What if Harris cleans house?

Jul 30, 2024

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There’s been widespread euphoria throughout the Democratic Party ever since President JOE BIDEN ended his struggling reelection bid, giving the party a fighting shot at retaining the White House with Vice President KAMALA HARRIS now at the top of the ticket. But inside the White House, many staffers are quietly uneasy — not about Harris’ prospects so much as their own.

“Biden folks didn’t expect this,” a former White House official told West Wing Playbook, speaking of Harris’ ascendence. “They know they’re on the chopping block.”

The conversation about which senior officials — and their more junior staffers — would stay or go should Harris win has gripped campus in the days since Biden dropped out of the race. It’s been whispered about in between meetings as staffers pass by each other in the marbled halls of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and it’s been discussed in private group chats. As they wait in lunch lines, some staffers scheme about what they might do in January should they no longer have a White House gig.

“I mean, I guess I’ll just go back to the Hill,” one exasperated staffer said to a colleague, as they carried their to-go Tatte order back through the White House gate last week.

There is always some career anxiety among White House staff during an election year, as there is all across Washington from Capitol Hill to K Street to newsrooms. The outcome of the presidential race creates an inherent uncertainty that can be unsettling for the type-A go-getters that populate a White House. But up until a week ago, Biden staff knew there were two possibilities: They either had a job in a second Biden term or they would be clearing out their desks to make way for DONALD TRUMP’s staff.

Now, no one is quite sure what to expect if Harris wins.

Biden aides have been keeping their eyes peeled for tea leaves, paying especially close attention to media stories that could hint at staffing changes Harris might prioritize. A Wall Street Journal piece published last week about how Harris “often pushed the envelope of the administration’s messaging on the Israel-Gaza conflict” caught the attention of some Biden aides, particularly a line about how key Biden appointees — including national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN, Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN and Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN — “wouldn’t likely be extended in their current roles.”

Secretary of Veterans Affairs DENIS McDONOUGH has also told staff that he will step down from his Cabinet position at the end of Biden’s term, according to Bloomberg. And the announcement Tuesday afternoon that ANITA DUNN, one of Biden’s top advisers, would leave the White House next week only added to the speculation about who would still be around for a potential Harris administration.

A current administration official said they expect “the palace will be purged,” but that most of the junior staff, particularly at the agency level, will have the option to continue in their roles.

There’s not a lot of historical precedent for this situation. The last time a sitting vice president was elected president was GEORGE H.W. BUSH in 1988. During the transition, President RONALD REAGAN’s chief of staff, KEN DUBERSTEIN, sent letters to all political appointees asking them to submit their resignations by Inauguration Day — a handoff that ANDY CARD, Reagan’s director of intergovernmental affairs who later served as Bush’s Transportation secretary, described as a “friendly takeover.”

But Card said that there were challenges that came with that.

“People working for President Reagan presumed that they would of course just stay on the job and continue to do what they were doing,” Card told the University of Virginia’s Miller Center as part of its oral history project on the peaceful transfer of power. “Duberstein understood the real responsibility of a president, and that’s to put people around them that they want to put in there, to build a team.”

The Harris campaign is only in its second week. If she prevails, some Biden staffers told West Wing Playbook that they expected a similar “voluntary resignation” process to the Reagan-Bush hand off. And some of her campaign staff, who are themselves out of a job post-election, responded to White House aides’ gripes with an eye roll.

“For the love of god, can people shut the fuck up and focus on winning this election and stop making this about themselves?” said one campaign staffer.

Senior White House officials, however, are playing it cool for now and trying to not rub Harris’ team the wrong way. When asked about post-election plans, multiple senior staffers told West Wing Playbook that they are narrowly focused on getting the vice president elected and are not thinking about whether they would have a job in a Harris White House.

One senior official acknowledged that it was only human nature to think ahead. But they said there was some sensitivity to coming across as gauche, and those interested in serving a potential Harris White House had to be careful not to overstep.

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POTUS PUZZLER

Inspired by Biden’s recent trip: Which non-Texan president visited Austin the most while in office?

(Answer at bottom.)

The Oval

TRUMP INVITE ROILS NABJ: The decision to invite former President Donald Trump to speak at the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention in Chicago on Wednesday has sparked a major backlash from several members. WaPo’s KAREN ATTIAH announced on X that she was stepping down from her position as a co-chair of the event, noting that she was “not involved or consulted” about inviting Trump.

And she was not alone. NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES, the author of the NYT’s 1619 Project, also disagreed with platforming the former president, who she said “is not a regular candidate and we must not treat him as such. By doing so, we abdicate our role as truth tellers.” She later deleted that post.

Responding to JEMELE HILL, who expressed ambivalence on the matter and suggested that ignoring him was also “a disservice,” Hannah-Jones pointed to how Trump has “insulted and degraded” NBC’s YAMICHE ALCINDOR, The Grio’s APRIL RYAN and others. “There is no journalistic value here,” Hannah-Jones wrote. Ryan, in her own post, said those reported attacks on her and others were “fact” and called Trump’s invite “an affront to what this organization stands for.”

Hill then seemed to reconsider her own position, writing in a subsequent post that the circumstances may not be right for Trump to appear: “A sham of an interview will destroy the organization’s credibility.”

But MSNBC’s SYMONE SANDERS-TOWNSEND said it makes total sense for journalists and NABJ members to interview the Republican nominee. “NABJ didn’t platform Trump. The voters in the Republican primary did,” she wrote on X. “Just like anyone else who is running for president, he should sit for serious interviews and answer real questions.”

FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: Climate Power and the League of Conservation Voters are launching a new national television ad on Wednesday, praising Biden for taking more than 300 climate actions during his four years in office, our MYAH WARD writes in. The new ad, titled “Thank you, Biden,” will highlight a number of his policies to address the climate crisis, including creating over 300,000 clean energy jobs and lowering energy costs. The 10-day media buy will air on beltway, Delaware and national cable.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This coverage from the New Hampshire Union Leader’s KEVIN LANDRIGAN about the local reaction to the administration’s action to protect 72,000 workers’ pensions, which includes some 6,000 people in the Granite State. “Teamsters and retirees across the region can breathe a sigh of relief as they plan their financial futures knowing that their benefits are secure thanks to Democrats and the Biden-Harris administration,” said Sen. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-N.H.).

White House communications director BEN LaBOLT and deputy communications director JENNIFER MOLINA both posted the article on X.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: There is nothing especially damaging about this piece aside from the fact that, just nine days after Biden dropped his reelection bid, his hometown newspaper is speculating about his … presidential library.

Sure, all news is local. But the guy with six months left in his term no doubt would prefer the focus remain on his presidency and Harris’ campaign. The Delaware News Journal’s KELLY POWERS did not report any actual news on where Biden may decide to locate his presidential library (although he told Special Counsel ROBERT HUR earlier this year that Syracuse University, the University of Delaware and D.C. were possibilities).

CAMPAIGN HQ

THE VEEPSTAKES HAS A NEW TIMELINE: Reuters’ JARRETT RENSHAW and NANDITA BOSE scoop that Vice President Harris plans to tour battleground states next week with her new running mate, a sign that the selection process is coming to an end, according to two people familiar with the planning. Reminder of the key names still in the running (pour one out for ROY COOPER): Kentucky Gov. ANDY BESHEAR, Pennsylvania Gov. JOSH SHAPIRO, Arizona Sen. MARK KELLY, Minnesota Gov. TIM WALZ, Illinois Gov. JB PRITZKER and Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG.

HOT GIRL SUMMER IN THE ATL: Harris is hitting Atlanta this evening for her first campaign event in the critical swing state, one her team has insisted is back in play with the vice president atop the ticket. Helping Harris out is rapper MEGAN THEE STALLION, who will be the guest performance at today’s rally.

And CNN’s EVA McKEND and ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER scoop that QUAVO, an Atlanta rap scene institution who’s worked closely with Harris on gun violence awareness in the past, will endorse her on stage. They’re the latest in a long list of celebrities to offer their support to the new campaign.

THE (WHITE) DUDES ABIDE: Some 60,000 white dudes joined Monday night’s “White Dudes for Harris” Zoom call, where the mood among attendees — everyone from actors like JEFF BRIDGES, MARK HAMILL and BRADLEY WHITFORD to VP hopefuls like Buttigieg, Walz and Pritzker — was downright giddy.

It’s an interesting response, NYT’s REBECCA DAVIS O’BRIEN and KEN BENSINGER write, to Trump’s cuttingly effective brand of white identity politics and his caricature of Democrats as overly sensitive and sanctimonious elitists.

And, they note, it’s part of a broader and mostly spontaneous convening of subgroups in response to Harris taking over as the presidential nominee: “In a little more than a week, united behind a likely nominee who is Black, South Asian and a woman, the long-suffering Democratic Party and its supporters seem to be hitting upon a robust response, tapping into distinct cultural and ethnic identities — and also learning to poke gentle fun at themselves.”

THE BUREAUCRATS

THE FIRST BIG DEPARTURE FROM THE SENIOR TEAM: As mentioned above, senior adviser Anita Dunn is leaving her post and will advise Future Forward, the main super PAC supporting Harris’ campaign, as our EUGENE DANIELS reports. It was Dunn, of course, who blessed Future Forward as the main outside organization tasked with running TV ads on behalf of the campaign. Her departure is no huge surprise following Biden’s decision to abandon his reelection bid, but it marks the first among his top aides.

In a statement, Biden praised Dunn as “tough and tested,” adding that he has valued “her counsel and friendship and I will continue to rely on her partnership and insights as we finish the job over the next six months.”

PERSONNEL MOVES: KAREN KORNBLUH is joining the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as principal deputy U.S. chief technology officer and OSTP deputy director for technology, our DANIEL LIPPMAN writes in. She most recently was a distinguished fellow for technology and competitiveness at the German Marshall Fund and a senior adviser to the geo-economics initiative at the Milken Institute.

— DEIRDRE MULLIGAN, who most recently held the post, will resume her role as a professor in the School of Information at UC Berkeley and a faculty Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology.

YELLEN GONNA YELLEN: In Philadelphia on Tuesday for an appearance alongside Shapiro about his state joining the IRS’ director file program, Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN did what she does: She ate local. At Jim’s on South Street, JLY ordered “the cheesesteak wit wiz and onions,” NYT’s ALAN RAPPEPORT, a Philly native and the leading authority on the secretary’s dining habits, posted on X. According to Alan and his mom, Yellen finished the steak.

Agenda Setting

THE ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH TENSION IS HIGH: A senior U.S. delegation, led by the White House’s top Middle East adviser BRETT McGURK, arrived in Saudi Arabia today for talks about the recent escalation between Israel and Houthi rebels and the situation in Yemen, Axios’ BARAK RAVID reports. This comes as Saudi Arabia grows increasingly concerned about being dragged into a renewed conflict.

HOW’S HALF A BILLION DOLLARS? The Biden administration on Tuesday pledged an additional $500 million of military aid to the Philippines, as the country grapples with aggressive actions by Chinese ships in the South China Sea. NYT’s EDWARD WONG reports that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Manila on Monday night as part of the diplomatic mission.

“I am a bit surprised considering how interesting your political situation has become back in the States, but I’m glad that you’ve found the time to come and visit with us,” Philippines President FERDINAND MARCOS JR. remarked to the two Cabinet secretaries during their visit to the presidential palace.

What We're Reading

Kamala Harris Collapsed in 2020. Here’s How to Avoid a Repeat. (POLITICO’s Christopher Cadelago)

Harris is in much better shape than Biden. But she has one big problem. (Nate Silver)

Trump vs. Harris is dividing Silicon Valley into feuding political camps (WaPo’s Trisha Thadani, Elizabeth Dwoskin, Nitasha Tiku and Gerrit De Vynck)

The 2024 Presidential Debate Plan Was Set. Now It’s Chaos. (WSJ’s Isabella Simonetti, Vivian Salama and Tarini Parti)

POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER

The title for the most Austin visits for a non-Texan president goes to ... BARACK OBAMA. While in office, he visited Austin in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, twice in 2014 and again in 2016, KVUE, a local affiliate of ABC, finds.

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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