Joe Biden’s new squad

From: POLITICO West Wing Playbook - Thursday Feb 02,2023 11:12 pm
Presented by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living: The power players, latest policy developments, and intriguing whispers percolating inside the West Wing.
Feb 02, 2023 View in browser
 
West Wing Playbook

By Eli Stokols, Christopher Cadelago and Lauren Egan

Presented by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living

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

Days before the 2020 Iowa caucus, a New York Magazine reporter asked Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ about the role she might play in a hypothetical JOE BIDEN administration.

“Oh God,” she told DAVID FREEDLANDER, who noted that “a groan” accompanied her response. “In any other country, Joe Biden and I would not be in the same party, but in America, we are.”

It’s funny what time and shifting political dynamics can do.

Biden, who vowed in 2020 to be a bridge to the next generation of Democratic leaders, is on the cusp of seeking a second term. And he is employing that next generation, and Ocasio-Cortez in particular, as his own Praetorian guard. In an ironic twist worthy of ALANIS MORISSETTE, AOC, the sharp-tongued progressive who has often bemoaned the type of politics Biden has practiced and at times opposed his agenda, is now tasked with parrying and blunting the political pain Republicans hope to inflict on the president.

Appointed to Democrats’ No. 2 slot on the House Oversight Committee, as POLITICO scooped last week, AOC will be the first line of defense for the Biden White House, responding in real time to broadsides from Chairman JAMES COMER (R-Ky..), Rep. JIM JORDAN (R-Ohio) and others.

Inside the White House, top aides have privately expressed enthusiasm over AOC’s appointment, believing she can provide deft defense to inquiries into Covid-19 relief dollars and HUNTER BIDEN’s “laptop from hell.” White House aides also are excited by — and mentioned by name — others on the panel playing similar roles: Reps. KATIE PORTER (D-Calif.), the whiteboard-wielding protege of SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.), Gen-Z-er MAXWELL FROST (D-Fla.), and Rep. DANIEL GOLDMAN (D-N.Y.), who helped lead DONALD TRUMP’s first impeachment. It led some to dub the Democratic members, including ranking member JAMIE RASKIN (D-Md.), “the Truth Squad.”

But among that crew, the most excitement surrounds AOC. There is hope that her debate skills and huge social media following (one senior administration official called her 13.4 million followers on Twitter and 8.6 million followers on Instagram an “unmatched platform”) will benefit the White House. She’s also a welcome addition to a limited surrogate operation that has leaned heavily on IAN SAMS, the spokesman for the White House Counsel’s Office, to defuse the pressure from the ongoing investigation into Biden’s possession of classified documents.

ERIC SCHULTZ, who was BARACK OBAMA’s principal deputy press secretary, recalled how congressional allies played a critical role when Republicans took control of the House in 2011 and launched myriad investigations (Solyndra, Benghazi, and Fast and Furious).

“They are the first lines of defense,” he said. “Having someone like AOC in the catbird seat has huge value. She’s obviously a brilliant communicator and any time you have someone with her talent in your corner, it’s meaningful.”

During the Oversight committee’s first hearing Wednesday, AOC made a quick display of the role she plans to play. She dismissed the Republicans’ investigation into alleged waste, fraud and abuse in Covid-19 spending programs as an exercise in “rank partisanship,” noting how Comer and his colleagues didn’t seem interested in documented fraud cases reported in red states. State employees in Comer’s home state of Kentucky, she noted, applied for unemployment benefits while still employed by the state.

"None of these states have been put under investigation by this committee," she said. On the House floor Thursday, she kept going, delivering a blistering response after the GOP voted to remove Rep. ILHAN OMAR (D-Minn.) from the Foreign Affairs Committee in response, they said, to the Muslim lawmaker’s past statements about Israel that were criticized as anti-Semitic.

“I had a member of this body and the Republican caucus threaten my life and you all rewarded him with one of the most prestigious committee assignments in this Congress,” she said, referring to Rep. PAUL GOSAR (R-Ariz.), as Democratic members in the chamber applauded. “Don’t tell me this is about consistency. Don’t tell me this is about a condemnation of anti-Semitic remarks … This is about targeting women of color.”

For some in the West Wing, AOC’s leaning into her new role as a Biden ally isn’t totally out of left field. One senior administration official pointed to her involvement on the Unity Task Force linking Biden and BERNIE SANDERS supporters following the 2020 primary. “We established a good relationship with her,” the official said. “Biden aides view her as a strong member for Oversight.”

MESSAGE US —Are you AOC? 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!  

A message from the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living:

Nursing homes are doing everything they can to recruit caregivers, but can't find workers. The labor crisis in long term care is affecting all aspects of health care, creating bottlenecks in hospitals as patients wait for beds in nursing homes. A federal staffing mandate without resources to help with recruitment would force nursing homes to limit the number of residents they can serve. Learn more about the solutions to the labor crisis.

 
POTUS PUZZLER

With help from the White House Historical Association 

Who was the first president to take an interest in improving the White House gardens and grounds?

(Answer at the bottom.)

The Oval

DON’T. STOP. THINKIN ABOUT THE 90S: Biden welcomed former President BILL CLINTON to the White House for a commemoration Thursday of the anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act, legislation Clinton signed back in 1993, AP’s AAMER MADHANI reports. Both presidents spoke about the impact of the law on families.

DNC DRAMA: In a new letter obtained by West Wing Playbook, 20 Democratic officials from swing states urged Biden against pushing South Carolina to the front of the 2024 primary calendar, suggesting that all the resources directed to the first-in-the-nation contest would be wasted in a state that Republicans are sure to win in November.

“Our top concern is winning in 2024, which we know is your concern as well,” write the officials from Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, and Nevada. “We would suggest a simple principle when deciding which state holds the first-in-the-nation primary: The state should be diverse and competitive in the general election.”

The last-ditch plea comes on the eve of Biden’s appearance at the DNC’s meetings in Philadelphia, where members are set to approve the revamped calendar.

(MORE) EIGHTH AVENUE HEARTACHE: The New York Times guild’s frustration has somehow reached a new level after management responded to its concessions on salary and other matters a couple weeks ago with… not much. The company isn’t budging on a return-to-office policy, looking to maintain the right to demand all staff work from the main office five days a week. Nor are NYT lawyers responding to the union’s charge that the company’s demanding a return to office because it will qualify it for millions in tax rebates.

In the meantime, staffers are also grumbling about what seems to be a paper-wide hiring freeze for new positions through June. NYT spokesperson DANIELLE RHOADES-HA told us suggestions of a hiring freeze are “not accurate” and that the paper is “continuing to invest and hire in key areas like journalism and digital product development.” But, she added: “Given the macroeconomic uncertainties, we're taking a careful look at expenses to ensure we are prioritizing areas of strategic growth.”

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Thursday’s edition of NYT’s “The Morning” newsletter by BEN CASSELMAN, which outgoing White House chief of staff RON KLAIN screenshotted and tweeted. Casselman highlights a few economic wins for the administration: “Inflation has moderated significantly over the past six months, though it remains too high. The job market has proved remarkably resilient: Despite high-profile layoffs in tech and a few other sectors, overall unemployment remains at a half-century low. Data released by the Labor Department yesterday showed only a slight increase in layoffs in December; we’ll get fresh data on unemployment tomorrow, when the government releases its monthly jobs report.”

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by WaPo’s PAUL FARHI about White House press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE’s minimal responses to questions about Biden’s classified documents: “Jean-Pierre’s attempts to skirt even tangential elements of the story during her near-daily televised briefings has exacerbated an ‘optics’ issue for the White House, with her opaque statements raising suspicions of stonewalling for some critics. … It has also raised questions, at least among reporters, about how clued in Jean-Pierre is.”

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: “The Daily Show” comedian ROY WOOD JR., is set to headline this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 29. More from The Hollywood Reporter’s ALEX WEPRIN

KLAIN GETS THE LAST WORD: MSNBC’s LAWRENCE O’DONNELL dedicated nearly the entire hour of his show Wednesday night to Ron Klain. While he didn’t shed any tears, Klain did give O’Donnell a rather lengthy tour of his West Wing office. Asked what he would do on the first day that he did not have to come into the White House, Klain said: “sleep.”

 

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.

 
 
THE BUREAUCRATS

FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: ERIC MORRISSETTE is now chief of staff to Deputy Commerce Secretary DON GRAVES, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. He most recently was deputy assistant secretary of Commerce for legislative affairs.

A NEW ERA: The president announced BRIAN DEESE, the National Economic Council director, is leaving. Deese “helped steer my economic vision into reality, and managed the transition of our historic economic recovery to steady and stable growth,” the president said in a statement Thursday. “I am grateful to his wife Kara and his children Adeline and Clark for letting us borrow Brian.”

The statement made no mention of who will follow in Deese’s role, but our BEN WHITE wrote Wednesday that Federal Reserve Vice Chair LAEL BRAINARD appears to be the front-runner. The Biden administration insists no final decision has been made, and new chief of staff JEFF ZIENTS could always go in a different direction. Senior economic adviser GENE SPERLING and former Obama Cabinet member SYLVIA MATHEWS BURWELL are among the other potential candidates.

HERE TO STAY: Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG said Thursday that he doesn’t have plans to leave the administration, telling Punchbowl News he doesn’t “have any plans to do any job besides the one I’ve got.” He also called his current role “the best job in the federal government.” Our TANYA SNYDER has more details.

 

A message from the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living:

Advertisement Image

 
Agenda Setting

RAMPING THINGS UP: The U.S. and Philippines are stepping up the U.S.’s military presence in the nation, providing “access to four more bases as they seek to deter China’s increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea,” AP’s JIM GOMEZ reports. The announcement comes as Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN is visiting the Philippines for military talks.

 

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 iOSDOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID.

 
 
What We're Reading

Sarah Huckabee Sanders to deliver Republican State of the Union response (NBC News’ Dareh Gregorian)

Opinion: The Joe Biden-Hunter Biden scandal convergence (Byron York for The Lake County Record-Bee)

FBI to soon search Mike Pence’s home and office for classified materials (CNN’s Jamie Gangel and Evan Perez)

POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER

THOMAS JEFFERSON was the first president with the time and resources available to improve the White House property. According to the White House Historical Association, Jefferson “organized the grounds and created a barrier against unhealthy swamps. … Many of his improvements defined the landscape until a decade after the Civil War.”

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.

A message from the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living:

The long term care community is facing a historic labor crisis, forcing more nursing homes to limit the number of residents they can serve and some facilities may permanently close. Nursing homes are doing everything they can to recruit caregivers, but can’t find workers.

A federal staffing mandate without resources to help with recruitment is not the answer. It will only reduce access to care for our nation’s seniors. The labor crisis has already created bottlenecks in hospitals as patients wait for beds in nursing homes.

We need an investment in our long term care workforce to build a pipeline of caregivers - not unfunded staffing mandates. A one-size-fits-all approach is not the solution. Help us hire, don’t require.

 
 

Follow us on Twitter

Eli Stokols @EliStokols

Lauren Egan @Lauren_V_Egan

Allie Bice @alliebice

 

Follow us

Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Instagram Listen on Apple Podcast
 

To change your alert settings, please log in at https://www.politico.com/_login?base=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com/settings

This email was sent to by: POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA

Please click here and follow the steps to .

More emails from POLITICO West Wing Playbook

Feb 01,2023 11:13 pm - Wednesday

Biden's art of the deal

Jan 31,2023 10:03 pm - Tuesday

Jeff Zients, welcome to your onboarding

Jan 30,2023 11:16 pm - Monday

The Harris thing, again

Jan 27,2023 11:06 pm - Friday

Garcetti, you're still here?

Jan 26,2023 10:26 pm - Thursday

I’ll have what the president's having

Jan 25,2023 11:04 pm - Wednesday

The not so shadow campaign

Jan 24,2023 10:36 pm - Tuesday

Your mom (isn't the only one Biden's calling)