Hey, good morning. I'm Playbook co-author Rachel Bade. It's Monday, October 23rd. House Republicans are back to the drawing board today, trying to rally around a new speaker. This comes after Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan failed to secure the gavel last week and the week before. We have nine lawmakers who have thrown their hat into the

ring. But this morning in Playbook, we actually focus on the frontrunner who seems most likely

to win the nomination next. That's House Majority Whip Tom Emmer. Now, as former chair of the

NRCC, Emmer helped Republicans slip the majority in 2022. He's won praise from colleagues

for raising money for candidates and campaigning for them back in their districts. He has good

relationships across the conference just by way of his job. I mean, muscling the votes to pass with

the slim majority they currently have means that he's often this sort of go-between

between conservatives and moderates trying to build consensus.

But Tom Emmer has a Donald Trump problem.

The former president has told associates he doesn't want Emmer to be speaker,

and Trump allies are already taking to social media and talk radio to pan him as out of step with the guy who's the leader of their party.

To be sure, Emmer has shown a willingness to buck Trump when he feels it's the right thing to do.

While many Republican leaders actually privately scoffed at the idea of objecting to Joe Biden's victory in 2020,

Emmer was one of the few senior Republicans who actually voted to certify the Democratic president's victory on January 6th.

But last night, we actually spoke to a host of Emmer allies, and to a T, every single one of

them told us that this narrative against him is actually false. Rather, Tom Emmer's allies are telling playbook that this entire anti-Trump narrative

surrounding the whip has been concocted by his foes in the house who have grievances against him

for things that have nothing to do with Trump.

In particular, they're pointing a finger right now at Jim Banks, who narrowly lost

the whip race to Emmer after Republicans flipped the House in 2022. But we should also note that

it's not just Trump allies in Banks that Emmer's going to have to worry about. Beyond Banks,

everyone who covers Congress knows that there's actually no love loss between him in Elise

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