PENCE likely to go to Louisville Saturday -- W.H.’s message to GOP: Trump will rally in your district if you oppose his priorities -- PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW this A.M.: McConnell Presented by





Driving the Day

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Good Thursday morning.

INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE … When the FAA posted a notice for VIP travel to Louisville Saturday, it was widely assumed that President Donald Trump would hold a rally to push the new health care bill in Sen. Rand Paul’s backyard. Well, we hear it won’t be Trump -- at least this time. VP Mike Pence is expected to make Saturday’s trip, but Trump will pay a visit to Kentucky in the next few weeks, according to our sources.

THE PLAY here is simple: The Trump administration wants to send a message that they will hit the road to boost their legislative priorities. Of course, from a political standpoint, they can’t do much to Rand Paul -- he was just elected to his second term in the Senate, and doesn’t face re-election until 2022. But think of it this way: If you’re a House Republican who is thinking about opposing this bill, do you want Trump holding a rally in your district, questioning why you’re standing in the way of his legislative agenda with an election less than two years away? Trump is trying to send the message that he’s willing to play this kind of outside game.

PAGING PAUL RYAN -- THE NEW NARRATIVE: SLOW DOWN -- @TomCottonAR: “1. House health-care bill can’t pass Senate w/o major changes. To my friends in House: pause, start over. Get it right, don’t get it fast. … 2. GOP shouldn’t act like Dems did in O’care. No excuse to release bill Mon night, start voting Wed. With no budget estimate! … 3. What matters in long run is better, more affordable health care for Americans, NOT House leaders’ arbitrary legislative calendar.”

-- SEN. SUSAN COLLINS to KATIE COURIC: On whether she agrees with Sen. Rand Paul that the new health-care bill is DOA in the Senate – “Yes, I do not think it will be well received in the Senate. But I do want to emphasize that it’s still a work in progress. The House Committees are going to be working their will on the bill. It has to go before the full House before it comes to us. And it’s been a work in progress, as Secretary Price has said. And the bill that was released this week is far better than the bill that we were briefed on the week before. So, who knows, maybe it’ll eventually get better, and thus will be better received in the Senate.” https://yhoo.it/2m2WWDg

AT 1600 PENN TODAY: A group of CEOs of community banks to discuss financial regulations: Leslie Anderson of Bank of Bennington; Kenneth Burgess, Jr., chairman FirstCapital Bank of Texas; Luanne Cundiff of First State Bank of St. Charles; Cam Fine, president and CEO of Independent Community Bankers of America; Scott Heitkamp of ValueBank; Rob Nichols of American Bankers Association; Rebeca Romero Rainey of Centinel Bank of Taos; Dorothy A. Savarese of Cape Cod Five Mutual Company; Laura Lee Stewart of Sound Community Bank and Sound Financial Bancorp; Jeffrey M. Szyperski, vice chairman of Chesapeake Financial Services, Inc.; and Timothy Zimmerman of Standard Bank.

WATCH LIVE -- Our live Playbook Interview with SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY.) can be streamed here at around 8:40 a.m. http://politi.co/2m2BYDm

THE TRIFECTA OF DOUBTERS --- “Doctors, hospitals and insurers oppose Republican health plan,” by WaPo’s Juliet Eilperin and Mike DeBonis: “Major associations representing physicians, hospitals, insurers and seniors all leveled sharp attacks against the House GOP’s plan to rewrite the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday, as some Republicans publicly questioned whether the measure can clear the House of Representatives. While industry groups warned that the proposal could leave vulnerable Americans with fewer protections than they now have, GOP leaders pressed ahead, bringing legislation before two key committees that are expected to approve the bills by week’s end.

“They were also working in concert with the White House to win over conservatives, who have complained that the proposal preserves too much of the current law. The flurry of activity — including an evening meeting between President Trump and leaders from five skeptical conservative groups — created new uncertainty about the viability of Republicans’ signature promise to repeal and replace Obamacare.” http://wapo.st/2m275z4

-- JUST AN FYI: The House Ways and Means Committee has passed the tax provisions of the GOP Obamacare replacement. The Energy and Commerce Committee’s markup is rolling on.

DETAIL OF THE DAY -- in “Why Republicans Are Battling Republicans on Obamacare Repeal,” by NYT’s Jeremy Peters: “The criticism from the right has grown so harsh that President Trump asked leaders of several conservative groups in an Oval Office meeting on Wednesday to tone it down. He was especially troubled, one participant said, by the comparisons of the plan to ‘Obamacare lite’; which he said was inaccurate and harmful to their shared cause of gutting the current law. One senior White House official described the meeting as ‘tough.’ Referring to the president, the official said: ‘He listened. They vented.’” http://nyti.ms/2lH4rDN

-- “Heritage Foundation’s cozy relationship with Trump put to test,” by Nancy Cook and Andrew Restuccia: “The Heritage Foundation has been cozying up to top White House aides and congressional leaders for months, hoping to put its conservative imprint on President Donald Trump’s policy agenda. But the first major bill that Republicans proposed -- to repeal and replace Obamacare -- runs completely afoul of Heritage’s priorities and threatens to upend a critical relationship between conservative activists and the Trump administration. Now the 44-year-old think tank must decide whether to stay in the administration’s good graces by compromising some of its core values to get things done or embrace its long-standing reputation as a political bomb-thrower.

“What’s happening at The Heritage Foundation is a revealing example of the path the group has taken from conservative rabble-rouser to insider. And it’s a test of how conservatives in the Trump era cope with being part of the establishment. Health care offers the first reality check of Heritage’s rosy relationship with Trump. The powerful and vocal group wanted Republicans to repeal Obamacare immediately after his inauguration and worry later about a replacement. Instead, congressional leaders moved forward haltingly and then proposed what many conservative groups are calling Obamacare-lite — a bill that leaves hated parts of the health care law like the Medicaid expansion and so-called Cadillac tax intact for a few years.” http://politi.co/2moDcwb

-- WORTH NOTING -- Ever since Heritage created its political arm Heritage Action, GOP lawmakers have been frustrated with the once-important conservative think tank. Most Republicans on Capitol Hill have written it off as one of the groups that raises money off of opposing GOP leadership.

THE LOYAL OPPOSITION -- “Democrats thwart progress on Obamacare repeal,” by Jen Haberkorn, Paul Demko, and Adam Cancryn: “House Democrats on Wednesday fought to stall an Obamacare repeal bill that Republicans, still facing deep intraparty divisions over the measure, are trying to push toward the House floor and eventually the White House. The first public debates over the bill were a mirror image of the bitter 2009 debate over the passage of Obamacare, with accusations about a lack of transparency and the majority party rushing things through. But this time, it was Democrats leveling the charges.

“Democrats on Wednesday forced meaningless votes on the House floor and in two House committees and even required committee clerks to read the entire text of the bill out loud at one point — all in an effort to stop Republicans from fulfilling their campaign pledge to repeal the Affordable Care Act. One Democratic amendment proposed changing the bill's name from the American Health Care Act to the ‘Republican Pay More For Less Care Act.’” http://politi.co/2m5zm8L



A message from Google: A jobs program to help support economic recovery. Google is launching a new suite of Google Career Certificates in Data Analytics, Project Management, and User Experience (UX) Design. Designed and taught by Google employees, these certificates can help job seekers forge paths to high-growth careers. Learn more.

BREITBART VS. TRUMP'S AGENDA -- “Exclusive -- Sen. Rand Paul on Paul Ryan’s Obamacare Lite: Speaker ‘Trying to Pull the Wool Over the Eyes of the President,’” by Breitbart’s Matt Boyle: “Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a top conservative in the U.S. Senate, unloaded on House Speaker Paul Ryan’s Obamacare 2.0 replacement plan—that does not repeal Obamacare—in an exclusive interview on Wednesday with Breitbart News. In the interview, Paul accused Ryan of misleading President Donald Trump on the process and the level of support in the House for the bill that House GOP leadership -- at Ryan’s direction -- put forward this week.” http://bit.ly/2lGV4DX

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL was “invited to observe” President Donald Trump’s infrastructure meeting yesterday. Mike Bender: “President Donald Trump pushed his White House team on Wednesday to craft a plan for $1 trillion in infrastructure spending that would pressure states to streamline local permitting, favor renovation of existing roads and highways over new construction and prioritize projects that can quickly begin construction.

“‘We’re not going to give the money to states unless they can prove that they can be ready, willing and able to start the project,’ Mr. Trump said at a private meeting with aides and executives that The Wall Street Journal was invited to observe. ‘We don’t want to give them money if they’re all tied up for seven years with state bureaucracy.’ Mr. Trump said he would was inclined to give states 90 days to start projects, and asked Scott Pruitt, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, to provide a recommendation. He expressed interest in building new high-speed railroads, inquired about the possibility of auctioning the broadcast spectrum to wireless carriers, and asked for more details about the Hyperloop, a project envisioned by Tesla founder Elon Musk that would rapidly transport passengers in pods through low-pressure tubes. ‘America has always been a nation of great promise, because we dream big,’ Mr. Trump said. ‘We’re going to really dream big now.’” http://on.wsj.com/2mJJAz8

WIKILEAKS LATEST -- “C.I.A. Scrambles to Contain Damage From WikiLeaks Documents,” by NYT’s Matthew Rosenberg, Scott Shane and Adam Goldman: “The C.I.A. scrambled on Wednesday to assess and contain the damage from the release by WikiLeaks of thousands of documents that cataloged the agency’s cyberspying capabilities, temporarily halting work on some projects while the F.B.I. turned to finding who was responsible for the leak. Investigators say that the leak was the work not of a hostile foreign power like Russia but of a disaffected insider, as WikiLeaks suggested when it released the documents Tuesday. The F.B.I. was preparing to interview anyone who had access to the information, a group likely to include at least a few hundred people, and possibly more than a thousand.

“An intelligence official said the information, much of which appeared to be technical documents, may have come from a server outside the C.I.A. managed by a contractor. But neither he nor a former senior intelligence official ruled out the possibility that the leaker was a C.I.A. employee. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation into classified information. The C.I.A. has refused to explicitly confirm the authenticity of the documents, but it all but said they were genuine Wednesday when it took the unusual step of putting out a statement to defend its work and chastise WikiLeaks.” http://nyti.ms/2lGXPFl

AMERICA AT WAR -- “With a show of Stars and Stripes, U.S. forces in Syria try to keep warring allies apart,” by WaPo’s Liz Sly in Beirut: “The U.S. military is getting drawn into a deepening struggle for control over areas liberated from the Islamic State that risks prolonging American involvement in wars in Syria and Iraq long after the militants are defeated. In their first diversion from the task of fighting the Islamic State since the U.S. military’s involvement began in 2014, U.S. troops dispatched to Syria have headed in recent days to the northern town of Manbij, 85 miles northwest of the extremists’ capital, Raqqa, to protect their Kurdish and Arab allies against a threatened assault by other U.S. allies in a Turkish-backed force.” http://wapo.st/2lGMZPK

HOT IN MOSCOW -- “Huntsman offered Russia ambassadorship,” by Eli Stokols and Josh Dawsey: “Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman has been offered the job of U.S. ambassador to Russia and is in the process of submitting paperwork to accept the position, two administration sources have confirmed. Huntsman ... served as ambassador to Singapore under President George H.W. Bush and then to China under President Barack Obama ... He was officially offered the Russia post earlier this week. ... Should Huntsman accept and be confirmed as ambassador, it could come as a relief to Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, 82, who is up for reelection next year. Huntsman has been seen as a potential challenger.” http://politi.co/2n1Wolf ... Huntsman’s daughter Mary Anne Huntsman played piano for the White House on Wednesday as this news broke http://bit.ly/2nhg7cx

PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION -- “Ivanka Trump’s Landlord Is a Chilean Billionaire Suing the U.S. Government,” by WSJ’s Mark Maremont and James V. Grimaldi: “Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are renting a Washington, D.C., home from a Chilean billionaire who bought it after the November election and whose company is embroiled in a dispute with the U.S. government over a mine potentially worth billions of dollars. The six-bedroom house in the capital’s Kalorama neighborhood was bought for $5.5 million in late December by a company controlled by Andrónico Luksic, according to public records and interviews. Mr. Luksic’s family is the wealthiest in Chile, by some accounts, and controls a mining, banking and industrial empire that Forbes estimates is valued at $13.1 billion. …

“The Obama administration in its waning days blocked a Luksic-company plan to build a giant copper-and-nickel mine adjacent to a Minnesota wilderness area, citing environmental concerns. The company and some Minnesota politicians are urging the Trump administration to reverse the decision. Requests for comment from Mr. Luksic were referred to Rodrigo Terré, a relative of Mr. Luksic’s who manages the billionaire’s personal investments. Mr. Terré said that a Luksic company, Tracy DC Real Estate Inc., bought the Washington house as an investment and that the rental to the couple was coincidental. He said the couple was paying ‘absolute market value’ in rent, declining to disclose the amount.” http://on.wsj.com/2lGK9dA

THE JUICE …

-- BILL CLINTON is speaking at the Brookings Institution today as part of an event honoring the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

-- GEORGE W. BUSH’s “Portraits of Courage” is No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list this week. A source tells us it sold roughly 54,000 copies in the first week -- triple the next book -- and the former president is donating all his proceeds to charity.

-- QUEEN RANIA of Jordan will attend a breakfast event hosted by Amb. Melanne Verveer and the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security on Thursday morning. The private event will focus on refugee issues and women and girls’ education and economic empowerment. Expected guests include: former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), White House aide Dina Powell, Megan Smith, Ambassador Dina Kawar, Ambassador Kåre Aas, Esther Coopersmith, Samia Farouki and Molly Raiser.

-- SUSAN RICE, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, has joined American University as a distinguished visiting research fellow in the School of International Service. http://bit.ly/2lGaMz0

CLICKER – “Meet the Hundreds of Officials Trump Has Quietly Installed Across the Government,” by ProPublica’s Justin Elliott, Derek Kravitz and Al Shaw: “We have obtained a list of more than 400 Trump administration hires, including dozens of lobbyists and some from far-right media.” http://bit.ly/2mE9e8e ... See the full list http://bit.ly/2ngSmB

WE’RE GOING TO SXSW -- Come join us for our inaugural AUSTIN, TEXAS, event, Monday, March 13 at the WeDC House (340 E 2nd Street). Doors will open at 11 a.m. RSVP http://bit.ly/2mUXXNG



Playbook Reads

PHOTO DU JOUR: People stop to photograph the "Fearless Girl" statue installed across from the Wall Street Bull Statue in New York City on March 8. | Mark Lennihan/AP Photo

MAYOR OF THE WORLD – MIKE BLOOMBERG in Bloomberg View, “Fix Immigration Without Sacrificing Innocent Children”: “That is not who we are as a nation. The sight of government authorities taking young children from their mothers and fathers and placing them in group homes or foster care is not a policy we can accept. This shameful act would be compounded by the inevitable incidents of mistreatment, abuse and neglect that would result when children slip through the cracks of the system. Imposing this kind of cruelty on children runs counter to everything we stand for as a moral, compassionate and freedom-loving nation.” http://bloom.bg/2mEijh7 ... Bloomberg is in Paris trying to save the climate accord http://politi.co/2m5LXJj

-- JEH JOHNSON’s remarks at the Oxford Union on Wednesday, “Safeguarding Our Homeland and Protecting Our Values”: “A nationalistic, we’re-in-it-for-ourselves fervor rarely leads to good things. The world is too small a place. Those in public office, or who otherwise command a microphone, must not simply curse the darkness; we must light a candle. Real leaders lead, not by pandering to fear, suspicion and prejudice, but by showing a better, more enlightened way. The former is expedient, the latter is hard.” http://bit.ly/2m5ftyD

WALL STREET WATCH -- “How Trump could soon be at war with Yellen,” by Ben White and Victoria Guida: “Janet Yellen is heading toward a potential war with President Donald Trump. The Federal Reserve chair, with one year left in her tenure as the world's most powerful central banker, is almost certain to announce a hike in interest rates by one-quarter point next Wednesday. She and her Fed colleagues could boost rates further throughout this year, potentially putting a lid on a stock market rally the president loves to celebrate and taking the punch out of a package of tax cuts and infrastructure spending the White House hopes will juice the economy next year and beyond.” http://politi.co/2mJlTan

-- “Questions About Loyalty to Trump Stall Mnuchin’s Treasury Picks,” by Bloomberg’s Robert Schmidt and Saleha Mohsin: “Steven Mnuchin’s picks for the top ranks of the U.S. Treasury are stalled due to resistance from White House aides, including one recruit whose Twitter account was scrutinized for potential criticism of Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter. Bogged down are Mnuchin’s choices for his senior management team -- deputy secretary, undersecretaries for domestic finance and international affairs, general counsel and several other posts, these people said. Mnuchin has complained privately to friends that President Trump’s advisers are hindering him as he tries to get the Treasury up and running.” http://bloom.bg/2mlLQdl

THE PLAYBOOK POOL: POLITICO Playbook is gearing up for college tournament time with our very own bracket challenge. Our Playbook outposts across the country (D.C., N.Y., N.J., Massachusetts, Florida, Illinois, California) are co-hosting the PLAYBOOK POOL – a bracket challenge where you can face-off against your friends, top Playbookers, and political insiders. Track who’s up and down after each round in Playbook as you compete to win prizes including Amazon Echoes and Dots (where you can listen to the Playbook flash briefing), BEATS headphones, Snapchat Spectacles and more. You’ll be able to create your bracket starting March 12 when the brackets are released on Selection Sunday eve. More details to come.

TRAVEL BAN LATEST -- “Hawaii becomes 1st state to sue over Trump's new travel ban,” by AP’s Jennifer Sinco Kelleher and Caleb Jones: “Hawaii has become the first state to file a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's revised travel ban, saying the order will harm its Muslim population, tourism and foreign students. Attorneys for the state filed the lawsuit against the U.S. government Wednesday in federal court in Honolulu. The state had previously sued over Trump’s initial travel ban, but that lawsuit was put on hold while other cases played out across the country. Hawaii gave notice Tuesday night that it intended to file an amended lawsuit to cover the new ban, which plans to goes into effect March 16.” http://apne.ws/2m2rCDz

-- FOR ASSIGNMENT EDITORS: Sounds like some reporters should go over there to check it out…



ALTERNATIVE REALITY -- “President Mike Pence Doesn’t Sound Quite So Bad, Some Top Democrats Say,” by BuzzFeed’s Steven Perlberg and Lissandra Villa: “Pence stands for everything the contemporary Democratic Party hates, a combination of assertive religious conservatism and anti-government zeal that’s contrary to the core domestic policies of the Obama administration. His signature issue has long been opposition to abortion rights. His political career found the national spotlight when he pushed for religious exemptions to laws on LGBT rights. But he also represents total normalcy, a second-tier heartland Republican who wound up in the second seat basically by process of elimination, and who is ultimately the president whom Democratic activists’ chatter about impeachment would, in theory, install. According to a new poll, 62% of Democrats now say that they would prefer Mike Pence in the Oval Office.” http://bzfd.it/2m1O7bU

K ST FILES -- “Flynn lobbied for Turks after election, documents show,” by Theo Meyer: “President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn wrote an op-ed on Election Day calling for the U.S. to kick out an anti-government Turkish cleric without disclosing he was being paid by a firm linked to the Turkish government, according to documents newly filed with the Justice Department. POLITICO reported in November that Flynn’s consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, was lobbying for a Dutch consulting firm with ties to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The new documents confirm that Flynn lobbied for the Turkish-linked firm, Inovo BV, before and immediately after the election. They also reveal that members of Flynn’s firm secretly met with the Turkish foreign and energy ministers in New York less than two months before the election.” http://politi.co/2n9nXFW

ANOTHER SIGN OF OBAMA-TRUMP CHILL -- “Lawyers dispute White House claims on Bush Guantanamo releases,” by Josh Gerstein: “‘The truth is that Sean Spicer doesn’t know what he is talking about and doesn’t care enough to take the time to find out,’ said former Obama White House Counsel Greg Craig, who was deeply involved in Obama's early Guantanamo policy.” http://politi.co/2motk5J

SNEAK PEEK of new TIME cover story – “Trump’s War on Washington,” by Massimo Calabresi: “Trump is rallying his political base against the federal agencies he oversees, thus partnering his presidency with a radical fringe. Win or lose, the standoff he has engineered will diminish the credibility of the government of the United States … His latest Twitter attack, like other actions before it, targeted institutions that stand in his path to what aides say is a larger political purpose: undoing much of what government has become over the past century.” See the cover, illustrated by Tim O’Brien: http://bit.ly/2ng0m5C

MEDIAWATCH – “An anti-Trump tabloid pulls back: The New York Daily News, whose covers eviscerated Candidate Trump in 2016, is taking a different tack with President Trump,” by Morning Media’s Joe Pompeo: “The previous editor, Jim Rich, had been resisting pressure from management to soften the Trump covers ... He was told they were diminishing an already much diminished print subscriber base, these people said, particularly among blue-collar readers in certain corners of New York’s outer boroughs, where Trump’s nationalistic populism apparently resonates in a way that is anathema to the city’s cosmopolitan districts and immigrant enclaves.

“After Rich stepped down on Oct. 18, his successor, the Pulitzer Prize-winning, longtime News fixture Arthur Browne, made clear in a meeting with editors that he believed the paper’s front-page Trump coverage needed to take a different direction ... At times, he has described the earlier anti-Trumpism as an ‘adventure’ ... suggesting that the adventure is over. Now, many News staffers and alumni feel like the air has been sucked out of the room, and they are perhaps coming to terms with the notion that Trump is more popular with segments of their readership than they thought, even in deep blue New York.” http://politi.co/2n1EEq2

-- “Russia’s RT Network: Is It More BBC or K.G.B.?” by NYT’s Steven Erlanger in London: “[T]he West is not laughing. Even as Russia insists that RT is just another global network like the BBC or France 24, albeit one offering ‘alternative views’ to the Western-dominated news media, many Western countries regard RT as the slickly produced heart of a broad, often covert disinformation campaign designed to sow doubt about democratic institutions and destabilize the West.” http://nyti.ms/2moxydM

ATTENTION ASPIRING JOURNALISTS -- POLITICO is now accepting applications for its 2017 session of PJI, a one-week intensive in journalism training with opportunities to have work published by POLITICO. Up to 12 students are selected each year for this all expense-paid program. After the conclusion of the program, two students are invited for a full-time paid residency in the POLITICO newsroom. Apply by March 27. For more details and the online application, The application http://politi.co/2nfYJFg



Playbookers

SPOTTED -- Kellyanne Conway and Linda McMahon having dinner last night at the top of the steps at a window table at Del Frisco’s in City Center ... at the Four Seasons for breakfast yesterday: Howard Gutman and Penny Lee. At other tables: Jeff Toobin, Ed Rogers and Melissa Moss ... Katrina Pierson yesterday at the White House … Celebrating former Rep. Don Bonker’s (D-Wash.) 80th birthday at The Smith: Chris McCannell with Eris Group and Les Riedl CEO of GlobeOne.

OUT AND ABOUT -- SPOTTED at the Congressional Hellenic-Israel Alliance last night hosted at the Israeli Embassy by Ambassadors Ron Dermer, Haris LaLacos and Leonidas Pantelides: Reps. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), Dan Donovan (R-N.Y.), Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) and American Jewish Committee board members, including Barbara Goldman.

TRANSITIONS -- KEN BLACKWELL has been elected to serve as chairman of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, a bipartisan organization that supports free and fair elections around the world. Blackwell, Ohio’s former secretary of state, recently served as a domestic policy advisor to the Trump transition team. … Jonathon Dworkin has started worked as the communications director at NewDEAL; he previously worked for former Delaware Gov. Jack Markell. Brittany Wise is the organization’s new development director.

… ICM Partners hired political strategist Hannah Linkenhoker. She will be based in the LA office. ... Elizabeth Kelley has joined Hamilton Place Strategies as a senior director. She most recently served the Obama administration as special assistant to the president and chief of staff to the National Economic Council. http://bit.ly/2mE5Km2 … Melissa Estok, Rajeev Garside, Prem Kumar, and Joel Velasco have been named as partners at Albright Stonebridge Group. http://politi.co/2mmgKCd

WELCOME TO THE WORLD – On Monday night, Bloomberg alum and current Edelman VP, Cheyenne Hopkins and her husband Andrew Beach, an attorney at Vinson & Elkins, welcomed Hailey Simone Beach. Hailey weighed in at 7 pounds and 2 ounces and is 20 inches. Other than being very tired, Cheyenne and Hailey doing great. Pic http://politi.co/2mE6Wpy

SUNDAY SO FAR – “Fox News Sunday”: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Panel: Jason Riley, Julie Pace, Michael Needham, Juan Williams

BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Taylor Lustig, Obama WH and DOL alum (hat tip: Dan Conston) … Jesse Thomas, VP of product at Crowdpac and alum of OFA and NextGen Climate

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Sarah Swinehart, director of media affairs for Speaker Ryan – she’s celebrating by dining at Hazel this weekend with her boyfriend and some close friends, then heading to Richmond for a good friend’s wedding – read her Playbook Plus Q&A: http://politi.co/2mJvwG8

BIRTHDAYS: Charlie Gibson is 74 ... Michael Kinsley is 66 … Faith Daniels is 6-0 ... Kristy Campbell of Jeb Bush-world, who studied criminology at Florida State (h/t Tim Miller) ... former USAID Administrator Raj Shah is 43 ... Pulitzer Prize winner and former chief White House photographer David Hume Kennerly is 70 (after 50 years in the news biz he’s still stirring it up with his pictures. Kennerly’s cover photo on the front of CNN’s campaign book spurred this Trump tweet: http://bit.ly/2m1Hpmn) ... former Sen. James L. Buckley (Conservative-N.Y.), is 94 ... NBC’s Andrew Rafferty, who plays a mean acoustic version of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space,” is 3-0 ... Jake Lipsett, a USC grad and a founding partner at Mothership Strategies ... Politico’s Bianca Padro-Ocasio ... John Bisognano, coordinated campaign director at the N.H. Democratic Party and Obama WH alum, is 32 ... Tony Harrington, who heads Albright Stonebridge Group’s Latin America practice and was ambassador to Brazil in the Clinton admin. ... Roll Call alum Warren Rojas ... Sadie Weiner, comms director for N.C. Gov Roy Cooper, alum of DSCC and Kay Hagan … Chloe Rockow, former comms director for Sen. Ayotte ... Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Tex.) is 45 ... former Rep. Vito Fossella (R-NY) is 52 ... NBC News senior politics desk editor Doug Adams … Allison Mohoney ... Brooks Kraft … Jim Holmes of Bonita Springs, Fla., father of Josh ...

... Tom Matzzie, founder and CEO of CleanChoice Energy and MoveOn alum … Julian Ingram … Marjorie Dannenfelser, Susan B. Anthony List President ... TIME’s Haley Sweetland Edwards, world traveler and proud Californian (h/t Joe Brettell) ... Stefani Jones, comms manager at Microsoft and Obama WH alum ... Reagan Payne, LA for Rep. Susan Brooks (R-Ind.) ... Gordon Platt, ABC News alum and now the founder of PR and content marketing firm Gotham Media ... Terri Fish … Menza Weiss ... Matt Vogel … Amit Paley, associate partner at McKinsey and a WashPost alum … Rev. E. Terri LaVelle, alum of VA, The Faith & Politics Institute, DNC and Obama ’08 ... Didem Nisanci, managing director at Promontory and an SEC, Jack Reed and Treasury alum … David Ginsberg, VP and global head of corporate strategy at Intel and a John Kerry, John Edwards and Gore alum ... Russell Drapkin, senior project director at Political Data ... Manish Kumar ... Stefanie Bassin ... Sarah Burke ... Jerusalem City Councilman Hanan Rubin is 35 ... Neal B. Shapiro, president and CEO of WNET, is 59 (h/ts Jewish Insider) ... Phil Neuenfeldt ... Lowell Junkins ... Kathryn Mitchell Ramstad ... Pat Alea (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) ... Dani Lomasney, LA for Rep. John Carter ... Katie Schoettler of House Natural Resources ... Eric Williams of Rep. Derek Kilmer’s office ... Ryan Diffley, LC for Rep. Tom Graves ... Ron Hammond of Rep. Warren Davidson’s office ... Lynda Boudreau (h/ts Legistrom) ... Oscar Isaac (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”) is 38 ... Bow Wow is 3-0 (h/ts AP)

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Follow us on Twitter Anna Palmer @apalmerdc



Jake Sherman @JakeSherman