Good Saturday morning. “Basket of deplorables.” That’s what Hillary Clinton called half of Donald Trump’s supporters last night. Here’s the full riff by Clinton last night at an LGBTQ fundraiser in New York, per pooler Ruby Cramer:
“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? [Laughter/applause] The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic -- you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people -- now [have] 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric.
“Now, some of those folks -- they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America. But the other basket -- and I know this because I see friends from all over America here -- I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas -- as well as, you know, New York and California -- but that other basket of people are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change. It doesn’t really even matter where it comes from. They don’t buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won’t wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroine, feel like they’re in a dead-end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well.”
This is a familiar moment. In 2008, Barack Obama said people “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” In 2012, Mitt Romney said 47 percent of the population was living off the government. We’re not going to make grand pronouncements about what this will mean electorally -- none of us actually know. Obama won, Romney lost and both outcomes probably had nothing to do with their respective comments.
--@realDonaldTrump: “Wow, Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of amazing, hard working people. I think it will cost her at the Polls!”
--The Trump campaign is already demanding an apology: http://politi.co/2cBDf0G
PSSST -- Gabe Debenedetti had this comment tucked into a story six days ago! Last Sunday, he wrote: “Her team will continue touting prominent GOP endorsements: Former California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman even introduced Clinton at multiple closed-door August fundraisers in California. There, the candidate explained her approach to Republicans interested in Trump, according to one Bay Area attendee. Clinton divides Trump voters into two baskets, she said: the everyday Republicans — her targets — and what she called ‘the deplorables’ — the ‘alt-right’ crowd she excoriates and has no hope of wooing.” http://politi.co/2ctiK9v
**SUBSCRIBE to Playbook: http://politi.co/1M75UbX
DEPT. OF BEDWETTING -- WashPost A1, “Democrats wonder and worry: Why isn’t Clinton far ahead of Trump?” by Anne Gearan, Jenna Johnson and John Wagner in New York: “Even the Democratic nominee’s advisers acknowledge that she must make changes, and quickly. Clinton leads Trump by three percentage points, having fallen from her high of nine points in August, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average. That tightening has frustrated many Clinton allies and operatives, who are astonished that she isn’t running away with this race, given Trump’s deep unpopularity and his continuing stream of controversial comments.
“‘Generally, I’m concerned, frankly,’ said former Democratic Senate leader Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.). ‘It still looks positive, and I think if you look at the swing states and where she is right now, she’s got a lead. But it’s certainly not in the bag. We have two months to go, and I think it’s going to be a competitive race all the way through. I would say she’s got at least a 60 percent chance of winning.’ At the same time, Daschle said, ‘all the things that Trump has done, the numbers should be far more explicitly in her favor, but they’re not.’” http://wapo.st/2bZNzOO … A1 of the Post http://bit.ly/2cjweAL
DRUGE BANNER -- “IT WASN’T SUPPOSED TO BE THIS WAY”
FOR YOUR RADAR -- NYT A1, “Russia and the United States Reach New Agreement on Syria Conflict,” by David Sanger and Anne Barnard in Geneva: “Russia and the United States agreed early Saturday on a new plan to reduce violence in the Syrian conflict that, if successful, could lead for the first time to joint military targeting by the two powers against Islamic jihadists in Syria. The agreement was reached after 10 months of failed attempts to halt the fighting and of suspended efforts to reach a political settlement to an increasingly complex conflict that began more than five years ago …
“The plan starts with a seven-day continuous ‘genuine reduction of violence,’ in Mr. Kerry’s words, and broad, unrestricted humanitarian access to the ravaged northern city of Aleppo and other besieged areas. If that works, the United States and Russia are to establish a Joint Implementation Center, where they will share targeting data, and begin to coordinate bombing of militants of the Nusra Front and the Islamic State.” http://nyti.ms/2ctdTFj
YOWZA -- “A Big Blast in North Korea, and Big Questions on U.S. Policy,” by David Sanger in Geneva, Choe Sang-Hun in Seoul and Jane Perlez in Beijing, with Motoko Rich in Tokyo: “North Korea’s latest test of an atomic weapon leaves the United States with an uncomfortable choice: Stick with a policy of incremental sanctions that has clearly failed to stop the country’s nuclear advances, or pick among alternatives that range from the highly risky to the repugnant. A hard embargo, in which Washington and its allies block all shipping into and out of North Korea and seek to paralyze its finances, risks confrontations that allies in Asia fear could quickly escalate into war. But restarting talks on the North’s terms would reward the defiance of its young leader, Kim Jong-un, with no guarantee that he will dismantle the nuclear program irrevocably.” http://nyti.ms/2cCcnxR
BAYH’S ROUGH FRIDAY: The Indy Star interviewed some of Evan Bayh’s neighbors, who say they've not seen him. A new WTHR/Howey poll found Bayh dropping 17 points in two months (Bayh is still up four points over Todd Young). And Republicans released a new hard-hitting ad with the tagline “Bayh left us to work for them.” The ad is “one installment of a seven-figure series making it clear that Evan Bayh left Hoosiers to work for special interests,” according to a source with knowledge of the effort. It was “rolled out in tandem with a new website BayhLeftUs.com.” 1-min. Indy Star video: http://indy.st/2cjkdeR … WTHR/Howey poll:http://bit.ly/2cNQM96 … Friends of Todd Young, Inc. ad: http://bit.ly/2c5BoDm
CLICKER -- “New photos show Bill Clinton yukking it up with Trump, Melania, and swimsuit model,” by Josh Gerstein: “The Clinton Presidential Library has released nearly two dozen photos of Donald Trump socializing with President Bill Clinton — including one that shows the two men with their arms around Trump’s then-girlfriend, Melania, and Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kylie Bax — images from a collection that underscores just how chummy Trump once was with the president and his wife Hillary. The 22 pictures were taken by official White House photographers in June 2000 during a visit the president paid to Trump Tower in New York City for a political fundraiser, and in September 2000, during the U.S. Open tournament in Flushing Meadows, New York.” http://politi.co/2cNEy06 ... The slideshow http://politi.co/2c82zA3
DEBATE PREP -- The Commission on Presidential Debates responded to David Brock’s concerns about Chris Wallace as a moderator. They were not moved by his complaints. Their response: “We are pleased with our selection of moderators and confident they will do a good job.” See their letter. http://politi.co/2ceUep6
HAPPENING TODAY -- Donald Trump is at Phyllis Schlafly’s funeral in Missouri. Mike Pence is in Washington, D.C. to address the Values Voter Summit and will later “headline ‘Pumpkins and Politics,’ a celebration of agriculture, property rights and conservative values at Martha Boneta’s Liberty Farm in Paris”, Virginia. http://bit.ly/2cswAKo
PAGING ANDY LACK! -- “NBC execs panic after Lauer’s ‘pathetic’ presidential interviews,” by Page Six’s Carlos Greer: “Top NBC News brass were panicked after ‘Today’ host Matt Lauer’s maligned performance quizzing presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on the Intrepid Wednesday night. When critics widely panned his interviews, sources said NBC honchos were desperately spinning positive stories with little luck.
“A source told Page Six, ‘[NBC News President] Deborah Turness was panicking yesterday trying to get [positive] headlines out about Matt’s performance. They were scrambling. In the morning meeting, [staffers] were speechless [when] Turness asked if anyone picked up any of the positive stories they’re trying to spin’ about Lauer — whose interviewing skills received insults such as ‘disorganized’ and ‘pathetic.’ ...
“NBC News chairman Andy Lack sent out a memo praising the forum as a ‘success’ on Friday afternoon, writing to staffers, ‘Against all odds, we were able to bring the two presidential nominees together for the first time and presented an important examination of what each would bring to the role of commander-in-chief.’” http://pge.sx/2ceR2tQ
BEING THERE -- “Bush aide’s previously unpublished notes show unfolding chaos of 9/11,” by Yahoo’s Olivier Knox: The notes show “him preparing for military action, serving up several doses of his trademark Western swagger and openly worrying about the safety of his wife, his daughters and his Scottish terrier, Barney. Flooded with inaccurate reports -- of a credible threat to Air Force One, of a car bomb at the State Department, of an airliner crashing near Camp David, of a ‘high-speed object’ screaming toward his Texas ranch -- Bush pressed intelligence officials for information and resolved to try to reassure Americans even as security concerns kept him away from Washington, D.C., for most of the day. ...
“These chaotic, sometimes surreal details come from six pages of handwritten notes taken by Ari Fleischer, Bush’s press secretary at the time. Fleischer provided the notes to me and to Steve Holland of Reuters, two print reporters who were with the president on what was supposed to have been a humdrum, even newsless education-themed trip to Sarasota, Fla., 15 years ago.” http://yhoo.it/2cz0oCq
WHAT TRUMP SAID ON 9/11/2001 -- MICHAEL KRUSE, “The Senator and the Mogul: A 9/11 Diary”: “Compared to the flame-throwing temperament he has demonstrated throughout his current presidential campaign, the most striking revelation of the video from September 11, 2001 — plucked exclusively at POLITICO’s request from the WWOR archives—is Trump’s composure and tone. A decade and a half before pledging to ‘bomb the s*** out of” ISIS and proposing a deportation force and a Muslim ban, Trump didn’t talk about retribution or leap to conclusions about who was responsible. In fact, he avoided identifying potential enemies — any terrorist organization or Muslims in general.
“He spoke cogently and even poignantly about New York’s changed skyline and the need to never forget. Only parenthetically in the middle of the 10-minute conversation did Trump turn to a favorite topic—size. ‘40 Wall Street,’ he said, referring to his 71-story building blocks away from the now-collapsed twin towers, ‘actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest—and then, when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second-tallest. And now it’s the tallest.’” http://politi.co/2bZKMoO
SCOOP DU JOUR -- “The Time U.S. Spies Thought Al Qaeda Was Ready to Nuke D.C.,” by The Daily Beast’s Shane Harris: “On Christmas Eve 2003, Gen. Michael Hayden, the director of the secretive U.S. [NSA], made a secure phone call to his British counterpart, David Pepper, the director of the Government Communications Headquarters. ... In recent days, the NSA had been collecting what Hayden would later describe as a ‘massive amount of chatter’—phone calls and emails from terrorists—that suggested al Qaeda was planning multiple attacks inside the United States, timed to the holidays. ‘One more thing, David,’ Hayden said after the two men exchanged pleasantries. ‘We actually feel a bit under threat here. And so I’ve told my liaison to your office that should there be catastrophic loss at Ft. Meade, we are turning the functioning of the American [signals intelligence] system over to GCHQ.’ ...
“NSA officials and others were seeing the same threat made repeatedly: that al Qaeda terrorists were planning to detonate a nuclear device in or around Washington, DC. ... The intelligence about a possible nuclear attack was taken seriously enough that teams of inspectors from the Energy Department fanned out in several major U.S. cities, including Washington, Los Angeles, and New York carrying radiation detection equipment concealed in luggage.” http://thebea.st/2c13VeT
EDWARD SNOWDEN does a “Lunch with the FT” with former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger -- on the DNC hack: “This is part of the problem of this surveillance free-for-all that we’re allowing to occur by refusing to moderate our own behaviour. We’ve set a kind of global precedent that anything is possible and nothing is prohibited.” ... On the current crisis in computer security: “Until we solve the fundamental problem, which is that our policy incentivises offence to a greater degree than defence, hacks will continue unpredictably and they will have increasingly larger effects and impacts.” ... On his loyalty to America: “I want to fix my own country first [before Russia] ... I work for the US but they don’t realise it.” http://on.ft.com/2chkJdc
BUSINESS GOES BLUE -- “Donors in Most Industries Back Hillary Clinton: Individuals in a vast majority of sectors support the Democrat over Trump,” by WSJ’s Rebecca Ballhaus and Brody Mullins: “From agriculture to Wall Street, employees in a vast majority of business sectors are backing the Democratic presidential candidate over the Republican, a reversal from the 2012 election, according to an analysis of comparable fundraising receipts. … Of the $36 million donated by corporate employees to the two major presidential candidates’ campaigns in May, June and July, the Democrat received $31 million—roughly six times what was donated to Mr. Trump, according to the Journal analysis.” http://on.wsj.com/2bYME0Q
PIC DU JOUR -- M. Scott Mahaskey (@smahaskey): “WIDE SHOT: @realDonaldTrump’s not so diverse crowd at rally tonight in Pensacola, Florida.” http://bit.ly/2c5Mk3G
WASHINGTON INC. -- “A DC mystery behind a 9/11 newspaper column,” by CNBC’s Eamon Javers: “On Wednesday, an alarming headline appeared on the website of USA Today atop an opinion column written by former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. ‘15 years after 9/11, a gaping security gap,’ it said … The threat on Ridge’s mind doesn’t come from ISIS-inspired killers inside the United States, as in the recent attacks in Orlando and San Bernardino. Instead, the threat Ridge wrote about comes from the post office …
“In the column, Ridge said he was joining a new group called ‘Americans for Securing All Packages.’ What exactly is ‘Americans for Securing All Packages?’ That’s something of a mystery. But a little digging reveals a small example of the way money, power, and national security interact in Washington 15 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.” http://cnb.cx/2bXnIH1
COURT WATCH -- “U.S. Supreme Court green lights straight-party voting in Michigan,” by Detroit Free Press’ Paul Egan and Todd Spangler in Lansing: “The straight-party voting option will still be available in Michigan in the Nov. 8 general election after the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a last-ditch appeal on the issue from Attorney General Bill Schuette.” http://on.freep.com/2czoxYq
--Josh Gerstein: “A top appeals court has overturned a federal official’s ruling that effectively allowed three states to insist on proof of citizenship when their residents try to register to vote. The official, U.S. Election Assistance Commission executive director Brian Newby, agreed in January to change a national mail-in voter registration form to allow Alabama, Georgia, and Kansas to implement state laws requiring proof of citizenship. … ‘Appellants have demonstrated irreparable harm, a likelihood of success on the merits, that the balance of equities tips in their favor, and that an injunction is in the public interest,’ the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled late Friday, ordering the three states to disregard Newby’s instructions.” http://politi.co/2c8xEDX
-- “Federal government halts work on part of pipeline project,” by AP’s Dave Kolpack and James MacPherson reporting near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, N.D.: “The federal government stepped into the fight over the Dakota Access oil pipeline Friday, ordering work to stop on one segment of the project in North Dakota and asking the Texas-based company building it to ‘voluntarily pause’ action on a wider span that an American Indian tribe says holds sacred artifacts. The government’s order came minutes after a judge rejected a request by the Standing Rock Sioux to halt construction of the $3.8 billion, four-state pipeline.” http://apne.ws/2cs3riB
MOLLY BALL in October’s Atlantic, “‘There’s Nothing Better Than a Scared, Rich Candidate’: How political consulting works—or doesn’t”: “Despite all the money pouring into political consulting, a palpable sense of unease looms over the profession. The consultants may be getting rich, but recent events suggest they don’t have any idea what they’re doing.” With cameos by Mike Murphy, Zac Moffatt, Rick Wilson, Stuart Stevens, Whit Ayres, Barry Bennett, Mark Mellman http://theatln.tc/2cNY6Br
2016 PLAYERS -- TIM KAINE’S WIFE ANNE HOLTON did an interview with Cosmo’s Prachi Gupta in which “she talks about why she never changed her last name, Hillary’s ‘bake cookies’ comment, Twitter’s obsession with old photos of her husband, and more.” http://bit.ly/2bZRwaY
--BURGESS EVERETT: “Republicans rave about Tim Kaine: ‘I think he could be very effective with working with people here,’ says one of the potential VP’s many GOP fans in the Senate.” http://politi.co/2cLkHMe
MEDIAWATCH -- JACK SHAFER, “Why Print News Still Rules: I’ve been an online journalist for 20 years — and still, you’ll have to pry my newspaper from my cold dying hands”: “Print — particularly the newspaper — is an amazingly sophisticated technology for showing you what’s important, and showing you a lot of it. The newspaper has refined its user interface for more than two centuries. Incorporated into your daily newspaper’s architecture are the findings from field research conducted in thousands of newspapers over hundreds of millions of editions. ... Computer fonts still lag behind their high-resolution newsprint cousins, and reading them drains mental energy.” http://politi.co/2cNTVFN
THE WAY TO WIN -- “How to Become a C.E.O.? The Quickest Path Is a Winding One,” by The Upshot’s Neil Irwin: “New evidence shows that a mix of skills, especially technology skills, counts more than simply long experience in one specialty.” http://nyti.ms/2bZwapt
GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman:
--“How Elizabeth Holmes’s House of Cards Came Tumbling Down,” by Nick Bilton in the October Vanity Fair: “In a searing investigation into the once lauded biotech start-up Theranos, Nick Bilton discovers that its precocious founder defied medical experts — even her own chief scientist — about the veracity of its now discredited blood-testing technology. She built a corporation based on secrecy in the hope that she could still pull it off. Then, it all fell apart.” http://bit.ly/2bYkTp7 (h/t TheBrowser.com)
--“How Arianna Huffington Lost Her Newsroom,” by William D. Cohan in October’s Vanity Fair: “The Huffington Post’s namesake founder, who stepped down as editor in chief last month, built an iconic media company in record time. Then, after a decade at the helm, she left suddenly. This article, the first in a two-part series, reveals one of the factors that may have contributed to her departure: a capricious management style that alienated many of the journalists who worked for her.” http://bit.ly/2ceW9wG ... Part 2, “The Inside Story of Why Arianna Huffington Left the Huffington Post” http://bit.ly/2c4kkgX
--“Is Ivanka For Real?” by Hannah Seligson in HuffPost Highline: “One of the greatest enigmas of 2016, explained.” http://huff.to/2c6CXzC
--“How Snowden Escaped,” by Theresa Tedesco in the National Post of Canada: “The never-been-told story of those two pivotal weeks when the most wanted man in the world was hidden in the depths of a Hong Kong slum.” http://bit.ly/2c6hElE
--“The Ghost in Our Midst,” by James Rosen in Psychology Today: “A Washington journalist is tipped off to the little-known history of his own house, and the ensuing journey recasts the familiar in a bracing new light.” http://bit.ly/2bYnAar
--“China’s Gold Rush in the Hills of Appalachia,” by Suzy Khimm in Foreign Policy: “Buyers in Hong Kong and Beijing are paying top dollar for wild American ginseng, fueling a digging frenzy that could decimate the revered root for good.” http://atfp.co/2cb2fh0
--“In secretive marijuana industry, whispers of abuse and trafficking,”by Shoshana Walter for Reveal and Cosmo: “For decades, the ancient forests here have provided cover for the nation’s largest marijuana-growing industry, shielding pot farmers from convention, outsiders and law enforcement. But the forests also hide secrets, among them young women with stories of sexual abuse and exploitation.” http://bit.ly/2cLRLaQ (h/t Longform.org)
--“Life at the Nowhere Office,” by Miya Tokumitsu and Joeri Mol in The New Republic: “Today’s workplace design asks us to be permanently on call — and demands that we vanish at a moment’s notice.” http://bit.ly/2bYlWWr
--“The Drug of Choice for the Age of Kale,” by The New Yorker’s Ariel Levy (print headline “The Secret Life of Plants”): “How ayahuasca, an ancient Amazonian hallucinogenic brew, became the latest trend in Brooklyn and Silicon Valley.” http://bit.ly/2c5EdDO (h/t Longreads.com)
--“The Flight 93 Election,” by Publius Decius Mus (a pseudonym) on Claremont.org: “If conservatives are right about the importance of virtue, morality, religious faith, stability, character and so on in the individual ... then they must believe — mustn’t they? — that we are headed off a cliff. But it’s quite obvious that conservatives don’t believe any such thing, that they feel no such sense of urgency, of an immediate necessity to change course and avoid the cliff.” http://bit.ly/2c6gGpA
--“How to raise a genius: lessons from a 45-year study of super-smart children,” by Tom Clynes in Nature: “A long-running investigation of exceptional children reveals what it takes to produce the scientists who will lead the twenty-first century.” http://go.nature.com/2c6cXIH (h/t ALDaily.com)
GREAT WEEKEND LISTENS, curated by Jake Sherman:
-- Phish’s Page McConnell sits in with Twiddle on their song “When It Rains It Pours.” Twiddle is from Phish’s Burlington, Vermont, so it’s especially cool that Page would sit in with them. http://bit.ly/2cvqA0G
--Grateful Dead today in 1991 at Madison Square Garden. Part of the famed nine-night run at MSG. Today, we hear a Shakedown Street, C.C. Rider opener. This show features Branford Marsalis. Were any Playbookers there? http://bit.ly/2cltd6g
--Phish today in 1999 at the Gorge in Washington State. First ever performance of Gotta Jibbo! http://bit.ly/2chghhc
PRESIDENT’S WEEK AHEAD – “On Monday, the President will meet with Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to discuss priorities for the remainder of the September session. The President will also provide a readout of his visit to Asia. On Tuesday, the President will travel to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for a Hillary for America campaign event and a DNC event. He will then travel to New York, New York for a DCCC event, before returning to Washington, DC. ...
“On Wednesday, the President will hold a bilateral meeting with State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma at the White House. On Thursday, the President will deliver remarks at the 2016 Our Ocean Conference at the State Department. In the evening, the President will deliver remarks at the 39th Annual Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Public Policy Conference and Annual Awards Gala in Washington, DC. On Friday, the President will attend meetings at the White House. On Saturday, the President will deliver remarks at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 46th Annual Legislative Conference Phoenix Awards Dinner in Washington, DC. The First Lady will also attend.”
SPOTTED: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in first class on the 10 a.m. shuttle Saturday morning from D.C. to New York. She was talking on the phone about Donald Trump… Jonathan Capehart having dessert with Michael Steele at Le Diplomate last night ... Eric Holder at Terminal B in DCA yesterday ... Labor Secretary Tom Perez yesterday on the 4:45 from DCA to Chicago (h/t @BWhiteofficial)
KATIE COURIC has a new podcast episode where she spoke with former editor Tina Brown and Bob Woodward. “They discussed Hillary Clinton’s insecurities, Donald Trump’s militaristic instincts, and how the death of Princess Diana had a profound impact on both society and mass media.” http://bit.ly/2cyJMuq
TRANSITIONS -- OBAMA ALUMNI -- Adam Hodge, most recently at Treasury, emails friends and colleagues: “Friends, As some of you know, I rejoined the DNC earlier this week as Communications Director. I’m excited to be back for a third stint to help elect Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine, and Democrats all across the country.”
ENGAGED -- HILLARY ALUMNI -- David Helfenbein, VP at DKC PR, former aide to Secretary Hillary Clinton and host of The Gaggle Podcast, got engaged to Leigh Shirvan, independent marketing consultant, former director of marketing at Financier Patisserie and DEG and creator of “HungryObsession” on Instagram -- last night in Ogunquit, Maine. The two met on JDate three years ago. 3 pics on one page http://bit.ly/2csngpR
WELCOME TO THE WORLD – BUSH ALUMNI – ICE alum Stephen Cox, corporate counsel at oil company Apache Corporation, and Cristina Cox, assistant director of fine arts at Presbyterian School in Houston, email friends and family: “[Thursday] we celebrated the birthday of our son, Lawrence Diego Cox, who came in at 9 pounds, 1 ounce, 20 inches. ... He is named after Stephen's grandfather Lawrence ‘Larry’ Cox, Cristina’s grandfather Diego Alonso de la Torre, and Saint Lawrence of Rome. Diego de la Torre was a brilliant counselor in Cuba who worked in law and politics—he served as a senior advisor to the Cuban prime minister ... Larry Cox worked for US Customs and was a man of many other talents ... And of course St. Lawrence was a chief deacon of Rome and a martyr known for his sense of humor even on his death bed—on a gridiron, he quipped to the guards, ‘You may turn me over now—this side is well done.’” Pics http://bit.ly/2ck3oDH ... http://bit.ly/2bZSPqr ... http://bit.ly/2cLTSLS
-- Erin Grandstaff, EVP at Squared Communications and husband Matt, global community lead at Bethesda Softworks, and big sister Grayson welcomed Maisie Grandstaff to the world at 7:30 p.m. Friday night. Maisie, who was born in D.C., weighed in at 6 lbs. 7 oz. (h/t Michael Meehan) Pic http://bit.ly/2cNgkEh
OUT AND ABOUT – “Massachusetts Ave Meeting of the Minds”: “Economic Studies at Brookings welcomed AEI economists to the neighborhood Friday afternoon for conversation, cocktails, and ice cream. AEI plans to return the favor once fully settled into their new headquarters.
“Scholars spotted debating secular stagnation over sundaes”: Ted Gayer, Alice Rivlin, David Wessel, Isabel Sawhill, Joshua Gotbaum, William Gale, Martin Baily, Arthur Brooks, Michael Strain, Kevin Hassett, Robert Doar, Tom Miller, Alex Brill, Joe Antos, Ed Pinto.
BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): AP’s Matt Lee … Dwayne Carson ... Rob Biederman, CEO of Catalant Technologies, turned 3-0.
BIRTHDAYS: Sara Bonjean, celebrating with a Funfetti microwave cake, a box of ice cream, a couple dozen twinkies, a 26-ounce T-bone steak and a 40 of Schlitz (hat tips: hubby Ron and Sean Spicer) … CAP president Neera Tanden (we jumped the gun yesterday) ... Jess McIntosh, director of comms outreach at Hillary for America, Franken and EMILY’s List alum (h/ts Jesse Ferguson and Jon Haber) ... Bill O’Reilly is 67 ... Andrew Shapiro, founder and managing director at Beacon Global Strategies and a Hillary and State alum (h/ts Jeremy and Philippe) ... Hunter Walker, national correspondent at Yahoo News and a Business Insider alum, is 32 ... Corinne Hoare, professor at AU’s School of Communication and an OMB alum (h/t Spicer) ... WSJ City Hall reporter Mara Gay ...
… 1776 founder Donna Harris (h/t Kurt Bardella) … Justin Cooper is 36 ... USA Today SCOTUS reporter Richard Wolf, a “Husband, dad, autism advocate, baseball fan, dog lover,” per his Twitter ... Politico’s Nahal “Halley” Toosi ... Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) is 62 ... Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) is 68 ... Charlie Szold, campaign manager for David Young for Iowa and an Iowa GOP alum, is 32 (h/t fiancée Anastasia Voskresenskaya) ... CNN political coverage manager Steve Brusk ... Amanda Cowie, head of business and strategy comms at Bloomberg Media (h/t Ashley Bahnken) ... Jack Rivers, associate at Goldman Sachs and Hotchkiss graduate ... Mahen Gunaratna, Clinton campaign spokesman in Florida ... Politico alum Heather Barber, now assistant director for design at IU Communications … Andy Levin, chief legal officer at Relativity Media … Karen Steinberg … CNBC’s Hadley Gamble (h/t Keil) … Oliver Kim, co-founder and ED of Cross-Border Health Dialogue and a Senate Aging and Stabenow alum ... former Sen. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.) is 52 … Justin Wiley, VP of GR of the International Code Council … Justin Mikita ...
… Michael Moroney, senior director of public affairs at Story Partners (h/t wife Francesca Chambers) ... Commerce’s James Slattery is 35 who was a lawyer on Obama 2012 ... Deirdre Hackleman, director of events at Leadership Institute ... Brian Farnkoff, general counsel at Smoot Tewes, is 34 ... NYT alum Jane Gross ... Renee Hudson ... Romney alum Dan Centinello, EVP at Lincoln Strategy Group in SF ... “CBS This Morning” associate producer Gabe LaMonica ... Stan White, COS for Rep. Bob Brady ... Dave Lucas, COS for Rep. Mike Doyle, is 49 … Rick Bryant of Rep. Robin Kelly’s office ... Nicole Tardif, Rep. Comstock’s scheduler ... Will Kline, LC for Sen. Wicker ... Meggie Weiler of Sen. Murray’s office ... former Rep. Al Wynn (D-Md.) is 65 ... John Pezzullo, LA for Rep. Doug LaMalfa ... Trey McKenzie, LD for Rep. Luetkemeyer, is 27 ... Frank Becker … Mara Curley … Bill Hamilton … Kimberly Marie Abbott, VP of comms at World Learning ... Angelica Colantuoni, EVP and head of digital at Percepture … Christina Estrada Teczar ... Rey Ramsey, president of Opterna International ... Rachel Teron DeGirolamo … Tia Torhorst ... Reynolds Honold (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)
THE SHOWS from @MattMackowiak, filing from Austin:
--NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Jeh Johnson (a birthday boy tomorrow) ... Paul Wolfowitz ... Panel: Tom Brokaw, David Brooks, NPR host Audie Cornish and former Obama deputy campaign manager and Precision Strategies partner Stephanie Cutter
--ABC’s “This Week”: Rudy Giuliani ... Jeh Johnson ... Panel: Rep. Marsha Blackburn, E.J. Dionne, John Heilemann, Bill Kristol and Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
--CBS’s “Face the Nation”: John Brennan ... Devin Nunes ... new results from the CBS News 2016 “Battleground Tracker” polls from Ohio and Florida with CBS News’ Anthony Salvanto ... Panel: former Bush 43 homeland security advisor and CBS News senior national security analyst Fran Townsend, author and The Atlantic’s Steven Brill (“Are We Any Safer?”) and The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg ... panel: Peggy Noonan, Jamelle Bouie, Amy Walter and Mark Leibovich ... “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King
--“Fox News Sunday”: Jeh Johnson ... Newt Gingrich ... Xavier Becerra ... Panel: Lisa Boothe, Julie Pace, George Will and Juan Williams ... “Power Player of the Week” with Washington Redskins QB Kirk Cousins
--Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” (10am ET / 9am CT): Michael McCaul ... former NYSE chairman Dick Grasso ... John Ashcroft … Panel: Alfonse D’Amato, Ed Rollins and Judith Miller
--Fox News’ “MediaBuzz” (SUN 11am ET / 10am CT): Nina Easton ... Mollie Hemingway... Penny Lee ... Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell ... Fred Barnes ... former Bush 43 and Obama NSC staffer Gillian Turner ... Jonah Goldberg
--CNN’s “Inside Politics” with John King (SUN 8am ET): Panel: Jonathan Martin, Jennifer Jacobs, Nia-Malika Henderson and Jeff Zeleny
--CNN’s “State of the Union” (9am ET / 12pm ET): Jeh Johnson ... Hillary Clinton (taped interview by CNN’s Chris Cuomo) ... FDNY chaplain Monsignor John Delendick ... Panel: John King, Andy Card, former State Department special representative to Muslim Communities and the Council on Foreign Relations’ Farah Pandith and Mary Matalin
--CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” (SUN 10am, 1pm ET) -- Panel: Tom Friedman, author and the London School of Economics’ Fawaz Gerges (“ISIS: A Short History”), WSJ’s Mary Kissel and author and New America president & CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter (“Unfinished Business: Women, Men, Work, Family”) ... Leon Panetta ... London Mayor Sadiq Khan
--CNN’s “Reliable Sources”: (SUN 11am ET): Aaron Brown ... Panel: Katrina vanden Heuvel, Mollie Hemingway and David Zurawik ... Ezra Klein ... Vanity Fair’s Sarah Ellison and American University’s Jane Hall
--Univision’s “Al Punto” (SUN 10am ET / 1pm PT): Special 9/11 commemoration... Vicente Fox ... Mexican political analyst Denise Dresser ... CENCOS executive director Ixchel Cisneros Soltero ... La Raza’s Clarissa Martínez-De-Castro, CHIRLA’s Jorge-Mario Cabrera and America’s Voice’s Frank Sharry ... Hispanics for Johnson-Weld co-chairs Juan Hernandez and Lionel Sosa ... singer-songwriter Lila Downs
--C-SPAN: “The Communicators” (SAT 6:30pm ET): Author Scott Woolley (“The Network: The Battle for the Airwaves and the Birth of the Communications Age”) … “Newsmakers” (SUN 10am ET): Live coverage of 9/11 commemorations … “Q&A” (SUN 8pm & 11pm ET): Author David Cay Johnston (“The Making of Donald Trump”)
--MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation with Rev. Al Sharpton”: (SUN 8-9am ET): Joe Crowley... Jonathan Alter ... NYT’s Yamiche Alcindor ... MSNBC terrorism analyst Malcolm Nance
--“MSNBC Live”: (SUN 8-8:53am ET): The Atlantic’s Steve Clemons ... NYT’s Yamiche Alcindor ... Joe Crowley ... Jonathan Alter
--“MSNBC Special”: (SUN 8:53am-12:01pm ET): 9/11/01: “The Today Show”
--“MSNBC Live”: (SUN 12:01pm-2pm ET): Robert Costa ... Jay Newton-Small ... Raul Grijalva ... Jill Stein ... Amy Holmes... Howard Dean ... 9/11 Memorial Museum director Alice Greenwald ... former CIA analyst Nada Bakos ... author and UVA’s Larry Sabato (“The Kennedy Half Century”).