With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
PLAYBOOK’S BEST BOOKS OF 2023 — This was the year when DONALD TRUMP became a little less dominant in the political book market, when the ideological divides inside the Democratic Party became a hot publishing topic, when the market for JOE BIDEN books was tested, and when we all ran to Kramers and Politics and Prose to find something to read about AI, Israel and aging.
The best books about the Democrats: Most high-profile books about the Dems this year generally tackled the divide between moderates and progressives, and most were critical of the left’s ascendance and the effect it was having on the party.
The best books about the Republicans: Books about the GOP were once again dominated by accounts of Trump’s transformation of the party and American politics. While there were fewer actual Trump books than in previous years, the former president loomed large over every book about the right.
The best book about Congress: “Why Congress,” by Philip A. Wallach, which the WSJ aptly notes “is perhaps the most important book on politics published in 2023.”
The best books about the collision of science and politics: This is the category of political books we are reading more than we used to, for obvious reasons. Here are a few we loved:
- “The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century’s Greatest Dilemma,” by Mustafa Suleyman: If you are bewildered by all the talk about artificial intelligence, this is the best place to start, from the co-founder of groundbreaking AI company now inside Google. No techno utopian, Suleyman predicts a frightening collision between AI, genetic engineering and weak global political institutions.
- “Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity,” by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford: The runaway bestseller endorsed by OPRAH WINFREY and every podcast you listen to that has nothing to do with politics — and yet should be read by ever politician to understand how we might reform food policy, health care, medicine and the pharmaceutical industry.
- “UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government’s Search for Alien Life Here — and Out There,” by Garrett M. Graff. A perfectly timed book with everything you need to know about one of the issues that helped us take a break from 2023’s more earthly political dramas. Listen to our interview with Garrett Graff
- Honorable mentions: “Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn’t Food,” by Chris van Tulleken … “Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will,” by Robert M. Sapolsky
The best books about the media: We were blessed this year with big ambitious reads about three of the most important media institutions — The New York Times, The Washington Post and Fox News — and all three delivered.
- “The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism,” by Adam Nagourney
- “Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post,” by Martin Baron. Listen to our interview with Baron
- “Network of Lies: The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald Trump, and the Battle for American Democracy,” by Brian Stelter
- Honorable mentions: “Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral,” by Ben Smith … “Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet,” by Taylor Lorenz
The best political biographies:
The best books to understand the current Middle East crisis: “The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel’s Battle for Its Inner Soul,” by Isabel Kershner
The best book to understand the war in Ukraine: “The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History,” by Serhii Plokhy
The best book to understand the political trends roiling Europe: “This is Europe: The Way We Live Now,” by Ben Judah. Listen to our interview with Judah
Finally, here are ten books we’re looking forward to in 2024: “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story,” by Kara Swisher … “American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden,” by Katie Rogers … “The Rebels: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the Struggle for a New American Politics,” by Josh Green … “The Washington Book: How to Read Politics and Politicians,” by Carlos Lozada … “The Lie Detectors: In Search of a Playbook for Winning Elections in the Disinformation Age,” by Sasha Issenberg … “The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy After Trump,” by Alexander Ward … “Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity,” by Michele Norris … “LatinoLand: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority,” by Marie Arana … “The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters,” by Susan Page … “The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China, and the Next World War,” by Jim Sciutto
Other end-of-the-year lists to check out: Foreign Affairs … The Guardian … WSJ … The Economist … FT
Good Saturday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
DATELINE BATON ROUGE — Jonathan Martin sits down with outgoing Louisiana Gov. JOHN BEL EDWARDS for a not-quite-valedictory chat, in which the “unicorn” Democrat holds forth on topics ranging from the state of his party to a potential 2027 gubernatorial comeback.
On the supplemental talks in Washington … “Joe Biden ought to be cutting the best deal he can cut on immigration right now. … Get the money for Ukraine and Israel and he will stop bleeding on that issue.”
On recruiting GOP Rep. GARRET GRAVES into the race to succeed him … “I told him it was a wonderful job, that we need good public servants at the highest level and I did tell him that it’s something that he should really consider.”
On a potential nomination as ambassador to the Vatican … “On that particular job, I can tell you that’s one that would be extremely difficult for me to turn down.”
On fellow Louisianan MIKE JOHNSON … “I would feel better about Mike Johnson being speaker of the House if I felt he was someone who really believed in making government work. But … if you’re not willing to use the weight of your office to benefit your state, then there’s very little upside.”
At the White House
Biden will leave the White House in the afternoon for Camp David.
VP KAMALA HARRIS has nothing on her public schedule.
9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US
1. JACK SMITH TAKES AN L: The Supreme Court yesterday turned back an effort by the special counsel to take up the question of Trump’s criminal immunity quickly, per WSJ’s Jess Bravin, Jan Wolfe, Annie Linskey and Aaron Zitner. The high court’s order means that the case will go first to an appeals court, and the legal wrangling might make the current March trial date for Trump’s criminal election subversion case untenable. Yesterday’s order “may prove to be a short-term legal victory” for Trump, Adam Wren writes, but it caps a week “that underscored just how the courts may be more pivotal to the campaign than debates and diners.”
2. REALITY CHECK: “Why a Border Deal Might Not Fix the Border,” by WSJ’s Michelle Hackman and Lindsay Wise: “The immigration-policy proposals that Republicans and Democrats have haggled over for weeks have one big catch — they may not do much to stem the flow of migrants at the border. … The measures under consideration … add up to less than a grand vision for the border and more to discrete policies that may or may not have an impact. … Increasing mandatory detention of asylum seekers is the likeliest of the tools on the table to immediately deter more people from coming — but it isn’t clear how far Democrats are willing to go to detain migrants, particularly families. It’s also one of the most expensive measures.”
The political upshot is risky for both parties if new policies don’t reduce the number of border-crossers: Republicans could face blowback for having taken responsibility for a solution that wasn’t. And it’s not hard to see Biden experiencing the worst of both worlds: angering the left with major anti-immigration moves while facing attacks for more migrant surges.
Related read: “Why McConnell warned Biden on border-Ukraine talks,” by Burgess Everett and Jennifer Haberkorn
3. KREMLINOLOGY: Might Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN accept a cease-fire in the Ukraine war? NYT’s Anton Troianovski, Adam Entous and Julian Barnes reveal that Putin has quietly sent signals for months that he’d be open to stopping the war at its current front lines. Of course, Ukraine doesn’t seem willing to accept ceding any of that territory to its invader, and some American officials don’t believe him. But Putin has delivered back-channel messages going back to fall 2022 along these lines. And several Russian and international officials say Putin “privately telegraphs a desire to declare victory and move on.”
4. HUNGER PANGS: “Mike Johnson’s Florida SNAP problem,” by Meredith Lee Hill, Marissa Martinez and Paroma Soni: “House Republicans’ push to shrink the size of the country’s leading anti-hunger program would disproportionately hit their own Hispanic constituents, just as the GOP is trying to build on recent gains with the key voting bloc ahead of 2024. Three GOP districts in South Florida, along with a handful of other key Hispanic-majority GOP seats, would be among the most hard-hit … That’s presenting another challenge to Speaker Mike Johnson … as he tries to balance the disparate demands of his conference in next year’s farm bill reauthorization fight.”
5. RED-LIGHT REDISTRICT: Wisconsin’s Supreme Court yesterday tossed out the state legislative maps as unconstitutional Republican gerrymanders, reflecting liberals’ new majority on the court and potentially paving the way for more balanced districts, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Molly Beck and Jessie Opoien report. The 4-3 ruling first gives state lawmakers the opportunity to redraw the maps, but warns that the court won’t accept a lopsided attempt. Republicans’ supermajority in the state Senate, which has persisted despite the state’s purple partisan makeup, now looks in jeopardy. The ruling doesn’t affect Wisconsin’s congressional map, though.
6. UP IN SMOKE: “Broken promises: How marijuana legalization failed communities hit hardest by the drug war,” by Mona Zhang, Shia Kapos and Natalie Fertig: “[A] POLITICO investigation found that those efforts have failed to deliver the promised economic justice, while overwhelmingly white and wealthy investors seek to benefit from the cannabis boom. The reasons for those failures vary from state to state, but some of the key factors behind the blunders of state equity programs were lack of funding, shoddy implementation, legal fights and struggles to access banking services.”
Related read: “Working in Legal Cannabis Is Getting Immigrants Denied Citizenship,” by InvestigateWest’s Kaylee Tornay in POLITICO Magazine: “Federal officials consider immigrants ‘drug traffickers’ even in states where cannabis has been legalized.”
7. SPOILER ALERT: ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.’s super PAC American Values 2024 is focusing its ballot access efforts on just seven states: Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York and Texas, Brittany Gibson reports. The group is putting $10 million to $15 million behind the effort, which mostly targets Biden-won states, with one potential goal of Kennedy triumphing in a contingent election. At the same time, the U.S. denied Secret Service protection to Kennedy for the third time, the Deseret News’ Samuel Benson scooped.
Meanwhile, CORNEL WEST went to Michigan this week to make a significant play for Arab American voters angry with Biden over the Israel-Hamas war, Brittany reports from Dearborn, where she found plenty of Biden voters ready to lodge a protest vote against the president.
8. STATE OF THE UNIONS: “Washington Post Guild reaches tentative agreement with publisher,” Reuters: “‘We have reached a comprehensive tentative agreement on a new three-year contract with the Guild,’ a spokesperson for the Washington Post said. The news organization said it hopes the new contract would be ratified next week.”
9. VEEPSTAKES: NIKKI HALEY as Trump’s No. 2? The former president has been asking advisers lately what they think about Haley as she’s risen to become one of his top competitors in the presidential primary, Alex Isenstadt and Meridith McGraw report. Some conservatives see her as an excellent VP pick given her polling strength and complementary political base. But just as quickly, a coterie of Trump allies — including STEVE BANNON, TUCKER CARLSON and DONALD TRUMP JR. — have been moving to quash the speculation, painting her as insufficiently loyal or MAGA. “And they’ve done so with little subtlety; deploying a full-scale media barrage of anti-Haley attacks.”
CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 15 keepers
GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Ryan Lizza:
— “The Story Behind the Rise of Hamas,” by Der Spiegel’s Monika Bolliger, Julia Amalia Heyer, Susanne Koelbl, Christoph Reuter, Fritz Schaap, Thore Schröder and Bernhard Zand: “Even as all eyes were on the PLO, a small Islamist group slowly took root in the Gaza Strip in the late 1980s. But under the leadership of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas grew and grew, and ultimately became the murderous terror group it is today. This is its story.”
— “The Relentless Damian Williams,” by N.Y. Mag’s Errol Louis: “The SDNY U.S. Attorney is one of the country’s gutsiest prosecutors — and a potential headache for Eric Adams.”
— “The Neighbors Who Destroyed Their Lives,” by Robert Kolker in The Atlantic: “Murder and lies in small-town Hawaii.”
— “The Paradoxical Freedom of Tradwife TikTok,” by Kat Rosenfield in Reason: “‘It’s not really a movement. Nobody is pushing it. People are just living it.’”
— “1,374 Days,” by Giorgia Lupi in the NYT: “My life with long Covid.”
— “U.S. and China race to shield secrets from quantum computers,” by Reuters’ David Lague: “The encryption guarding digital communications could someday be cracked by quantum computers. Dubbed ‘Q-day,’ that moment could upend military and economic security worldwide. Great powers are sprinting to get there first.”
— “Can Robots Replace Michelangelo?” by Caleb Stein and Elaine Sciolino in Smithsonian Magazine: “In the birthplace of Italian sculpture, a powerful automated machine tries its hand at an ancient craft.”
— “The Future at 50,” by James Rosen in National Review: “What a group of illustrious prognosticators got right, and wrong.”
— “What Are Farm Animals Thinking?” by Science’s David Grimm: “New research is revealing surprising complexity in the minds of goats, pigs, and other livestock.”
— “What is a good thing happening in the US right now that people aren’t aware of?” Reddit (h/t Andrea Gawrylewski at Scientific American)
Alejandro Mayorkas’ impeachment may be getting closer, while Joe Biden’s could take the slow lane.
Bridget Ziegler has another sex tape that’s been recovered by police.
Christopher Miller, Tom Cotton, Mike Pompeo, Robert O’Brien, Mike Waltz and Mike Gallagher are all in the running for Donald Trump’s Defense secretary.
Lindsey Graham is fighting for Chick-fil-A.
Nikki Haley has a pretty swanky waterfront home in South Carolina.
George Santos is pissed at Delta.
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — The U.S.-Russia Business Council, which has served for three decades as the leading trade association promoting commerce between the two countries, is in the process of shutting down, two people familiar with the matter told Daniel Lippman.
The closure comes nearly two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine decimated business ties between the U.S. and Russia. The council, whose members once included such top companies as Boeing, ExxonMobil, Ford and Apple, helped its U.S. member firms with the complicated process of winding down their Russian operations as the war continued and Western powers moved to isolate President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Now the council’s website has gone offline, marking an imminent end for the trade group founded in 1992 by the late Robert Strauss, the first U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation, to encourage the development of an internationally integrated market economy following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Daniel Russell, the president and CEO of the council, declined to comment.
TRANSITION — Sarah Jackson is now government relations director for the central division of HNTB Corp. She most recently was VP for strategy and public affairs at the Dallas Citizens Council.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), Yadira Caraveo (D-Colo.) and Morgan McGarvey (D-Ky.) … Louisiana Gov.-elect Jeff Landry … Bill Kristol … Texas AG Ken Paxton … Lucinda Guinn of Ralston Lapp Guinn … Dentons’ John Russell IV … Patrick Burgwinkle … Kelley Moore of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito’s (R-W.Va.) office … Steve Thomma of the White House Correspondents Association, the pride of Chicago … Sophia Dycaico of Rep. Bobby Scott’s (D-Va.) office … Fox News’ Shannon Bream … Danielle Ruckert of RH Strategic Communications … retired Gen. Wes Clark … Dan Shott … Natasha Dabrowski … Brittany Bolen … Rich Tarplin … former EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler … Charlie Townsend of the KCE Group … former Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa) … Snezhana Valdman Orlando … Sam Shlafstein of Gen-Z for Change … Chris Peacock (63)
THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here):
ABC “This Week”: Deputy AG Lisa Monaco … Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Trump legal panel: Sarah Isgur and Preet Bharara. Panel: Asma Khalid, Alex Burns, Ruth Marcus and Ramesh Ponnuru.
Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures”: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) … John Ratcliffe … Vivek Ramaswamy … Apoorva Ramaswamy … Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
MSNBC “The Sunday Show”: HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge … Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova … Olivia Troye … Michele Norris.
FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.). Panel: Alex Hoff, Howard Kurtz, Marc Thiessen and Kevin Walling. “Keeping the Faith” guests: Zach Williams, TobyMac, Cece Winans, Michael W. Smith and Scott Hamilton.
NBC “Meet the Press,” with a special edition to kick off a new “Meet the Moment” conversation series: Allyson Felix … Selma Blair … Tim Alberta … Masih Alinejad.
CNN “State of the Union,” with a climate change special: Al Gore … Ray Dalio … Katharine Hayhoe. Panel: David Axelrod, Mia Love, Kristen Soltis Anderson and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).
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