Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Alex | Email Max JOHN OLIVER isn’t all that impressed with JOE BIDEN’s performance as president. But he said the 45th president has helped with at least one thing: Restoring his show’s original purpose. Speaking with West Wing Playbook before the premiere of the ninth season of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight,” the popular political comedian said the Biden administration had allowed his weekly late night show to get back to drilling in on detailed, difficult, occasionally more evergreen topics. The Trump years may have been a firehose of absurd moments, he said, but he often found himself scrambling to craft his show around whatever the crazy news event of the week was, leaving less time for his signature deeper dives into the policy weeds. “There was so much low hanging fruit with a presidency like that, you can make a mistake of gorging yourself on that and ignoring the much more important things that are happening above that fruit,” Oliver said. “And then you add the pandemic on top of that, especially in 2020, where we were having to respond to what was happening each week much more than we normally would and much more than we would like, to be honest.” Even with Trump out of office (and off social media), Oliver isn’t taking his eye off the White House. Like his mentor, the late night host JON STEWART, Oliver has relished skewering liberal politicians (who hew closer to his ideological sensibilities) nearly as much as he has many on the right. Last season, Oliver, who famously doesn’t call himself a journalist, regularly called out the Biden administration. Last Week Tonight ran segments on the president’s lack of action on voting rights, perceived hypocrisy on immigration, and America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. During one memorable segment , Oliver said the administration was less like the show "The West Wing" and more like the dystopian series "Mr. Robot" “in that I’m not sure even the people involved know exactly what’s going on. And, unless they’re very careful, it might stop after four years.” Oliver elaborated on his frustrations last week, saying he had been disappointed by the White House’s incremental approach to tackling issues that required much more radical policy changes. “My concern right from the start — not even with the Biden presidency but with the Biden candidacy — was he was not going to be historically the kind of person who was likely to have the scale of the solutions to match the scale of the problems that we face,” he said. “That has unfortunately borne out.” For Oliver, the Biden years have been a welcome course correction, allowing him to build a program less around an outrageous personality whose every move was constantly scrutinized, and more around a philosophical frustration that he may share with his core audience “With Biden, it’s not so much about him as a person, it’s about what his administration represents,” he said. “In terms of stories that we’re working on, it’s interesting to watch inaction on an issue, or action that has very limited consequences, or an attempt to make a change that fails. It’s interesting in different ways. Sometimes it is a way to show the nuances of problems, instead of just an administration that is hellbent on destruction.” “Obviously, you’re going to get the worst case scenario of an immigration policy from a Trump administration, it’s going to be idiotic policies built on malice,” he continued. “With a Biden administration, it’s a bit more interesting because you have a public face of compassion, and campaign promises — pretty specifically on ‘Remain in Mexico’ — yet advocating for that policy to remain. That is much more interesting than a cartoon villain engaging in cartoon villainy.” A White House spokesperson pushed back on Oliver’s claims that Biden had hypocritically kept the "Remain In Mexico" policies in place after pledging during the 2020 campaign to end them, noting that a federal judge ordered the administration to reinstate the program last year against the objection of the Biden White House. “The Department of Homeland Security ended enrolling individuals in it on the first day of the administration, and terminated the program in July 2021,” the spokesperson said. “As a result of a court order the Administration has been required to re-implement the program. It is not a policy that President Biden agrees with. Secretary Mayorkas issued an additional termination memo and the federal government continues to appeal the ruling.” Oliver acknowledges that the subjects of his criticism are likely not thrilled by his segments, but he hasn't shied away from targets closer to home. He recalled a segment last season the show ran on HBO parent company AT&T, in which he admonished the telecom and media giant for propping up the fringe conspiratorial cable network One America News. “It is very fun to bite the hand that feeds you when the hand is doing so many terrible things,” he said of the piece. Asked about the recent drama at HBO’s corporate cousin CNN, in which executive JEFF ZUCKER abruptly resigned after admitting to not immediately disclosing a romantic relationship with a subordinate — part of the ongoing fallout related to former New York Gov. ANDREW CUOMO’s resignation and the involvement of his brother, CNN anchor CHRIS CUOMO, in that crisis, Oliver said it was a “complete circus.” “I cannot comprehend how you could keep [Chris] Cuomo on air after what he did and hope to maintain any kind of ethical standards,” he said. “In terms of Zucker, he probably had to go. It doesn’t seem that complicated to me. It’s a massive circus and clearly there’s going to be a long tail from the Andrew Cuomo investigation down and we may not reach the bottom of that tail. But he added: “If cleaning house leaves you with a cleaner house, is that really such a bad place for it to end?” TEXT US — We’re rolling out more interviews soon with administration officials and relevant figures in politics and media who have unique perspectives or interesting interactions with the White House. Get in touch if you or someone you know fits the bill. Send us an email or text and we will try to include your thoughts in the next day’s edition. Can be anonymous, on background, etc. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com or you can text/Signal Alex at 8183240098 or Max at 7143455427. Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you JOHN KIRBY, the Pentagon spokesperson? Email/text us! Please?
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