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Presented by Demand Justice: | | | | |  | | By Max Tani and Alex Thompson | | | Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Max While many Zoomers have grown frustrated with President JOE BIDEN — if they ever liked him in the first place — ETHAN WOLF is not one of them. The 22-year-old recent Ohio State University graduate currently serves as the deputy political director for Rep. BRAD SCHNEIDER’s reelection campaign. But in his spare time, he has been tweeting several posts a day at the handle @BidensWins listing the president’s political victories. Most posts are short, condensing Biden’s legislative moves, executive actions, and other political positives down to one sentence capped with (in case it wasn’t clear from the handle) a sentence declaring “That’s a Biden Win!” And while this may seem like an unusual hobby for someone in their early 20s, there’s clearly an appetite for his content. In six months, Wolf’s Twitter following has gone from 0 to over 150,000, up from just 30,000 last month. The account has become a favorite of White House staffers, including the administration’s most prominent regular poster. RON KLAIN has retweeted the account’s posts about falling gas prices four times in the last month, more than almost any other account reposted by the chief-of-staff. Wolf told West Wing Playbook in a telephone interview that since launching the account, some White House staff have gotten in touch to privately offer him encouragement, saying they appreciate his work promoting the administration. “We don’t have a formal relationship, but it’s nice to know that the administration is seeing the work we’re doing and appreciating it,” he said. Wolf isn’t a run of the mill Biden stan. He founded a pro-Biden Jewish group when he was at OSU, catching the attention of the 2020 Biden campaign, which he said worked with him during the election. He then became an intern on Schneider’s congressional campaign, after which he was elevated to the role of deputy political director.
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Twitter | During an interview last week, Wolf repeatedly emphasized that his posts on the @BidenWins account are separate from his job with the Democratic Illinois congressman. But why do it at all? Wolf said he’s driven by the belief that Democrats are often bad at sharing good news, and he wanted to highlight the president’s political victories heading into the midterm elections. "There's a large part of the Democratic party that are so focused on the things that they want to do, that they forget what they've already done," he said. Over the last several months, the Biden White House has been attempting to motivate its online following by boosting its biggest online supporters like Wolf. After the president nominated Judge KETANJI BROWN JACKSON to the Supreme Court, the White House passed on interviews with the Times and the Post, instead granting its first big Biden interviews to Boston College professor and popular Substacker HEATHER COX RICHARDSON and left-leaning YouTuber BRIAN TYLER COHEN . Klain also gave his first post-State of the Union interview on a Twitter Spaces live chat hosted by Occupy Democrats and MeidasTouch, a liberal organization and pro-Biden PAC. But those efforts are rarely sustained. And the prevailing sentiment in left-leaning media is that the White House is distant. Wolf has been running the account by himself, but he said the responsibilities have gotten so big that he’s brought in someone to help run the Twitter and Instagram accounts. He also said he’s connected with a number of like-minded pro-Biden accounts online, though he differentiates the @BidensWins handle from some other accounts supporting the president such as @What46HasDone, which Wolf said is more policy focused and in the weeds. “It’s important to note that that account plays a very different role in the ecosystem,” he said. “If you go through and look at @BidensWins account, it’s very easily digestible. It’s more about energy and enthusiasm than the specific details.” MESSAGE US — Are you @What46HasDone? 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.
| | | | A message from Demand Justice: President Biden set records on judges in his first year, but with new judicial retirements, there are now 120 vacancies, and the clock is ticking. Democrats are on track to leave more than 60 seats open at the end of this Congress, so we need more nominations and more hearings, to lead to more confirmations. 30+ organizations are calling on Biden and the Senate to do whatever it takes to fill every seat. Join us. | | | | | | This one is courtesy of reader JUDITH BARNETT. Another two-parter: Who was the youngest first lady and the only one to give birth in the White House? (Answer at bottom.)
| | | FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: The Washington Post’s White House bureau chief ASHLEY PARKER is leaving the position for a role as a senior national correspondent for the paper, where she will cover the political issues affecting the country leading up to the midterms. TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA will replace her as the paper’s White House bureau chief, and aims to increase coverage focusing on the Biden administration’s promises around racial justice and how the administration’s policies impact racial equality. Olorunnipa is a political enterprise and investigations reporter for the post, and published a book on GEORGE FLOYD earlier this year. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This Washington Post opinion piece by PERRY BACON JR. about how the “mainstream media has played a huge, underappreciated role in Biden’s declining support over the past year.” Bacon wrote that the “flawed coverage model of politics and government is bad for more than just Biden — it results in a distorted national discourse that weakens our democracy.” White House deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES tweeted out the piece. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This analysis, also by the Washington Post, about the administration’s lagging climate change efforts at a time when signs of global warming are being felt around the world. WaPo’s CHRIS MOONEY and HARRY STEVENS write that “in 101 months, the U.S. will have achieved Biden’s most important climate promise — or it will have fallen short. Right now it is seriously falling short, and for each month that passes, it becomes harder to succeed until at some point — perhaps very soon — it will become virtually impossible.” GLASS HALF FULL: DAVID AXELROD is not the White House’s favorite Democratic pundit but it boosted his tweet today when the former top Obama aide wrote: “In fairness, @BarackObama would have loved to pass the infrastructure and gun safety bills @POTUS signed. If @JoeBiden winds up winning the right to negotiate and reduce RX drug prices under Medicare, he will have achieved another thing Dems have been talking abour [sic] for decades.” OOPS: Press Secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE mistakenly referred to Supreme Court Justice CLARENCE THOMAS as “Judge Thompson” in today’s briefing. HARRIS TALKS TOUGH: Vice President KAMALA HARRIS told the NAACP today that, “We know, NAACP, that our country has a history of claiming ownership over human bodies. And today, extremists, so-called leaders are criminalizing doctors and punishing women for making healthcare decisions for themselves.” Fox News’ PETER DOOCY asked about the comments at the briefing today.
| | | | STAY UP TO DATE WITH CONGRESS MINUTES: Need to follow the action on Capitol Hill blow-by-blow? Check out Minutes, POLITICO’s 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. | | | | | | | | DEPARTURE LOUNGE: ANTHONY FAUCI, the president’s chief medical adviser and a prominent voice through the coronavirus pandemic, won’t serve past Joe Biden’s first term, ending more than five decades in the federal government, our SARAH OWERMOHLE scooped Monday morning. We highly recommend reading Sarah’s full interview with Fauci, but here are some nuggets that stood out to us: On feeling obligated to stay in the role: “We’re in a pattern now. If somebody says, ‘You’ll leave when we don’t have Covid anymore,’ then I will be 105. I think we’re going to be living with this.” ON THE JOB INJURIES: While hiking in Shenandoah National Park, Interior Secretary DEB HAALAND broke her leg, the department announced in a statement Monday. She resumed her work remotely.
| | | | A message from Demand Justice:   | | | | | | CURTAINS FOR CHAD: It’s a bit of old news by now, but since we wrote about it approximately 3,472 times, we feel obligated to pass along this update: CHAD MERIDITH , the conservative anti-abortion lawyer set to be nominated by Biden for a judicial seat as part of a deal with Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL (R-Ky.), won’t be getting nominated. Biden was under a heaping amount of pressure from the left to pull the nomination. But… he didn’t. Instead, what killed Meridith’s chances was that Sen. RAND PAUL, a fellow Kentuckian, declined to return his blue slip — in essence, he refused to sign off on the nomination. The White House pulled it on Friday. But while Democrats are relieved, they’re not exactly giving Biden kudos. “That decision was made by Rand Paul,” Sen. DICK DURBIN said of the prospective nomination tanking. STINGS: It’s never a good idea to focus on a single public opinion poll. The trends matter. And yet, CNN’s numbers this afternoon are just particularly bad for the president — some of the worst he’s ever had in that poll. Here’s their lede: “The survey finds the public's outlook on the state of the country the worst it's been since 2009, while its view on the economy is the worst since 2011. And nearly 7 in 10 say President Joe Biden hasn't paid enough attention to the nation's most pressing problems. “Biden's approval rating in the poll stands at 38%, with 62% disapproving. His approval ratings for handling the economy (30%) and inflation (25%) are notably lower.” Also, there’s this:
| | | | | HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT ROE BEING OVERTURNED? JOIN WOMEN RULE ON 7/21: Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade , abortion policy is in the hands of the states and, ultimately, voters. Join POLITICO national political correspondent Elena Schneider for a Women Rule “ask me anything” conversation featuring a panel of reporters from our politics and health care teams who will answer your questions about how the court’s decision could play out in different states, its impact on the midterms and what it means for reproductive rights in the U.S. going forward. SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS AND REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | Biden gives Saudis the gesture they wanted. But he returns to Washington with little in hand (CNN’s Nic Robertson) Yellen calls out China trade practices in South Korea visit (AP’s Fatima Hussein) Report on Pentagon Role in Afghanistan Is Under Review (WSJ’s Gordon Lubold)
| | | If you want to have the best grouper fish sandwich, head down to St. Petersburg, Fla. At least, that’s what JOHN KIRBY, the coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, says. He told the Tampa Bay Times back in 2015 that The Hurricane Seafood Restaurant by the ocean “serves terrific grouper sandwiches. … You can't get a better grouper sandwich anywhere,” he told the Times. We had to know more so we called the restaurant. BRUNO FALKENSTEIN, one of the general managers at The Hurricane, said that their sandwich is likely so good because, “it’s as fresh as we can get it. That’s probably our secret.” Falkenstein and Kirby haven’t run into each other at the restaurant yet, but Falkenstein says he hopes that the next time Kirby dines in, he introduces himself.
| | | FRANCES CLEVELAND was the youngest first lady, assuming the role at age 21. On top of being the youngest first lady, she was the only one to give birth in the White House — when she was 27. A CALL OUT — Thanks to Judith for this question! Do you think you have a more difficult one? Send us your best on the presidents with a citation and we may feature it. Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.
| | | | A message from Demand Justice: If Republicans take the Senate in the midterms, Mitch McConnell will not hesitate to blockade President Biden’s judicial nominees –– just as he did President Obama's. So President Biden and Senate Democrats need to do whatever it takes to fill all judicial vacancies before this Congress ends. We need the White House to nominate more judges, and then we need to ensure the Senate Judiciary Committee does not serve as a bottleneck. The Committee must hold more hearings and add more nominees to each hearing, so that all of Biden’s nominees can be confirmed. This starts with holding hearings in August. Leaving 60 vacancies at the end of this Congress is not an option.
Join more than 30 organizations calling on Biden and the Senate to redouble their efforts to quickly fill every judicial vacancy with outstanding and diverse judges. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
