📝 The Readback: Four weeks. Four leaders

IN THIS EDITION

Four weeks. Four leaders.

Dispatch from UNGA in New York

‘Money Talks’ at CBCF Week

Pickleball on the Mall

THE TOP

Four weeks. Four leaders.

Welcome to The Readback, our weekend digest featuring the best of Punchbowl News this week – a quick roundup of all our scoops, analysis and Capitol Hill insight you won’t find anywhere else. We’ve also included a few of our favorite outside reads from the week.

Four leaders in four weeks: And we’re just getting started. One month in, and Fly Out Day is reaching cruising altitude.

In September, we welcomed the Big Four congressional leaders to our Capitol Hill townhouse. We started off with Speaker Mike Johnson, then Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and this week, we hosted House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

The lineup underscores the show’s mission to bring the biggest power players in Congress straight to you with a keen focus on power, people and politics.

What did we learn in four weeks? A lot. Our guests and panelists shed a lot of light on the behind-the-scenes negotiations and made some news.

Any launch isn’t without some turbulence, but we’ve navigated the relentless news cycles and had some fun along the way. One of my favorite segments, That’s Not Gonna Fly, calls out absurdities of the week in Congress and ideas that just aren’t going to take off.

I am also partial to our Big Mad Index, which has transformed from a simple Excel file to a lively segment highlighting who is fired up and making it known.

You might have noticed the doorbell cam on Fly Out Day. It’s not just for security. It’s our way of welcoming in each guest and making our Capitol Hill townhouse feel like a living, breathing character in the show.

Stay tuned for tons of great newsmakers in the coming months and the sharpest reporters on the beat to break it all down.

Thank you for being part of the launch energy!

Drop me a line to let me know what you want to see more of or to pitch your boss. [email protected].

What I’m reading: Besides watching Fly Out Day on YouTube and listening to The Daily Punch on Spotify, I am reading “The Unicorn Project,” a tale of technology and transformation recommended by my MBA professors.

– Haley Talbot

You can find The Readback in your inbox every Saturday at 8 a.m. And don’t hesitate to reach out to [email protected] with feedback. Enjoy The Readback.

Dispatch from UNGA in New York

Live from New York! You often hear congressional recesses described as “sacred” to lawmakers. It’s a time to unwind from the stresses of Washington, head home, hold events in your district or state, or sometimes travel internationally.

For the Hill’s foreign policy wonks, there’s no more sacred break from Washington than the annual United Nations General Assembly or “UNGA week.”

Each year around this time, dozens of lawmakers from both parties head up to New York for the rare week when nearly every foreign leader converges in the same place. That means senators and House members can meet with multiple heads of state and dignitaries in a condensed period of time.

This was my third year in a row attending UNGA as part of a Punchbowl News partnership. This year, we teamed up with the World Economic Forum for their Sustainable Development Impact Meetings.

Our session, which you can watch here, focused on members of Congress and their priorities for the week. I interviewed Rep. Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.), the chair of the East Asia and Pacific subcommittee; and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the U.S. Helsinki Commission.

Newsy convos: When he arrived at the WEF studio, Meeks had just come from a meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose presence at UNGA got a lot of attention over his al Qaeda-affiliated past and his push for sanctions relief from the West.

Sanctions are also an issue on Capitol Hill as Congress considers the annual defense policy bill, with the Senate version including a repeal and the House version keeping the sanctions in place.

Meeks asserted that he’s not yet ready to endorse lifting the sanctions, saying he wants al-Sharaa to have incentives to continue making progress toward stabilizing Syria.

Meeks’ Senate counterpart on the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), has endorsed a full repeal, as has the Trump administration. Shaheen met with al-Sharaa in Damascus last month.

It was great to get Meeks’ immediate reaction to the meeting with al-Sharaa. His response helped explain why we’re seeing that Senate-House divide over whether to repeal the sanctions as part of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act.

My conversation with Kim mostly focused on China policy, an issue she’s been leading for several years now. Whitehouse, who was in town for Climate Week on the sidelines of UNGA, talked climate policy as well as Russia sanctions.

What I’m watching: It’s almost Red October!! The Phillies have clinched a first-round bye, and they’re getting hot again at just the right time. Baseball is a game of momentum, so let’s hope this continues throughout October. Let’s go Phils!

— Andrew Desiderio

‘Money Talks’ at CBCF Week

Ask anyone in D.C. what the biggest social week in Washington politics is, and you’re likely to hear either White House Correspondents’ Association dinner weekend or the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference. This week happens to be the latter.

Since moving here more than two years ago, I’ve always heard of how the city turns out for CBCF ALC week. From the actual conference itself at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, to the long list of parties, panels and events around town, you’re sure to spot any number of Black influential thought leaders, legislators and influencers across the District.

I got to start my CBCF week festivities on Thursday at our own Punchbowl News HQ at Unconventional Diner, where we hosted Maryland Gov. Wes Moore for a one-on-one interview, followed by a fireside chat and panel conversation with financial experts, plus a “Toast to the CBC.” You can watch the full Moore conversation here.

I enjoyed watching all of the panels and programming, but arguably the most exciting part of my night was getting to pull out our trusty lavalier mic for our “Money Talks” social segment. I got to ask guests all of my burning (and mainly fun) questions about all things finance and CBCF week.

As a digital producer, I don’t typically get to cover these events in this capacity. So it was really fun to step out of my comfort zone and in front of the camera as we got people talking about a variety of things, including the best financial advice they’ve ever received, and asking fun questions like “if you could put anyone today or in history on the dollar, who would it be?”

So if you need tips on surviving the rest of CBCF week, or simply want to hear guests like Shawn Townsend, president and CEO of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, on making the most of your experience in town, be sure to check out a few of my favorite highlights above from our “Money Talks” conversations.

What I’m listening to: One of my all-time favorite music legends, Mariah Carey, just released her new album titled “Here for It All,” and I can’t wait to listen. I mean, how long has it been since a new Mariah Carey album drop?

– Jalen Beckford

Pickleball on the Mall

As Punchbowl News’ unofficial sports correspondent, I jump at any opportunity to mix my job with an athletic endeavor. Last Friday, that desire led me to don my Punchbowl News gear and hit the pickleball courts with my colleague Brendan Pedersen.

Brendan and I were representing Punchbowl News in the National Mall of Pickleball’s media tournament. As part of the event, hosted by the Trust for the National Mall and Humana, pickleball courts take over a portion of the strip near the Smithsonian Metro stop.

Although soccer is my main sport, I played tennis growing up and have picked up pickleball in the past couple of years. While the sport gets its fair share of criticism — either from tennis purists or neighbors angry at the sound — I’ve found it an exhilarating and relatively low-effort way to get some exercise.

The tournament: Neither Brendan nor I are pickleball natives, with my colleague coming from the world of table tennis. In the days leading up to the tournament, Brendan and I swapped strategy tips and crunched some film. We had never played together before Friday. A risk, but given our years of journalistic synergy, one that we could overcome.

We felt good heading into tournament day. In typical Punchbowl News fashion, Brendan stepped aside during the warmups to file a PM item. The grind never stops!

The tournament itself featured eight media teams competing in two groups of four. We’d play every team in our group once. The top two teams from each group of four would advance to the semifinals, played on the center court of the complex.

As the saying goes, pickleball is easy to pick up but difficult to master.

In our first match, we narrowly lost 11-8 to a strong Axios team, although we came back to tie the scores at eight apiece. The second game, against the Washingtonian delegation, didn’t go so well and we only scored one point en route to an 11-1 loss. We did win our final game against the Associated Press, 11-5, but failed to qualify for the semifinals.

In the end, we got to cheer on our competitors on center court and watched the Washington Post team beat WJLA to take home the title. There’s always next year!

What I’m watching: I’m following the Yankees as they approach a postseason with high expectations and a chance to improve on last season’s World Series disappointment.

– Max Cohen