Good Thursday morning and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing, sponsored by United Health Group.

Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy head to Houston today for some big dollar fundraisers for Protect the House,

the Joint Fundraising Committee with VP Mike Pence, and the Congressional Leadership Fund,

the House GOP leadership-backed Super PAC.

Remember, as Ryan faces nearly endless internal strife here in D.C., he still has to run around

the country raising money for House Republicans. McCarthy is getting a foot in the door with the biggest

Republican donors. North Korea is threatening to pull out of talks with the U.S. after VP Mike Pence

said the country could end up like Libya. The Washington Post Josh Dossi reports that Rudy Giuliani now wants Trump to sit down

for an interview with Bob Mueller, saying it makes his client happy. Alex Eisenstadt scooped that

Congressman Tom Garrett of Virginia Republican might not run for re-election after his chief of staff

quit. An aide to Garrett emailed us a quarter to two this morning saying he'll clear it up today.

Kyle Cheney scoops the White

House Chief of Staff John Kelly will join a briefing for Hill leaders on the alleged FBI informant.

Trump, according to the AP, doesn't want to call this person an informant. He wants to brand the

person a spy. He thinks it's more poignant. President Trump is considering tariffs on cars,

according to the Associated Press.

Kaelin Doer is leaving the White House. She was director of congressional communications.

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