| | | | |  | | By Garrett Ross | | Presented by |  | | | |  President Joe Biden delivered remarks on the recent campus demonstrations at the White House this morning. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images | |  | THE CATCH-UP | | President JOE BIDEN at the White House this morning delivered his most extensive remarks on the campus demonstrations that have swept across universities throughout the U.S., condemning the protests that have turned violent. “There is a right to protest. But there is not a right to cause chaos,” Biden said, adding that “peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how Americans respond to consequential issues.” “It’s against the law when violence occurs. Destroying property is not a peaceful protest,” he added. The remarks amounted to an endorsement of the decisions by university administrators, notably at Columbia University and UCLA, to send in police to clear protesters from school property — and they come, Adam Cancryn notes, as the “movement has grown and intensified … spreading to more than 100 campuses as students erected encampments and issued demands for colleges to divest from their ties to Israel.” Biden also rebuked “the antisemitic episodes that have occurred alongside the protests, asserting that ‘there should be no place on any campus, no place in America, for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students,’” Adam adds. Biden is expected to expand on the theme Tuesday in a speech at a Holocaust memorial ceremony on Capitol Hill. Before leaving the lectern, reporters in the room shouted a handful of questions, prompting two notable responses:
- Asked whether the protests have forced him to “reconsider any of the policies with regard to the region,” Biden responded: “No.”
- Asked whether he thinks the National Guard should intervene in any of these situations (as Speaker MIKE JOHNSON has urged), Biden responded: “No.”
|  Donald Trump is back in court for his criminal trial in Manhattan. | Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP | THE TRUMP TRIAL — DONALD TRUMP is back in a Manhattan courtroom for the criminal trial against him, where Judge JUAN MERCHAN began the day weighing whether recent comments from the former president violated his gag order. In the early goings, Merchan “appeared open to some defenses raised by Trump attorney TODD BLANCHE at Thursday’s contempt hearing on Trump's four additional alleged gag order violations. But the judge was very skeptical of other arguments by the defense lawyer,” Ben Feuerherd reports. But in the end, Merchan declined to rule on the contempt charges brought by prosecutors and did not indicate when he might hand down a decision. Moving on: Just after noon, prosecutors wrapped up their direct examination of witness KEITH DAVIDSON, a lawyer who represented both KAREN McDOUGAL and STORMY DANIELS. Follow along for all of the updates from the courtroom with POLITICO’s live blog WILD STORY — “How an Ordinary Guy Took a $3,000 Case to the Supreme Court,” by WSJ’s Ben Foldy: DOD employee STUART HARROW “is waiting to find out whether a missed email spells an end to his 11-year quest to get $3,000 of pay (and interest) he says was wrongly withheld during 2013 budget cuts that briefly forced him out of work. His case would feel right at home in small-claims court.” Good Thursday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at gross@politico.com.
| | | | A message from the Small Business Payments Alliance: SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS: INFLATION IS MAJOR THREAT & A TOP DRIVER OF COSTS: According to a new survey, a majority of small business owners (64%) believe skyrocketing inflation is hurting their bottom line. Yet politicians in Washington are focused on credit card costs, which nearly 9 in 10 (86%) businesses say is not a top business expense. Durbin-Marshall is an unnecessary fix for the wrong problem. Read full survey here. | | | | | 7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW | | |  Foreign policy hands want Biden to keep pressing the case for supporting Ukraine. But election considerations are creeping in. | Getty Images/Kevin Dietsch | 1. THE MESSAGING WAR: Now that Biden has a massive foreign policy win in hand with the sprawling foreign aid legislation that passed Congress last week, his team is “poised to make America’s ongoing commitment to the Ukraine war less of a public focus, as it addresses an electorate preoccupied with economic concerns,” Eli Stokols, Jonathan Lemire and Alexander Ward report. “The cause of democracy will remain a central component of Biden’s reelection campaign — as a unifying thread to discuss everything from Ukraine and Donald Trump to abortion, gun safety and education — so White House and campaign aides said they do not foresee a relentless public relations push to bolster support for the war in Ukraine in the months ahead.” However, “failing to focus the country on why America’s continued backing of Ukraine matters — how it remains an existential concern for countries far beyond Eastern Europe — runs real risks, foreign policy experts warn.” Related read: “U.S. Accuses Russia of Using Chemical Weapons in Ukraine,” by NYT’s Constant Méheut 2. ABORTION ON THE AIRWAVES: The Biden campaign is launching a seven-figure ad centered around abortion today — the two-year anniversary of POLITICO’s publishing a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that would later overturn Roe v. Wade — CBS’ Aaron Navarro, Shawna Mizelle and Nidia Cavazos report: “The Biden campaign ad begins airing one day after a six-week abortion ban took effect in Florida, as well as a repeal by Arizona's legislature of an 1864 law that would have enacted a near-total abortion ban in that state. The ad will run in seven battleground states on various cable networks and will also air during the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.” “The campaign ad, titled ‘Prosecute,’ first shared with CBS News, features an OBGYN physician in Texas talking about how the state's near-total abortion ban, enacted after the Dobbs decision, forced her to flee the state to get care. … The ad begins with a portion of Mr. Trump’s interview with Time Magazine in which he said that it should be up to states to decide whether to prosecute women who receive abortions.” 3. AN ELBRIDGE TOO FAR: ELBRIDGE COLBY, a leading contender to be national security adviser in a potential new Trump administration, sits down for an interview with POLITICO’s “Power Play” podcast. In a particularly notable exchange, Colby had harsh words for British Foreign Secretary DAVID CAMERON. “Cameron finds every opportunity to come and moralize to the Americans after he was responsible for cutting the British military and the ‘panda hug’ of China in the early 2010s. So it’s really the height of audacity for such a person to be coming and lecturing us,” he said. Colby added that Cameron’s trip to D.C. to push for the Ukraine aid package was an “astounding intervention into the American system.” He also noted that he finds DAVID LAMMY, the U.K. opposition Labour Party’s lead on foreign affairs, far preferable to deal with. More from Anne McElvoy and Peter Snowdon … Listen to the full episode here
| | | | THE GOLD STANDARD OF POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries—finance, defense, technology, healthcare, energy—equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists.
Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced, and better sourced than any other—with teams embedded in the world’s most active legislative and regulatory power centers. From Brussels to Washington, New York to London, Sacramento to Paris, we bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY. | | | | | 4. THE WILD WORLD OF RFK: “Inside RFK Jr.’s Chaotic White House Bid,” by WSJ’s Rebecca Ballhaus and Eliza Collins: “As the presidential election was heating up in February, ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.’S campaign made an announcement to staff: CHARLES EISENSTEIN, the director of messaging, would spend weeks in Costa Rica, ‘reconnecting with spirit.’ While there, he recorded a podcast interview in which he said some of his boss’s ideas were ‘actually repugnant’ but that Kennedy was still the best candidate. “In recognition of his sojourn in the Central American country, Eisenstein took a pay cut for working less: rather than earning $21,000 a month, he started billing the campaign $14,000. The episode highlights the unusual nature of the Kennedy operation, which even by the standards of freewheeling political campaigns stands out for its eclectic mix of characters, poor financial planning and what some staffers describe as a dysfunctional, unprofessional atmosphere.” 5. UNCHARTED TERRITORY: As Biden finds himself in the thick of a reelection matchup against Trump, NYT’s Reid Epstein notes that the contours of the campaign are unlike any that the president has faced in his long career. “In 30 years, Mr. Biden never encountered a serious threat to his office. His Republican opponents were underfunded, little-known, inexperienced or some combination of the three. None of them took more than 41 percent of the vote against him. His re-election fight against former President Donald J. Trump — his 13th bid for federal office, all told — is shaping up to be the opposite of those long-ago Senate campaigns: travel-intensive, nasty and close. A rival is, for the first time with him atop the ticket, forcing him to make a compelling case for his return.” 6. THE BACKSTORY: “U.S. forces thought they killed a terrorist. They got the wrong man,” by WaPo’s Alex Horton and Meg Kelly: “A U.S. drone strike in Syria last year killed a 56-year-old shepherd after confusing him for a terrorist leader, an internal investigation concluded, underscoring the Pentagon’s persistent struggle to avoid unintentional casualties despite the Biden administration’s pledge to curb such incidents. The new assessment by U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military activity throughout the Middle East, affirms a Washington Post investigation published a year ago that cast doubt on officials’ initial public claim to have slain a senior al-Qaeda figure.” 7. ONE TO WATCH: “Strongest U.S. Challenge to Big Tech’s Power Nears Climax in Google Trial,” by NYT’s David McCabe: “On Thursday and Friday, lawyers for the Justice Department, state attorneys general and Google will deliver their final arguments in a yearslong case — U.S. et al. v. Google — over whether the tech giant broke federal antitrust laws to maintain its online search dominance. … In the coming weeks or months, the judge who has overseen the trial in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, AMIT P. MEHTA, will deliver a ruling that could change the way Google does business or even break up the company — or absolve the tech giant completely. Many antitrust experts expect he will land somewhere in the middle, ruling only some of Google’s tactics out of bounds.”
| | | | POLITICO IS BACK AT THE 2024 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO will again be your eyes and ears at the 27th Annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles from May 5-8 with exclusive, daily, reporting in our Global Playbook newsletter. Suzanne Lynch will be on the ground covering the biggest moments, behind-the-scenes buzz and on-stage insights from global leaders in health, finance, tech, philanthropy and beyond. Get a front-row seat to where the most interesting minds and top global leaders confront the world’s most pressing and complex challenges — subscribe today. | | | | | | | PLAYBOOKERS | | Bob Menendez wants a psychiatrist to testify as to why he was hoarding cash and gold. Joe Biden expanded two national monuments in California. OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget’s 2024 Fiscal Heroes reception last night at Charlie Palmer Steak: Maya MacGuineas, Kevin McCarthy, Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.), Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.), Ron Estes (R-Kan.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Garret Graves (R-La.), Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.), David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), Adrian Smith (R-Neb.), Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.), Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), William Timmons (R-S.C.) and Steve Womack (R-Ark.), Tim Penny, Dan Crippen, Jane Harman, Bill Hoagland, Ron Kind, Marjorie Margolies, Marne Obernauer Jr., Gene Steuerle and Tom Tauke. — SPOTTED at a launch reception for the new SEEC Institute at the Library of Congress: Reps. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), Sean Casten (D-Ill.), Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.), Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.), Deborah Ross (D-N.C.), Mike Levin (D-Calif.) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), Roger Sant, Catlin O’Neill, Julie Eddy Rokola, Yvonne McIntyre, Javier Gamboa, Jason Gleason, Alexis Marks Mosher, Sam Ricketts, Joseph Eaves, Kevin Stockert, Ian Harrison, Alicia Molt-West, Helen Milby, Jeremy Marcus, Clinton Britt, Ryan Ford, David Schutt and Max Frankel. — SPOTTED at a reception for Benji Backer’s new book, “The Conservative Environmentalist: Common Sense Solutions For A Sustainable Future” ($30), hosted by the American Conservation Coalition, ClearPath and Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Forum last night: Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), John Curtis (R-Utah) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), Heather Reams, Jeremy Harrell, Dylan Gresik, Danielle Butcher Franz, Chris Barnard, Stephen Perkins and Emily Domenech. — SPOTTED at Forbes Tate Partners and the Asian American Leadership Association’s kickoff reception for AANHPI Month yesterday evening: Jeff Forbes, Jeff Strunk, Maryland state Sen. Clarence Lam, Liz Gonzalez, Neal Patel, Stephanie Penn, Alekhya Tallapaka, Nisha Ramachandran, Lucas Lam, Catalina Tam, Saat Alety, Albert Shen, Shanita Penny, Chris DeVore, Lauri Ng, James Bolton and Eliza Green. — SPOTTED at the official opening of Sony’s D.C. offices yesterday evening: Reps. Kevin Mullin (D-Calif) and Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif), Brian Rogers, David Montes, Gary Shapiro, Gail MacKinnon, Stanley Pierre-Louis, Liz Hyman, Cinnamon Rogers, Dileep Srihari, Tara Ryan, Andrew Reinsdorf, Deirdre McDonald, Lisette Morton, Karen Halby, Peter Kim, Shintaro Shiba, Christina Mulvihill, Michael Petricone, David Grossman, Marcus Garza, John Dowdy, Brianna Walker, Saisha White, Emily Goldman, John Connolly, Derron Bennett, Alivia Roberts and Jocilyn Gilbert. TRANSITIONS — Mark Bohannon and Donna Dodson have joined the Center for Cybersecurity Policy and Law as inaugural cybersecurity fellows. Bohannon recently founded Bomar Ventures Consulting after more than a decade at Red Hat. Dodson is a cybersecurity technologist and adviser and a National Institute of Standards and Technology alum. … Daniel Lerman is joining Kramer Levin as a partner in its litigation department. He previously was an appellate attorney with DOJ’s Criminal Division. ENGAGED — Alex Slater, CEO of strategic comms firm CLYDE and an SKDK and FSG alum, and Andy Whittaker, an insights and research consultant, recently got engaged. The engagement took place the day after Christmas in a Scottish pub but the couple has been telling friends and family in person. The couple met on Hinge and had their first date at Dacha, where one drink turned into five hours. Pic Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com 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.
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