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The power players, latest policy developments, and intriguing whispers percolating inside the West Wing. | | | | |  | | By 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. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren If anyone in Washington has had June 5 circled on the calendar, it was likely because Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN warned lawmakers that it was the “X date” when the U.S. would hit its debt ceiling. With a compromise spending package on a glide path to President JOE BIDEN’s desk, default fears have abated. But, at least from abroad, there’s still real anticipation about what’s happening Monday in Washington — and it has nothing to do with the debt limit. In Brussels, Copenhagen and other European capitals, there is a buzz building about Danish Prime Minister METTE FREDERIKSEN’s looming White House sit-down on June 5 with Biden. With NATO Secretary General JENS STOLTENBERG planning to leave his post in October after nine years, Frederiksen is rumored to be on the short list of potential replacements. Many see her visit to the White House, which comes a month before NATO’s next summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, as a chance for Biden to implicitly bless her as an acceptable choice to lead the 31-nation alliance. However, that’s not what Monday’s meeting is about, said a U.S. official who asked for anonymity to discuss the situation. Biden, they said, “had a really good conversation” with Frederiksen at last summer’s NATO summit in Madrid and “really liked her.” But the official stressed that the president “has not settled on a candidate,” to replace Stoltenberg, who could always extend his term for another year if there’s no consensus by the Vilnius summit in July. Unlike a political election where a candidate needs a simple majority to win, any NATO secretary general must win the approval of all 31 members, no easy feat within a diverse and occasionally fractious alliance. But given the outsized role the U.S. plays, Washington’s stamp of approval is key. There is no real upside for Frederiksen talking publicly about her possible interest in the post, and she’s responded to growing speculation by telling the press she’s “not looking for another job.” Although that didn’t stop her foreign minister, LARS LØKKE RASMUSSEN, from acknowledging in an interview in Oslo on Thursday that “the genie is out of the bottle” and speculating about the potential impact of Frederiksen’s departure on Denmark’s relatively new coalition government. “None of the candidates want to show their cards and be too obvious because then the objections start coming from one corner of the alliance or another,” said CAMILLE GRAND, a former NATO assistant secretary general who is now a distinguished policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “Frederiksen is probably the de facto frontrunner for now, especially if the White House visit goes well,” Grand added. “If it does, then we'll see how others react.” With the last two secretaries general having come from Nordic countries, there are growing calls for the next leader to come from another region, perhaps southern or eastern Europe. That said, there is also a strong desire for a woman to helm the alliance for the first time — Estonia’s KAJA KALLAS is another name that’s been floated — and a tradition dictating that the candidate to be a current or former head of state. Denmark, while in the mainstream of the alliance philosophically, has lagged behind other member nations in defense spending, the main weak spot for Frederiksen’s potential NATO candidacy. “She was prime minister for three years with a one-party government and it’s fair to say that security issues and defense policy were not prioritized,” said JACOB KAARSBO, a Copenhagen-based senior analyst at Europa think tank. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however, Denmark has shifted to a more robust defense posture, especially since the formation of its coalition government six months ago. It has provided more defense aid to Ukraine per capita than several of its larger European neighbors and will help oversee the new effort to train Ukrainian pilots on fourth generation military aircraft, including F-16s (and could also eventually provide the planes themselves). Just this week, Denmark’s defense minister announced a plan to triple defense spending in response to Europe’s changing security environment, with the goal of reaching the 2 percent benchmark by 2030. “There is a growing realization, finally, of how important this is,” Kaarsbo said. “And that will go down well in Washington. On the other hand, when nations debate the secretary general post, we cannot hide that, currently, Danish defense is in a precarious state after many years of budgetary neglect.” MESSAGE US — Are you IAN MELLUL, associate director of presidential advance and director of production for presidential events? 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!
| | | | DON’T MISS POLITICO’S HEALTH CARE SUMMIT: The Covid-19 pandemic helped spur innovation in health care, from the wide adoption of telemedicine, health apps and online pharmacies to mRNA vaccines. But what will the next health care innovations look like? Join POLITICO on Wednesday June 7 for our Health Care Summit to explore how tech and innovation are transforming care and the challenges ahead for access and delivery in the United States. REGISTER NOW. | | | | | | | | | This one is from Allie. Who was the first president to declare June “Pride Month”? (Answer at bottom.)
| | SANDBAGGED: After handing out diplomas to Air Force cadets at their graduation ceremony on Thursday, Biden tripped and fell as he turned away from the podium. The fall looked pretty hard and the president needed to be helped up. But communications director BEN LABOLT quickly tweeted out that Biden was fine. The culprit? “There was a sandbag on stage while he was shaking hands,” said LaBolt. EVERYONE, BE COOL: After a debt limit deal was struck with House Speaker KEVIN MCCARTHY just days before the anticipated default deadline, White House aides aimed to tamp down talk that Biden had scored a win in the negotiations. They didn’t want to spook Republicans, who they needed to vote for the bill. They also hoped it would make Democrats look like the “adults in the room,” and provide a contrast with Republicans. Advisers hope the messaging strategy plays to their advantage in the 2024 election, our JONATHAN LEMIRE, ADAM CANCRYN and JENNIFER HABERKORN report. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Or should we say hear. Sen. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-Iowa) told Fox News on Thursday that Republicans “aren’t interested in whether or not the accusations against Vice President Biden are accurate” regarding its investigation into Biden. “We’re responsible for making sure the FBI does its job.” IAN SAMS, the White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, tweeted out the clip: “Wow. Chuck Grassley admits the truth of his and @JamesComer’s silly FBI form stunt.” We’d just like to point out that Grassley misidentified Biden as the vice president… WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by The Atlantic’s DAVID ZIPPER about how Biden’s electric vehicle push is coming at a cost — increased production of bigger electric vehicles: “The relentless enlargement of American EVs is an ominous development for road safety, because added weight and height make cars more dangerous for anyone walking, biking, or inside smaller vehicles. … Because of their large batteries, electric vehicles are about one-third heavier than equivalent gas-powered models.” ON DOUG’S CALENDAR: Second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF is set to speak Monday at the United States Conference of Mayors, where he’ll participate in a roundtable discussion about the administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism, The Columbus Dispatch’s ARIANNA SMITH reports. OUTFIT REPEATER: While on a trip to the Middle East, first lady JILL BIDEN stopped in Jordan to attend the wedding of Crown Prince AL HUSSEIN and RAJWA AL SEIF. FLOTUS fashion expert, KATE BENNETT, noted on Twitter that Biden wore “the custom lavender Reem Acra gown she wore at last month’s Korea State Dinner at the White House.” A BIDEN EMBRACES THE 2ND AMENDMENT: The president’s son, HUNTER BIDEN, is the subject of a Justice Department investigation into his purchase of a gun in 2018, a time when he’s said he was regularly using crack cocaine. That would appear to be a violation of federal law, which bans drug users from owning guns. But that law is now in question after recent Supreme Court decisions on the Second Amendment. It’s a gray area the younger Biden’s legal team is exploring, our BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN reports.
| | STILL HIS GAS BUDDY: He’s no longer running the @WHCOS Twitter account but RON KLAIN is still checking GasBuddy and tweeting about falling gas prices — just from his personal account. Gas is down $1.16 from last year, Klain noted: “Waiting to see cable TV correspondents standing in front of TV stations to report this, as they did when prices were rising in 2022.” (We’re guessing he actually meant that he wants correspondents standing in front of gas stations, not their own offices, but who really knows?!) Last week, Klain declined to share his thoughts with West Wing Playbook about media coverage of the debt ceiling. “I’m not a media commentator,” he wrote in a text at the time. We texted back Thursday, hopeful his position had changed. Alas, it had not. THIS REUBEN COMES WITH A PICKLE: The Biden administration is working to salvage its relationship with South Africa after REUBEN BRIGETY, the U.S. ambassador to the nation, alleged Pretoria sent a ship of weapons to Russia for its war on Ukraine, our NAHAL TOOSI reports. Brigety said he’d “bet my life” on the claim, creating tension for the administration as it works to court the region as part of its global effort to isolate Russia. INCOMING CDC CHIEF: Biden plans to appoint former North Carolina health secretary MANDY COHEN as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, our ADAM CANCRYN reports. Outgoing CDC chief ROCHELLE WALENSKY is slated to leave the agency at the end of the month.
| | RICKY, DON’T LOSE THAT NUMBER: RICHARD REVESZ, the head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, is helping to advance the Biden administration’s ambitious environmental regulations, NYT’s CORAL DAVENPORT reports. Despite his low profile, Revesz has changed the office’s reputation, known as a place where regulations go to die, using “his authority to strengthen its legal analysis and make it more stringent. What’s more, he has proposed a new method of calculating the cost of potential regulation that would bolster the legal and economic justifications for those rules.”
| | | | Earlier this week, we noted that Gen. C.Q. BROWN’s favorite superhero franchise is Spiderman. But he also is really drawn to Marvel superhero, FALCON. In a discussion about the Disney series, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” Brown said he sees a lot of himself in SAM WILSON, the fictional character behind Falcon. In the series, Wilson navigates his responsibilities as the new CAPTAIN AMERICA, which hit home for Brown. “Although it's a series, really there’s some reflection of reality,” said the Air Force chief of staff and Biden’s Joint Chiefs chair nominee. “You don’t walk in there thinking you’re going to be Captain America, just like when I came into the Air Force, I didn’t walk in and think I was going to be chief of staff of the Air Force. Even three or four years ago, it was not something I aspired to do, the opportunity presented itself.”
| | | | GET READY FOR GLOBAL TECH DAY: Join POLITICO Live as we launch our first Global Tech Day alongside London Tech Week on Thursday, June 15. Register now for continuing updates and to be a part of this momentous and program-packed day! From the blockchain, to AI, and autonomous vehicles, technology is changing how power is exercised around the world, so who will write the rules? REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | | As missiles exploded over Kyiv, they raced for a shelter. It was locked. (WaPo’s Samantha Schmidt and Kostiantyn Khudov) A New Approach to Hostage Diplomacy? Group Looks for Ways to Deter Wrongful Detentions (WSJ’s Vivian Salama)
| | | President BILL CLINTON was the first president to issue a proclamation declaring June "Gay & Lesbian Pride Month” in 1999 and 2000. In 2009, President BARACK OBAMA expanded it to include more of the LGBTQ community, declaring it “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.” 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 | | | | |  |
