The Playbook Podcast
POLITICO’s Jack Blanchard and Dasha Burns bring their fresh insight, analysis and reporting to the biggest story driving the day in the nation’s capital.
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 6 minutes
- Episodes
- 1944
- Years Active
- 2016 - 2025
April 22, 2022: Is Kevin McCarthy toast?
For years now, through controversy after controversy, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has bent over backward to stay in former President Donald Trump's good graces, all to serve one major purpos…
00:05:27 |
Fri 22 Apr 2022
April 21, 2022: Dems eye a culture war clapback
Whether it’s pandemic restrictions and schools, or critical race theory and political correctness, when it comes to the culture wars raging across America, the right often dances circles around the l…
00:06:17 |
Thu 21 Apr 2022
April 20, 2022: How Trump and Thiel resurrected J.D. Vance
Tech mogul Peter Thiel gave J.D. Vance's Ohio Senate campaign a fresh infusion of cash, pouring in $3.5 million to Protect Ohio Values, the super PAC backing Vance, our colleague Alex Isenstadt repor…
00:04:03 |
Wed 20 Apr 2022
April 19, 2022: White House wonders: To mask, or not to mask?
On Monday, just hours after a federal judge struck down the nationwide public transportation mask mandate, major airlines (and even President Joe Biden’s beloved Amtrak) began telling their passenger…
00:04:14 |
Tue 19 Apr 2022
April 18, 2022: The inflation argument splitting Dems in two
Democratic strategists have split in two over how to discuss inflation.
One camp tends to blame the media for focusing too much on the issue at the expense of positive economic news such as low unem…
00:05:56 |
Mon 18 Apr 2022
April 15, 2022: Ohio Republicans team up to stop Vance endorsement
With Ohio’s May 3 Senate GOP primary barely two weeks away and no clear frontrunner, J.D. Vance's rivals are mounting an all-out effort to head off a potential endorsement from former President Donal…
00:04:34 |
Fri 15 Apr 2022
April 14, 2022: Why Hispanic voters could cost Democrats Nevada
In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be out covering the key districts and states that will decide the outcome of the midterm elections.
Nevada has one of 2022’s most under-covered Senate races. Th…
00:06:30 |
Thu 14 Apr 2022
April 13, 2022: Dems split over Biden gas price moves
Here’s something Democrats agree on: High gas prices — and the inflation rate they’re driving up — are a huge political liability.
Here’s something Democrats don’t agree on: what to do about it.
On T…
00:04:05 |
Wed 13 Apr 2022
April 12, 2022: Biden braces for brutal inflation numbers
This morning at 8:30 a.m., the Labor Department will release its newest consumer price index report, and the White House is bracing itself for the political impact of inflation numbers that are widel…
00:04:30 |
Tue 12 Apr 2022
April 11, 2022: SCOOP: Liz Cheney’s record fundraising haul
Rep. Liz Cheney has set another personal fundraising record.
The Wyoming Republican is fighting off a serious challenge from Harriet Hageman, a Cheyenne attorney, and the Aug. 16 primary has turned i…
00:05:13 |
Mon 11 Apr 2022
April 8, 2022: From nomination to confirmation in six weeks
In a history-making vote Thursday afternoon, the Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, where she will be the first Black woman in history to serve as a justice. Immediately aft…
00:05:42 |
Fri 08 Apr 2022
April 7, 2022: Covid’s comeback bursts the D.C. bubble
There’s no denying it: Covid is rocking Washington right now. Days after Saturday’s annual Gridiron Club dinner, multiple attendees of the boujee 600-seat confab have come down with it — including Co…
00:05:14 |
Thu 07 Apr 2022
April 6, 2022: The return of immigration politics
Sen. Mitt Romney is having a bipartisan moment.
The Utah senator kept everyone in suspense until Monday on how he would vote on Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation. He voted against confirming her t…
00:05:54 |
Wed 06 Apr 2022
April 5, 2022: Why Biden’s base is in distress
Democrats are desperately trying to understand what’s roiling the electorate heading into a brutal midterm environment.
HIT Strategies has been conducting weekly focus groups to find out in real time…
00:04:59 |
Tue 05 Apr 2022
April 4, 2022: Democrats’ two-do: Confirm Jackson, land Manchin
The White House and Senate Democrats expect Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, to be confirmed by the end of this week. The final two Republicans still in play, Sens. Mitt Romney (…
00:07:08 |
Mon 04 Apr 2022
April 1, 2022: Biden’s sophomore slump
For President Joe Biden, this was one of those weeks that demonstrated the limits of the powers of the presidency.
Political scientists often like to rib pundits and the public for having a so-calle…
00:07:44 |
Fri 01 Apr 2022
March 30, 2022: Could Trump blow the midterms for the GOP?
All signs point to a typical midterm election this year in which the president’s party suffers double-digit losses in the House. The GOP has the big structural advantages on its side: a Democratic pr…
00:05:00 |
Wed 30 Mar 2022
March 28, 2022: Biden’s budget has Manchin written all over it
We’ll have a lot more on the new Biden budget this afternoon and Tuesday. But here are some highlights of the framing from a White House official:
— Three big things. “The President’s Budget will ref…
00:05:19 |
Mon 28 Mar 2022
March 25, 2022: Inside the new politics of America’s suburbs
We have long been avid readers of the deep-dive political memos written by Doug Sosnik, a former senior adviser to then-President Bill Clinton.
Sosnik’s latest is a very thorough 14-page dissection …
00:05:27 |
Fri 25 Mar 2022
March 24, 2022: Biden in Europe, WMD fears at center stage
The big news at the morning NATO confab, announced Wednesday by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, is threefold: (1) NATO is doubling its military footprint in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and S…
00:05:27 |
Thu 24 Mar 2022
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