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Presented by the Black Women’s Health Imperative: | | | | | |  | | By Tina Sfondeles, Alex Thompson and Max Tani | Presented by the Black Women’s Health Imperative | 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 | Email Max The counsel’s office in JOE BIDEN’s White House isn’t currently looking to expand. But it’s all but inevitable the White House’s legal team will have to staff up if Republicans take over the House next November as predicted, several former members of the counsel’s office told West Wing Playbook. Biden will have to go on defense — switching from his push to pass legislation to fending off Republican oversight. The House Oversight Committee (likely to be led by Rep. JIM COMER of Tennessee) and Judiciary Committee (likely to be led by Rep. JIM JORDAN of Ohio) may launch a whole range of salvos against his administration, from a special committee on Afghanistan, to an investigation into the president’s son, HUNTER BIDEN’s, business activities or even impeachment. “I think that the oversight if the Republicans take the House back will get very intense,” NEIL EGGLESTON, former White House counsel for President BARACK OBAMA told us. “And as a result, the White House counsel's office will gear up to do that. I think it will sign more people to the portion of the White House counsel's office that's devoted to oversight response.” That subsection of the office is currently led by JONATHAN SU, who served as special counsel to Obama, during which he saw the impacts of divided government firsthand after Republicans took the House in 2010 and took over Congress entirely in 2014. Su is, in fact, one of a number of Obama alums in the current White House counsel’s office. Biden’s counsel’s office is led by former Obama White House ethics lawyer DANA REMUS, the former clerk to Justice SAMUEL ALITO. Remus was brought onto Biden’s 2020 campaign by the campaign’s top lawyer, BOB BAUER, who served as Obama’s White House counsel, and the two worked together closely during the campaign. She’s also deep in Obama World — the former president officiated her wedding in 2018 and Remus represented the Obama Foundation. Other Obama alums at the counsel’s office include STUART DELERY, who served as Obama’s assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division and DANIELLE CONLEY, who served as associate deputy attorney general. Republican control was something the Biden administration considered in staffing the counsel’s office, a person familiar with the staffing, including during the transition, told us. “For most of the transition, we were under the assumption that the Senate would have a Republican majority, and so ensured that the staff was well-rounded and could be responsive to oversight needs of that nature,” the person said. According to a White House official, the counsel’s office is fully staffed with 33 employees — 65 percent of whom are female, 20 percent LGBTQ+ and 40 percent who are people of color. More than half are from public interest backgrounds. Their tasks have included defining official and political activities, overseeing judicial selections and appointments and advising the legality of policy issues. They’re also fending off a myriad of challenges from Trump-appointed judges on vaccine mandates and immigration policies. “The pace of the work is incessant, and the pressure to ensure against errors of substance or judgment, unrelenting,” the authors of a 2021 White House Transition Project report wrote. “The Office exists in a fishbowl, is subject to searing public criticism when it makes the slightest misstep, and yet prompts intense loyalty among those who have been privileged to serve in it.” Any new hires at the counsel’s office would likely be transfers from other federal agencies, two people with knowledge of the process during previous administrations told us. If Republicans take over the House, it’s also safe to assume the counsel’s office will operate with an extra dose of caution. Sources familiar with the process said the office as well as the White House chief of staff typically issue a warning to White House staffers that they will be facing a whole new level of scrutiny. “Dana was my ethics deputy and so I sort of saw how she did that stuff and part of this is just making sure that people in the White House are careful … about what they’re writing, careful about what they do,” Eggleston said. “And to not have any self-inflicted wounds. She was pretty good at making sure that the staff is sort of educated about all that.” But after watching the Democratic House majority twice vote to impeach former President DONALD TRUMP and subpoena many of his former staff over the last four years, House Republicans are already warning of payback. And caution is unlikely to do much to stem their partisan fury. PERSONAL NEWS — West Wing Playbook now has over 100,000 s! Thank you for reading and enduring some of SAM STEIN’s terrible Dad Jokes. We try to delete them all but some slip through … [Editor’s note: All of Sam’s jokes are great.] Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you JONATHAN G. CEDARBAUM, deputy counsel to the president and National Security Council legal adviser? 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. Or you can text/Signal Alex at 8183240098. | | | | A message from the Black Women’s Health Imperative: Nearly 50% of Black and Latino people live with obesity and are more likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19 due to systemic health care inequities that deny access to obesity care. The Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI) supports the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act (TROA) to fix discriminatory Medicare rules while requiring access to comprehensive obesity care. Washington must update Medicare to make our health care system more equitable for Black and Latino people. | | | | | | From the University of Virginia’s Miller Center Which president finished a campaign speech with a would-be assassin's bullet in his chest? (Answer at the bottom.) | | | MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEYYYY — Biden is attending his first in-person fundraiser as president — for the Democratic National Committee — tonight on the rooftop of the Hotel Washington, just down the street from the White House. Event speakers will include Biden, Vice President KAMALA HARRIS, House Speaker NANCY PELOSI, DNC Chair JAIME HARRISON, and DNC Finance Chair CHRIS KORGE. About 400 people are expected to attend and all guests are required to be fully vaccinated. The DNC’s KIM DUFFY and MONICA GUARDIOLA took the lead on Covid protocols and MICHAEL PRATT and COLLEEN COFFEY were key on the fundraising side. NEW ON THE TWITTERS: The vice president’s deputy director of advance, JUAN ORTEGA, is at @OrtegaJ46. We preferred his personal account bio where he listed himself as a “Former Senior Beyoncé Advisor to @TheDemocrats.” ANCHORMAN III: Biden sat down with WHIO-TV’s JOHN BEDELL (Dayton, Ohio) and WLTX-TV’s DARCI STICKLAND (Columbia, South Carolina) today, upping his tally of local news interviews as president from one to three. The interviews will both air at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET. Biden’s other local TV interview was with a local Cincinnati-based station in November. | | | | 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. | | | | | | | | TEA LEAVES? As Labor Secretary MARTY WALSH weighs a bid to run for Massachusetts governor, we noticed that his old mayoral campaign account has still been quietly active this year. He hasn’t been raising money but he’s paid $55,000 to LB Strategies, an outside campaign firm he’s used for years. LAURIE BOSIO, the firm’s founder, told LISA KASHINSKY that, “A multi-million dollar organization built over seven years does not dissolve when a person steps down from office. While Marty Walsh is no longer Mayor of Boston and fundraising is not active, there are federal and state laws that require the organization to regulate and manage the remaining balance. LB Strategies has worked to ensure that those procedures are followed and all campaign finance data is responsibly reported.” The Labor Department declined to comment. Meanwhile, Walsh told reporters in Boston yesterday that, “there’s a lot of speculation about a lot of things and I’m not speculating on it. … My job is focused on being the best secretary of Labor I can be.” FEUDING AT THE FDIC: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman JELENA McWILLIAMS, a Trump nominee, today fought off an effort by Democratic board members at the bank regulator to circumvent her power. But as VICTORIA GUIDA writes, the battle is not over. At issue is whether a majority of the board can put items up for a vote without the consent of the chair — a matter that will loom large at the agency, with progressive activists and lawmakers pressing bank regulators to also take action on other sweeping concerns such as climate finance and lending discrimination. | | | FULL TERM FOR FANNIE & FREDDIE REGULATOR — Biden will nominate SANDRA THOMPSON, currently the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to a full term at the regulator, KATY O’DONNELL reports. If confirmed, Thompson would be the country’s top housing regulator, with oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The move comes after Thompson allies on the Hill, including House Financial Services Chair MAXINE WATERS (D-Calif.), urged Biden to keep her at the helm amid reports he planned to replace Thompson this fall. | | | NINE YEARS LATER — Today is the nine-year anniversary of the shooting of 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Obama vets have called this the darkest day of his administration. It was the first time that President Obama cried in the Oval Office and the hardest briefing that JAY CARNEY, his then-press secretary, said he ever had to do. For Biden, who was vice president at the time, there is little in the public record about how he spent that day. He did not brief the press or accompany Obama and others to Newtown a few days later. Four days after the shooting, he was part of a White House meeting to chart out a federal response. Days later, Obama appointed him to lead that response — one that resulted in a slew of executive actions but no new legislation. One of the lessons many Democrats privately took from Sandy Hook is that there is an intractability to the gun debates—if slaughtering 1st graders wasn't going to move Congress to act, nothing would. Biden has publicly adopted a different posture, pledging to push for more gun laws. But as president he's operating at the margins. As CLAIRE RAFFORD reports, current senior White House officials are hanging their hats on doing everything they can with "existing authority." The votes aren’t there to do more. And so, in his address to commemorate the anniversary, Biden focused on the emotional legacy of Sandy Hook, making clear that the horrors of that day still compel him to act. "I found hope in your strength as you turned pain into purpose to change the laws and the culture around gun violence," Biden said. AMTRAK TO JOE: NO-GO ON VAX MANDO: POTUS’ favorite mode of transportation is not in love with his most aggressive Covid policy. Last week, Amtrak warned they would likely have to cut back train service next month in order to comply with the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for federal contractors. Today, Amtrak told employees they are suspending the mandate and will allow the “fewer than 500” Amtrak employees who aren’t in compliance with the mandate to get tested instead of vaccinated, “on an interim basis,” Reuters’ DAVID SHEPARDSON reports. Amtrak’s new guidance, however, says those who don’t submit to testing will be placed on unpaid leave and could potentially be fired. “After reviewing our system service plans in light of these changes, we do not anticipate having system-wide service impacts in January,” Amtrak CEO BILL FLYNN wrote in the letter to employees. JOY RIDE: Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG and Energy Secretary JENNIFER GRANHOLM drove one of the Transportation Department’s electric cars — a Ford Mustang Mach-E, we’re told–to a charging station in Maryland today as part of promoting the electric vehicle charging network program in the infrastructure law. | | | | A message from the Black Women’s Health Imperative:   | | | | | | SECOND TIME’S A CHARM — The Senate Monday night confirmed LUCY KOH to serve on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, by a vote of 50-45. She previously served as a district judge for the Northern District of California. President Obama originally nominated Koh to serve on the Ninth Circuit in February 2016, but the Republican Senate blocked her nomination from ever getting a floor vote. | | | Biden’s top labor lawyer will use her whole enforcement arsenal (Bloomberg’s Josh Eidelson) How a 100-year-old newspaper became the go-to way to influence Biden (POLITICO’s Hailey Fuchs and Max Tani) UAE threatens to pull out of U.S. F-35, drone deal inked under Trump (WSJ’s Gordon Lubold and Warren Strobel) | | | JOHN KIRBY, Pentagon press secretary, will be on Morning Joe Wednesday in the 8 a.m. ET hour. KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, White House deputy press secretary, will be on Way Too Early with Jonathan Lemire tomorrow at 5 a.m. ET. | | | | DON’T MISS CONGRESS MINUTES: Need to follow the action on Capitol Hill blow-by-blow? Check out Minutes, POLITICO’s new platform that delivers the latest exclusives, twists and much more in real time. Get it on your desktop or download the POLITICO mobile app for iOS or Android. CHECK OUT CONGRESS MINUTES HERE. | | | | | | | | He received the president’s daily brief. He also reportedly spoke “briefly” with Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.V.). And this afternoon he made an impromptu stop by the Roosevelt Room where a group of mayors were meeting with senior administration officials to discuss infrastructure spending, the Build Back Better legislation and efforts to fight Covid-19. “POTUS then took them on a tour of the Oval Office,” pooler SABRINA SIDDIQUI of the Wall Street Journal reported. This evening, the president and first lady JILL BIDEN head to the DNC holiday celebration and fundraiser at Hotel Washington, where he will deliver remarks. | | | She participated in a discussion with Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN at the Freedman’s Bank Forum at the Treasury Department. She will also deliver remarks at the DNC fundraiser this evening, accompanied by second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF. | | | Growing up, White House traveling content director OLIVIA RAISNER’s mom, CAROLYN, encouraged her to think outside the box. “We didn't have coloring books, we had ‘anti-coloring books’ — essentially a collection of blank pages meant for us to draw our own ideas in,” she said in a Bowdoin College piece back in March. “The coloring book is a small example, but her message was clear: make up your own stuff!” While the “anti-coloring book” just sounds like a plain notebook to us, we agree the sentiment is cool. Don’t just color outside the lines, draw your own! | | | THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Having left office in 1909, Roosevelt was not satisfied with the performance of his successor WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT and decided to run in 1912. After failing to gain the Republican Party nomination, he was giving a speech as the candidate for his own "Bull Moose Party" when a gunman shot him in the chest. The bullet was slowed by the text of Roosevelt's 50-page speech, which he delivered despite the injury. Roosevelt recovered and continued to campaign, but with the Republicans split between Roosevelt and Taft, WOODROW WILSON won the election. For information on life-or-death campaign speeches and the presidency, visit millercenter.org Got a better question? Send us your hardest trivia question on the presidents and we may feature it on Wednesdays. 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 Black Women’s Health Imperative: The American Medical Association recognized obesity as a serious yet treatable disease that leads to chronic illness and premature death years ago. It is well known that obesity is one of the top comorbidities for COVID-19. And, data consistently shows that obesity impacts communities of color at a disproportionately high rate. Yet, despite all of this Medicare still fails to cover the full continuum of care available. The Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI) believes Washington has the power to update outdated and discriminatory Medicare rules by passing the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act (TROA).
The lack of access to comprehensive obesity care not only exacerbates severe health and economic disparities in America, but also costs taxpayers billions of dollars. Washington can improve health equity, save lives, and save money in one fell swoop by passing TROA. Learn more about BWHI at www.BWHI.org and TROA at ObesityCareNow.org. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
