Life without Wallace

From: POLITICO West Wing Playbook - Thursday Dec 16,2021 11:24 pm

Dec 16, 2021

By Max Tani, Tina Sfondeles and Alex Thompson

Presented by the Black Women’s Health Imperative

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“Fox News Sunday” was one of the few shows on Fox News where the Biden White House regularly booked top officials for interviews. But the surprise departure of longtime anchor CHRIS WALLACE has given more ammunition to the Democrats who want the administration to further freeze out the conservative cable news network.

Throughout the first year of the administration, much of the Biden team has tried to keep a conversation going with a limited number of shows at Fox in an effort to reach the network’s audience—which is both the largest on cable news, and far more conservative than its main competitors. Biden officials generally have a good rapport with the news organization’s White House correspondents PETER DOOCY and JACQUI HEINRICH —though Doocy’s needling at briefings often elicits eyerolls inside the West Wing.

And while top administration figures are mocked and demonized by the network’s primetime and opinion hosts, the White House has consistently sent officials on Fox News Sunday, mainly their most trusted, seasoned messengers like press secretary JEN PSAKI, chief medical adviser ANTHONY FAUCI, national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN, and Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG.

But the thinking among some administration officials and allies who spoke with us is that Wallace’s departure makes it significantly harder to find a “fair and balanced” landing spot on Fox News and that they’ll have to adjust accordingly.

“The outlet has become an unabashed and toxic outlet that the occasional appearance from a reasonable Democrat is never going to be persuasive to an audience that’s being smothered with lies and smears,” said a Biden ally.

Administration officials respected Wallace for his reputation for tough but civil interviews, even as they detested the rest of the Fox News lineup. But they were cautious around him too. While he said in an interview earlier this year that the Biden team was “pretty good at giving us guests,” Wallace repeatedly lamented that he did not land an interview with Biden during the general election despite being promised one, and was not granted one with the president during his first year in office.

For Fox, Wallace served an important function too. Though multiple sources familiar with his thinking said he considered leaving Fox before his previous contract, he stuck with the network. And his continued presence there—along with hosts like SHEP SMITH—gave it ammunition to push back against allegations of right-wing bias.

Now both anchors, along with several other well-known journalists and writers, are gone following separate clashes with the network’s opinion hosts. And some of those same opinion hosts find themselves embroiled in controversies of their own, after private text messages were released showing them trying to persuade former White House chief of staff MARK MEADOWS to get then-President DONALD TRUMP to call off the mob on Jan. 6.

To many Democrats and liberal watchdog organizations, the past week is merely affirmation of what they’ve always suspected about Fox. The network, they argue, has a history of peddling conspiracy theories, xenophobia, and racist and sexist rhetoric . And they believe its daily disdain towards the Democratic party makes engaging with it unacceptable and unproductive. During the 2020 presidential campaign, Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.) embodied this ethos, declining to participate in town halls on the network, saying she would not force Democratic primary voters to “tune into an outlet that profits from racism and hate in order to see our candidates."

But others still believe the network has some value even if its anchors are even less wedded to even-handed journalism than they have been in the past.

Buttigieg’s former deputy campaign manager HARI SEVUGAN pointed out that the then-South Bend mayor didn’t go on Fox because the campaign thought the network was “a paragon of journalistic virtue.” He appeared on the network because the campaign saw value in reaching the viewers regardless of what the hosts may say.

“No one should go on Fox for the reporters,” Sevugan said. “You should go on for the viewers.”

Still, Fox seems intent on reminding viewers that Wallace was not the only non-opinion journalist who worked at the network. Starting earlier this week, Fox has repeatedly run a new promotion: one touting the network’s other news personalities including BRET BAIER, who will fill in for Wallace on Sunday, national security correspondent JENNIFER GRIFFIN, and daytime anchor MARTHA MacCALLUM.

And one Fox News source told us that while nothing was set in stone yet, the network had productive conversations this week with the Biden team, and may ultimately find an administration official to appear on Sunday’s show. No such booking has been announced yet.

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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.

POTUS PUZZLER

From the University of Virginia’s Miller Center

Which president said: “You have a great opportunity as an incumbent congressman to campaign for two years at public expense. A president has just the opposite. He’s responsible for everything that aggravates people”? Bonus points if you know what year it was said!

(Answer at the bottom.)

The Oval

SMALL WORLD — Former Time’s Up chairwoman ROBERTA KAPLAN is representing the president’s daughter ASHLEY BIDEN , according to a New York Times story by reporters ADAM GOLDMAN and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT that details the federal investigation into how the conservative group Project Veritas acquired Ashley Biden’s journal in 2020. We reached out to Kaplan’s firm, Kaplan Hecker & Fink, to ask how long Kaplan has been working on behalf of the president’s daughter, but they declined to comment. Project Veritas obtained the diary at the tail end of Biden’s presidential campaign.

Kaplan, a prominent progressive lawyer, resigned from Time’s Up, a nonprofit that advocates for victims of sexual harassment, in August amid fallout from a report that found former New York Gov. ANDREW CUOMO sexually harassed 11 women. The report by the New York State attorney general found Kaplan was one of several prominent figures involved in an effort to discredit one of Cuomo’s alleged victims, and she had legal ties to a former Cuomo aide accused of leading that effort.

HARRIS CHARM OFFENSIVE: After lying low when it came to media interviews, Vice President KAMALA HARRIS has had a flurry of them this past week, speaking with the SF Chronicle, Sirius XM’s “Signal Boost,” and The Wall Street Journal, which dropped its piece today. Her office also touted a new story today from CBS’ TIM PERRY about Harris’ work on the infrastructure bill.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO SEE: White House photographer ERIN SCOTT snapped an emotional picture of POTUS hugging a woman affected by the Kentucky tornadoes during his visit yesterday. The image, in black and white, was tweeted by White House director of digital strategy ROB FLAHERTY: “Man, this picture,” Flaherty wrote, in a tweet that’s since gone viral.

Erin Scott/Courtesy of the White House

Biden hugs a person while visiting the area to survey storm damage from tornadoes and extreme weather in Dawson Springs, Ky. | White House Photographer Erin Scott/Courtesy

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: An AP story by MICHAEL CASEY that notes evictions are on the rise after the federal eviction moratorium ended in August. It includes the story of a disabled Miami man, FREDDIE DAVIS, who was evicted a month after the moratorium ended and is now relying on the help of a nonprofit that helps homeless people.

Data from the Eviction Lab at Princeton University shows eviction filings have been rising in most of the 31 cities and six states where it collects data, Casey writes.

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.

Advise and Consent

ICYMI — The Senate last night voted 62-37 to confirm attorney SAMANTHA D. ELLIOTT to be a U.S. District Judge in New Hampshire.

Agenda Setting

PSAKI CIRCLES BACK — On Tuesday, VOA’s PATSY WIDAKUSWARA asked JEN PSAKI what the administration considered their “biggest achievement” in foreign policy this year. Psaki didn’t answer, saying she wanted to be “thoughtful about it. I want to talk to the president about it, and I’m happy to do that.”

Today, she tweeted a list in response to the question. POLITICO’s NatSec Daily analyzed her answers today . Widakuswara thanked Psaki on Twitter and added: "Looking forward to hear your response on 2nd part of my q: what lessons have you learned from what is arguably the biggest failure - Afghanistan?"

CAMERAS ON? Sen. JOE MANCHIN today joined Biden, the VP and other Democratic senators on a Zoom call to discuss voting rights, MARIANNE LEVINE reports. But while the White House wants to mark the new year with a push for voting rights, JONATHAN LEMIRE and LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ write that West Wing aides believe federal efforts to defend the ballot are likely to be dashed by some Democrats’ resistance to changing the Senate filibuster, all spearheaded by Manchin.

LEAD BE GONE: Years after the Flint water crisis, the White House today announced a new proposal to replace every lead pipe in the country. The proposal was unveiled by Vice President Harris and could impact as many as 10 million households. It’s a massive undertaking that public health experts say could have a major impact on lowering instances of lead poisoning, especially among children. The money for it was made possible by the president’s infrastructure proposal.

UN-SETTLED: For several weeks now, the Biden administration has taken it on the chin from Republicans who have erroneously attacked it for giving cash payments of up to $450,000 to undocumented immigrants. In fact, the real story was that the administration was considering settling a lawsuit with individual families for that amount over suits they had brought after their children were separated from them under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance border policy.

Today, multiple outlets reported that the Biden administration has now pulled out of those settlement talks, a decision harshly criticized by the ACLU, which had brought the suits on behalf of the families.

A message from the Black Women’s Health Imperative:

What We're Reading

Border arrests ticked up 5 percent in November, first increase since summer (WaPo’s Maria Sacchetti and Nick Miroff)

In Senate that 'sucks', Dems wait for Biden's word (POLITICO’s Burgess Everett and Marianne LeVine)

What We're Watching

First Lady JILL BIDEN appears in three festive videos at the White House with PBS Kids–costumed characters and puppet show included (streaming online now).

National security adviser Jake Sullivan participates in a conversation with the Council on Foreign Relations about the Biden administration’s first year in office, airing on C-SPAN at 1 p.m. ET on Friday.

Where's Joe

The president awarded the Medal of Honor to Sgt. 1st Class ALWYN CASHE, Sgt. 1st Class CHRISTOPHER CELIZ and Master Sgt. EARL PLUMLEE in the East Room, alongside the first lady.

Biden also met with the White House Covid-19 response team about the Omicron variant in the Roosevelt Room.

Where's Kamala

She delivered remarks about the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure package at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C. EPA administrator MICHAEL REGAN also attended.

Harris and second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF also attended the Medal of Honor award ceremony. And she joined the president in the White House Covid-19 response team meeting.

In the evening, Harris swore in BRIAN NELSON to be the undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial crimes in the Vice President’s Ceremonial Office.

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.

The Oppo Book

He may be a prolific Twitter user, but a few years back, Facebook was Biden chief of staff RON KLAIN’s favorite social media app, he told the tech networking website The Bridge.

"For all of its problems, it still provides an unmatched means to stay in touch with friends I grew up with in Indiana, former colleagues from decades of campaigns and public service scattered about the country, and contacts all over the world,” he confessed.

“Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a power user of Facebook — much to my childrens' chagrin."

We all remember where we were when our parents got on Facebook.

POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER

Former President JIMMY CARTER said this when he assessed his one-term presidency in an extensive Miller Center oral history interview in 1982.

Join the Miller Center and presidential experts live at Decatur House in Washington, D.C., on January 13 to discuss President Biden’s first year. Register here.

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.