Stay tuned after the show for a message from Amazon.

Good Thursday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politica Playbook audio briefing.

And I'm Jake Sherman with 40 days left until Election Day. It seems as though the United States

is well on its way to becoming a banana republic. Last night, President Donald Trump would

not commit to a peaceful transfer of power after the election.

He said, we'll have to see what happens and then complained about election ballots.

The president also suggested the White House may reject the food and drug administration's more stringent standards for a vaccine.

He said, well, I tell you what, we're looking at that.

That has to be approved by the White House. We may or may not approve it. That sounds like a political move. And two police officers were shot after a prosecutor declined to charge the cop who killed Brianna Taylor in her home with homicide. Two reporters from the conservative Daily Caller were arrested while covering the protests in Louisville and in Buffalo. A pickup truck drove through a protest.

And in Denver, the Denver Post is reporting the drivers struck at least one protester following a Brianna-Taylor rally in March.

And police appeared to run over a man's head with a bicycle in Seattle.

If this chain of events unfolded in another country in another era,

our State Department might express concern and perhaps warn against travel.

And we as Americans would say, we're glad to live in the United States.

But alas.

The new cycle today is going to be absolutely dominated by the president's suggestion.

There may not be a peaceful

transfer of power. It'll dominate all public appearances by congressional leaders and will be all the

chatter in the hallways of the Capitol, where many lawmakers are just weeks from being put on the

ballot themselves. Mel Zanona, Sarah Ferris and John Bresenhan report on how the hits keep coming as

Congress stumbles from crisis to crisis. Mark Leibovic has a Washington memo with this headline, a capital engulfed by sadness and rage.

Here's what's driving today.

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