Dela-really?

The power players, latest policy developments, and intriguing whispers percolating inside the West Wing.

Dec 22, 2022 View in browser   By Lauren Egan, Eli Stokols 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 Eli | Email Lauren PROGRAMMING NOTE: We'll be off next week for the holidays but back to our normal schedule on Tuesday, Jan. 3. We hope absence makes the heart grow fonder. As President JOE BIDEN's reelection campaign begins to take shape, Democratic staffers have just one plea for the new year: Don't make us move to Delaware. Although no decision has been made yet about where Biden's likely 2024 campaign will be headquartered, the president's hometown of Wilmington, Del., and Philadelphia, where he based his 2020 campaign, have emerged as the leading options. The possibility of a Wilmington-based campaign has elicited some strong feelings among the Democratic political class, who have grumbled about the city's sleepy nightlife and restaurant scene. They say they by far prefer Philly (even with its exotic smells). And if not Philly, they'd be more than fine with Washington, D.C. "The general vibe is, 'Please let it not be in Wilmington,'" said one Democratic Party aide. "People would be really excited about D.C., relatively excited about Philadelphia, and people would be really disappointed if it were in Wilmington." Choosing a homebase for the campaign may seem like a ceremonial matter. But it's politically consequential: affecting campaign budgets and staffing operations. There are some clear upsides to basing the campaign in Wilmington. The cost of living is cheaper and the city already has the infrastructure to accommodate the president and his security detail, who are there nearly every other weekend. Also: Bardea (although likely campaign staffers and embeds doubt their own ability to dine there more than five nights a week). But some Democrats close to the White House say that recruiting top-tier talent is often harder during a reelection cycle. Basing the campaign in Wilmington instead of Philly, they worry, would make those recruitment challenges worse. And, they point out, being farther away from a major airport could create travel headaches as the campaign cycle gets into full swing. Some White House staffers and potential campaign workers have also privately expressed frustration that the D.C. area — where most of them live — is not being more seriously considered as the main base, as it was for DONALD TRUMP's 2020 campaign and GEORGE W. BUSH's 2004 campaign. After all, Biden will be spending much of his time in the White House while he runs for office; and some of his closest aides are likely to be there, too. Longtime Democratic strategist JAMES CARVILLE said there is little reason for incumbents to ask staff to move. "I don't think it makes sense to move it out of D.C.," he said. "If you wanted to be the deputy comms director and you've got two kids at home, why would you want to make it harder for them?" But while it might be less convenient to base the reelect outside of D.C., the campaign ends up being stronger for it, say other strategists. It weeds out people who aren't willing to make the personal sacrifices required of a presidential campaign and gets staff out of the Washington echo chamber. It also can help create distance between the campaign staff and the White House while alleviating — ever so slightly — the incumbent president's overwhelming stench of being a creature of the capital. "I think it was very important that we moved our headquarters out of D.C. and the Beltway to ensure that we could get our work done," said former Democratic National Committee chairwoman DONNA BRAZILE, who ran then-Vice President AL GORE 's 2000 presidential campaign from Nashville. "The campaign team needs to be separate and apart from the White House so the campaign team can meet their goals and obligations. No one wants to be caught up in the palace intrigue of who's running things and you want to be able to have enough distance." But despite the gnashing of teeth among D.C. Democrats about a potential Wilmington headquarters, more seasoned hands think they'll get over it. After all, there is another factor at play: career ambition. "At the end of the day, guess what they're all going to do? Move to Wilmington," said Carville. MESSAGE US — Are you Philadelphia Mayor JIM KENNEY? We want to hear from you. And we'll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com.   A NEW POLITICO PODCAST: POLITICO Tech is an authoritative insider briefing on the politics and policy of technology. From crypto and the metaverse to cybersecurity and AI, we explore the who, what and how of policy shaping future industries. We're kicking off with a series exploring darknet market places, the virtual platforms that enable actors from all corners of the online world to traffic illicit goods. As malware and cybercrime attacks become increasingly frequent, regulators and law enforcement agencies work different angles to shut these platforms down, but new, often more unassailable marketplaces pop up. SUBSCRIBE AND START LISTENING TODAY.     POTUS PUZZLER This one is from Allie. Under which presidency did the White House hold its first Christmas party — and in what year? (Answer at the bottom.) The Oval ZELENSKYY DEETS: Staffers involved in hosting foreign leaders had just four days to get ready for President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY 's visit to the White House after the Ukrainian side said it had accepted Biden's invitation. And the directive they were given was to do so without a word of the visit leaking. Some of those staffers told West Wing Playbook on Thursday that the visit required complete coordination and the rare added complication of the Pentagon handling Zelenskyy's air travel from Poland. The U.S. side had hoped he could arrive earlier but logistical complications left him just an hour on the ground before his White House arrival ceremony. Zelenskyy and his team spent that hour at Blair House, the official guesthouse across Pennsylvania Avenue, to freshen up and grab a bite to eat. And like everyone who's going to be close to the president, the Ukrainian entourage had to take Covid antigen tests before motorcading over to the South Portico. WINTER STORM WARNING: The president warned Americans traveling home for the Christmas holiday to leave immediately, ahead of the intense winter storm expected to bring blizzard conditions to some states, Reuters reports. "It's dangerous and threatening, it's really very serious weather and it goes from Oklahoma all the way to Wyoming and Maine. ... So I encourage everyone to please heed local warnings," Biden said Thursday. "If you all have travel plans, leave now, not a joke. I'm sending my staff ... if they have plans to leave tomorrow, I'm telling them leave now." President Joe Biden speaks in the East Room of the White House ahead of the holidays. | AP Photo/Patrick Semansky A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE: Biden also delivered a very Biden speech Thursday afternoon from the decked White House Cross Hall. It was a reflection on the spirit of Christmas and a chance to hit on some of his favorite themes: spirituality, empathy, unity. The remarks, coming a day after a short "2 + 2" press conference alongside Zelenskyy, will likely serve as the president's rhetorical coda on the year. With the Bidens visiting Children's Hospital on Friday, the White House press corps seems largely resigned to the fact that there won't be a full year-end press conference in 2022. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This WaPo opinion piece by JONATHAN CAPEHART declaring "Kamala Harris had a most excellent year" in its headline. "President Biden's electoral right-hand ma'am is finishing a banner year filled with domestic barnstorming and high-wire diplomacy," Capehart writes. HERBIE ZISKEND, the White House deputy comms director, promoted the story in a tweet. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN'T WANT YOU TO READ: This WSJ piece by GREG IP about how the latest spending package isn't exactly addressing inflation: "Inflation is the economy's number one problem. The Federal Reserve understands this and has adapted accordingly. Congress and Biden still haven't. To be sure, the massive omnibus spending bill likely to pass Congress doesn't include big new stimulus. Business tax cuts, an expanded child tax credit and health spending boosts that would have tacked hundreds of billions of dollars onto deficits and elevated inflation pressure in coming years were all dropped. In that, the bill marks a pivot from the past two years when Biden routinely signed executive orders and legislation that pumped up deficits and spending." VANITY FAIR TREATMENT: An extensive interview with Vice President KAMALA HARRIS published Wednesday in Vanity Fair, dives into her reaction to the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in June and the administration's outreach efforts in Latin America. It also touches on her relationship with Biden, based on West Wing Playbook's reporting on an upcoming book that described tension between the pair. "It's a great relationship. We get on so well. We're real partners," she told Vanity Fair's MOLLY JONG-FAST. "We have a lot in common that people would know. Family is very important to both of us. We are both of us lifelong public servants and really care about real people." THE BUREAUCRATS COP ON THE AIRLINE BEAT: Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG said Thursday he'll be monitoring how airlines perform amid the incoming winter storm to see if they'll be "more resilient than it was early this summer when we saw some of those extraordinary levels of disruption." The storm has already resulted in more than 3,000 flights to be canceled. Our ORIANA PAWLYK has more details. HAALAND TO BRAZIL: Interior Secretary DEB HAALAND will lead the administration's delegation to Brazil for President-elect LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA's Jan. 1 inauguration, the White House announced Thursday. Lula is expected to travel to Washington later that month for a White House meeting with Biden. Agenda Setting GOOGLE IT: ERIC SCHMIDT, the former CEO of Google who has long sought influence over White House science policy, is helping to fund the salaries of more than two dozen officials in the Biden administration under the auspices of an outside group, the Federation of American Scientists, Alex reports. Read the full investigation here. What We're Reading Social secretary helps 'people's house' welcome the people (AP's Darlene Superville) I've discovered Joe Biden's fountain of youth (The Hill Opinion Barbara A. Perry) Zelensky Recalled Us to Ourselves (The Atlantic's David Frum)   POLITICO AT CES 2023 : We are bringing a special edition of our Digital Future Daily newsletter to Las Vegas to cover CES 2023. The newsletter will take you inside the largest and most influential technology event on the planet, featuring every major and emerging industry in the technology ecosystem gathered in one place. The newsletter runs from Jan. 5-7 and will focus on the public policy related aspects of the event. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage of CES 2023.     POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER In December 1800, President JOHN ADAMS and first lady ABIGAIL ADAMS hosted the first White House Christmas party "for their four-year-old granddaughter SUSANNA BOYLSTON ADAMS, who was living with them. They invited government officials and their children to the party," according to the White House Historical Association. 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 Eli Stokols @EliStokols Lauren Egan @Lauren_V_Egan Allie Bice @alliebice   Follow us

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