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Hey, good morning. I'm Playbook co-author Rachel Bade. It's Monday, September 25th. I hope everyone got rest this weekend because it's going to be a crazy week in politics. On Wednesday, we have the second Republican presidential debate in California.

Thursday, House Republicans are going to be

holding their first public impeachment hearings against President Joe Biden. And by the end of this

upcoming weekend, we will either see a government shutdown that results in millions of federal

employees being furloughed or an 11th hour bipartisan spending agreement that, sure, avert's a shutdown, but could

also trigger an effort to remove Kevin McCarthy from the speakership. Some drama coming our way,

in short. But first, a little buzzy news at the top of Playbook this morning. Congressman Dean Phillips

is actually edging closer to challenging Joe Biden

for the Democratic nomination. He told Steve Schmidt in a podcast that's going to be released

later this morning that, quote, I am thinking about it and I haven't ruled it out. Now, our colleague

Jonathan Martin, reported earlier in July that Phillips was talking to donors about a campaign.

But during a round of media appearances in August, he sort of backed off of suggesting he might

run, saying he's not the ideal candidate and that his goal in talking about challenging

Biden was more to encourage other Democrats to jump in.

Well, now he says he's concerned that no one is doing just that,

that there is no alternative to Biden. And he said, quote, I'm concerned that something could

happen between now and next November that would make the Democratic Convention in Chicago

be an unmitigated disaster. And for a party that is acting as the adults in the room,

thank goodness, he said, I'm concerned

that we are not as it relates to our electoral strategy. Up on Capitol Hill, we have an

interesting look this morning at McCarthy seeking to box in some of his detractors. He's been

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