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 Before Washington Post columnist JENNIFER RUBIN became one of the most reliable defenders of the Biden administration, she was one of the Obama administration’s most reactionary critics. “His sympathies for the Muslim World take precedence over those, such as they are, for his fellow citizens,” she wrote in Commentary Magazine in 2010 when President BARACK OBAMA supported the building of a mosque in lower Manhattan that critics had dubbed the “Ground Zero Mosque.” When Obama said that police had “acted stupidly” when they arrested a Black professor outside his home in 2009, Rubin wrote that “Obama indisputably fanned the flames of racism and rekindled animosity on both sides by assuming or making this all about race.” She didn’t have a high opinion of Obama’s vice president, JOE BIDEN, either, writing in 2012 that “Biden reflects Obama’s judgment and dispels the notion that the president wants the best and the brightest around him. Ole Joe doesn’t fit that description, does he?” Rubin says she’s changed, however. The Republican Party used to be fine but is now “thoroughly infused with racism.” Since 2016, she has evolved into a stalwart never-Trump Republican, even as many of his other former critics jumped on the Trump train. She has switched over from trying to flatter the GOP’s id to stoking Democrats’ — fit with an MSNBC contract and a book coming out next week called “Resistance: How Women Saved Democracy from Donald Trump.” Perhaps most surprising of all, however, is how, over the past eight months, she has distinguished herself as the Biden administration’s favorite columnist. Chief of Staff RON KLAIN has retweeted or @ mentioned Rubin more than three dozen times since mid-May. The White House press team, the Democratic National Committee, the State Department, and the vice president’s office have all promoted various columns and tweets from her in recent weeks. That’s because Rubin usually backs up the administration. In the past month, her headlines included: “Biden delivers straight talk — and wins kudos,” “The State Department deserves more credit for its effort to evacuate Americans from Afghanistan,” and “Why Kamala Harris’s trip to Asia was so important.” It’s been a mutually beneficial relationship. Though it often dismisses the Beltway press, the administration can leverage the credibility that comes with a washingtonpost.com link. And Rubin’s columns are frequently among the most popular on the site, according to Washington Post employees. But Rubin’s emergence as one of the administration’s go-to validators has stoked some divisions among Democrats and within the Post newsroom itself. The White House has encouraged outside allies to share some of Rubin’s articles online. One told West Wing Playbook that they declined to do so because they thought it was just too embarrassing to earnestly share a Rubin column, given her history as a conservative and perceived tendency to pander to the administration. One Post employee said some people in the newsroom are increasingly frustrated that Rubin is parroting the administration's critiques of the media, which they believe emboldens the administration to push back on journalists even further. Two others say they just try to ignore her or don’t read her columns. And some are trying to find a balance. “She is an opinion columnist and does not represent the newsroom,” said one Post reporter. “I think our news coverage has been pretty sharp toward Biden on a number of fronts — immigration, Afghanistan, etc. — and we have a lot of good reporters. Jen Rubin is not a good representation of the news coverage of the Washington Post. I have been asked before if I hate sharing a newsroom with her... I reply that I don't.” The White House and The Washington Post did not respond. West Wing Playbook first reached out to Rubin on March 31 to see if she’d be willing to participate in an interview about the Biden administration and White House aides’ frequent promotion of her columns. She didn’t respond last spring and then declined to comment in response to an Aug. 22 email. On Thursday, we reached back out with our reporting. Rubin responded in an email with the subject line “OFF THE RECORD.” Since we never agreed to conduct such an off-the-record conversation, we are publishing it below in full: How utterly predictable that Politico would run the zillionth hit piece on a prominent woman, especially one candid in her critiques of Politico's hysterical, clickbait style of coverage. The notion that I am polarizing in a newsroom (as opposed to any of the dozens of other opinion writers) is a "take" only Politico could come up with — by of course running around to ask the question in the first place. I trust the Post's superb news side folks spend zero time thinking about me (as is entirely appropriate). My only surprise is that Sam [Stein, POLITICO’s White House editor], a very good journalist, would become enmeshed in such an obviously misogynistic publication. Surely there are finer publications that would have him. And btw, what a low class move to do this on Yom Kippur at the last moment. Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you associate counsel SEAN CROTTY? 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. We have a SecureDrop for all the docs, Sean. | 
