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 Earlier this week, Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS rounded up 50 Venezuelan migrants from Texas and transported them to Martha's Vineyard as a political statement about immigration. It was the latest in a series of moves by Republican governors, including GREG ABBOTT of Texas, to physically relocate migrants to blue enclaves. The White House has said the moves are inhumane. Biden criticized DeSantis for “playing politics with human beings, using them as props.” And press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE said the governors "treated [the migrants] like chattel in a cruel, premeditated political stunt.” During an immigration meeting on Friday, White House and administration officials discussed potential responses, including "litigation options." Privately, White House officials have been annoyed by the story line, viewing it as a manufactured political wedge issue designed to try and elevate the Republicans governors pushing it. They are reluctant to do anything that might look like they are feeding the theatrics — disinterested, one official said, in further making the migrants look like political pawns — even as they take steps to help alleviate the needs of those who have been relocated. One person familiar with the White House’s thinking said aides had been surprised when two busloads of children and asylum seekers had been left at the side of the road at the VP’s residence on Thursday morning. The local NGO had been expecting a bus to arrive that night at Union Station and was waiting there. “The first reaction across the board was, ‘Whoa, they have really escalated in their cruelties,’” said the person familiar. “The second reaction was, ‘Oh no. This is a dangerous situation. How can we fix it?’” Former White House Deputy Cabinet Secretary CRISTÓBAL ALEX, whose portfolio included immigration issues, said he was outraged by the incident. And, he added, he suspected that it would rebound politically on the governors. “I think DeSantis and Abbott are overplaying their hands. They are using families, children as political pawns. It’s shameful – and will backfire on them. They want a political fight on the border, and they are creating images that remind us of the disastrous anti-American immigration policies of the last administration,” he said. “DeSantis in particular is pissing off Venezuelans – an important Florida constituency. He’s taking people fleeing communism and a brutal dictatorship and putting them on planes and sending them to a random destination for photo ops. It’s outrageous.” But behind the White House’s outrage, there is an implicit recognition that the issue does have the potential to cause political headaches. DeSantis showed no signs of reconsidering the move. In fact, there are signals that he is set to keep going with the migrant transportation. On Friday, White House aides largely deflected questions about whether the administration should have, or could have, done more to accommodate those migrants, specifically the ones who were dropped in front of the vice president’s residence. “There’s no time for angling,” said the person familiar. “And it would be inappropriate. No time to make small talk and give more footage of migrants chatting with the vice president as political pawns.” Alex has a more direct take when asked how he thought the White House should respond politically to DeSantis and Abbott. “They should call it out for what it is,” he said, “political bullshit.” MESSAGE US — Are you TARA MURRAY, the incoming special assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Public Engagement? We want to hear from you and we may publish your response tomorrow. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com.
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