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Presented by Business Roundtable. Hey,

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good morning. I'm Playbook co-author Eugene

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Daniels. It is Wednesday, April 17th.

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Here is what's driving the day. In

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former president Donald Trump's criminal trial in

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New York, seven people have been sworn

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in as jurors. That's more than a

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third of the total number of people

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that will be needed to hold a

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trial with a full jury and six

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alternates. The judge in the

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case said opening statements could begin as

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soon as Monday. The

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jury selection process sped up a little bit

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faster than people were expecting. The

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court will need to find 11 more

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folks to sit in on the president's

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case. And for those of

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you that have been watching this breathlessly, you

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will have a break today. The

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trial won't be occurring on Wednesdays for

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the course of the proceedings. So jury

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selection is expected to resume on Thursday

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morning. Also, if it's a

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day that ends, why this chaos in

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the House of Representatives. First up,

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Representative Thomas Massey of Kentucky on

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Tuesday became the second

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Republican to publicly back an attempt

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to end Johnson's speakership. Massey

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told Speaker Johnson this directly

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at a closed door GOP conference

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meeting. All of this, of course,

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is tied to the long, long

1:23

stalled Ukraine aid. Also

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later today, the impeachment trial

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of Alejandro Mayorkas, the Department

1:30

of Homeland Security Secretary, will

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begin in the Senate. And joining

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me now to really get into

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all of that is my girl

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Playbook co-author Rachel Bade. Rachel, hello,

1:41

good morning. Hey, Eugene.

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You were on the Hill all

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day on Tuesday, running around. There's

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a lot, there's a lot and a lot

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going on. I want to start with the

1:54

kind of latest on Speaker Johnson's plan

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for foreign assistance and how that's playing

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in the House. because my

2:01

sense is not well. People

2:03

do a public insight. Let's

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just say, Secretary Johnson has had some

2:07

better days. Yeah. Happy? Well, it's

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interesting because literally the readout I

2:12

got from senior Republican sources in

2:14

the House after he sort of

2:16

rolled out this plan was the

2:18

reaction was actually not that bad.

2:20

Conservatives, they're not happy, but they're

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not squawking too much. We think we can do

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this. The question that

2:26

night was actually, okay, will Democrats

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get on board and help us get this over

2:30

the finish line? Well, we

2:33

reported that Democrats, after initially being, okay,

2:35

we don't like this, they're now starting

2:37

to come around, at least behind

2:39

the scenes and say, okay, we can back

2:42

this. We can swallow this plan as long

2:45

as we get Ukraine aid. But Johnson

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started having real problems yesterday on his

2:49

right flank. It started off early in

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the morning, House GOP conference

2:54

meeting, Thomas Massey, who is this

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sort of libertarian leaning, Republican

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from Kentucky, he was always a pain in

3:01

the ass for John Boehner and Paul Ryan

3:03

and actually became kind of an ally

3:05

of Kevin McCarthy. He stood up

3:07

and said, I'm gonna co-sponsor

3:10

the motion to vacate with Marjorie Taylor Greene.

3:12

And he basically told him point blank, you're

3:14

not gonna be speaker long. And

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apparently the mood in the conference

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was extremely devastating. Like not this

3:21

shit again. No,

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it's gonna happen. And so what

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that did was it sort of

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set Johnson off into this like scramble

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to see if he could try to

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appease more conservatives on either the process

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or little things he can do around

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the edges of this foreign assistance package.

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He did a bunch of meetings with conservatives during the

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day. And I'm told from my sources that

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basically conservatives came in, they're

3:47

like, we want HR2, we want a

3:49

border crackdown, we want all these toxic

3:52

provisions that if they add it to the

3:54

bill, it will kill the

3:56

foreign assistance package. So Johnson very much

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has to decide. Does he

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want to legislate? Does he want to

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get this thing passed or does he

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want to keep his job? And I'm

4:07

told that he is signaling to, you

4:09

know, Republicans who are of this, like, you

4:11

know, the defense hawks who really want to pass this. He

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wants to get this done. And if that's

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the case, he's going to have to tell

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these guys, look too bad. And then we

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could see a potential vacate effort. I

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mean, the problem is, if he appeases his

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right thing too much, then the Dems won't

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vote for it. And then you don't have

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this thing that everyone after the Iranian attack

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on Israel, everyone was saying, both on the

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right and the left, this is the most

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important thing. We have to get right back

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to it. And I guess

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the most important question about this

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is, can he survive this? I've talked

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to a bunch of Hill Republicans and

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people are a little divided on this.

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There's a camp that thinks they're bluffing.

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To what end? To what end are they bluffing?

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It's a good question to try to get him to

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back down on Ukraine. Maybe they think he will,

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but he wants to keep the job. But then there's

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a group that thinks that this is real and it's

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going to come to a head at some

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point. And that's why there are Republicans already

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making sort of a plan B. OK, so

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we passed this thing. There's a motion

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to vacate what happens then. And,

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you know, I talked to some Republicans

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who are saying, OK, Democrats

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could, quote, take a walk. You should register

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that phrase because it's going to come up

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over and over. Basically what it means is,

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Democrats basically either not showing up

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to vote when the motion to vacate

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is either tabled or killed in some

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way. Basically, it ensures that he can

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maintain the speakership. But I

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am convinced like this is like a

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temporary, you know, band-aid. It's not a

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long term solution because other

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Republicans have told me that if that does

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happen, there's going to be motions to vacate

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that come up on a regular

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basis. Worst job in Washington, D.C.

5:54

Worst job in Washington, D.C. By

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far, by far. Last question before

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I let you go. Today we

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are going to see the trial start

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in the impeachment of Department

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of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

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That's gonna start at one. You

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have some news about the things

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happening behind the scenes, but what

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should folks expect? Well,

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it's not gonna last long. But the

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question is like, how long is it

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gonna go? And there was

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initially this debate between Democrats about whether or

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not they should just dismiss this

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right away. They're gonna swear, senators

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in and dismiss right away. But

6:30

then some Democratic senators said, okay,

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if we allow for a couple of hours

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of debate, maybe we pick up

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some Republican votes to dismiss.

6:39

And some Democrats want the

6:41

most bipartisan dismissal vote

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as possible. They would love some Republicans

6:45

to join to sort of give cover

6:47

to Mayorkas and cover, you know, just

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for the Democrats at large, that this is just, you

6:52

know, as they say, a total sham.

6:55

We're expecting that the

6:57

leadership between the Democrats and the Republicans are gonna

6:59

keep trying to iron out this sort of agreement

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where they allow a number of

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hours or, you know, a certain amount of

7:05

time to actually debate. They'll have votes on

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a number of Republican points of order

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to have a full trial. Those will fail.

7:12

Those sorts of things will fail. But the

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big thing I think to note is that

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we're not gonna hear from the Marjorie

7:18

Taylor Greens of the world. I think there was a

7:20

big fear on the part of Democrats and

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actually some Republicans privately that

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Marjorie Taylor Green was gonna be on the

7:27

floor, totally unfiltered and have this sort of

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platform in the Senate where she could totally

7:31

harangue the White House and Mayorkas with a

7:34

bunch of false claims. Well, I'm told

7:36

that that's like just not gonna

7:38

happen or at least, you know, 98% not gonna happen.

7:42

The question is just, do they vote right away or

7:44

do they have a few hours of, you know, back

7:46

and forth and then vote? But it's not gonna last

7:48

long, Eugene. Especially since they're going

7:50

to lose because not two thirds of

7:52

the Senate is going to do it.

7:54

That's an out thing. This thing

7:56

is toast. Yep. Well,

7:59

wait till you have. have a very long rest

8:01

of your week, rest two weeks, three weeks, the

8:03

rest of the month, it's very unclear, but there's

8:06

a lot happening. So I'm going to let you

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go. I'll sleep sometime

8:10

Eugene. And

8:12

for your schedule today, the house and the

8:14

Senate are in. And as we discussed, they

8:16

got a lot going on. And

8:19

this afternoon, president Biden is going

8:21

to be delivering remarks at the

8:23

United Steel Workers headquarters in Pittsburgh,

8:25

Pennsylvania. He's on a

8:27

three day tour of Pennsylvania.

8:30

Scranton Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. I'm

8:33

Eugene Daniels. Thanks for listening.

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