Breitbart Launching a MAGA Rival to Politico’s Playbook
Breitbart is set to launch a Beltway-centric newsletter, in the vein of Politico’s famed Playbook but for a MAGA audience, The Daily Beast has learned.
With a slated launch early in the new year, the brand-new newsletter—which will be written in the outlet’s staunchly populist, anti-establishment Republican voice—will serve as a daily email blast for conservative Hill staffers and media members living inside what the site derisively refers to as “the swamp” or the “D.C. political bubble.”
Helmed by Breitbart politics editor Emma-Jo Morris, the D.C. product will serve as one of a soon-to-be five total daily email journals from the fervently pro-Trump publication. Morris joined Breitbart in November, having previously worked as deputy political editor of The New York Post, where she broke a string of stories on Hunter Biden’s emails that were immensely popular in conservative media circles and served as a key talking point late in the Trump 2020 campaign.
“It became obvious to me within minutes of meeting Emma that she wasn’t simply a passionate and fearless reporter, she has deeply internalized the lessons of Andrew Breitbart and the editorial voice of the news outlet that bears his name,” Breitbart’s editor-in-chief Alex Marlow said at the time of Morris’ hiring. “In the spirit of Andrew, her biggest scoops not only exposed political corruption in our midst, but they exposed the establishment media as well.”
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Indeed, much of the tenor of the daily newsletter will be in the spirit of Andrew Breitbart, the late founder of the outlet, who was infamous for his confrontations with critics and his declaration of “war” on liberal establishments. The daily email will ostensibly be filled with D.C. gossip and chatter in Breitbart’s colorful, populist voice.
A spokesperson for Breitbart declined to comment when reached by The Daily Beast.
Breitbart’s entry into the Beltway newsletter game comes as Politico’s iconic offering faces a slew of new rivals like Axios, Punchbowl, and The Washington Post’s Five Minute Fix. (Last month, The Daily Beast reported that Politico’s four-person Playbook team was beset by internal drama over the editorial direction of their heavily influential newsletter.)
As leader of Breitbart’s new D.C.-focused product, Morris brings with her seemingly firm connections to Trumpworld figures, including former Breitbart boss and ex-Trump strategist Steve Bannon, who Morris said served as a source on her stories about the younger Biden’s “laptop from hell,” and sent the reporter encouraging text messages ahead of their publication.
“I think your life is about to change,” Morris recalled Bannon texting her before the Post published the articles, including one alleging the eldest Biden son used his family connections to garner a significant payday from a foreign natural gas company.
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