This town's new muse

Presented by The Coalition to Protect America's Regional Airports: The power players, latest policy developments, and intriguing whispers percolating inside the West Wing.

Jun 16, 2023 View in browser   By Lauren Egan and Eli Stokols Presented by 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 Programming Note: We’ll be off this Monday for Juneteenth but will be back in your inboxes on Tuesday. We hope absence makes the heart grow fonder.  Every few years, there’s a book that takes an anthropological look at Washington and the people who inhabit it. This year, it’s Washington Post feature writer BEN TERRIS who is taking a stab. Terris spent two years reporting out his new book, “The Big Break.” Starting with the early months of JOE BIDEN’s presidency and concluding with his first midterm elections, he chronicled the behind-the-scenes staffers that make Washington, well, quirky. Terris spoke with West Wing Playbook about how Washington has (or hasn’t) changed with the Biden administration, his reporting process and who really throws the best holiday party. Here’s an edited version of the conversation. The book focuses on a few main characters who are everyday Washington types (a Hill aide, a former CPAC staffer, etc.). How did you pick them?  I cast a huge net. I did a lot of reporting on people that never actually became characters. I spent a bunch of time with (Arizona Rep.) Ruben Gallego, and he’s not really in the book. I spent time with (Texas Rep.) Dan Crenshaw, and he’s a sentence in the book. Because you didn’t find the politicians as interesting? If you can be around people who are actually able to be human around you, that’s just better material. It’s more interesting. It’s more honest.  I think Ruben Gallego is a very interesting politician. He was maybe one of the most candid politicians that I’ve been around. And yet he was still just a politician. Everything felt calculated in a way that is true for some of the regular people, but the regular people aren’t quite as practiced at it. You open up the book in 2021 with scenes from dueling holiday parties. Matt and Mercedes Schlapp host Republicans at their mansion in Virginia and Leah Hunt-Hendrix hosts progressives at her D.C. townhouse. Who throws a better party? Honestly, I did not have fun at either of them. But people were definitely having more fun at the Schlapp party. I think it’s because there was sort of a nihilism going on with the Republican Party. Their stock was low and they could see it rising and they felt like they were all going to get rich off of the next Congress. Democrats — they were in control, but it felt very tenuous. It was hard for people to fully celebrate because they were so worried about what was coming next. There’s something to be said about that between Democrats and Republicans in Washington.  You have some great details from parties (like when Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida asked you not to write that he was wearing the same red blazer as Greta Van Susteren). Some people assume a level of anonymity at these kinds of events. Did anyone get upset with you for writing about them? Somebody called me very angrily about being quoted at one of these parties. I made the case that I thought that the person they might actually be angry with wasn’t me, but the host of the party. These hosts know I’m writing about them. These are public people going to public places filled with journalists. It would be very easy to invite me to the party and say, ‘Hey, this has to be off the record.’ And I would not go. Did that ever happen? I got invited to go to a (Florida Rep.) Maxwell Frost party at the Wharf. I walked all the way there from the Capitol and when I show up, his comms person says, ‘Oh, yeah, of course you can come in, but you know, everything is off the record.’ And I was like, ‘No, I'm not doing that. I’m not here to have a good time.’ And so I left. Do you think Washington has changed since Biden took office? It’s definitely different. The people that have come in the door are different.  Trump revealed a lot of things about Washington that were true before he came. People act like Trump showed up and made no sense in Washington. But people here have always been self promotional and ideologically malleable. It’s just that all that stuff has exploded to be 10 times what it was before.  I finished the book and felt pretty down about Washington. Was I supposed to feel that way? It’s a depressing and ridiculous time here. But I also do think there’s hope. It’s still mostly filled with people who come here to do good things.  There’s this tension that people get when they come here between remaining idealistic and becoming cynical. But it does attract idealistic people and they still go to work on the Hill, at think tanks and in the administration. They don’t get paid well, they’re not necessarily treated well. And yet people keep coming and doing these jobs trying to figure it all out. MESSAGE US — Are you MARK LEIBOVICH? 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!    A message from The Coalition to Protect America's Regional Airports: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) agrees with the Coalition to Protect America’s Regional Airports that adding more slots to DCA would be a disaster. DCA is limited by geography, size, and significant FAA flight restrictions, and the slot and perimeter rules were carefully designed to promote safety, ease airport congestion, and reduce traffic around the geographically constrained DCA. Simply put, DCA is at capacity and adding more flights would be a disaster. Learn more.   POTUS PUZZLER This one is from Allie. Which president had the first ever inauguration in Washington, D.C.? (Answer at bottom.) Cartoon of the Week Cartoon by Kevin Kallaugher | Courtesy TGIF — it’s cartoon feature time! This one’s by KEVIN KALLAUGHER. Our very own MATT WUERKER publishes a selection of cartoons from all over the country. The Oval OH, YEAH. ABOUT THAT…: After a debt ceiling agreement was reached last month, Biden said it was his “hope and intention” to permanently get rid of it. But with the near economic catastrophe now in the rearview mirror, Biden appears to be in no rush to actually try to do away with the debt ceiling, our JENNIFER HABERKORN and ADAM CANCRYN report. White House aides say that the topic isn’t coming up and the sense inside the administration is that it’s not worth the political trouble when other priorities are on the line, especially since the current agreement raises the debt ceiling through the next election. “I have not heard any discussion of it at all,” said a White House adviser. “I don’t see any action being taken any time soon, mostly because they don’t really know who will be making the decision next time. You could have a Democratic House.” TJ’S (OFFICIALLY) BACK: The Tennessee Lookout got the scoop Friday that “Nashville native” TJ DUCKLO will officially return to Biden world in July when he joins the president’s reelection campaign as a senior communications adviser. We reported in May that the move has long been in the works, sparking “debate and controversy among former Biden administration and campaign staffers… about what kind of behavior is forgivable in a public role.” Ducklo was forced to resign from his job as deputy White House press secretary in 2021 after threatening to “destroy” a female reporter who planned to write about his romantic relationship with another reporter. But his backers in the president’s orbit, starting with senior adviser ANITA DUNN, have been intent on giving him a second chance. Dozens of former colleagues and friends also have been vocal about their enthusiasm for Ducklo’s return, insisting he has more than made amends for his mistake. Deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES, who worked closely with Ducklo, welcomed his return in a tweet from his personal account Friday praising his “heart” and the inspiring role he played on the 2020 campaign while fighting cancer. CALLING FOR GUN SAFETY LAWS, AGAIN: Biden traveled Friday to the University of Hartford, where 10 years ago President BARACK OBAMA called for gun safety measures following the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. Many of those measures still aren’t law, and Biden called on Congress to act, saying that those claiming to be concerned with crime must deal with the issue of guns. He also touted the smaller advances enacted from last year’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to strengthen background checks for young people purchasing guns, expand red flag laws and close a loophole that allowed some gun-sellers to avoid running background checks. “We are not finished,” Biden declared. GOD SAVE WHAT?: Biden, whose colloquialisms are fairly familiar to the press corps, signed off with a new one Friday that left reporters befuddled. “God save the queen, man,” Biden quipped as he stepped away from the mic in Connecticut. TODD GILLMAN of the Dallas Morning News, Friday’s traveling print pooler, sent his colleagues a note on the remark: “Several of you have asked me why he might have said that. I have no idea. Other poolers likewise have no idea." Tweet by Joey Garrison | Twitter WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Friday’s edition of TIME’s politics newsletter, The D.C. Brief, which highlights Biden’s continued push for gun reform. “That unfinished idea is one that strikes at Biden’s always-raw emotion, and he has plausibly spent more time than any of his predecessors obsessing over what more the government can do to protect its citizens from gun violence,” TIME’s PHILIP ELLIOTT reports. “Without a cooperative Congress, however, there’s really only so much Biden can do.” WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by WSJ’s ANDREW DUEHREN and RYAN TRACY about how the White House is grappling with how to identify artificial intelligence that “poses a threat to national security, a central challenge as the U.S. moves to curb investment in advanced technology companies in China. … Distinguishing between technology that Beijing could use to advance its military and technology that Chinese companies use for everyday commercial purposes has proven difficult for the Biden administration, particularly when it comes to AI.” IS IT CROWDED IN HERE OR IS IT JUST US?: Biden’s reelection campaign has yet to pick out a headquarters. For now, his campaign manager JULIE CHÁVEZ RODRÍGUEZ is working out of the Democratic National Committee office in Washington, NPR’s TAMARA KEITH reports. "Right now, we're really unified under one umbrella and in this building — literally one building — and continuing to grow and build from here," said Chávez Rodríguez.   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.     Filling the Ranks A NEW CDC DIRECTOR: The president Friday announced the appointment of MANDY COHEN to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, succeeding ROCHELLE WALENSKY, who departs from the agency later this month, our ERIN SCHUMAKER reports. Cohen previously served as North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services secretary. She has a lofty task of easing tensions on Capitol Hill after the politicization of the pandemic. Things are off to a rocky start, however — 28 Republican lawmakers have written the president a letter disparaging Cohen for, among other things, wearing “a Dr. Fauci-themed cloth mask” while in her previous role.   A message from The Coalition to Protect America's Regional Airports:   Agenda Setting HIGH DEMAND, LIMITED SUPPLY: NATO defense ministers on Friday finished a series of meetings where participating nations pledged to continue to support Ukraine in the Russian invasion. But as the war persists, a larger question looms: can the defense industry keep up? Our PAUL MCLEARY, LILI BAYER and LARA SELIGMAN have the story. NEW BOOSTER ALERT: The FDA picked “a specific Covid strain to be used in the next booster that should be ready for the public sometime in September,” our KATHERINE ELLEN FOLEY reports for Pro subscribers. “The agency directed vaccine manufacturers that have authorized or approved Covid boosters to begin gearing up manufacturing of the selected strain, which accounts for about 40 percent of infections in the U.S. currently.” What We're Reading Biden wanted to speak with China's Xi after U.S. shot down surveillance balloon (NBC’s Courtney Kube and Carol Lee) Why the War in Ukraine May Not Deter China (WSJ’s Yaroslav Trofimov) Fox News parts ways with producer behind ‘wannabe dictator’ Biden chyron (LAT’s Stephen Battaglio)   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.     The Oppo Book Before entering the national security world, Director of National Intelligence AVRIL HAINES dabbled in aviation. When Haines was an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago in the ’90’s, she took up flight lessons and restored an old plane. Haines “bought a used Cessna and rebuilt the avionics herself and tried to fly across the Atlantic Ocean and crash-landed near the Newfoundland coast,” former CIA official DAVID PRIESS told NPR in 2020. Though the mission wasn’t exactly successful, Haines found love through the adventure — she married her flight instructor and co-pilot, DAVID DAVIGHI. POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER THOMAS JEFFERSON had the first inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on March 4, 1801, according to the National Park Service. The presidents-elect before him, GEORGE WASHINGTON and JOHN ADAMS, held their inaugurations on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City. 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 The Coalition to Protect America's Regional Airports: Critical decisions are underway for the FAA reauthorization bill, yet some want to change DCA's slot and perimeter rules that put its timely passage in jeopardy. DCA is already operating at capacity, serving millions more passengers than intended. Altering the rules would worsen delays, congestion, and noise, while threatening the very foundation of our aviation network. Any proposed changes to the slot and perimeter rules threaten the passage of a much-needed FAA Reauthorization bill and are not in the interest of the airline industry, passenger safety or access to our nation’s Capital. Congress should be focused on fixing the pilot and air traffic controller shortages, promoting safety and security, and ensuring timely passage of the FAA reauthorization bill. The Coalition to Protect America’s Regional Airports stands against any measures that hinder this progress. Take action now to protect regional airports.     Follow us on Twitter Eli Stokols @EliStokols Lauren Egan @Lauren_V_Egan Allie Bice @alliebice   Follow us

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