Delta hits the White House

From: POLITICO West Wing Playbook - Tuesday Jul 20,2021 10:37 pm
Jul 20, 2021 View in browser
 
West Wing Playbook

By Alex Thompson and Tina Sfondeles

Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina

Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice.

Press secretary JEN PSAKI made news today when she told reporters that there have been multiple positive Covid-19 cases among White House staffers, despite being vaccinated.

It wasn’t just news to the reporters, however.

Many White House staffers also found out about the “breakthrough cases,” as Psaki called them, from her press briefing today. The White House does not notify all the people who work in the building when there is a positive test, believing that contract tracing is sufficient, according to people familiar with the disclosure process.

The White House’s standard for publicly disclosing cases also is limited. Going back to the transition, the White House only discloses positive cases when the person is a “commissioned officer” — those staffers who have “assistant to the president,” “deputy assistant to the president,” or “special assistant to the president” in their title. Psaki confirmed today that that policy remains in place.

Of the 524 staffers in the White House, only 138 carry such titles, meaning that the White House does not disclose positive cases for about three-quarters of the staff.

Not all senior White House officials are commissioned officers.

Senior advisers ANITA DUNN and NEERA TANDEN , for example, do not fall into this category, nor does American Rescue Plan coordinator GENE SPERLING.

The White House declined to comment on why they haven’t expanded their disclosures of staffers who contract the virus or the number of other staffers who recently tested positive. The White House also declined to comment on whether there had been transmission between staffers in past cases. But there is a sense inside the White House that the high levels of vaccination among staff make Covid breakthrough cases far less problematic events and should be treated as such.

A White House official did, however, tell West Wing Playbook that staff followed Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, asking those not vaccinated to wear masks. The official also noted that all Executive Office of the President staff had been offered the vaccine and that the White House conducts regular testing. The “testing cadence depends on proximity to principals, vaccination status, and other factors informed by public health and medical experts,” the official said.

The renewed scrutiny on the White House’s protocols come as the highly contagious delta variant moves across the United States and as vaccine skeptics question the ability of the vaccines to slow its spread. While vaccines do not provide 100 percent immunity from catching the virus, they have proven extremely effective at slowing transmission and making the symptoms milder for those who do catch Covid-19. On Tuesday, the administration said that unvaccinated Americans now make up 99.5 percent of recent Covid deaths.

Administration officials were piqued that the questions during Tuesday’s briefing seemed to raise doubts about the efficacy of vaccines when the breakthrough cases, instead, showed the value of the vaccine in ensuring that those cases weren’t serious or life-threatening.

Psaki told reporters that staffers are “regularly tested either once a week or more depending on their proximity to principals.” Curiously, the president is tested less often than his staff — only once every two weeks, according to Psaki.

Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you NOE GONZALEZ?

We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous: westwingtips@politico.com. Or if you want to stay really anonymous send us a tip through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram, or Whatsapp here.

 

National Security Daily

From the SitRoom to the E-Ring, get the inside scoop on defense, national security and foreign policy.

Subscribe now

 
PRESIDENTIAL TRIVIA

With the Partnership for Public Service

A very specific ice cream related question today — which modern-day president liked to treat himself to butter pecan ice cream at night?

(Answer at the bottom.)

The Oval

CORRECTIONS — Yesterday, we noted the building left-wing anger at Attorney General MERRICK GARLAND. That fury was prompted by stories from the AP and Government Executive on the Justice Department’s failure, thus far, to prosecute former Commerce Secretary WILBUR ROSS for misleading Congress.

Both both the AP and Gov Exec. now have appended corrections noting that the initial decision was made by DONALD TRUMP’s Justice Department in January, rather than under Garland, who is not bound by his predecessor and could still decide to prosecute Ross.

ONWARD, FOR NOW: First lady JILL BIDEN still plans to travel to Japan for the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, even though organizers on Tuesday said the games could still be canceled as a growing number of people connected to the Olympics test positive for Covid-19.

“There’s been no change. She’s still planning on attending the games and she looks forward to supporting, of course, the athletes who are competing on behalf of the United States,” Psaki said on Tuesday.

SPACE JAM: Psaki revealed she’s a big fan of WALLY FUNK , the 82-year-old pilot who just went to space with Jeff Bezos: “Wally Funk is now on my list of people that I would most like to meet in the country,” she told reporters. “She’s America’s new sweetheart.”

COMING THIS AUGUST: An animatronic version of the president is almost finished, set for an August debut at Disneyland’s “The Hall of Presidents.”

Behind the scenes picture of the Biden animatronic at Disneyland

Biden animatronic at Disneyland | DisneyParks

Pool Dive

DOUG PLAYS FANTASY FOOTBALL — The Daily Beast’s SCOTT BIXBY was on pool duty today during the visit by the Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Bixby noted that second gentleman DOUGLAS “DOUG” EMHOFF is a fantasy football devotee. Emhoff’s team name: “Nirvana.”

We also liked Bixby’s football jokes (though we’re pretty sure he wasn’t joking): “The event will be livestreamed at the usual place if you want to catch a glimpse of TOM BRADY, whose membership on the team your pooler only discovered this morning, somehow!”

Agenda Setting

HANDLE WITH CARE — As the president scrambles to convince hesitant Americans to get the Covid-19 vaccine, his White House has largely steered clear of Fox News , the major cable news outlet spreading unsubstantiated fears about vaccinations.

CHRIS CADELAGO and SAM STEIN report that the White House has so far taken an arms-length approach to Fox, despite its strong following among supporters of former President Donald Trump, who watch the network more regularly than any other cable outlet, and are less likely to be vaccinated than the average American.

Filling the Ranks

TECH CRITICS FTW — Biden will nominate JONATHAN KANTER, a frequent critic of tech giants like Google, to head the Justice Department’s antitrust division, LEAH NYLEN and EMILY BIRNBAUM report. The pick marks another win for progressives, who have pushed the Biden administration to name antitrust enforcers committed to aggressively enforcing the law, particularly against major online platforms.

NOT SO FAST: The White House has withdrawn the nomination of JAVIER GUZMAN to be assistant attorney general for the civil division, one of the top unfilled positions at the Justice Department. H/t to AP’s MIKE BALSAMO. Guzman is now deputy general counsel at Harvard University.

Advise and Consent

DOJ GETS NEW CRIME FIGHTER — The Senate voted to confirm KENNETH POLITE as assistant attorney general leading the Justice Department’s criminal division, 56 to 44. The former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana earned the support of his home state senators, Republican Sens. BILL CASSIDY and JOHN KENNEDY, as well as their GOP colleagues SUSAN COLLINS of Maine, LISA MURKOWSKI of Alaska, LINDSEY GRAHAM of South Carolina and THOM TILLIS of North Carolina.

ICYMI: The Senate confirmed TIFFANY CUNNINGHAM to be a U.S. circuit judge on the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Monday night, 63 to 33, making her the first Black judge to serve on the nation’s top patent court.

What We're Reading

Biden wants to punish Facebook for the government’s own vaccine failures (Reason’s Robby Soave)

Longtime Biden aide under consideration to run UNICEF (Washington Post’s Tyler Pager)

Trudeau to ease border rules Aug. 9 for fully vaccinated Americans. Now it’s Biden’s move. (Politico’s Andy Blatchford)

Where's Joe

He hosted Super Bowl champions the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, along with Emhoff.

The president also held a Cabinet meeting, marking six months in office.

Where's Kamala

She held a working breakfast with Jordan’s King ABDULLAH II at her residence, then attended the president’s Cabinet meeting.

The Oppo Book

The state of Rhode Island is pretty small. But there must’ve been something in the water in Narragansett.

As a kid, Commerce secretary GINA RAIMONDO lived in the same Narragansett neighborhood as future Sen. JACK REED (D-R.I.) and Rep. DAVID CICILLINE (D-R.I.).

Reed recalled meeting Raimondo as a newborn in a 2019 interview with NBC 10 News: “So, I came home one day out of the Army and was told ‘Go next door, Josephine just had a baby.’ So, I went next door and said, 'oh cute', then I was off to the beach to get a swim. That was Governor Raimondo.”

Hopefully he was a little more enthusiastic when his own daughter was born!

Trivia Answer

According to former staffer JON NUNN, GERALD FORD would routinely turn to butter pecan ice cream before bed.

We want your tips, but we also want your feedback. What should we be covering in this newsletter that we’re not? What are we getting wrong? Please let us know.

Edited by Emily Cadei

 

Follow us on Twitter

Alex Thompson @AlexThomp

Tina Sfondeles @TinaSfon

Allie Bice @alliebice

 

Follow us

Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Instagram Listen on Apple Podcast
 

To change your alert settings, please log in at https://www.politico.com/_login?base=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com/settings

This email was sent to by: POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA

Please click here and follow the steps to .

More emails from POLITICO West Wing Playbook

Jul 19,2021 10:35 pm - Monday

A doctor is (back) in the house

Jul 16,2021 09:24 pm - Friday

How Biden avoided the F bombs

Jul 15,2021 11:04 pm - Thursday

The Biden-Garland chronicles

Jul 14,2021 11:13 pm - Wednesday

Biden's Gen Z translators

Jul 13,2021 10:28 pm - Tuesday

Missing: White House interns

Jul 12,2021 10:45 pm - Monday

“The Biden of Brooklyn”

Jul 09,2021 09:13 pm - Friday

Biden is not boring