How not to crash a WHCD after-party

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

May 09, 2023 View in browser   By Lauren Egan and Eli Stokols 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 Eli | Email Lauren Every White House Correspondents’ Dinner weekend, people puff themselves up to land invitations to some of Washington’s most sought-after parties. Most of the time their explanations for being included on the guest list are self-serving but harmless — an annoyance that earns eye rolls from event planners but is mostly forgotten by the end of the weekend. But when that talk involves a member of the first family, it becomes a bit harder to fly under the radar. Such was the case when JESSICA HOY, who according to her LinkedIn profile is a D.C.-based brand consultant, started reaching out to newsrooms and event organizers last month to get invitations to the weekend events, for herself and a list of clients. What stood out, precisely, was one of the clients Hoy claimed to represent: first daughter ASHLEY BIDEN. “Jess Hoy referred to Ashley Biden as a ‘client’ — along with a dozen other C-list celebs — on multiple occasions in a heavy-handed effort to access various events for herself,” said a network insider familiar with the dinner planning. “She’d put herself at the top of every party list ahead of her ‘clients’ and tried to negotiate seating for party sightings.” Hoy’s actual relationship with Biden, however, is not all that clear. A White House official said that she has never been employed by the first daughter. "She was not hired by Ashley,” the official said, “they don’t have a formal relationship." In an interview with West Wing Playbook, Hoy insisted that she had done work with Biden. She forwarded a set of emails that she said were with U.S. Secret Service and Biden herself, though it was unclear from the content how close she was with the first daughter. She also denied that she ever misrepresented herself. “I have never once said ‘I am Ashley Biden’s publicist’ to anyone.” At least one publication said Hoy had been “hired” by Biden to help develop her brand. Over the course of the WHCD weekend, she continued to surface as someone with ties to the family, to the confusion of other party-goers. While Hoy told West Wing Playbook she didn’t attend the dinner, she did show up later that night at the CBS after-party at the French ambassador’s residence. There, according to four people familiar with the situation, she claimed to be Biden’s publicist and insisted she be allowed inside. She was initially turned away before getting into the residence. “She was clearly a gatecrasher,” said a person at the CBS party, who added the whole situation turned into a bit of a scene until Hoy was eventually allowed inside. While the whole episode was witnessed by multiple people at the party, including reporters and embassy officials, it blew up in larger circles after Hoy posted about an incident involving her and uber media consultant TAMMY HADDAD on Sunday. The social media post was deleted and people who attended the party said it was Hoy, not Haddad, who caused the scene. A person close to Hoy said that she was embarrassed about getting called out in front of her friends at the gate to the CBS party for not actually working with Biden and was trying to save face. “She spun a big web of lies,” the person said. “And the stories didn’t add up.” Hoy said she does work for ELLE Magazine and while she may not have had the smoothest of entrances to the CBS party, she did help organize an ELLE event on the Friday before the WHCD. Among those who attended: Ashley Biden. A representative for ELLE did not return a request for comment. MESSAGE US — Are you ASHLEY BIDEN? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!    DON’T MISS THE POLITICO ENERGY SUMMIT: A new world energy order is emerging and America’s place in it is at a critical juncture. Join POLITICO on Thursday, May 18 for our first-ever energy summit to explore how the U.S. is positioning itself in a complicated energy future. We’ll explore progress on infrastructure and climate funding dedicated to building a renewable energy economy, Biden’s environmental justice proposals, and so much more. REGISTER HERE.     POTUS PUZZLER This one is from Allie. Which president stopped Congress from giving him a Medal of Honor? (Answer at bottom.) The Oval A MEETING TO SCHEDULE MORE MEETINGS: The president met with congressional leaders Tuesday to talk debt ceiling, including Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL, Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER, House Speaker KEVIN MCCARTHY, and House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES. But, the early reads suggest not much ground was made up, even as the deadline looms. There was, McCarthy said, “no new movement.” Still, staffers for all parties will remain in touch and a follow up meeting is now scheduled for Friday. Rinse, wash, repeat. SORRY, NEW PHONE, WHO DIS?: Among those the president met with, he enjoys the least defined relationship with Jeffries, our JENNIFER HABERKORN reports. While Jeffries has mainly stayed on the sidelines of the debt ceiling debate, his partnership with the White House will be integral in negotiations as the deadline approaches. NEW YORK BOUND: The president is set to travel Wednesday to New York’s Hudson Valley area where he’ll deliver remarks about the debt limit and hammer home the administration’s opposition to Republicans’ budget proposal. BLUFF…CALLED?: New York Republican Rep. MIKE LAWLER, who represents the area, will appear alongside the president, telling AP’s JOSH BOAK and ZEKE MILLER that he accepted the White House’s invitation to do so “maybe to their surprise.” Our OLIVIA BEAVERS caught up with Lawler, who said he’s looking forward to hearing Biden out and encouraged him to engage. “It will be a great opportunity to convey to the president the need to negotiate with Speaker McCarthy in good faith to lift the debt ceiling, rein in spending, and bring down inflation,” Lawler said. “My constituents expect us to work together and that’s why I will be there.” Asked about any potential awkwardness from appearing with the president as he’s likely to be bashing the bill he just voted for, Lawler said he’s not worried: “I have a good poker face.” WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This opinion piece by DANIEL PFEIFFER for the New York Times on debt ceiling talks: “The most important reason to avoid entering into negotiations over the debt limit itself goes beyond politics. It is why, in 2011, Mr. Obama pledged never again after trying to negotiate with the Republicans.” White House deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES tweeted out the piece Tuesday morning as a line of attack on Republicans. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by the NYT’s PETER BAKER on how Biden’s low poll numbers — in spite of all his accomplishments — undermine the electability argument providing the foundation of his argument for a second term. Democrats confronting polls showing Biden tied with former President DONALD TRUMP, Baker writes, are “feeling anywhere from queasy to alarmed. Mr. Biden’s case for being the pair of safe hands at a volatile moment is undermined in their view if a president who passed major legislation and presides over the lowest unemployment in generations cannot outperform a twice-impeached challenger who instigated an insurrection, has been indicted on multiple felonies, is on civil trial accused of rape and faces more potential criminal charges in the months to come.” Well, when you put it that way. NEW RULES: With the Covid-19 emergency declaration ending this week, testing and other policies related to the pandemic will also be changing for the White House press corps, White House Correspondents' Association President TAMARA KEITH wrote in an email to reporters. Journalists part of the in-town press pool will no longer need to take a coronavirus test daily, unless they are traveling on Air Force One or Air Force Two. FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING: While traveling from the G-7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, to the Quad Leaders’ Summit in Sydney, Australia, Biden will visit Papua New Guinea, the first time a sitting president visits the nation, the White House announced Tuesday. Biden will meet with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister JAMES MARAPE and discuss ways to advance the nations’ partnership. GOOD TIMING… Biden spoke with Mexican President ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR on Tuesday, ahead of Thursday’s expiration of Title 42, the Trump-era policy that has been used to expel migrants from the border. The two spoke about cooperating to handle migration issues, according to a readout of the call. Filling the Ranks VOTE 4 AMY: Biden threw his support behind AMY POPE, a candidate to be the director general of the International Organization for Migration, in a statement Tuesday. Pope currently serves as the organization’s deputy director for management and reform and previously worked as a senior adviser on migration for the Biden administration. THE BUREAUCRATS FORMER BIDEN OFFICIAL SPEAKS: KIMBERLY CLAUSING, the former deputy assistant secretary of Treasury for tax analysis, spoke to Vox’s DYLAN MATTHEWS about the potential blowback of Biden’s U.S. manufacturing push and the effects it could have on the nation’s relationships abroad, namely with the EU and Canada. “It’s kind of a fool’s errand to think that you’re going to get a lot of manufacturing jobs out of all this CHIPS money and all this steel protection,” she said. “Your fiscal costs per job could reach something like a million dollars, right? There are much better ways to improve people’s lives that are less expensive that we should really be focusing on instead.” Read the full interview here. Agenda Setting A BIG WIN: U.S. and international authorities have disabled Russian FSB spyware used to steal secrets from U.S and NATO nations for more than 20 years, Justice Department officials said Tuesday. “This is what we assess to be the most sophisticated malware deployed by the FSB when it comes to espionage campaigns,” an FBI official said. Our JOHN SAKELLARIADIS has more.   GET READY FOR GLOBAL TECH DAY: Join POLITICO Live as we launch our first Global Tech Day alongside London Tech Week on Thursday, June 15. Register now for continuing updates and to be a part of this momentous and program-packed day! From the blockchain, to AI, and autonomous vehicles, technology is changing how power is exercised around the world, so who will write the rules? REGSITER HERE.     What We're Reading The New Washington Consensus (The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer) How those fleeing Ukraine inspired U.S. border policies (AP News’ Colleen Long And Elliot Spagat) Tim Scott Was Given a Chance to Attack Biden as Too Old. He Didn’t. (NYT’s Maya King) POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER In 1971, former President HARRY TRUMAN wrote in a letter to Congress that he didn’t consider anything he had done to “be the reason of any award, Congressional or otherwise,” according to the New York Times. “This does not mean I do not appreciate what you and others have done, because I do appreciate the kind things that have been said and the proposal to have the award offered to me. Therefore, I close by saying thanks, but I will not accept a Congressional Medal of Honor.” 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 Eli Stokols @EliStokols Lauren Egan @Lauren_V_Egan Allie Bice @alliebice   Follow us

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