POLITICO Playbook: The crosstalk debate

Presented by the Financial Services Forum

DRIVING THE DAY

[CROSSTALK] … There was a lot of it Tuesday night. Lots of interrupting, and shouting. Few moments worth clipping and saving. DRUDGE REPORT’S headline was “CBS MESSY.”

NYT’S JONATHAN MARTIN and ALEX BURNS: “The forum plunged repeatedly into an unsightly spectacle of flailing hands and raised voices, and even outright chaos, with candidates talking over one another and the moderators struggling and failing at times to direct an orderly argument.” … MIKE GRYNBAUM of the Times: “Over two hours, the CBS moderating team — which featured [Gayle] King, the anchor Norah O’Donnell, and three other network journalists — struggled to keep control, calling for order as jawboning candidates talked over their questioners and each other.”

THE FIRST MENTION of the coronavirus -- one of the biggest public health threats to the U.S. -- came more than 80 minutes into the 120-minute debate. The conversation among television and political insiders Tuesday night during and after the debate was that this debate was a disaster. We’re not going to go that far -- these are very difficult affairs to manage, and keep under control. But eek.

JOHN HARRIS COLUMN: “Democrats needed a good debate, but got a bad one”: “The snarling incoherence of the latest Democratic presidential debate Tuesday evening made it painfully hard to follow. But in its own way the encounter perfectly crystallized the twin strategic challenges facing the party.

“The first strategic challenge is the problem of the impassioned plurality represented by frontrunner Bernie Sanders taking control of the party. He is on the verge of succeeding in this goal even as ample evidence remains that he is out of step with a majority of Democrats on both ideology and on practical questions of how to win the 2020 election or to govern afterward.

“The evening was defined by peevish exchanges, raised voices, feeble attempts at humor, complaints about fairness in being allowed to speak, and extended passages of cross-talk in which moderators utterly lost control of the debate and it was impossible even to understand what was being said. The noise was hardly conducive to a sustained or intelligible argument about whether Sanders is the strongest nominee or the one most representative of the views and temper of the party.

“The evening offered limited opportunities—were these possibly enough?—for six Democrats not named Sanders to revive their candidacies with last-stand moments to emerge as the main alternative to the self-described democratic socialist for the balance of the nomination contest.” POLITICO

THE BERNIE ONSLAUGHT … AP’S JULIE PACE: “The pile-on indeed reflected the new reality of the Democratic race for the White House. Riding a wave of enthusiasm among young voters and the strength of an increasingly diverse coalition, Sanders has won two of the first three contests and effectively tied in the third. He’s competing aggressively in South Carolina, which votes Saturday, and could pull away from the field in the all-important delegate lead in next week’s Super Tuesday contests.

“For Sanders, this is new political terrain. He’s spent 40 years in politics as an agitator and an outsider. He’s run for office as an independent and is a loner on Capitol Hill. He prides himself on being ideologically rigid and has been willing to criticize Democratic leaders, including former President Barack Obama, for what he’s seen as politically expedient compromises.” AP

-- WAPO’S DAN BALZ: “Sanders takes fire in an unruly debate that left no candidate truly enhanced”

BUT, BUT, BUT -- RYAN LIZZA: “A Bernie slayer fails to emerge at Tuesday’s debate”

NATASHA KORECKI: “Biden finally shows up to the debate stage — just in time”

WAPO’S MICHAEL SCHERER: “Bloomberg improves from his last debate — but is it enough?”: “While falling short of the glossy image that appeared during the commercial breaks, Bloomberg succeeded in doing what he had failed to do a week earlier in Las Vegas. He delivered his messages — about his experience, his policy goals and his political focus — without a script in front of him, albeit with less polish, more stiffness and a far more stilted style of delivering a joke than his ads suggest. …

“It was an improvement by almost any measure over his debut a week earlier in Las Vegas, when he seemed to shrink from conflict, showed his nerves and spent long periods disengaged from the discussion onstage. This time he frequently raised his hand to demand more time, mostly filled the time he was allotted and pushed back aggressively against his rivals.”

DEFINE: ARREST … “How Biden’s Campaign Explains His ‘Arrest’ in South Africa,” by NYT’s Katie Glueck in Charleston: “But on Tuesday, Kate Bedingfield, a deputy campaign manager, said [Joe] Biden was referring to an episode in which he was separated from black colleagues in Johannesburg while on a congressional delegation trip to South Africa in the 1970s. It was the campaign’s first explanation to date — but one that still left many questions unanswered and did not square with Mr. Biden’s most recent remarks.

“‘He was separated from his party at the airport,’ Ms. Bedingfield said when pressed by reporters following Tuesday’s presidential debate here.

“When a reporter noted that being separated did not constitute an arrest, she repeated, ‘It was a separation. They, he was not allowed to go through the same door that the -- the rest of the party he was with. Obviously, it was apartheid South Africa. There was a white door, there was a black door. He did not want to go through the white door and have the rest of the party go through the black door. He was separated. This was during a trip while they were there in Johannesburg.’”

WHERE THEY ARE: BIDEN will attend the National Action Network breakfast in North Charleston and an event in Georgetown, S.C., before his CNN town hall tonight. … BLOOMBERG will participate in a CNN town hall. … BUTTIGIEG is also attending the NAN breakfast. … KLOBUCHAR will be at the NAN breakfast. She also has a Charleston event at noon and a CNN town hall tonight.… SANDERS will be in Goldsboro, N.C., for a Poor People’s Campaign event. … WARREN will be at the NAN breakfast, and will attend events in Orangeburg and Charleston with John Legend. She has a CNN town hall tonight.

Good Wednesday morning.

WHY THE CORONAVIRUS IS SO DANGEROUS … ACTUALLY, AND POLITICALLY: The key during public health crises is trust. Do you trust that the administration is being honest with you, and can handle a virus that seems to be spiraling out of control, and putting American citizens like you at risk?

ON TUESDAY, YOU HAD PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP saying that the coronavirus was under control, while officials in the U.S. government were saying it was dangerous. Who do you trust, and when they make a move, how do you trust that what they’re doing is the right thing to do?

SCOOP -- BEHIND THE SCENES: SENATE MINORITY LEADER CHUCK SCHUMER led a discussion Tuesday about the coronavirus, and Democrats want to pressure the administration to do something -- and quickly.

SCHUMER RAN THROUGH A POWERPOINT deck laying out how the president has cut back on global health funding and gotten rid of experts. Democrats believe -- and Schumer laid out -- that the federal government is not providing enough testing kits and masks in the case of a virus outbreak on U.S. soil.

HERE’S WHAT SCHUMER WANTS DEMOCRATS TO PUSH THE ADMINISTRATION ON: 1) ask the administration to appoint an independent global health czar to coordinate the response, 2) restore the CDC’s budget, which TRUMP’S administration is seeking to cut, 3) increase emergency spending for the crisis, 4) get testing kits for all 50 states and 5) make sure insurance plans cover the coronavirus.

TRUMP MOOD … WAPO’S JEFF STEIN and JOSH DAWSEY: “At least publicly, Trump has devoted the majority of his public statements to slamming Democrats or complaining about the criminal justice system. But he has not publicly engaged much about the coronavirus, other than to play down what he believes the impact will be on the United States. Privately, Trump has become furious about the stock market’s slide, according to two people familiar with the president’s thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal details.

“While he has spent the past two days traveling in India, Trump has watched the stock market’s fall closely and believes extreme warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have spooked investors, the aides said. Some White House officials have been unhappy with how Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has handled the situation, they said.” WaPo

MARKETWATCH -- WSJ: “Global Stocks Extend Losses as Virus Fears Deepen”

NAVARRO WATCH -- “Break with China? Top Trump aide eyes an opening with coronavirus,” by Megan Cassella

INDIA WRAPS … WSJ’S MIKE BENDER in New Delhi: “The Taj Mahal, Folks Dancers, ‘Hey Jude’: Trump’s 36 Hours in India”

-- “Death toll rises to 20 from Delhi riots during Trump trip,” by AP’s Sheikh Saaliq and Emily Schmall in New Delhi

THE PRESIDENT’S WEDNESDAY: The president and first lady Melania Trump will arrive at Joint Base Andrews at 6:30 a.m. They will head to the White House and arrive at 6:50 a.m.

PLAYBOOK READS

WILD STORY … DANIEL LIPPMAN and MERIDITH MCGRAW: “A new senior leader at the White House personnel office: A college senior”: “The White House has hired a college senior to be one of the top officials in its powerful Presidential Personnel Office, according to three administration officials familiar with the matter.

“James Bacon, 23, is acting as one of the right-hand men to new PPO director John McEntee, according to the officials. Bacon, a senior at George Washington University pursuing a bachelor’s degree, comes from the Department of Transportation, where he briefly worked in the policy shop. Prior to that role, while still taking classes, he worked at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he was a White House liaison, according to two other officials. At HUD, he distinguished himself as Secretary Ben Carson’s confidential assistant, according to two other administration officials.”

ONE MORE HAIL MARY -- BURGESS EVERETT and JAMES ARKIN: “Schumer meets with Bullock as Montana filing deadline for Senate seat nears”

NATASHA BERTRAND and DANIEL LIPPMAN: “Trump tightens his grip on intelligence”: “President Donald Trump is tightening his grip on the intelligence community as part of a post-acquittal purge of career officials and political appointees deemed insufficiently loyal, and the abrupt firing of his last intel chief is only the tip of the iceberg, current and former intelligence officials say.

“Trump’s decision to replace acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire with a loyalist with no intelligence experience, Ric Grenell, shocked the national security world and has raised questions about who the president will nominate to serve in the post after Grenell’s ‘acting’ status expires next month. In India, Trump hinted that his decision would come soon.

“But it also revealed a deeper trend: namely, the steps Trump has taken to shield the public from intelligence that could be politically damaging for him, and keep the flow of information coming out of the agencies firmly under his control.” POLITICO

NYT’s CHARLIE SAVAGE: “N.S.A. Phone Program Cost $100 Million, but Produced Only Two Unique Leads”: “A National Security Agency system that analyzed logs of Americans’ domestic phone calls and text messages cost $100 million from 2015 to 2019, but yielded only a single significant investigation, according to a newly declassified study.

“Moreover, only twice during that four-year period did the program generate unique information that the F.B.I. did not already possess, said the study, which was produced by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and briefed to Congress on Tuesday.” NYT

MEDIAWATCH -- ANNA sat down with HARRIS FAULKNER of FOX NEWS in the latest “Women Rule” podcast. Faulkner talked about being the only woman of color to anchor an afternoon cable news show, what frustrates her about politics and how she handles having to fact-check guests in real time. Subscribe and listen

PLAYBOOKERS

Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at [email protected].

SPOTTED: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Eric Bolling, George Pataki, Saul Anuzis, Sergio Gor and U.S. Ambassador to Morocco David Fischer separately all at the Trump hotel Tuesday night. … Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at Brasserie Liberté on Tuesday night.

TRANSITIONS -- Norm Eisen is returning to Brookings. He worked on impeachment as a House Judiciary aide. … Ashley Lewis is now a VP on Edelman’s FinComms team. She previously was comms director at the Senate Banking Committee and is an Obama Ex-Im Bank alum. … Mike Horowitz has been named director of Perry World House, the University of Pennsylvania’s global affairs hub. He’s an Obama Pentagon alum. …

… Scooter Schaefer, director of digital marketing at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, is joining the Conservative Partnership Institute to co-lead a new digital training program called the Revere Project. More from The Daily Caller … Natalie Johnson is now press secretary for Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.). She previously was deputy press secretary for House GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). Former McSally press secretary Amy Lawrence has moved up to comms director.

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: David Beasley, executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme and former South Carolina governor, is 63. How he got his start: “I was 20 years old and a junior at Clemson University, majoring in microbiology, and I decided to run for a seat in the South Carolina House of Representatives representing my home area of Darlington County. My mother begged me not to get involved in politics because she thought it was dirty and corrupt. But I thought, as a young person at the time, that it was a chance to make a difference and shake things up. I still tell young people that they don’t have to wait, if they think they can make a difference they should go for it!” Playbook Q&A

BIRTHDAYS: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is 62 … Kelley Gannon Russell ... Washington Times’ Dave Boyer … Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is 66 ... Sophie Willis ... Fae Jencks … Corry Bliss, partner at FP1 Strategies … CBS News’ Arden Farhi ... POLITICO’s Katie Ellsworth … Sarah Eppler ... Carrie Meadows, COS to Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) ... Amanda Alpert Loveday ... A’shanti Gholar, president of Emerge America ... Ashli Scott Palmer, partner at Peck Madigan Jones (h/t Mitchell Rivard) ... Li Zhou ... Ryan Martin ... Courtney Paul, manager of public affairs at AdvaMed ... Zara Haq ... Clay Doherty ... Jo Schopper ... Jeff Abers is 64 ...

… Will Mitchell, LD for Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), celebrating his first birthday as a new dad (h/t wife Sacha Haworth) … Ronald Lauder is 76 … Julie Miner, managing partner and CEO of J Strategies (h/t Ross Wallenstein) … Reuters’ Nicholas Brown is 35 ... Adam Baer is 26 ... Val Young ... Marisel Morales ... Alan Rosenblatt of Lake Research Partners … Bassima Alghussein ... Tim Brant is 71 … Celia Meyer … Bruce Cohen … Eric Kleefeld … Peter Scheer ... Samantha Lugo ... Kathy Park … Jonathan Sporn ... Sarah Budds, FSO at the State Department ... Mark Gersh ... Cathey Park ... Ryan Falk ... George Agurkis … Alana Newhouse