A blackout for the glossies

Oct 04, 2022 View in browser   By Max Tani and Alex Thompson 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  When federal law enforcement agents raided DONALD TRUMP's Mar-a-Lago home earlier this year, they found framed copies of Time magazine covers featuring the former president. If his successor holds the magazine cover in similar esteem, he's not showing it. President JOE BIDEN 's team has turned down interview requests from Time since he was inaugurated, one person familiar with said request told West Wing Playbook. It was not an isolated rejection. Since taking office, Biden has also ignored similar requests from legacy magazines, which often serve as agenda setters for Democratic politicians. Last month, West Wing Playbook wrote about the Biden team's victory lap at the Atlantic Festival. Top administration officials including White House chief of staff RON KLAIN and Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN filled the ranks of the festival's panels and celebrated accomplishments such as the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the infrastructure bill. But the boss himself was absent from the festival and he's shunned the publication elsewhere too. People familiar with the requests told West Wing Playbook that Atlantic editor-in-chief JEFFREY GOLDBERG has sought interviews with Biden, but to no avail. The president also turned down a request from the New Yorker's ADAM ENTOUS, whose now-abandoned Biden book was turned into a lengthy magazine piece. It's an about-face from the media strategy of Biden's predecessor, who was both an avid consumer of legacy magazine content and helped create it by sitting for seemingly annual profiles by Goldberg and others, such as the New Yorker's top editor DAVID REMNICK. BARACK OBAMA's own byline even appeared in the New Yorker after he left office. The current White House hasn't ruled out participating in a glossy magazine interview. Biden's team had expressed some interest in working with longform political journalist RUBY CRAMER, who was at the time potentially freelancing for the New York Times magazine. The piece would have been about Cramer's dad, the famed reporter RICHARD BEN CRAMER , and his chronicles of Biden for the classic campaign tome, What It Takes. But neither the interview nor the piece came to fruition (Cramer, who formerly wrote for Politico, is now a national reporter at the Washington Post). The president and his team overwhelmingly prefer short television news interviews to other formats. In the past year, he has sat for major evening network anchors and classic programs like "60 Minutes," while shunning The Washington Post, The New York Times and other newspapers, which have not scored an interview with Biden since he took office. Some major mags have had better luck with members of the Biden family. Entous secured access to several Biden siblings, who spoke at length about how their family shaped the president. JILL BIDEN, meanwhile, remains personal friends with ANNA WINTOUR , the iconic Conde Nast editor who is a power player in Democratic political circles. During the 2020 campaign, Wintour hosted Jill Biden for a virtual discussion, and put the first lady on the cover of Vogue in August 2021, infuriating former first lady MELANIA TRUMP, who did not score a cover during her husband's time in office. Earlier this year, Jill Biden also appeared alongside Wintour at the opening of the Metropolitan Museum's annual Costume Institute exhibition. Her husband was not there. MESSAGE US — Are you a disgruntled magazine writer who has been trying to interview POTUS? Email us at westwingtips@politico.com.   SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don't miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY.     POTUS PUZZLER This one is from Allie. Who was the first inaugural poet? (Answer at the bottom.) The Oval TELL US WHAT YOU REALLY THINK: As White House staffers herded reporters out of the State dining room where Biden met with his Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access, the assembled reporters shouted questions at the president as usual. In response, the president fumed: "Among the only press in the world that does this." Biden frequently chafes at journalists shouting questions at him even though the method does occasionally work at getting his attention. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Anything about manufacturing company Micron Technology building a computer chip plant in New York, a move the president and officials are hailing as a result of the passage of the CHIPS act. Several administration officials tweeted out the news, including White House chief of staff RON KLAIN, White House deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES and White House senior regional communications director RYKIA DORSEY CRAIG. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE: This contentious exchange between FOX NEWS' PETER DOOCY and press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE over rising gas prices. "You said Biden was responsible for gas prices coming down. Is he responsible for gas prices going up?" Doocy asked. Jean-Pierre said there is a "lot more nuance" and pointed to the war in Ukraine. She added that "there's more work to do." As the saying goes, live by the gas buddy, die by the gas buddy. RELATED: CNN reports this afternoon that " White House launches last ditch effort to dissuade OPEC from cutting oil production to avoid a 'total disaster.'" ONE SUPPORTIVE ALLY: In a phone call with Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY Tuesday, the president reiterated his support for the country as the Russian invasion trudges on. Biden "affirmed the continued readiness of the United States to impose severe costs on any individual, entity, or country that provides support to Russia's purported annexation," according to a White House readout of the call. Our KELLY HOPPER has the story. THE BUREAUCRATS NEW ADVISORY COMMITTEE ALERT: The Biden administration Tuesday announced the formation of the Treasury Advisory Committee on Racial Equity, a first-of-its-kind, 25-member committee tasked with helping the Treasury Department advance policies that reduce racial inequities. NYT's ALAN RAPPEPORT has more details. FAUCI FILES: ANTHONY FAUCI told the Washington Post's DAN DIAMOND at a USC Annenberg event that he has tried to stay out of politics. When Diamond noted that has not exactly worked out, Fauci replied : "People say 'polarizing figure.' Well when I say you should get vaccinated because it saves lives and someone says, 'No,' am I the polarizing figure? Or is the person who's saying something that's completely untrue creating the polarization?" I'M STILL HERE: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday said "there is no truth" to stories of her leaving the administration in the near future. VROOM VROOM: On Fox News Tuesday, Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG responded to a comment Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) said over the weekend that he is trying to "emasculate the way we drive" by pushing electric vehicles. Buttigieg quipped: "My sense of manhood is not connected whether my vehicle is fueled by gasoline or electricity…To be honest, there are other members of Congress that I pay more attention to when I'm thinking about opinions that really matter." Agenda Setting COMING AFTER THE MIDTERMS?: Some of Biden's advisers told NBC News they are considering an immigration push after the midterms. According to the report, the political calculus is that "either he makes bipartisan progress in revamping the immigration system, or he casts the GOP as nativists determined to block migration to the U.S." 100 DAYS: The president Tuesday spotlighted the administration's efforts in the 100 days since the Supreme Court moved to reverse Roe v. Wade. Biden attended a meeting of a Cabinet-level task force he set up to tackle the federal government response to the high courts decision and revealed more the administration will do to "protect access to reproductive health care." AP has more details. AWK… Although the Biden administration moved to encourage states to use Medicaid to expand abortion access , no state has applied to do so, our MEGAN MESSERLY reports. "POLITICO contacted 24 state Medicaid agencies where abortion is legal and its status is not in jeopardy," she writes. "Health officials in 10 of those states said they are reviewing the federal government's proposal and haven't decided whether to apply. Massachusetts and Minnesota are waiting on additional federal guidance. North Carolina is not pursuing the policy and 11 states did not respond to requests for comment." SOUNDS BAD: NYT's ALAN RAPPEPORT and JIM TANKERSLEY report that the U.S. national debt has gone over $31 trillion for the first time. "The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that Mr. Biden's policies have added nearly $5 trillion to deficits since he took office," they write. What We're Reading U.S. Electric-Vehicle Tax Breaks Rile Asian, European Allies (WSJ's Yuka Hayashi) Since the Taliban takeover, Afghans hoping to leave Afghanistan have few ways out (NPR's D. Parvaz) Reclaiming the Deep State (The American Prospect's Robert Kuttner) What We're Watching CHERELLE GRINER, the wife of WNBA star and Russia prisoner BRITTNEY GRINER, on CBS's Morning show Oct. 6. POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER ROBERT FROST. Frost delivered the poem, "The Gift Outright," at JOHN F. KENNEDY's inauguration ceremony in 1961, according to the JFK Library. Read the full poem here. 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.   LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST: Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today.       Follow us on Twitter Alex Thompson @AlexThomp Maxwell Tani @maxwelltani Allie Bice @alliebice   Follow us

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