Hello, I'm Adam Wren.

And I'm Megan Messerly. It's Tuesday, August 5th.

And this is the Playbook podcast. This morning, I have the pleasure of welcoming Politico White House reporter Megan Messerly back to the show.

It's so great to be here, Adam.

Thanks so much for joining us.

And without further ado, here's what's driving today.

First up, the biggest story in Washington comes from everywhere but Washington.

With Congress out of town on August recess, it's town hall season, and seemingly everywhere,

members are encountering voters who are angry about all sorts of things.

Last night, in Nebraska, Republican Representative Mike Flood was bombarded with booze when the

conversation turned to Medicaid and the Republican megallolaw.

It was quite something to watch.

I dialed in, and I was shocked.

The first two minutes and roughly 49 seconds

were very civil, but then after that, it went a bit off the rails, and by about six minutes

in, Flood was pleading with about 700 folks to just give him a chance to talk and explain

his position on the Megalaw. And it was pretty remarkable.

For the next 80 minutes, it really went off the rails and ended with the crowd,

essentially chanting Votem out. So, Megan, I'm curious, what do you think the White House is thinking

as they watched this town hall and the inevitable clips that we'll see

on the morning shows in a few hours here. Look, I don't think this sort of reaction was unexpected.

I think the White House knew there were going to be some messaging challenges here. At the same time,

...