Good Friday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook audio briefing. Stay tuned after the show for a message from the American Investment Council.

There's been a lot of chatter in the Trump-aligned White House world that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy should dump a bunch of members of the House Intel Committee, the panel holding the public impeachment hearings next week,

and swap in people like representatives Mark Meadows and Lee Zeldon, two staunch Trump allies

that have been the public-facing defenders of the president during the closed deposition phase

of the impeachment. Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio is already being swapped in.

The thinking in Trump world is that President Donald Trump could use his strongest allies

because he needs as much backup as he can get in the high-profile hearings that begin on Wednesday.

But we were told that this big-time committee lineup change is not in the cards.

There are nine Republicans on the panel, including Devin Nunes of

California, the ranking member. Adding Jordan, Meadows, and Zeldon would mean dumping a third of the

committee's GOP roster. There are a few people whose sources say are all but untouchable on the committee.

They include Texas Representative John Ratcliffe, a close ally to Trump,

who's considered the best questioner. Texas Representative Will Hurd, who has Intel background,

New York Representative Elise Stefani, the only woman, an emerging power center internally

in the House Republican Conference and Nunes. Given that, adding three people would mean turning over three

of the remaining Republicans, a heavy lift given internal caucus politics. Not to mention,

the committee has spent months on this topic, so a bunch of members are not going to be willing

to just jump off when the topic gets hot. Plus, if Republicans try to swap out a huge chunk of the panel, they could get crosswise

with Democrats, who could potentially cause procedural problems.

So, Jordan will get his moment during these hearings, and that's sure to please the Trump

circles.

And the House rules also dictate that McCarthy himself can jump onto the panel, should he want.

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