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Ryan Lizza, Rachael Bade among authors being tapped for new Politico Playbook

15 December 2020
 Dan Ackermann

Politico sources tell Axios that Ryan Lizza, Politico's chief Washington correspondent, and Rachael Bade, now of the Washington Post but formerly of Politico, will join the Politico Playbook franchise in 2021, and the company plans to add several other high-profile names to the roster in the coming weeks.

Details: The company has been trying to assemble a new team that would manage a slew of products related to the Playbook franchise.

  • While Lizza and Bade are likely to anchor the team's main newsletter product, the company is in talks with other reporters about heading up other Playbook-related products, like other Playbook-branded newsletters and audio briefings.
  • Sources tell Axios that Eliana Johnson, a former Politico White House correspondent and current editor-in-chief at the Free Beacon, as well as former Politico reporter Tara Palmeri, have also been in talks with the company about roles.

Currently there are three Playbook-branded newsletters: Politico Playbook, which comes out in the morning, Playbook PM, which comes out in the afternoon, and Transition Playbook, which tracks the appointments and people entering the new Administration.

  • Sources tell Axios that several reporters and editors will likely be tapped to be a part of the Playbook franchise, which could also potentially include a column or a longer audio briefing, in addition to the short audio briefing that comes out each morning with the main Playbook email.

Why it matters: The company has been hunting for weeks for replacements for current Playbook authors Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer, who are leaving with longtime Politico congressional bureau chief John Bresnahan to launch a competitor to the Playbook franchise, sources told Axios earlier this month.

What they're saying: "POLITICO Playbook is going to be bigger and better than it’s ever been before in 2021," says Politico spokesperson Brad Dayspring.

  • " That will include assembling an all-star team of talented journalists who can cover Washington inside and out, upside and down, and can do so from any type of platform from newsletter to audio, streaming to TV and live events."
  • "The team isn’t set until it is set, and it isn’t set yet."

Go deeper: Politico stars plan competitor to Playbook franchise

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.