Good Wednesday morning and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing. Stay tuned after the show for a message from Google.

Behind the scenes, quiet gun talks at the White House. We were hoping to save this news for this morning, but the New York Times beat us to the punch on a few details in their Tuesday night story.

Aides to several key senators and both parties have been meeting with senior White House officials about gun control legislation in what, as far as we know, is the first serious, substantive conversations

between the Hill and the administration about the issue. Pat Toomey, Joe Manchin, and Chris Murphy

are the main players involved. Their staffs have been meeting with Joe Grogan's Domestic Policy

Council and White House Ledge Affairs Director Eric Euland. They've discussed where Manchin-Tumee legislation stands and what changes have been made.

Each senator has also spoken with Donald Trump privately.

The White House has also had in-person contact with aides to Doug Collins, the top Republican

House member on Judiciary. Multiple people in the talk say Euland is taking control as to the situation,

a hopeful sign if you're looking for progress. We spoke to a number of people on the Hill and in the talk say Euland is taking control us to the situation, a hopeful sign if you're looking for progress.

We spoke to a number of people on the Hill and in the White House who were hoping this effort is headquartered in the legislative affairs shop and not captained by the gaggle of other White House officials who try to insert themselves into legislative issues.

Euland and his team have the bandwidth and connections to navigate the hill.

Remember, USMCA has a prayer because professionals with experience, White House Ledge Affairs,

are the ones that are dealing with it. Of course, there's plenty of skepticism that anything will

get done, but a group of top White House age is planning to travel to Bedminster, New Jersey,

in the coming days to brief the president on the meetings and in the progress on potential gun legislation. On a similar front, Burgess Everett reports that

Martha McSally, the Republican senator from Arizona, is seeking to make domestic terrorism a distinct

federal crime. The latest sign that Republicans are increasingly serious about crafting a legislative

response to shootings in El Paso, Gilroy, California, and

Dayton, Ohio.

Big move for the Pentagon, Washington Post Ashley Parker scoops that Alyssa Farah, top aide to

Vice President Mike Pence, is going to the Defense Department as press secretary.

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