Putin DENIES Russia involved in DNC hack -- SCOOP: Shultz alludes to JOINT Clinton endorsement with Kissinger -- State Dept. to release ALL Clinton schedules before election -- The Playbook Interview: Al Sharpton Presented by Amazon

Driving the Day

JUST IN -- “Putin Says DNC Hack Was a Public Service, Russia Didn’t Do It,” by Bloomberg’s Stepan Kravchenko, John Micklethwait and Jake Rudnitsky in Vladivostok, Russia: “Vladimir Putin said the hacking of thousands of [DNC] emails and documents was a service to the public, but denied U.S. accusations that Russia’s government had anything to do with it. ‘Listen, does it even matter who hacked this data?’ Putin said in an interview at the Pacific port city of Vladivostok on Thursday. ‘The important thing is the content that was given to the public.’ ... ‘There’s no need to distract the public’s attention from the essence of the problem by raising some minor issues connected with the search for who did it,’ Putin said of the DNC breach. ‘But I want to tell you again, I don’t know anything about it, and on a state level Russia has never done this.’” http://bloom.bg/2bXVdg8

SHULTZ AND KISSINGER TO ENDORSE CLINTON? -- When we were at Stanford a few weeks ago, former Secretary of State George Shultz acted viscerally when he was asked about the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency. “God help us,” he quipped.

But during a visit with our colleagues John Harris and Bryan Bender yesterday, Shultz took it further, signaling that he was discussing issuing a joint endorsement of Hillary Clinton with Henry Kissinger. He didn’t say it directly, but he said “no” when he was asked if there was still time for Trump to earn an endorsement.

“We are going to do it together,” Shultz told Harris and Bender in Palo Alto, speaking broadly of a possible endorsement. “It will have more impact.” Shultz -- who also served as Treasury and Labor secretary -- said he was impressed by Clinton, noting a “deep knowledge of Mexico” he picked up on in a personal encounter. “When the next president takes office, if he or she turns inwards, the chaos will only develop more,” Shultz said, in another implicit swipe at Trump. “There is no substitute for the United States.”

When Bender and the boss pushed Shultz on his timing, he said, “It’s not Labor Day yet.” Jesse Ferguson, a Clinton spokesman, said, “We don’t know anything about it.”

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

BULLETIN – “Hermine hits Florida coast as 1st hurricane in a decade,” by AP’s Josh Replogle and Brendan Farrington in Carrabelle, Fla.: “The Category 1 storm hit just east of St. Marks around 1:30 a.m. EDT with winds around 80 mph ... Hermine later weakened to a tropical storm as it moved farther inland.” http://apne.ws/2bVpXLS

Good Friday morning! Anna is filing from Osterville, Massachusetts, Daniel from Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, and Jake is in D.C. before a morning flight to L.A. In honor of the Labor Day weekend, we’re going to lose both candidate-specific countdowns and just remind you that there are 67 days until Election Day. Hopefully, all you road warriors (lowercase, MSNBC -- relax) can get a few days -- or hours -- down before the brutal fall stretch. On Labor Day, Hillary Clinton is inaugurating her campaign plane, “Stronger Together.”

BIG NEWS -- “State Dept. to give AP all Clinton schedules before election,” by the AP’s Stephen Braun: “The State Department agreed Thursday to turn over all the detailed planning schedules from Hillary Clinton’s time as secretary of state to The Associated Press by mid-October. It was an abrupt reversal from U.S. government lawyers' warning last week that hundreds of pages would not be released until after the presidential election.

“The decision is significant because it will make available before the election all of Clinton’s minute-by-minute schedules. Those planning documents offer a detailed look at Clinton’s daily routine during her four-year tenure as secretary of state between 2009 and 2013 ... The AP first asked for all Clinton's calendars in 2010 and again in 2013 under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, but the State Department did not release them. After further delays, the AP sued the State Department in federal court in March 2015 to obtain the planning materials and other records, leading to Leon’s order.” http://apne.ws/2ckc7Xv



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SCOOP DU JOUR -- “Leaked Script Shows What Advisers Want Donald Trump to Say at Black Church,” by the NYT’s Yalmiche Alcindor -- on A1 -- in Detroit: Instead of speaking to the congregation at Great Faith Ministries International, Mr. Trump had planned to be interviewed by its pastor in a session that would be closed to the public and the news media, with questions submitted in advance. And instead of letting Mr. Trump be his freewheeling self, his campaign prepared lengthy answers for the submitted questions, consulting black Republicans to make sure he says the right things.

“An eight-page draft script ... shows 12 questions that Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, the pastor, intends to ask Mr. Trump in the taped question-and-answer session, as well as the responses Mr. Trump is being advised to give. The proposed answers were devised by aides working for the Trump campaign and the [RNC] … The document includes the exact wording of answers the aides are proposing for Mr. Trump to give to questions about police killings, racial tension and the perception among many black voters that he and the Republican Party are racist, among other topics.

“After this article was published online Thursday night, Jason Miller, the senior communications adviser for the Trump campaign, said that Mr. Trump’s plans had changed and that he would address the congregation for five to 10 minutes after the interview. Mr. Trump will then visit neighborhoods with Ben Carson, a onetime campaign rival, who supports Mr. Trump and grew up in Detroit. ‘If you know anything about Mr. Trump, it’s that he will want the opportunity to take his vision and message of opportunity directly to the people on Saturday,’ Mr. Miller said...The official said several Trump aides would work with [Impact Network] to edit the taped interview so that the final version reflected the campaign’s wishes. (On Thursday night, Mr. Miller said the campaign would not edit the interview.)” http://nyti.ms/2cvgwYO

ON FIFTH AVE. -- lots of juicy details -- “Inside Trump Tower: Facing grim reality: Three weeks until early voting, the campaign scrambles to pick a path and stay on it,” by Alex Isenstadt: “Late last week, with Labor Day and the final stretch of the 2016 campaign approaching, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with [RNC] brass — including chief of staff Katie Walsh and political director Chris Carr — in New York City. Kushner, who has in many respects assumed the role of campaign manager, asked a series of direct questions to the GOP officials — all surrounding the troubles the party was having in deploying field staffers, opening up swing-state headquarters, and establishing field offices in battlegrounds that will decide the election. Those present for the meeting, and those briefed on it, insisted there were no fireworks, no drag-out fights. But they said Kushner’s questions reflected a growing realization within Trump’s team that for all the party’s talk about implementing a major swing-state deployment plan, it hasn’t yet materialized.” http://politi.co/2ciwOQB

2016 PLAYERS – “Trump enlists veteran operative David Bossie as deputy campaign manager,” by WaPo’s Bob Costa http://wapo.st/2bP1NCx

TICK TOCK -- “How Trump got from Point A to Point A on immigration,” by Jenna Johnson, Bob Costa and Phil Rucker on A1 of the Washington Post (A1 print headline: “Trump message, not policy, at issue -- IMMIGRATION VIEWS UNCHANGED -- Despite waffling, he has stuck to far-right positions”): “At meetings Thursday on the 14th floor of Trump Tower in Manhattan, the candidate’s top aides...thought his tough talk on immigration -- combined with a whirlwind trip to Mexico on Wednesday -- had, in the words of one adviser, ‘won him the election.’ ‘How do you like our poll numbers?’ Trump excitedly asked in a brief telephone interview with The Washington Post on Thursday. He rattled off recent surveys that he said show his support has inched up. For nearly two weeks, Trump has publicly and privately debated how best to describe his immigration positions, especially when it comes to the roughly 11 million illegal immigrants in the country.

“He spent days floating a series of possible changes and gauging the reaction, and even visited Mexico for a few hours Wednesday in a bid to appear more presidential. But later that night, he decided to stick with the far-right positions that were key to his success in the Republican primaries and could help him cement the support of white men -- one demographic where he beats Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.” http://wapo.st/2ckfNZj

OBAMA INTERVIEW -- NYT’s Julie Davis gets Obama on Midway Atoll -- with a video! (the most exotic POTUS interview of all time?) --“Obama Visits Midway, Highlighting Monument and Commitment to Environment”: “President Obama, taking his campaign to confront climate change to a pristine spit of land in the remote Pacific Ocean, said on Thursday that it was critical to examine the effects of the planet’s warming on the seas and to protect wild areas from degradation caused by human activity.

“‘My hope is maybe as ex-president, I can have a little more influence on some of my Republican friends, who I think, up until now, have been resistant to the science,’ Mr. Obama said in the interview. ‘This is something that all of us are going to have to tackle, and maybe I get a little more of a hearing if I’m not occupying a political office.’” http://nyti.ms/2bXIava

POLLS DU JOUR -- SUFFOLK national poll -- Hillary Clinton 48, Donald Trump 41... Among African-Americans: Hillary Clinton 92, Donald Trump 4... Among Hispanics: Hillary Clinton 65, Donald Trump 24... Among white voters: Donald Trump 49, Hillary Clinton 41 http://bit.ly/2bPeq1N … FRANKLIN & MARSHALL Pennsylvania poll -- Hillary Clinton 47, Donald Trump 40 … SENATE: Katie McGinty (D) 43, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) 38. http://bit.ly/2ckpczJ

HAPPENING TODAY -- Donald Trump will receive his second national security briefing in New York. Michael Flynn -- a Trump adviser -- will accompany him, he said on Fox News last night.

Playbook Reads

PHOTO DU JOUR: First lady Michelle Obama shares a laugh with late-night host Seth Meyers and 'America's Got Talent' host Nick Cannon as they meet with Howard University students on Sept. 1. | AP Photo

INSIDE THE CAMPAIGNS -- “Debating Clinton’s character: The plan for the first debate is to destroy Trump, but Clinton’s team also needs to rehab her battered image,” by Glenn Thrush: “[A] major threat facing the under-stress front-runner as she heads into the Sept. 26 showdown on Long Island against Trump isn’t necessarily hidden, and it isn’t necessarily him. While the world waits for word on who will play Trump in debate prep, an equally urgent priority emerging from within Clinton’s team is whether the candidate herself can play someone voters trust, people close to Clinton say.

“‘We have a ton of work to do,” said a longtime adviser to both Clintons, who, like many of the two dozen other top Democrats interviewed by POLITICO requested anonymity to speak freely. ‘Being candid and trustworthy are the two last, big hurdles for her, and the debate is as much about dealing with those as disqualifying Trump,’ the person added. ‘How she deals with it — and her ability to project herself as real and genuine doing it — is an open question … If she gives a canned, evasive and answer I can easily see him pouncing and calling her a robot like Trump and [New Jersey Gov. Chris] Christie did to Marco Rubio’ in the disastrous February New Hampshire debate that practically scuttled the Florida senator’s surging campaign.” http://politi.co/2bHqNeq

-- “Clinton’s advisers tell her to prep for a landslide: Displaying unchecked confidence, the Democrat’s paid consultants see plenty of paths to the White House,” by Annie Karni: “Advisers to Hillary Clinton’s campaign have identified so many paths to an Election Day victory they are now focusing not only on the one or two battlegrounds that would ensure a win but on opening up the possibility of an Electoral College landslide. ‘Hillary Clinton has many paths to 270 electoral votes, more than any candidate in a generation,’ said Jeff Berman, a paid consultant to her campaign.

“Revealing a level of confidence Clinton’s inner circle has been eager to squash for weeks, outside advisers have now identified victories in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire as the path of least resistance, delivering for the Democratic nominee more than the 270 electoral votes needed to take the White House. And they are projecting increased confidence about her chances in Republican-leaning North Carolina, a state that could prove as critical as Ohio or Pennsylvania.” http://politi.co/2bHr2uU

CASH DASH -- Clinton sets a record -- “Clinton campaign raises $143 million in August,” by Nolan D. McCaskill: “Her campaign hailed the monthly fundraising haul Thursday as its best of the campaign cycle. The Democratic nominee has more than $68 million on hand, and its average donation last month was about $50 … The campaign said about $62 million of its total went directly to the campaign, while about $81 million was raised for the [DNC] and state parties.” http://politi.co/2bXMtXc

NOW YOU TELL US! -- “GOP Senator: Trump May Not Be The Right Messenger For The Party: Republicans should be prepared to try and find ways to work with Hillary Clinton if she wins the presidency, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy said Thursday,” by BuzzFeed D.C. bureau chief John Stanton: “Asked during an interview on C-SPAN’s Newsmakers program about whether Trump, Louisiana senate candidate David Duke, and a growing number of pro-Trump white supremacists have hurt the GOP’s brand, Cassidy said Republicans’ electoral woes this fall aren’t so much a question of policy, but rather Trump himself. ‘The message that we have is pretty good … it may turn out that Mr. Trump is not the messenger. Maybe he is. But it really seems to boil down to Mr. Trump’s personality being not what people like, as opposed to some of the issues,’ Cassidy said.

“Cassidy also warned that if Clinton does win in November, Republicans will have to find areas to work with her. ‘I hope we find common ground as how to progress as a nation,’ pointing to mental health reform and overhauling how the government responds to public health emergencies as two areas on which he and Clinton already agree. He predicted Speaker Paul Ryan will find ways to work with Clinton.” http://bzfd.it/2bViooJ

DAILY DONALD -- “Donald Trump Revised Immigration Speech After Mexican Leader’s Tweet: Republican added wording about border wall at last minute after President Enrique Peña Nieto said his nation wouldn’t pay for it,” by WSJ’s Monica Langley: “Mr. Trump was peeved that Mr. Peña Nieto had gone public with the fact that the Mexican president had broken what Mr. Trump considered a deal to keep the question of paying for the wall off the table at their initial meeting. So Mr. Trump hurriedly inserted a new sentence in his immigration speech, and he soon boomed out from the podium his traditional declaration that the wall would be paid for by Mexico -- adding, ‘They don’t know it yet but they’re going to pay for the wall.’

“‘I had no choice,’ Mr. Trump said in an interview on Thursday. But he also said of the Mexican president, ‘I liked him very much.’” http://on.wsj.com/2bOUMSd

PETER BAKER’s first Jerusalem dateline -- on A1!: “Memo from Jerusalem: As Trump vs. Clinton Captivates World, Netanyahu Is Unusually Silent”: For three hours, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel held forth on all sorts of topics -- on Israel and the Middle East, on his record and on his plans. One subject that Mr. Netanyahu studiously avoided in his expansive conversation with American visitors last weekend, though, was the United States election. Much of the rest of the world is absorbed by the contest between Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton, but it is a topic Mr. Netanyahu will not touch. Four years after he was accused of meddling in the American election on behalf of President Obama’s opponent, the hardly bashful Israeli leader this time has taken a virtual vow of silence…

“But to Mr. Netanyahu’s consternation, administration officials are still debating whether the president will lay down a final marker before the end of his time in office on the Israeli-Palestinian impasse, perhaps with a speech outlining terms for an agreement or even a United Nations resolution.” http://nyti.ms/2bYLhoa

SWING-STATE WATCH -- Columbus Dispatch A1: “Southwest Ohio embraces Trump’s stance” http://bit.ly/2c6mnBP

WHAT CALIFORNIA IS WAKING UP TO -- LA Times A1: “A nation of immigrants no more? ... Trump’s starkly nativist plan calls for a drastic, long-term drop in legal entries to ‘ensure assimilation.’” A1 image: http://bit.ly/2bOZIYB

BUSINESS CLICKER -- “A Chinese Mystery: Who Owns a Firm on a Global Shopping Spree?: Owners of Anbang, a Chinese insurer behind a wave of multibillion-dollar deals, include relatives and friends of its politically connected chairman,” by Michael Forsythe and Jonathan Ansfield in the NYT DealBook, and on A1 of the print edition: “Pingyang County’s verdant hills still hint at a long-lost China. Rice paddies and villages surround its bustling towns, and in the fields, farmers wade into the mud to plant seedlings as they have for thousands of years.

“It is an odd place to find the people behind a Chinese corporate powerhouse that is turning heads on Wall Street with a global takeover binge. Yet the area is home to a tiny group of just such people — small-time merchants and villagers who happen to control multibillion-dollar stakes in the Anbang Insurance Group, which owns the Waldorf Astoria in New York and a portfolio of global names and properties.

“American regulators are now asking who these shareholders are — and whether they are holding their stakes on behalf of others. The questions add to the mystery surrounding a company that seemed to come out of nowhere, surprising deal makers with offers to pay more than $30 billion for assets around the world.” http://nyti.ms/2cexHJq

THE FRIDAY COVER -- “Real Trumpettes of Bel Air: Inside the high-society circle of Trump supporters: jewel-bedecked, ideologically flexible and even less politically correct than he is,” by Katie Glueck in Bel Air, California, for Politico Magazine: “Past a pair of Rolls-Royces parked in the driveway and a bodyguard who answers the door, the first thing you encounter upon entering Toni Holt Kramer’s house is a picture of Donald Trump. This Hollywood reporter turned bicoastal socialite is the founder of ‘Trumpettes USA,’ a group of mostly high-society female friends and admirers of the GOP nominee — including Gennifer Flowers, of Bill Clinton sex scandal notoriety — dedicated to making Trump America’s next president.

“The world of Trump and the Trumpettes is unsubtly wealthy, full of knuckle-sized bejeweled rings and multiple vacation homes. Its residents are ideologically flexible: Like Trump, they have donated extensively to both parties and claim friendships with power players across the political spectrum. (Kramer says she has been both a friend and donor to Hillary Clinton.) And like Trump, the Trumpettes and their male counterparts, ‘the Trumpsters,’ are politically incorrect — often much more so than the proudly irreverent nominee himself.” http://politi.co/2bHrep1



HILL WATCH -- “New Jersey’s Garrett hit over comments on gays,” by Rachael Bade: “Between his votes supporting the Confederate flag and stand against gay Republican candidates for Congress, Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) has more in common with rural Alabamans than the people of northern New Jersey. At least, that’s the main message of a new, $162,000 House Majority PAC ad that will air online Friday and hit TV stations in his district Tuesday.

“In the new spot, dubbed ‘Dixie,’ the group aligned with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hits Garrett for voting against a ban on Confederate flags at military cemeteries. It also reminds voters that Garrett last year refused to pay dues to the National Republican Campaign Committee because he believed the GOP election arm actively backed gay candidates, a controversy first reported by POLITICO.”http://politi.co/2bZPANS ... The ad http://bit.ly/2bXZgZP ... The 2015 story that broke Garrett’s opposition to the NRCC funding gay candidates http://politi.co/2c9RjQ6

LUNCH WITH THE F.T. -- Nick Denton sits down with Matthew Garrahan, the FT’s global media editor, at Sant Ambroeus SoHo. http://on.ft.com/2bVhVms

JAMES CARVILLE to Vanity Fair’s Abigail Tracy – “The Republican Party is Committing Suicide”: “In 1992, the most treasured voter was a voter that would sort of swing back and forth, one that might vote for Republican for president, Democrat for governor. The voter that didn’t have that strong of a partisan ID. These were the voters that we targeted. But because people have become much, much more partisan, the prime voter in 2016 is someone that you don’t know if they are going to vote, but if they vote they will vote Democratic. ... That’s the biggest change in political presidential strategy that you have had, bar none. ... Every election produces a trending demographic—we had soccer moms, we had the Hispanic vote—the place that there is a little elasticity in the electorate. In this election, it is college whites. They are going to be the people that are really going to decide. Trump has to try to win them over, but he is doing much worse with that particular demographic than Romney did.

“Republicans have never lost college whites in the history of polling, and right now Trump is behind Clinton, or, at best, even. ... I just didn’t think that a modern American party was capable of suicide. I thought that something would happen, that somebody would think of a way to stop this. And they couldn’t. I think that they wanted to but they couldn’t. And most of the Republicans that I talk to, which are quite a few, they are not so much worried about losing the election as I think they are about losing an entire generation. No one knows how much damage that Trump is going to cause the Republican Party beyond 2016. It is really something, to watch a party just march right over a cliff, and no one can stop them.” http://bit.ly/2c57QGB

WEST COAST WATCH -- “How a bid to overhaul California’s energy regulator fell apart on the Legislature’s last day of session,” by LA Times’ Liam Dillon: “A major effort to overhaul the state’s energy regulator surprisingly collapsed after late legislative maneuverings led to the unraveling of the broad coalition that had pushed for changes at the scandal-ridden agency … Under the two measures that failed, the [California Public Utilities Commission] would have been required to increase internal auditing and whistleblowing procedures and spin off control of transportation services such as Uber and Lyft to other agencies — a decision based on concerns the PUC was spread too thin. Similarly, the public would have gained easier access to agency records.” http://lat.ms/2ceu86c

COVER DU JOUR – The Economist’s big cover story, “Uberworld -- The race to reinvent transport”: “US Technology Editor Alexandra Suich makes the case that in addition to fending off competition, Uber’s future health depends on three vital elements: growth, navigating the shift to autonomous vehicles, and managing its relationship with the public.” The story, “Uber: Inside the World’s Most Valuable Startup” http://econ.st/2bGhOAj ... The cover. http://politi.co/2cjeiu5

VIDEO DU JOUR – former Mexico President Vicente Fox’s 3-min. message on Trump’s visit to Mexico that he released to the U.S. media. http://bit.ly/2cjdjtZ

The Playbook Interview: Al Sharpton

Veteran civil rights activist and media personality Al Sharpton doesn’t mince words when it comes to fellow New Yorker Donald Trump’s focus on black voters and his upcoming visit to Detroit. In a wide-ranging interview, Sharpton, who advises President Barack Obama from time to time, called Trump’s strategy “fake outreach” and said Trump is only focused on talking with “people who are friendly and supportive of him.”

“If he wants to preach to the choir, fine, but don't act like you’ve had a city-wide crusade,” Sharpton told Playbook. “I have never in 30 years seen Donald Trump take any positions on civil rights issues in his hometown other than when he took out ads to get the death penalty to five young men that I was defending who ended up being right after being in jail for 15 years … In his town I can’t think of one issue he ever stood up on civil rights of minorities so I think it is a little out of place and shows arrogance for him to call anyone a name in terms of racial context.”

Sharpton still hasn’t endorsed, but expects announce who he’ll support soon.

--Clinton needs to do much more outreach in black communities: “She’s got to get in black media. I don’t see anything in black radio. She’s got to really invest in turnout. She has got to deal with turnout. People can’t be lulled to sleep thinking she is so far ahead that they don’t come out … She’s got to invest in black turnout. I do not see any evidence of that as I travel around the country and I travel more than most.”

--Sharpton expects to have access in a Clinton administration: “I think I will have access to Mrs. Clinton. I don’t know that she and I have the same priority views that I have with President Obama. I think President Obama was progressive after years of the country going right and even after Bill Clinton going centrist. He was much more my kind of politics … whether I will be as visible in defending her will depend on her policies.”

--He is focused on who is going to be the next attorney general: “Everyone was concerned about who was going to be on the ticket as vice president. I’m as concerned about who is going to be the successor to the first two and only black [attorneys general] because whoever heads the Justice Department is going to determine a lot of where we are in this age on dealing with mass incarceration and police misconducts … I’m going to be watching that with a very keen eye.”

CLICKERS -- The White House Instagram feed was taken over yesterday by photographers who have taken some cool pictures of Hawaii – “Tied to his announcement creating the world’s largest marine reserve off the coast of Hawaii, these photographers are taking to Instagram to show us why our oceans are so important.” http://bit.ly/2bGjbJf

-- Video of the explosion (at about a minute 15 seconds) that blew up SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral yesterday: http://bit.ly/2bHsY1s

-- LARRY WILMORE joins Stephen Colbert for “The Late Show” http://bit.ly/2bXJ5vE

DESSERT -- “Henry Kissinger’s limo expected to fetch $40K at auction,” by Page Six’s Lindsey Kupfer: “You could own Henry Kissinger‘s personal Lincoln Continental limousine. The 1966 car, which was used throughout Kissinger’s career, is going up for auction through Dan Kruse Classics — a boutique car auction house — on Sept. 10 at the 42nd annual Hill Country Classic in Austin, Texas.” http://pge.sx/2bMA9pD

Playbookers

SPOTTED at Bruce Springsteen’s concert last night at Nats Park: Ryan Lizza, Jane Mayer, David Corn, Jeff Goldberg, Ken Baer, Sen. Ron Johnson, Chris Jennings, Steve Krupin, Andy Barr, David Plotz, David Hantman, Pam Stevens, Rick Klein, Joel Johnson, Stephanie Cutter, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Patrick Dillon, Nedra Pickler, Eileen McMenamin, Linda Roth, Anna Greenberg, Pam Stevens, Adam Blickstein, John Reiss, James Grady (who wrote “Three Days of the Condor”), Robert Yoon, Michael Steel, Melinda Henneberger, Elliot Berke, Christine Delargy.

SPOTTED: Joel and Lauren Kaplan on a Cape Air Cessna yesterday morning from Boston to Martha’s Vineyard -- Gloria Story Dittus was on the next Cessna ... Taylor Weeks of Sen. John Cornyn’s office and The Hill’s 2015 Most Beautiful list (http://bit.ly/2c5aL2l) vacationing in Europe during final week of August recess.

CHUCK TODD sat in with Brian Kenny, Ken Rosenthal and Dan Plesac on the MLB Network’s “MLB Now” yesterday in Secaucus. Pics http://bit.ly/2cknXAM … http://bit.ly/2bHq1xZ

OUT AND ABOUT – On Wednesday night, the Financial Times and Moët Hennessy held a dinner for 80 guests at the Meridian House, where guest speaker Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, spoke with the FT’s John Authers. Guests drank wines from the Moët Hennessy portfolio paired with dinner, which included Maryland crab cakes, buttered biscuits, rosemary grilled beef tenderloin, and shortbread tart with apricots and fresh cream. The menu http://bit.ly/2cjfU74

SPOTTED: Gerald Alain, Nelson Cunningham, Shawn Donnan, Jim Cherkin, Geoff Dyer, Sam Fleming, Tony Fratto, Jason Furman, Juleanna Glover, Carlos Gutierrez, Stuart Holliday, Kelley McCormick, Kraig Naasz, Didem Nisanci, Nuala O’Connor, Tom Ridge, Amb. Charles Rivkin, Brooke Sammon, Christina Sevilla, Jonathan Stahler, David Wessel.

SUNDAY SO FAR, with help from Matt Mackowiak:

-- NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Mike Pence, taping tomorrow in Columbus, Ohio. (After Sunday, MTP is the only Sunday show to have interviewed the presidential and vice presidential candidate of both parties.)

-- CBS’s “Face the Nation”: Gov. Chris Christie … Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) ... Battleground Tracker” poll results from Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

--ABC’s “This Week”: Kellyanne Conway ... Panel: Matthew Dowd, LZ Granderson, Steve Inskeep, Julie Pace.

-- “Fox News Sunday”: Ben Carson … Jill Stein ... Panel: Brit Hume, Anne Gearan, George Will, Neera Tanden.

--CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS”: President Obama, where he discussed foreign policy, TPP, Turkey, the U.S.-China relationship and more

-- CNN’s “State of the Union”: Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani … Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). … Panel: Bakari Sellers, Andre Bauer, Kirsten Powers, Rachel Campos-Duffy.

--CNN’s “Inside Politics” (8 a.m. to 9 a.m.): Panel: Ashley Parker, Dan Balz, Sara Murray, Abby Phillip.

BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Loyal Playbook reader -- and loyal friend of Jake’s -- Sam Salkin is 3-0. Sorry I forgot your big day, Sam. My gift: http://bit.ly/2ckbqxj

BIRTHDAYS: Lisa Barclay, former FDA chief of staff, now partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner (hat tips: Tim, Autumn) ... Tom Manatos, VP of gov’t relations at Spotify and founder of D.C. political job site TomManatosJobs.com … James Rosen, Fox News chief Washington correspondent, author of the forthcoming “A Torch Kept Lit by William F. Buckley, Jr.” (Crown, October 2016), celebrating with a trip to the Eastern Shore with his wife and sons (h/t Rick Ahearn) ... Curtis Jablonka ... former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), now president of the Heritage Foundation, is 65 … former Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) is 85 ... NPR’s Don Gonyea … Dan Klaidman, deputy editor of Yahoo News, a Newsweek alum, is 52 ... Kris Balderston, president of global public affairs and strategic engagement at FleishmanHillard DC and former head of global partnerships for Hillary at State ... Kim Kuo, CTIA alum now SVP of public affairs, comms and communities at Coca Cola ... Laurie McCord ... Molly McUsic ... Coleman Hutchins (h/ts Jon Haber) … Ferial Govashiri, special assistant and personal aide to the President, who celebrated her birthday early, presenting her with a cake on Tuesday before he left on his trip to Hawaii, China and Laos – Insta pic by Pete Souza http://bit.ly/2c58LXQ (h/t Peter Velz) ... comms firm Ditto is 4, which is adding “some major new capabilities to its services: Website Creation/Maintenance, SEO/SEM and Analytical Reporting” ...

… J.P. Freire, Sen. Hatch’s comms director, who studied English Renaissance literature at Cornell ... Jordan Blum ... Joe Shonkwiler, physician, Ohio native and Portman alum … Seth Zweifler ... Elizabeth Birch, celebrating her big 6-0 … Jess Fassler, COS for Sen. Gillibrand ... Christa Robinson of Rep. Yarmuth’s office ... Dylan Vorbach of House E&C ... Shannon Wheeler of House Republican Conference ... former Rep. Jim Moody (D-Wisc.) is 81 ... Melissa Joseph of Rep. Van Hollen’s office ... Andrew Shine, LC for Sen. Carper ... Bryan Watt, press secretary for Sen. Cantwell ... Scott Petersen, deputy COS for Rep. Jim Costa ... Kim Bowman, COS for Rep. Frederica Wilson ... Bill Bode, LA for Sen. Tillis ... former Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) is 64 ... former Rep. Michael Harrington (D-Mass.) is 8-0 (h/ts Legistorm) … Trevor Thomas … Vi Neil … Connie Cook … Michael Kolenc (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Amy Goldman ... Wayne Washington, reporter at the Palm Beach Post ... Jennifer Hanley, managing director of Tusk Ventures and a KKR and Hillary alum ... Ian Kremer, executive director of LEAD Coalition ... Xuan Thai, producer at NBC Universal ... Andy Adkins ... Raney Aronson, executive producer at Frontline ... Kai Bird ... Sakib Shaikh is 32 ... dancer-actress Marge Champion is 97 ... former U.S. Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth is 79 ... Derek Fowlds (“Yes, Minister”; “Yes, Prime Minister”) is 79 ... Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw is 68 ... Mark Harmon is 65 ... International Tennis Hall of Famer Jimmy Connors is 64 ... Keanu Reeves is 52 ... Salma Hayek is 5-0 … electronic music DJ/producer Zedd is 27 (h/ts AP)

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