POLITICO Playbook: Trump delivers first Dem probe on a silver platter Presented by Amazon

At President Donald Trump's request, Jeff Sessions submitted his resignation as attorney general on Wednesday, one day after the midterm elections. | John Shinkle/POLITICO

DRIVING THE DAY

BREAKING OVERNIGHT ... 13 DEAD IN MASS SHOOTING IN CALIFORNIA ... L.A. TIMES: "13 dead in mass shooting at Thousand Oaks bar packed with college students": "At least 13 people are dead after a mass shooting inside a crowded Thousand Oaks bar late Wednesday night, with the gunman throwing smoke bombs and raining bullets on an event popular with college students. ...

"The gunman ... burst into the bar around 11:20 p.m., cloaked in all black as he threw smoke bombs and began shooting at targets as young as 18 , authorities and witnesses said. Several witnesses described the weapon used as a pistol.

“Deputies arrived and got into a firefight with the suspect, which left one deputy seriously injured, according to Capt. Garo Kuredjian, a Ventura County Sheriff’s department spokesman.

“Witnesses reported a horrifying scene as gunfire echoed through the club and those inside ran for cover, in some cases using chairs to break windows to escape the building. Others hid in bathrooms and an attic as they frantically called loved ones who were hearing reports of the shooting.” LAT

-- CHEAT SHEET FOR CABLE: Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Calif.) represents this district.

NEW … THE PRESIDENT has served up to Democrats their first investigation on a silver platter. The dismissal of ATTORNEY GENERAL JEFF SESSIONS has sparked a fury of behind-the-scenes activity, as Democrats look to understand what the Trump administration was thinking by booting the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

THIS IS LITERALLY PERFECT investigative fodder for Hill Democrats. Republicans can’t really say this is overreach. It would seem if Democrats could handpick an investigation to kick off next Congress, this would be it.

INCOMING HOUSE JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN Jerry Nadler of New York, incoming Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings of Maryland, incoming Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff of California and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) have sent a raft of letters to the administration, asking for them to preserve all materials “relevant to the work of the Office of the Special Counsel or the departure of the Attorney General.”

THE DEMOCRATS sent this letter to DNI Dan Coats, W.H. Counsel Pat Cipollone, CIA Director Gina Haspel, U.S. Attorney Robert Khuzami, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, NSA Director Paul Nakasone, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, Acting A.G. Matt Whitaker and FBI Director Chris Wray.

REMEMBER: Investigations do not begin with subpoenas. Investigations begin with letters, and requests for information. When those go unanswered, then the threats begin. And then, the last resort is subpoenas. These investigations tend to drag on for a bit.

-- @ZoeTillman: “Jeff Sessions has left the building. He exited to a crowd of at least 150 applauding DOJ employees. He shook hands with new acting AG Matt Whitaker, DAG Rod Rosenstein, SG Noel Francisco, and Civil Division head Jody Hunt. He gave a thumbs up and got into a waiting SUV.” 45-second video

-- POSSIBLE REPLACEMENTS, via Nolan McCaskill: Matthew Whitaker … Kris Kobach … Rudy Giuliani … Bill Barr … Steven Bradbury … John Sullivan … Janice Rogers Brown … Alex Azar … Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). POLITICO

THE INVESTIGATIONS -- “Sessions’s ouster throws future of special counsel probe into question,” by WaPo’s Rosalind Helderman, Matt Zapotosky and Carol Leonnig: “As acting attorney general, [Matthew] Whitaker could sharply curtail Mueller’s authority, cut his budget or order him to cease lines of inquiry.” WaPo

-- THE ACTING A.G. -- “Trump’s Acting Attorney General Was Part of Miami-Based Invention Scam Company,” by Miami New Times’ Brittany Shammas: “Whitaker is a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, but he was also involved in a Miami-based invention-marketing company the Federal Trade Commission shut down last year after calling it a scam. Whitaker not only sat on the board of World Patent Marketing but also once sent a threatening email to a former customer who had complained after he spent thousands of dollars and did not receive the promised services.

“Court records obtained by New Times for a 2017 feature about the fraudulent company show that in an August 2015 email to a disgruntled customer, Whitaker touted his background as a former federal attorney and declared that filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and ‘smearing’ the company online could result in ‘serious civil and criminal consequences.’” Miami New Times

NEXT UP? -- ELIANA JOHNSON and ANNIE KARNI, “After Sessions, who will Trump dump next?: The president has been discussing multiple Cabinet shakeup options with his advisers.”

-- ON MATT WHITAKER, WaPo’s Carol Leonnig, Tom Hamburger, Sari Horwitz and Bob Costa: “In Matthew Whitaker, Trump has a loyalist at the helm of the Justice Department”: “Fellow conservatives cast Whitaker’s political background as an asset. ‘There’s so many things that fall within the Justice Department’s responsibility that lie at the intersection of law and politics that you really need to be knowledgeable and able to see the issue in both political and legal terms,’ said former deputy attorney general George J. Terwilliger III. …

“As Sessions’s chief of staff, Whitaker met with the president in the Oval Office more than a dozen times, normally accompanying the attorney general, according to a senior administration official. When Trump complained about the Mueller investigation, Whitaker often smiled knowingly and nodded in assent, the official said.” WaPo

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SESSIONS’ NEXT ACT … A RETURN TO THE SENATE? -- ALEX ISENSTADT: “Sessions might run for old Senate seat in Alabama”: “Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is considering running for his old Alabama Senate seat in 2020, according to two people familiar with his thinking. …

“After Sessions left the Senate in 2017, his vacated seat was won by Democrat Doug Jones in a special election upset. Jones is up for a full term in 2020, and he is widely viewed as the most vulnerable incumbent senator facing reelection given Alabama’s conservative tilt. Republicans are certain to contest the seat aggressively as they look to protect their majority.” POLITICO

THE JUICE … LAWMAKERS MAKING MOVES …

LEADERSHIP RACES -- “Pelosi looks to grind out bid for speaker,” by John Bresnahan and Rachael Bade: “Nancy Pelosi led her party to a historic victory on Election Day. And yet she still faces real hurdles to reclaiming the speaker’s chair after an eight-year absence. The minority leader formally began her bid to become speaker in the 116th Congress on Wednesday night, sending letters to each Democratic incumbent and member-elect asking for their vote.” POLITICO

-- REP. LIZ CHENEY held a conference call Wednesday afternoon with K Streeters to explain her theory of her candidacy for conference chair. The Wyoming Republican, who spent much of Wednesday on the phone with colleagues, is trying to show strength in her bid to edge out other possible candidates and potentially dissuade current Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers from running again, according to a participant on the call.

-- THE CANDIDATES, as of now: SPEAKER: Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). MAJORITY LEADER: Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). MAJORITY WHIP: Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.). DEM. CAUCUS CHAIR: Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Hakeem Jeffries. ASST. LEADER: Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) and David Cicilline (D-R.I.).

REPUBLICAN MINORITY LEADER: Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). MINORITY WHIP: Steve Scalise (R-La.). REPUBLICAN CONFERENCE CHAIR: Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).

THANKS, GUYS … SEN.-ELECT MITT ROMNEY (R-UTAH) set up a political action committee, and joint fundraising committee yesterday -- signals that Romney is going to employ his fundraising prowess in D.C. The PAC is called “Believe in America PAC.” And the JFC is called “Team Mitt.”

Good Thursday morning.

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THAT WAS FAST -- “Pentagon Dropping Use of ‘Faithful Patriot’ as Name for Border Deployment,” by WSJ’s Nancy Youssef: “The Pentagon no longer will publicly refer to its border mission by the name ‘Operation Faithful Patriot,’ officials said Wednesday, dropping a moniker some saw as having political overtones tied to the midterm elections.

"Troops instead are expected to call the deployment of nearly 8,000 active-duty troops along three border states by phrases such as ‘in support of Customs Border Protection,’ the officials said. A determination about the name change, decided by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s office, was issued on Election Day, the officials said. The Pentagon confirmed the name change Wednesday, without explaining reasons behind it.” WSJ

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W.H. BOOTS ACOSTA -- “White House pulls pass from CNN reporter,” by Brent Griffiths and Jason Schwartz: “The White House has revoked CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press access following a contentious moment in a news conference by President Donald Trump, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday night. The reasons Sanders gave for pulling Acosta’s press pass were clearly fabricated.

“She claimed in a statement that Acosta placed ‘his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern’ which resulted in the decision to suspend Acosta’s access to the White House until further notice. Video replays of the interaction showed that this was clearly not the case.” POLITICO

-- CNN STATEMENT: “It was done in retaliation for his challenging questions at today’s press conference. In an explanation, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders lied. She provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. This unprecedented decision is a threat to our democracy and the country deserves better. Jim Acosta has our full support.”

-- REUTERS’ JEFF MASON (@jeffmason1): “I was seated next to @Acosta at today’s press conference and did not witness him ‘placing his hands’ on the young intern, as the White House alleges. He held on to the microphone as she reached for it. The @Reuters pictures below depict what happened accurately.” 3 pix

-- THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’S JEREMY BARR: “Jeff Zucker to CNN Staffers After Latest Trump Attack: ‘We Have Your Backs’”

TRUMP’S THURSDAY -- The president and first lady Melania Trump will leave the White House at 9:30 a.m. to head to the Supreme Court. They will meet with the Supreme Court justices at 9:45 a.m. and then attend a ceremony for Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Afterward they will return to the White House at 10:30 a.m. Trump will then meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

PLAYBOOK READS

PHOTO DU JOUR: President Donald Trump points at CNN's Jim Acosta as a White House aide tries to take the microphone from him during a news conference Wednesday. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo

2020 WATCH -- DAVID SIDERS: “Decision time arrives for Democrats mulling 2020 bids”: “The midterms are over. So when will top-tier 2020 contenders announce, already? The Democratic Party’s victory in the House on Tuesday removed a major barrier for many likely candidates, who'd been waiting out the midterms for the sake of propriety and to see how vulnerable President Donald Trump seems. Had Republicans kept the House, several Democrats would likely have taken a pause.

“But Democrats have now arrived at a decision point, and they’ll have to choose whether to announce sooner — as then-Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack did in 2006 — or wait until deeper into the election cycle, as Bill Clinton famously did in 1991.” POLITICO

-- “Coming soon to the Senate: A 2020 Democratic brawl,” by Burgess Everett and Elana Schor: “The biggest 2020 campaign stage isn’t Iowa or New Hampshire. It’s the United States Senate. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer just endured a brutal midterm election, but now he’s in for an equally challenging task: managing the half-dozen or more presidential hopefuls in his caucus jockeying for position. That group of liberal White House aspirants is on track to be the caucus’ most closely watched, and potentially influential, bloc. ...

“Prominent liberals this year have mostly refrained from theatrics on the Senate floor against legislative compromises or Trump nominees — grandstanding that might have won kudos from the base but put red-state Democrats on the spot. But with the election over, some senators already worry that the chamber will get bogged down as it becomes a proving ground for the 2020 Democratic primary.” POLITICO

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K STREET FILES -- “House Democrats’ win fuels K Street hiring: ‘Who knows House leadership?’ a top Democratic lobbyist said firms are asking now. ‘Who is the Congressional Black Caucus lobbyist that we need to hire?’” by Theo Meyer and Marianne Levine: POLITICO

ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN and RACHEL ROUBEIN: “Here come the Roe v. Wade challenges”

MEDIAWATCH -- “Vice Media to Shrink Workforce by as Much as 15% as Growth Stalls,” by WSJ’s Keach Hagey, Benjamin Mullin and Alexandra Bruell: “Vice Media plans to shrink its workforce by as much as 15% through attrition and cut its selection of digital sites by at least half, according to people familiar with the matter, as growth stalls at the onetime new-media darling.

“Revenue at the Brooklyn-based company is expected to be roughly flat this year, the people said, coming in between $600 and $650 million, on par with 2017. That number is more than $100 million below the projection Vice offered private-equity firm TPG in the summer of 2017. TPG’s investment gave Vice a $5.7 billion valuation, the highest of any new-media company. Vice lost more than $100 million in 2017 and is on track to lose more than $50 million this year.” WSJ

PLAYBOOKERS

SPOTTED: Jared Kushner having lunch yesterday with USTR staffers at Joe’s yesterday.

TRANSITIONS … FIRST IN PLAYBOOK -- Vanessa Morrone is leaving the White House as regional communications director. She will be press secretary at the International Trade Administration in the Commerce Department.

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: WaPo reporter Tory Newmyer. A fun fact about Tory: “I’ve been at The Post for about a year and a half. But I made my debut in the paper as a 6-year-old, in 1986, when the Reliable Source ran an item about me getting a black eye during a schoolyard fight over then-Vice President George Bush. I don’t really remember it. But it’s useful to keep in mind: As crazy as things seem right now, in 1986, kindergartners were apparently punching each other in the face over George H.W. Bush.” Playbook Plus Q&A

BIRTHDAYS: “ABC World News Tonight” anchor David Muir is 45 ... Shushannah Walshe, deputy political director at ABC News (hat tip: Devin Dwyer) ... Richard Socarides is 64 ... Weston Loyd, director of regional communications at the White House (h/ts Vanessa Morrone and Judd Deere) ... Casey Hernandez (hubby tip: Paul Rosen) ... Anthony Reedy ...POLITICO’s Roger Jeannotte and Jackeline Luna ... Erin Galloway ... Lucy Bradlow, VP of GPG ... Leon Fresco, a partner at Holland & Knight and former deputy assistant attorney general in the Obama Justice Department (h/t John Jones) ... Ashley Balcerzak, Center for Public Integrity politics reporter (h/t Dave Levinthal) ... Matt Sandgren is 45 ... Rep.-elect Mark Green (R-Tenn.) is 54 …

… Peter Kadzik, partner at Venable, is 65 (h/ts Amy Weiss and Tim Burger) … Wayne Berman, Blackstone senior managing director and head of global government affairs (h/t Lisa Lyttle) … Erin Cohan, COS and VP at CAP ... Carolyn Walser (h/ts Allison Preiss) ... Frank Jimenez … POLITICO Europe’s Ivo Oliveira ... Courtney Stamm ... Karen Sherman (h/t Jon Haber) ... Alan Harper Finch ... Nicholas Swails ... Tom Connors … Charlie Posner ... Samantha Sher ... Latham and Watkins’ Christopher Martin is 37 ... Gail Shea Nardi … Karen Fragala Smith ... Bob Jones, partner at Alston Bird ... Marissa Rauch … Rich Taylor ... Laurie Moskowitz ... George Twigg ... Beth Bernard ... Bill Wimmer (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)

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