| | | | |  | | By Max Tani and Alex Thompson | Presented by Walmart | Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice and Daniel Lippman. Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Alex | Email Max When JAKE TAPPER sat down with JOE BIDEN for his one-on-one interview, which is airing Tuesday night, it wasn't the first time the two had spoken since the latter became president. The CNN host was in Ukraine earlier this year to report on the war and to speak with Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY when he got an unexpected call from a head of state much closer to home. Multiple people with knowledge of the call confirmed to POLITICO that Biden was watching Tapper's coverage and reached out to the anchor to offer some off-the-record thoughts. During the conversation, Tapper pressed the president for an on-the-record interview. Several months later, after some back and forth between the White House and the cable news network, he got one. CNN taped an interview, the network's first since Biden became president, on Tuesday at the White House. One network source said the interview will touch on a number of subjects, but will focus extensively on foreign policy, particularly Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Biden's comments about the precarious situation the world is in following Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN's threats to use nuclear weapons. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. In an excerpt from the 15-minute interview, the president said he believed that Putin is a "rational actor who has miscalculated significantly," but that his aims in the country were delusional and immoral. "If you listen to the speech he made after when that decision was being made, he talked about the whole idea of – he was needed to be the leader of Russia that united all of Russian speakers. I mean, it's just, I just think it's irrational," Biden said, adding that Putin underestimated Ukrainian resolve. "I think the speech, his objectives were not rational," Biden went on. "I think he thought, Jake, I think he thought he was going to be welcomed with open arms, that this was the home of Mother Russia in Kyiv, and that where he was going to be welcomed. And I think he just totally miscalculated." Although it's unlikely that any president will ever top DONALD TRUMP 's cable news viewership habits, Biden has proven to be a more regular viewer of cable news than some of his other recent predecessors. He is also more friendly with some of the medium's stars than his old boss, BARACK OBAMA, who shunned political television, and preferred a media diet of the big newspapers and high-brow magazines. Biden is a regular viewer of MSNBC's Morning Joe, which he occasionally has on in the background as he starts his day, and has spoken privately with co-hosts JOE SCARBOROUGH and MIKA BRZEZINSKI in the time since the 2020 election (he was friends with Brzezinski's father, and his administration employs her brother MARK as the ambassador to Poland). He also got a major shoutout in new CNN chief CHRIS LICHT's years-old book, which detailed how then-Vice President Biden helped get him urgent treatment after he suffered a brain aneurysm in 2010 and was rushed to George Washington University hospital. The Tapper interview comes at a major moment for both the host and the network. Tuesday's show is the CNN anchor's first as a primetime anchor, having moved temporarily into the 9 p.m. time slot that has been without a permanent host since former CNN chief JEFF ZUCKER ousted CHRIS CUOMO from the hour. And while Tapper is only assigned to the hour through the midterm elections, television news insiders, particularly the ones at CNN, believe the network can peel away viewers from 9 p.m. from MSNBC, which has shed ratings in the hour since RACHEL MADDOW stopped hosting her show full time. MESSAGE US — Are you JOE BIDEN? We may not be Jake Tapper, but we're still happy to take your call, or feel free to email us at westwingtips@politico.com.
| | A message from Walmart: Walmart is strengthening their commitment to American jobs & communities.
Over the next ten years, the company is committing an additional $350 billion dollars to products made, grown or assembled in America by 2030. This investment is estimated to support over 750,000 new U.S. jobs based on estimates from Boston Consulting Group. Last year, Walmart sourced $13.3 billion worth of goods from roughly 2,600 diverse small businesses.
Learn more about Walmart's commitment to U.S manufacturing. | | | | | | This one is from Allie. Which president ordered his security to shoot squirrels because they were interrupting his games of golf on the White House grounds? (Answer at the bottom.)
| | | THE BIG 8-0: Biden turns 80 years old next month, the first president to become an octogenarian while in office. The timing of his birthday — just two weeks after the midterm elections — and its significance will likely place new focus on the president's health and whether or not he'll run for reelection, our JONATHAN LEMIRE reports. For now, West Wing aides say the plan is to keep Biden's birthday lowkey. More details from Lemire. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO SEE: A preview of the administration's student debt relief application form . White House chief of staff RON KLAIN pledged on Twitter that the application website will "be easy to use, fast, and doesn't require any uploads." The White House twitter account tweeted a GIF scrolling through the application:
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Tweet from The White House | Twitter | WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN'T WANT YOU TO READ: Criticism by JPMorgan Chase CEO JAMIE DIMON of the White House's energy policies following OPEC+'s decision to cut oil production. "In my view, America should have been pumping more oil and gas and it should have been supported," Dimon told CNBC Monday. "Obviously, America needs to play a real leadership role — America is the swing producer, not Saudi Arabia." Dimon also said that people should not be surprised if the S&P 500 loses another one-fifth of its value. HOT MIC: Biden is increasingly ditching his special bullet-resistant lectern called the "blue goose," and its smaller cousin "the falcon," and opting for a hand-gripped mic, report AP's ZEKE MILLER and COLLEEN LONG. They write that people who know Biden best say he feels more natural with that set up. GETTING PERSONAL: White House Press Secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE observed National Coming Out day by sharing her personal story in a Twitter thread Tuesday. "Like so many in the LGBTQ+ community, coming out wasn't an easy thing to do," she wrote. "My family was traditional and conservative. Being gay in my family wasn't something that you mentioned out loud or celebrated." Read the full thread here. She also had a poignant account of this in her memoir, "Moving Forward." KAMALA HARRIS, DRIVE TO SURVIVE: Vice President KAMALA HARRIS made her first late night appearance since taking office Monday night on NBC's "Late Night with SETH MEYERS." We learned she enjoys HBO's "House of the Dragon," the New York Times' mini crossword game ("I did it in 50 seconds, I'm very proud of that"), and, most surprising to us, Formula One race car driving with the full family. Watch part 1 here, and part 2 here. West Wing Playbook agrees, 50 seconds is impressive. Harris is headed to Detroit this weekend for events including a party fundraiser, the Detroit Free Press reported.
| | | | 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. | | | | | | | | ALL ABOUT GARLAND: The Atlantic's FRANKLIN FOER has an in-depth profile of MERRICK GARLAND, with whom he sat down, and explains why he thinks the attorney general will move to indict former President Donald Trump. "The Garland of 2022 is not the same man who was sworn into office as attorney general in March of the previous year," Foer writes. "At the age of 69, his temperament is firmly fixed, but a year and a half on the job has transformed him. … The Merrick Garland who took over the Justice Department may have hoped he could restore its reputation without confronting Trump, or dragging him to a courtroom. But the nation has changed in the intervening months, and so has he." We'll find out soon if he's right. PERSONNEL MOVES: ALIA AWADALLAH will be an advisor to the deputy undersecretary of the Army. She most recently was a presidential management fellow while working in the vice president's office, the Department of Defense, and the State Department. LIZ MURRAY is now director of scheduling and advance for the Small Business Administration. She most recently was director of executive operations at SKDK. SABRINA SINGH, an alum of the VP's office, will be deputy press secretary at the Pentagon, she announced on Twitter.
| | | | A message from Walmart:   | | | | | | A PHONE CALL IS BETTER THAN AN EMAIL: The Wall Street Journal has a four byline and three contributor deep-dive into the behind-the-scenes diplomacy with Saudi Arabia over oil. The Journal reports that in "August, the Saudis had planned to push OPEC+ to raise oil production by 500,000 barrels a day in an effort to please Mr. Biden, but Prince Mohammed ordered the increase lowered to a token 100,000 barrels a day after the Biden visit, the people inside the Saudi government said. The U.S. State Department's energy-security envoy, Amos Hochstein, sent the Saudi energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, an email that suggested he had broken his word promising a larger increase, people familiar with the matter said." The Journal continues that "the email angered Prince Abdulaziz and strengthened his resolve to forge an oil policy independent of the U.S., the people said."
| | | | 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. | | | | | | | | Biden's prime time interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, obvi.
| | | Government Officials Invest in Companies Their Agencies Oversee (WSJ's Rebecca Ballhaus, Brody Mullins, Chad Day, John West, Joe Palazzolo and James V. Grimaldi) Biden Proposal Could Lead to Employee Status for Gig Workers (NYT's Noam Scheiber) 'Fat Bear Week' Hit By Voter-Fraud Attempt (Rolling Stone's Miles Klee)
| | | President DWIGHT EISENHOWER had grown frustrated with squirrels while in office, as they'd steal golf tees and mess up his game, according to The Washington Post. Eisenhower even told his valet, JOHN MOANEY: "The next time you see one of those squirrels go near my putting green, take a gun and shoot it!" Security trapped and relocated the squirrels instead of shooting them, but you can read more about the White House's fight against squirrels 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.
| | A message from Walmart: Walmart believes that supporting American manufacturing creates more American jobs and positively impacts communities nationwide. Jump-starting the manufacturing industry and rebuilding the middle class requires a national effort by companies, industry leaders, lawmakers and others.
The company is leading in this effort - committing an additional $350 billion over the next ten years to products made, grown or assembled in America. This investment is estimated to support the creation of 750,000 new American jobs based on data from Boston Consulting Group. Last year alone, the company sourced $13.3 billion in goods from roughly 2,600 diverse small businesses.
"U.S. manufacturing really matters. It matters to our suppliers, to entrepreneurs and to the environment. Most of all, because of the jobs it brings, it matters to American communities and the people who live in them." - John Furner, President & CEO, Walmart U.S.
Learn more about Walmart's commitment to U.S. manufacturing. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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