The guy quietly helping Biden's speeches

Jun 01, 2022 View in browser   By Max Tani, Allie Bice and Alex Thompson Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Max One of the more frequent visitors to the Biden White House is a well-traveled messaging guru who has prepared some of the president's most memorable campaign lines and commiserated with him about their mutual stutters. Democratic communications strategist MICHAEL SHEEHAN has repeatedly advised President JOE BIDEN and his administration on messaging around major addresses, West Wing Playbook has confirmed. According to the visitor logs released by the White House and reviewed by POLITICO, Sheehan clocked at least 10 visits during the president's first year, specifically meeting with Biden in March, April, and November in preparation for major speeches. He also made several trips next door to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to meet with other administration officials. In all, he was one of the most frequent guests at the White House in 2021 who didn't work for the administration or play in the U.S. Marine Band. A communications expert who works exclusively with Democrats, Sheehan has served as an advisor to past presidents, most famously before presidential debates. BILL CLINTON worked with Sheehan before his 1996 debate, and he reportedly taught HILLARY CLINTON how to use a teleprompter. Sheehan also advised then-Sen. BARACK OBAMA before the 2004 speech to the Democratic National Convention that immediately turned him into a rising star. Later he assisted Obama ahead of the presidential debates and when he was in the Oval Office. In an email, Sheehan did not get into specifics about his White House role. He described his work with the Biden administration as "pretty much the same as it was for both the Obama and Clinton White Houses," noting he was "part of the team effort to edit and rehearse major speeches, addresses, and events." A White House official echoed Sheehan's comments, saying he "made similar visits during the Obama and Clinton administration" to work on speeches and events. Sheehan's relationship with the 46th president stretches back decades. After he began consulting Biden during his Senate days, Sheehan became a trusted confidante. Then-Sen. Biden relied on him for debate prep in 2007 during his second presidential campaign. After a widely-panned performance during the Democratic primaries in 2019, the former vice president's campaign hired Sheehan for strategic consulting advice. According to one source, he was responsible for one of Biden's most memorable rhetorical moments as Obama's vice president, encouraging him to use the line, "Osama Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive" during his speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention and on the campaign trail. Sheehan did not respond to a request for comment about his role in crafting the line. The speech and debate coach can also relate to Biden on a personal level. In Atlantic editor JOHN HENDRICKSON's 2020 profile of Biden and his long history of managing his stutter, Sheehan discussed his time observing Biden's speech patterns during his VP years. He recalled how Biden called him after seeing the movie, "The King's Speech," because the film, which documents King George VI's efforts to overcome his own speech impediment, made him think of Sheehan, who also has a stutter. And when BRAYDEN HARRINGTON was preparing for his speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2020, the teenage author and orator turned to Sheehan to help him craft a speech about his personal experience with stuttering and relationship with Biden. Additional reporting by Taylor Miller Thomas and Madi Alexander.  TEXT US — Are you Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN? We want to hear from you. And we'll keep you anonymous if you'd like. 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 Alex at 8183240098.   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.     POTUS PUZZLER With the White House Historical Association  Which president is responsible for first installing tennis courts on White House grounds? (Answer at the bottom.) The Oval WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This 84-word Axios story by HERB SCRIBNER with the headline "Biden announces third airlift for baby formula." White House senior associate communications director MATT HILL approvingly quote-tweeted the story and added that Biden "is doing everything he can to help, bringing the private and public sectors together, and getting the job done for families. Huge contrast to the vacuum of leadership and experience Americans felt for four years." WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN'T WANT YOU TO READ: WSJ's STEPHANIE STAMM and MAUREEN LINKE report that the baby formula shortage is getting worse. Nationally, 23 percent of powdered baby formula was out of stock in the week ending May 22, up from 21 percent during the previous week, they reported. That's up from 11 percent the first week of January and 5 percent to 7 percent before the pandemic. States including Kansas, Georgia, Texas, Montana and Tennessee have continued to experience the worst of the shortage. FORMULA TIMELINE: Biden told reporters today: "Here's the deal, I became aware of this problem sometime in early April by how intense it was. So we did everything in our power from that point on and that's all I can tell you right now." RESCUE DOWN UNDER?: The Biden administration is nearing a deal that would transport 1.25 million cans of baby formula from Australian company Bubs Australia into the U.S., our MEREDITH LEE reports. KICKING OFF THE CONFERENCE: Vice President KAMALA HARRIS is set to travel to Reno, Nev. on Friday , where she will open the 90th annual United States Conference of Mayors. FAMILY MATTERS: For several weeks, White House aides have been nervously awaiting the publication of KATHLEEN BUHLE's memoir, If We Break, on June 14. The first excerpts of the book by HUNTER BIDEN's ex-wife appeared in People Magazine this morning along with an interview by SANDRA SOBIERAJ WESTFALL, who wrote on Twitter that she was "BLOWN AWAY" by the book. It is currently listed on Amazon as the #1 New Release in Marriage & Long-Term Relationships. One of the early excerpts is wrenching: I received the kind of call that tightens every parent's chest. "Mom, I need to talk to you," Finnegan mumbled through tears. "I'm at Debbie's [the family therapist]."… I'd taken all three girls to see Debbie a few times to discuss Beau's illness and Hunter's drinking… Three miles later I was at Debbie's house. I went straight through to the sunroom and found Finnegan curled in a chair, holding a pillow while she wept. I wrapped my arms around her. "Everything will be okay. All right?" I told her. "I love you." "Debbie," Finny said once we had Naomi on speakerphone, "can you tell her? We can't do it." Debbie looked me in the eye and calmly said, "Kathleen, Hunter's having an affair with Hallie [Biden, BEAU BIDEN's widow]." "Oh my God." This was all I said. Was this what shock felt like? GENE UNLEASHED: White House American Rescue Plan Coordinator GENE SPERLING took to Twitter Wednesday to defend the plan: Tweet by Gene Sperling | Twitter Read the full thread here. THE BUREAUCRATS EXITS: AMANDA FINNEY, chief of staff for the White House press office, is departing the West Wing for a senior communications post at the Energy Department, per Bloomberg's JUSTIN SINK.  NEW ON THE TWITTERS: IAN SAMS, an alum of the KAMALA HARRIS presidential campaign and a former Health Department spokesperson, has activated his White House Twitter account with the bio: Special Assistant to @POTUS & Senior Advisor to the White House Counsel. Agenda Setting TO SANCTION OR NOT TO SANCTION: Bloomberg's NICK WADHAMS reports that officials at the State Department and the White House are clashing with Treasury Department officials over whether to push for a second round of economic sanctions against Russia. Treasury is worried about further strains on the global economy. Officials from State, Treasury Department and the National Security Council all declined to comment. ROCK ME LIKE A HURRICANE: JP Morgan Chase's JAMIE DIMON turned heads Wednesday by telling investors to brace themselves for an economic "hurricane" and warning that oil could go up to $150 or $175 a barrel from the $117 it's at now. The Financial Times has more. What We're Reading BTS visits a White House handling political "dynamite" (Wake Up To Politics' Gabe Fleisher) The US just brought its first case against NFT insider trading (QZ's Scott Nover) Gridlock could delay COVID funds until fall — or longer (AP's Alan Fram) What We're Watching A Roosevelt Institute discussion with National Economic Council Deputy Director BHARAT RAMAMURTI and Treasury Department's Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy BEN HARRIS tomorrow at 11 a.m. Where's Joe He received the president's daily brief in the morning. He headed to the Coast Guard headquarters for a change of command ceremony where Adm. LINDA FAGAN will take over as the branch's commandant, the first female service chief in U.S. history. The president met virtually with officials and baby formula manufacturers to discuss the shortage in the afternoon. Where's Kamala She delivered remarks on the White House's plan to elevate water security as a foreign policy priority in the South Court Auditorium. The Oppo Book We've noted before that FRANCIS COLLINS, Biden's science adviser, is musically inclined. As it turns out, he and musician BOB DYLAN crossed paths in childhood — and back then, Collins thought Dylan was pretty much talentless. Dylan "showed up being brought around by an older folk singer for my dad to listen to because everybody thought my dad could give advice about who had which particular strengths and weaknesses," Collins explained on a Nov. 2020 "Insights," podcast episode. "Here comes this 18-year-old kid … He is sullen, he is unkempt and he's a mediocre guitar player and he has a terrible voice." Collins even turned to his dad and said: "Well he's not going anywhere. I don't know why anybody thought it was worth your listening to him." "As you can see our predictions weren't quite right," he said. POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER President THEODORE ROOSEVELT first had courts installed in 1902 behind the executive offices, though the courts have since been moved to the South Lawn. 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 Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein   INTRODUCING DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED:  Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today.       Follow us on Twitter Alex Thompson @AlexThomp Maxwell Tani @maxwelltani Allie Bice @alliebice   Follow us

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