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 PROGRAMMING NOTE: We’ll be off Monday for Memorial Day but will be back in your inbox on Tuesday, May 31. We hope absence makes the heart grow fonder! CNN’s new CEO, CHRIS LICHT, was in the network’s Washington bureau this week to meet with staff and oversee election night coverage. But the new boss also had another important trip to make while in town. Multiple people with knowledge told West Wing Playbook that Licht visited the White House to meet with CNN’s White House reporting team, as well attend as a private meeting with President JOE BIDEN’s chief of staff RON KLAIN. While he just recently started his tenure atop the cable news organization, Licht has made getting to know leaders of both parties a top priority. One source said Licht has met in recent days with top congressional Republicans and other Democrats. Licht’s trip to the White House comes amid a careful internal balancing act at CNN. He’s sought to endear himself to network staff still shell shocked by the abrupt and acrimonious departure of former boss JEFF ZUCKER. Licht has visited the D.C. bureau multiple times since taking on the top job, and sat down with top talent one-on-one (he was one of anchor JAKE TAPPER’s guests at last month’s dinner hosted by the prestigious Gridiron Club). He’s also had to assuage staff still frustrated by the disastrous rollout and demise of CNN+ just weeks after the streaming service’s launch (even though Licht wasn’t even technically on the job yet). But as Puck’s DYLAN BYERS notes, he’s still learning the internal rhythms of the network. He has attempted to distance himself from rank-and-file staff, a deliberate break from Zucker’s hands-on approach to programming that’s intended to empower producers and journalists. The White House did not respond to requests for comment about Klain’s meeting with Licht. But the discussion comes as top Biden aides are ramping up press outreach in order to help move the president’s poor approval ratings, which have tanked amid rising inflation and gas prices. In recent months, senior administration officials have seemed more open to engaging with journalists behind the scenes. Klain in particular has granted more on-record interviews and met with other major political media figures like MSNBC host JOE SCARBOROUGH. During his first 16 months in office, Biden hasn’t engaged in much behind-the-scenes messaging and correspondence with media personalities. When West Wing Playbook called DAVID BROOKS earlier this year, the New York Times columnist and longtime Biden favorite said he hadn’t heard from the president since they chatted for a piece last year. But Biden’s personal frustration with the news coverage of his administration may be compelling him to change his approach. He took time last week for an off-the-record chat with New York Times columnist TOM FRIEDMAN , whom the president has long read and respected. The move yielded positive results for the president: Friedman published a column in which he did not share details of the meeting, but offered a defense of Biden’s mental acuity and praised his handling of the response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He also revealed he ate a tuna sandwich. TEXT US — Are you new CNN boss CHRIS LICHT? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous. Or if you think we missed something in today’s edition, let us know and we may include it tomorrow. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. WHAT YOU TEXTED: FRED DUVAL, deputy chief of protocol during BILL CLINTON’s first term, wrote in with some of his own tales of foreign gift giving: In the ‘great’ gifts category this: When President NELSON MANDELA (who boxed to stay in shape while imprisoned on Robbin Island) came to Washington after the fall of apartheid and his ascendence to the Presidency, President Clinton gave him a collection of letters signed by all the living heavyweight champions expressing their admiration. He was so touched he cried. In the gifts gone wrong category: On a trip to Saudi Arabia President Clinton was given Arabian horses that couldn’t be flown home on AF1. You will have to ask then U.S. Ambassador RAY MABUS what became of them.* *We reached out to Mabus but he did not respond in time for publication.
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