Good Tuesday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing, sponsored by SoftBank.

And I'm Jake Sherman. Washington is typically a bit sleepy in August, but the month has been jolted by a pair of crises in escalating trade war with China, which shave 3% off the Dow on Monday and two mass shootings, which again, depending on your politics, either highlighted in action by the federal

government or put on display one of the most nettlesome and unsolvable problems in American

society. Both sides will say legislators and politicians should avoid politicizing serious

domestic and global affairs. But of course that will happen. This gives Democrats the opportunity

to say this. If you don't like this,

while fluctuations in the market due to trade policy or inaction on guns, kick President Donald

Trump out of the White House. The president has no public events scheduled today. The El Paso

Times reports that Trump will visit El Paso and Dayton, Ohio on Wednesday.

He is most likely to visit the hospitals where the injured are being treated.

If you put them on truth serum, the following things are true about both parties' gun positions.

Republicans will privately say they know they're on the wrong side of contemporary political thinking and reality when it comes to gun policy.

Many of them will say off the record or on background that they could get away with supporting banning assault weapons, high capacity magazines, and

tightening background checks, but they need Donald Trump to embrace it as well and consistently.

The president tends to pop up his head, support something, and then retreat. Adam Kinsinger

called for universal background checks and raising the gun purchasing age to 21 in addition to banning high capacity magazines.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine is set to announce a policy proposal on guns later today.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans in the Senate are, quote, prepared to do our part to work in a bipartisan bicameral way to address the recent mass murders which have shaken

our nation, he said in a statement Monday. Meanwhile, there are some House Democrats who want to come

back into session to pass more gun legislation, but they are worried about the politics of doing so.

We don't want to let Mitch off the hook. Coming back would signal we haven't done our job,

one House Democrat

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