|
Presented by Facebook: | | | | |  | | By Alex Thompson and Max Tani | | | Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Setota Hailemariam Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Alex | Email Max Every Wednesday at 11 a.m., about two dozen Democratic media-friendly “talkers” convene on Zoom, often with a White House official. Led by longtime Democratic strategist ADRIENNE ELROD and the outside group Building Back Together, this weekly conference call includes familiar voices from cable television, like CNN political commentators PAUL BEGALA, MARIA CARDONA, JESS MCINTOSH and ASHLEY ALLISON, and Democratic communication strategists ERIC SCHULTZ, JESS O’CONNELL, ZAC PETKANAS and JESSE FERGUSON. The White House also will organize additional calls with “talkers” in response to specific events and they can include people like longtime operative STEPHANIE CUTTER (a “top talker,” as one person called her). But the Wednesday morning digital gathering is the most regularly scheduled call where the White House and top Democrats try to game out how to influence the national conversation on the issue of the week. It’s a common political practice, engaged in by both parties. But it’s also a sign of which outside Democrats this White House trusts. Many in the loop worked in the Obama administration or on HILLARY CLINTON’s 2016 campaign. Some Hill veterans have complained that they’re not brought in enough. Very few participants in the meetings regularly appear on Fox News or other conservative media. “I find it a useful way to keep up with what the White House is thinking,” said Begala, who said he joins occasionally. White House communications director KATE BEDINGFIELD sometimes participates. This week, deputy communications director KATE BERNER joined the call, which largely focused on guns and last week’s inflation report. One participant noted that the White House didn’t dwell on the work of the Jan. 6 committee, despite the primetime hearings it would begin holding tonight. The sessions also can also take the form of informal war rooms, with additional calls beyond Wednesday and the inclusion of more outside groups. That’s what happened during the Senate confirmation process of Supreme Court nominee KETANJI BROWN JACKSON when BEN LABOLT, who went to the White House to help work on the confirmation fight, took the lead. But there have been complaints that the calls are too narrow and irregular. More generally, some Democratic allies have complained about being in the dark about what the White House messaging is, precisely because their talking points are not widely distributed. As POLITICO’s JONATHAN LEMIRE recently reported, “a number of outside groups and Democratic advisers have been baffled by a lack of coordination on key issues” including voting rights and the decision to rescind Title 42, the public health directive being used to curb immigration. As the president’s approval rating sags to 40 percent, some participants wonder if the White House should revert more to a war room mentality. “I think we should be doing a lot more of these,” said one. But others on the call caution that simply scheduling more meetings won’t be the magic trick to turning around an increasingly bleak political climate. “I don’t think we need to ramp them up. I don’t think we’re going to Zoom our way to victory,” said another call participant. TEXT US — Are you SANAM RASTEGAR, special assistant in Cabinet Affairs? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous if you’d like. 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 or you can text/Signal/Wickr Alex at 8183240098.
| | | | 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. | | | | | | | | Alex here with the trivia. Given the Jan. 6 committee’s hearing tonight, this one deals with political violence: The first known presidential assassination attempt was actually at the Capitol. Which president was the target? Bonus points if you know why the assassination attempt failed. (Answer at the bottom.)
| | | RETURN TO HEALTH: HILARY MARSTON has left the White House after a yearlong detail as senior policy adviser for the global Covid response, a White House official confirmed to ADAM CANCRYN . Marston was expected to return to a senior role within the Department of Health and Human Services. FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK — BEN MARTEL has been detailed to the White House to be a press assistant for Vice President KAMALA HARRIS, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. He most recently was confidential assistant to the Education Department’s Assistant Secretary for Congressional Affairs, GWEN GRAHAM, and is also a Biden campaign alum. NEW ON THE TWITTERS: The newest members of the White House press team: ABDULLAH HASAN and ALEXANDRA LAMANNA, assistant press secretaries, are here and here, respectively. CLICKS: Last night, we wrote about Biden’s frustrations with media coverage of his administration and his team’s attempts to change the narrative on inflation and other issues that have contributed to low poll numbers. During an appearance last night on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Biden amplified those complaints. “Look how the press has changed,” he said. “With notable exceptions, even the really good reporters have to get a number of clicks, so instead of asking the questions… everything gets sensationalized.” Full video For the record, Mr. President, West Wing Playbook is much more concerned with our open rate than our clicks…
| | A message from Facebook: Facebook is taking action to keep its platform safe
We have over 40,000 people working on safety and security across our platforms. That’s more than the size of the FBI.
And it's just one example of the work we’re doing to create safer connections for our communities.
Learn more about our work ahead. | | | RELATED: Some White House reporters told West Wing Playbook they were surprised and frustrated that Biden doesn’t appear likely to give a press conference at the Summit of the Americas this week. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: As more electric cars are found on America’s roads and highways, the Biden administration is looking to standardize vehicle charging stations. On Thursday, National Economic Council communications adviser JESSE LEE shareda new piece by CNN that detailed the administration’s plan to increase accessibility of such charging stations, which the White House hopes will encourage more drivers to switch to electric vehicles. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: KEN THOMAS and NATALIE ANDREWS’new piece in the Wall Street Journal detailing growing frustrations among congressional Democrats over a series of crises almost certain to doom the party in the midterms. According to the article, many exasperated lawmakers are “complaining that the White House isn’t addressing rising gas prices and food costs with the same urgency their constituents are demanding back home. They also blame the administration for failing to recognize that closing a plant that produced baby formula would create a crisis.” FIRE EMOJI: NAOMI BIDEN, Hunter’s daughter, tweeted back at Sen. RON JOHNSON (R-Wis.) last night.
| 
A screenshot of a tweet by Naomi Biden addressing Sen. Ron Johnson is pictured. | Naomi Biden via Twitter/POLITICO screenshot | | | | | A message from Facebook:   | | | | | | DEEP DIVE: ROHIT CHOPRA, the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a progressive favorite, gets a lengthy profile in the Wall Street Journal today . The piece has some fun details on how he has carried out his job in “unorthodox ways while tapping previously unused regulatory powers.” HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW KIDS? Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN is with it, people. Asked about CARDI B’s tweet this week about the U.S. heading into a recession, Yellen made clear she knows who the rapper is. "I don't have that much time, but I mean, I am alive,” she quipped. Yellen added, "I don't think we're going to have a recession.” Still, she also said “it’s unlikely that gas prices will fall anytime soon.”
| | | CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF? Biden’s pick to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, STEVE DETTELBACH, appears headed to Senate confirmation after key moderate Democratic Sens. JON TESTER and JOE MANCHIN said they would support him,MARIANNE LEVINE reports. WTF HAPPENED WITH FORMULA: POLITICO’s MEREDITH LEE has a new behind-the scenes read on how a baby formula recall became a national crisis for parents of young children. Small teams of staff within the White House’s Domestic Policy Council and National Economic Council had been monitoring how supply chain concerns were affecting baby formula, but they concluded the recall by Abbott Nutrition did not warrant involvement from the president and top staff, who were consumed by Covid-19 and the early stages of the war in Ukraine. “There were a million crises going on,” said one White House official on the Domestic Policy Council, who was not involved in the immediate response and who didn’t hear about the formula issue during team meetings for weeks after the recall. “That doesn’t mean that this wasn’t also a crisis, it just wasn’t elevated to a top level crisis.”
| | A message from Facebook: Facebook is taking action to keep its platform safe
We have over 40,000 people working on safety and security across our platforms. That’s more than the size of the FBI.
And it's just one example of the work we’re doing to create safer connections for our communities.
Learn more about our work ahead. | | | | | | Biden’s $52 Billion Chips Plan Stuck; Lawmakers Eye Election (Bloomberg’s Jenny Leonard and Daniel Flatley) Biden pledges executive orders on abortion. His options are limited. (POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein)
| | | ANDREW JACKSON was the target of an 1835 assassination attempt at the Capitol, where he was attending a funeral. RICHARD LAWRENCE, an unemployed house painter, waited at the rotunda entrance behind a pillar, according to the Senate’s own history of the event. When the president arrived, Lawrence pulled out a single-shot pistol and fired. It was a wet January day, however, and the powder failed to ignite. Rather than flee, Jackson ran at Lawrence with his cane raised above his head, which gave Lawrence a chance to fire another shot. But again, the powder didn’t light. Finally, bystanders tackled Lawrence. The attempt prompted rumors that Lawrence had been hired by one of Jackson’s political enemies like HENRY CLAY or his former vice president JOHN CALHOUN. Some Whigs suggested that Jackson’s team had staged the whole thing to gain public sympathy. One could even call that a false flag. Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein
| | | | INTRODUCING DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
|
