| | | | |  | | By Eli Stokols, Lauren Egan and Ben Johansen | 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 One of the biggest moments of JOE BIDEN’s presidency came on a muggy August night after much of the country had gone to bed. That it also came right after one of the most difficult months of Biden’s term made it that much sweeter for aides and, by the looks of it, the president himself. When the unmarked silver jet pulled to a stop on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews just before midnight on Thursday, Biden and Vice President KAMALA HARRIS walked over to stand beneath the passenger door. The family members of the three freed prisoners aboard the plane followed closely behind them. Unusual for a Biden appearance, there was almost no advance work or staging, no microphone, presidential lectern or prepared remarks. One by one, PAUL WHELAN, EVAN GERSHKOVICH and ALSU KURMASHEVA stepped off the plane, sharing a moment with Biden, who gave Whelan his American flag lapel pin, and Harris before embracing the loved ones they hadn’t seen in so long. There was no plan for what came next, and maybe that was the point. Gershkovich walked over to a press pen to greet several of his WSJ colleagues, embracing editor in chief EMMA TURNER and Dow Jones CEO ALMAR LATOUR. Biden, meanwhile, had wandered over to the press pool waiting under the plane’s wing. Basking in his best news cycle in more than a month, Biden was taking several questions — until rousing cheers for Gershkovich caused him to pause. Moments later, he strode 100 feet across the tarmac and up to a long press riser where correspondents were going live. Stepping up close to the dangling boom mics, he answered more shouted questions, speaking again about the value of alliances and his unwavering belief in America. These were well-worn Biden lines, but they registered differently, not as campaign tropes the country was tuning out but as a core value that had delivered something tangible and true. When CNN’s MJ LEE asked Biden about reports that he was making phone calls to finalize this historic prisoner swap on Sunday, July 21 — hours before he announced he was ending his reelection campaign — Biden grinned back as he answered. “You’re stuck with me for a while, kid,” he said, stepping closer to the riser. “There’s no way out.” The swagger was striking. Suddenly, a president who for weeks faced withering scrutiny about his frailty and ability to keep doing the job was roaming freely around the tarmac, with Secret Service agents, aides and the vice president following behind. For a few moments, Harris stood a few steps behind Biden’s shoulder and smiled, cast back into a supporting role. One senior official, granted anonymity to speak openly about private conversations, said that the return was “very personal unfinished business” for Biden and national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN, who began plotting a multi-country swap aimed at freeing Whelan after they were unable to convince Russia to include him in the December 2022 deal to secure WNBA star BRITTNEY GRINER’s release. “After so many hard conversations with these families, with these wonderful people at the Wall Street Journal … to finally get that good conversation after so many hard ones, that is just a really good day,” the official said. The successful swap was deeply gratifying even for aides far removed from the NSC, those who had no inkling any of this was happening until earlier this week. After a difficult July, the president’s ability to negotiate such a complex deal between several countries lifted morale and served, for some, as validation for their own unwavering belief in Biden — and, for others, as something of a rejoinder to Republicans and some in the press corps who had been asking where the president was earlier this week when he didn’t appear in public. One pointed to a post on X by communications director BEN LaBOLT — he replied to a GOP lawmaker asking why “no one was talking about” Biden being “MIA” by writing, “He was freeing Americans from Russia” — as expressive of their collective frustration with those suggesting that the president isn't working unless he's in public view or disclosing every detail of his day. The complexity of the prisoner swap, which required securing agreements of several countries, would have buoyed Biden’s campaign argument that solid international relationships have serious repercussions for the United States. Instead, it provided perhaps a fitting cap to Biden’s decades-long foreign policy career. But seeing the president with the family members at the White House and then with the three freed Americans, most aides just felt happy and proud. “The energy that was felt,” one administration official said on Thursday evening, “has not been felt in such a long time.” After nearly a half hour of long overdue handshakes, hugs and conversations, everyone was still wandering separately around the floodlit tarmac. Walking past the pen of reporters and photographers again and back toward the passenger terminal, Biden stopped to greet uniformed airmen. He stopped again to chat more with family members before finally getting into his SUV. Presidents don’t get many of these moments. And Biden, knowing now that his time in office has an end date, soaked up every last bit of it before his motorcade finally disappeared into a trail of red taillights down the tarmac. 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Freed prisoner Evan Gershkovich greets his mother Ella Milman after arriving back in the United States on August 1, 2024 at Joint Base Andrews. | Getty Images/Andrew Harnik | | | | HOPE IT WAS WORTH IT: Bloomberg’s JENNIFER JACOBS and CAGAN KOC were the first to report Gershkovich and Whelan’s release Thursday, confusing many who naturally assumed Gershkovich’s employer, the Wall Street Journal, would break the story. The precariousness of a highly complex prisoner exchange prompted all other outlets to hold off on publication until the prisoners were officially out of Russian territory. And as NY Mag’s CHARLOTTE KLEIN reports, Bloomberg “made it clear” in “multiple emails with a White House official” that they would hold their story, just as other outlets had also agreed to hold back. But Bloomberg broke the embargo, publishing its “scoop” before the prisoners were technically free. Blomberg editor SILVIA KILLINGSWORTH took a victory lap on X, posting that it was one of the “greatest honors of my career to have helped break this news” … even though the story inaccurately proclaimed Gershkovich was free, which given that the Russian plane was in the air at time of publication, could have jeopardized the deal (her post has since been deleted). “We literally had (WSJ reporter) Yaroslav Trofimov on the ground with binoculars waiting to see Evan come off the plane, and we pubbed as soon as that happened,” one Journal reporter said. “Incensed” is how another reporter, whose outlet had agreed to an embargo-delaying publishing, reacted to Bloomberg’s decision. “People are very, very disappointed in Bloomberg. And not just the embargo breaking, but the football spiking.” WSJ’s PAUL BECKETT, who oversaw the paper’s efforts to free Gershkovich, shared the NY Mag piece on X. The pile on continued Friday as other journalists weighed in. WaPo’s ASHLEY PARKER noted that it’s “not a ‘scoop’ when you break an embargo” and NY Mag’s OLIVIA NUZZI posted that the “journalistic impulse to be ‘first’ at all costs is a sickness.” WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO WATCH: This CNN segment from HARRY ENTEN about how Google searches for “Weird” are up 22 percent in the past week compared to the last three months, and up 32 percent in the last three days. Why, you might ask, is this the case? Enten breaks down the topics increasingly searched with “Weird,” which include JD VANCE and TIM WALZ, the Minnesota governor who initially coined the attack line on Vance and fellow Republicans. Enten also highlights the down week for Vance, who’s net favorability rating is in the negative double digits, down several points from polls conducted in mid-July. Campaign director of rapid response AMMAR MOUSSA and campaign spokesperson JAMES SINGER shared the video on X, also wishing the senator a happy birthday. AND THIS… Wisconsin Gov. TONY EVERS is having quite the brat summer (even if he’s a bit late to the game). “Strong content,” communications director Ben LaBolt wrote on X. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by WSJ’s RACHEL WOLFE and ANDREW RESTUCCIA, who report that Wisconsin voters are frustrated over rising housing prices, placing blame at the Biden administration. With median sale prices up 8% in the past year, Wisconsin has the biggest price jump among presidential battleground states. “I always thought we were a more reasonable place to live,” said KAYLA LANGE, who lives with a roommate in an apartment in downtown Milwaukee. She says her $45,000 salary as an IT recruiter leaves nothing left over after paying for rent, food and installments on her student loans. “It’s gotten out of control, and I blame the people in charge,” she said. A protracted house hunt was enough to make NAHONA MOORE plan to change her lifelong record of voting for Democrats. Moore, a self-employed makeup artist living on the border of Milwaukee and Wauwatosa, said she blamed both Biden and Harris for “not making anything better.” “When Trump was still president, if we were making what we make now, we would be set,” Moore added.
| | | THE VEEPSTAKES EQUIVALENT OF THE OVERNIGHT DATES IS HERE: This weekend, Vice President Harris will meet face-to-face with several vice presidential finalists, including Pennsylvania Gov. JOSH SHAPIRO, Kentucky Gov. ANDY BESHEAR and Tim Walz. As our team reports, Harris has yet to meet with any of the contenders in person, but in the coming days she plans on completing that last step before rolling out her running mate next week, which includes a debut rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday. While aides insist that they are trying to tune out a lot of the public hype around contenders, the VP’s team is studying how her potential running mates communicate. Two people familiar with the process suggested that she has yet to truly whittle down the final list and may meet with several individuals before deciding. Some of these aides involved in the decision-making include Harris chief of staff SHEILA NIX, Harris campaign chair JEN O’MALLEY DILLON, former Rep. CEDRIC RICHMOND and Harris’ brother-in-law TONY WEST. NEVER TWEET WRITE COLUMNS (WHEN YOU’RE 20!): Shapiro, perhaps the narrow betting favorite to join the ticket, is disavowing a 1993 Op-Ed he wrote as a college student for his campus newspaper in which he asserted that “peace will never come” to the Middle East because Palestinians are “too battle-minded” to co-exist with Israel. The governor’s spokesman MANUEL BONDER said the comments, which resurfaced in this piece by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s ANNA ORSO and are not likely to land well with, say, Arab-Americans in Michigan, don’t reflect Shapiro’s current views. That didn’t stop the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations from calling on the governor to apologize. Suboptimal news cycle, we’d say, heading into Shapiro’s expected sit-down with the vice president. HARRIS’ NEW A-TEAM: DAVID PLOUFFE, former campaign manager for BARACK OBAMA’s 2008 presidential campaign (and podcaster), is joining the Harris campaign as a senior adviser, our RYAN LIZZA scoops. Plouffe, who will fill the shoes of Biden’s long-time messaging guru MIKE DONILON, served a similar role in Obama’s 2012 campaign after managing his 2008 run. And Plouffe isn’t the only Obama hand Harris is bringing in at a senior level. Also joining are: Communications strategist STEPHANIE CUTTER, organizing strategist MITCH STEWART, policy adviser BRIAN NELSON, pollster TERRANCE WOODBURY and communications adviser JENNIFER PALMIERI, who will work with second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF. And JIM MARGOLIS, as POLITICO previously reported, will join the campaign to produce ads. THIS FEELS LIKE A LOT OF MONEY: The Harris campaign raked in $310 million in July, far outpacing the Trump campaign, which raised $137 million, our ELENA SCHNEIDER reports. Sparked by the vice president’s entry into the race, large Democratic donors have committed $150 million to a pro-Democratic presidential super PAC and small-dollar donors rushed to give to Harris’ bid. A slew of Zoom fundraisers, which have drawn hundreds of thousands of supporters and celebrity appearances, also took off in recent days. The Harris campaign said those calls, including Black Women for Harris, Latinas for Harris, and White Dudes for Harris, raised more than $20 million.
| | BIDEN ALUMS LAUNCH NEW FIRM: A number of Biden administration alums are joining forces with some Obama and Clinton administration vets to launch Lafayette Advisors, a new communications and strategy firm that will have offices in Washington, Chicago and New Orleans. Among the founding partners are American Bridge co-founder BRADLEY BEYCHOK; RYAN BERNI, who was a deputy on the White House infrastructure team; former director of private sector engagement ZACH BUTTERWORTH; lobbyist ANKIT DESAI; senior Dept. of Transportation adviser MICHAEL HALLE and LEAH ISRAEL, currently the chief development officer for the Democratic convention. Additionally, Palmieri and Richmond are joining as advisors. FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: PAUL R. RODRÍGUEZ has been detailed to the Treasury Department to be deputy general counsel, our DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. He most recently had the same role at the Department of Health and Human Services. MORE PERSONNEL MOVES: AMI FIELDS-MEYER is now a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, Lippman has also learned. He most recently was senior policy adviser to Vice President Harris.
| | TICK-TOCK, TIKTOK: The Justice Department on Friday sued TikTok for illegally collecting children’s data, NYT’s DAVID MCCABE and SAPNA MAHESHWARI report. The government argues that the app broke the law by gathering personal information from users under the age of 13 without their parents’ permission. TikTok knowingly allowed these children to create and use accounts, the government said, and frequently failed to honor parents’ requests to delete them. It’s the latest confrontation between the government and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, after earlier this year, the Biden administration signed a law that would force a sale or ban of the app by the end of January.
| | $10M cash withdrawal drove secret probe into whether Trump took money from Egypt (WaPo’s Aaron C. Davis and Carol D. Leonnig) Navalny Couldn’t Be Freed Until Gershkovich Was Kidnapped. Gershkovich Couldn’t Be Freed Until Navalny Was Dead. (NYT Opinion’s Masha Gessen) Could Tim Walz go from teaching history to being part of it? (WaPo’s Ben Terris) Kamala Harris Is Dressing to Be President (NYT’s Vanessa Friedman)
| | | Not necessarily known for his fashion while in office, towards the end of his life, President GEORGE H.W. BUSH’s whimsical sock choices became a staple. In a 2014 RNC fundraising email, Bush said that he’s a “self-proclaimed sock man. The louder, the brighter, the crazier the pattern — the better.” 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 Steve Shepard and Rishika Dugyala.
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