Paradise lost

By Sam Stein, Alex Thompson and Theodoric Meyer

With help from Allie Bice

Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. Did someone forward this to you? Subscribe here!

For the two dozen or so people who still dream of JOE BIDEN ushering in a bipartisan utopia, this week was deflating.

The anticipated purging of Rep. LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.) from a GOP leadership role over her insistence that the election was not, in fact, stolen laid bare the direction in which House Republicans are heading. Senate Minority Leader MITCH McCONNELL’s (R-Ky.) admission that “100 percent” of his focus was on “stopping” the Biden administration affirmed his lack of appetite for working across the aisle.

The Cheney news itself was enough to make even the preternaturally optimistic Biden flash a bit of doubt. “I don't understand the Republicans,” the president lamented this week.

Inside the White House, however, none of this was that big a surprise. Aides there have long considered McConnell a Machivelian type, whose (cunning) insight was that voters reward progress and, henceforth, his job as a leader of the minority was to prevent that progress from happening. It’s a view shared across the party, where the notion that McConnell would ever allow enough of his members to support a major Biden initiative so that it could pass is considered farcical.

“McConnell is not a moron,” is how RODELL MOLLINEAU, a longtime Senate aide and current Democratic consultant, put it. “He counts votes as well as anybody. He would have to help get some of those votes to 60 and it's not in his interest to do so.”

As for House Republicans … well, there was never any scenario envisioned in which they’d be constructive partners in the Biden presidency. Even so, some Democrats expressed alarm at how quickly Cheney’s fate seemed to be sealed this week, largely because of the signal it sent about the GOP’s intent to bury any discussion about the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. It was not coincidental that Biden devoted a relatively large chunk of his address to a joint session of Congress last week to warning the country is teetering towards autocracy. He believes it. This week merely reaffirmed it.

“I don't know anyone in the White House who believes there is going to be a Republican epiphany,” said one top Democratic lobbyist close to the White House. “I don't know how you could read that [McConnell] comment and see what they're doing on elections in Georgia and Florida and how they're deposing one of the most conservative members of Congress because she doesn't believe the election was stolen. You add it all up and ask, is there any hope for the Republican Party?”

And yet, for all the professed sobriety, the White House continues to push along with the let’s-see-if-this-bipartisan-thing-can-actually-work approach. This coming week, the president is expected to host Republicans for talks around his infrastructure and cares initiative. They’ve privately pointed to comments from stray GOP lawmakers as evidence that there may be some room for negotiation. Yesterday, Sen. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO (R-W.Va.) gave them more fodder when she told NBC’s GARRETT HAAKE that the difference between her $568 billion infrastructure plan and the presidents $2 trillion one was “not nearly as big as what you might think.” $1.4 trillion sure seems like a big difference; but, Capito added, her plan was “not our final offer.”

Could Biden actually believe this? Aides in the White House do feel that infrastructure talks are going well and point out that there are other policy priorities — from confronting China to bolstering semiconductor supply chains — where they’ve worked with Republicans. For all of McConnell’s bluster, they note that Biden was able to work with the Kentucky Republican during the BARACK OBAMA years even after he pledged to make the 44th president a one-termer.

Biden isn’t Pollyannaish. But he does see utility in talking to the GOP. A bridge not burned now, after all, means it remains intact for later.

"I think he wants those relationships, even if it's not 100 percent beneficial to him right now in getting things done,” is how one top operative put it.

And yet, others fear that precious time will be lost on a fruitless endeavor; and that time — above all else — is Biden’s most important commodity.

It’s not just Democrats making the point. I asked AL CARDENAS, a lifelong Republican who once headed CPAC, if he would advise Biden that there was a legitimate path forward to working with the current GOP.

“It’s hard to foresee a path to working together through this election cycle,” he responded.

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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.

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How many full-time staffers maintain the White House gardens and lawns?

(Answer is at the bottom.)

Matt Wuerker/POLITICO

Every Friday, we’ll feature our favorite cartoon of the week, courtesy of our very own MATT WUERKER’s Friday cartoon carousel. View the rest of the cartoon carousel here.

SEE SOMETHING? SAY SOMETHING — The White House released visitor logs for the first 12 days of the administration this afternoon. (We’re sure it’s a coincidence they made them public late on a Friday afternoon.) Take a look, and let us know if you spot any intriguing names.

NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED — White House press secretary JEN PSAKI swatted away a series of queries from Newsmax correspondent EMERALD ROBINSON at Friday’s briefing, employing one of her preferred tactics for shutting down overly broad lines of inquiry.

Psaki’s Socratic press strategy was on full display after Robinson asked about “the growing perception” that Biden’s presidency “is really just the third term” of Barack Obama. “What do you say to people who say that?” Robinson asked.

“Who were saying that? Who’s saying that?” Psaki responded.

“We’ve heard that a lot in the media,” Robinson replied.

“Who in the media?” Psaki shot back. “Different people,” Robinson said.

Psaki did not relent. “It’s hard to react when I don’t know what people you’re talking about,” she said. FROM QUINT FORGEY

MESSONNIER OUT — ERIN BANCO and ADAM CANCRYN write that senior Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientist NANCY MESSONNIER is leaving the agency, two weeks after being reassigned within the CDC from her position heading the agency's Covid-19 vaccine task force.

UNPACKING BIDEN’S JOBS CLAIM — Biden claimed in Louisiana on Thursday that economists at “liberal as well as conservative think tanks” have said “we’ll create up to 16 million good-paying jobs” if Congress passes his American Jobs Plans. Those jobs would pay “not $8 an hour, $12 an hour, not $15 an hour” but “wages you can raise a family on,” he added.

It’s not clear where Biden got the 16 million jobs estimate or which think tanks he was referencing. The White House declined to comment on where the president got his figures.

The American Enterprise Institute, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Center for American Progress all said they hadn’t made any such projections.

A Moody’s report that several administration officials cited last month (sometimes getting themselves into trouble ) projected the economy would create 18.9 million jobs over the next decade if Biden’s plan became law, though the proposal itself would contribute a fraction of those — 2.7 million. An updated Moody’s report released this week increased the job projection to 20 million over ten years, if Congress also passed Biden’s American Families Plan.

That report doesn’t make any claims about how much those jobs would pay. But MARK ZANDI, the report’s co-author, told West Wing Playbook that he didn’t disagree with Biden.

“I think roughly speaking he’s right,” he said. “The jobs that would be created would provide a living wage.”

DUELING NARRATIVES: According to the president, the disappointing job numbers released today “show we are on the right track.” NICK NIEDZWIADEK writes that Biden’s remarks were an apparent rebuttal to conservatives who blamed the lower-than-expected April jobs report on the juiced-up unemployment benefits put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic, which they said have deterred people from seeking work.

DAD JOKES FOR DAYS — Biden and Liz Cheney have some history. In 2010 when she was attacking the Obama administration’s foreign policy, Biden quipped at the Radio and TV Correspondents’ Association Dinner that “Liz has been on a tear lately. Now she’s questioning if Tom Brady is a real patriot.”

*crickets*

“What the hell, it was worth a try guys,” he said, trying to save himself before making a Biden-esque transition. “By the way happy St. Patrick’s Day.” Watch it here from C-SPAN’s HOWARD MORTMAN.

Schumer: Biden administration is “moving in our direction” on cancelling student debt for veterans (HuffPost’s Akbar Shahid Ahmed)

Justice Department releases proposed “ghost guns” rule (AP’s Michael Balsamo)

He delivered remarks on the April jobs report, and met with his “Jobs Cabinet,” later in the afternoon.

She hosted a virtual meeting with Mexican President ANDRÉS MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR in the morning.

The vice president’s national security adviser NANCY McELDOWNEY, chief of staff TINA FLOURNOY, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs JULIE CHUNG, NSC Western Hemisphere senior director JUAN GONZALEZ, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for the Western Hemisphere IAN SAUNDERS, NSC senior Adviser for migration AMY POPE and JOHN CREAMER, the chargé d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Mexico City, also attended the meeting.

Later, Harris joined Biden for lunch and attended the “Jobs Cabinet” meeting.

Before turning his focus to politics, Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG was a reporting intern for WMAQ-Channel 5, an NBC-affiliate station based in Chicago, while studying at Harvard.

While interning, he helped his mentor, former TV journalist RENEE FERGUSON, earn an Emmy for her investigative reporting on a sex offender who was working at a daycare center.

Ferguson, Buttigieg and a videographer arrived at the building where the offender worked in the summer of 2002 to get evidence the offender worked there, according to a 2019 Washington Post article.

Ferguson and the videographer, who are both Black, tried to get into the building, but were denied access to entry by the security guard.

Buttgieg, however, was let in by the guard, and was able to get footage of the sex offender that helped with Ferguson’s story. Ferguson recalled pointing out the disparity to Buttigieg, telling him: “I think I understand what white privilege looks like.”

He responded: “I don’t know if that’s what’s going on.”

But Ferguson stood her ground, according to the Post piece.

“Yes, you do know,” she told him. “I couldn’t get in, but you could. Think about how many times in your life that you’ve just been able to walk through doors and the rest of us got turned away.”

Renee has a point, at least per some of Buttigieg’s political rivals, who made similar arguments during the 2020 presidential primary (cough, AMY KLOBUCHAR, cough).

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 .

The grounds are maintained by a crew of 13 staffers — a chief horticulturist, three foremen, eight gardeners and one maintenance operator.

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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