Hello, I'm Adam Wren.

And I'm Megan Messerly.

It's Thursday, August 7th.

And this is the Playbook podcast.

This morning, on the 200th day of Donald Trump's second administration, I have the pleasure

of again welcoming Politico White House

reporter, Megan Messerly, to the show. Welcome, Megan. Great to be here, Adam. Let's get right

to what's driving the day. First up, as the humanitarian disaster in Gaza has shifted American

politics on both the left and the right, as well as opinions about Israel, the entire ordeal

is quickly becoming the Democratic Party's first real foreign policy litmus test of the

26 midterms in the 28 presidential primary cycles. And a ground zero for this whole discussion is none other than Michigan, the battleground

where a ferocious Democratic Senate primary between Representative Haley Stevens, State Senator

Malliam Maboro, and Abdul al-Said is underway. So Megan, essentially, as I've been reporting

this out over the last few days, across these three

candidates, you really have the full spectrum of the Democratic National Party's views on Israel.

And Representative Stevens, you have the traditional APEC pro-Israel view.

In Abdul-Aid, you have the pro-Ghasa viewpoint.

And then in Mallory-Memore, you have a new kind of Democrat who's coming in and is sort

of championing a third-way approach here.

And so I think it's interesting that in the battleground, that is Democrats most important

Senate seat to defend, arguably, you have

such a contentious primary on the left, even as Republicans have coalesced around Mike Rogers.

...