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Presented by Facebook: | | | | | |  | | By Alex Thompson and Tina Sfondeles | | | 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 ANITA DUNN may have left the administration last month, but she remains a central figure in guiding the White House and the Biden diaspora toward the 2022 midterms and the 2024 re-election, according to senior Democratic officials familiar with her role. While she has no formal role in day-to-day operations, one Democratic official described Dunn as “the shepherd” of so-called “Biden world” — which includes the White House, the outside group Building Back Together, the Democratic National Committee, and other progressive organizations trying to push Biden’s agenda over the finish line this month. For many Democrats in the president’s orbit, Dunn is the go-to person to gut-check strategy and messaging. “The truth is that ‘Remains an important figure’ is an understatement,” said one senior Democrat when asked about Dunn’s role. “She is aggressive and effective in a way that few others in Biden’s orbit are, she has the vision of how everything comes together and everyone does what she says...she doesn’t even have to be at the White House to command that respect.” Feared and admired—sometimes by the same person — Dunn told Biden when she left the White House in August that she would be happy to continue to help. She is likely to be a key figure in the expected re-election campaign as she is close to the top advisers of Building Back Together—the pro-Biden outside group trying to shore up support for the president’s policies—and White House political director JEN O’MALLEY DILLON. Dunn helped bring on O’Malley Dillon to be the campaign manager for JIM DAVIS' 2006 losing gubernatorial campaign in Florida and then again to take over Biden’s campaign in 2020. In a text message, Dunn wrote that “President Biden was elected to build back better and to restore the soul of this nation. I will support those efforts outside the building where I can be helpful and where help is needed.” Dunn’s proximity to Biden predates the 2020 primary campaign, in which she was elevated after a rocky start in Iowa. In 2015 when many top aides to BARACK OBAMA went to work on HILLARY CLINTON’s presidential campaign, or were trying to dissuade Biden from running, Dunn and her husband BOB BAUER joined Biden as he organized a potential campaign. Dunn even crafted the media plan for Biden’s announcement, as he wrote in his memoir Promise Me, Dad . The announcement never came as Biden decided against running. Despite her stature among Biden’s top aides, Dunn largely tries to keep a low profile. A St. Petersburg Times piece by reporter ALEX LEARY during the 2006 gubernatorial race noted that, “Though a professional imagemaker, Dunn says she is personally camera shy.” Leary noted that at the time, a Google search of Dunn had “turned up only one picture, a screen shot from a 1999 PBS show.” She has many more now. Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you OSAREMEN OKOLO, policy adviser for the White House Office on Covid-19 Response? 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 Facebook: Why Facebook supports reforming Section 230
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Learn more about the steps we've taken and why we support updated internet regulations next. | | | | | | This question is courtesy of CHARLES BROLL — MELANIA TRUMP was the second foreign-born first lady. Who was the first? (Answer at the bottom.) | | | WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: A New York Times story by LAUREN HIRSCH that showed a 91 percent vaccination rate at Tyson Foods after the company announced a mandate on Aug. 3. And last night’s CNN Reliable Sources newsletter by BRIAN STELTER that zeroed in on media coverage of vaccine mandates. Chief of staff RON KLAIN tweeted the Tyson Foods story. And BEN WAKANA, deputy director of strategic communications and engagement for the White House Covid-19 response team, was a little more literal: “CNN newsletter headline: ‘Vaccine Mandates Work’ send tweet,” he wrote. Klain retweeted that one too. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: A New Yorker story by BENJAMIN WALLACE-WELLS that asks, “How bad is Biden’s slump?” “The date of Biden’s approval plunge lines up with the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, on August 15th, but even Republican consultants say that anger about Afghanistan is unlikely to last until the midterms. But there is another theory, in which those voters who picked Biden as a steady hand, who might extricate the country from its overlapping crises, are beginning to doubt that he can,” Wallace-Wells writes. ABOUT THAT SLUMP: Speaking of the veep, The Hill’s AMIE PARNES reminds us that Harris’ approval rating is now higher than Biden’s, something Harris’ team wants some credit for. A Gallup poll last week showed 49 percent approval of Harris as vice president — six points higher than Biden’s 43 percent. Harris also performed better than Biden with independents, a voting sector that’s prompting concerns for Biden world. “… Her allies say Harris, whose difficult start provoked questions about her ability to be a future presidential candidate for the party, ‘has found her place’ in the White House,” Parnes writes. PARTY FOUL (AGAIN): The briefings Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week have been interrupted by reporters failing to silence their cell phones. We mentioned this yesterday but our warnings were unheeded. Thursday’s briefing featured an alarm tone, followed by a lengthy chime ring during some very serious questions. We will begin naming names! | | | | 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. | | | | | | | | HARRIS DOES DAMAGE CONTROL — The VP’s office called up some top pro-Israel officials and groups today to smooth out any confusion or anger after Harris was confronted by, but did not push back on, a student that accused Israel of ethnic genocide. The moment, which took place at an event promoting voting at George Mason University, led to a number of critical stories in the Israel press, and a wave of criticism from Republicans back home. "We were pleased Vice President Harris’s senior staff reached out to us today to confirm what we already knew: Her ‘commitment to Israel’s security is unwavering,’” MARK MELLMAN, the president of the Democratic Majority for Israel told Alex. A LITTLE LESS YELLEN— Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN is very much over the debt limit standoff that she’s repeatedly warned could tank the U.S. economy. Asked Thursday if she’d support repealing the debt ceiling altogether, Yellen replied, “yes, I would.” Her boss, however, isn’t prepared to go so far. Asked by POLITICO’S CHRIS CADELAGO (friend of the newsletter) whether Biden agrees that the debt ceiling should not only be raised but eliminated entirely, an administration official ducked the question entirely. The official said the White House agreed with Yellen that this should never be a matter of political brinkmanship but merely accused Republicans of playing games and being the sole obstacle to avoiding default. The White House has been pushing for an up-or-down vote in Congress to raise the debt ceiling but has been stymied by Republicans, who want Democrats to do it through a time-intensive reconciliation amendment. Eliminating the debt ceiling once-and-for all, would avoid these pesky standoffs and obstacles. | | | ANOTHER TRY — The Department of Homeland Security is planning to issue a new memorandum in the coming weeks terminating the contentious Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy , which requires many asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while they await hearings on their requests for safe haven in America, MYAH WARD reports. The move comes after a federal judge ruled last month that the president’s move to end the program violated the law. | | | |   | | | | | | CHOPRA CONFIRMED — The Senate voted 50 to 48 today to confirm ROHIT CHOPRA to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. No Republicans supported his nomination “reflecting long-running antagonism from the right over the very existence of the consumer bureau,” Katy O'Donnell and Michael Stratford report. Chopra is a former commissioner of the FTC and is also no stranger to the CFPB, where he served as assistant director of the agency. And last night, the Senate confirmed ROBERT ANDERSON to be solicitor of the Interior Department 53 to 44 and JONATHAN MEYER to be the Department of Homeland Security’s general counsel, 52 to 46. | | | Senate Dems break Biden nominee deadlock (Foreign Policy’s Robbie Gramer) Biden nominates 10 more to federal bench, with continued focus on diversity (CNN’s Jeremy Diamond) Biden’s team booster divide deepens as risk of winter virus surge looms (POLITICO’s Erin Banco) | | | No public events scheduled. | | | Also no public events scheduled. | | | | TELL US WHAT YOU THINK: Do you listen to POLITICO podcasts? We want to hear from you! Tell us what you like, what you could do without, and what you want to see in the future from the POLITICO Audio team! Your responses will help us improve our offerings and tailor our podcast content to better fit your needs. Find the survey here. | | | | | | | | Biden-nominated judge KETANJI BROWN JACKSON admitted in a 2017 address to University of Georgia law students that motherhood gives her “near-daily whiplash.” Jackson, who is now a D.C. Circuit Court judge, said she goes from spending all day as a respected judge in the courtroom and then goes home to two teenage daughters who “make it very clear that as far as they’re concerned, I know nothing.” Sounds both accurate and ruthless. “When I leave the courthouse and go home, in the course of that transition, all of my wisdom and knowledge and authority evaporates,” Jackson said. “My daughters make it very clear … I should not tell them anything, much less give them any orders — that is, if they talk to me at all.” Tough crowd at home. Tough crowd at work, Ketanji. | | | LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS, the wife of JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, was born in London. AND A CALL OUT — A big thanks to Charles for sending over this question. Do you have a really hard trivia question about the presidency? Send us your best one and we may use it: westwingtips@politico.com. We want your trivia, 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 Facebook: Facebook’s Industry-leading investments are stopping bad actors
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