Biden's silent mourning of the queen

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Sep 19, 2022 View in browser   By Eun Kyung Kim 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  LONDON — President JOE BIDEN's entire political career — indeed, much of his adult life — has been touched by personal loss. It's given him a rare ability to talk about death with a reassuring authority at both funerals and memorials. But over the past 24 hours, Biden has kept a low profile while joining several hundred other world leaders at a funeral that was perhaps the most watched broadcast of all time. The president did not have a role to play in commemorating the life of Queen ELIZABETH II for the ceremonies at London's Westminster Abbey. He remained, largely, off center stage. Such a role makes sense. The funeral was a royal affair, put together for the country's longest service monarch. There was no direct tie to the president of the United States. To that point, Biden is the first U.S. president to ever attend a British state funeral since World War II, said Boston University history professor ARIANNE CHERNOCK, whose specialty is modern British and European history. When Elizabeth's father, King GEORGE VI, died in 1952, President HARRY TRUMAN sent Secretary of State DEAN ACHESON to attend the funeral. President LYNDON JOHNSON sent then-Supreme Court Chief Justice EARL WARREN to WINSTON CHURCHILL's funeral in 1965. "The optics are significant, and the messaging can be quite important at these momentous funerals," Chernock said. And yet, Biden recognizes "this is not his moment. This is the royal family's moment, and he is there to pay his respects and to show American support." Biden was not the only American to come to England to offer his condolences. Others traveled across the pond in the last week to pay homage to the queen's lengthy service. One of them was RACHEL NORDGREN, a 30-year-old financial marketer from Topeka, Kansas. She decided Thursday to fly to London, with the blessing of her husband and boss, and waited 10 hours in a queue to see the queen's coffin at Westminster Hall. The line at times stretched for five miles. Even though her age makes the younger generation of royals — like Princes WILLIAM and HARRY — more accessible to her, Nordgren said she still feels a connection to the queen, who ascended to the throne when she was just 25. She said the queen's life story was something that helped her through heartache when, at the age of 25, she lost her mother. "I remember in those early days of grief, just thinking, 'You know, if Lizzie was my age and she could get up and run the country, I can get up and go to work today,'" she said. "So I think, kind of during that time, I just really developed a lot of respect for her and the amazing job that she did despite everything in her way." When she finally reached the queen's casket, Nordgren felt hit with emotion. "The solemnity and serenity of that Hall, and the coffin draped in the Royal Standard and topped with the Crown Jewels," she said. "I curtsied, cried, and said 'thank you' to her in my heart." Nordgren acknowledged the U.S. and the U.K. have a complicated relationship. "Still, this country is our heritage. It's kind of where the roots of America began, so we'll always have that in common," she said. She was surrounded by her "queue-mates," the new friends she made while waiting hours in line together. "The British Empire has a long, complicated and at times brutal history. There are a lot of flaws with the institution," she said. But being in line, in the country celebrating the queen's life "has kind of reiterated to me a human connection so many of us are feeling right now." Biden, for his part, stayed far away from history and politics in the brief remarks that he did make when attending the queen's funeral. He and the first lady paid their respects at Westminster Hall and then each signed the official condolence book at Lancaster House. After that, he did something he often does in grief-stricken moments: he drew on his own history of loss and suffering to offer up some words of wisdom and a dash of hope. "Our hearts go out to the royal family — King Charles and all the family. It's a loss that leaves a giant hole," Biden said. "And sometimes you think you'll never overcome it. But as I've told the king, she's going to be with him every step of the way." MESSAGE US — Are you MARTINA ANNA TKADLEC STRONG, Biden's nominee to serve as Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates? We want to hear from you and we may publish your response tomorrow. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. A message from Conservation Lands Foundation: ConocoPhillips wants President Biden to approve their dirty and dangerous Willow project in America's Arctic. Willow's climate impact would be the same amount of pollution as running 76 coal plants for a year. This is a climate disaster we just can't afford. President Biden: Don't let Willow put your ambitious climate change and public lands protection goals out of reach. Stop Willow. Learn more.   POTUS PUZZLER This one is from reader ALEX PENLER. Which first lady wrote a memoir from her dog's perspective? Yes, you read that right, her dog's perspective. (Answer at the bottom.) The Oval POTUS ABROAD: As our colleague JONATHAN LEMIRE noted, it's a bit of a whirlwind foreign affairs stretch for the president right now. He and First Lady JILL BIDEN attended the queen's funeral today, then hopped on a plane and landed back stateside around 4:30 p.m. But there isn't much downtime for Biden. He will be travel to New York tomorrow where he will be attending the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. His big speech there is on Wednesday. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: NBC News approval ratings for the president that came out over the weekend. The poll "finds 45 percent of registered voters approving of President Biden's overall job (up 3 points from last month), versus 52 percent who disapprove (down 3 points). It's Biden's highest approval rating in the poll since last October." White House Chief of Staff RON KLAIN retweeted an article highlighting the figures. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN'T WANT YOU TO READ: This WSJ story by RACHEL WOLFE that zooms in on a community in Louisiana that's feeling the effects of inflation on its grocery bills. "An afternoon spent talking with shoppers and reviewing grocery receipts outside of Rouses Market in Houma, nearly 60 miles southwest of New Orleans, painted a picture of the trade-offs and difficult decisions families are facing to afford steadily rising food bills," the piece reads. "Grocery prices were 13.5% higher in August compared with a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is the biggest 12-month jump since March 1979. With no relief in sight, many consumers say they are struggling to keep up."   HAPPENING 9/29 - POLITICO'S AI & TECH SUMMIT : Technology is constantly evolving and so are the politics and policies shaping and regulating it. Join POLITICO for the 2022 AI & Tech summit to get an insider look at the pressing policy and political issues shaping tech, and how Washington interacts with the tech sector. The summit will bring together lawmakers, federal regulators, tech executives, tech policy experts and consumer advocates to dig into the intersection of tech, politics, regulation and innovation, and identify opportunities, risks and challenges ahead. REGISTER FOR THE SUMMIT HERE.     THE BUREAUCRATS FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: KRISTIN LYNCH has joined the Treasury Department as a deputy assistant secretary for public affairs, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. She is an alum of the offices of Sens. CORY BOOKER (D-N.J.) and JOHN HICKENLOOPER (D-Colo.), as well as the presidential campaigns of Booker and HILLARY CLINTON. She also recently earned a Master's of Public Policy from Princeton. — JESSICA JENNINGS has started as the spokesperson for USAID, Lippman has also learned. She most recently was head of comms for D.C. Public Schools and is an alum of the Biden-Harris inauguration, Democratic National Convention, and the Clinton 2016 campaign. — VANESSA VALDIVIA, First Lady Jill Biden's new press secretary and a special assistant to the president, began her first day on the job Monday. Valdivia most recently served as the communications director for Sen. ALEX PADILLA (D-Calif.).   A message from Conservation Lands Foundation:   Agenda Setting JUST TO CLARIFY… The president said the pandemic was "over" during his "60 Minutes," interview that aired Sunday, but an administration official tells CNN's BETSY KLEIN that that statement does not signal a change in policy from the White House. Biden's declaration was criticized by some public health experts who point to the fact that hundreds of Americans continue to die every day from Covid-19. But the president received praise by some in the pundit class who pointed out that high rates of vaccination and previous infection, as well as the availability of treatments, have rendered the disease far less dangerous. Writing in New York magazine, ROSS BARKAN argued that "on the facts and politics of the pandemic—and yes, both matter—Biden is absolutely right. The pandemic will end because all pandemics end. They wind down. The virus becomes endemic. Biden's definition of the pandemic is political, even psychological, and it's the common sense millions across the world now follow."   DON'T MISS - MILKEN INSTITUTE ASIA SUMMIT : Go inside the 9th annual Milken Institute Asia Summit, taking place from September 28-30, with a special edition of POLITICO's Global Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive coverage and insights from this important gathering. Stay up to speed with daily updates from the summit, which brings together more than 1,200 of the world's most influential leaders from business, government, finance, technology, and academia. Don't miss out, subscribe today.     What We're Reading Marty Walsh in 2024? (The Boston Globe's Joan Vennochi) Pentagon opens sweeping review of clandestine psychological operations (WaPo's Ellen Nakashima) Jerome Powell's Inflation Whisperer: Paul Volcker (WSJ's Nick Timiraos) The Oppo Book We've previously highlighted the musical talents of Biden's science adviser, FRANCIS COLLINS. But what we didn't know was that he was also a theater kid back in the day. "My father was a drama professor, my mother was a playwright, so by the time I was 5 years old it was like 'Okay, it's your turn. You're getting on stage and you're going to do this role,'" Collins said on an episode of the podcast, "From where does it STEM," in February. "I loved that. I thought it was fantastic." Collins was so into the arts, he hadn't really entertained a path in science until he took a chemistry class. "If you'd said to me when I was 10 years old, 'Someday you're going to be a government employee running a $42 billion a year operation,' I would've said, 'You've just lost your mind,'" he confessed. POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER First Lady BARBARA BUSH wrote a book from the perspective of MILLIE, her and GEORGE H. W. BUSH's English Springer Spaniel. "Millie's Book," came out in August 1990 and quickly became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller for nonfiction in Sept. of that year. The book "describes a day in the life of George Herbert Walker Bush and family, discussing morning briefings, deliberations in the Oval Office, and short breaks for squirrel hunting," according to its summary on Amazon. A CALL OUT — Thanks to Alex for this question! Do you think you have a harder one? Send us your best one about the presidents with a citation and we may feature it. Edited by Sam Stein. A message from Conservation Lands Foundation: ConocoPhillips wants President Biden to approve their dirty and dangerous Willow project in America's Arctic. Willow's climate impact would be the same amount of pollution as running 76 coal plants for a year. This is a climate disaster we just can't afford. President Biden: Don't let Willow put your ambitious climate change and public lands protection goals out of reach. Stop Willow. Learn more.     Follow us on Twitter Alex Thompson @AlexThomp Maxwell Tani @maxwelltani Allie Bice @alliebice   Follow us

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