By Mike Allen (@mikeallen; mallen@politico.com) and Daniel Lippman (@dlippman; dlippman@politico.com)
Happy Saturday! Obama alumnus Brent Colburn asked that we include this in celebration of his birthday: Today “is World Autism Awareness Day, and in celebration of my nephew Cordis and his amazing parents, Brian & Andrea Colburn, I’d like to encourage every Playbooker to take a minute and learn more about ... the autism community.” www.autismspeaks.org
INSIDE THE CAMPAIGNS – “Trump campaign shrinks Lewandowski’s role: Despite the billionaire’s staunch defense, his embattled campaign manager is losing clout,” by Ben Schreckinger and Ken Vogel, with Hadas Gold: “Trump’s just-named convention manager, Paul Manafort, is expected to take a leading role not just in the selection of delegates, but in the remaining primaries themselves. ... [A] person involved in Trump’s campaign [said:] ... ‘Mr. Trump’s listening to other people now. The crew’s expanding.’ ...
“[T]his winter, ... National Political Director Michael Glassner ... was [promoted] to deputy campaign manager ... On March 2, the campaign promoted Stuart Jolly ... to national field director, giving him primary authority over ... hiring ... field staff. ... Manafort has quickly taken charge of his own fiefdom in Washington, and is planning to hire a team of his own, which is likely to include several veterans of the 1976 Republican National Convention – the party’s last convention at which the presidential nomination was contested.” http://politi.co/22YORlU
**SUBSCRIBE to Playbook: http://politi.co/1M75UbX
CHASER – “Trump touts his loyalty in defending campaign manager,” by AP’s Jill Colvin in Appleton, Wis.: “Trump [said in a phoner Thu. evening that] his decision to stand behind his campaign manager ... is a sign of loyalty — a trait that Trump has displayed, for better or worse, through much of his career.” http://apne.ws/1RS7xLX
ALEX BURNS, who turns 3-0 tomorrow, coins a memorable phrase on N.Y. Times p. A9, “G.O.P. Fears Trump as Zombie Candidate: Damaged but Unstoppable”: “Republicans who once worried that Mr. Trump might gain overwhelming momentum ... are now becoming preoccupied with a different grim prospect: that Mr. Trump might become a kind of zombie candidate — damaged beyond the point of repair, but too late for any of his rivals to stop him.” http://nyti.ms/1ZTJn6E
VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN and Dr. Jill Biden will be at tonight’s NCAA Final Four semifinal games in Houston to promote the It’s On Us campaign to end sexual assault on campus. The two will appear for a pregame interview on TBS. They return to D.C. on Sunday.
--Other Washingtonians at the Final Four: Jonathan Martin, who’s a birthday boy tomorrow, and Betsy Fischer Martin; John Feinstein; and Danielle and Jeff Jones.
AP for SUNDAY PAPERS – “Clinton’s frustration grows, as primary race drags on,” by Lisa Lerer in Syracuse and Ken Thomas in N.Y.: “Hillary Clinton snapped at a Greenpeace protester. She linked Bernie Sanders and tea party Republicans. And she bristled with anger when nearly two dozen Sanders supporters marched out of an event near her home outside New York City ... After a year of campaigning, months of debates and 35 primary elections, Sanders is finally getting under Clinton’s skin ... Clinton has spent weeks largely ignoring Sanders and trying to focus on ... Trump. Now, after several primary losses and with a tough fight in New York on the horizon, Clinton is showing flashes of frustration with the Vermont senator ...
“According to Democrats close to Hillary and former President Bill Clinton, both are frustrated by Sanders' ability to cast himself as above politics-as-usual even while firing off what they consider to be misleading attacks. The Clintons are even more annoyed that Sanders' approach seems to be rallying ... young voters by his side. While Hillary Clinton's team contends her lock on the nomination as ‘nearly insurmountable,’ the campaign frequently grumbles that Sanders hasn't faced the same level of scrutiny ... Her aides complain about Sanders' rhetoric, claiming he's broken his pledge to avoid character attacks ...
“Clinton hopes that big victories in New York on April 19 and five Northeastern states a week later will allow her to wrap up the nomination by the end of the month. But aides acknowledge that Sanders ... is unlikely to feel significant political or financial pressure to drop out of the race, even if it becomes clear he cannot win ... Sanders must win 67 percent of the remaining delegates and uncommitted superdelegates ... through June to be able to clinch the Democratic nomination. So far he's only winning 37 percent.
“Joel Benenson, Clinton’s chief strategist, said: ‘We’re going to get to a point at the end of April where there just isn’t enough real estate for him to overcome the lead that we’ve built.’ Still, any kind of truce is probably weeks, if not months, away. ... Sanders is costing Clinton significant time, money and political capital [and] is drawing sizable crowds in New York.” http://apne.ws/1pUb1Uo
FRIENDS NOW CALLING SPICER “Mr. Chairman” ... “Backstage maneuvering begins in wide-open GOP chairman’s race,” by The Hill’s Scott Wong: “Two ... RNC senior officials also have been mentioned as potential Priebus successors: John Ryder, the RNC’s general counsel, and Sean Spicer, the RNC’s chief strategist and communications director. ... [and] the RNC’s top communicator since 2011.” http://bit.ly/1UyiRAk
--@seanspicer: “Sunday add @GOP’s @Reince to list of ppl that have done ‘full Ginsburg’ @ThisWeekABC @meetthepress @FoxNewsSunday @FaceTheNation @CNNSotu”
--TELLY LOVELACE named RNC’s national director of African American initiatives and media -- Release: “Telly joins the RNC from IR+ Media ... where he served as Managing Director. Previously, Telly served as a senior member of Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s communications team.”
PIC DU JOUR: Colleagues of Jen Friedman in the White House press office played an April Fool’s joke on her yesterday by putting her birthday in Playbook. That led to dozens of happy birthday emails to her, including from senior staff, even though the deputy press secretary's real birthday is Nov. 7. They also decorated her office with a “Happy Birthday” banner and a balloon. Pic of her decorated desk http://bit.ly/21XVFdO
LIFE ONLINE – “Snapchat’s Ultimate Goal Isn’t Just Chat—It’s Total Media Domination,” by Fortune’s Mathew Ingram: “The latest iteration came this week with the addition of new features including video calling, audio and video messaging, GIFs, and stickers. Unlike a lot of other messaging apps, all of the new features are blended together—users can seamlessly toggle between video and audio, send short notes, and draw on top of shared photos.” http://for.tn/1VjJ7gB
TOMORROW’S TIMES TODAY -- “Navy SEALs Split Over Members’ Benefiting From Hard-Earned Brand,” by Nicholas Kulish, Christopher Drew, and Sean D. Naylor: “[F]ormer members ... are increasingly giving paid speeches, sounding off on politics on Fox News and stamping the force’s name on hats, backpacks, vitamins ... [A] half-dozen books are scheduled to roll off the presses in coming months, adding to the 100-plus published by former SEALs since 2001. ... Far more SEALs have gone public than their more reticent Army counterparts in Delta Force and the Rangers ...
“One author, Matt Bissonnette, earned millions for ‘No Easy Day,’ a firsthand narrative of the Bin Laden raid, but had to forfeit the profits for failing to submit it for Pentagon review of classified information.” http://nyti.ms/1RS6BqQ
WHITE HOUSE DEPARTURE LOUNGE: Noah Schwartz left the National Security Council on Friday where he was advisor to the deputy national security advisor for int’l econ; he’s headed to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he’ll be working on South and Southeast Asia policy. He emails friends: “It has been a great privilege to serve on the NSC staff these past few years, and I will always be grateful for the experience. Special thanks to everyone (past and present) on the international economics team.”
POLITICO MAGAZINE FRIDAY COVER – “9/11: What Would Trump Do?”: “Politico Magazine asked foreign policy and counterterrorism experts, historians, Trump biographers, even psychologists to take a serious guess at how he’d handle the days after a terrorist attack in the United States—all based on what they know about Trump the candidate and what he’ll be facing if he gets elected.” With hot takes from Jacob Heilbrunn, Ian Bremmer, Amb. Dennis Ross, Aaron David Miller, Andrew Bacevich and more http://politi.co/1UJ0n0k
STUFF TRUMP SAYS -- “How Donald Trump sees himself,” by CNN’s Scott Glover and Maeve Reston with a video by Brenna Williams: “He considers himself a member of ‘the lucky sperm club.’ He trusts no one, and places a premium on revenge. (‘If you do not get even, you are just a schmuck!’) He treats every decision he makes ‘like a lover,’ sometimes thinking with his head, other times with other parts of his body, because it reminds him to ‘keep in touch with my basic impulses.’ And to make creative choices, he writes: ‘I try to step back and remember my first shallow reaction. The day I realized it can be smart to be shallow was, for me, a deep experience.’” http://cnn.it/1SGvhCL ... 2-min. video http://cnn.it/1SsWF4w
SUBJECT LINE DU JOUR – Trump’s menacing campaign email sent Friday: “We’re Coming For You Wisconsin!” Text of his email http://bit.ly/25D0qOL
VIDEO DU JOUR – “Donald Trump’s Love/Hate Relationship With Women” – Politico Magazine – 2-min. video http://politi.co/25Bwouu
CLICKERS – “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker – 11 keepers http://politi.co/22WoUUd ... Matt’s thirteen March cartoons http://politi.co/1RRWsxo
GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman:
--“Jesus of Nazareth, Whose Messianic Message Captivated Thousands, Dies at About 33,” by Sam Roberts in Vanity Fair: “Roberts, an obituary writer for The New York Times, imagines how, given the facts available then, his predecessors might have reported the aftermath of an execution in the Middle East one Friday two millennia ago.” http://bit.ly/1or8Rur
--“The Men Who Gave Trump His Brutal Worldview,” by Michael D’Antonio, author of “Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success,” on Politico Magazine: “Tutored by his fiercely ambitious father and tough-as-nails high school coach, the GOP frontrunner has only one ethical code: life is combat.” http://politi.co/1LYiY5C ... $15.16 on Amazon http://amzn.to/1g8Rlak
--“This Professor Knows Why You Hate Ted Cruz’s Face” --Washingtonian Staff: “(He read the other candidates’ faces, too.)” http://bit.ly/1M1RDiU
--“Emma Smith on The Best Plays of Shakespeare” – interviewed by Beatrice Wilford on FiveBooks.com: “In the first of a series marking the 400th year since the playwright’s death, we ask Shakespearean scholar Emma Smith to pick her five favourite plays.” http://bit.ly/1MHUeyx
--“Murder in Mayfair,” by Peter Pomerantsev in The London Review of Books, reviewing “A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia’s War with the West,” by Luke Harding: “As he lay dying Alexander Litvinenko ... found it increasingly hard to open his mouth to talk, as he became yellow and shrivelled, he cursed himself for letting his guard down: he had assumed he was safe after receiving asylum and citizenship in the UK.” http://bit.ly/1MHUqhg ... $12.93 on Amazon http://amzn.to/1RS7lfM (h/t TheBrowser.com)
--“The Strange Case of a Nazi Who Became an Israeli Hitman,” by Forward’s Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman in Haaretz: “Otto Skorzeny, one of the Mossad’s most valuable assets, was a former lieutenant colonel in Nazi Germany’s Waffen-SS and one of Adolf Hitler’s favorites.” http://bit.ly/1RRUhds
--“How to Hack an Election,” by Jordan Robertson, Michael Riley, and Andrew Willis on Bloomberg Businessweek’s international cover: “Andrés Sepúlveda rigged elections throughout Latin America for almost a decade. He tells his story for the first time.” http://bloom.bg/1RRUqxm ... The cover http://bit.ly/1qkEUOn
--“How Meryl Streep Battled Dustin Hoffman, Retooled Her Role, and Won Her First Oscar,” by Michael Schulman on the cover of April’s Vanity Fair, in an adaptation of his upcoming biography “Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep” (out April 26): “At 29, Meryl Streep was grieving for a dead lover, falling for her future husband, and starting work on Kramer vs. Kramer, the movie that would make her a star and sweep the 1980 Oscars. ... Schulman recounts the struggles—physical, emotional, and intellectual—that launched Streep’s legend.” http://bit.ly/1RRUw8l ... The cover http://bit.ly/1RuAL4x ... $20.35 pre-order on Amazon http://amzn.to/1pUgx9P (h/t Longform.org)
--“#Jihad: Why ISIS is winning the social media war,” by Brendan I. Koerner in Wired: “The group’s closest peers are not just other terrorist organizations, then, but also the Western brands, marketing firms, and publishing outfits—from PepsiCo to BuzzFeed—who ply the Internet with memes and messages in the hopes of connecting with customers.” http://bit.ly/1Y4E0jF ... Video of Koerner on "CBS This Morning: Saturday” http://cbsn.ws/1Y6qImE
--“The Longform Guide to the Dark Side of Hollywood”: 8 pieces on “Corruption, venality, and tragedy: a collection of picks on what lies beneath the glitter.” http://bit.ly/1M7kPVN
--“Crowd Source,” by Davy Rothbart in California Sunday Magazine: “Inside the company that provides fake paparazzi, pretend campaign supporters, and counterfeit protesters.” http://bit.ly/1SGsWYC (h/t Longreads.com)
MEDIAWATCH – “Andrew Sullivan joins New York Magazine,” by Hadas Gold: “Sullivan is joining New York Magazine [as] a contributing editor, the publication’s editor-in-chief Adam Moss announced on Friday. Sullivan ... will write features throughout the year and cover politics, including the 2016 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. In a note on Facebook, Sullivan said his first piece is on Donald Trump. ... Sullivan’s standalone blog, The Dish, stopped publishing in February 2015, with Sullivan citing financial and personal difficulties. ... Prior to his career as a blogger, Sullivan was editor of The New Republic and a writer for New York Times Magazine.” http://politi.co/1RRWYvm ... His letter to “Dishheads” http://bit.ly/1Y4FDh8
FINAL FOUR -- “‘One Shining Moment’ gets team-specific twist with Ne-Yo” –AP/Houston: “‘One Shining Moment’ is getting a new Grammy-winning voice and some team-specific highlights at the end of the NCAA Final Four. The song has been the backdrop for the highlight piece to wrap up NCAA Tournaments for three decades, and the version by the late Luther Vandross will continue to be used for the national broadcast on TBS. For TNT and truTV, a rendition by three-time Grammy Award winner Ne-Yo will be used after the first-ever team-specific broadcasts of the national championship game. Ne-Yo’s performance will accompany team-centric highlights of the schools being featured in the Team Stream presentations, following their quest leading up to and during the title game.” http://yhoo.it/1qb6FsM ... Last year’s NCAA highlight piece http://bit.ly/21ZpB9r ... Charles Barkley’s 30-second rendition http://bit.ly/1pUoSKC
BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Noah Schwartz … Susan Pisano
BIRTHDAYS: Dr. Jud Feldman (hat tip: MBF) ... Brent Colburn ... Meridith Webster, director of comms. and public affairs at Bloomberg and an Obama West Wing alum -- fun fact: Favorite color is orange! (h/ts Ben Chang) ... Politico’s Dana Rubinstein and Josefa Velasquez … Lynda Tran, 270 Strategies founding partner and CBS News political contributor (h/t Heather Purcell and Eleis Brennan) ... Brian Austin, consultant at Kaiser Associates (h/t wife Emily Stephenson) ... Emily Steel, a TV and media reporter at the NYT and a WSJ and FT alum ... Carl Kasell, formerly of NPR (whose voice is on HIS answering machine?) … Robby Zirkelbach, SVP of comms at PhRMA and AHIP alum, mediocre golfer, avid Hawkeyes fan and great friend (h/t Joe Brettell) ... Dan Sallick, partner and co-founder of Subject Matter (h/t Peter Cherukuri) ...
... Joe Hack, Sen. Deb. Fischer’s chief of staff and one of the youngest (if not the youngest) chiefs on the Senate side, is 29 (h/t colleague Brianna Puccini) ... Michael David Morgan, former deputy campaign manager for WA State Sen. Michael Baumgartner and current operations analyst for Optimus (h/t Cara Mathis) ... Sean Long, son of two former staffers, the pride of Clarendon, VA and an up and coming star at the DOJ, is 23 (h/t colleague John Sheehy) ... John McCauley, deputy comms. director at the Truman National Security Project ... Jim O’Grady, WNYC reporter and professional storyteller ... Nikhil Joshi, OFA and Obama WH alum now senior manager for biz ops and strategy at Lending Club in San Fran ... Emily Hartmann of Global Strategy Group ...
... Danny Kanner, now of NBA comms and alum of DGA and OFA ... Dan Reilly, NEA’s senior campaigns and elections specialist and a Teamsters alum … Margo McNabb … Christy Agner … Greg Boatright … Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Me.) (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Abe Dyk … Kimberly Woodard … Sarah Fenn ... Kristina Clara Konrad-Williams ... Clare Osdene Schapiro ... Carole Chouinard ... Alex Rosenwald ... singer Emmylou Harris is 69 ... social critic and author Camille Paglia is 69 ... Jesse Carmichael (Maroon 5) is 37 ... Lee Dewyze (“American Idol”) is 30 ... Aaron Kelly (“American Idol”) is 23 (h/ts AP)
MATT MACKOWIAK, who for years has faithfully provided Playbookers with Sunday TV listings each weekend, is a candidate for the Man of the Year Campaign benefitting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), whose mission is to fund cutting-edge research and eradicate blood cancers. Please thank Matt by checking out his fundraising page. http://bit.ly/1SuSlSs
And here are THE SHOWS, which @MattMackowiak filed from Austin:
--NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Hillary Clinton ... Reince Priebus; Ron Johnson; roundtable: WTMJ-TV’s Charles Benson, David Brooks, Helene Cooper and Amy Walter
--ABC’s “This Week”: John Kasich; Bernie Sanders; Reince Priebus; roundtable: Donna Brazile, Matthew Dowd, Hugh Hewitt and Juan Williams
--CBS’s “Face the Nation”: Donald Trump; Reince Priebus; roundtable: Peggy Noonan, Ed O’Keefe, Mark Leibovich and Ruth Marcus; new results from the CBS News 2016 Battleground Tracker Poll from Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New York with CBS News’ Anthony Salvanto
--“Fox News Sunday”: Donald Trump; Reince Priebus; roundtable: George Will, Julie Pace, Stephen Dinan and Charles Lane; “Power Player of the Week” with John Ficklin, the 10th member of his family to work in the White House
--CNN’s “State of the Union” (9am ET / 12pm ET): Reince Priebus; Bernie Sanders; roundtable: Bakari Sellers, Amanda Carpenter, Nina Turner and Andre Bauer
--Univision’s “Al Punto” (SUN 10am ET / 1pm PT) Jorge Castañeda; Venezuelan opposition leader and wife of political prisoner (Leopoldo López) Lilian Tintori; Republican political analysts Helen Aguirre and Adryana Boyne; FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri “Timochenko”; Peruvian presidential candidate (Peruvians for Change) Pedro Pablo Kuczynski; Peruvian presidential candidate (Popular Action) Alfredo Barnechea (substitute anchor: Enrique Acevedo)
--CNN’s “Inside Politics” with John King (SUN 8am ET): Roundtable: Jackie Kucinich, Ed O’Keefe, Jeff Zeleny and Abby Phillip
--Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” (10am ET / 9am CT): Peter King; Allianz chief economic adviser Mohamed El-Erian; actor Scott Baio; roundtable: WSJ’s Jon Hilsenrath, Ed Rollins and Scott Brown
--CNN’s “Reliable Sources”: (SUN 11am ET): Author Ariana Huffington (“The Sleep Revolution”); Connie Chung and Maury Povich; Matthew Dowd; former People Magazine managing editor Larry Hackett
--Fox News’ “MediaBuzz” (SUN 11am ET / 10am CT): Trump campaign spokesperson Katrina Pierson; Andrea Tantaros; Meghan McCain; Kennedy; Sandra Smith; Susan Ferrechio; Amy Holmes; Kirsten Powers; tech analyst Shana Glenzer
--CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS”: (SUN 11am ET): National security roundtable: RAND’s Seth Jones, NYPD’s John Miller and former CIA and FBI counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd; roundtable: E.J. Dionne, author and Republican Main Street Partnership’s Geoffrey Kabaservice (“The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party”), author and Princeton University’s Nell Irvin Painter (“Southern History Across the Color Line”) and David Remnick
--C-SPAN: “The Communicators” (SAT 6:30pm ET): American Cable Association president & CEO Matthew Polka and American Cable Association board chair Robert Gessner ... “Newsmakers” (SUN 10am ET): Club for Growth president David McIntosh, questioned by Washington Examiner’s Gabby Morrongiello and Politico’s James Hohmann ... “Q&A” (SUN 8pm & 11pm ET): Discussion with high school students attending the U.S. Senate Youth Program
--MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation with Rev. Al Sharpton”: (SUN 8-9am ET): Ben Carson; Clinton campaign national political director Amanda Renteria; Reuters’ Erin McPike; Amy Holmes; author Michael D’Antonio (“Never Enough”); One Wisconsin Now executive director Scot Ross
--MSNBC’s “The Place for Politics”: (SUN 9-10am ET): Capital Times’ Jessie Opoien; The Boston Globe’s James Pindell; Trump campaign senior advisor Barry Bennett; Politico’s Gabe Debenedetti (hosted by MSNBC’s Chris Jansing live from Wisconsin)
--MSNBC’s “The Place for Politics”: (SUN 10am-12pm ET): MSNBC’s Irin Carmon; Clinton campaign national spokeswoman Karen Finney; Michael Steele; Public Religion Research Institute’s Robert Jones; Michael Eric Dyson; Nina Turner; John Dean; Wisconsin-based radio host Charlie Sykes; The Nation Magazine’s John Nichols; One Wisconsin Now’s Scot Ross (hosted by MSNBC’s Joy Reid live from New York)
--MSNBC’s “The Place for Politics”: (SUN 12-2pm ET): Wisconsin-based radio host Charlie Sykes; Elise Jordan; Howard Dean; Kasich supporter Jack Voight; USA Today’s Paul Singer; RCP’s Rebecca Berg; State Rep. Melissa Sargent (D-WI); former Romney and Rubio advisor Avik Roy; author and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Jason Stein (“Dropping the Bomb: Scott Walker, Unions and the Fight for a State”) (hosted by MSNBC’s Alex Witt live from New York)
--MSNBC’s “The Place for Politics”: (SUN 3-4pm ET): The University of Wisconsin’s Mordecai Lee; former Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton; WaPo’s Robert Costa; Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (hosted by MSNBC’s Chris Jansing live from Wisconsin)
--PBS’s “To the Contrary” with Bonnie Erbé: Roundtable: Eleanor Holmes Norton; former Judge and federal prosecutor Debra Carnahan; Washington Examiner columnist Ashe Schow; Republican strategist Rina Shah Bharara and Concerned Women for America’s Penny Nance
--SiriusXM’s “No Labels Radio” (SAT 10am ET & 6pm ET, SUN 1PM ET): Host Jon Huntsman, with co-hosts No Labels co-founder Stuart Holliday and Politico’s Daniel Lippman, will discuss the Puerto Rico debt crisis with Puerto Rico’s lead restructuring advisor Jim Millstein, the 2016 election cycle with pollster Frank Luntz and the Wisconsin primary with Ron Johnson. Pic of the hosts this weekend http://bit.ly/1qdGxOa
--Sinclair’s “Full Measure” with Sharyl Attkisson (SUN 9:30am ET on WJLA and airing on Sinclair stations nationwide): the dangerous underground world of smuggling, of both drugs and humans; correspondent Scott Thuman examines how Morocco, one of the most beautiful countries on Earth, is being associated with the most recent terrorist attacks.