Presented by BP.

Good morning, everyone.

I'm Playbook Deputy Editor Zach Stanton.

It's Thursday, January 30th.

And before we get to what's driving the day, we first turn to the tragic news from Reagan National Airport.

But last night, an American Airlines regional passenger jet collided with a U.S. Army helicopter

and what appears to be the nation's most serious air disaster in decades.

The jet, which was traveling from Kansas to Washington, D.C., had 60 passengers and four crew

members.

The Army helicopter had three people on board.

After colliding, both aircraft fell into the frigid waters of the

Potomac River. Search and rescue teams swarmed the area in a frantic nighttime rescue effort that

continued overnight. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who led a briefing at the airport with

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffey and both Kansas Senators, would not say how many have died.

But we know there are fatalities, Senator Ted Cruz, chair of the committee that oversees aviation, wrote last night on

X. No survivors had been found as of early this morning. The search efforts continue.

For the latest news on this developing story, please visit politico.com.

And now, here's what's driving the day.

One of the most useful phrases or concepts of the Trump era is flooding the zone.

That's the Steve Bannon-inspired notion that an effective way to deal with your real or potential opposition is to overwhelm them with such a glut of things to get outraged by

that it's difficult for them to coalesce around any one thing to oppose. Today we see that

strategy at work in Washington, not only in terms of the amount of action coming under the Trump

...