundraiser to depart following shakeup,” by Isaac Dovere: “Jordan Kaplan, the [DNC] finance director, is now leaving too. ... Kaplan will [now] be the DNC’s outside point person for events that involve President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama ... Kaplan is among the aides whose roots with Obama go back the furthest, all the way back to the president’s 2004 Senate campaign in Illinois, and he was one of the first people raising money for Obama’s presidential run. ... Rachel Rauscher, currently the finance director-at-large for the DNC, will take over Kaplan’s responsibilities. But as the restructuring and rebuilding continues, Rauscher won’t get Kaplan’s title.” http://politi.co/2bpYQKy

MARK LEIBOVICH, “Anthony Weiner Says His Wife Never Agreed to That Documentary”: “Why, after the scandal broke, given the personal and embarrassing nature of it, didn’t Weiner just stop allowing access to the ‘Weiner’ cameras? Weiner mentioned that one of the filmmakers, Josh Kriegman, was a friend and former aide, and he felt a degree of loyalty to him. ‘I generally wasn’t going to pull the plug,’ he said. I asked Weiner whether his wife got a vote on this. ‘Um, so here’s the thing,’ Weiner said. ‘I haven’t told — I haven’t gone here yet with anybody. So, they violated the agreement not to use her.’ The filmmakers had told Weiner that they would not include Abedin in the film without her permission, he said. ‘They didn’t have a release,’ he told me. ‘She had to grant permission, which she didn’t.’” http://nyti.ms/2bF1cFf

TOP TWEETS -- @ReutersTech: “BREAKING: Twitter will introduce a quality filter based on accounts’ origins and behavior” ... @anthonyweiner replies: “Why do I have a feeling I had something to do with this?”... @RyanLizza: “Trump: ‘I’m funding my own campaign.’ (He’s not.) One minute later: ‘I will never lie to you.’” …Matthew Continetti (@continetti): “Former U.S. diplomat told me he’d been impressed at how Manafort was able to change Yanukovich. Unable to change Trump. Think about that.”

LUNCH WITH THE FT -- San Francisco correspondent Tim Bradshaw dines with Burning Man founder Larry Harvey at John’s Grill. http://on.ft.com/2b88fqw



Credit: The New Yorker and cartoonist Michael Maslin http://bit.ly/2bDvl6Y

CLICKERS – “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker – 10 keepers http://politi.co/2bjmQQj

--NYT’s “firehose” of Olympics photos from photographers from NYT and all the wire services http://nyti.ms/2b5fezg

Q & A -- Dani Dayan, Israel’s new Consul General to New York -- “Israel’s New Man in New York,” by NYT’s Carol Giacomo -- Q: ‘Who is better for Israel, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?’ [Dayan]: ‘Any American president is good for Israel.’” http://nyti.ms/2b4lefS

GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman:

--“The Detectives Who Never Forget a Face,” by The New Yorker’s Patrick Radden Keefe: “London’s new squad of ‘super-recognizers’ could inspire a revolution in policing.” http://bit.ly/2b70UEM

--“From Montreal to Minnesota, by Inland Sea,” by Porter Fox in tomorrow’s NYT Travel section: “I was so used to driving and flying, my understanding of North America had become distorted. Then I took a slow boat through four Great Lakes. I saw every mile.” http://nyti.ms/2b8826Q

--“Flint’s Water Crisis and the ‘Troublemaker’ Scientist,” by Donovan Horn in tomorrow’s N.Y. Times Magazine: “A year ago, Marc Edwards took up the cause of water activists in Flint — and earned their trust. Now he’s fighting to keep it.”http://nyti.ms/2bjJR7w

--“Hollywood Has Ruined Method Acting,” by Angelica Jade Bastien in The Atlantic: “Jared Leto’s turn in Suicide Squad is the latest reminder that the technique has become more about ego and marketing than good performances.” http://theatln.tc/2btjOJM

--“The Race for a Zika Vaccine,” by Siddhartha Mukherjee in The New Yorker: “In the throes of an epidemic, researchers investigate how to inoculate against the disease.” http://bit.ly/2boAXBl

--“None Dare Call It a Conspiracy,” by Scott Anderson in Sept. 2009 issue of GQ: “Who was behind the Moscow apartment bombings that accelerated Vladimir Putin’s rise to power?” With this editor’s note from Longform: “This article originally appeared in the pages of GQ. But that was the only place it appeared. GQ’s parent company, Conde Nast, refused to allow the article to be published in Russia, appear on the GQ website or be publicized in any way.” http://bit.ly/2b9Pq4Y

--“Why There’s New Hope About Ending Blindness,” by David Dobbs in NatGeo: “Thanks to medical advances and expanding treatment, it’s no longer just a dream.” http://on.natgeo.com/2bodd0d (h/t TheBrowser.com)

--“Three Years of Nights,” by Peter Nickeas in Chicago Magazine: “Violence convulses the city after dark. Reporting on it leaves its own scars.” http://chi.mg/2b5CStB (h/t Longform.org)

--“Inside the Real US Ground War On ISIS,” by BuzzFeed’s Mike Giglio in Erbil, Iraq: “As the US and its allies prepare to launch a major offensive for Mosul, US service members are on the ground in growing numbers — and increasingly in harm’s way.” http://bzfd.it/2b9Qt58

--“Walmart’s Out-of-Control Crime Problem Is Driving Police Crazy,” by Shannon Pettypiece and David Voreacos on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek: “Police reports from dozens of stores suggest the number of petty crimes committed on Walmart properties nationwide this year will be in the hundreds of thousands. ... More than 200 violent crimes, including attempted kidnappings and multiple stabbings, shootings, and murders, have occurred at the nation’s 4,500 Walmarts this year, or about one a day.” http://bloom.bg/2b3VeQp ... The cover http://bit.ly/2bQDGIY

--“Emptiness,” by Kristin Dombek in n+1 magazine: “Narcissists are imitators par excellence. And they do not copy the small, boring parts of selves.” http://bit.ly/2b3Bz3g (h/t ALDaily.com)

--“An Isolated Tribe Emerges from the Rain Forest,” by The New Yorker’s Jon Lee Anderson: “In Peru, an unsolved killing has brought the Mashco Piro into contact with the outside world.” http://bit.ly/2bmQunl

--“How the Hunt Brothers Cornered the Silver Market and Then Lost it All,” by Ben Christopher in Priceonomics: “[B]ack in 1980, [Nelson] Bunker, his younger brother Herbert, and other members of the Hunt clan owned roughly two-thirds of all the privately held silver on earth. ... The debt-fueled boom and bust of the global silver market not only decimated the Hunt fortune, but threatened to take down the U.S. financial system.” http://bit.ly/2b6KJaB

GREAT WEEKEND LISTENS, curated by Jake Sherman:

--Grateful Dead, today in 1983 at Stanford University’s Frost Amphitheater. In honor of our visit to the Hoover Institute -- and for Stanford alum James Hohmann! http://bit.ly/2bpVirZ

--Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, live at the Peach Festival in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 2015. http://bit.ly/2bbq7zw

--String Cheese Incident with members of the Allman Brothers Band at the Peach Festival this year. http://bit.ly/2bSoPxH

MEDIAWATCH -- A recent print ad in the FT: “We are looking for avid readers of the Financial Times to feature in a series of short films about the stories and topics that matter to them in global news and current affairs. Selected readers will spend a day with our camera crew where we will capture the day-in-the-life of the reader - from home, to work, and possible even luxury time. ... Selected readers will be compensated monetarily as well as in the form of a three-year subscription to the Financial Times.” See the ad http://bit.ly/2bwfABx

--per a release: “FOX News Channel’s (FNC) Anna Kooiman will step down from her position as co-host of FOX & Friends Weekend, announced Bill Shine, co-president of the network. Her last day will be Monday, September 5th, Labor Day weekend. Kooiman is moving to Australia with her husband, a native of Sydney, who just accepted a new job at Tullet Prebon. She will continue with FNC as a freelance correspondent. Kooiman will be replaced in the interim by a series of rotating guest co-hosts until a new co-host is named.”

Playbookers

SPOTTED: Bret Baier, his wife and two kids walking through DCA at 8 a.m. Saturday

PAUL RYAN is going to to Long Island for Rep. LEE ZELDIN on Tuesday. Invite: http://bit.ly/2bjajfI

UNDERSTANDING TRUMP -- New Monkey Cage book released – GW political science professor and Monkey Cage blog co-author John Sides emails friends about the new e-book he co-edited with Henry Farrell, “The Science of Trump”: “The book is a collection of Monkey Cage posts that ... cover topics like the nature of Trump’s support, the role of media coverage in his rise, his policy positions, and his place in the broader GOP.” $4.99 on Amazon http://amzn.to/2aWq0un

ANNIVERSARY: Eric and Lisa Simmons, 21 years.

BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts is 52 ... (was Wed.):BBC’s Liz Davies

BIRTHDAYS: Lea Berman (America’s Table tip: Wayne, Liddie, Alice) ... Jenny Backus, president of Backus Consulting and former comms guru for Google, HHS, Obama campaign, and the DNC (hubby tip: Ed Pagano) ... Amb. Michael Froman, U.S. Trade Representative, is 54 ... Brad Fingeroot, Michigan operative and avid Playbooker … Politico’s Doug Palmer ... Scott Rothrock, SVP of software engineering at advanced-manufacturing company Xometry and a Politico alum ... Ben LaBolt, the pride of La Grange, Illinois, and founding partner at The Incite Agency, is 35 … Al Roker is 62 ... former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), is 81 ... former Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine), is 83 ... Targeted Victory co-founder Zac Moffatt, also a good tennis player, and senior director Ryan Meerstein (h/ts colleague Lenny Alcivar) ... Connie Chung (h/t Maury, a faithful Playbooker) … Rae-Lynn Ziegler, social media director for the Washington Free Beacon, is 3-0 (h/t Anton Vuljaj) … Chuck Campion, chairman and co-founder of Dewey Square Group ... Rachel Thomas, national press secretary at EMILY’s List ... Susan Aspey, SVP of Cengage Learning and a Bush 43 admin alum ... Kendell (Coletti) Mountain, former Bush 43 WH staffer ... Gina Keeney, partner at Lawler, Metzger, Keeney & Logan, FCC alum ... Ann Marie Habershaw, COO at Bully Pulpit Interactive, alum of Obama, DNC and DCCC (h/ts Jon Haber) ... Brianna McCullough, a Napolitano DHS alum and the pride of Lewisburg, Tennessee, is 29 … Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) is 5-0 ... Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) is 54, celebrating by fly fishing the streams of southwest Montana ... Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D-Tex.) is 76 (h/t Laura Castillo) ...

… Tarrah Cooper, managing director at Mercury and a Rahm alum ... Matt Shapanka, attorney and lobbyist at Covington & Burling, is 29, celebrating in Boston with his grandmother who’s turning 80 today (h/t girlfriend Megan Bradley) ... Morgan Murtaugh ... Jody Serrano, comms manager at smart watch company MainTool and a Politico alum ... Madeline Shepherd, federal policy senior associate at Council for a Strong America, and proud owner of the cutest dog in the DMV, Mischa (h/t Maria Randazzo) ... Gordon Neal ... Hayley Herrin (Peterson), senior correspondent at Business Insider and a Daily Mail and D.C. Examiner alum ... Pat Collier IV, CAP’s director of gov’t affairs … Jeff Morehouse, COS for Rep. Bill Flores, is 36 ... Angelica Alatorre of Sen. Boxer’s office … Nicholas Himebaugh of Rep. Brendan Boyle’s office ... Kenny Swab ... Jordan Kittleson of Rep. Huelskamp’s office ... former Rep. Don Fuqua (D-Fla.) is 83 ... former Rep. Thomas Morris (D-NM) is 97 ... former Sen. Kaneaster Hodges (D-Ark.) is 78 ... former Rep. John Cooksey (R-La.) is 75 ... former Rep. Frank Guarini (D-NJ) is 92 ... former Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) is 55 (h/ts Legistorm) … CNN alum Shannon Travis ... Linnea Dyer Hegarty, executive director at D.C. Public Library Foundation ... Katie Peters, comms for Hillary and a CAP and CMS alum ... Casey Badmington ... Lona Valmoro … Eleni Roumel of the House General Counsel’s office and the pride of Wootton High (paw tip: Palmer) ... Jim Hock, Commerce’s COS … Bob Hudek … Pam Crapp … Lona Valmoro … Ryan O’Keefe (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Steve Pfrang ... Shannon Harris, wife of Joshua and mother of Emma, Mary Kate, and Joshua Quinn ... Ari Ben Goldberg, comms director at the Project on Government Oversight, is 43 ... Faryar Shirzad (h/t Courto) ... Jen Brown ... writer-producer-director Walter Bernstein is 97 ... Don King is 85 ... Asha Blake is 55 ... actress-singer Demi Lovato is 24 (h/ts AP)

THE SHOWS by @mattmackowiak, filing from Park City, Utah:

--NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Preempted for NBC’s Olympics coverage

--ABC’s “This Week”: Kellyanne Conway ... Robby Mook ... Reince Priebus ... Jill Stein ... roundtable: Dan Balz, Matthew Dowd, Jamal Simmons and Kristen Soltis Anderson

--CBS’s “Face the Nation”: Reince Priebus ... Robby Mook ... Jeff Sessions ... news CBS News 2016 Battleground Tracker polls from Ohio and Iowa with CBS News’ Anthony Salvanto ... roundtable: Ezra Klein, Ben Domenech, Amy Walter and Jennifer Jacobs ... co-authors and WaPo’s Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher (“Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power”) ... excerpt from a focus group with Pennsylvania Republican voters with pollster and CBS News contributor Frank Luntz

--“Fox News Sunday”: Kellyanne Conway ... Ben Cardin ... roundtable: Michael Needham, Julie Pace, Charles Hurt and Juan Williams (substitute anchor: Fox News’ Shannon Bream)

--Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” (10am ET / 9am CT): Eric Trump ... Marsha Blackburn ... Newt Gingrich ... Eric Shawn ... John Fund ... Jill Stein ... roundtable: WSJ’s Mary Kissel, Ed Rollins and Julie Roginsky

--Fox News’ “MediaBuzz” (11am ET / 10am CT): Amy Holmes ... Heidi Przybyla ... Leslie Marshall ... Katrina Pierson ... Sarah Isgur Flores ... Christina Bellantoni ... InTouch Magazine contributor Kim Serafin

--CNN’s “Inside Politics” with John King live in D.C. (SUN 8am ET): Roundtable: Jonathan Martin, Mary Katharine Ham, Abby Phillip and Nia-Malika Henderson

--CNN’s “State of the Union” (9am ET / 12pm ET): Kellyanne Conway ... Robby Mook ... John Bel Edwards ... roundtable: Martin O’Malley, Corey Lewandowski, Andre Bauer and Symone Sanders (substitute anchor: CNN’s Dana Bash)

--CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS”: (SUN 10am, 1pm ET): Special, updated encore “Why Do They Hate Us?” episode on why modernity is perceived by violent jihadis as a threat to Islam to be met with bloodshed – including violence against other Muslims

--CNN’s “Reliable Sources”: (SUN 11am ET): Nate Silver ... former Breitbart spokesman and Endeavor Strategies CEO Kurt Bardella and former NPR CEO and Vanity Fair contributor Ken Stern ... NPR’s Tamara Keith

--Univision’s “Al Punto” (SUN 10am ET / 1pm PT): Latinos for Trump founder Ileana Garcia and Republican analyst Diana Arteaga ... singer, songwriter, actor and Panamanian politician Rubén Blades ... author and “Proceso” correspondent Jesús Esquivel (“Los Narcos Gringos”) ... Colombian minister of education Gina Parody ... actor Édgar Ramírez and legendary boxer Roberto Duran

---C-SPAN: “The Communicators” (SAT 6:30pm ET): ACLU legislative counsel Neema Singh Guliani and Commonwealth’s Attorney (Lynchburg, VA) Mike Doucette, questioned by Reuters’ Dustin Volz ... “Newsmakers” (SUN 10am ET): Roger Stone, questioned by WSJ’s Monica Langley and Politico’s Alex Isenstadt …“Q&A” (SUN 8pm & 11pm ET): Author, historian and LSU’s Nancy Isenberg (“White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America”)

--MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation with Rev. Al Sharpton”: (SUN 8-9am ET): Jill Stein ... Boris Epshteyn ... State Sen. Lonnie Randolph (D-IN) ... Ari Berman ... Michael Tomasky ... MoveOn.org’s Karine Jean-Pierre ... Susan Del Percio

--“MSNBC Live”: (SUN 9-10am ET): The Hill’s Amie Parnes ... The Daily Beast’s Betsy Woodruff ... Slate’s Michael Pesca ... actress and Fight for the Future’s Evangeline Lilly ... Monmouth University’s Patrick Murray ... AP’s Chris Rugaber (hosted by MSNBC’s Sheinelle Jones live from New York)

--MSNBC’s “AM Joy”: (SUN 10am-12pm ET): Eleanor Clift ... Tom Rogan ... Clarence Page ... Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald ... Trump surrogate and BGC Partners chief strategist Steven Cortes ... Brooklyn Historical Society’s Zaheer Ali ... Media Matters’ Eric Boehlert

--“MSNBC Live”: (SUN 12pm-2pm ET): Trump surrogate and BGC Partners chief strategist Steven Cortes ... Howard Dean ... Avik Roy ... Susan Del Percio ... co-author James Miller (“Those Guys Have All the Fun”) ... The Hill’s Molly Hooper ... LA Times’ Seema Mehta ... Carnegie Mellon University’s Kiron Skinner ... UVA’s Larry Sabato (hosted by MSNBC’s Alex Witt live from New York)

--“MSNBC Live”: (SUN 2pm-3pm ET): TIME Magazine’s Jay Newton-Small ... Republican strategist O’Brien Murray ... Hari Sevugan (hosted by MSNBC’s Richard Lui live from New York)

--“MSNBC Live”: (SUN 3pm-4pm ET): Reuters’ Luciana Lopez ... former Obama senior advisor Rick Wade ... Sarah Isgur Flores ... Politico’s Hadas Gold (hosted by MSNBC’s Sheinelle Jones live from New York)

--“MSNBC Live”: (SUN 4pm-5pm ET): Boris Epshteyn ... Real Clear Politics’ Caitlin Huey-Burns ... Bendixen & Amandi International’s Fernand Amandi ... Republican strategist O’Brien Murray ... ‘Southside with You’ filmmaker Richard Tanne ... Hari Sevugan (hosted by MSNBC’s Richard Lui live from New York)

--PBS’s “To the Contrary” with Bonnie Erbé: (airs all weekend): Roundtable: Author and activist Siobhan “Sam” Bennett, Republican strategist Jennifer Higgins, Washington Examiner columnist Ashe Schow and Democratic strategist Atima Omara

--SiriusXM’s “No Labels Radio” (SAT 10am ET & 6pm ET, SUN 1PM ET): This week Business Roundtable’s Bill Miller and I + R Media’s Jarvis Stewart co-host to discuss the emerging agenda of the Republican Main Street Partnership (RMSP) with RMSP president Sarah Chamberlain, the 2016 Presidential Election with Politico’s Ben Schreckinger and a recent study from the Pew Research Center on voters’ expectations for the first presidential debate with Pew’s associate director Jocelyn Kiley. Available for download at http://www.nolabels.org.

--Sinclair’s “Full Measure” with Sharyl Attkisson (SUN 10am ET on WJLA and airing on Sinclair stations nationwide): Sharyl examines the dark and little-known side of Wikipedia, the world’s most popular encyclopedia. She talks with two Wikipedia insiders who have shocking stories about conflicts of interest, control of information and retaliation. And a journalist involved in the release of the “Panama Papers” sheds new light on why prominent world leaders are worried about covering up their financial tracks. He says the shocking revelations involving so many rich and important people are just the tip of the iceberg.

--Hearst / Sony’s “Matter of Fact” with Fernando Espuelas (airing Sunday in most markets, check local listings): Carmel, IN mayor Jim Brainard and West Sacramento, CA mayor Chris Cabaldon ... Indian Head, MD mayor Brandon Paulin ... a look back at the most memorable moments of the 2016 Rio Olympics (substitute host: Jessica Gomez)



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Follow us on Twitter Anna Palmer @apalmerdc



Jake Sherman @JakeSherman