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Good morning. I'm Playbook co-author Rachel Bade. It's Thursday, May 4th.

We've got a scoop this morning in Playbook about a moderate House Democrat who is telling the Biden White House and Democratic leaders in Congress that their debt limit strategy is total fantasy.

I caught up on the phone yesterday with Congressman Jared Golden of Maine,

who argued to me that it was a mistake for Democrats to insist on a clean debt limit increase

and that they need to drop this charade of thinking they cannot negotiate with Republicans.

Instead, he's arguing that Democrats should be pushing for tax hikes on the rich as part of a

plan to reduce the deficit. Without doing that, he told me,

Republicans are able to talk about spending cuts and keep the focus there. Golden is someone to watch

not just because of this unorthodox view. He's also part of the Problem Solvers Caucus and the Blue Dog Coalition,

a moderate Democrat who could be critical in striking some sort of

bipartisan deal. The hot story on the right right now, an escalation in Hill Republicans'

probes of the Biden administration, which for once are not focused on Hunter Biden. Shocker.

Instead, they're focused on President Joe Biden himself. A pair of GOP chairman are claiming to have information about a whistleblower,

alleging that the FBI has material outlining a, quote, alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.

Keep your eye on oversight chairman James Cover and Chuck Grassley in the Senate.

They're the two who are leading this charge. Details right now are limited and keep in mind that

GOP claims of such whistleblowers in the past have actually proved to be a bit of a dead. So we'll

keep an eye on this regardless. And the question of whether Trump's endorsement is actually helpful for Republican candidates keeps coming up again and again.

Joining me now is politics reporter Meredith McGrath, who got her hands on some scoopy audio tape and is here to tell us about it this morning.

Good morning, Meredith.

Hi, Rachel.

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