Biden’s grudge holder

Presented by American Clean Power: The power players, latest policy developments, and intriguing whispers percolating inside the West Wing.

Feb 21, 2024 View in browser   By Eli Stokols and Lauren Egan Presented by American Clean Power Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from producer Raymond Rapada. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren Much has been made of how President JOE BIDEN seeks to limit and control his interactions with the media. Although he frequently takes informal questions following speeches, he has sat for just one interview with a print reporter in three years, a narrowly focused conversation about economics. And he has never repeated the sort of press conference he held to mark his first anniversary in office, a nearly two-hour affair where he took multiple questions from 22 reporters in the East Room. One possible reason why: First lady JILL BIDEN made it clear she was not pleased with that event. It was dinner time when the president finally ended the free-wheeling presser, only to huddle afterward with top aides in the Treaty Room. His wife was lurking nearby in the doorway. “Why didn’t anyone stop that?” she demanded of a group that included former chief of staff RON KLAIN, former communications director KATE BEDINGFIELD and former press secretary JEN PSAKI. When the group remained silent, she asked again. “Where were you guys? Where was the person who was going to end the press conference?” Eventually, Psaki took responsibility and acknowledged they should have stepped in. That anecdote about the first lady — and the larger portrait it offers of her as a fierce protector of her husband — is part of the forthcoming book from New York Times reporter KATIE ROGERS, “American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady From Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden.” And it adds nuance to a public persona largely defined by outward warmth and the other, softer hats she wears: teacher, military mom and wife. “There is little doubt among those who know her that Jill Biden’s highest priority is shielding her husband and family from danger,” Rogers writes in the book, a copy of which was obtained by West Wing Playbook. The first lady does not often set foot in the West Wing or follow the day-to-day news cycle. In fact, Rogers reports, she had a television removed from her East Wing office early in 2021. But she remains an influential figure behind the scenes, speaking with chief of staff JEFF ZIENTS about once a week. She serves as the president’s “gut check” on policy decisions and as “the family’s self-appointed grudge holder,” as Rogers puts it. Two of her biggest grudges, Rogers reports, have been with central figures of her husband’s presidency: Klain and Vice President KAMALA HARRIS. The first lady saw Klain’s decision to sign on with HILLARY CLINTON’s 2016 campaign before Biden had ruled out a bid of his own as a betrayal. Four years later, “when Klain came back on board, it was the result of a substantial amount of inner-circle lobbying” of Jill Biden in particular. And the decision to choose Harris as Biden’s 2020 running mate, which Klain pushed for, was similarly difficult. Jill Biden remained upset over Harris’ attacks on Biden in the first Democratic primary debate, where she bashed him for boasting of his friendships with segregationist Senate colleagues and for opposing the integration of busing in the 1970s. Rogers cites reporting from our JONATHAN MARTIN and ALEX BURNS, who wrote in their book that Jill Biden preferred SUSAN RICE as her husband’s running mate. Although she eventually got on board with the pick, tension over Harris may still linger. Rogers describes an awkward scene at a March 2022 fundraiser in San Francisco, Harris’ former hometown, where attendees praised the vice president and told the first lady how meaningful her selection was to people in the city. “Attendees noticed the awkward pause that followed. Jill did not respond and instead brought up another topic completely,” Rogers writes. “‘What about Ketanji?’ Jill said brightly, steering the conversation away from the vice president and toward her husband’s selection of Ketanji Brown Jackson as his first Supreme Court nominee.” The subject change “puzzled” those who heard it, Rogers writes, but “it did not surprise people who know her well. ‘She’s an Italian,’ one friend said with a shrug, by way of explanation. ‘She’s all about loyalty.’” A person close to the first lady dismissed the reporting. “Yawn,” they texted West Wing Playbook. “Everyone is friends now and understands shit happens during campaigns.” MESSAGE US — Are you ANTHONY BERNAL, senior adviser to the first lady? 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 American Clean Power: America Can’t Afford a False Start on Green Hydrogen: Green hydrogen is key to winning the race for clean and secure energy. The Biden Administration must provide greater flexibility for the first wave of new, green hydrogen facilities or the U.S. will be left in the starting blocks. Learn more.     POTUS PUZZLER First lady ELEANOR ROOSEVELT wore the uniform of what organization when she toured the South Pacific in 1943? (Answer at bottom.) The Oval POTUS PIT STOP: Before giving a speech in Culver City, California, President Biden made an unscheduled visit to CJ’s Cafe, a local Mexican and Soul food restaurant recommended by Los Angeles Mayor KAREN BASS. Biden chatted with customers and snapped selfies, shocking at least one person with his knowledge of the iPhone’s selfie mode, according to pooler JEFF MORDOCK. Biden ordered a breakfast burrito, but no word on what type of salsa he went with. ANNIE GRABS HER TEAM: As she takes on her new role as White House deputy chief of staff, ANNIE TOMASINI is building out her team. In an email Tuesday and obtained by West Wing Playbook, Tomasini announced that DAVIS CONGER, who’d been working as a press office “wrangler,” will take over for CHRISTIANA HO as an adviser to the DCOS. SHEILA GRANT, a former deputy Cabinet secretary and speechwriter, will serve as senior adviser to the DCOS, taking over for KATIE FRICCHIONE. Fresh off of maternity leave, ASHLEY WILLIAMS will serve as director of strategic outreach and senior adviser. And RICHARD RUFFNER, a former aide to Biden when he was vice president, will be the new director of Oval Office operations. THE PROBLEM WITH PRE-WRITING YOUR SUBPOENA LETTERS … Is that sometimes the informant on whom you’re basing your entire impeachment effort gets charged with crimes — and fully discredited — right after you send a letter citing him in order to compel someone’s testimony! We hate it when that happens. Deputy assistant to the president AMOS HOCHSTEIN received a letter from House Oversight Chair JAMES COMER (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Chair JIM JORDAN (R-Ohio) Tuesday requesting his testimony about corruption allegations leveled against Biden by ALEXANDER SMIRNOV. About 90 minutes later, Hochstein received a second letter instructing him to disregard the first. The only difference? The reference to Smirnov, who’d just been charged for lying about the allegations, had been deleted. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Anything about the Biden administration’s announcement Wednesday that it is forgiving an additional $1.2 billion in student debt for more than 150,000 borrowers. That brings the total amount of debt forgiveness under Biden to $138 billion for 3.9 million people. Deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES shared this WaPo piece on X, noting the move “makes good on the administration’s promise to accelerate forgiveness for borrowers with low original balances who are enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (Save) plan.” Biden also touted the debt cancellation in a speech Wednesday at the Culver City Library. “I’m happy to have been able to forgive these loans,” Biden said. “When we … relieve Americans of our student debt, they’re free to chase their dreams.” WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by WSJ’s JESSE NEWMAN and HEATHER HADDON about how food inflation hasn’t been this bad in 30 years. Even as overall inflation has eased, food and grocery bills have remained high. American consumers spent 11.3 percent of their disposable income on food in 2022 — the most recent U.S. Agriculture Department data available. In 1991, U.S. consumers spent 11.4 percent of their disposable personal income on food. “The last time Americans spent this much of their money on food, George H.W. Bush was in office, ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ was in theaters and C+C Music Factory was rocking the Billboard charts,” they write. VACATION SHAMING: The White House is ramping up its attacks on House Republicans and criticizing them for going on “vacation” without approving funding for Ukraine and addressing the border, our JENNIFER HABERKORN reports. In a memo first shared with POLITICO, deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said the “damage House Republicans are actively causing to American national security mounts every day that they insist on continuing their two-week vacation.” He offered a “vacation reading packet” of potential threats if the funding is not approved, including Russia advancing on the Ukrainian battle line and a decline in American defense manufacturing. CAMPAIGN HQ BIDEN WORLD V. NYT, PART XXXIV: In case there were any doubts about the Biden team’s feelings toward The New York Times, the campaign laid it out plainly in an email Wednesday picking apart a recent fact check the paper wrote of the president’s economic talking points. The email subject line reads: “FULL OF MALARKEY: NYT Continues to Give Trump a Pass on Lies” and goes on to critique the paper for cherry-picking Biden’s comments while not digging into DONALD TRUMP’s remarks on the economy. Friction between a Democratic presidential campaign and the gray lady, a tradition unlike any other. STAFFING UP: JING QU is joining the Biden reelection campaign as a senior member of its paid media team, The Hill’s BRETT SAMUELS reports. She previously was chief of staff for Biden adviser MIKE DONILON and the White House speechwriting office.   A message from American Clean Power:   THE BUREAUCRATS SOUNDS LIKE AN OSHA VIOLATION: The Black Vault published dozens of U.S. Secret Service emails obtained via a FOIA request highlighting just how bad the biting situation was with the Biden family dog, COMMANDER, before he was sent away last fall. The emails detail an effort by the Secret Service to come up with solutions. In a June 14, 2023, email, the assistant special agent in charge of the presidential Secret Service detail asked the team to reply ASAP if they’d been bitten by Commander in an effort to “make things better because you deserve it.” Until the front office could make improvements, the agent warned to “keep a considerable amount of distance between you and the dog.” In one email, an agent writes about getting bit on Oct. 2, 2022, while holding the Palm Room door open for Biden and Commander, who was off leash (the agent included a response from Biden in quote marks which, sadly, is redacted). “After this I was concerned about him getting out of the residence or being out without a leash for others safety and mine,” the agent wrote. Another email details how on one occasion East Wing tours were stopped for 20 minutes because of blood on the floor after Commander bit an agent. As our MICHAEL SHAFFER previously noted, this is all kinds of messed up, and largely (entirely) on the Bidens! Agenda Setting IN SEARCH OF A SOLUTION AT THE BORDER: The Biden administration is considering a string of new executive actions and federal regulations in an effort to curb migration at the U.S. southern border, our MYAH WARD reports. Myah writes that the proposals under consideration — which include changes to asylum standards and stricter points of entry — represent “a sweeping new approach to an issue that has stymied the White House since its first days in office and could potentially place the president at odds with key constituencies.” The policy announcements could come as soon as next week ahead of Biden’s State of the Union speech on March 7. STILL WORKING ON MAKING IT OFFICIAL: The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will vote again on JULIE SU’s nomination to lead the Labor Department on Feb. 27 despite no signs that Democratic holdouts are willing to budge, our ANTHONY ADRAGNA reports. What We're Reading Here’s How an Open Democratic Convention Would Work (NYT’s Ezra Klein) Fearing prosecution, UAB pauses in vitro fertilization after Alabama embryo court ruling (AL.com’s Amy Yurkanin) POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER The Red Cross. Eleanor Roosevelt traveled as a representative of the organization when she started her 25,000-mile tour of the South Pacific on Aug. 17, 1943. She visited U.S. allies in New Zealand and Australia, but also met with soldiers and sailors stationed on remote islands. “Her itinerary was exhausting. From Christmas Island she traveled to Penhryn Island, Bora Bora, Aitutaki, Tutuliua Samoa, Fiji and New Caledonia in six days,” according to the FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT Presidential Library and Museum. A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it! Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.   A message from American Clean Power: America Can’t Afford a False Start on Green Hydrogen: Green hydrogen is key to winning the race for clean and secure energy. The path toward a clean energy economy is to electrify everything we can while eliminating emissions from electricity production. However, there are key parts of the economy like steel and cement production that can only be decarbonized with clean hydrogen. To encourage U.S. companies to commit resources to the nascent American green hydrogen industry, the federal government is considering tax credits for early entrants. Unfortunately, by applying the most stringent time-matching rules right out of the gate, the Biden Administration is setting up America’s green hydrogen industry to fail.  To realize green hydrogen’s environmental and job-creating economic promise, the Biden Administration should provide greater flexibility for the first wave of new, green hydrogen facilities or the U.S. will be left in the starting blocks. Learn more.     Follow us on Twitter Eli Stokols @EliStokols Lauren Egan @Lauren_V_Egan Ben Johansen @BenJohansen3   Follow us

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