Good Thursday morning, I'm Jake Sherman, and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing.

Stay tuned after the show for a message from Google.

And I'm Anna Palmer. We're kicking the morning off with some White House buzz.

Mick Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff, is interested in succeeding Wilbur Ross as Commerce Secretary,

according to several people with knowledge of his plans.

Our colleagues, Nancy Cook and Andrew Rastusha, scooped in November that Mulvaney was angling for the job,

but now that he's in the White House's top job, the angling has started anew,

and it seems to have picked up in recent weeks, according to multiple people in the administration.

Mulvaney did not respond to an email-seeking comment.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, potentially a Senate candidate in Kansas, spoke with Sean Hannity last

night on Fox News about the upcoming U.S. North Korea's summit. He said he is dispatching a team to

Asia where the summit will happen and he hopes it'll create a pathway toward denuclearization

for the

country.

Here's the latest in the shutdown negotiation.

Burgess Everett reports that Mitch McConnell, who promised there wouldn't be a shutdown last time,

wants to avoid another shutdown and is willing to do anything to get it done.

He said he'll probably support whatever works to avoid another shutdown.

Nancy Cook, meanwhile, is reporting that the White House is finalizing details of a potential national emergency declaration for President Trump if the

negotiations don't result in a satisfactory deal. The president met with Mulvaney, Jared Kushner,

and other top officials on Tuesday to walk through logistics. A reminder, there are just 15 days until the government runs out

of funding. And we've got a first in Playbook. Former Representative Barbara Comstock, a Republican

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