POLITICO Playbook: The first Mueller TV ad Presented by Amazon

Democratic ad-maker Mark Putnam has cut the first paid ad from the recent Robert Mueller hearings. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

PLAYBOOK SCOOP … ROBERT MUELLER was panned last week for being short in his testimony before Congress, giving little ammo to Democrats who wanted to capitalize politically from his appearance.

… BUT DEMOCRATIC AD-MAKER MARK PUTNAM has cut the first paid ad from the hearings, funded by TOM STEYER’S Need to Impeach, a spot that’s going to grab many eyeballs in the coming days. The group is spending in the mid-six figures to air the ad on CNN and MSNBC before and after the second presidential debate (which airs tonight and Wednesday night on CNN live from Detroit). Needless to say, this is prime time for millions of politically active TV viewers.

THE AD IS 30 SECONDS LONG. It starts out with a frame of the committee room and “WHAT MUELLER SAID” across the screen. “Did you actually totally exonerate the president?” House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) asks Mueller. “No,” Mueller says. Did the president’s written answers show that he was not always being truthful, Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) asks. “Generally,” Mueller replies. You believe you could charge the president with obstruction after he leaves office? “Yes,” Mueller says.

IT CLOSES WITH House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) asking if President DONALD TRUMP accepted Russian interference and then lied to cover it up. The answer to that: yes, and generally yes.

WATCH THE AD, because it will be very much talked about in the next few days: 32-second clip

BREAKING OVERNIGHT … HEATHER CAYGLE, JAKE SHERMAN and LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ: “DCCC faces mass staff upheaval after uproar over diversity”: “The top echelon of staffers at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee left their jobs Monday, a shakeup following a pair of POLITICO stories detailing deep unease with the party’s campaign apparatus over a lack of diversity.

“On Monday morning, Allison Jaslow, DCCC executive director and a close ally of Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) — chair of the committee — resigned during a tense meeting at the party’s Capitol Hill headquarters. And in the next 10 hours, much of the senior staff was out: Jared Smith, the communications director and another Bustos ally; Melissa Miller, a top DCCC communications aide; Molly Ritner, political director; Nick Pancrazio, deputy executive director; and Van Ornelas, the DCCC’s director of diversity. …

“A staff turnover of this magnitude seven months into the Democrats’ majority is jarring, and will present Bustos with a set of new challenges. She will be forced to rebuild the committee’s top leadership from scratch in the middle of a presidential campaign that has much of the party’s best talent tied up.” POLITICO

AT 10:57 MONDAY NIGHT, 40 minutes after the POLITICO story detailing the staff exodus dropped, BUSTOS sent a letter to her Democratic colleagues with this mini mea culpa: “I am extraordinarily proud of our team at the DCCC, and I am proud to Chair this Committee in the same way I have raised my own family: owning my mistakes, and learning from them, at the same time I celebrate what we have accomplished.

“The past few days have been sobering, but they have also been framed by the kind of conversations that we avoid to our own detriment. Today, I recognize that, at times, I have fallen short in leading these talented individuals, but I’ve never been more committed to expanding and protecting this majority, while creating a workplace that we can all be proud of. I know we must do better, and I will work tirelessly to ensure that our staff is truly inclusive.” The full letter

ONE OF THE DEPARTURES … @MollyRitner: “After 4+ years and over 2 cycles, I’m sad to say that I won’t be on the DCCC team after today. We had strategic disagreements, but I wish them the best of luck and know that they will hold onto the House that we fought so hard to win in 2018.”

RITNER was responsible for the Midwest region in 2018, where the Dems had nine seat flips. If Ritner is having “strategic disagreements” with the committee, that’s something to worry about.

Good Tuesday morning. DETROIT SPOTTEDS … at the San Morello restaurant at the Shinola Hotel in Detroit: Tammy Hadad and Hilary Rosen, and Gloria Borger separately from that pair … Frank Luntz getting a tour of the hotel. … Two photos of the set, via CNN

ELENA SCHNEIDER: “First debate's fireworks set stage for Detroit ‘free-for-all’”: “Democratic presidential candidates took one big lesson from their first debates in June: The contenders who shined brightest attacked other candidates onstage. Now, they are all preparing to trade punches ahead of round two in Detroit.

“Across the Democratic presidential field, candidates are reading up on points of contrast with key rivals and preparing attack lines, while some are going a step further and simulating debate-stage cross-talk with staffers, practicing ways to butt into the conversation and create a memorable moment. Campaigns are studying how CNN handled past primary debates, when the hosts teed up opportunities for GOP candidates to criticize each other in 2015.” POLITICO … Quint Forgey on everything you need to know about the No. 2 debate

-- NEW POLITICO/MORNING CONSULT POLL: “Interest among Democratic voters in the party’s presidential primary debates remains high ahead of the candidates’ second meeting this week, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

“Roughly one third of voters who plan to participate in the Democratic primary or caucus in their state, 34 percent, say they are ‘very motivated’ to watch the debates on Tuesday and Wednesday. Another 39 percent indicated they were ‘somewhat motivated’ to watch. Fifteen percent said they were ‘not very motivated’ to watch, and only 8 percent said they weren’t motivated at all.” POLITICO

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NICE! … C-SPAN’S @SteveScully: “Looking forward to a conversation with POTUS @realDonaldTrump Tuesday @ The White House to air @cspan this week. Stay tuned C-SPAN.org.”

WHILE YOU (READ: WE) WERE SLEEPING, TRUMP continued his attacks on Rep. ELIJAH CUMMNGS (D-Md.): … at 9:34 p.m.: “Elijah Cummings never even went to the Southern Border and then he screams at the very good people who, despite Congresses [sic] failure to fix the Loopholes and Asylum, make it work (crossings are way down and the Wall is being built). Even with zero Dem help, Border getting strong!” …

… at 9:45 p.m.: “Baltimore’s numbers are the worst in the United States on Crime and the Economy. Billions of dollars have been pumped in over the years, but to no avail. The money was stolen or wasted. Ask Elijah Cummings where it went. He should investigate himself with his Oversight Committee!”

LEVEL SETTING, via NYT’s Ana Swanson and Keith Bradsher: “Trade talks between the United States and China resumed on Monday with prospects dimming for a transformative deal, as both sides appeared more focused on preventing tensions from escalating before the 2020 presidential election than on making concessions. …

“Negotiators from both countries are continuing to press for an agreement, but months of meetings have so failed to yield consensus on the most difficult issues and there is little to suggest that a compromise is within reach. Instead, the United States and China appear to be trying to find a path to keep the talks moving forward and to avoid a breakdown that could rattle stock markets and hurt President Trump’s chances of re-election.

“Mr. Trump and his advisers are playing down the likelihood of reaching an agreement in the short term, and the president suggested on Friday that China was trying to drag out the negotiations in the hope that someone else might occupy the Oval Office come January 2021.” NYT

ONE OF RATCLIFFE’S BIG HURDLES -- “Trump’s spy chief pick an unknown commodity among Senate GOP,” by Martin Matishak and Marianne LeVine: “Senate Republicans loved Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. They're not sure about his replacement. President Donald Trump’s pick to be the country's next spy chief, Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), is largely unknown among the lawmakers who would confirm him, a circumstance that could complicate what appears to be an already narrow path to confirmation.

“Few Republican senators, including some in leadership, on Monday said they had known of Ratcliffe or had ever heard of him before his questioning of former special counsel Robert Mueller last week, where he fiercely defended Trump and downplayed the threat posed by Russia.

“‘I truly have never met him,’ Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a potential swing vote, said. ‘I don’t know John. I’ve met him a couple times, seen him on TV,’ said Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).” POLITICO

-- WAPO’S GREG MILLER: “Some officials fear Trump will get the intelligence he wants, not the intelligence he needs, from DNI pick”: “President Trump’s plan to nominate a political ally as director of national intelligence was seen by current and former officials as a move to subdue spy agencies that he has long regarded as disloyal, and silence one of the few pockets of occasional dissent in his administration. …

“Now, with the choice of Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Tex.) to serve as the nation’s next spy chief — and Attorney General William P. Barr already entrenched at the Justice Department — Trump is poised to seize greater control over the two pillars of government that he perceives as most hostile to his presidency.” WaPo

-- ABC’S ALEXANDER MALLIN, JAMES GORDON MEEK and MIKE LEVINE: “Trump’s pick for intelligence director misrepresented role in anti-terror case”

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FILL THE SWAMP … “Trump Adviser Said to Have Pursued Saudi Nuclear Deal as He Sought Administration Role,” by NYT’s Sharon LaFraniere

IMPEACHMENT WATCH -- “2 top Dem senators give boost to impeachment effort,” by Burgess Everett: “Patty Murray doesn’t typically make waves. But the low-key senator’s endorsement of an impeachment inquiry is doing exactly that in the Senate Democratic Caucus.

“The No. 3 Senate Democrat threw her considerable political weight behind the impeachment question on Sunday afternoon, joining Washington State’s House Democrats in a surprise statement. And the No. 4 Senate Democrat, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, followed suit on Monday.

“‘The Mueller report is extremely serious. Obstruction of justice is extremely serious. And it’s worthy of an inquiry. Nobody is above the law. The president’s not above the law,’ Stabenow said in an interview.” POLITICO

2020 WATCH …

-- “As Trump dives into racial politics, suburban women recoil,” by AP’s Marc Levy and Scott Bauer in Brookfield, Wis.: “Many professional, suburban women — a critical voting bloc in the 2020 election — recoil at the abrasive, divisive rhetoric, exposing the president to a potential wave of opposition in key battlegrounds across the country.

“In more than three dozen interviews by The Associated Press with women in critical suburbs, nearly all expressed dismay — or worse — at Trump’s racially polarizing insults and what was often described as unpresidential treatment of people. Even some who gave Trump credit for the economy or backed his crackdown on immigration acknowledged they were troubled or uncomfortable lining up behind the president.

“The interviews in suburbs outside Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Detroit and Denver are a warning light for the Republican president’s reelection campaign. Trump did not win a majority of female voters in 2016, but he won enough — notably winning white women by a roughly 10 percentage-point margin, according to the American National Election Studies survey — to help him eke out victories across the Rust Belt and take the White House.” AP

-- THE BOSTON GLOBE’S JAMES PINDELL: “Where are they? It’s high summer in N.H., but the candidates are elsewhere”: “Historically, the weeks before Labor Day have been among the most interesting in the presidential primaries, as candidates decamp from Washington to Iowa and New Hampshire to campaign. As a result, the race often resets in a fundamental way. …

“But in the 2020 Democratic campaign for president, those kinds of shifts are unlikely to happen next month. Instead of campaigning intensely in the early voting states — shaking hands on Hampton Beach or eating pork on a stick at the Iowa State Fair — most Democrats running for president are much more focused on meeting the Democratic National Committee’s rules for making the cut for the third national televised debate.” Boston Globe

-- “Pro-Inslee super PAC to hit rivals on climate during debate,” by Daniel Strauss

THE JUICE …

-- FIRST IN MORNING SCORE -- THE CASH DASH -- House Majority PAC, the House Democratic leadership-aligned super PAC, announced it raised over $8.1 million in the first six months of 2019. HMP said that this was its strongest off-year fundraising report ever, and that it was double what it raised during the same time period two years ago. It’ll report $7.2 million in cash on hand, five times what it had two years ago. The organization said it received over 86,000 “grassroots” donations.

-- USE THE GOOGLE MACHINE! … THE DCCC whacked Sara Hart Weir, a Republican candidate in Kansas, for being a “a big pharma lobbyist.” Of course, many politicians take “big pharma” cash -- including the DCCC and its chair, Bustos, who have taken thousands from GlaxoSmithKline, the company Weir lobbied for.

TRUMP’S TUESDAY -- The president will leave the White House at 9 a.m. en route to the Jamestown Settlement Museum in Williamsburg, Va. He will deliver a speech at the 400th Anniversary of the first representative legislative assembly at 11:15 a.m. He will leave at 12:15 p.m. to return to Washington. Trump will sign the “Let Everyone Get Involved in Opportunities for National Service (LEGION) Act” at 4 p.m. in the Oval Office.

PLAYBOOK READS

PHOTO DU JOUR: A vigil Monday in Gilroy, Calif., mourns the victims of a mass shooting at the city’s garlic festival. | Mario Tama/Getty Images

THE COST OF SANCTIONS -- “Iranians say U.S. sanctions blocking access to needed medicine,” by AP’s Mohammad Nasiri in Tehran, Iran: “With Iran’s economy in free fall after the U.S. pullout from the nuclear deal and escalated sanctions on Tehran, prices of imported medicines have soared as the national currency tumbled about 70% against the dollar. Even medicines manufactured in Iran are tougher to come by for ordinary Iranians, their cost out of reach for many in a country where the average monthly salary is equivalent to about $450.

“Iran’s health system can’t keep up and many are blaming President Donald Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign for the staggering prices and shortages. The sanctions have hurt ordinary Iranians, sending prices for everything from staples and consumer goods to housing skyward, while raising the specter of war with the U.S.” AP

ANOTHER DATA BREACH -- “Capital One Reports Data Breach Affecting 100 Million Customers, Applicants,” by WSJ’s Nicole Hong, Liz Hoffman and AnnaMaria Andriotis: “Capital One Financial Corp., the fifth-largest U.S. credit-card issuer, said Monday that a hacker accessed the personal information of approximately 106 million card customers and applicants, one of the largest-ever data breaches of a large bank.” WSJ

THE LATEST #METOO -- “Confirming Hyten will send ‘very dangerous message’ to assault victims, accuser warned lawmakers,” by Wesley Morgan: “The Army colonel who has accused Air Force Gen. John Hyten of sexual misconduct delivered a warning to a Senate committee last week — telling the lawmakers that it would send ‘a very dangerous message to sexual assault victims’ to promote him to be the nation's second-highest ranking military officer.

“On Tuesday, Hyten will testify in front of the same panel of senators as they consider his nomination for vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But Col. Kathryn Spletstoser — who only revealed her identity publicly on Friday — testified to a closed session of the Armed Services Committee last week that elevating Hyten would deter the next victim from coming forward to report being attacked by a high-ranking officer.

“‘Even if the investigators determine that there was no evidence to show that the victim was lying … no one will believe her anyway, so why even bother reporting,’ Spletstoser told the committee, according to a copy of her opening statement obtained by POLITICO.” POLITICO

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CHICAGO TRIBUNE’S LOLLY BOWEAN: “Obama Presidential Center will have ‘adverse effect’ on Jackson Park’s historic design, new report says”: “[W]hile the massive project would alter portions of the property that justified listing it on the National Register of Historic Places, the newly released report is just one step in the federal review process. By posting the comprehensive Assessment of Effects to Historic Properties report, the city is resuming that review process, which had stalled. …

“[T]he size of the new buildings would diminish the ‘intended prominence’ of the Museum of Science and Industry and erase the nostalgic feeling of a specific time period at Jackson Park, the report says.” Tribune

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MEDIAWATCH -- “Black journalists push media to cover ‘hyper-racial’ moment in politics,” by Michael Calderone: “The Associated Press earlier this year shifted a national race and ethnicity reporter to its 2020 election team, an acknowledgment that race has become a defining element of President Donald Trump’s campaigns.

“That beat, assigned to reporter Errin Haines Whack, is fairly unusual among major news organizations. And media outlets’ approach to covering race is frustrating some prominent journalists of color at a time when Trump’s language — including calling a civil-rights leader a ‘con man’ and referring to a majority-black district in Baltimore as a ‘disgusting rat and rodent infested mess’ this week — is threatening to define the campaign.

“Some nonwhite journalists are growing increasingly vocal in their push for media outlets to take race head on in political coverage — and they are publicly highlighting the ways they say Trump’s words and the semantic debates over whether to call them ‘racist’ weigh on them personally.” POLITICO

-- Jordan Fabian is joining Bloomberg to cover the White House, starting Aug. 12. He was most recently at The Hill. … Melissa Leon will join Fox News next week. She is currently editor-in-chief of American Military News.

PLAYBOOKERS

Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at [email protected].

TRANSITIONS -- Noah Weinrich is now press secretary at Heritage Action for America. He previously was a staff writer at the PR firm Pinkston. … Rachel Walker is now comms director for Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas). She previously was communications coordinator for ICE.

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Shane Harris, WaPo intelligence and national security reporter. How he got his start in journalism: “Good timing. I applied for a magazine research job in the classified ads, which was where people used to announce help wanted. It was 1999, and the editor said she wanted to hire a recent college graduate like me because ‘you know how to use the internet, and we think it has a lot of potential as a research tool.’ Whatever it takes.” Playbook Plus Q&A

BIRTHDAYS: Michael Glassner ... Jim Rutenberg, NYT media columnist and NYT Magazine contributor … Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) is 53 … Dave Kochel ... Carl Lavin ... Medicare is 54 ... Arnold Schwarzenegger is 72 … Anita Hill is 63 ... CFTC’s Michael Short … Eleanor Smeal is 8-0 ... Michelle Bernard ... Mario H. Lopez, president of the Hispanic Leadership Fund ... Rebecca Kutler, VP at CNN … former CFTC Chairman Tim Massad is 63 ... Chelsie Gosk of Airbnb … Freeman Klopott … Meredith Simpson … POLITICO’s Alexa Velickovich, Lauraine Genota and Tyler Weyant … Francesca Pigna ... Tony Maciulis ... Mark Beatty, head of industry for elections at Google ... Brad Jenkins … Bill O’Leary, a partner at Heidrick & Struggles (h/t Ben Chang) … Heidi Crebo-Rediker … Micah Johnson … Bud Selig is 85 ... Marty Peretz is 8-0 ...

… Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America ... Alex Parker, senior tax correspondent at Law360, is 38 … Jonathan Spalter ... Asher Grady (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Ben Marter, director of comms at API ... Candace Randle Person ... Robert Gottheim … Courtney Asbill ... former Rep. Quico Canseco (R-Texas) is 7-0 ... former Rep. Wendell Bailey (R-Mo.) is 79 ... former Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-Colo.) is 79 … Lev Leviev is 63 ... Rich Cohen … Furhawn Shah ... Kana Smith ... Ines de La Cuetara ... Benjamin de Rothschild is 56 ... MSNBC’s Isaac-Davy Aronson ... Garry Malphrus ... Netflix’s Ashley Alman ... Maggie Easterlin Cutrell ... Kate Harris … Lindsay Butcher ... Wesley Boatwright … Colleen Murray … Glen Chambers … Salesforce’s Jim Green … Nora Langan ... Nate Beeler ... Emily Sanders Elam ... Dave Koenig is 6-0 ... Robert Basmadjian ... Stephen Gallo ... Paul Dickson

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