About this episode
At 1:25 p.m. on Jan. 6, soon after rioters had broken through barricades outside of the Capitol, Melania Trump received a text message from her then-chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham. “Do you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American, but there is no place for lawlessness and violence?” Grisham asked the first lady. A minute later, Melania replied with a one-word answer: “No.” At that moment, she was at the White House preparing for a photo shoot of a rug she had selected, according to exclusive excerpts of Grisham’s forthcoming book, “I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in The Trump White House,” obtained by POLITICO. And late last night, lawmakers, Hill aides and tax lobbyists were sending around a five-page memo outlining House Ways and Means Democrats’ proposed $2.9 trillion in tax increases. The hikes would “amount to the biggest tax increase in decades, and enough to cover most of what even progressive Democrats hope to spend on their coming ‘reconciliation’ package,” our tax team colleague Brian Faler writes . Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook. Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.