Picture not-so-perfect

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Sep 27, 2022 View in browser   By Max Tani and Alex Thompson 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  President Joe Biden pauses as he listens to a question about the bombings at the Kabul airport that killed at least 12 U.S. service members on Aug. 26, 2021. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo When midterm voters think of JOE BIDEN at the polls this November, the Republican party wants them to remember one specific image from one specific video clip. It's of a dejected Biden giving off the impression of being overwhelmed by the job. His hands are clasped. His head is bowed, his chin leaning on the fists in front of him. There is a tinge of pain apparent on his forehead as, eyes apparently closed, he slides behind the two microphones set up in front of him. The moment occurred during a press conference last year when Biden was questioned about the hasty U.S. pullout from Afghanistan. News outlets seized on it at the time for the striking visual it presented. And GOP candidates have been shelling out cash across the country since to make sure that voters don't forget it. The image has become ubiquitous in Republican campaign ads over the past several months. The Republican Governor's Association used it in one ad, in which a narrator describes the president as "too weak" to stop international drug traffickers. The National Republican Senatorial Committee layered the image over another noting how high gas prices had gone. A clip or image from the moment has also run in ads by Alabama Senate candidate KATIE BRITT, Ohio Senate hopeful J.D. VANCE, TED BUDD , who's running for Senate in North Carolina, and Arizona House candidate JUAN CISCOMANI, as well as by various Republican super PACs. Unfortunately, the graphic wasn't good enough to save some candidates. BETH HARWELL's campaign put a graphic declaring "BIDEN IS DESTROYING AMERICA" over the image. Pennsylvania Senate candidate DAVE MCCORMICK declared that "weakness and the wokeness is going to take the America I know and make it something radically different," in a voiceover that played over it. His rival, CARLA SANDS, opened up one of her TV spots with a still image of Biden with his head in his hands to argue that House Speaker NANCY PELOSI and Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ were really calling the shots. Presidencies can be defined by the images they produced: like DONALD TRUMP touching that oddly lit globe or BARACK OBAMA letting the young son of a White House staffer touch his hair. In some cases, those images can become campaign iconography too, like GEORGE W. BUSH staring out from Air Force One above a flooded New Orleans. For Republicans, the Biden image is a cousin of that. JESSE HUNT, communications director for the Republican Governors Association, told West Wing Playbook that they saw the image as a symbol of what they argued is wide-spread Democratic failure. "There are few images that better encapsulate the weakness and incompetence of Joe Biden's presidency," he said. "He's been completely overwhelmed and ineffective much like the Democratic governors who are running in 2022. That's why it's such a great connection to make in the minds of many voters." Of course, the video itself is more complicated than GOP admakers have made it out to be. In the 2021 exchange, Biden appears to be holding back as he fielded tough questions from Fox News reporter PETER DOOCY over the deaths of a dozen American troops in Afghanistan during the U.S. evacuation. The image in the ads casts Biden as weak and resigned. The actual moment came as Biden pushed back on Doocy's line of questioning over whether he or Trump bore responsibility for the American deaths. Peculiarly, while the Biden clip is ubiquitous in GOP television ads, Republicans haven't been deploying it as widely online. KYLE THARP, the author of the excellent For What It's Worth newsletter, which tracks digital campaign spending, said that he was familiar with the clip and image, and that it had appeared in some digital ads he has come across. But he said the moment did not appear much in digital ads this cycle, which he attributed to both the current underinvestment by Republicans in online ads (Democrats, he noted, have been massively outspending their Republican rivals online), as well as the heavy focus by GOP candidates on their Democratic opponents in the race, rather than the president himself. "The president just hasn't factored into a lot of Republican ads online recently," Tharp told West Wing Playbook. MESSAGE US — Are you IAN MELLUL, associate director of presidential advance and director of production for presidential events? Email us at westwingtips@politico.com and we may publish your comments. A message from the American Petroleum Institute: New technology is cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Learn more.   POTUS PUZZLER This question is from Allie. Who was President CHESTER ARTHUR named after? (Answer at the bottom.) AND, A MEA CULPA: We misgendered FALA, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT 's Scottish terrier, in Monday's edition. Fala was a male dog. We feel dumb about the error and apologize to the Roosevelt family. The Oval DE-WHO-DIS?: The White House gave a readout of calls Biden made to Florida officials ahead of the hurricane preparations including the mayors of Tampa and St. Petersburg. Not on the list: Gov. RON DESANTIS, who the White House has repeatedly clashed with over the past year and a half. But DEANNE CRISWELL, the Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, said that had nothing to do with politics. "We do not bring politics into our ability to respond to these disasters," she said at Tuesday's White House briefing. VEEP WHEREABOUTS: Vice President KAMALA HARRIS will travel to the demilitarized zone between North Korea and South Korea Thursday to reaffirm the U.S.'s alliance with South Korea, our OLIVIA OLANDER reports. Harris will "tour sites at the DMZ, meet with service members and receive an operational briefing from U.S. commanders," the White House said in a statement. STRIKE A POSE: The modeling career of ELLA EMHOFF, the daughter of Second Gentleman DOUG EMHOFF and stepdaughter to Harris, is in full swing. She's featured in a new Calvin Klein ad campaign and posted some of the shots on Instagram. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This analysis by the New York Fed on Biden's student loan forgiveness actions, which was shared by BHARAT RAMAMURTI of the White House's National Economic Council. The analysis notes: "Troubled student loan borrowers have lower credit scores, and often struggle with repaying their credit card and auto loan debts, and are less likely to own homes. The reduction in student debt prevalence and balances will create a substantial financial improvement for borrowers, particularly among those with lower incomes." WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN'T WANT YOU TO READ : This Wall Street Journal article from RICHARD RUBIN on how the IRS "sent $1.1 billion in advanced child tax credit payments during 2021 to people who shouldn't have gotten them, and failed to send $3.7 billion to eligible households, according to an inspector general's audit released on Tuesday." The IRS was 98 percent accurate in sending more than 175 million child tax credit payments, but the agency missed sending payments to 4.1 million eligible households, the audit found.   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: CHARISSEE RIDGEWAY has left the Council on Environmental Quality, where she was press secretary, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. She is departing for another role in the Biden Administration that has yet to be announced. Lippman has also learned that LISA EINSTEIN is now executive director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's Cybersecurity Advisory Committee.   A message from the American Petroleum Institute:   Agenda Setting TACKLING HUNGER: The Biden administration is about to roll out a series of executive actions and policies this week to tackle hunger, nutrition and health disparities in the U.S. But MEREDITH LEE HILL reports that some of those initiatives will rely on congressional action — which may be difficult if Democrats lose control of one or both chambers next year. Continued high prices at the grocery store and the baby formula shortage have also stifled the administration's rollout. The White House was scheduled to host a hunger, nutrition, and health conference Wednesday, though details were sparse. BORDER POLITICS: The NYT's MICHAEL D. SHEAR and MIRIAM JORDAN report on the administration's attempt to slowly but surely reform some aspects of the asylum system amidst escalating problems at the border.  The administration rolled out new rules earlier this year to expedite the process, "in part by giving asylum officers — not just immigration judges — the power to decide who can stay and who must be turned away. Migrants will be interviewed 21 to 45 days after they apply for asylum, far faster than the years it can take in the existing immigration court system." But officials have been slow to test the procedures, the article notes, and the new rules don't address social and economic forces driving migrants to flee their homes. CHINAWATCH: A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including House Speaker NANCY PELOSI and Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER, are urging the Biden administration to issue an executive order increasing government oversight of American investments in China, our GAVIN BADE reports for Pros.   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 Biden Has No Ambassador in Italy as It Flirts With Fascism (The Daily Beast's Scott Bixby) First on CNN: White House hosts meeting of 19 Western Hemisphere nations to begin coordinated efforts on migrants (CNN's Priscilla Alvarez) The U.S. Wants To Help Bolster Brazil's Democracy. It Has No Ambassador There. (HuffPost's Travis Waldron) POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER President Chester Arthur was named after CHESTER ABELL, the physician who helped deliver him and a friend of the Arthur family, according to this book excerpt in Vermont, The Land of Green Mountains. A CALL OUT — Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents with a citation and we may feature it. Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein. A message from the American Petroleum Institute: CO2 emissions in the U.S. are among the lowest levels in a generation thanks to innovative tech and partnerships across the country. Learn more.     Follow us on Twitter Alex Thompson @AlexThomp Maxwell Tani @maxwelltani Allie Bice @alliebice   Follow us

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