Good Thursday morning, I'm Jake Sherman, and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing, sponsored by United Health Group.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, the number three House Republican, hosted Republican lawmakers at a private dinner Wednesday night at Joe's with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

There were a ton of lawmakers on hand.

Scalise gave Mattis a whip. Get it, Scalise is the whip, at least for now.

We've got some big news.

We're hosting a live playbook event with Bill Gates next Thursday at 8.30 a.m.

We'll have a wide-ranging conversation about the Gates Foundation's priorities for 2018,

the role of U.S. leadership and global health, and news of the day.

Already top operatives are talking about the 2020 political

conventions. Democrats say Minneapolis, St. Louis, Phoenix, Milwaukee, New York, and Columbus are top

choices. Republicans say Phoenix, New York, Miami, and San Antonio are their top choices.

First and playbook, Ed O'Keefe is leaving the Washington Post to join CBS News as a political correspondent.

He'll begin in mid-April. Who needs experts when you have Jared? The New York Times is reporting

that Jared Kushner did not invite the American ambassador to Mexico, a diplomat with 30 years

experience in the region, to his meeting with the Mexican president. At the White House today,

the president is hosting video game industry leaders and

members of Congress to discuss, quote, violent video game exposure and the correlation to aggression

and desensitization in children. The White House says this will be the first of many meetings.

The New York Times is the big scoop of the last 12 hours. President Trump spoke to key witnesses

about matters they discussed with

Bob Mueller. The Washington Post reports that Mueller's gathering evidence about a back-channel meeting

with the Kremlin in 2017, apparently contradicting statements made to lawmakers. NBC has a scoop

...