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Presented by The American Petroleum Institute (API): | | | | | |  | | By Alex Thompson | Presented by The American Petroleum Institute (API) | Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With Allie Bice Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina JOE BIDEN often thinks he’s his own best messenger. Many people in his own White House don’t always agree. When Biden gives public remarks, some White House staffers will either mute him or turn off his remarks, according to White House officials. It’s not that they’re indifferent to what their boss has to say. Indeed, their livelihoods are directly invested in it. Rather, they’re filled with anxiety that he’s going to take questions from the press and veer off the West Wing’s carefully orchestrated messaging. “I know people who habitually don’t watch it live for that reason,” said one current official. Biden’s advisers have urged him to answer fewer of the questions being shouted at him by reporters covering his events. While the president sometimes obliges and quickly leaves the podium after remarks, he has a tendency to buck those staffers trying to rein him in. “I’m not supposed to take any questions, but go ahead,” he said after addressing FEMA the other week. “A lot of times, we say, ‘Don’t take questions,'” press secretary JEN PSAKI told Democratic strategist DAVID AXELROD on his podcast in the spring. “But he’s going to do what he wants to do because he’s the president of the United States.” Biden is well-aware of his reputation as a “gaffe machine.” On the campaign trail, he’d often make a self-deprecating quip: “No one ever doubts that I mean what I say. The problem is, I sometimes say all that I mean.” He has also suggested, however, that his loquaciousness earns him credit from voters who appreciate his authenticity. The 2020 election may have proved Biden’s point. But lately, his verbal miscues have been causing headaches for him and his team. Biden has delivered several self-inflicted wounds during freewheeling Q&A sessions that required immediate clean-up. On Afghanistan, he told reporters that a Taliban takeover of the country was “highly unlikely,” said Al Qaeda was “gone” from Afghanistan when it wasn’t, and declared that he’d seen “no question of our credibility” from allies when there had been a lot. Biden has even flubbed scripted remarks, such as when he said the administration had evacuated 90 percent of Americans from Afghanistan when he was supposed to say 98 percent. Some Biden veterans say the string of verbal faux pas are not a total surprise. In Biden’s Senate days, he loved talking reporters ears off to try to make them understand his point. He infamously put his foot in his mouth when talking about BARACK OBAMA ’s appeal during the 2008 primary then did it again when, as VP, he endorsed gay marriage before Obama got to that point. The former nearly sank him. The latter placed him on the right side of history. To this day, Biden seems almost delighted by the prospect of tussling with the reporters that often gather in front of him, such as when he challenged Fox News’ PETER DOOCY to contemplate alternative drawdown scenarios for Afghanistan. This makes for the occasional high-wire act for the White House, which officially, on record, loves it. “As the President has shown over and over since he announced his candidacy more than two years ago, he’s the most effective communicator for his vision and his agenda,” rapid response director MIKE GWIN said in an email. “The President deeply values the role of the press – that’s why he regularly takes time to answer their questions in interviews, press conferences, and the dozens of media availabilities he’s done since taking office.” Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you RACHEL WALLACE? 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. | | | | A message from The American Petroleum Institute (API): The American Petroleum Institute (API) released a new analysis of the natural gas and oil industry’s impact on the U.S. economy and highlighted its importance to the nation’s post-pandemic recovery. The industry is a driver of every sector of the U.S. economy, supporting 11.3 million total American jobs in 2019 across all 50 states. The industry’s total impact on U.S. GDP was nearly $1.7 trillion, accounting for nearly 8% of the national total in 2019. | | | | | | With the Partnership for Public Service Which title did the founding fathers NOT consider when they were deciding what to call the leader of the U.S. government? (“Mr. President” was what they landed on.) A. His High Mightiness
B. Consul General
C. Electoral Highness
D. His Highness (Answer at the bottom.) | | | IT’S A LOVE STORY, BABY, JUST SAY “YES”: The White House’s deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES proposed to director of research MEGAN APPER this past Saturday in San Francisco’s Lafayette Park (it was a surprise and she said yes). According to sources familiar with the situation, Bates chose San Francisco because it was the first place they went for a long trip together. He dropped down on one knee at a spot where the San Francisco Bay was especially visible between a break in the trees. The Bates-Apper household, as one friend referred to them, was influential on the Biden campaign and remains so in the White House — communications and research teams often require close collaboration. During the campaign, they’d often joke that their life was a perpetual rapid response meeting. | 
Deputy press secretary Andrew Bates and director of research Megan Apper | Courtesy | They first interacted in 2016 when Apper was a Buzzfeed reporter on ANDREW KACZYNSKI’s team that excelled at digging up old dirt on the powerful. Bates, then at the office of the United States Trade Representative, pitched a story to Kaczynski, who then looped in Apper. In early 2017, they both started working at American Bridge (Apper sat next to SABRINA SINGH who now works for Vice President KAMALA HARRIS). They matched on a dating app and Bates, oblivious that she sat near him in the office, used this smooth opening line: “Hey, how was your weekend?” Apper wrote back: “Hey, I sit behind you at work!” She still agreed to grab a drink with him, though. They hit it off, and eventually decided they wanted what all couples want: to work on the same presidential campaign together. In an email, press secretary JEN PSAKI wrote: “At the end of the day if you can survive a bruising presidential campaign and the first eight months of the White House, and have the kind of supportive, loving and complementary relationship they have — that’s a pretty good sign for their lives together.” BACK IN DELAWARE: As Washington returns to work today, Biden’s circle in Delaware is mourning the recent death of DONATO ROBERT BUCCINI , patriarch of a family of contractors and developers who have long been close friends and political allies of the Bidens. Buccini was scheduled to be laid to rest after a service late Tuesday afternoon at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Wilmington. It was at the same church that Buccini’s son, Rob Buccini, Beau Biden’s best friend, arranged for Coldplay’s CHRIS MARTIN to perform at Beau’s 2015 funeral. At one point in the last election cycle, the Delaware News Journal described Rob Buccini’s real estate development firm, the Buccini/Pollin Group (co-led by his brother, CHRIS BUCCINI) as the largest local donor to Biden’s presidential efforts at that point in the cycle. Links like that have made both the Buccini’s and the Biden’s central players in Delaware’s new establishment. One sure sign of the changing of the guard: In 2017, Wilmington’s historic Hotel du Pont, where Biden celebrated his first Senate victory in 1972, was purchased by the Buccini/Pollin Group. From BEN SCHRECKINGER (For more on the Delaware dynasties that came up alongside the Bidens, you can preorder Ben’s new book, The Bidens: Inside the First Family's Fifty-Year Rise to Power, due out Sept. 21) | | | NO REPORTERS ALLOWED — POLITICO’s RUBY CRAMER wrote a must-read story on Biden and his Catholic faith this past weekend . One interesting tidbit she told us afterward is that she tried to attend some services at St. Joseph on the Brandywine, Biden’s go-to church when he is in Wilmington, Del.. She got a stern response from Parish Secretary FRANCINE HARKINS. “[N]o reporters are allowed in the church. You are however, allowed to remain on the road surrounding the church,” she wrote in an email. Ruby noted that an AP reporter had attended mass there in 2020 and wrote about it but Harkins was unmoved. “Thank you for your interest Rudy,” she wrote (it’s Ruby). “ God bless!” CHRISTMAS TREE ALERT: The White House called on Congress to include funds for hurricane relief and Afghan resettlement in the latest budget package, putting more pressure on lawmakers planning to oppose the next proposal, CAITLIN EMMA reports. Lawmakers need to pass the next batch of funding in order to keep government agencies open beyond Sept. 30. The administration is requesting $14 billion in disaster aid for communities needs prior to Hurricane Ida, $10 billion for disaster funding across a variety of programs in response to Ida and $6.4 billion for the Pentagon, the State Department and HHS for Afghan resettlement. | | | |   | | | | | | Biden to campaign for Gov. Gavin Newsom in California 'early next week' (POLITICO’s Nick Niedzwiadek) Blinken denies Taliban blocking Americans from leaving Mazar-i-Sharif (Reuters' Humeyra Pamuk) Jill Biden heads back to classroom as a working first lady (AP’s Darlene Superville) Abortion fight adds to Biden’s growing policy backlog (POLITICO’s Anita Kumar and Christopher Cadelago) As Migrants Surge Toward Border, Court Hands Biden a Lifeline ( NYT’s Natalie Kitroeff) | | | Biden traveled to Hillsborough Township, N.J., where he received a briefing from local leaders on the impacts of Hurricane Ida and toured Manville, a neighborhood affected by the hurricane. He also went to Queens, N.Y. to tour another neighborhood impacted by the storm. “Every part, every part of the country is getting hit by extreme weather," Biden said during his New Jersey stop. “We can't turn it back very much, but we can prevent it from getting worse." FEMA Administrator DEANNE CRISWELL, deputy chief of staff JEN O’MALLEY DILLON, homeland security adviser LIZ SHERWOOD-RANDALL, director of Oval Office operations ANNIE TOMASINI and national climate adviser GINA MCCARTHY were among those who traveled with Biden. He heads back to the White House this evening. | | | She met with U.S. Ambassador to Mexico KEN SALAZAR. | | | Some people in the Biden administration are huge Harry Potter fans. We’ve previously noted that Attorney General MERRICK GARLAND is a Potter-obsessive. But a group of staffers on the White House press team have taken it to a new level: taking an online test to determine the form of their patronus (it’s like their magic spirit animal; if you want to know more read here). Assistant press secretary EMILIE SIMONS took it upon herself to post pictures of the press team’s patronuses in a collage above her desk in the West Wing. Some of the results: Rapid response director Mike Gwin is a bald eagle. Deputy press secretary Andrew Bates is a black stallion. Assistant press secretary VEDANT PATEL is an orca whale. Press assistant NATALIE AUSTIN is a Siberian husky. Deputy press secretary CHRIS MEAGHER is technically a bear but Simons changed it to be a picture of a teddy bear dressed as a wizard — wand and all. Want to know Jen Psaki’s patronus? You’re going to have to read this newsletter again tomorrow. It’s a special two-part Oppo Book. | | | B. Consul General was the only title not considered by the Founding Fathers before they reached an agreement on calling the leader of the U.S. “Mr.President.” 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 | | | | A message from The American Petroleum Institute (API): The American Petroleum Institute’s recently released PwC study shows how the natural gas and oil industry is essential to economic recovery in other sectors, like manufacturing, agriculture, industrial and more, as well as opportunities for job creation. As economic activity, travel patterns and consumption continue to grow during the post-pandemic recovery, the U.S. Energy Information Administration expects global oil and liquid fuels consumption to surpass 2019 levels in 2022. In addition to accounting for nearly 8% of the U.S. GDP in 2019, the natural gas and oil industry generated an additional 3.5 jobs elsewhere in the U.S. economy for each direct job in the U.S. natural gas and oil industry. Learn how the industry is powering each state’s economy by using the interactive map linked here. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
