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Presented by The Coalition to Protect America's Regional Airports: The power players, latest policy developments, and intriguing whispers percolating inside the West Wing. | | | | | |  | | By Lauren Egan and Eli Stokols | | | 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 First lady JILL BIDEN loves to spin her wheels. During a trip to California this week, Biden was spotted leaving a SoulCycle session in San Francisco’s Castro district. Last month, she was seen blowing off some steam at a “Pop Star Battles: Lizzo vs. Harry Styles” class in D.C. with second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF. Her grandkids laugh about how she once woke them up at 5 a.m. on Christmas Eve to go to a SoulCycle class — and she even helped NAOMI BIDEN plan her wedding last year during classes at the Georgetown studio. The first lady’s SoulCycle obsession habit is even known across the pond. When the U.K. Prime Minister RISHI SUNAK visited the White House last week, he joked he had spent so much time with President JOE BIDEN in recent months that their wives had “even started to take spin classes together” — referring to his wife AKSHATA MURTHY and the first lady going to a Notting Hill SoulCycle class the day after attending the coronation of King Charles III. SoulCycle ain’t cheap (it costs $34 to attend a class in D.C.), and the first lady has access to a well-equipped gym at the White House and a Peloton bike preferred by the president. But people close to her say that she likes the motivation she gets from being part of a group fitness class. She tries to get in a minimum of three workouts a week and feels at her best when she’s able to squeeze in a morning class. They say it’s a way for her to stay grounded when she’s traveling and the class provides a space for her to connect with family when she’s home. She’s not exactly alone in feeling a cultish connection to the trendy indoor cycling chain. In fact, she’s not even the first presidential spouse to be a loyal customer. MICHELLE OBAMA frequently attended classes when she was first lady and said at the time that it was one of her favorite activities to do with her daughters. But while Obama arranged for private sessions, the first lady clips onto her bike alongside dozens of other SoulCyclers, a few Secret Service members and some White House staffers (looking at you, JORDAN MONTOYA and ANTHONY BERNAL!). “It’s a great escape and a great sanctuary, where you can park all of your worries, concerns, the pressures and burdens that life presents — you can leave that outside the doors of the studio,” said SoulCycle CEO EVELYN WEBSTER. She noted the “level of anonymity” that comes with taking a class that could be appealing (for the uninitiated: the studio is totally dark aside from the occasional candle). The first lady has always been a fitness junkie. While SouCycle is a clear favorite, she also goes to barre classes and bikes outdoors with her husband at their Rehoboth Beach house. She’s a longtime runner, which she took up to manage her stress when her daughter, ASHLEY BIDEN, was a teenager. She completed the Marine Corps Marathon in 1998 in 4:30:02, averaging 10:17 per mile. “I have a rule that I never think of anything negative when I’m running,” Biden said in 2020. At one point when she was second lady, Biden was running five miles five days a week — a schedule that’s a bit harder to keep up with now that she has to move around with significantly more security. She’s turned to SoulCycle instead. “She gets after it,” said LOGAN COFFEY, a SoulCycle instructor in Los Angeles. Coffey said the first lady took a class with him in February the day she was presenting at the Grammy Awards. The morning after the show, Coffey said she returned for his 7 a.m. class. “She does the dance moves. She’s whipping the towel with us. And that makes it feel like everyone for one moment is on the same side and the same team,” he said in a phone call with West Wing Playbook. “It just happens to be that one of our teammates is the first lady.” MESSAGE US — Are you Peloton instructor ALEX TOUSSAINT? 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 Coalition to Protect America's Regional Airports: Reagan National Airport (DCA) is facing a shortage of certified air traffic controllers – 27% below its FAA target number. Members of Congress should be focused on fixing pilot and air traffic controller shortages, supporting an industry still recovering from the pandemic, and promoting safety and security. Instead, they are meddling with slot and perimeter rules at DCA and threatening the passage of a much-needed FAA Reauthorization bill. Learn more. | | | | | This one is from Allie. Why is the White House white? (Answer at bottom.)
| | FEELING THE BERN: Administration officials and journalists toasted departing deputy communications director KATE BERNER on Monday night at an off-campus celebration. Her send-off continues Wednesday night in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden outside the East Wing, where a smaller group of senior staffers and Biden 2020 campaign veterans planned to gather for a final and more intimate toast to the well-liked and quietly influential aide. Attendees are free to send us audio and video clips from this event! ABOUT (THAT CHYRON) LAST NIGHT: While MSNBC and (the new post-CHRIS LICHT) CNN opted against airing former President DONALD TRUMP’s remarks last night hours after his indictment, Fox News covered it alongside Biden’s remarks from the White House. The network’s chyron caught everyone’s attention. “WANNABE DICTATOR SPEAKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE AFTER HAVING HIS POLITICAL RIVAL ARRESTED,” read the banner beneath a two-box showing Biden and Trump’s speeches side by side. A network spokesperson told Vanity Fair’s CHARLOTTE KLEIN that the chyron “was taken down immediately and was addressed.” Just how it “was addressed” is unclear. ALONG THESE LINES: When press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE got asked about the chyron during Wednesday’s briefing, she made a less than subtle reference to the settlement Fox recently paid Dominion Voting Systems to avoid a defamation trial. “There are probably about 787 million things that I can say about this,” she said. Fox News cut quickly away from the briefing and switched, as CBS’s ED O’KEEFE noted, “to someone who rescued a 10-foot crocodile from a pool.” Deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES retweeted two of O’Keefe’s posts on that subject, continuing a day of harsh broadsides toward the network. Earlier, he tweeted that Fox was “characteristically lying through its teeth” in an online story he said was based on a “malicious and discredit” report that a new rainbow flag flown at the White House Pride celebration Saturday, as the Fox headline read, promoted “grooming and pedophilia.” (The headline has since been changed). WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by Newsweek’s NICK REYNOLDS that breaks down the latest hole in the GOP investigation of the president. Sen. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-Iowa) claimed there were recordings “by a Burisma executive kept as an ‘insurance policy’ for their alleged business dealings, a claim that would directly implicate both Bidens in alleged bribery involving the Ukrainian gas giant.” But Rep. JAMES COMER (R-Ky.) “left some room for reasonable doubt around the existence of any audio recordings involving the Bidens. ‘I can confirm they were listed in the 1023 that the FBI redacted,’ Comer said on (a Newsmax) program. ‘We don't know if they're legit or not, but we know the foreign national claims he has them.’” IAN SAMS, White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, tweeted out the piece Wednesday. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece from NBC’s DANIEL ARKIN, one of several documenting the NAACP’s frustration with Biden for agreeing during debt ceiling negotiations to end the pause on student loan repayments at the end of August. In a letter to the White House, WISDOM COLE, the NAACP’s national director of youth and college, and DERRICK JOHNSON, the group’s president, expressed dismay that “the needs of Black communities have suffered from the negotiated agreement that will erode economic progress for Black Americans.” STICKING TO THE SCRIPT: Biden has stayed mum on former President DONALD TRUMP’s federal indictment and has directed the national Democratic Party and his reelection campaign to do the same, our JONATHAN LEMIRE reports. But some Democrats fear that by not speaking out, the president is missing a major political opportunity — both to reiterate the seriousness of this moment and to attack his main White House competitor. ABOUT THOSE GAS PRICES: Inflation may be persistent, but new numbers from the government show that consumer prices like food and gas have gone down the past month. Our VICTORIA GUIDA breaks down the numbers: “Food prices ticked up only 0.2 percent in May compared to April, with grocery costs essentially flat after falling in the previous two months. Energy prices dropped a whopping 3.6 percent — with gasoline alone plunging 5.6 percent.” You will be shocked, Dear Reader, to learn that our pal RON KLAIN tweeted an Axios item headlined, “Falling prices for eggs, gas.” THINGS YOU SHOULD HAVE DISCLOSED TO US FOR $800: Tuesday's edition of West Wing Playbook about a new social impact firm set up by two Biden alums mentioned the pair are now working for luxury fashion label Tory Burch and included a quote from TORY BURCH praising the two. The firm’s co-founder, THOMAS ISEN, did not mention that Burch is his aunt, hence why we did not include it.
| | IT’S HAPPENING: Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN is leaving Friday for China, the State Department announced Wednesday. Blinken is set to meet with Beijing's top officials, where he plans to emphasize the “importance of maintaining open lines of communication to responsibly manage” the relationship between the two countries, our MATT BERG reports. FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: ALEX PASCAL has left the White House where he was special assistant to the president for domestic policy, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. He helped lead policy development on tech, including AI and social media accountability, and countering hate, including the recent antisemitism national strategy.
| | | | 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. | | | | | | | | | MAKING PROGRESS: The nomination of JEFF BARAN, Biden’s pick to be a Nuclear Regulatory commissioner, advanced out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday, despite opposition from GOP lawmakers. Baran’s nomination moves to the full Senate, meaning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission could be fully staffed before a critical rulemaking time, our CATHERINE MOREHOUSE reports for Pro s.
| | | MAJOR REGULATORY PERIOD COMING UP: The spring of 2024 is shaping up to be one of the busiest regulatory periods of the Biden administration, our ALEX GUILLÉN, BEN LEFEBVRE, KELSEY TAMBORRINO, ZACK COLMAN and GLORIA GONZALEZ report. The administration’s newly-released “Unified Agenda” details the upcoming rules across federal agencies, a majority of which are expected to be finalized by early 2024. Finalizing any rules later in the year could place them “inside the timeframe for Congressional Review Act resolutions should Republicans win the White House and maintain or grow their power in Congress.” TRYING THIS AGAIN: The White House “has quietly restarted talks with Iran in a bid to win the release of American prisoners held by Tehran and curb the country’s growing nuclear program,” WSJ’s LAURENCE NORMAN and DAVID S. CLOUD report. The move comes after nuclear deal talks came to a screeching halt last year and reflects the administration’s attempt at smoothing over relations after Iran provided Russia drones for its war with Ukraine.
| | | | A message from The Coalition to Protect America's Regional Airports:   | | | | | Dad jokes are scientifically shown to benefit children. Here’s Utah’s favorite one (Deseret News’ Hannah Seriac) – proving Sam’s theory of parenting. Poland Says ‘Nie’ to Another Nordic NATO Chief, Splitting Alliance (WSJ’s Vivian Salama) Larry Summers Was Wrong About Inflation (NYMag’s Eric Levitz) Biden and Harris Throw a Juneteenth Celebration to Remember on the White House South Lawn (The Root’s Yanick Rice Lamb)
| | | | 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. | | | | | | | | | One thing about working in Washington that Commerce Secretary GINA RAIMONDO isn’t a big fan of? The lack of zeppole, an Italian pastry similar to a donut, typically topped with powdered sugar or filled with cream. “I miss home, I miss Rhode Island so much,” Raimondo said in a speech at Brown University’s Ogden Memorial Lecture on International Affairs in August of 2022. “It’s really hard to find zeppole in Washington, D.C. I have not found a bakery that sells zeppole so before I leave here today, I’m going to go stock up and bring them home to my kids.” Tatte… step it up. Make some damn zeppole for the secretary.
| | Before becoming what we know to be the White House, “the building was first made white with lime-based whitewash in 1798, when its walls were finished, simply as a means of protecting the porous stone from freezing,” according to the White House Historical Association. “Meant to wear off for the most part, leaving cracks and crevices filled, the whitewash was never allowed to weather, but was refreshed periodically until the structure at last was painted with white lead paint in 1818. By that time it had for more than a decade been known as ‘The White House.’” 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 Coalition to Protect America's Regional Airports: The Coalition to Protect America’s Regional Airports opposes any changes to the slot and perimeter rules at Reagan National Airport (DCA). These changes are a threat to passing a much-needed FAA reauthorization bill that invests in our airports, passengers, and air traffic controllers. Did you know that between 2007 and 2012, FAA Reauthorization was extended 23 times and took five years for final passage, due in part to efforts to meddle in DCA’s operations? At a time of pilot and air traffic controller shortages, increases in travel demand, and an industry still recovering from the pandemic, we need an FAA Reauthorization bill. Take action now. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
