By Ryan Lizza, Rachael Bade and Eugene Daniels

With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross

NEW JMART COLUMN — “Can Katie Britt Be the Face of the GOP’s Post-Trump Future?”: “Now, at 41, she’s become not only well-liked by colleagues in both parties but, more remarkably, a sought-after inside player in a way that’s unusual for a non-celebrity senator during their first months in office. It’s easy to see why Britt is so appealing, particularly to the chamber’s institutionalists: She’s engaging, respectful of her elders, well-versed on substance and more focused on her state than garnering hits on Fox prime time.”

Democrats have begun taking sides on whether Bob Menendez should leave the Senate, with many already calling for him to step aside. | Mariam Zuhaib, file/AP Photo

WHERE'S CORY? — Democrats yesterday began taking sides on whether BOB MENENDEZ should leave the Senate in the wake of a stunning federal bribery indictment, and it is becoming clear that the well of support he’s previously drawn on when he’s been in trouble might be running dry.

Many are calling for him to resign, as our colleague Matt Friedman reports. Some, mainly in the Senate, are cautiously supportive. A few are enjoying their right to remain silent.

Resign now: New Jersey Gov. PHIL MURPHY, New Jersey Dem Reps. FRANK PALLONE, BILL PASCRELL, MIKIE SHERRILL and ANDY KIM. Full list via David Wildstein’s New Jersey Globe

Wait and see: Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER

Silent: Sen. CORY BOOKER, a longtime Menendez ally and the last major statewide political figure who has not called for him to step down

A big-name flipper: Former New Jersey Sen. ROBERT TORRICELLI …

• Torch in 2015 to NYT: “It is enormously valuable to Bob Menendez, that Cory Booker — and the remainder of the caucus — remain loyal and await the legal judgment ... This process may go on for months, if not years, and it’s important that Bob Menendez remain effective.”

• Torch in 2023 to NYT: “I understand personal loyalty, and I understand the depths of friendships, but somebody needs to take a stand here. … In the history of the United States Congress, it is doubtful there has ever been a corruption allegation of this depth and seriousness. … The degree of the evidence. The gold bars and the hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash. It’s incomprehensible.”

More: “Does Robert Menendez Have Enough Teflon to Survive Again?” by NYT’s Nick Fandos … “Why this time could be different for Bob Menendez,” by Daniella Diaz in Huddle

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Speaker Kevin McCarthy is faced with few options to avert a government shutdown that looms one week away. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

TICK TOCK — The federal government shuts down one week from tonight — at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 1, to be precise — absent a last-minute spending deal. Cable news hasn’t started running shutdown countdown clocks just yet, but they are surely imminent.

What’s at stake? … “Millions of federal workers face delayed paychecks when the government shuts down, including many of the roughly 2 million military personnel and more than 2 million civilian workers across the nation,” the AP writes, while WaPo notes that the shutdown adds another risk to the economy on top of the UAW strike, the Oct. 1 resumption of student loan repayments and rising gas prices.

— More from POLITICO: “Here’s what happens when the government shuts down”

But if you want a more Pollyannaish view of the economic stakes, Goldman Sachs notes that only a quarter of federal outlays are affected (the largest programs, such as Medicare and Social Security are exempted) and hence foresees only “modest economic and market effects.”

Unlike a debt default, a shutdown isn’t catastrophic, which is also why it’s more likely to happen. And that’s why the far-right House Republicans who are preventing McCarthy from passing a CR range from blasé to enthusiastic about a shutdown.

“Most of what Congress does is not good for the American people,” Rep. BOB GOOD (R-Va.) told the NYT this week. “Most of what we do as a Congress is totally unjustified.”

What’s happening on the Hill? … McCarthy’s options remain the same. As Sarah Ferris, Olivia Beavers, and Jordain Carney note, “The speaker has only one clear exit route away from a government closure: working with Democrats. It’s a path he still refuses to take.”

After nine months, McCarthy’s management style as speaker is fairly predictable: He appeases his far-right members as much as possible until the pressure builds and they realize their strategy is hopeless. (He is currently indulging their plan to prioritize a debate on full-year appropriations bills rather than passing a CR, which is a little like the fire department showing up at a burning house and debating fire-prevention practices instead of just turning on the hoses.)

Meanwhile, Sen. SUSAN COLLINS (R-Maine), the Senate’s top GOP appropriator, is delivering a word of warning to her colleagues on the other side of the building: “Historically, Republicans have been blamed,” she told our colleague Burgess Everett. “So whether you look at it through a policy or a political lens, a shutdown is never beneficial.”

What are the options? … We continue to hear chatter about a discharge petition or some other parliamentary maneuver that would sidestep the speaker’s control of the floor and set up a bipartisan CR vote. As embarrassing as it would be to McCarthy, some of his allies argue, it would at least spare him from being blamed by Gaetz & Co. for jamming the CR through the House.

WaPo columnist Henry Olsen has some intriguing advice for how McCarthy could get tough with the rebels: “Target their political aspirations,” he writes, noting that Rep. MATT ROSENDALE (R-Mont.) is eyeing a Senate run and Rep. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.) is looking at a 2026 run to succeed Gov. RON DeSANTIS.

“McCarthy can damage those plans by setting a clear threshold for when a person can be removed from the conference and from their committee assignments for defying the overwhelming will of the party,” Olsen suggests — setting aside the question of whether getting expelled from the House GOP would be a hindrance or a help in a Republican primary.

Good Saturday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.

BURGUMENTUM WATCH — “Burgum makes late break for GOP’s second debate,” by Zach Montellaro: “North Dakota Gov. DOUG BURGUM is making a last-minute charge to the primary debate stage next week. Burgum appears to have qualified for the second GOP debate, which is on Wednesday in California, according to POLITICO’s analysis.”

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The president and VP KAMALA HARRIS will deliver remarks later tonight at the 2023 Phoenix Awards Dinner in D.C., with second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF also in attendance.

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9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US

The Biden campaign is ramping up its pitch to the donor base behind the scenes. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images

1. INSIDE THE REELECT: The Biden campaign is already operating as if the general election matchup has been set — they just aren’t saying so publicly. Sure, the campaign is up on TV with an unfolding onslaught of ads. “But away from the television cameras, in private events, at suburban Washington homes or a Broadway theater, Biden and his team have begun to lay out his argument for reelection and to confront the age questions that have dogged the early months of his campaign,” WaPo’s Michael Scherer reports.

The piece is chock full of interesting details and anecdotes about the Biden team’s extensive efforts to appeal to the donor base behind closed doors. There’s a scene of Sen. CHRIS COONS (D-Del.) skewering a recent column about Biden’s age by WaPo’s David Ignatius. There’s details on how the campaign mindmeld views the expanded electoral map (“Everybody who was in the audience was doing deep eye-rolls over Florida being on the expansion map,” a source tells WaPo). Plus plenty more, including VP KAMALA HARRIS’ “much-improved personal touch” and how the new polling lead is thinking about the third-party candidates.

2. IMPEACHMENT IMPETUS: As House Republicans trudge forward with an impeachment inquiry against Biden, there’s a souring sense among the public that it’s just the latest deterioration of hyperpartisan fighting. “Just over half of voters, some 52%, oppose impeaching Biden, and 41% support it, a Wall Street Journal poll found last month,” WSJ’s Aaron Zitner and Tarini Parti write. “While overwhelming shares of Republicans support impeachment and Democrats oppose it, independents on the whole side with the opponents, the poll found, with 51% against impeachment and 37% in favor.”

3. LINING UP: Biden said yesterday that he is planning to travel to Michigan on Tuesday to join a UAW picket line of auto workers on strike nationwide. “His decision to stand alongside the striking workers represents perhaps the most significant display of union solidarity ever by a sitting president,” our colleagues Andrew Zhang, Nick Niedzwiadek and Sam Stein write. It will also come a day before Trump makes his way to Michigan to rally with the union members — a notable effort to get ahead of the former president as the two candidates jostle for support from the critical bloc of voters.

Related reads: “An Ohio Town Struggles Between Biden’s Clean Energy Agenda and Union Support,” by NYT’s Jonathan Weisman … “Five Clues to Where the UAW Strike Is Headed Next,” by WSJ’s Christina Rogers, Nora Eckert, Ryan Felton, Sean McLain and Mike Colias … “Trump hits Biden on UAW visit,” by Emma Cordover

4. IMMIGRATION FILES: Another surge is hitting the U.S.-Mexico border as migrants arrive in droves seeking refuge in the U.S.

The details, via AP’s Valerie Gonzalez: “Migrants were stopped at the border 142,037 times during the first 17 days of September, up 15% from 123,777 the same period last month, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures released Thursday by Mexican President ANDRES MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR. Those figures include up to 1,450 people admitted daily with a mobile app for asylum appointments, called CBP One, but the vast majority are illegal entries.”

The context, via NYT’s Miriam Jordan, Jack Healy and Eileen Sullivan: “Despite new border barriers and thickets of razor wire, risk of deportation and pleas for patience, a resurgent tide of men, women and children is not waiting. Driven by desperation, families and individuals are pushing across the southern border and past new efforts by the Biden administration to keep migrants waiting until they secure hard-to-get appointments to enter the nation with permission.”

Visual story: “A fresh wave of migrants is crossing the southern border,” by WaPo’s Michael Robinson Chavez and Arelis Hernández

Vaccine skepticism has found a home in the post-pandemic GOP. And it’s not just related to the Covid shot. | Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo

5. ANTI-VAXX POPULI: In the latest installment of our series diving into the rise of the anti-vaccine political movement, our colleague Steve Shepard examines the effect of vaccine skepticism among the electorate: “A new POLITICO | Morning Consult poll, conducted as part of POLITICO’s ongoing series about the rising anti-vax movement, shows Republican voters are less likely than Democrats or independents to say vaccines are safe for children. It also shows that as many Republicans now say they care more about the risks of vaccines than they do about the health benefits.”

The 2024 angle: “While opposition to more established vaccines is still far from a majority position among Republicans, significant numbers question their safety and say Americans shouldn’t be encouraged to get them. And as GOP voters across the country consider whom to nominate for next year’s presidential race, the issue is playing out in unexpected ways in the primary.”

6. THE SENATOR’S WIFE: GISELE FETTERMAN opens up in an extensive interview and profile by WaPo’s Ruby Cramer on how she “navigates between worry and acceptance” with her husband, Sen. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-Pa.), as he continues his recovery from a stroke and depression that hospitalized him earlier this year. “‘How are you?’ people ask Gisele, if they aren’t asking about John. They tell her how strong she is. They tell her how sorry they are. They say they can’t thank her enough. Some send messages mocking her husband’s speech, or to say he should resign. But in a time when more Americans are being diagnosed with depression than ever before, there are people looking around for families like their own, and here are the Fettermans, in view and within reach.”

Related read: Derek Guy, better known as @dieworkwear on X, writes for POLITICO Magazine: “John Fetterman Should Wear a Suit — And Republicans Should Put a Sock in It”

7. LOOK WHO’S BACK: CASSIDY HUTCHINSON, the former Trump White House staffer, is reemerging from the shadows as she prepares for the release of a new memoir, titled “Enough,” ($30) about her time serving as the top aide for former White House chief of staff MARK MEADOWS. NYT’s Robert Draper: “On a recent Sunday morning, she spoke in the kitchen of her Washington high-rise with the blinds to her living room window open, a recent development in her reclusive life. ‘I would like not to be a hermit,’ she said. But, she added, ‘I am not a victim in any of this. I did what I did and I knew what I was getting myself into.’”

8. MEET THE NEW BOSS: “A Murdoch Heir’s Start-and-Stop Climb to the Top,” by WSJ’s Joe Flint and Jeffrey Trachtenberg: “The 52-year-old LACHLAN MURDOCH, who sports a tattoo and has a passion for rock climbing and sailing, cuts a different figure from his father in the C-suite and faces a very different media landscape than the one in which the elder Murdoch built his empire.”

Related read: “Lachlan Murdoch will be fully in charge of Fox. Will viewers notice?” by WaPo’s Jeremy Barr

9. THE NEXT ACT: “The inscrutable Marty Baron,” by The Boston Globe’s Mark Shanahan: “‘I had never led a staff with the express goal of being liked,’ the former editor of The Boston Globe and The Washington Post writes in his new book. But there’s more to the newsman than he lets most people see.”

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CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 16 funnies

GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Ryan Lizza:

— “The Animals Are Talking. What Does It Mean?” by Sonia Shah for NYT Magazine: “Language was long understood as a human-only affair. New research suggests that isn’t so.”

— “The Gruesome Story of How Neuralink’s Monkeys Actually Died,” by Wired’s Dhruv Mehrotra And Dell Cameron: “Elon Musk says no primates died as a result of Neuralink’s implants. A WIRED investigation now reveals the grisly specifics of their deaths as US authorities have been asked to investigate Musk’s claims.”

— “Many of today’s unhealthy foods were brought to you by Big Tobacco,” by WaPo’s Anahad O’Connor: “A new study suggests that tobacco companies, who were skilled at marketing cigarettes, used similar strategies to hook people on processed foods.”

— “Why Dollar General Might Just Be the Worst Retail Job in America,” by Bloomberg’s Josh Eidelson and Brendan Case: “Rat infestations, blocked fire exits, expired kids’ food, machete-wielding and watermelon-throwing shoppers and other nightmares at the biggest dollar chain in the US.”

— “The Killing Of Richard Oakes,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Jason Fagone and Julie Johnson: “He was the face of Red Power. The true story of his death has gone untold — until now.”

— “The Return of the Marriage Plot,” by NY Mag’s Rebecca Traister: “Why everyone is suddenly so eager for men and women to get hitched.”

— “The Wild Quest to Create a Fake Indian Cricket League ... That Was Just the Beginning,” by Sean Williams for Sports Illustrated: “With a scruffy lot and an audacious sense of ambition, an Indian villager created—and broadcast!—a rigged cricket league to rip off online bettors. It looked small-time, but something bigger was going on.”

— “It’s boom times for the ‘Real Fox Mulder,’” by FT’s Francisco Garcia: “How Nick Pope swatted away controversy on his way to becoming the dean of UK ufology.”

— “The Man Who Thinks He Can Live Forever,” by Time’s Charlotte Alter: Bryan Johnson “thinks of any act that accelerates aging — like eating a cookie, or getting less than eight hours of sleep — as an ‘act of violence.’”

— “A Wolfe in Chic Clothing,” by Alexandra Wolfe for Airmail: “My father, Tom Wolfe, was a perfect Southern gentleman who always seemed to be butting heads with the literary establishment.”

— “Karl Ove Knausgaard: The Man, The Myth, The Legend,” by Lynn Steger Strong for Esquire: “The renowned author talks about fiction, fame, fatherhood, the elasticity of time, the hell of immortality, and much, much more.”

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David Brooks is sorry.

Karen Pence’s new book is sparse on Donald Trump or Jan. 6 details.

OUT AND ABOUT — The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition honored Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) with an award for his commitment to diplomacy and development at a luncheon celebrating African American leadership in foreign policy Thursday at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill. SPOTTED: Jane Adams, Courtney Billington, Vanessa Broadhurst, Dontai Smalls, Susan Reichle, Kristin Lord, Gret