Good Wednesday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook Audio Briefing. Stay tuned

after the show for a message from the American Beverage Association. And I'm Jake Sherman,

the Washington Post scored an interview with the president where the president said he opposed

current and former White House staff testifying before Congress. The move intensifies the struggle

between the administration and House

Democrats. It's difficult to adequately state how unsustainable of a position this is.

First of all, Congress is always controlled by a party. The president complained about that.

So the idea that his aides would be testifying to a party is not really unusual. It's the norm.

Second, the White House can't just summarily block all document production and testifying to a party is not really unusual. It's the norm. Second, the White House can't just

summarily block all document production and testimony. Congress could hold people in contempt.

Most smart administrations, Republican or Democrat, pretend they're cooperating, but slow-walk testimony

and document production. That way, it seems like you're trying, but you're

actually not. Third, how do you think Trump's meeting next week on infrastructure with Speaker

Nancy Pelosi will go if this is his position? Pelosi will not be able to conduct a shred of

business with him, period. Maybe Trump wants a battering ram and doesn't care about legislative achievements, because

that's what it's lining up to look like.

Our colleagues Anita Kumar and Andrew D. Sedario have the 30,000-foot look at how the

relationship between the White House and House Dems reached a new level of hostility this

week with multiple dramatic clashes, signaling that even

modest compromise may be impossible.

Rudy Giuliani, who serves as an attorney to the president and a spokesman for him, is quoted

in the New York Times saying he agrees with the strategy of fighting everything.

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