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The power players, latest policy developments, and intriguing whispers percolating inside the West Wing. | | | | |  | | By Adam Cancryn, Eli Stokols and Lauren Egan | Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice and Shawn Pogatchnik. Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Eli | Email Lauren For four days, a Biden traveled across Northern Ireland and Ireland, meeting with the nations’ top dignitaries, waving to the crowds, and sentimentally retracing his family’s lineage throughout the Emerald Isle. His father, Joe, was also there. If ever there were a question as to HUNTER BIDEN’s whereabouts, the answer this week was obvious: He was overseas, glued to President JOE BIDEN’s side during the entirety of a whirlwind trip that mixed global diplomacy with a sprawling exploration of his ancestral roots. There was Hunter, chatting with U.K. Prime Minister RISHI SUNAK on the tarmac in Belfast. There he was again in Dublin, huddled in the rain with Irish Taoiseach LEO VARADKAR. He was in County Louth, absorbing the sights. In a local Dundalk market, he surveyed the menu, interrupting his dad’s conversation to suggest he may order something. Hunter was at the Irish president’s residence, shaking hands and telling its occupant, MICHAEL D. HIGGINS, that he was “a fan of your poetry.” He was in the audience at Ireland’s Parliament as Biden addressed a joint session of the legislature. Later that night, he attended a banquet thrown in his father’s honor, mingling with Irish ministers before dining with the widow of Nobel Prize-winning poet SEAMUS HEANEY. For much of Biden’s presidency, Hunter has been at the center of controversy and the subject of heightened scrutiny. He is a fascination of the conservative mediasphere and a target of federal investigators and Republicans in Congress. But an ocean away, he was mostly just a son and close travel companion, tagging along with his aunt VALERIE BIDEN OWEN. It was, ostensibly, a business trip for his dad. But the president himself explained that he’d decided to take family members “who hadn’t been there before.” And by all appearances, Hunter thoroughly enjoyed the jaunt. He served as a particular point of pride for Biden, who has refused to distance himself from his son even as the attention on Hunter’s foreign business dealings, the “laptop from hell,” and his personal struggle threatened to cast a cloud over the administration's agenda. “I’m here with my sister, Valerie, and my youngest son, Hunter Biden,” the president told residents at a pub in Dundalk. “Stand up, guys. I’m proud of you.” It’s not unusual for a president’s family members to join trips abroad, and Hunter did not sit in on Biden's private meetings with heads of state. But his ubiquity nonetheless (and unsurprisingly) gained traction in conservative circles. “Hunter Biden should not be on foreign trips with Joe Biden while under federal investigation,” Rep. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-Colo.) tweeted. “Is this really the image America wants to project to the world?” The White House dismissed criticism of Hunter’s involvement in the trip. "Historically family members of Presidents and First Ladies have frequently joined them during international travel," a spokesperson said. "Current practices are consistent with those used by prior Administrations." The spokesperson also confirmed that Hunter, as well as Biden Owen, were paying their own way. At times, Hunter’s presence was something of a nuisance to the media on the ground. When Biden arrived in Dundalk, Hunter hopped out of the Beast before the president, inadvertently blocking reporters’ view of his father as they greeted the crowd and leaving the pool photographers with plenty of clear shots of Hunter, but not nearly as many of Biden. Though he may not have had any formal role in Biden's entourage, Hunter did find ways to make himself useful. He held an umbrella at one point to shield Biden from the rain. At a noisy firehouse meet-and-greet with embassy workers, he helped moderate a brief Q&A between Biden and some children. And importantly for a president with a tendency to get off schedule, he sought to gently steer things back on task, though not always with much success. “You’re supposed to do the rope line, Dad,” Hunter reminded Biden, as he chatted away with the kids. “Just to say hi to everybody.” MESSAGE US — Are you HUNTER BIDEN? 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!
| | | | GO INSIDE THE 2023 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO is proud to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage, insider nuggets and unparalleled insights from the 2023 Global Conference, which will convene leaders in health, finance, politics, philanthropy and entertainment from April 30-May 3. This year’s theme, Advancing a Thriving World, will challenge and inspire attendees to lean into building an optimistic coalition capable of tackling the issues and inequities we collectively face. Don’t miss a thing — subscribe today for a front row seat. | | | | | | | | | With help from the White House HIstorical Association Which first lady directed the planting of the first cherry trees on the White House grounds? (Answer at bottom.)
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Cartoon by Dave Granlund | Courtesy | | It’s Friday and you know what that means — cartoon feature time! This one is by DAVE GRANLUND. Our very own MATT WUERKER publishes a selection of cartoons from all over the country.
| | IN THE OLD SOD: Thousands of well-wishers lining the streets. His smiling face plastered on shop windows. The adoration from politicians of all stripes. It was no wonder, “this most Irish of American presidents,” said he might never go home. As captured in this vivid piece from our ADAM CANCYRN, who traveled alongside Biden all week, these three full days in Ireland weren’t like other presidential trips, typically buttoned up affairs of stiff photo ops, private meetings and lengthy communiques. “Biden had come to Ireland to reaffirm its close relationship with the U.S. — and to reaffirm his own personal relationship with a place he credits for shaping him,” Adam wrote. “It was here that the criticisms he faces at home seemed to fade away: His age didn’t make him old, it provided him wisdom. His gaffes didn’t make him shaky, they gave him charm.” EMOTIONAL ENCOUNTER: Biden reportedly broke down in tears during a visit to the Knock Shrine in County Mayo, his family’s ancestral home, “after a chance meeting with the priest who performed the last rites sacrament on his son BEAU BIDEN, who died of brain cancer in 2015,” according to this report from RTÉ News, Ireland’s public news service. “This was kind of spontaneous, it just so happened that we have, working at the shrine here, the chaplain who gives the last rites of the last anointing to his son in the United States,” said Friar RICHARD GIBBONS, the parish priest, who said that the president was quite moved. "He laughed, he cried, it just kind of hit the man, you could just see how deeply it all felt and meant to him.” SCARBOROUGH SIT-DOWN: Biden’s decision not to do a press conference while in Ireland rankled the White House press corps. But he did take some questions, just not from the correspondents tasked with covering him. The president taped an interview with MSNBC Morning Joe host JOE SCARBOROUGH. The sit-down, which the host previewed during Friday’s show and an administration official confirmed, will air April 25 as part of a special on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. THE LATEST BATES MISSIVE: White House deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES, an increasingly prolific author of on-the-record memos to the press, took aim at the prominent Republicans gathering this weekend to address the National Rifle Association’s annual convention. “What’s missing from the meeting agenda?” Bates wrote. “Any effort to address the soaring number of children being killed with guns, including assault weapons, in our schools and communities. Guns are the number one killer of kids in America – and these deaths are rising.” WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This opinion piece in The Guardian by MARGARET SULLIVAN arguing in favor of Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign. Sure, there are Democratic candidates who are “younger, quicker on their feet, less likely to make one cringe in anticipated fear when giving off-the-cuff remarks. But what Biden has, in addition to his other accomplishments, is something that can’t be improved upon: a proven record of beating Donald Trump,” Sullivan writes. Along very similar lines, Washington Post columnist EUGENE ROBINSON writes that Biden’s “superpower” is “being underestimated,” arguing that the president is in a better position to win a second term than polls suggest. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This story by the WSJ’s AUSTIN RAMZY and SAMANTHA PEARSON on another world leader cozying up to China Leader XI JINPING on a visit to Beijing. This time it’s Brazil’s new president, LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA, a newly elected liberal the White House views as a solid partner. Not long after a visit to Washington, during which Lula implored elected officials to band together in defense of democracy, he and Xi “struck a unified pose in defiance of U.S. foreign and trade policy in a meeting in Beijing.” In a joint statement, Lula also endorsed Beijing’s stance on Taiwan and its 12-point proposal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, which does not call on Russia to withdraw from occupied Ukrainian territory. DID THEY OR DIDN’T THEY GET TSWIFT CONCERT TICKETS?: A rumor circulated the internet this week that Biden, former President BARACK OBAMA and former first lady MICHELLE OBAMA attended TAYLOR SWIFT’s Thursday night concert in Tampa, Fla. Alas, the White House confirmed that Biden has (as we’ve clearly seen) been in Ireland all week, though he is most likely a Swiftie. Video footage of the Obamas that made the rounds “was actually taken at a Beyoncé concert in 2018,” People Magazine’s VIRGINIA CHAMLEE reports. Bummer. NOT COACHELLA, BUT CLOSE: Vice President KAMALA HARRIS heads to her hometown of Los Angeles this weekend. Coincidentally, it’s also the first weekend of the desert music festival Coachella…
| | NOMINEES ON NOMINEES: The president announced two federal judicial nominees Friday — Texas Magistrate Judge IRMA CARRILLO RAMIREZ to serve on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and California federal district court Judge ANA ISABEL DE ALBA to serve on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. If they’re confirmed, according to the White House, “Biden will already have appointed more Latinas to circuit courts than any previous president,” NBC’s SAHIL KAPUR reports.
| | IT’S AN EMERGENCY: In an emergency filing to the Supreme Court Friday, the Department of Justice asked the justices to “stop lower courts from sharply restricting access to mifepristone, a drug commonly used for abortions,” our JOSH GERSTEIN and ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN reported. “If the justices aren’t willing to do that, the Justice Department asked that the rollback be suspended temporarily and that the justices hear arguments on the issue before their summer recess.” Hours later, Justice SAMUEL ALITO issued an administrative stay, putting the restrictions that had been set to take effect at midnight on hold through next Wednesday, April 19, allowing time for briefs to be filed and for other justices to weigh in. THE HOTTEST TOPIC AMONG BANK LEADERS IS …: Climate change. U.S. Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN and other global leaders have vowed to make that a main focus for the World Bank. But there’s just one small problem: “transitioning the world’s power grids, automobiles and industries to greener sources will cost trillions — and Yellen and European authorities have no desire for massive new spending right now.” Our ZACK COLMAN and BEN WHITE have more. SOMETHING OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD: SEAN KIRKPATRICK, who leads the Pentagon’s effort to investigate “unexplained aerial incursions has co-authored an academic paper that presents an out-of-this-world theory: Recent objects could actually be alien probes from a mothership sent to study Earth,” our LARA SEGILMAN reports. The paper notes that “the objects, which appear to defy all physics, could be ‘probes’ from an extraterrestrial ‘parent craft.’
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| | | LUCY BOURKE, the 11-year-old girl who almost hit Biden with a sliotar (camogie ball) when he was visiting Dublin this week, has spoken. When Bourke hit the ball during a camogie match and it got shockingly close to the president, she told the Irish Times that she “thought everyone was going to be giving out to me because it was such a bad shot.” Biden himself even playfully ran toward the ball after it passed him. “Instead everyone was laughing,” she said (though her dad disclosed that some are now calling her "Lee Hurley Oswald"). Although Biden was in good spirits about the whole incident, he wasn’t gifted the sliotar as a reward for his survival.. We’re just glad no one got hurt!
| | | | After cherry trees were planted along the Tidal Basin, First lady FLORENCE HARDING sought to incorporate them at the White House, planting the trees on the grounds and using the fresh cut blossoms to decorate in the spring. 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 | | | | |  |
