Latest news with #PoliticoPlaybook
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Why in the World Was John Fetterman Dining With Steve Bannon?
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman was spotted Monday night chatting with Steve Bannon, according to Politico Playbook. Fetterman, who has displayed his own dramatic rightward shift, was reportedly dining at a top MAGA hangout near Capitol Hill with Breitbart's Matthew Boyle, when the conservative news site's old director wandered up and spoke to the pair for roughly 20 minutes. Bannon took over Breitbart in 2012, and directed the site to publish patently pugnacious rhetoric and conspiracy theories cooked up by far-right activists and white supremacists. In 2016, Bannon stepped down to join Trump's presidential campaign as its CEO, and went on to mastermind the authoritarian MAGA movement. Fetterman broke with his party yet again on Monday to condemn the anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles. 'I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that. This is anarchy and true chaos,' he wrote in a post on X. 'My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement,' he added. Bannon has a slightly different view of the unrest in Los Angeles, which has been spurred on by Donald Trump's decision to deploy the National Guard, and now the Marines. 'We're in the Third World War,' he said in an interview published on Monday. 'And it's a battlefield that's everywhere, including in downtown Los Angeles.' Last month, a damning report said that some of Fetterman's staff were concerned about his increasingly erratic behavior, and Republican lawmakers flocked to support the Democratic senator with whom they'd inexplicably come to agree. Fetterman was one of the more than two dozen Democrats to support the Laken Riley Act, which would, among other things, allow the government to detain undocumented immigrants accused of committing nonviolent crimes.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Jake Sullivan disputes book's claim that Biden forgot his name
Jake Sullivan, who served as former President Biden's national security adviser, said Thursday he does 'not recall' the former president ever forgetting his name, as described in a forthcoming book from CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios's Alex Thompson. In an interview at Politico's Security Summit, Politico Playbook's managing editor and author Jack Blanchard asked the former White House official about reporting in the book that claims Biden forgot Sullivan's name in December 2022, calling him 'Steve' a couple of times. 'I do not recall that ever happening,' Sullivan said when asked about the veracity of the account. 'And I will tell you, Joe Biden knows my name. He knows my name — like, I talk to him, even now — so I was surprised to read that in the book.' Sullivan defended the job Biden did in office and what he saw from his interactions with the former president during his term. 'What I will, more generally, say is I had to wake the president up in the middle of the night when there were crises. I had to go into him at various points when unexpected things happened — and surely plenty of unexpected things happened during the time that he was in office and that I was in the seat,' Sullivan said. 'I did that over the course of the four years. And I saw him operating, decisionmaking, executing as commander in chief throughout that time,' he continued. The remarks come amid new reporting from excerpts of Tapper and Thompson's forthcoming book, 'Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.' The reporting suggests members of the former president's Cabinet were iced out toward the end of his term and that only a handful of longtime close advisers and members of his family would interact frequently with the president. The book also cites aides who said Biden would sometimes 'mumble incoherently.' Blanchard, in the interview with Sullivan, pressed the former Biden aide on whether he ever witnessed moments in which Biden would 'fade away,' as described in the book. 'I could just tell you my own personal experience,' Sullivan responded. 'I cannot speak on behalf of aides, unnamed people, and I can't speak on behalf of what folks, you know, reacted to when they saw him operating in public. All I can do is tell you my experience with him, and that's what I've done.' A spokesperson for Biden told The New York Times that the president's team had not seen a copy of the book nor been consulted about fact-checking. 'We are not going to respond to every bit of this book,' the spokesperson said. 'We continue to await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job. In fact, the evidence points to the opposite — he was a very effective president.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
15-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Jake Sullivan disputes book's claim that Biden forgot his name
Jake Sullivan, who served as former President Biden's national security adviser, said Thursday he does 'not recall' the former president ever forgetting his name, as described in a forthcoming book from CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios's Alex Thompson. In an interview at Politico's Security Summit, Politico Playbook's managing editor and author Jack Blanchard asked the former White House official about reporting in the book that claims Biden forgot Sullivan's name in December 2022, calling him 'Steve' a couple of times. 'I do not recall that ever happening,' Sullivan said when asked about the veracity of the account. 'And I will tell you, Joe Biden knows my name. He knows my name — like, I talk to him, even now — so I was surprised to read that in the book.' Sullivan defended the job Biden did in office and what he saw from his interactions with the former president during his term. 'What I will, more generally, say is I had to wake the president up in the middle of the night when there were crises. I had to go into him at various points when unexpected things happened — and surely plenty of unexpected things happened during the time that he was in office and that I was in the seat,' Sullivan said. 'I did that over the course of the four years. And I saw him operating, decision-making, executing as commander-in-chief throughout that time,' he continued. The remarks come amid new reporting from excerpts of Tapper and Thompson's forthcoming book, 'Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.' The reporting suggests members of the former president's Cabinet were iced out toward the end of his term and that only a handful of long-time close advisers and members of his family would interact frequently with the president. The book also cites aides who said Biden would sometimes 'mumble incoherently.' Blanchard, in the interview with Sullivan, pressed the former Biden aide on whether he ever witnessed moments where Biden would 'fade away,' as described in the book. 'I could just tell you my own personal experience,' Sullivan responded. 'I cannot speak on behalf of aides, unnamed people, and I can't speak on behalf of what folks, you know, reacted to when they saw him operating in public. All I can do is tell you my experience with him, and that's what I've done.' A spokesperson for Biden told the New York Times that the president's team had not seen a copy of the book nor been consulted about fact-checking. 'We are not going to respond to every bit of this book,' the spokesperson said. 'We continue to await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job. In fact, the evidence points to the opposite — he was a very effective president.'
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
MSNBC Makes Key Political Hire as It Builds a New D.C. Bureau
As it prepares for its future spun off from Comcast, the new leaders of MSNBC have made a key hire to build up its political reporting infrastructure. Sudeep Reddy was enlisted away from Politico to join the cable news TV brand as it establishes its own presence in Washington, D.C. apart from NBC News and creates its own beltway bureau. Reddy, who led 150 journalists as senior managing editor at the Arlington-based trade publication during an eight-year tenure, will start at MSNBC on June 16. More from The Hollywood Reporter Stephanie Ruhle Sets MSNBC Primetime Special With Laid-Off Federal Workers (Exclusive) At WHCD Weekend, Glam With a (Small) Dash of Dystopia White House Correspondents' Dinner Focuses on Awards, Journalism as Trump Snubs Comic-Free Soirée He'll report to Scott Matthews, the svp of newsgathering who just joined the channel's leadership from WABC-TV in March. 'Sudeep's appointment signals the importance of original and enterprise reporting for the future of MSNBC,' Matthews wrote in a memo to staff. 'He will lead our Washington team to focus not just on the happenings inside Washington but also on how decisions in the capital will impact people across the nation and around the world.' The work to build up its own political reporting muscle is ahead of Comcast's separation of its cable TV business into a nondescriptly named firm called Versant that will include MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, Oxygen, E!, Syfy and the Golf Channel. Versant, which will be run by NBCU exec Mark Lazarus, says its brands reach 70 million homes and generate $7 billion in revenue annually. The close date for that deal is expected later this year. NBC News, and its newsgathering resources along with franchises like the Today show, are staying put at Comcast. And several key reporting talents are being divided up between NBC News and Versant's MSNBC and CNBC, among them Steve Kornacki, who inked a deal to exit MSNBC to stay put among the Comcast stable. So MSNBC has been making notable hires — Matthews is looking to hire for an estimated 100 roles — to fill the void in reporting areas that had been occupied by NBC News resources. Reddy will oversee coverage of Capitol Hill, the White House, the State Department, Justice Department and Supreme Court as the exec looks to build the MSNBC D.C. bureau. As the line between cable television blurs with longform video podcasting, MSNBC has also been hiring from a new competitive set, including bringing on former NBC News alum and recent Crooked Media GM Madeleine Haeringer to oversee its podcast and audio offerings. New products, amid a rapidly shifting linear-to-digital landscape and evolving media ecosystem, appears to be one part of the equation for MSNBC. Matthews added of Reddy in the memo to staff, 'While at Politico, he launched dozens of new products, including newsletters, podcasts, live events and digital offerings; guided strategy and operations for Politico Playbook during the first Trump administration; and built the newsroom's first audio team from the ground up.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
MSNBC Hires Politico's Sudeep Reddy As Washington Bureau Chief
Sudeep Reddy, a veteran of Politico and The Wall Street Journal, will be MSNBC's first Washington, D.C. bureau chief as the network is spun off from parent NBCUniversal and Comcast later this year. The D.C. bureau will be at the Hall of States building, the same complex where NBC News is now. But the network said that it will be separate from the broadcast outlet, which will no longer be a sister network. More from Deadline Bruce Springsteen Says Trump Is Running "A Corrupt, Incompetent And Treasonous Administration" Judge Hears Arguments In Corporation For Public Broadcasting's Challenge To Donald Trump's Removal Of Three Board Members CNN Plans Launch Of New Streaming Service This Fall In a memo to staffers, Scott Matthews, the senior VP of newsgathering for MSNBC, wrote that Reddy 'will lead our Washington team to focus not just on the happenings inside Washington but also on how decisions in the capital will impact people across the nation and around the world.' Reddy will start on June 16. He most recently has been senior managing editor of Politico, leading a staff of 150 journalists. He previously was at The Wall Street Journal, including as an economics editor in D.C. directing coverage of U.S. and international economic news. He also is on on-air contributor for American Public Media's Marketplace for the past 15 years. Matthews wrote that while at Politico, Reddy 'launched dozens of new products, including newsletters, podcasts, live events and digital offerings; guided strategy and operations for Politico Playbook during the first Trump administration; and built the newsroom's first audio team from the ground up.' Reddy will report to Matthews and work with Erin Zimmerman, vice president of newsgathering. Matthews plans to hired more than 100 journalists as MSNBC builds a newsroom. The team of correspondents will include those covering the White House, Capitol Hill, the State Department, the Justice Department and the Supreme Court. Best of Deadline Where To Watch All The 'Mission: Impossible' Movies: Streamers With Multiple Films In The Franchise Everything We Know About 'My Life With The Walter Boys' Season 2 So Far 'Bridgerton' Season 4: Everything We Know So Far
