| | | | |  | | By Eli Stokols, Lauren Egan and Ben Johansen | | Presented by |  | | | Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren Ten days after 12 students and a teacher were killed by two gun-wielding classmates at Columbine High School, TOM MAUSER showed up at a rally against assault weapons on the west steps of the Colorado state Capitol. His son, DANIEL MAUSER, was among the students killed. He’d brought a sign but did not intend to speak until organizers approached him and asked if he would. Realizing he was the only parent of a Columbine victim at the event, he stepped to the lectern and spoke. It was the beginning of a path of activism that would give him meaning following the tragedy and continues to this day. “It’s almost a third of my life. It’s almost hard for me to comprehend, because it doesn’t feel like that long a time,” Mauser said during an interview with West Wing Playbook Monday. “Daniel would be 40 years old [this year]. Of course, I don’t go there — I don’t think what he’d be doing, what he’d be like. To me, he’s still 15.” It was Daniel who, two weeks before he was killed, had remarked to his father about loopholes in the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Bill enacted a year earlier — loopholes that allowed his murderer to purchase the weapon that killed him. It is Daniel’s shoes that Mauser still wears when he goes out to tell his son’s story. “Daniel was a very shy kid and he chose to join the debate team,” Mauser said. “I feel like, if he can do it, I can do it. That’s why I wear his shoes. These shoes kind of empower me to say, ‘Okay, you’ve got to go on.’” Activism in the gun control space can be agonizing, even absent having suffered a horrifying personal loss that sparked it. At the time in 1999, Columbine was the worst school shooting in the country’s history. A shock to the conscience. One of those moments where people still remember where they were when they first heard of it. Now, such violence is a common thread of the nation’s social fabric. For years, Republicans (and a smattering of Democrats) in Congress did nothing. But things began to change after the Uvalde school shooting in 2022. Lawmakers agreed on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which boosted red flag laws, expanded background checks, made gun trafficking a federal crime and called for a clarification on who qualifies as a federally licensed firearms dealer. Just last week, the Biden administration, acting under the directive from the 2022 law, submitted a new rule that will finally close the gun show loophole and require anyone who sells guns for profit to have a license and that buyers be subject to a background check, including at firearms shows and flea markets. “I’m grateful, it’s a great step. But I’m also saying: It took 25 damn years to do something that simple? To make it so a domestic abuser can’t go to a gun show and buy a gun?” Mauser said. Mauser visits Washington less frequently now than in those first years after Columbine. The calls to testify at the state Capitol or do interviews with reporters come less frequently. “There’s other me’s out there now,” he said. But he was in the nation’s capital this week ahead of Saturday’s 25th anniversary of the Columbine shooting, meeting with lawmakers and Biden administration officials about ongoing efforts to enact new gun safety measures. He met Thursday with aides in the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which President JOE BIDEN created with an executive order last year, and staff secretary STEF FELDMAN, who was initially charged with overseeing the office. He recognizes that the new law amounts to the strongest federal gun safety legislation since before Columbine. But it’s not enough. “We’re just working the edges of this,” he said. “I’m hopeful we’re going to continue making progress, but we’re going to continue to lose a lot of people.” After 25 minutes of conversation, I turned off my tape recorder. Mauser offered what seemed like an aside, a story I’d never heard despite having spoken to him at least a dozen times over the years. He described his life before Columbine, having been a public speaker who traveled the country giving slideshows at professional conferences intended to evoke laughs and lighten the mood. As he spoke, he stopped mid-sentence, the words caught in his throat: “I went from being the guy who made people laugh to … being the guy who makes them cry.” Wiping his eyes, he acknowledged that his emotions still often overtake him when he speaks. “It gets easier with time,” he said. “But it never goes away.” MESSAGE US — Are you MEREDITH JACHOWITZ, special assistant to the president for presidential boards and commissions? 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!
| | | | POLITICO IS BACK AT THE 2024 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO will again be your eyes and ears at the 27th Annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles from May 5-8 with exclusive, daily, reporting in our Global Playbook newsletter. Suzanne Lynch will be on the ground covering the biggest moments, behind-the-scenes buzz and on-stage insights from global leaders in health, finance, tech, philanthropy and beyond. Get a front-row seat to where the most interesting minds and top global leaders confront the world’s most pressing and complex challenges — subscribe today. | | | | | | | | | After winning his first re-election bid, what was President TEDDY ROOSEVELT gifted from King MENELIK II, the emperor of Abyssinia (present day Ethiopia)? (Answer at bottom.)
| | WE’LL TAKE ALL THE AID, PLEASE: The White House said on Monday that it would oppose any bill to fund Israel that did not also include aid for Ukraine and Taiwan, our EUGENE DANIELS reports. “We would oppose a stand-alone bill that would just work on Israel,” said National Security Council spokesperson JOHN KIRBY, rejecting Speaker MIKE JOHNSON’s plan for such a proposal. Kirby’s comments came moments after President Biden touted the military response to Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel over the weekend. After Israel came out largely unscathed from the strike, Biden hailed that “together with our partners, we defeated that attack.” Before a bilateral meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister MOHAMMED AL-SUDANI, Biden reaffirmed U.S. backing for Israel’s self-defense but stressed that it would not support a counterstrike. ENTER TAXMAN: President Biden and first lady JILL BIDEN paid $146,629 in federal income taxes on earnings of $619,976 in 2023, according to their tax return released by the White House on Monday. That translates to an effective tax rate of 23.7 percent, which is roughly the same as what they paid last year. They ended up owing the IRS $285. The Bidens also reported donating just more than $20,000 across 17 different charities, including contributing $5,000 to the Beau Biden Foundation. They’ve given the same amount to the organization, which is named for their late son, during each of their years in office. Vice President KAMALA HARRIS and second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF paid $88,570 in federal income tax on earnings of $450,299, equaling a 19.7 effective tax rate, slightly lower than last year’s 20.5 percent rate. They also owe the government a small amount: $451. The White House said this is the 26th year of tax returns that Biden has released, the most of any president while in office. Harris and Emhoff have made 20 years of their returns public. BRACING FOR IMPACT: The Pentagon is beginning to prepare for potential new threats to American troops in the Middle East, our LARA SELIGMAN and PAUL MCLEARY wrote this morning. Thousands of military personnel are stationed throughout the region, including vulnerable outposts like Iraq, Syria and aboard ships in the Red Sea. Defense officials stressed that there is no immediate threat but that the situation is “dynamic” and that a lot will depend on Israel’s next steps. That being said… Israeli Defense Minister YOAV GALLANT told Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN on a phone call Sunday that it has no choice but respond to Iran’s attack, Axios’ BARAK RAVID reports. Austin reportedly conveyed the same message Biden did with Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, where he told Bibi to “take the win.” WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by The Hill’s ALEX GANGITANO, who reports that Biden is seeing his highest approval rating in six months, according to a new Financial Times/University of Michigan poll. The monthly survey found that the president’s approval ticked up to 43 percent, marking a 5-point jump from the same poll in March. It also found that 41 percent of registered voters approve of his handling of the economy, up from just 36 percent last month. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece from the Georgia Recorder’s CASEY QUINLAN, who writes that although Black voters were key in electing Biden in 2020, the president may not enjoy the same level of support from the demographic this November. Quinlan spoke with several Black Americans who have struggled financially under Biden and are weighing voting third party out of frustration over the economy. “I think Biden sold all of us on his dream to get into the office … And that was that,” said SARAH WALLACE, a 49-year-old Philadelphian living on Social Security. TAKING IT TO HER DOORSTEP: A group of youth activists from the climate advocacy group Sunrise Movement held a protest in front of Vice President Kamala Harris’ Los Angeles home over the weekend, demanding that she and President Biden declare a climate emergency and end U.S. military aid to Israel. The group of over 40 protestors set up an encampment in front of the vice president’s home, staying through Sunday night until six of them were arrested this morning. It's not entirely clear if Harris was in her home at the time. “We deserve an administration who will fight for us, but instead of declaring a climate emergency, we are seeing Biden and Harris expand oil and gas production to record levels,” said ARIELA LARA, one of the six arrested.
| | | | A message from Center for Western Priorities: The most recent “Winning the West” poll found that 74% of voters in key Western states say doing more to protect and conserve public lands and designate national monuments would make them view the Biden administration more favorably. That view is held by 93% of Democrats, 76% of Independents, and 53% of Republicans. Overall, 87% of Western Voters prioritize a candidate’s support for conservation issues to determine how they cast their ballots. | | | | | | BIG PICKUP: JASON PALMER, the little-known Democratic presidential candidate who was the president’s most successful primary opponent — winning American Samoa — endorsed Biden on Monday. “Over the last three years, President Biden has navigated our nation through political turmoil and extraordinary division. We may not always see eye-to-eye on every issue, but he is a patriot and a man of integrity who has poured his life into public service and the betterment of our country,” Palmer said in a post on X. We are eager to head to American Samoa to report out how this endorsement is playing there.
| | FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: If only we had a West Wing Playbook going in 2007-2008 … Former President GEORGE W. BUSH declined this year’s Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation’s public service medal, which last week got mired in controversy after the foundation refused to give it to LIZ CHENEY, three people familiar with the matter told our DANIEL LIPPMAN. “He is doing a good job of bringing people together and is somebody who is standing up for civility, which is what Gerald Ford was about,” said one trustee. Bush’s father, former President GEORGE H.W. BUSH, received the award in 2016. “He was honored by the gesture but regretted he wasn’t able to travel to the event this year and therefore respectfully declined,” Bush chief of staff FREDDY FORD (no relation to Gerald) told West Wing Playbook in an email. The foundation did not provide a comment about Bush’s selection except to send a statement about how IRS standards for enforcing non-profits’ political activities have become tighter in recent years.
| | | | A message from Center for Western Priorities:   | | | | | CAN’T STOP WITH THE CHIPS: The Biden administration is providing Samsung Electronics $6.4 billion in direct funding to help build advanced computer chip manufacturing facilities in the Austin, Texas, area, AP’s JOSH BOAK reports. The funding, announced Monday by the Commerce Department, adds to the $40 billion that Samsung will be investing in its own money to help bolster a chip facility already in construction, as well as a second facility aimed at being operational by 2027. Commerce Secretary GINA RAIMONDO told reporters that the investment will create at least 17,000 construction jobs and more than 4,500 manufacturing jobs. ABBEY GATE REVIEW: An additional review from the Pentagon into the deadly Abbey Gate bombing — which killed 13 American service members during the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal — reaffirmed earlier reports that troops could not have prevented the attack, NYT’s ERIC SCHMITT reports. The review’s conclusions focus on the final hours and days before the attack, providing new details on the bomber who carried out the suicide mission, including how he slipped into the crowd trying to evacuate the Kabul airport. As Schmitt writes: “Some Marines who were at the gate have said they identified the suspected bomber — who became known to investigators as 'Bald Man in Black' — in the crowds hours before the attack but were twice denied permission by their superiors to shoot him.” The review rejected that conclusion.
| | Inside the secret battle to stop No Labels (NBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald) Gavin Newsom Can’t Help Himself (The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich) The Biden Guide to Dressing Younger (NYT’s Guy Trebay)
| | | | A message from Center for Western Priorities: Outdoor Voters want more national monuments in 2024. President Biden has an opportunity to inspire the 3 million active outdoor enthusiasts in the Mountain West region known as Outdoor Voters. Outdoor Voters consider public lands protections and conservation issues to be pivotal to their electoral choices. By designating new national monuments, President Biden can unify Americans across party lines and demonstrate his commitment to achieving his 30x30 promise. This strategic move can greatly influence candidates' ability to secure support and win the West. Find out more at outdoorvoter.org. | | | | | | In 1904, the Atlantic Ocean liner Minneapolis docked in New York, with an exotic array of animals addressed to Roosevelt, including two monkeys, a zebra, a lioness and a pair of ostriches, according to Smithsonian Magazine. 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 Sam Stein.
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