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 With hundreds of Latino dignitaries and supporters munching on tacos at cocktail tables scattered around the Rose Garden, President JOE BIDEN described Cinco de Mayo as “a day to celebrate freedom and resilience.” He spoke of the shared history and heritage between Mexico and the United States. “It’s also a day to celebrate friendship,” Biden said last year. So much for that. There is no Cinco de Mayo event planned at the White House this week, a White House official confirmed Monday. And some Hispanic members of the administration are dismayed, questioning why the event has been nixed, and by whom. The staffers who spoke to West Wing Playbook said they couldn’t tell if the decision was made in the Office of Public Engagement or the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. The White House offered only a statement from LUISANA PÉREZ FERNÁNDEZ, the administration’s director of Hispanic media. “Throughout the year, the Biden-Harris Administration celebrates the Latino community through culturally sensitive events and engagements to highlight the community’s accomplishments,” Pérez Fernández said. “These engagements include Hispanic Heritage Month receptions, displaying a Día de Los Muertos ofrenda at the White House, broadcasting Latino radio shows from the White House and hosting briefings for Latino community leaders, celebrities, reporters on the administration’s priorities for the Latino community.” White House celebrations of Cinco De Mayo began in 2001 and continued for 16 years until President DONALD TRUMP opted not to hold the events during his four years in office. (Trump infamously tweeted out a picture of himself eating a taco salad bowl to celebrate Cinco de Mayo while a candidate for office). In 2021, Biden marked the day with a visit to a Mexican restaurant near Union Market — he ordered enchiladas and touted the American Rescue Plan funding that enabled small businesses to survive the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, Biden held a more traditional gathering in the Rose Garden. There are plans in the works for another Latino-focused event later this month with Vice President KAMALA HARRIS, according to a person familiar with the plans, which aren’t yet finalized. In the larger scheme of things, Biden skipping this year’s Cinco de Mayo celebration isn’t a big deal, said CHUCK ROCHA, a strategist who advised BERNIE SANDERS’ 2020 presidential campaign on Latino outreach. “Cinco de Mayo is kind of an Americanized event. Not very many of us truly celebrate that day,” Rocha admitted. At the same time, he noted that past events have been well attended and offer presidents the opportunity to highlight their work on issues that matter to Latinos. “I did not miss any under Obama and they were great events where all of the Latino hierarchy in issue advocacy work got an audience with the White House,” he said. THOMAS SAENZ, the president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, agreed. Drinking margaritas to mark the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla isn’t hugely significant for most Latinos, he argued. Policy and personnel matter far more. “But it’s a lost opportunity and will be interpreted by some as a snub,” he said. “Politically, it’s tone deaf.” Biden, noting his political career has been built on the East Coast, privately acknowledged his relative unfamiliarity about Latino issues during a 2021 meeting with leaders of top advocacy groups. But as president, he’s appointed a record four Latinos to his Cabinet and other key roles. Last week, he made JULIE CHAVEZ RODRIGUEZ, the highest ranking Latino at the White House, his campaign manager for 2024. And he has argued that his policies, from pandemic relief to student loan debt relief, have lifted the Latino community economically. White House engagements with the Latino community also include weekly calls with Latino leaders, and the administration has hosted more than two dozen in-person and virtual meetings with constituencies ranging from DACA recipients to farmworkers to state and local organizers. Yet Biden has struggled to get a handle on immigration issues at the southern border. And the small missteps that may be largely immaterial have piled up. The Spanish-language campaign website that went live last week following Biden’s official announcement was riddled with mistakes, our MARISSA MARTINEZ reports in a new piece. The mistakes underlined the work Biden still has to do even if recent polls show him with a still solid standing among Latino voters, including a Voto Latino survey of four battleground states that showed 60 percent of Latinos supporting Biden. “The Biden/Harris ticket starts the 2024 election in a very strong position with Latino voters in the battleground states we surveyed,” said Voto Latino founder and CEO MARIA TERESA KUMAR in a statement to West Wing Playbook. “That's not to say the Biden campaign can take the Latino vote, which is the fastest-growing demographic in America, for granted.” MESSAGE US — Are you ALLIE PECK, senior legislative affairs adviser? 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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