Hey there, Playbook listeners. It's Ragul Monovalin. Two things we're watching on Friday,

January 13th. Polling firm Gallup, tallied up all its 22 numbers, and found that last year,

45% of Americans identified as Republican or GOP leaning. That's compared to 44% who called themselves Democrats.

That number is striking because Democrats usually hold a multiple point edge.

2022 was the first time since 1991 that Republicans were higher. Gallup also saw that the

share of Democrats, who called themselves liberal, jumped from

50 to 54 percent last year.

That's an all-time high.

Conservative Democrats dropped to 10 percent of the party.

That's an all-time low.

And moderates took down to 36 percent.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishita's White House visit today puts an exclamation point

on his country's moves closer toward the U.S., one of several allies, with whom President

Biden's stronger ties, are delivering in an area where Donald Trump's sharp- elbowed

approach largely failed to achieve results.

Japan and Germany are both significantly

increasing defense spending and historic shifts. In a September interview with CBS's Scott

Pelly for 60 minutes, President Joe Biden blasted Donald Trump for taking Sonsified

classified materials with him to Mara Lago.

When he heard the news, Biden said he instantly wanted to know how that could possibly

happen.

He worried that the documents contain information that may compromise sources and methods.

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