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 No one on the internet — or at the White House — seemed to miss what Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN was saying. In an interview with a Boston radio station, she emphatically endorsed President JOE BIDEN, at 80, running for a second term but hedged on the question of keeping Vice President KAMALA HARRIS on the ticket. “I really want to defer to what makes Biden comfortable on his team,” Warren told WGBH on Friday. Warren’s immediate effort to qualify her response didn’t change the radio station’s headline on its write-up of the interview: “Warren stops short of backing Harris for VP in 2024.” Dozens of similar headlines followed. On Sunday afternoon Biden tweeted a photo of himself with Harris in the Oval Office. The caption: “Proud of what we’ve gotten done together, @VP.” Warren herself tried to clean things up with an unambiguous statement too. “I fully support the President’s and Vice President’s reelection together, and never intended to imply otherwise,” the Massachusetts Democrat said. But the dust-up still managed to illustrate how, within the capital’s online bubble of outsized egos, perceived slights can be internalized and magnified. It also offered up more fodder for the persistent Washington chatter around Harris’ supposedly shaky standing within Biden world and the broader Democratic Party. “We have a compounding problem of compounding narratives about women in politics here,” said JENNIFER PALMIERI, a former Obama administration aide who wrote a book about misogyny in politics following her stint on HILLARY CLINTON’s 2016 campaign. “One, there’s a lot of speculation and attention around a woman vice president; and then when a woman speaks about another, there’s an assumption that she’s trying to undercut her, which I don’t think is what’s happening at all.” Harris’ loyalists inside and out of the administration echo Palmieri’s general point. They say she’s a committed partner to the president who offers some capital as well. They also note the polls testing a hypothetical 2024 primary field without Biden that show her the clear front-runner. “She’s right where vice presidents typically are,” one administration official said. “And since 1960, every Democratic vice president to seek the presidential nomination has gotten it.” But while the steady drumbeat of criticism directed at the first woman and person of color to serve as vice president has always carried an undertone of racism and misogyny, many Democrats insist their worries about Harris are political and performance-based. For instance, her speech last week to House Democrats was regarded as uneventful publicly. But privately, it left some attendees underwhelmed. “She said absolutely nothing,” one lawmaker who was in attendance told us. “I’m still at a loss what the point was.” The administration and, in a sense, Harris are at an inflection point. As the White House transitions from RON KLAIN to JEFF ZIENTS running the show, and from a two-year period of legislation into campaign mode, the vice president is eager to build on a stronger second year. Harris’ speech earlier this month in Florida marking the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling signaled she will continue to be the administration's leading voice on an issue that galvanized women voters in last year’s midterms and is likely to continue to be a top motivator next year. Harris will also continue to beef up her foreign policy bonafides by meeting with foreign leaders and traveling abroad. She’s set to attend the Munich Security Conference in a few weeks. Her domestic travel going forward will center on selling the administration’s big achievements – infrastructure upgrades, lower prescription drug costs, renewable energy tax credits and the like. Aides say she’ll also emphasize coalition building, with a focus on communities of color and college campuses. On Monday, she held an event in Raleigh, N.C. to tout advances for Latino small business owners, taking part in a panel discussion with ISABELLA CASILLAS GUZMÁN, the Small Business Administration administrator. But the biggest thing Harris has going for her may just be Biden himself. The president has carefully made clear that she has his complete support. And on Friday, Harris will travel with Biden to Philadelphia for an event focused on efforts to accelerate the lead pipe replacement initiative funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Both will also appear together at the Democratic National Committee meeting downtown, offering members a preview of the likely 2024 ticket during speeches and a private fundraiser to follow. “She’s actually a very important player for the administration, even if that’s often at odds with her media coverage,” Palmieri said. “When you’re vice president, it takes a long time for the work you’re doing to register with the public because it takes a while for things to take effect. It’s year three now and a better composite picture of what she’s doing is emerging.” MESSAGE US —Are you HILLARY CLINTON? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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