When DeSantis turned down Jill Biden

Nov 01, 2022 View in browser   By Alex Thompson and Gary Fineout 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 JILL BIDEN has tried to make the president's proposed "Cancer Moonshot" initiative a centerpiece of her role as first lady. The country's partisan divisions have made the task difficult. In February, when the first lady visited the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, her office invited Republican Gov. RON DESANTIS , a potential 2024 presidential rival, to attend. The center was where DeSantis' wife CASEY had recently been treated for breast cancer, an experience she has talked about on the campaign trail this fall . The governor declined, according to emails shared with West Wing Playbook. An official in DeSantis' office wrote back: "thank you for the invitation. Unfortunately, the Governor is unable to join." The first lady visited the center on Feb. 18 with Dr. NED SHARPLESS, the head of the National Cancer Institute . It was her second cancer-related event in the state. The first lady's office declined to comment. The first lady's interest in the cancer initiative is personal, owing in large part to the 2015 death of BEAU BIDEN. She and JOE BIDEN began their work a year later during the Obama administration and then launched the Biden Cancer Initiative in 2017. As president, Biden tried to reignite "Cancer Moonshot" in February but the new research agency at the center of the initiative, known as ARPA-H, received just a fraction of the initial funding sought by the administration, as we reported previously . In September, Biden signed an executive order to "break logjams" on funding and likened the task to going to the moon. The Bidens have also discovered that even something as unobjectionable as fighting cancer has not been immune from politics in 2022. Last month, when the first lady attended a cancer awareness night at the Philadelphia Eagles' stadium in her hometown, some fans booed her and shouted, "Let's go Brandon" ( viral clips with fake audio exaggerated the heckles ). A few people in Biden world told West Wing Playbook they are bracing for the first lady to get booed again Wednesday night when she returns to Philly for Game 4 of the World Series as part of a cancer awareness initiative with MLB. The first lady has shown no reluctance to bring her message into tough environs. She recently sat for an extended interview with Newsmax. The talk focused on her cancer advocacy, was substantive, and helped her reach a more conservative audience. But the efforts to reach across the aisle have not resulted in an entirely de-politicized reception. And the ups-and-downs over the current cancer initiative have become emblematic of the sharp partisanship that has occasionally caught both Bidens off-guard. They have tried to recently engage in the sort of partisan barbs that don't always come naturally. On Tuesday night at a fundraiser, Biden called DeSantis "Donald Trump incarnate." MESSAGE US — Are you RON DESANTIS? We want to hear from you! Seriously! And we'll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com .   NEW AND IMPROVED POLITICO APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. With a fresh look and improved features, the sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don't miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. Already a POLITICO app user? Upgrade today! DOWNLOAD FOR iOS  – DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID .     POTUS PUZZLER This ones from Allie. Which first lady harvested silk from silkworms while in the White House? (Answer at the bottom.) The Oval GEARING UP FOR REELECTION: The president and first lady have been meeting since September with advisers about a potential 2024 reelection bid , WaPo's MICHAEL SCHERER and TYLER PAGER report. Although he hasn't made a final decision on running again, Biden maintains he intends to. SKIMM-PING ON INTERVIEWS: Biden has yet to sit for interviews with The New York Times, Washington Post, or The Wall Street Journal, so we were impressed when theSkimm newsletter published a Q-and-A with the president Tuesday morning in which he responded to readers' questions. It's not clear how the interview was actually conducted and if Biden or his press team was responsible for the answers. Asked how they verified it was actually the president responding, a spokesperson for Skimm said "I can confirm that these responses for theSkimm's Q&A were provided by President Joe Biden's office." The White House press team publicly has said Biden took the questions. POTUS BOOK CLUB: When the president boarded Air Force One en route Tuesday to Florida, he was holding JOHN MEACHAM's book on Lincoln, according to White House press pooler MICHAEL WILNER . Meacham is an occasional Biden speech writer. [THE O.C. THEME SONG VOICE] "CALIFFORNIIIIAA!": Biden is slated to return to California at the end of the week and plans to participate in a campaign event for Rep. MIKE LEVIN.  WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This column by Yahoo! senior columnist RICK NEWMAN with the headline, "Biden has done better than most voters think." It notes that "Biden's day of reckoning could be painful" depending on the severity of midterm election losses. But, "inflation and its dominance as a pocketbook concern obscure some things that Biden has done right since he took office 19 months ago." Chief of staff RON KLAIN shared the piece, with the intro: "Progress on key challenges." WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN'T WANT YOU TO READ: This assessment from Democratic pollster JOHN ANZALONE , who also has served as Biden's pollster. Anzalone helped conduct a new Wall Street Journal poll and the paper put it this way: "Mr. Anzalone said the most concerning matter for Democrats is that independent voters don't trust the party to handle rising prices. Whichever party is in power, he said, finds that independent voters 'break against the party when you have economic diagnostics like we're seeing. End of story, done.' OUCH: While Biden was moving between spots Tuesday in Florida, the White House pool report noted that "one cop driving a motorcycle in the motorcade wiped out en route to the venue." The pooler was checking on the officer's condition. THE BUREAUCRATS ANOTHER COVID CASE: Education Secretary MIGUEL CARDONA tested positive for Covid on Tuesday and is experiencing mild symptoms, our JUAN PEREZ JR. reports for Pros . The president and first lady were not close contacts of the secretary, according to the Education Department. PERSONNEL MOVES: CHRISTINA WILKES is the new press secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. She most recently was the press secretary for the General Services Administration. — JONATHAN "JONNY" POWELL has been named senior adviser and speechwriter for Deputy Secretary of State WENDY SHERMAN, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. Powell most recently was director of speechwriting at the Department of Homeland Security and is also an alum of House Speaker NANCY PELOSI, former Secretary of State JOHN KERRY and former Commerce Secretary PENNY PRITZKER. THE MONA FAUCI: The Post's ROXANNE ROBERTS reports that Dr. ANTHONY FAUCI got an early look at his portrait that will hang in the National Portrait Gallery. "It's a video — a stop-motion animation — chronicling his landmark career through a series of intense drawings that leap out from the screen," she reports. POLITICO 15 CONVERSATION: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD spoke to our RYAN HEATH and RENEE KLAHR about what it's like being a woman in foreign affairs — which sometimes means being the only woman in the room. The full interview, which also includes former USAID administrator GAYLE SMITH, is here . Agenda Setting LARRY, LARRY, ONCE MORE CONTRARY: After Biden on Monday threatened a windfall profit tax on oil companies, LARRY SUMMERS tweeted: "I'm not sure [I] understand the argument for a windfall profits tax on energy companies. If you reduce profitability, you will discourage investment which is the opposite of our objective." HALLOWEEN ON THE BRAIN: POLITICO's JOSH GERSTEIN reports that D.C. Circuit Judge JUSTIN WALKER had a notable hypothetical Tuesday morning. He heard arguments on Trump appointee ROGER SEVERINO's lawsuit protesting Biden firing him from a board that advises federal agencies on how to improve their operations ( more context here ). "If it's something even more protective than for-cause removal, then the only way I guess to remove mean let's say, a serial killer from the council would be either something like impeachment, or even worse — no way to remove a serial killer," Walker said.   DON'T MISS POLITICO'S 2nd ANNUAL DEFENSE SUMMIT ON 11/16: The United States is facing a defining moment in the future of its defense, national security and democratic ideals. The current conflicts and developments around the world are pushing Washington to reshape its defense strategy and how it cooperates with allies. Join POLITICO for our second annual defense summit, "At a Crossroads: America's Defense Strategy" on November 16 in person at the Schuyler DC or join online to hear keynote interviews and panels discussing the road ahead for America's national security. REGISTER HERE .     What We're Reading Saudi Arabia, U.S. on High Alert After Warning of Imminent Iranian Attack (WSJ's Dion Nissenbaum) Refund Checks Arrive for Student Loan Borrowers Who Paid During Pandemic (Bloomberg's Ella Ceron and Claire Ballentine) What We're Watching The Axios News Shapers discussion on Nov. 2 starting at 8:15 a.m. EST. Some of the guests include White House senior adviser ANITA DUNN and White House deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president, JEN O'MALLEY DILLON. POTUS PUZZLER LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS took care of silkworms while in the White House. She "found solace in caring for [them]," according to the White House Historical Association . "On June 23, 1828, President JOHN QUINCY ADAMS wrote in his daily diary that 'Mrs. Adams is winding silk from several hundred silkworms that she has been rearing.' Using these silkworms, which grew on mulberry trees on the White House Grounds, she harvested silk and used it in her own sewing projects." 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.   Follow us on Twitter Alex Thompson @AlexThomp Allie Bice @alliebice   Follow us

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