With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine

DRIVING THE DAY

THE FRIDAY READ — “Sarah Huckabee Sanders Is Building a MAGA Paradise in Arkansas,” by Dana Liebelson in Little Rock for POLITICO Magazine: “Sanders sees the concerns of Arkansans as the same as America’s, and her actions delight many Arkansans. … Yet there are rumblings — angry educators, cowed Republicans, a falling approval rating, the sense that Sanders is auditioning for a bigger role. During my reporting, it was hard not to notice that, less than two years into Sanders’ tenure, her governorship had disappointed some people closer to home. Arkansans who voted for her. Independents. An old guard of Republicans. Even former allies of her dad.”

THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW: FRANK FAHRENKOPF — On Wednesday morning, Frank Fahrenkopf, co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, received a letter from JOE BIDEN’s presidential campaign that ruined his day.

Biden, the missive said, was bailing on the commission’s 2024 debates — perhaps ending the 36-year reign of Fahrenkopf’s organization over America’s general election presidential debates. Playbook sat down with Fahrenkopf at his Virginia home yesterday, and he had a lot to say about this week’s developments.

The letter to the commission was signed by JEN O’MALLEY DILLON, the Biden for President campaign chair, but Fahrenkopf saw the handiwork of another top Biden adviser — someone he deems to be an implacable enemy of the Commission on Presidential Debates.

“I know where all this is coming [from] — this is ANITA DUNN,” he told Playbook. “This is her plan. I know. She's fought — she was against the commission for years and years and years.”

He cited Dunn’s work on a bipartisan 2015 report from the Annenberg Public Policy Center that called for reforming the presidential debate process.

"Anita hates us and always has," Fahrenkopf said. (Dunn declined to comment.)

He added that former White House Chief of Staff RON KLAIN was also part of the Annenberg study and was similarly hostile to the commission. Fahrenkopf has worked with Klain since 2000 as he represented the last five Democratic nominees (AL GORE, JOHN KERRY, BARACK OBAMA, HILLARY CLINTON and Biden) in negotiations with the commission.

“There was no question,” Fahrenkopf said, that Biden’s letter torpedoing his Commission was the work of Dunn and Klain.

The Biden campaign made three critiques that Fahrenkopf disputed.

1. That the CPD ignores early voting by scheduling debates too late in the year. “They didn’t do their homework because we did our homework,” he said. The commission decided that the first debate had to be after Sept. 6, when the last states finalize which candidates will appear on their ballots. By the June 27 CNN debate, only seven states worth 110 electoral votes will have made those decisions.

2. That the commission’s debates have become “noisy spectacles” packed “with raucous or disruptive partisans and donors,” which does seem to be a stretch, as anyone who has watched a Commission debate knows.

“That is false,” Fahrenkopf told Playbook. “And they know it's false. I mean, they were there last time. There's no cheering that goes on.”

Klain — who, as we first reported last month, will return to help Biden prepare for the debates — said he stood by the criticism.

“I agree with the points in the letter, and it is indisputable that millions of Americans will vote before the first CPD date,” Klain said. He added that “the events are giant with huge crowds of donors to the hosting college and the CPD corporate sponsors. That is also an indisputable fact.”

3. As for Team Biden’s complaint that the commission “was unable or unwilling to enforce the rules” against interruptions when DONALD TRUMP was on stage in 2020, Fahrenkopf threw up his hands.

“What were we going to do?” he said. “Was I going to jump up on the stage? [Moderator] CHRIS [WALLACE] did everything he could to say, ‘You're not obeying the rules. You’re breaking your own rules.’ So I don't know what we could have done.”

Despite the bad blood, Fahrenkopf, who has been part of debate negotiations for four decades, praised the Biden campaign’s strategy this week, arguing that Trump got rolled.

During our interview, the former RNC chair said he agreed with an analysis he read that argued Trump’s acceptance of Biden’s debate terms “could end up being one of the great blunders of the entire election cycle.” He added, “Someone called me this morning and said it was political malpractice.”

Fahrenkopf blamed Trump’s short attention span. He suspects Trump made the decision to accept the Biden proposal without listening to his staff. He said he doubts “Donald saw all of the details” in the Biden plan and that overall “it was a pretty spectacular job by the Biden people.”

Asked for a response, the Trump campaign went nuclear. “Frank’s political analysis is as relevant as the Commission on Presidential Debates is … which is … oh wait … done,” Trump adviser CHRIS LaCIVITA said in a text message to Playbook. “The bottom line is we have debates that are a far cry more than an outdated Washington committee filled with a bunch of washed up swamp rats could deliver. Frank’s a cassette tape living in a digital world and some of the biggest political blunders on the Republican side have been in participating in his ‘commission’s’ debates.”

There was one more bit of pot-stirring from Fahrenkopf. He noted that the Biden campaign essentially demanded that no other candidates be allowed in the debates. Some reports suggested that CNN accepted this demand. “A Trump campaign official said a CNN producer had given assurances in a call Wednesday morning that ‘RFK will not be on the stage,’ after describing the criteria for the event,” the Washington Post reported.

But the FEC has rules for presidential debate sponsors, including cable networks, on the criteria they set for candidate selection. Fahrenkopf knows the rules well because the commission has regularly been sued by third parties.

He told Playbook that he suspects ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. may have a legal case against CNN because the network “promised [the Biden campaign] that they wouldn't let [RFK Jr.] in.”

Asked if he would sue the network if he were RFK, Fahrenkopf said, “Yeah, what do you got to lose? Give it a shot.”

A spokesperson for CNN declined to comment, including about whether the network promised that Kennedy would be excluded from the debate. It’s worth noting that CNN has posted clear criteria for candidate participation and also that in April CNN co-signed a letter urging the candidates to participate in the Commission debates.

RFK Jr.’s campaign is not heading to court anytime soon and is actually taking a different approach. On Wednesday, the campaign sent an email to CNN making the case that RFK could still qualify for the June 27 debate by CNN’s June 20 deadline. The campaign declined to release the email.

According to Kennedy spokesperson STEFANIE SPEAR, the plan “has to do with our ballot access work over the past many months and what we will be able to achieve between now and the June 20 deadline.” She added that the campaign has a call planned with CNN today “to discuss the details of Mr. Kennedy’s participation.”

"We appreciate the comments we’re hearing from political pundits ... regarding legal grounds for insisting Mr. Kennedy be allowed to debate,” Spear said. “It’s our hope and expectation, however, that CNN will stand by their criteria, as well as their commitment to free discourse on behalf of American voters.”

There’s much more in the full conversation with Fahrenkopf on this week’s Playbook Deep Dive, which you can listen to on Apple or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Happy Friday. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.

TALK OF THIS TOWN — Michael Schaffer’s latest Capital City column: “Big Trouble in Intern City: Remote work and higher pay have made internships harder to find.”

PAGING JOHN ROBERTS — Yesterday, NYT’s Jodi Kantor landed the latest bombshell report raising questions about the impartiality and nonpartisanship of Supreme Court justices. Drawing on photos and interviews from Justice SAMUEL ALITO’s neighbors, Kantor reports that in the days following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, Alito’s home in Alexandria, Virginia, was seen displaying an upside-down American flag, a symbol that at that time was a rallying cry among Trump supporters sympathetic to his baseless “Stop the Steal” claims.

“‘I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag,’ Justice Alito said in an emailed statement to The Times. ‘It was briefly placed by MRS. ALITO in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.’ Judicial experts said in interviews that the flag was a clear violation of ethics rules, which seek to avoid even the appearance of bias, and could sow doubt about Justice Alito’s impartiality in cases related to the election and the Capitol riot.”

The reaction: There was a predictably partisan split in response to the news.

• On the left, Rep. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-Wash.) tweeted that SCOTUS “has rapidly lost its legitimacy and the trust of the American people because of the numerous conflicts of interest that Justices have and the lack of any semblance of impartiality.” 

• On the right, Sen. TOM COTTON (R-Ark.) accused the Times of “trying to smear Mrs. Alito and incite another mob to try to intimidate justices, harass them at home, or worse.”

• From the center, a thought exercise from TOM NICHOLS (one retweeted by Democratic Hawaii Sen. BRIAN SCHATZ): “[I]magine if, say, [Justice SONIA] SOTOMAYOR said ‘Well, my husband flew an anarchist flag because people were pissing him off.’ This isn't normal, and we shouldn't accept it as normal.”

WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY

On the Hill

The Senate is out.

The House will meet at 9 a.m. to consider legislation regarding violence against law enforcement officers.

3 things to watch …

1. After a six-month delay in passing fiscal 2024 spending and with a new, trusted hand on the House Appropriations gavel, you’d think the fiscal 2025 process might start out on better footing. No such luck: Topline spending levels announced yesterday by House Approps Chair TOM COLE (R-Okla.) came in well underneath the figures in last year’s debt limit deal and much lower than what the Senate is seeking. In short, Jennifer Scholtes and Caitlin Emma report, the numbers set up “yet another multi-month funding clash expected to drag beyond the November election.”
   
2. The House Oversight Committee voted to hold AG MERRICK GARLAND in contempt of Congress following a rowdy late-night debate, and following a similar vote by the House Judiciary Committee earlier in the day. What’s next, though, is entirely unclear. Speaker MIKE JOHNSON hasn’t committed to bringing the contempt referral to the floor amid some moderate bellyaching. Ohio Rep. DAVID JOYCE, for instance, told Jordain Carney that Congress has “important” things to do “but going after the attorney general isn’t one of them.” Conservative hard-liners, meanwhile, want to hit Garland with much more than contempt — possibly defunding or impeachment.
   
3. A new Capitol Hill mystery: Where’s the Jan. 6 plaque? It’s National Police Week, so honoring law enforcement has been front and center at the Capitol. But House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES yesterday had a particular group of officers in mind: the hundreds of Capitol and Metropolitan police whose bravery on Jan. 6 is set to be commemorated with a plaque at the Capitol. Jeffries suggested GOP leaders were slow-walking the process, telling reporters the plaque is finished and “simply awaits a decision by the Republican majority” to put it up. Johnson’s office responded it is working with Capitol officials to get it done.

At the White House

Biden will receive the President’s Daily Brief in the morning. Later in the morning, the president will deliver remarks at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. In the afternoon, Biden and VP KAMALA HARRIS will meet with the leaders of the Divine Nine, historically Black sororities and fraternities. Press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE will brief at 1 p.m.

On the trail

Trump will headline the Minnesota GOP’s Lincoln Reagan Dinner in St. Paul this evening.

PLAYBOOK READS

TRUMP CARDS

THE END IS NIGH — The Trump hush money trial is nearing its end. In fact, “by this time next week, Trump could be a convicted felon — or a newly acquitted man declaring complete and total exoneration,” Kyle Cheney, Erica Orden and Ben Feuerherd write.

Justice JUAN MERCHAN encouraged attorneys for both sides to “prepare for closing arguments as soon as Tuesday,” our colleagues note. “He would then instruct jurors on legal matters before sending them to deliberate.”

Today is a scheduled day off, so former Trump attorney MICHAEL COHEN is scheduled to return to the stand on Monday morning to complete his cross-examination. Once finished, prosecutors are expected to rest their case.

“There’s one crucial variable, though: Will Trump himself take the stand? Blanche told the judge he would discuss it with Trump over the weekend before a final decision.” Speaking of …

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Third Way is rolling out a new five-figure ad buy highlighting Trump's own previous comments about defendants who don’t testify in their own defense. The ad, titled “Coward,” is launching today in Palm Beach, Florida (home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago), Dallas, Texas (where Trump is set to headline the NRA convention this weekend) and New York City.

“Donald, why won’t you testify? After all, you believe only guilty cowards take the Fifth,” the narrator says, before playing a soundbite of Trump saying: “Fifth Amendment, Fifth Amendment, Fifth Amendment. Horrible.” The ad closes with a dare: “Take the stand, Donald, or admit you’re a coward.” Watch the 30-second spot

CONGRESS

WHAT ABOUT BOB? — Jurors at yesterday’s trial against Sen. BOB MENENDEZ (D-N.J.) were treated to something of a show-and-tell by prosecutors — but not before the co-defendants accused of passing cash and gold to Menendez said the valuables were simply gifts among longtime friends.

“Among the evidence shown to jurors were photos of $7,400 inside an envelope with [co-defendant FRED] DAIBES’ name and his businesses address; $14,500 and a Giorgio Armani bag stuffed inside a pair of men’s Timberland boots; and seemingly countless wads of cash stuffed into envelopes and clothes strewn about Menendez’s home,” Daniel Han and Ry Rivard report from New York.

There was also the shock disclosure yesterday that the senator’s wife, NADINE — who is facing her own criminal trial — has been diagnosed with breast cancer and will require a mastectomy. Menendez’s office shared the news in a statement, even as his defense team continued to throw Nadine under the bus at his trial. “A tentative date for her trial had been set for July, but it remains unclear if she will have recovered from her treatment by that time,” Katherine Dailey writes.

More top reads:

• By a final vote of 224-187, the House “delivered a bipartisan rebuke of the Biden administration’s pledge to withhold certain heavy bombs from Israel amid its ongoing conflict in Gaza, passing a bill designed to compel delivery of the weapons,” Anthony Adragna reports. “Only 16 Democrats joined with Republicans to pass the legislation, which the Biden administration has threatened to veto.”

• Rep. RICH McCORMICK (R-Ga.) is staring a messy story in the face after the Daily Mail’s Morgan Phillips reported that he has filed for divorce from his wife, ​​DEBRA MILLER — but that’s just the start of the drama: Sources said McCormick has “often been seen acting overly friendly toward” fellow GOP Rep. BETH VAN DUYNE (R-Texas).

• The House Education Committee yesterday delivered a “scathing report of Harvard’s efforts to combat antisemitism on campus, accusing it of suppressing the findings of its antisemitism advisory group and avoiding implementing its recommendations, even as Jewish students were experiencing ‘pervasive ostracization’ and being harassed,” NYT’s Anemona Hartocollis writes.

ALL POLITICS

HOW IT’S PLAYING — AIPAC, the most prominent pro-Israel group in American politics, “promised to pour tens of millions of dollars into this year’s elections. But it’s mostly not talking about Israel,” Nicholas Wu and Madison Fernandez report.

The group has “entered several congressional races so far, attacking some candidates and boosting their own. But the topic of Israel has come up only minimally, in a handful of Republican races. And the group hasn’t talked about Israel in Democratic primaries at all. On Thursday, the group’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, released its first ads in one of the most competitive Democratic primaries this year — and one the Israel-Hamas war has been hovering over. And once again, it focused on other topics.”

More top reads:

• LARRY HOGAN said in an interview with the NYT that he supports federal legislation to codify Roe v. Wade, “describing himself as ‘pro-choice’ in a remarkable pivot as he heads into a highly competitive race,” Luke Broadwater reports.

• Rep. RUBEN GALLEGO is getting a bipartisan boost for his Arizona Senate campaign, with backing on the way from a group of donors who previously backed Republicans like the late Sen. JOHN McCAIN and outgoing independent KYRSTEN SINEMA, Ally Mutnick reports. “The event signals Gallego is making inroads in two areas GOP opponent KARI LAKE is sharply focused on: money and moderates.”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

LONE STAR STUNNER — “Gov. Greg Abbott pardons Daniel Perry, veteran who killed police brutality protester in 2020,” by the Texas Tribune’s William Melhado

SUNDAY SO FAR …

CBS “Face the Nation”: Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) … Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova … Robert Gates.

NBC “Meet the Press”: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) … Maryland Gov. Wes Moore … Michael Phelps. Panel: Kelly O’Donnell, Symone Sanders-Townsend and Brendan Buck.

CNN “State of the Union”: Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.). Panel: Brad Todd, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Bakari Sellers and Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas).

MSNBC “The Weekend”: Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash) … Sarah Matthews.

NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Mark McKinnon and Lynda Tran. Panel: George Will, Tia Mitchell, Molly Ball and Kellie Meyer.

PLAYBOOKERS

Rudy Giuliani’s 80th birthday wishlist has everything: “an electric razor and Giorgio Armani cologne to ‘stain-blocking ceiling paint’ and a 55-inch TV.”

Dan Goldman appears to have caught the New York Rangers’ dramatic comeback during the Oversight markup.

Cardi B is feeling like a lot of other voters: fed up with Joe Biden, Donald Trump and politics in general.

Pope Francis has an eyebrow-raising definition of conservatism.

OUT AND ABOUT — In celebration of the AANHPI community and the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Congressional Asian and Pacific American Caucus, Match Group hosted a luncheon reception in Rayburn yesterday with Korean-American CEO Bernard Kim. SPOTTED: Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif) and Ted Lieu (D-Calif), Cindy Lim, Mark Buse, Will Cunningham, Keenan Austin Reed, Nisha Ramachandran, Madalene Mielke, Moh Sharma, Gene Kim, Lucas Lam, Stephanie Penn, Tiffany Ge, Maureen Elinzano, Catalina Tam, Chloe Brown, Rosalyn Steward, Anne Kelley and Alekhya Tallapaka.

— The Migration Policy Institute held a gala on Wednesday evening to celebrate the ongoing career of Doris Meissner, who was commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service briefly during the Reagan administration and throughout the Clinton administration and is now a senior fellow at MPI. The dinner, at the Intercontinental at The Wharf, featured remarks by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. SPOTTED: Ur Jaddou, Donna Shalala, Carlos Gutierrez, Thomas Perez, James W. Ziglar, León Rodríguez, Cecilia Muñoz, Julie Myers Wood and C. Stewart Verdery Jr. Pic 

TRANSITIONS — Katie Juhl is now a strategic industry communications specialist at the Peanut and Tree Nut Processors Association. She most recently was communications manager at AccelerEd. … Patrick Ross is now senior speechwriter for FTC Chair Lina Khan. He previously was a senior director at West Wing Writers. … Rachel Bronson is stepping down as president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the end of 2024. … Natalie Raabe is joining Barnard College to lead comms. She previously was VP for comms at The New Yorker.

WEDDING — Blain Rethmeier, senior adviser at GP3-owned public affairs firm 76 Group and a Bush 43 alum, and Gisele Parrilla, a recent MBA grad of Columbia College, got married on Wednesday. The couple originally met in Colorado. Pic

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Matt Mowers, president of global public strategy firm Valcour and a Trump State Department alum, and Cassie Spodak, a senior producer at CNN, welcomed Theodore “Teddy” Lee Mowers on Tuesday. He joins big brother Jack. Pic ... Another pic

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo … NYT’s Mike Shear and Reid Epstein … Mike Smith … NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell … Rachel Palermo … Rick Wiley … Margarita Diaz … WaPo’s Olivia Petersen and Peter Wallsten … POLITICO’s Sean Scott, Maura Reynolds and Thao Sperling … WSJ’s Robin Turner … Cheryl Bruner … The Intercept’s Akela Lacy … Randy Schriver … Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ Shannon Buckingham … Phillip Stutts … Derrick Robinson … Deirdre Murphy Ramsey of Precision Strategies … David Brancaccio … Margaret McInnis of Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s (D-Ohio) office … Brielle Hopkins … Nik Youngsmith of the House Administration Committee … Tim Del Monico … Emily Druckman of Rep. Marc Veasey’s (D-Texas) office … Ralph Neas … former Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) … Adi Sathi … former Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) … Jenna Lowenstein … Bloomberg’s Jeremy Lin … Wynn Radford … Mikaela Dittbrenner

Send Playbookers tips to [email protected] or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this newsletter incorrectly reported the Senate's status on Friday.