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HAPPENING SOON — Republican National Committee members, meeting in Dana Point, Calif., are set to elect a new party chair following a bitter race between incumbent RONNA McDANIEL and insurgent HARMEET DHILLON. Follow @rachaelmbade and @natalie_allison for the latest

SHOCKING VIDEO — “Paul Pelosi attack video released,” by Jeremy White in San Francisco: “The footage shows PAUL PELOSI and [DAVID] DePAPE both grasping a hammer when officers arrived at the Pelosi residence in the early morning hours of Oct. 28. Officers order the men to drop the hammer, and DePape says ‘nope’ before turning it and swinging at Paul, after which both men topple to the floor and an officer calls for a medic.” Disclaimer: The video of the attack is violent and difficult to watch. Viewer discretion is very much advised.

THE LATEST IN MEMPHIS — Later today, Memphis police are expected to release video of a traffic stop that ended in a fatal beating of TYRE NICHOLS, a 29-year-old Black man. Memphis Police chief CERELYN “CJ” DAVIS told CNN that the video shows “acts that defy humanity.” She continued: “You’re going to see a disregard for life, duty of care that we’re all sworn to and a level of physical interaction that is above and beyond what is required in law enforcement.” More from CNN’s Travis Caldwell, Jay Croft and Eric Bradner

CHANGING OF THE GUARD — White House chief of staff RON KLAIN submitted his formal resignation letter this morning and officially handed the reins to JEFF ZIENTS. “The halfway point of your first term — with two successful years behind us, and key decisions on the next two years ahead — is the right time for this team to have fresh leadership,” he wrote. Read the full letter… More from Adam Cancryn

WHO’S IN CHARGE —AP’s Mary Clare Jalonick and Seung Min Kim are up with a must-read on the four women who are tasked with guiding Congress’ spending committees: House Appropriations Chair KAY GRANGER (R-Texas), ranking member ROSA DeLAURO (D-Conn.), Senate Appropriations Chair PATTY MURRAY (D-Wash.) and ranking member SUSAN COLLINS (R-Maine).

“Sitting down with The Associated Press on Thursday for their first joint interview — and joined by SHALANDA YOUNG, the first Black woman to lead the Office of Management and Budget and a former House aide — the women talked like old friends, nodding and laughing in agreement when listening to each others’ stories about the way things used to be for women, and sometimes still are. …

“The women said their camaraderie, friendship and willingness to collaborate will be crucial as they shoulder the massive responsibility of keeping the government running and open — an annual task that will be made even harder this year as conservatives in the new GOP House majority are insisting on major spending cuts and the U.S. is at risk of default.”

INFLATION NATION — “Key Fed inflation measure eased in December while consumer spending also declined,” by CNBC’s Jeff Cox: “Personal consumption expenditures excluding food and energy increased 4.4% from a year ago, down from the 4.7% reading in November and in line with the Dow Jones estimate. That was the slowest annual rate of increase since October 2021.”

AFTERNOON READ — “Trump’s Killing Spree: The Inside Story of His Race to Execute Every Prisoner He Could,” by Rolling Stone’s Asawin Suebsaeng and Patrick Reis: “Before 2020, there had been three federal executions in 60 years. Then Trump put 13 people to death in six months.”

Happy Friday afternoon, and thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at [email protected].

ALL POLITICS

HUNTING FOR A GATHERING —NYT’s Katie Glueck and Maya King have the latest intel on the race to secure the 2024 Democratic National Convention. “It is at once an opaque insider’s game and a spirited debate over Democratic messaging and symbolism, shaped by regional rivalries, whispered disparagement of competitors and high-powered public jockeying,” they write.

The favorites: “Atlanta, Chicago and New York remain in contention and have advanced toward the endgame of the process, hashing out potential nuts-and-bolts terms with the D.N.C., according to two people with direct knowledge of the bidding process. Of those three cities, Atlanta and Chicago have often been seen as leading contenders, but in many ways, the final decision will be a matter of Mr. Biden’s preference. Atlanta is the only one of those cities to be located in a presidential battleground state.” Houston, meanwhile, is officially out.

Here’s a taste of the pitches:

• Michigan Gov. GRETCHEN WHITMER, making the case for Chicago: “Midwestern Democrats know how to win big and get things done.”
• New Jersey Gov. PHIL MURPHY, making the case for New York: “It’s got all the infrastructure that the party needs. It’s historically a bastion of Democratic support.”
• Former Alabama Sen. DOUG JONES, making the case for Atlanta: “The Democratic Party’s future on a national level is tied to success in the South.”

Dems involved with the selection process are anticipating an official decision around March, which is when the 2020 convention site was announced the year prior.

THE LOCAL SCENE —NYT’s Michael Wines has an interesting read up this morning about a shift across state legislatures, where “the nation’s barbed political divide” is “infusing old local antagonisms with contemporary partisan acrimony.” The prime example he explores comes out of Nashville, where “the Republican-led General Assembly kicked off a partisan fury a year ago by filleting the city’s Democratic congressional district into three new districts, all safely Republican.” Now, Democrats are scrambling to strike back, with the Democratic-controlled Metro Council effectively squashing an effort to host the 2024 Republican National Convention in the city.

The trend extends beyond Tennessee: “In Wisconsin, North Carolina, Kentucky and elsewhere, old city-country political tensions have taken on a harder edge as Democratic-leaning urban areas become ever more isolated islands in an ever-redder, rural-dominated sea.”

CONGRESS

FOR YOUR RADAR — “TikTok Ban to Get House Panel Vote Next Month, McCaul Says,” by Bloomberg’s Erik Wasson: “Representative MICHAEL McCAUL said he plans to have the House Foreign Affairs Committee vote next month don a new bill to ban TikTok in the U.S. … The comments are the most concrete sign yet that Congress could enact a ban this year and adds pressure on President Joe Biden’s administration to force a sale of the app by its Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd.”

THE TALENTED MR. SANTOS — NYC Mayor ERIC ADAMS joined the chorus calling for Rep. GEORGE SANTOS (R-N.Y.) to resign, telling CBS 2 News: “What you see is something that is unimaginable and I think it only gets in the way of what needs to be done in Congress this year.” More from Zachary Schermele

— Clicker: “See the evolution of lies in George Santos’s campaign biography,” by WaPo’s Azi Paybarah, Luis Melgar and Tyler Remmel: “Here’s a look at how Santos defined and redefined himself in his biography on his campaign website.”

ONE TO WATCH — “A Nationwide Fight Over Food Insecurity Is Just Beginning,” by The New Republic’s Grace Segers: “From a draconian new proposal in Iowa to farm bill deliberations in Washington, the ideological battles over food aid will soon kick off — and no one knows who will end up paying the price.”

ON TODAY’S HOUSE VOTE — “House Republicans passed a bill Friday that aims to curb President Joe Biden’s ability to tap the nation’s petroleum reserves, a bid by the chamber’s new majority to rebuke the White House for using massive oil releases last year to tamp down runaway gasoline prices,” Josh Siegel and Kelsey Tamborrino report. “But the bill, H.R. 21 (118), which passed 221-205, was largely a messaging effort by Republicans.”

RULES FOR THEE — “A Democratic congressman who says Congress shouldn’t trade stock violated existing stock trade law,” by Raw Story’s Dave Levinthal: Rep. GERRY CONNOLLY (D-Va.), “a senior member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, was late disclosing three of his own personal stock trades in violation of a federally mandated deadline, a Raw Story analysis of congressional financial documents indicates.”

JUDICIARY SQUARE

SCOTUS WATCH — “Supreme Court did not disclose financial relationship with expert brought in to review leak probe,” by CNN’s Joan Biskupic: “CNN has learned from sources familiar with the arrangements that the court in recent years has privately contracted with The Chertoff Group for security assessments, some broadly covering justices’ safety and some specifically related to Covid-19 protocols at the court itself.

“The estimated payments to [MICHAEL] CHERTOFF’s risk assessment firm, for consultations that extended over several months and involved a review of the justices’ homes, reached at least $1 million. The exact amount of money paid could not be determined. Supreme Court contracts are not covered by federal public disclosure rules and elude tracking on public databases.”

POLICY CORNER

MAJOR SHIFT — “FDA to Allow More Gay, Bisexual Men to Donate Blood,” by WSJ’s Liz Essley Whyte: “The Food and Drug Administration released guidelines that would allow gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships to donate blood without abstaining from sex, a shift in a decades-old policy set during the start of the AIDS crisis.”

Related read: “What new questions will I be asked when I donate blood?” by WaPo’s Teddy Amenabar, Fenit Nirappil and Laurie McGinley

THE LOAN LURCH — “Data shows student debt relief applicants in each state as auditors question cost,” by WaPo’s Danielle Douglas-Gabriel: “Officials say 26 million people had applied or were automatically deemed eligible to have up to $20,000 of their federal student loans canceled before an appeals court imposed a nationwide injunction halting the relief plan. The department has approved 16 million applications, assuring borrowers that the administration will discharge the debt if it prevails in court.”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

DIRE DECISION LOOMS — “As the Colorado River Shrinks, Washington Prepares to Spread the Pain,” by NYT’s Christopher Flavelle: “The seven states that rely on water from the shrinking Colorado River are unlikely to agree to voluntarily make deep reductions in their water use, negotiators say, which would force the federal government to impose cuts for the first time in the water supply for 40 million Americans. The Interior Department had asked the states to voluntarily come up with a plan by Jan. 31 to collectively cut the amount of water they draw from the Colorado.”

DeSANTIS DOWNLOAD — “Ron DeSantis Claims of Liberal Bias Put Florida College at Crossroads,” by WSJ’s Arian Campo-Flores in Sarasota, Fla.: Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS “has pledged to overhaul higher education in Florida and strip it of what he considers ‘woke ideology,’ which his representatives have defined as a belief that the U.S. has systemic injustice. How that will play out at New College is hard to determine.”

WAR IN UKRAINE

TRUST ISSUES — “Ukraine Corruption Scandal Stokes Longstanding Aid Concerns in U.S.,” by NYT’s Michael Crowley and Edward Wong: “Although U.S. and European officials say there is no evidence that aid to Ukraine was stolen, even the perception of fraud would threaten political support for continued wartime assistance and for the postwar reconstruction effort that Western officials envision.”

VISUAL STORY — “‘This is our exchange fund’: Inside Ukraine’s POW detention center,” by WaPo’s Kamila Hrabchuk and Heidi Levine

PLAYBOOKERS

OUT AND ABOUT—SPOTTED at a welcome reception for the new Congress and Congressional Video Game and Esports Caucus hosted by the Entertainment Software Association on Wednesday, where guests could play Just Dance, Super Smash Bros. and other video games: Reps. Marilyn Strickland (D-Wa.), Ben Cline (R-Va.) and Marc Veasey (D-Texas), Edward Royce, Marie Royce, Stanley Pierre-Louis, Michael Petricone, Jessica Moore and Nicole Gustafson.

— The Empower Project hosted a midterms celebration for organizations, funders and partners last night at the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. SPOTTED: Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), Ben Young, Joseph Dennison, Mike Cassesso, Chintan Patel, Jody Murphy, Nicole Brener-Schmitz and Sara Schreiber.

MEDIA MOVES — Riley Gutiérrez McDermid is joining The Hill as business/finance editor. She previously was money and tech editor for USA Today. And Sylvan Lane has been promoted to assistant business/finance editor. The announcement

TRANSITIONS — BCom has acquired Veracity Media, combining to make one of the biggest Democratic online fundraising firms. Cara Schumann is also joining as managing director for campaigns. … Eric Lesser has joined WilmerHale as a senior counsel and will be a member of the firm’s public policy and regulatory affairs group. He most recently was a Massachusetts state senator, and is an Obama White House alum. …

… John Monsif is now VP and head of federal government engagement at Visa. He most recently was director for U.S. federal government relations at Carrier, and is a John Delaney and Louise Slaughter alum. … Paige Willey is now deputy director of comms for Texas AG Ken Paxton. She most recently was director of strategic comms at New Founding, and is a Trump White House alum.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Lorella Praeli, co-president of Community Change, and Timothy Eakins welcomed Amara Sofía Praeli Eakins on Jan. 20. Pic… Another pic

— Ariel Wittenberg, a public Health reporter at E&E News, and Alex Schneider, an associate attorney at Kelley Drye and Warren, LLP, welcomed Sadie on Jan. 20, who joins big sister Eliza.

Correction: Wednesday’s Playbook PM mistakenly stated that DeDe Lea attended a screening and reception for “As Far As They Can Run.”