Just don’t call it a ‘reset’

By Eugene Daniels

For months, VP KAMALA HARRIS has battled a perception that she’s floundering.

— She has a difficult (some allies call it impossible) policy portfolio, including protecting voting rights and stemming immigration from Central America’s Northern Triangle countries — neither of which lend themselves to easy wins on uncontroversial issues.

— Her poll numbers are in the tank. Harris’ net approval was -12 in the most recent POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. (President JOE BIDEN’s was -6.)

— Headlines of dysfunction in her office have become the norm, and in recent weeks, four staffers have announced their upcoming departures, including senior adviser and chief spokesperson SYMONE SANDERS (who has arguably the highest profile of anyone in Harris’ office) and ASHLEY ETIENNE, the VP’s comms director. Officials maintain those departures were long planned and are not evidence of turmoil. But more aides in Harris’ office are eyeing the exits, according to people familiar with those conversations.

All of which has led some of Harris’ closest confidantes to one conclusion: It’s a chance for a reset. Just don’t call it a “reset.” Or do. It’s a debate currently roiling Harris’ orbit.

I dig into that reality in a new story out this morning with Chris Cadelago, as top Democratic operatives and Harris advisers are split on whether the veep should embrace the concept of a reset, or if it simply feeds a media narrative of “Kamala in chaos.”

“There are definitely some improvements that are widely acknowledged that need to be made in that office,” as one Democrat with ties to Biden world told us. “And those improvements are acknowledged by the people in her office and they are acknowledged by the people in the White House.”

DONNA BRAZILE, the veteran Democratic strategist close to the White House and the VP’s office, said that the turnover is being overblown, but that this is also a “good opportunity” for Harris to “renew and repurpose.”

After nearly a year in office, White House aides concede they’ve been surprised by the level of scrutiny on the VP and the amount of bad press she’s received. But allies also push back on stories of discord as unfair characterizations of a historic VP who, they say, is being held to a different standard than her white male predecessors.

“There’s just a different level of scrutiny and a different level of coverage,” said one Democratic strategist aligned with the White House. “That goes back to the original discussion about how the team can construct the office in a way that helps meet those demands of the press corps in this press environment.”

Harris, a relative newcomer to Washington, has been reluctant to forge relationships with members of the news media, and there has been little from her office in the way of proactively pitching stories about her — which just magnifies the impact of process pieces from mainstream press outlets and fierce criticism from right-wing outlets.

Over the summer, the Biden administration brought in a pair of fixers — LORRAINE VOLES and ADAM FRANKEL — to assess the VP’s operation and institute changes. They have shared little about any internal changes, but a person close to Harris described Voles as “a calming influence” who has streamlined bottlenecks. (The VP’s team declined to comment on what specifically has changed since Voles and Frankel joined, but officials have acknowledged in the past they are handling long-term planning and organizational development.)

The messaging problem, says Brazile, is this: “There’s this insatiable appetite to carry every conversation that Kamala is having into the press, but it’s never one that says, actually, what’s going on.”

Whether a reset-but-not-a-reset can change that is unclear.

Good Saturday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri.

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SIGN OF THE TIMES — There’s a blizzard warning for Hawaii, with possible snow accumulations of more than a foot on parts of the Big Island this weekend, per the National Weather Service.

TIME’S A-TICKIN’ — With the legislative year coming to an end, many Democratic lawmakers worry they’re running out of time to pass Biden’s $2 trillion Build Back Better package before things get seriously complicated by 2022 and the possibility of midterm jitters icing enthusiasm for the bill among Dems, writes AP’s Alan Fram. Some of the choice quotes that got our attention:

— “I mean, God bless JOE MANCHIN, but how many months is this going on?” asked Senate Majority Whip DICK DURBIN (D-Ill.). “I told him a month ago, ‘For God’s sake, Joe, declare victory and close the deal.’”

— “We’ve got to do it and we’ve got to do it as quickly as we can,” said Sen. SHERROD BROWN (D-Ohio), while noting that “there are different definitions of ‘as quickly as we can’ from different people.”

— And, the view from the other side of the aisle: “Time is definitely on the side that doesn’t want this to pass,” said Sen. ROY BLUNT (R-Mo.).

Meanwhile, the Senate parliamentarian is slated to meet with Dems on Monday “to begin evaluating the health care components of their envisioned social spending package,” report Alice Miranda Ollstein and Anthony Adragna. At issue is everything “from plans to slash drug prices and expand Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare to cover more people.”

BIDEN’S SATURDAY — The president has nothing on his public schedule.

HARRIS’ SATURDAY — The VP has nothing on her public schedule.

BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we’ve got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don’t miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now.

PHOTO OF THE DAY: A large vigil in Oxford, Mich., on Friday honors the victims of the recent school shooting that left four dead. | Scott Olson/Getty Images

9 THINGS WE READ THAT STUCK WITH US …

— Russia is planning a massive military offensive against Ukraine involving 175,000 troops. It’s likely to take place early in 2022, according to U.S. officials and intelligence obtained by WaPo’s Shane Harris and Paul Sonne.

— The Omicron Covid-19 variant is spreading more than twice as quickly as the Delta variant in South Africa, per NYT’s Apoorva Mandavilli and Lynsey Chutel.

— The Biden administration is promising free at-home coronavirus tests for all, but the reality of the policy they’ve proposed to get there — requiring private insurers to reimburse customers who buy rapid tests — “may be far different, adding hurdles for Americans who buy over-the-counter tests and potentially increasing test costs to the health care system,” report David Lim and Rachael Levy.

— The Democratic Socialists of America have decided to punish Squad member Rep. JAMAAL BOWMAN (D-N.Y.) for taking a trip to Israel and meeting with PM NAFTALI BENNETT, reports HuffPost’s Daniel Marans . DSA stopped short of expelling Bowman, who’s a dues-paying member of the party, but announced it will withhold its endorsement “unless he is able to demonstrate solidarity with Palestine” to the group’s satisfaction.

— For the first time, House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY directly acknowledged that a series of controversial comments from conservative House members — including Rep. LAUREN BOEBERT’s (R-Colo.) Islamophobic remarks directed at Rep. ILHAN OMAR (D-Minn.) — are problematic, report Olivia Beavers and Nicholas Wu.

— America’s labor shortage is being exacerbated by dysfunction of the immigration system. Rebecca Rainey reports on the more than 1.5 million immigrants waiting in line for one of the 140,000 employment-based green cards the U.S. issues annually, even as there were 10.4 million job openings in the U.S. at the end of September.

— What should the U.S. do if China attacks Taiwan? National Review has two expansive pieces on that question — one on each side of the debate. Elbridge Colby makes the case for U.S. military involvement, while Patrick Porter argues that “war shouldn’t be among” America’s options.

— The U.S. is awarding the first federal patent to cover a “search engine for faces” to Clearview AI. “Clearview’s software — which scrapes public images from social media to help law enforcement match images in government databases or surveillance footage — has long faced fire from privacy advocates who say it uses people’s faces without their knowledge or consent,” reports Alexandra Levine.

— The Justice Department is broadening its probe of former New York Gov. ANDREW CUOMO’s office, investigating whether it engaged in a “pattern and practice of discrimination and retaliation” in violation of Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act, reports NYT’s Luis Ferré-Sadurní.

CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 17 keepers

GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Ryan Lizza:

— “Loving Lies,” by Bill Adair for Air Mail: “Stephen Glass, the most notorious fraud in journalism, decided he would live by one simple rule: Always tell the truth. Then he broke that rule.”

— “How the FBI Discovered a Real-Life Indiana Jones in, of All Places, Rural Indiana,” by Josh Sanburn for Vanity Fair: “A 90-year-old amateur archaeologist who claimed to have detonated the first atomic bomb was also one of the most prolific grave robbers in modern American history.”

— “Who’s Afraid of Dasha Nekrasova?” by Brock Colyar for N.Y. Mag’s Vulture: “Can the podcast provocateur turned Succession actor go mainstream with a horror film about Jeffrey Epstein?”

— “Ben Affleck on the Gift of Second Chances,” by Michael Hainey for WSJ Magazine: “The Oscar-winning director and actor, who portrays a character ‘oddly close’ to his own father in the new film adaptation of ‘The Tender Bar,’ talks about learning from past failures and feeling grateful for his imperfect life.”

— “Can We Move Our Forests in Time to Save Them?” by Lauren Markham for Mother Jones: “Trees have always migrated to survive. But now they need our help to avoid climate catastrophe.”

— “‘They Took Us Away From Each Other’: Lost Inside America’s Shadow Foster System,” by ProPublica’s Lizzie Presser: “Across the country, unregulated ‘shadow’ foster care is severing parents from children — who often wind up abandoned by the system that’s supposed to protect them.”

— “Who’s Killing the Grizzlies of Fremont County?” by Natalie Schachar for WaPo Magazine: “Grizzly bears are protected under federal law. When three were killed in an Idaho community, it didn’t seem like a coincidence.”

— “Did My Uncle Drown or Was He Murdered?” by Mardi Fuller for Outside Magazine: “For as far back as she can remember, the author grew up in a world of swimming lessons and swim teams, which was unusual for a daughter of Jamaican immigrants. Why the emphasis on water? Because of a mysterious death that haunted her family’s past.”

— “How Child Care Became the Most Broken Business in America,” by Bloomberg’s Claire Suddath: “Biden has a plan to make day care more affordable for parents — if the providers don’t go out of business first.”

— “Escape from Kabul,” by Jessica Goudeau for Texas Observer: “As the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in August, one family was unsure if they'd ever make it back home to Texas.”

— “Inventing the Science of Race,” by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Andrew S. Curran for the New York Review: “In 1741, Bordeaux’s Royal Academy of Sciences held an essay contest searching for the origin of ‘blackness.’ The results help us see how Enlightenment thinkers justified chattel slavery.”

— From the archives: “With Child,” by Kiera Feldman for Harper’s, December 2016: “A letter from South Dakota on the right to choose in Rapid City.”

STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.

Mariah Carey offered to send Ayanna Pressley a replacement for the Christmas LP of hers that Pressley says someone borrowed and never returned. Can we all get one?

Blake Moore and wife Jane welcomed a new baby, Franklin Garr Moore. He’s the couple’s fourth boy.

Kyrsten Sinema has officially qualified for the upcoming 126th Boston Marathon. “Here’s hoping I can run by April 18,” she wrote on her Instagram story about it.

Michelle and Barack Obama swung by the University of Chicago and met with residents in emergency medicine.

SPOTTED: Surgeon General Vivek Murthy having a drink at Dirty Habit on Friday evening. He walked in while wearing a mask and sat outside. … President Joe Biden having dinner at Imperfecto on Friday night, per the White House pool.

SPOTTED at Cafe Milano on Friday night: Chris Licht hosting Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), John Bessler, Symone Sanders and Shawn Townsend, Garrett Haake, Tammy Haddad and Reema Dodin … at other tables at Milano: Shari Redstone; Kennedy Center honoree Lorne Michaels with John Kerry and friends; Chris Dodd; and Deborah Lehr and Virginia Boney.

OUT AND ABOUT — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg delivered the keynote address at the International Student House global leadership awards dinner at the Institute of Peace on Thursday night. SPOTTED in the crowd: Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.), Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) and John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Mike Rogers, Jim Moran, Jim Blanchard, Esther Coopersmith, Susan Blumenthal, Kevin Chaffee and Roxanne Roberts.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — John Bivona, White House liaison at DHS, left the department Friday and will announce his new job next week. Phillip Thompson, currently the deputy White House liaison at DHS and a Biden White House alum, is being promoted to White House liaison.

STAFFING UP — The White House announced Biden has appointed Alaina Teplitz as assistant secretary of State for administration.

TRANSITIONS — Maria Papakonstantinou is now director of public affairs at Plus Communications. She previously was comms director for Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.). … Will Frierson is now director of government affairs for the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce. He previously was government relations manager at the National Cotton Council of America.

ENGAGED — Elaine Hillgrove, a public policy associate at Squire Patton Boggs, and Eric Menatti, a developer at CommonLook, got engaged Nov. 19. Pic

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.), Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) (6-0) and Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) … POLITICO’s Ximena Bustillo and Stephanie Spartz … The Daily Beast’s Jackie Kucinich … CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux … NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben … Al Hunt … Koch Industries’ Nick Gass … Andrew Shult of the American Investment Council … Meg Badame ... Yana Mayayeva of Rep. Jackie Speier’s (D-Calif.) office … Sarah Paulos … Amazon’s Rachael Lighty … Peter Freeman … Colin Rogero of 76 Words … Claire Lucas … Kevin O’Neill of Arnold & Porter … CNBC’s Whitney Ksiazek … PBS NewsHour’s Anne Davenport … Sarah Baron of the Hub Project … Brian Svoboda … Yesenia Chavez … Chad Heflin of the International Air Transport Association … Mark Cowan of Cowan Strategies … Jennie Westbrook Courts of the Information Technology Industry Council … Bill Murat … Nate Beecher … former Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) … former Transportation Secretary Mary Peters … Meghan Patenaude Bauer … Campbell Marshall … Matthew Bevens ... Louisa Keeler ... Jon Fleischman … Bob Mulholland ... WaPo’s Jennifer Hurley

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