Playbook Deep Dive
Welcome to Playbook Deep Dive, the stories behind the power. From Congress and the White House to bar stools and back rooms, POLITICO Playbook’s Ryan Lizza brings you interviews with the most compelling and important figures who explain what’s really going on in Washington.
Episodes
April 19, 2024 • 50 mins
After months of delay, this week House Speaker Mike Johnson advanced his
much awaited version of the Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan foreign aid
package.
Standing between that legislation and the House floor: two very powerful
committees.
First, the House Appropriations Committee, which controls about a third
of federal spending. And second, the Rules Committee, which controls
access to the House floor, and which has become a proble...
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April 12, 2024 • 37 mins
Michael Cohen may be the only person standing between Donald Trump and
jail. Three of Trump’s four criminal trials — the ones in Washington,
Florida and Georgia — seem hopelessly stalled. But on this coming Monday
in New York, the hush money case is set to begin.
Deep Dive guest and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen is the star
witness in the case. On this episode, he joins host and Playbook
co-author Ryan Lizza to discuss how he ...
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April 5, 2024 • 37 mins
On April 1, the Florida Supreme Court issued a pair of decisions on
abortion that led the Biden campaign to declare that Florida, which
Democrats have lost twice to Donald Trump, was now “winnable.”
The only problem with that? Some of Florida’s abortion rights advocates
want the president to stay away. At issue is Amendment 4, a measure on
November’s ballot that would enshrine abortion in the state constitution
— and will also nee...
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March 29, 2024 • 28 mins
A year ago today, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was
arrested in Russia and charged with espionage, an allegation he and the
Journal said was absurd. The State Department declared that Gershkovich
was “wrongfully detained,” an official status that commits the Biden
administration to work for his release.
Journal publisher Almar Latour has played a key role in the legal and
diplomatic effort to free Gershkovich. On t...
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March 22, 2024 • 49 mins
The politics of the Israel-Hamas war have become one of the most
divisive issues in the Democratic Party. Mark Mellman, the president of
Democratic Majority for Israel – and a longtime pollster – joins host
and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza to get into the weeds on the new
politics of Israel within the Democratic Party.
Other subjects covered include the polling data behind Biden’s age,
Trump’s hold on the GOP, double doubters, a...
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March 15, 2024 • 25 mins
TikTok, abortion, and IVF: three of the biggest issues in American
politics right now and Kellyanne Conway is in the middle of all of
them.
Conway has been advising Donald Trump and Mike Pence for years and
lately she’s best known for urging the GOP to leave TikTok alone and
moderate the party’s message on reproductive rights.
On this episode of Deep Dive, host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza has
a spirited conversation with ...
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March 8, 2024 • 45 mins
First ladies are among the most powerful advisers in any White House and
Jill Biden is no exception. On this episode of Deep Dive, host and
Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza is joined by NYT White House correspondent
Katie Rogers, who recently published “American Woman: The
Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill
Biden,” an authoritative account of how this century’s first ladies have
influenced the natio...
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March 1, 2024 • 53 mins
Carlos Lozada is a columnist for The New York Times, and before that,
the longtime nonfiction book critic for The Washington Post.
In 2019, Lozada won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism for a series of
pieces that judges described as “trenchant and searching reviews and
essays that joined warm emotion and careful analysis in examining a
broad range of books addressing government and the American experience.”
Well, he's now collect...
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February 23, 2024 • 46 mins
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) has a way of being in the middle of things,
whether it’s standing up to Trump after Jan. 6 when many in her party
kept quiet, helping overthrow House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, or warning
Republicans about how they were wrong when it comes to the politics of
abortion.
But some of that drama is catching up with Mace back home in South
Carolina, which on Saturday will be the center of the political world as
vo...
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February 16, 2024 • 45 mins
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the ranking member on the House Intelligence
Committee, joins host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza to discuss
everything you might want to know about Russian space weapons, Section
702 reforms, and the behind-the-scenes action at the Intelligence
Committee during a week of extraordinary volatility.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Jim Himes is the representative for Connecticut's 4th di...
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February 9, 2024 • 36 mins
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) was the Democratic lead on the much
anticipated bipartisan border legislation that was supposed to sail
through the Senate and unlock funding for the war in Ukraine. But
everything went sideways this week when Republicans, at Donald Trump’s
insistence, abruptly turned against the bill. On this episode of Deep
Dive, Sen. Murphy tells host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza what
really happened behind the s...
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February 2, 2024 • 59 mins
Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) discusses the unique role she
plays as one of President Joe Biden’s campaign co-chairs who is also
opposed to some of the key policies he is pursuing on immigration and in
the Middle East.
On this episode, she tells Deep Dive host and Playbook co-author Ryan
Lizza:
- Her views on Biden’s border policies and the senate bill
- Her own ideas of what a winning immigration policy looks l...
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January 26, 2024 • 42 mins
Mark Penn is best known for two things: his devotion to centrist
politics and his former role as the top pollster and strategist for Bill
and Hillary Clinton. Lately, he’s added a third: a barrage of polls that
show a large majority of Americans are crying out for an alternative to
Trump and Biden.
On this episode of Deep Dive, he talks with host and Playbook co-author
Ryan Lizza about his relationship (or lack thereof) with No L...
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January 19, 2024 • 60 mins
Joe McQuaid, the longtime publisher of The New Hampshire Union Leader –
the 161-year old conservative paper that has operated like a Republican
party boss for many decades – joins Deep Dive to tell host and Playbook
co-author Ryan Lizza everything you need to know about Tuesday’s New
Hampshire primary, including whether or not Nikki Haley can win, if
she’ll get the Union Leader’s endorsement, and whether New Hampshire’s
primacy in ...
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January 12, 2024 • 42 mins
David Axelrod, the former top Obama strategist, has been offering some
tough medicine to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. In November, he
suggested Biden think long and hard about running for reelection. He has
been withering about Biden’s skills as a candidate and communicator. He
is deeply concerned about the president’s age. And unlike other
Democrats in the anti-bedwetting set, Axe has been clear that the party
should be frea...
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January 5, 2024 • 53 mins
As the Iowa caucuses near, Playbook’s Ryan Lizza and POLITICO Politics
Bureau Chief Jonathan Martin go deep on what we know – and what we’ll
soon find out – about Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, and Ron
DeSantis’ campaigns.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Jonathan Martin is politics bureau chief for POLITICO.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio.
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December 21, 2023 • 67 mins
Arthur Brooks ran the American Enterprise Institute for more than a
decade. Now, he’s a fulltime happiness scientist. Here’s his guide to
making it in Washington without sacrificing your humanity.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Arthur Brooks is the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice
of Nonprofit and Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and the
author of "Build the Life You Want: The Ar...
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December 15, 2023 • 66 mins
A week of new developments in impeachment, Donald Trump’s D.C. case, and
Hunter Biden’s congressional inquiry showcased how the collision of law
and politics will determine much of Republicans’ and Democrats’
political fortunes in 2024. POLITICO legal editor James Romoser and
national correspondent Betsy Woodruff Swan join to discuss the
implications.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
James Romoser is the legal edit...
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December 8, 2023 • 33 mins
The GOP’s lead negotiator on the embattled Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and
border security supplemental believes that a compromise will happen. But
do his Democratic colleagues in the Senate and his fellow Republicans in
the House agree?
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
James Lankford is the senior U.S. senator from Oklahoma.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO a...
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December 1, 2023 • 32 mins
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise illuminates what happened behind
closed doors after Kevin McCarthy’s ousting as well as what to expect
next on impeachment; why he will vote against expelling George Santos;
and how Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to use immigration to tame
hardliners when it comes to the spending showdown with Joe Biden.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Steve Scalise is the House Majority Leader....
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