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Good morning, everyone. I'm playbook co-author Eugene Daniels. It is Wednesday, November 13th. Here is what's driving the day.

On Capitol Hill this morning, Republican senators will vote on who will succeed Mitch McConnell as a GOP leader.

This is a huge generational move for the

party, as the Kentuckian has led Senate Republicans since 2007, the year I graduated high school.

And it also will tell us something about where the Senate GOP is heading ideologically.

Though Florida Senator Rick Scott has a lot of support for Maga Hardliners and President-elect

Donald Trump's orbit, within the collegial confines of the upper chamber, the inside tracks of

this race belong to Senators John Thun of South Dakota and John Cornyn of Texas.

The election will take place behind closed doors and, most importantly,

via secret ballot, which potentially gives cover to senators who may be reticent to follow the

pressure campaign mounted by the MAGA fateful in support of Rick Scott.

Last night, in a flurry of announcements, President-elect Trump unveiled a number of key

personnel announcements for his second term in the White House.

For Homeland Security, we have South Dakota Governor Christy Noem.

For CIA director, he's going with former Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe, who you may

remember from his

stint as director of national intelligence in the first Trump administration.

Trump also announced that he will nominate former Arkansas Senator Mike Huckabee as ambassador to

Israel, and that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswami will co-lead a new Department of Government Efficiency,

or Doge. A nod to the viral dog meme turned Musk-backed cryptocurrency.

Perhaps the most surprising was his choice to leave the Department of Defense,

...