Not quite Dunn after all

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Mar 28, 2022 View in browser   By Alex Thompson, Daniel Lippman and Max Tani Presented by Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice.  Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Max The Washington Post published a story today on former White House official ANITA DUNN and the degree to which she remains a powerful adviser to the president even as she is a senior adviser at the consulting firm SKDK. It's a sharply-reported piece about the ethical questions that accompany someone hopping back and forth from the consulting world to the White House. There was only one problem with it ... We were working on the same story. The Post's item was posted right as we were crafting ours. Even so, we had a few details that we thought we could add to their fine work. As the Post first reported, Dunn came back to the White House earlier this month to fill in for deputy chief of staff JEN O'MALLEY DILLON, whose father passed away. It was just the latest example of how Dunn remains a central adviser to JOE BIDEN even after she left the White House last August. It's also an example of how close-knit Biden's inner-circle is — instead of just having one of O'Malley Dillon's subordinates take on her duties, the White House brought in Dunn. The swap also forced O'Malley Dillon's main adviser, THOMAS WINSLOW, out of his office since Dunn brought her assistant, JORDAN FINKELSTEIN, to the White House, a person familiar with the move said. Winslow worked part of the time in the office of political director EMMY RUIZ instead, a White House official said. White House deputy press secretary CHRIS MEAGHER told West Wing Playbook that "Anita is a trusted advisor who has known the President for a long time. She recently came back to the White House temporarily to bring her expertise and add capacity at a key time. The President is grateful that Anita was willing to serve again, particularly during such a critical time. Due to the short-term nature of the need for her service, Anita served on a temporary basis as a Special Government Employee (SGE)." That one week return, however, only captures part of Dunn's influence. Dunn's personal Gmail is also occasionally cc'd on emails that only include other senior White House officials, according to a recent email viewed by West Wing Playbook and other White House officials who have observed the practice. In a video the White House released about Biden preparing for the State of the Union, Dunn was featured as one of the senior advisers helping the president. Her prominent role in Biden's inner circle raises concerns about potential conflicts of interest given SKDK's assortment of corporate and government clients. When she originally joined the White House in 2021, she came in as a temporary official and took a salary just below the amount that would require disclosure of her clients. An anonymous "person close to Dunn" told the Post that neither SKDK nor Dunn lobby or represent any clients on matters before the federal government. The firm doesn't disclose all its clients, at least not on its website. "Anita received rigorous counseling on her ethics obligations as an SGE, including avoiding any potential conflicts of interest," said Meagher. "Anita has always held herself to the highest standards consistent with this Administration's commitment to ethics, abiding by all federal ethics laws and policies applicable to SGEs." TEXT US — Are you DEREK CHOLLET, a senior state department official? We want to hear from you (we'll keep you anonymous).  Or if you think we missed something in today's edition, let us know and we may include it tomorrow.  Email us at westwingtips@politico.com or you can text/Signal/Wickr/WhatsApp Alex at 8183240098 or Max at 7143455427. A message from Facebook: We build tools that give you control and help keep you safe Real connection can only happen on safe platforms. So we build tools to protect our communities. • Privacy Checkup, where you can manage your privacy settings and control who sees what you share • Industry-leading AI that detects and reacts to harmful content faster than ever Learn about our efforts   POTUS PUZZLER From the University of Virginia's Miller Center Which president unknowingly had an application submitted to West Point on his behalf? (Answer at the bottom.) The Oval WHAT ABOUT THAT GAFFE?? — The president gave a press conference today, ostensibly to discuss his budget. But it was quickly overtaken by his comments from two days before in which he said, for the sake of God himself, VLADIMIR PUTIN "cannot remain in power." Biden got more than half a dozen questions about whether that line was an embrace of regime change and what he imagined Putin's reaction would be. "I want to make it clear I wasn't then and I am not now articulating a policy change," he explained. "I was expressing the moral outrage that I feel and I make no apologies for it." "People like this shouldn't be ruling countries but they do," he said at another point. "The fact they do doesn't mean I can't express my outrage about it." Biden did leave open the possibility of meeting with Putin if the conditions were right — though, frankly, from the tone of his voice, it did not appear that he held out much promise for a tete-a-tete. And Biden said he did not care what Putin thought of what he said. The North Star, he reiterated, was actually avoiding military conflict with Russia. "The only war that's worse than one intended is one that's unintended," said Biden. "The last thing I want to do is engage in a land war or a nuclear war with Russia." And thus concluded Day Three of this story line, which was prompted by a Biden riff at the tail end of an otherwise well-received speech. DISAPPEARING ACT — On Sunday, the White House sent around a planning note saying National Security Adviser JAKE SULLIVAN was set to join Council of Economic Advisers chair CECILIA ROUSE and Office of Management and Budget director SHALANDA YOUNG. But some White House reporters were confused and annoyed when his name disappeared from the list of attendees of the White House press briefing. When the briefing ended, several shouted at the departing White House officials, asking them why Sullivan hadn't showed up. According to the White House, he did not attend because Biden decided to take questions himself at an earlier event on Monday. FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK — TERRY MOYNIHAN and TODD ZUBATKIN are now the acting heads of the White House research department, a person familiar with the matter told DANIEL LIPPMAN. MEGAN APPER, who used to head up the office and is now senior adviser in the Bureau of Global Public Affairs at the State Department, hired both of them very early in the primary campaign and they were her deputies in the White House as well. Before becoming a political researcher, Apper dug up stories as part of ANDREW KACZYNSKI's Buzzfeed team. ANOTHER FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK — SHERICE PERRY is now a senior adviser to the director of the White House office of public engagement CEDRIC RICHMOND, where she will work on executing high-level OPE projects, a person familiar with the matter told Daniel. She most recently was a senior adviser for the Covid-19 Health Equity Task Force at the Department of Health and Human Services and is also a Biden campaign and JILL BIDEN alum. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This Washington Post piece from last week, which warned that the administration lacks the funding to give everyone a free fourth Covid shot because of a congressional stalemate over pandemic aid. IAN SAMS, who does Covid comms for the Department of Health and Human Services, tweeted it out today. "Without additional resources, the U.S. won't be able to buy the vaccines, treatments, and tests we need to be prepared for future needs," Sams wrote. "This has been a bipartisan priority as we've battled the virus for two years. Why stop now?" WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN'T WANT YOU TO READ: This Los Angeles Times' piece on Vice President KAMALA HARRIS tightening her inner circle. There are tons of nuggets in the piece, but a couple are notable. One: Harris is leaning on her sister, MAYA HARRIS, for advice — a revelation that the White House downplayed. The second: that the Veep's relationship with fellow California political heavyweight, Speaker NANCY PELOSI, does not appear to be particularly close. "Most of their conversations are operational, about something that's happening," said DREW HAMILL, Pelosi's deputy chief of staff. "There's not a lot of time for reflection in this business because there's so much incoming."   SUBSCRIBE TO NATIONAL SECURITY DAILY : Keep up with the latest critical developments from Ukraine and across Europe in our daily newsletter, National Security Daily. The Russian invasion of Ukraine could disrupt the established world order and result in a refugee crisis, increased cyberattacks, rising energy costs and additional disruption to global supply chains. Go inside the top national security and foreign-policymaking shops for insight on the global threats faced by the U.S. and its allies and what actions world leaders are taking to address them. Subscribe today.     Advise and Consent MARK THE DATE — It looks like the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Judge KETANJI BROWN JACKSON's nomination to the Supreme Court on April 4. As our own BURGESS EVERETT notes, this sets up a possible vote on April 8 for full Senate confirmation. THE BUREAUCRATS SCHMIDT'S CREEK — Alex has a must read dive into the remarkable ways ex-Google exec ERIC SCHMIDT has managed to put his imprint on the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Among them: Through his charitable arm, Schmidt "indirectly paid the salaries of two science-office employees." All told, Alex reports, "more than a dozen officials in the 140-person White House office have been associates of Schmidt's, including some current and former Schmidt employees." REMOTE WORK: Bloomberg analyzed Labor Secretary MARTY WALSH's schedule and found: "Based on the public records available, Walsh was in Washington, D.C., 49 days out of the first 223 days of his tenure and spent 45 days on the road, visiting Las Vegas and Pennsylvania most frequently."     Agenda Setting SHOW… ME…. THE… MONEY!: Today is budget day, which is another way of saying that today is the day the White House put out a product that took months of work across all government agencies detailing trillions in government expenditures that will promptly go nowhere. But budgets are still important in that they explain what kind of initiatives and political messaging the administration would like to emphasize. As our own JENNIFER SCHOLTES reports, the Biden budget would reduce deficits by more than $1 trillion over a decade. It would boost military funding by 4 percent, while forcing the wealthiest households to pay more taxes. But what's also notable is the stuff under the toplines. Among them: Proposed limits on the ability of corporations to repurchase stocks, serious investments in mental health services (including a requirement that they be covered under private insurance), and an $88 million increase in the Department of Justice's antitrust division. What We're Reading Washington's Best Hope: Rohit Chopra's unconventional methods for making change happen in a sclerotic government (The Prospect's David Dayen) Prosecutors Advance Tax Probe of Hunter Biden (WSJ's Aruna Viswanatha, Sadie Gurman, and James T. Areddy)   DON'T MISS CONGRESS MINUTES: Need to follow the action on Capitol Hill blow-by-blow? Check out Minutes, POLITICO's new platform that delivers the latest exclusives, twists and much more in real time. Get it on your desktop or download the POLITICO mobile app for iOS or Android. CHECK OUT CONGRESS MINUTES HERE.     Where's Joe He received the President's Daily Brief in the Oval Office. Biden also announced his budget for FY 2023 and delivered remarks on the proposal in the State Dining Room. OMB director SHALANDA YOUNG also delivered remarks. Where's Kamala She joined the president for the daily brief this morning. The Oppo Book White House National Climate Adviser GINA McCARTHY admitted that back when she was a high school student she wasn't quite the star pupil. "I had actually been at best a pretty mediocre student in high school," McCarthy told the University of Massachusetts Boston news in 2021 . "I was a little bit undisciplined, I should say, and I had fun." Did you party at UMass Boston with Gina McCarthy? If so, we wanna hear from you. POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER ULYSSES S. GRANT. As a child, Grant showed a great aptitude for riding horses. His father, Jesse Grant, hoped to give his son a broader life than the family's tannery business and applied on his son's behalf to West Point, where the younger Grant was accepted. He did not initially wish to go but enrolled and finished 21st in a class of 39. For more on Grant's path to the presidency, visit millercenter.org. A CALL OUT — Think you have a more difficult trivia question? Send us your best question on the presidents with a citation and we may feature it. Edited by Sam Stein A message from Facebook: Privacy Checkup helps you stay informed and empowered on Facebook We want privacy to be as easy as possible for you. That's why we built the Privacy Checkup, so you can: • Strengthen your account security • Learn about your privacy settings and how your information is used • Control who sees what you post Learn more about our safety efforts.     Follow us on Twitter Alex Thompson @AlexThomp Maxwell Tani @maxwelltani Allie Bice @alliebice   Follow us

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