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The power players, latest policy developments, and intriguing whispers percolating inside the West Wing. | | | | |  | | By Christopher Cadelago, Marianne LeVine and Eli Stokols | 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 Eli | Email Lauren It’s been 567 days since President JOE BIDEN announced his nomination of ERIC GARCETTI to become U.S. ambassador to India. And it remains entirely unclear how much longer he will wait. Garcetti was poised to become the first Los Angeles mayor to voluntarily relinquish that gig in over a century. On the day his nomination went public — July 9, 2021 — he spoke wistfully about building a life of service in his hometown. He also talked broadly about his commitment to service, including as a teacher, naval officer, and finally, elected official. “Part of that commitment means that when your nation calls,” Garcetti said, “you answer that call.” Garcetti, though, is still waiting on several U.S. senators to answer that call, too. Some are still smarting over Garcetti denying he knew about sexual assault and harrasment allegations leveled against his close adviser, RICK JACOBS, before they went public. “I’ve had concerns,” Sen. MARK KELLY (D-Ariz.) told West Wing Playbook, noting that while he hasn’t evaluated Garcetti’s nomination in a while, “I don't think anything's changed.” Garcetti still enjoys the support of Biden and his administration. That seems likely to continue under JEFF ZIENTS. The incoming chief of staff was close friends with Jacobs for several years during the Obama administration, two people familiar with their relationship told West Wing Playbook. One of the people said Jacobs stayed with the Zients family when he visited Washington. A White House aide confirmed that Zients and Jacobs know each other and that Zients saw him occasionally over the years. The aide said Zients was not aware of the allegations before they were aired publicly. But the problems for Garcetti have never been centered at the White House. They’re on the Hill. And they cross party lines. Republicans don’t plan to make the already excruciating Garcetti nomination process any easier. Sen. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-Iowa), who published a staff review of the allegations, still plans to object to any expedited process for Garcetti’s nomination, according to his spokesperson GEORGE HARTMANN. That pretty much guarantees Garcetti has to go back through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It’s not clear yet what that process would look like given the Senate still hasn’t finalized its panels. The committee’s chair, ROBERT MENENDEZ (D-N.J.), said members “will deal with the update in his file and see how we proceed.” It’s also unclear whether Garcetti would be willing to endure a hearing. But he appears to remain confident about the process and has been engaged with Capitol Hill. Still, all this stasis has caused grumblings from those involved. Garcetti allies feel like he’s been made to appear guilty by association. Some believe Biden should be doing more for him given the loyalty he’s demonstrated. But they also worry that the once-rising star and political polymath who now finds himself jobless at 51 years old could be irreparably damaged by it all. In the Senate, there’s a belief that the White House is only nominating Garcetti out of a sense of loyalty. After all, Garcetti’s nomination never came to the floor last Congress. And there’s little indication, at least publicly, that anything has changed for the former Los Angeles Mayor since Biden renominated him earlier this month. MESSAGE US —Are you ERIC GARCETTI? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com.
| | | | JOIN POLITICO ON 2/9 TO HEAR FROM AMERICA’S GOVERNORS: In a divided Congress, more legislative and policy enforcement will shift to the states, meaning governors will take a leading role in setting the agenda for the nation. Join POLITICO on Thursday, Feb. 9 at World Wide Technology's D.C. Innovation Center for The Fifty: America's Governors, where we will examine where innovations are taking shape and new regulatory red lines, the future of reproductive health, and how climate change is being addressed across a series of one-on-one interviews. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | This one is from Allie. Testing your geography and history knowledge — which city built its own version of the White House to entice the president to stay there? (Answer at the bottom.)
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Cartoon by Kevin Siers | Courtesy | It’s Friday and you know what that means — cartoon feature time. This one is by KEVIN SIERS. Our very own MATT WUERKER publishes a selection of cartoons from all over the country. View the cartoon carousel here.
| | | THREE GUYS WALK INTO A ROOM: Tesla founder and Twitter CEO ELON MUSK met Friday at the White House with JOHN PODESTA and MITCH LANDRIEU, the two Biden advisers tasked with implementing the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, respectively. The White House, and Musk, confirmed the meeting, which the administration said was about ”shared goals around electrification.” Although Tesla stands to be a key beneficiary of the IRA’s $7,500 EV tax credit, Musk has criticized Biden, expressed enthusiasm about Florida Gov. RON DESANTIS’ potential White House bid, and urged voters to back Republicans in the midterms. The White House wouldn’t say whether Musk asked to meet with Biden himself. BUT NOW WHO WILL TWEET?: Biden announced Friday that White House chief of staff RON KLAIN is stepping down and that Jeff Zients will take over. “While we have accomplished an extraordinary amount, the real mark of Ron’s success is that he is beloved by the team he leads here at the White House,” the president said in a statement. “They’re going to miss him just as much as I will.” Biden praised Zients for tackling “some of the toughest issues in government,” calling him a worthy successor to Klain. More details from our ADAM CANCRYN. Klain told MSNBC’s NICOLLE WALLACE that his last day would be Feb. 8, the day after the State of the Union address. EMHOFF’S MARCH OF THE LIVING: Second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF on Friday visited a former Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland as part of Holocaust Remembrance Day. He toured the site alongside U.S. ambassador to Poland MARK BRZEZINSKI and paid respects to victims in a wreath laying ceremony at the site’s Death Wall, where thousands of prisoners were killed. The pool report of the visit underscored its gravity. “It was an emotional moment for Emhoff, who wiped his eye as he approached and touched the wreath that he brought, tugging at the ribbons (which said, ‘from the people of the United States’),” wrote COURTNEY SUBRAMANIAN of the L.A. Times. He backed away and paused again before wiping his eye once more.” Here’s a short video of the moment from Bloomberg’s JORDAN FABIAN. Emhoff spoke about the impact of touring Auschwitz with MSNBC’s JOE SCARBOROUGH, and how the rise of antisemitism in the U.S. provided the impetus for his visit. “They’re not just saying the quiet part now, they’re screaming it,” Emhoff said. “It’s almost becoming too everyday, and we can’t normalize it.” Here’s their full 9-minute interview. CONDOLENCE CALL: Biden spoke Friday with the parents of TYRE NICHOLS, a 29-year-old Black motorist who died three days after a confrontation with the officers during a traffic stop. ROWVAUGHN WELLS, Nichols’ mother, told the president Tyre “actually tattooed my name on his arm,” according to a video of the call captured by WaPo’s EMILY DAVIES. "That's what you call something special," Biden said. The President “commended the family's courage and strength,” the White House said in a short readout of the call. Before leaving for Camp David Friday night, Biden told reporters he was “obviously very concerned” about violence in response to the video of Nichols’ death, which is expected to be released this evening. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Or more like…what they want you to see. This Senate floor board from Sen. DEBBIE STABENOW touting that “almost 30 percent of the national debt is due to Trump.” Check it out:
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Tweet by Debbie Stabenow | Twitter | WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: The White House no doubt enjoyed DAVID AXELROD’s tut-tutting about its mishandling of the classified documents story like one enjoys a root canal. The former Obama adviser writes in The Atlantic, “Yes, Mr. President, there is some there there.” He argued that Biden was too slow to go public about the classified items found in his possession and that the president and aides “seemingly have violated every precept — speed, transparency, contrition — of crisis communications.” Asked about the piece, White House press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE said only that she knows Axelrod personally and that he’s entitled to his own opinion. HE CALLS KIDS, TOO: Biden is on a roll with phone calls to relatives. At an event Thursday, the president called the children of Rep. JEFF JACKSON. The North Caroline Democrat tweeted about the exchange, noting he told the president that his “kids want to meet you but we tell them they have to eat all their vegetables first.” To which the president responded, of course: “Well, let’s call them.”
| | | FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: The White House is reportedly narrowing its list of candidates to replace National Economic Council director BRIAN DEESE. One name who we are told will not be on it is Wall Street financier BLAIR EFFRON. The co-founder of the investment banking and advisory firm Centerview Partners, Effron was reportedly being considered for the job, even as the president’s team acknowledged it would be “inflaming the party’s progressive base by bringing in a figure with corporate finance and investment expertise." But a White House official tells DANIEL LIPPMAN that Effron, who has long been a major Democratic donor, is not under consideration. — STEPHEN GOEPFERT, Biden's former body man, is considering a run for federal office after his time in the Biden administration, two people familiar with his thinking toldLippman. Goepfert, a native of Long Island, has long been interested in serving in elected office, but he has no immediate plans to run nor has he picked an office to run for, according to one of the people. He worked for Biden in the Obama White House as senior adviser to chief of staff STEVE RICHETTI from 2015 to 2017 and started working for Biden again in 2019. Goepfert, who left the White House in August, is currently at the Department of Transportation, where he is special adviser for implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. — ALLISON VARRICCHIO has left the White House, where she was director for Afghanistan at the National Security Council. She is returning to the State Department to work on South and Central Asia issues. HOT JOB MARKET: Administration officials who are leaving or even eyeing the exits are in high demand in the private sector, our MICHAEL SCHAFFER reports for POLITICO Magazine. It is, he notes, a notable departure from the Trump era. “It turns out that once you remove the headlines about racism, the keystone-cops spectacles, and the constant public outrage, the revolving door will still spin just fine, thank you,” writes Michael. “The reasons for the rebound range from the prosaic (a lot of Biden appointees had lengthy Washington CVs even before signing on) to the historic (they don’t have to answer for things like an insurrection, which have a way of turning off PR-conscious employers).” THE LOCAL ANGLE: GABE AMO, Biden’s deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, sat down with a TV station from his native Rhode Island to talk about the job. “Whether it’s your snowstorm or your wildfire or your mass shooting, I’m often one of the first people in the federal government that somebody is hearing from,” Amo said.
| | | ABOUT THAT STUDENT DEBT RELIEF… BHARAT RAMAMURTI, the deputy director of the National Economic Council, said Thursday that the administration is not preparing backup proposals for student debt relief if the Supreme Court rejects the program. Our MICHAEL STRATFORD has more for Pro s.
| | | Janet Yellen Warns South Africa About Breaching Russia Sanctions (WSJ’s Andrew Duehren) Japan, Netherlands to Join US in Chip Controls on China (Bloomberg’s Jenny Leonard) U.S. EPA administrator contemplating stepping down -sources (Reuters’ Jarrett Renshaw and Jeff Mason)
| | | The debate over which pen is the best has been circulating the internet this week, with a picture of seven different ones ranging from a BIC cristal pen to a Uniball vision rollerball. Journalists and public officials alike added to the discourse, including SUSAN RICE, Biden’s domestic policy adviser. Rice responded to AP’s SEUNG MIN KIM about how option number 5 — a pilot G2 pen — is the only correct choice. “100%,” Rice tweeted Thursday evening.
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Twitter | Sen. JEFF MERKLEY (D-Ore.) concurred, one of many, apparently, who are getting it WRONG. Sorry, everyone, number 4 — the Uni-Ball “Vision Elite” — is the best. [Sam’s take here: the G2 is so superior to the competition that this entire debate is profoundly pointless. Eun’s response: WRONG!!!! Zebra Sarasa .7 is supreme and less smeary!]
| | | | DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO MOBILE APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS– DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID. | | | | | | | | PHILADELPHIA had built a president's mansion to compete with the White House in Washington, D.C. According to the National Constitution Center, the city “wasn’t happy that the new city of Washington was getting the president’s executive mansion. During the 1790s, the city built its own presidential palace as a way to tempt George Washington and others to stay in Philadelphia, which was the acting capital. Washington refused to use the ‘palace’ and stayed elsewhere in Philadelphia.” A CALL OUT — Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents with a citation and we may feature it. Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
