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Presented by GE: The power players, latest policy developments, and intriguing whispers percolating inside the West Wing. | | | | |  | | By Lauren Egan and Allie Bice | Presented by GE | Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Eli | Email Lauren When advisers to JOE BIDEN began to work on his presidential transition plan in 2020, they had a primary goal in mind: undo as much of President DONALD TRUMP’s legacy as possible. They planned to roll out executive orders on Biden’s first day in office that would walk back Trump-era policies. They pledged to restore “truth and transparency” to the Oval Office. And, after a tense four years between the Trump administration and the press corps, they committed to repairing White House relationships with the media. Part of that meant doing away with the tight restrictions that the Trump administration had put on “hard passes,” credentials that allow journalists to enter the White House grounds swiftly without submitting a tedious daily application in advance. In 2019, the Trump White House implemented a new rule requiring reporters to be present at the White House 50 percent of the time in order to be eligible for a hard pass (very few reporters assigned to cover the White House actually meet that criteria). After Biden took office and lifted Covid restrictions on campus, the White House was much more lenient about approving hard pass applications. Some foreign reporters at the time even spoke publicly about how, after waiting for years, they had finally received a credential. But the ongoing outbursts and interruptions in the briefing room by SIMON ATEBA, the correspondent for the website Today News Africa, has left some in the White House press corps wondering if the Biden administration might have, in this one case, swung the pendulum too far in the other direction. The White House itself has come to recognize that the status quo around Ateba — who has become a minor celebrity on Fox News for his disruptive behavior during the briefings — is not working, according to three people familiar with the situation. Internal conversions have been going on for months about reworking the hard pass system and returning to stricter requirements that were in place during the Obama administration, when reporters had to first get Capitol Hill accreditation before being eligible for a White House hard pass. The White House did not provide a comment for this story. The ultimate decision about what to do rests with the White House itself. And conversations about revising the hard pass application system are ongoing. But the fear among some reporters is that more immediate interventions are needed to stop the briefing room chaos. White House Correspondents Association board members feel like they’ve exhausted all of their disciplinary options. After trying for months to work directly with Ateba on strategies to get his questions answered, his behavior only escalated. (He accused the White House communications team of racism recently for ignoring his questions, which he shouted over a briefing room event held with the cast of “Ted Lasso”). Ultimately, WHCA decided not to renew his membership to the organization this year. WHCA president TAMARA KEITH on Monday made a point of sharing a fact sheet that notes the association has no control over who gets a hard pass. “The organization doesn’t issue credentials or control who can enter the room. That falls to the White House Press Office and the Secret Service, which conducts security screenings,” the WHCA fact sheet says. And while WHCA members might feel like Ateba’s repeated infractions are more than enough to justify revoking his hard pass, as a First Amendment organization, that’s not something the association would advocate for. As for the White House, there are legal precedents from the Trump era that could make revising hard pass rules more challenging. After the Trump administration in 2019 temporarily suspended the press pass of Playboy correspondent BRIAN KAREM for behavior that it said violated widely-accepted standards of “professionalism,” a district court judge ruled that the suspension violated Karem’s due process. The court also said that a four-decade-old federal appeals court precedent regarding White House press credentials requires that such rules be clear and that they be laid out in advance. MESSAGE US — Are you JACLYN GELFOND, deputy director of presidential advance? 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 GE: The XA100 delivers much-needed new capabilities in the face of rising geopolitical threats, while also offering competition to reduce costs. Compared to the original program requirements, the XA100 could save $10 billion through fuel efficiency, improved durability, and maintenance costs. Learn more. | | | | | | With help from the White House Historical Association Which president was known to be a car enthusiast and whose most famous automobile was nicknamed, “Sunshine Special?” (Answer at bottom)
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| TGIF! It’s cartoon feature time! This one is by DICK WRIGHT. Our very own MATT WUERKER publishes a selection of cartoons from all over the country.
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Biden speaks to the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa, Canada. | Kevin Lamarque/AP Photo | DUCKS FLY TOGETHER: In an address to Canadian Parliament, Biden took a swipe at the Toronto Maple Leafs, saying he likes all of Canada's sports teams "except the Leafs.” The hockey team “beat the Flyers back in January,” he said, referring to one of the favorite teams of first lady JILL BIDEN, who was raised in Philadelphia. COUNCIL OF FUN, BASICALLY: Biden announced the members of his advisory Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition — which will include basketball star STEPH CURRY and his wife AYESHA, Vice President KAMALA HARRIS’ former chief of staff, TINA FLOURNOY, and former MLB star RYAN HOWARD, among others. The council is led by chef and humanitarian JOSÉ ANDRÉS and basketball star ELENA DELLE DONNE. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Anything about the LG Energy Solution factory being built in Arizona. The company plans to “invest $5.5 billion to build the manufacturing complex near Phoenix, where it plans to make batteries for electric vehicles in 2025 and for energy storage systems the following year,” NYT’s NIRAJ CHOKSHI reports. “LG said its decision was driven in part by the Inflation Reduction Act.” White House deputy communications director HERBIE ZISKEND tweeted out the piece Friday. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This WSJ piece by JANET ADAMY about a new survey showing “an overwhelming share of Americans aren’t confident their children’s lives will be better than their own.” The WSJ-NORC poll found “pervasive economic pessimism underpins Americans’ dim hopes for the future.” COMING UP: Biden is about to embark on a three-week “Invest in America” tour where he, the first lady, Vice President Harris and other administration officials will visit key 2024 states, CNN’s JEREMY DIAMOND reports. First stop: a semiconductor manufacturer in North Carolina. TRIP PREVIEW: Al Jazeera has a brief rundown of Harris' upcoming trip to Africa, where she’ll visit Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia and meet with each nation’s president. In addition to announcing public and private sector investments, “Harris will discuss China’s engagement in technology and economic issues in Africa that concern the U.S.” NOTABLE: PAUL RUSESABAGINA, who inspired the 2004 Oscar-nominated film “Hotel Rwanda” and ended up at odds with Rwandan president PAUL KAGAME, was commuted from his 25-year sentence Friday. Rusesabagina, a U.S. resident, had a “constructive role of the U.S. government in creating conditions for dialogue on this issue,” a Rwandan government spokesperson said. AP has the details. West Wing Playbook featured Rusesabagina in February 2021.
| | | | LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST: Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today. | | | | | | | | FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: CAROLINE DVORSKY has been promoted to be deputy White House liaison at the Department of Health and Human Services, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. She most recently was senior adviser in the office of the White House liaison at HHS. AND ANOTHER PERSONNEL MOVE: STEPHANIE YOUNG, an Obama administration alum, is joining the Biden administration as a deputy assistant to the president and senior adviser to the vice president. In an email to staff, the VP’s chief of staff LORRAINE VOLES said Young would advise Harris “on messaging and manage communication.” TENSION IN THE AIR: During a hearing on trade Friday, things got tense between U.S. Trade Representative KATHERINE TAI and Rep. GREG MURPHY (R-N.C.), after the North Carolina Republican said Tai was “too nice a person” to be in the post, with “too nice a smile.” "I've never been faulted for being too nice,” Tai responded. “Let me just take off the nice a little bit. I don't need your pity. I stand up for the American people.”
| MILLEY’S (SLIGHTLY MORE THAN) FIVE MINUTES: MICHAEL SCHAFFER highlights how Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman MARK MILLEY is kind of having a moment right now, after he was invited to speak at a party with the press, an unusual request for a top military leader. “At a time of peace, it’s not normal for the senior general in the U.S. military to be famous,” Schaffer writes for POLITICO Magazine. “And while the hero’s welcome accorded Milley in some circles isn’t especially common, the feelings about Milley at the opposite end of the spectrum are even more notable: It’s profoundly abnormal, in the annals of the modern American military, for a sitting general to attract the kind of partisan vitriol that Milley does.” Read the piece here. PREPARE FOR YOUR SUMMER TRAVEL NOW: The State Department is dealing with an “unprecedented demand” for passports, Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN said, adding that wait time is “about ten to thirteen weeks, and for an expedited passport about seven to nine weeks.” CNN’s JENNIFER HANSLER and CHRISTIAN SIERRA have more.
| | | GRIM WAY TO END THE WEEK: The U.S. launched airstrikes on Syria Friday in retaliation after “a strike Thursday by a suspected Iranian-made drone killed a U.S. contractor and wounded six other Americans in northeast Syria,” AP’s LOU KESTEN, BASSEM MROUE and JON GAMBRELL report. CUT THE SALT, FOLKS: As part of an effort to decrease diet-related diseases, the Biden administration released a proposal Friday to “reduce sodium content in processed foods and offer food manufacturers guidance to better inform consumers about what they’re eating,” our MEREDITH LEE HILL reports for Pro s. “FDA proposed changes on Friday that, if finalized, will allow foods that include salt to use ‘safe and suitable’ salt substitutes.”
| | | | A message from GE:   | | | | | | From Rockets to Ball Bearings, Pentagon Struggles to Feed War Machine (NYT’s Eric Lipton) Bye, banks: Recent turmoil is spurring many to move their money (WaPo’s Abha Bhattarai) Former China Detainees to be Guests at Biden-Trudeau Dinner (Bloomberg’s Josh Wingrove and Brian Platt)
| | | | 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. | | | | | | | | ELIZABETH KELLY, a special assistant to the president for economic policy, recommends you watch the movie “The Wizard of Lies,” a 2017 flick about the fall of financier BERNIE MADOFF. During a panel discussion about the movie, Kelly said she “always enjoys talking about saving for retirement and financial education, especially when there’s a movie viewing involved.” Leading up to the discussion, the panelists and audience watched clips from the movie, to which she confessed that it wasn’t the first time she saw them. “I actually watched it the instant it [was] posted on a Saturday night, which probably gives you a window into my level of nerdiness,” she said. Yes, yes it does.
| | | President FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT enjoyed spending his personal time driving cars that were outfitted with special hand controls that allowed him to drive without using his legs after he contracted polio in 1921. The vehicle, “Sunshine Special,” was a 1939 Lincoln K series limousine leased from the Ford Motor Company that was specifically designed and modified for use by the president. Learn more about the life and challenges Franklin D. Roosevelt faced in the new White House 1600 Sessions podcast episode, “Becoming FDR: The Personal Crisis That Made a President.” 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 GE: There's no such thing as a zero-cost alternative when it comes to improving the F-35's powerplant – a new engine is critical to ensuring a strong future for the F-35, which is why Congress has invested more than $4 billion to develop one. GE’s XA100 was designed to deliver required combat capabilities while also reducing lifecycle costs, and we have verified $10 billion in taxpayer savings with our engine, compared to cost avoidance of an engine upgrade. Learn more. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
