By Rachael Bade, Ryan Lizza and Eugene Daniels

With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross

OVERNIGHT — “Russia Detains a U.S. Journalist,” by NYT’s Ivan Nechepurenko: “ALSU KURMASHEVA, who holds dual U.S.-Russian citizenship and works in Prague, was charged with failing to register as a foreign agent after going to Russia for family reasons.”

Acting Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick Mchenry presides over the House at the U.S. Capitol Oct. 18, 2023. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

WHY EMPOWERING McHENRY ISN’T SO EASY — With Rep. JIM JORDAN’s speakership bid on life support, chatter on Capitol Hill has turned to what some are casting as the inevitable Plan D: temporarily empowering acting Speaker Pro Tempore PATRICK McHENRY to move critical legislation while Republicans search for a viable new leader.

But elevating McHenry is much easier said than done.

For one, McHenry himself has pooh-poohed the idea. The North Carolina Republican — who seems less than thrilled to be in his current position — has made clear that he thinks he only has power to oversee a new speakership election. Could that change? Sure. But for an effort to be successful, McHenry himself would likely need to be onboard.

An even bigger challenge: On a practical level, many Republicans are opposed. Sure, the world is on fire. Hamas’ barbaric attack on Israel and Israel’s response has left the Middle East reeling, Ukraine is still struggling to hold the line against Russia, and here at home, Uncle Sam runs out of money in less than a month. But the truth is that most Republicans don’t yet feel pressured enough to set aside their own personal ambitions to get back to governing.

In fact, yesterday Jordan’s inner circle appeared to try to use this idea of empowering McHenry to boost Jordan’s own candidacy, accusing those flirting with the idea of trying to turn the majority over to Democrats.

— “It’s possible that today a small group of Republicans attempt to work with Democrats to build a coalition government,”warned Rep. WARREN DAVIDSON, an Ohio conservative helping Jordan whip votes. “I will gladly fight alongside the @HouseGOP to do what we said we would do, but I will surrender our agenda to no one.”

— Rep. THOMAS MASSIE (R-Ky.) quickly joined in, tweeting, “I agree. A majority is a terrible thing to waste. I will not vote to join a coalition with HAKEEM JEFFRIES. I will vote for Jim Jordan.”

— Rep. CHIP ROY (R-Texas) chimed in later as well: “If the @HouseGOP dares cut a deal with Dems to empower a Speaker-Pro-Tem[p] in violation of tradition & norms, & possibly the Constitution to likely pass another CR at Pelosi levels & more supplemental (not paid for) spending - including Ukraine… the GOP might as well be the Whigs.”

Technically, Republicans could empower McHenry on their own, relying on 217 GOP votes without a single Democrat. But almost all Republicans would need to be on board, and they’re clearly not. There’s a reason why Jordan himself pushed to bring the idea to the floor yesterday: to kill it early and use the blowback on its supporters to rally support for his own bid for speaker.

Enter “The West Wing”-inspired chatter about Republicans turning to Democrats to get the needed 217 votes to make this move. Yes, members like Rep. DAVID JOYCE (R-Ohio) and a bunch of Jordan detractors have been talking with Democrats about this. And to be sure, they seem to be willing negotiators: Jeffries, the minority leader, has suggested he’s open to the idea.

But Democrats aren’t going to bail out Republicans for free. And it’s unclear exactly what concessions they’d want in exchange for elevating McHenry.

Would they hold McHenry to the bipartisan spending caps deal that ousted Speaker KEVIN McCARTHY made with the White House last spring before going back on his word? They’d be foolish not to. Would they demand votes on Ukraine aid that has broad bipartisan support despite a majority of Republicans opposing it? Sure, why not?

Could Democrats push for an even steeper price — say, some sort of power-sharing agreement? The truth is, we’re not sure. Jeffries has declined to get into specifics.

Such an idea, however, runs contrary to the underlying politics of the House, a chamber governed by majority rule, led by a party that has pitched its platform to voters and won. If Republicans agreed to a power-sharing arrangement, they’d have a big problem explaining themselves to constituents — not to mention big-dollar donors.

Even if Democrats don’t demand a formal arrangement, conservatives will go ballistic over even the most obvious concessions. And we’re wondering how soon we would end up in the same place we’re in today.

THE WILDCARD IDEA — There is an intriguing idea out there, however, that’s starting to gain traction: McCarthy yesterday appeared to argue that McHenry already has these powers and should just act on his own.

It’s an idea that his friend has rejected — but rules wonks have nonetheless floated it, arguing that a powerless temporary speaker is counterproductive to the benefit of the nation in a time of emergency.

BRENDAN BUCK, the former adviser to speakers JOHN BOEHNER and PAUL RYAN, endorses that strategy in a new NYT op-ed, noting that “in the absence of clear rules, the House operates on precedent.”

“We are in an unprecedented situation. And the House’s rules, functionally, are whatever a simple majority say they are,” he writes.

His pitch is interesting: A lawmaker should try to bring up a resolution condemning Hamas. McHenry, he writes, should recognize the person — and when someone objects, or the parliamentarian rules it out of order, the House could overrule that ruling.

“Mr. McHenry would be daring members of the House to block consideration of policy that most seem to badly want to support, and if they were successful, it could break the seal on the ability to legislate under a temporary speaker,” Buck writes. “From there, as more complicated measures come up, some governing coalition would need to continue to provide the votes needed to allow the House to operate issue by issue. In effect, the House would live or die on whatever a majority of its members would tolerate. Some might say that’s how it should be.”

We’ll see.

Related reads: 

• “As Jordan wobbles, House GOP eyes potential next speaker candidates,” by Olivia Beavers and Jordain Carney
• “Republican lawmaker says she received death threats after voting against Jim Jordan in speaker’s race,” NBC’s Ali Vitali, Rebecca Kaplan and Antonio Planas
• “Republicans Fear Speaker Fight Could Cost Them House Majority,” by NYT’s Annie Karni 
• “Why the GOP Can’t Unite,” by Jonathan Martin: “There’s a reason why House Republicans can’t settle on a speaker. It’s the same reason there are effectively parallel GOP presidential primaries. … There is no longer a cohesive Republican Party. There’s a pre-Trump GOP and a post-Trump GOP, living together uneasily. They may be roommates but they’re not married.”

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

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ROMNEY UNLEASHED — McKay Coppins’ eagerly anticipated biography of Sen. MITT ROMNEY (R-Utah), “Romney: A Reckoning” ($32.50), drops next Tuesday. Romney has been his party’s most consistent Trump critic since 2015 — with one notable hiatus — and he’s had a lot to say about Republicans who have not lived up to his standards.

We’ve already learned, via the Atlantic’s recent excerpt, about Romney’s now-infamous take on the junior senator from Ohio (“I don’t know that I can disrespect someone more than J. D. VANCE”) and his unvarnished view of his party’s last vice president (“No one had been more loyal, more willing to smile when he saw absurdities, more willing to ascribe God’s will to things that were ungodly, than MIKE PENCE”).

Well, it turns out Coppins recorded a lot more Romneyisms, and we got our hands on an exclusive preview:

Mitt on RON DeSANTIS: “There’s just no warmth at all.” On DeSantis posing for selfies with Iowa voters: “He looks like he’s got a toothache.” More: “He’s much smarter than Trump ... You might point out, ‘Mitt, DeSantis is real smart — do you want an authoritarian who’s smart or one who’s not smart?’ … I realize there’s a peril to having someone who’s smart and pulling in a direction that’s dangerous.”

On NEWT GINGRICH: “A smug know-it-all, smarmy, and too pleased with himself" … TED CRUZ: “Frightening,” “scary,” “a demagogue” … MIKE HUCKABEE: A “huckster,” a “caricature of a for-profit preacher” … BOBBY JINDAL: A “twit” … RICK SANTORUM: “Sanctimonious, severe and strange” … RICK PERRY: “Republicans must realize that we have to have someone who can complete a sentence.” … JOHN KASICH: “Lack of thoughtfulness, lack of attentiveness, ego. No wonder he and CHRIS [CHRISTIE] spark.”

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On the Hill

The House will meet at noon.

The Senate is in.

3 things to watch …

1. The House comes in at noon, and for the moment, that’s when Jordan’s camp insists the third speaker vote will be called. But as we’ve all learned, the only certainty in the People’s House these days is uncertainty. Whenever the roll is called, however, Jordan foes such as Reps. DON BACON (R-Neb.) and MARIO DIAZ-BALART (R-Fla.) are confident he’ll continue bleeding support (perhaps by design).
   
2. The White House is signaling its big supplemental appropriations request will hit the Hill soon, rolling funding for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the southwest border into one big ball of wax. NBC’s Julie Tsirkin and Monica Alba report that the bulk of the request — $60 billion — will be earmarked for Ukraine, with the remaining $40 billion split between the rest. Expect hard-line conservatives to hate it regardless, but watch how hawks like Rep. MICHAEL McCAUL (R-Texas) and Sen. TOM COTTON (R-Ark.) react.
   
3. Two significant cliffs are on deck for 2025 — the expiration of the Trump tax cuts and another debt ceiling crunch — and you can expect a renewed push for a blue-ribbon fiscal commission as Congress deals with them. The House Budget Committee is moving to jump-start that conversation today with a hearing featuring former senator and OMB director ROB PORTMAN (R-Ohio), former Senate Budget Committee Chair KENT CONRAD (D-N.D.) and former House Budget Committee Chair JOHN YARMUTH (D-Ky.).

At the White House

JOE BIDEN will receive the President’s Daily Brief in the morning, and at 8 p.m. will deliver remarks on Hamas’ attacks against Israel and Russia’s war against Ukraine from the Oval Office. More on the primetime speech from NBC’s Dareh Gregorian

VP KAMALA HARRIS has nothing on her public schedule.

CALIFORNIA CLIMATE: Climate change isn’t just about the weather. It's also about how we do business and create new policies, especially in California. So we have something cool for you: A brand-new California Climate newsletter. It's not just climate or science chat, it's your daily cheat sheet to understanding how the legislative landscape around climate change is shaking up industries across the Golden State. Cut through the jargon and get the latest developments in California as lawmakers and industry leaders adapt to the changing climate. Subscribe now to California Climate to keep up with the changes.

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

President Joe Biden is greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport, Oct. 18, 2023, in Tel Aviv. | Evan Vucci/AP

BIDEN’S BIG TRIP — Biden’s trip to Israel had two main goals: (1) to show support for the U.S. ally in its moment of need, and (2) to stop the broader conflict from escalating, Alexander Ward and Jonathan Lemire write.

He returned to the U.S. one for two. 

His (literal) embrace of Israeli PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU will be the enduring image of the trip. But the reality of an Israel-only itinerary after Jordan canceled its planned summit with a small group of Arab leaders meant that “Biden didn’t get a similar photo op with other regional leaders,” and his statements of support for Israel did little to quell the violence across the region.

Back in the U.S., “Arab-American leaders have publicly chastised the Biden administration rhetoric as insensitive to Palestinians — and made similar arguments privately to State Department officials.” Meanwhile, aides to the president “have recoiled at the criticism that they have been callous to the plight of the Palestinians,” and “touted the $100 million in humanitarian aid he pledged for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.”

But that’s done little to quell growing outrage on the left, where calls for an immediate ceasefire led protestors to rally on the National Mall and hold a sit-in at the Cannon House Office Building, where roughly 300 demonstrators were arrested, per WaPo’s Justin Wm. Moyer and Ellie Silverman.

“To my president, to our president ... I want him to know, as a Palestinian American and somebody in Muslim faith, I'm not going to forget this,” Rep. RASHIDA TLAIB (D-Mich.) warned in a speech to protestors, per ABC’s Oren Oppenheim. “We are literally watching people commit genocide and killing the vast majority just like this, and we still stand by and say nothing. We will remember this.”

Meanwhile, in Gaza: Following Biden’s visit, Israel yesterday said that it would allow Egypt to deliver aid supplies to the Gaza Strip, the “first crack in a punishing 10-day siege,” AP’s Najib Jobain, Isabel Debre and Ravi Nessman report.

A warning: “This could be Mogadishu on steroids very quickly.” That’s what former CIA director and four-star General DAVID PETRAEUS said on this week’s “Power Play” podcast about an Israeli ground operation in Gaza, noting the “very substantial population,” “high rises” and “densely packed areas.” Listen here

In Foggy Bottom: “‘I Couldn’t Shift Anything’: Senior State Department Official Resigns Over Biden’s Gaza Policy,” by HuffPost’s Akbar Shahid Ahmed: “JOSH PAUL, who spent a decade in State's bureau overseeing arms sales, exclusively spoke with HuffPost after quitting over the U.S. approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict.”

Elsewhere in D.C.: “A Department of Homeland Security official was put on leave after a report that they had previously worked for the Palestinian Liberation Organization,” report the Washington Examiner’s Brady Knox and Gabe Kaminsky.

And back on the Hill: As Democrats press for the quick confirmation of JACK LEW’s nomination to be U.S. ambassador to Israel, Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday showed their skepticism with harsh questioning over his role in the Iran nuclear pact during the Obama administration, Connor O’Brien writes.

More top reads:

• “U.S. lashes out at social media companies over Israel-Hamas content, as EU acts,” by Rebecca Kern
• “‘A lot of anger’: U.S. faces flak as it pushes for World Bank to run climate fund,” by Zack Colman
• “Biden eases sanctions on Venezuelan oil and Republicans howl,” by Ben Lefebvre

CONGRESS

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Capitol Hill June 15, 2021. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

BY DEFAULT — Here’s another angle to House Republicans’ anxiety amid the speakership saga: The longer they go without a speaker, the more likely the Senate’s fingerprints will be all over the next major spending fights.

Senate Minority Leader MITCH McCONNELL “faces real internal opposition of his own, but at the moment his anti-shutdown, pro-Ukraine position at least gives Democratic leaders a Republican they can talk to,” Burgess Everett and Sarah Ferris write.

Rep. STEVE WOMACK (R-Ark.), a longtime appropriator who refuses to support Jordan for speaker, said the chaos in his chamber means “we cede our ability to do what we need to be doing to govern to the Senate, to the White House.”

It’s partly why Womack is among several Republicans who are now seriously debating a plan to give new powers to McHenry. Still, “there are zero guarantees that the House GOP could pass any kind of spending package without Democratic support, given its four-seat majority, even if McHenry was able to bring a bill to the floor. Senators don’t exactly have other options.

“The House is frankly usually pretty independent and wants to do their own thing. But if they don’t have a thing to do, then that creates a situation where the Senate passes something — and then they’ll have no choice but to take it or leave it,” said Sen. JOHN CORNYN (R-Texas), a top McConnell deputy. “Colloquially known as ‘being jammed.’”

FUN ONE — “Forget dating apps. Sen. Grassley’s office has produced 20 marriages,” by WaPo’s Kyle Melnick

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2024 WATCH

Former President Donald Trump finishes a campaign event at the Dallas County Fairgrounds on Oct.16, 2023, in Adel, Iowa. | Scott Olson/Getty Images

POLL POSITION — Bloomberg and Morning Consult are up with new polling this morning, taking the temperature of seven swing states that will go a long way in deciding the 2024 Election. The poll surveyed voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — and it offers a handful of tough takeaways for Biden:

• Overall, DONALD TRUMP leads Biden 47% to 43% across the seven states — and the state-by-state breakdown isn’t much better for the president: “Trump is leading head-to-head races in five of the seven swing states: Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Biden leads in Nevada, and it’s a dead tie in Michigan.”
  
• And Biden gets a bruising report on the economy: On the president’s signature issue, “almost twice as many voters say Bidenomics has been bad for the economy as those who say it’s been good, 49% to 26%. Among independents, it’s 52% to 17%.”

More top reads:

• Virginia Gov. GLENN YOUNGKIN’s “Red Vest Retreat” is generating speculation “about whether Youngkin will step off the sidelines and into the 2024 presidential race,” MIKE POMPEO told CBS’ Olivia Rinaldi in an exclusive interview. What Pompeo said: “It’s fair to say there are absolutely people here who think he would make a great president.”

ALL POLITICS

California Gov. Gavin Newsom answers questions during a news conference, Sept, 26, 2023, in Sacramento, Calif. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo

DIPLOMATIC OPPORTUNITY — California Gov. GAVIN NEWSOM will make the most ambitious and risky foray of his political career as he travels to China next week for meetings with leaders in the country.

“A top surrogate for Biden’s reelection campaign, Newsom has said he’s solely focused on climate policy and wouldn’t do anything to undermine the administration’s delicate relations with China. But the trip carries much deeper significance for Newsom, a potential future U.S. presidential contender. It presents him with the prospect of high rewards — and a threat of major pitfalls,” Dustin Gardiner and Blanca Begert write.

Newsom “could bolster his foreign policy resume” — something of a political feather in his cap as talk of a future presidential run still swirls around him. “The governor, however, will walk a diplomatic tightrope” in the meetings, which come at a fraught time between China and the U.S.

More top reads:

• North Carolina Republicans yesterday proposed a new slate of congressional maps that would likely spell reelection doom for Democratic Reps. JEFF JACKSON, WILEY NICKEL and KATHY MANNING, AP’s Gary Robertson and Hannah Schoenbaum report from Raleigh, N.C.