“Biden 2024” quietly begins

By Alex Thompson and Theodoric Meyer

With help from Allie Bice and Daniel Payne

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President JOE BIDEN has kept his public focus on combating the pandemic and passing his infrastructure plan. But privately the president’s political operation has started preparing for 2024, including the Democratic party’s main committee.

The Democratic National Committee has quietly assembled a core team that is focused not just on the 2022 midterms but on the next presidential cycle and the expected Biden re-elect, according to Democratic officials in and outside the DNC.

Weeks after the inauguration, the committee’s research team, led by NICK BAUER, started gathering “oppo” on over 20 Republican politicians and has identified 49 GOPers who could run.

With DONALD TRUMP proving that traditional resumés aren’t a requirement for the GOP, the DNC says they are digging into a wide range of people, from current and former elected officials like Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS and former U.N. Ambassador NIKKI HALEY to unconventional candidates like Fox News’ TUCKER CARLSON and Minnesota pillow magnate MIKE LINDELL. DNC officials believe social media has made the barrier to entry lower for presidential candidates and that there will be a crowded field again if Trump doesn’t run.

“That’s a four-year project, that’s not a two-year project,” a DNC official said of the early efforts. The DNC’s research shop currently employs about 25 people with plans to hire around 50 total. Bauer’s deputies, CAROLINE GRAHAM and AUSTIN DIETER, are seen internally as the committee’s best oppo diggers, whose long-term investigations are often then quietly fed to mainstream media outlets.

Inside the DNC, the political team has been tasked with getting the organizing, fundraising, and party-building functions going for both 2022 and 2024. ROGER LAU, who managed ELIZABETH WARREN’s presidential campaign, is in charge of that group, which includes Political Director ALANA MOUNCE, Deputy Chief Mobilization Officer for Organizing JOSE NUNEZ, States Director RAMSEY REID, Political Chief of Staff ANATOLE JENKINS, and former Biden deputy campaign manager PETE KAVANAUGH, who has a DNC email but is working on contract through his new firm.

Overseeing it all is the White House’s political shop led by Biden’s 2020 campaign manager, JEN O’MALLEY DILLON.

“To say that there's some sort of small team that's been tasked with 2024, that's simply not accurate,” a DNC official told West Wing Playbook. “With that having been said though, the map is such that we have a huge opportunity here. It’s sort of a false choice, right? If you look at the top eight Senate targets, they perfectly overlap with eight of the likely battlegrounds for 2024.”

Left unsaid is that Biden may not run, despite reiterating recently that he expects to.

If the 78-year-old ultimately decides against another campaign, the DNC will have to recalibrate—taking on the functions of a party that has to conduct an expensive and likely exhaustive primary. That’s the bad news. The good news for them: the oppo research remains applicable no matter whom Democrats nominate.

Of course, the pro-Biden outside group “Build Back Together” may need a rebrand if he opts out of 2024.

PSA: We’re going to be experimenting with some new items and sections. Tell us what you like and what you hate.

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A message from PhRMA:

Americans don’t need another barrier to their medicines. We have to lower what patients pay for their medicines. We also have to make sure they are getting the medicines they need. H.R.3 forces a choice between one or the other, but there’s a way to do both. Get the facts at phrma.org/betterway.

With the Partnership for Public Service

On Jan. 16 of this year, which senator passed Biden as the 18th longest-serving senator in history?

(Answer is at the bottom.)

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a daily briefing | Alex Wong/Getty Images

DONALD WHO? It was almost as if White House press secretary JEN PSAKI had prepped for the question. Asked by Bloomberg’s JOSH WINGROVE whether DONALD TRUMP’s potential return to Facebook will affect the administration’s messaging strategy, Psaki responded with a one-word reply: “No.”

Pressed for additional comment on the pending decision, Psaki noted that it’s up to Facebook’s designated panel; “beyond that we have no further comment.” The Biden administration has generally ignored the antipope of Mar-a-Lago’s provocations — now issued via sporadic press releases — since supplanting Trump in the Oval Office. From NICK NIEDZWIADEK

WHILE YOU’RE BUILDING BACK BETTER — The pro-immigration advocacy group FWD.us is using Biden’s own words for his plans to revive the country in a new seven-figure ad campaign urging him not to forget the promises he made on immigration.

“We can’t come close and fail,” a narrator says in the TV ad, launched Tuesday and first shared with ANITA KUMAR. “We can fulfil the promise of America for all of America’s families. That’s how we build back better.”

The ad from the MARK ZUCKERBERG-backed group will run for two weeks across the country on TV and digital media, part of a $50 million effort launched by a coalition of groups pushing for the passage of bills offering a pathway to citizenship for more than 4 million immigrants, including Dreamers and farmworkers. The House passed the bills but they face obstacles in the Senate.

VACCINE SHAKEUP: The administration will allow states to order coronavirus shots that other states aren’t using, marking a major shift in strategy as the White House readies a new push to lift falling vaccination rates. RACHEL ROUBEIN has all the details HERE.

THE YELLEN DEFICIT HAWK MEDIA BLITZ — Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN warned in a live event this morning hosted by The Atlantic that “it may be that interest rates will have to rise somewhat to make sure our economy does not overheat,” scaring investors who’ve become accustomed to super-low interest rates.

She softened those remarks in another live interview this afternoon, saying that she wasn’t “predicting or recommending” that the Fed raise rates. But the remarks underscore her message that it would be wise to offset some of the administration's proposed spending in the future.

Yellen has been everywhere in recent days making the case that deficits do matter, at least a little. She was on “Meet the Press” on Sunday in addition to the Atlantic event this morning and a live interview with The Wall Street Journal’s JERRY SEIB this afternoon.

“[Biden] has made clear that he believes that permanent increases in spending should be paid for and I agree,” she told CHUCK TODD as she defended the White House’s proposed tax hikes. Her remarks have prompted some outrage from the left. “Janet Yellen’s Deficit Preoccupation Could Bring Down Biden’s Agenda,” a recent headline in the liberal magazine The American Prospect read.

With VICTORIA GUIDA (let’s make her thread explaining inflation go viral)

NERD ALERT — @SecGranholm tweeted tonight that “.@ENERGY is laser-focused on Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (JEDI) within clean energy because we know this Sith our shot at building a better future for every American. It really is the Endor be-all for us. So it’s do or do not—there is no try. #MayThe4thBeWithYou”

Theo reaction, via our slack channel: “Pretty confusing because JEDI is also a Pentagon acronym.”

Fauci warns against discarding trade rules on Covid vaccines (Financial Times’ Kiran Stacey)

A key point of contention: Who would pay Biden’s corporate tax increase? (The Wall Street Journal’s Richard Rubin)

Biden extends ban on fentanyl-like substances (NBC’s Rebecca Shabad)

How do you make the government fairer to underserved communities? The Biden administration wants to know. (NBC’s Ben Kesslen)

White House press secretary JEN PSAKI has met a lot of powerful and famous people in her career.

You’d think she’d be pretty unfazed when celebrities or other big names come to visit the White House, but she admitted back in 2011 that she fangirled a bit over DEREK JETER, according to a Greenwich Magazine article.

Psaki ran into Jeter in the West Wing when the New York Yankees came to visit former President BARACK OBAMA.

“I just had this moment where I was thinking, I will regret it if I don’t do this,” Psaki said. “So I grabbed him by the shoulder and I said, ‘Mr. Jeter, would you mind signing this?’ I said, ‘My fiancé is a huge baseball fan. Would you mind signing this for him?’

“I happened to have a note card that said ‘The White House’ across the top. And he said, ‘Sure, I’d be happy to. What’s his name?’”

Knowing Jeter, he probably short-hopped his signature and got wildly applauded for it.

HELP US OUT — It's been interesting digging through memoirs and college newspaper clips about Biden administration officials. But we want your help too. Do you have a story — that’s potentially embarrassing but not too mean or serious — that we should use for an "Oppo Book" item? Email us transitiontips@politico.com.

MITCH MCCONNELL (R-Ky.)

We want your tips, but we also want your feedback as we transition to West Wing Playbook. What should be covering in this newsletter that we’re not? What are we getting wrong? Please let us know.

Edited by Emily Cadei

A message from PhRMA:

Americans don’t need yet another barrier to their medicines. Especially now. Now is the time for us to rethink how we get the medicines we need. But there are right ways and wrong ways. While it may sound good on paper, H.R.3 would threaten patients’ access to treatments, put nearly a million American jobs at risk and jeopardize current and future medical innovation – all while failing to address the broader challenges facing America’s health care system.

We have to lower what patients pay for their medicines. We also have to make sure patients are getting the medicines they need. There’s a way to do both, but H.R.3 isn’t it. Get the facts at phrma.org/betterway.

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