WHAT ABOUT THAT GAFFE?? — The president gave a press conference today, ostensibly to discuss his budget. But it was quickly overtaken by his comments from two days before in which he said, for the sake of God himself, VLADIMIR PUTIN “cannot remain in power.” Biden got more than half a dozen questions about whether that line was an embrace of regime change and what he imagined Putin’s reaction would be. “I want to make it clear I wasn't then and I am not now articulating a policy change,” he explained. “I was expressing the moral outrage that I feel and I make no apologies for it.” “People like this shouldn't be ruling countries but they do,” he said at another point. “The fact they do doesn't mean I can't express my outrage about it.” Biden did leave open the possibility of meeting with Putin if the conditions were right — though, frankly, from the tone of his voice, it did not appear that he held out much promise for a tete-a-tete. And Biden said he did not care what Putin thought of what he said. The North Star, he reiterated, was actually avoiding military conflict with Russia. “The only war that's worse than one intended is one that's unintended,” said Biden. “The last thing I want to do is engage in a land war or a nuclear war with Russia.” And thus concluded Day Three of this story line, which was prompted by a Biden riff at the tail end of an otherwise well-received speech. DISAPPEARING ACT — On Sunday, the White House sent around a planning note saying National Security Adviser JAKE SULLIVAN was set to join Council of Economic Advisers chair CECILIA ROUSE and Office of Management and Budget director SHALANDA YOUNG. But some White House reporters were confused and annoyed when his name disappeared from the list of attendees of the White House press briefing. When the briefing ended, several shouted at the departing White House officials, asking them why Sullivan hadn’t showed up. According to the White House, he did not attend because Biden decided to take questions himself at an earlier event on Monday. FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK — TERRY MOYNIHAN and TODD ZUBATKIN are now the acting heads of the White House research department, a person familiar with the matter told DANIEL LIPPMAN. MEGAN APPER, who used to head up the office and is now senior adviser in the Bureau of Global Public Affairs at the State Department, hired both of them very early in the primary campaign and they were her deputies in the White House as well. Before becoming a political researcher, Apper dug up stories as part of ANDREW KACZYNSKI’s Buzzfeed team. ANOTHER FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK — SHERICE PERRY is now a senior adviser to the director of the White House office of public engagement CEDRIC RICHMOND, where she will work on executing high-level OPE projects, a person familiar with the matter told Daniel. She most recently was a senior adviser for the Covid-19 Health Equity Task Force at the Department of Health and Human Services and is also a Biden campaign and JILL BIDEN alum. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This Washington Post piece from last week, which warned that the administration lacks the funding to give everyone a free fourth Covid shot because of a congressional stalemate over pandemic aid. IAN SAMS, who does Covid comms for the Department of Health and Human Services, tweeted it out today. “Without additional resources, the U.S. won’t be able to buy the vaccines, treatments, and tests we need to be prepared for future needs,” Sams wrote. “This has been a bipartisan priority as we’ve battled the virus for two years. Why stop now?” WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This Los Angeles Times’ piece on Vice President KAMALA HARRIS tightening her inner circle. There are tons of nuggets in the piece, but a couple are notable. One: Harris is leaning on her sister, MAYA HARRIS, for advice — a revelation that the White House downplayed. The second: that the Veep’s relationship with fellow California political heavyweight, Speaker NANCY PELOSI, does not appear to be particularly close. “Most of their conversations are operational, about something that’s happening,” said DREW HAMILL, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff. “There’s not a lot of time for reflection in this business because there’s so much incoming.”
| 
