Tomorrow's forecast: Sunny with a chance of Biden

From: POLITICO West Wing Playbook - Tuesday Aug 08,2023 09:23 pm

Aug 08, 2023

By Steven Shepard, Eli Stokols, Lauren Egan and Lawrence Ukenye

Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from producers Raymond Rapada and Ben Johansen.

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When President JOE BIDEN sat down with The Weather Channel today for an interview from the Grand Canyon that will air Wednesday morning, he continued an understated tradition of presidents engaging with weather-and-climate related TV.

Everybody talks about the weather, but presidents have actually tried to do something about it, often by targeting audiences who closely follow it. BILL CLINTON summoned the nation’s weathermen and women to the White House in 1997 to cajole them into covering climate change more aggressively.

When BARACK OBAMA delivered what his White House billed as a major speech on climate in 2013, only one cable channel aired it in its entirety: The Weather Channel. Two years later, Obama appeared on a TV episode with BEAR GRYLLS in Alaska to talk climate change and retreating glaciers.

Biden’s predecessor, DONALD TRUMP, had his own run-ins with weather media, most notably catching scorn from broadcast meteorologists for brandishing what appeared to be a doctored map to justify tweets about 2019’s Hurricane Dorian tracking toward Alabama (the storm was never forecasted to hit Alabama and ultimately made a brief landfall in North Carolina’s Outer Banks before heading out to sea). #SharpieGate nevertheless set off panic inside the offices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

That same year, both Trump and Biden stiffed The Weather Channel when it ran an election-themed special interviewing 2020 presidential candidates on location in places susceptible to climate change-fueled disasters. Trump declined the invitation outright, while Biden’s campaign cited a scheduling conflict.

But now, ehem, the winds have shifted.

Weather — and, more than ever, extreme weather — is all around us. Americans from coast to coast have confronted record-breaking heat this summer, including in Arizona, where the temperature at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport had already cracked the 100-degree mark by 10:15 this morning.

And we’re only a month or so away from the peak of Atlantic hurricane season. Scientists widely believe that climate change has resulted in more intense, slower-moving hurricanes.

Against this backdrop, Biden’s sit down makes complete sense.

But the interview also checks a number of boxes both for the president and The Weather Channel. Approaching the one-year anniversary of the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden is still struggling to sell his climate agenda.

A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted last month found just 40 percent of Americans approve of how Biden is handling climate change. A majority, 57 percent, disapprove.

For the president, an interview on The Weather Channel offers the opportunity to meet “viewers where they are,” as White House communications director BEN LaBOLT said. It has an added benefit for Biden: STEPHANIE ABRAMS, the network host conducting the interview, is less likely than a reporter from a news outlet to ask about other topics, like the status of HUNTER BIDEN’s plea deal or the 2024 election.

The Weather Channel may be best known for its coverage of major events like hurricanes and blizzards, or its “Local on the 8s” (bring back the retro graphics!) schedule, but it’s also been focused closely on climate change for nearly two decades. It could also use a ratings boost: The network ranked 61st in total viewers among cable channels in the second quarter of this year, according to Nielsen data, averaging just 87,000 viewers.

Back when Clinton and then-Vice President AL GORE invited TV weatherpeople to the White House to talk about climate, the topic was rarely, if ever, part of local or national weather broadcasts. A New York Times story from the event quotes then-Fox News Channel weatherman STEVE DOOCY joking with NBC’s AL ROKER, “Al, let me ask you this: About the global warming thing — we’re against it, right?”

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POTUS PUZZLER

Which sport was named after a president and recently completed its 35th year of annual national championships in his hometown?

(Answer at bottom.)

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The Oval

PROTECTING THE BIG THINGS: Biden used a trip to Arizona on Tuesday to create a new national monument at the Grand Canyon and announce a $44 million investment in ensuring national parks are climate resilient, our SCOTT STREATER reports. The designation for the monument will protect nearly 1 million acres near the park and is part of the administration’s efforts to conserve 30 percent of the country’s land and waters. The president also reaffirmed his commitment to respect the sovereignty and self-determination of tribal nations.

“Our nation’s history is etched in our people and in our lands,” Biden said. “Today’s actions [are going] to protect and preserve that history, along with these high plateaus and deep canyons.”

PROTECTING THE SMALL ONES, TOO: First Lady JILL BIDEN convened educators and administrators from across the country for the White House’s cybersecurity summit for K-12 schools. The first lady appeared alongside Education Secretary MIGUEL CARDONA and DHS Secretary ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS to preview some of the administration’s multi-agency efforts announced Monday, including increased guidance from CISA and additional resources from FBI and National Guard Bureau to ensure states know how to report cybersecurity incidents.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by ABC News’ TAL AXELROD about how Democratic victories in special elections this year could be a sign of the party’s good fortunes for next year’s presidential election. Among the examples: Wisconsin Democrat BOB TATTERSON overperformed in a state special election for a vacant assembly seat and the party secured a New Hampshire state House seat by a 43-point margin, vastly exceeding their projected 23-point edge in the district, Axelrod writes. Strategists believe the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling energized voters in a way that polling has yet to adjust to.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: The Washington Post’s GREG SARGEANT’s deep dive Tuesday highlighting “Union Joe’s” simmering feud with the United Auto Workers. Biden’s new green industrial policy, primarily driven by tax incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act, aimed to speed the nation’s transition to cleaner energy sources while boosting manufacturing and growing jobs — and it has, with billions of private investment since it passed. But it’s also complicated.

The UAW is upset that while automakers are enjoying massive federal support from Biden's policies, Biden hasn't pressured them to pay workers making electric vehicles nearly as well as conventional autoworkers. “We're not against a green economy,” UAW chief SEAN FAIN told Sargeant. “But we are against a green economy that's going to drive a race to the bottom."

THE BUREAUCRATS

MOORE IS MORE: The Democratic National Committee announced its Chicago Convention Leadership team on Tuesday, tapping MINYON MOORE as chair, our SHIA KAPOS reports.

The DNC also announced that ALEX HORNBROOK, who led the convention selection process, will be the executive director of the convention. LOUISA TERRELL, a longtime Biden aide who recently left the White House, will serve as a senior adviser to both the convention and the Biden-Harris campaign. And Democratic National Committee Deputy Executive Director ROGER LAU will serve as senior adviser to the Biden Victory Fund, which is part of an expanded role that includes advising the convention.

MORE CAMPAIGN MOVES: “North Reading native” ROB FLAHERTY is now serving as Biden's deputy campaign manager, the Boston Globe’s NICK STOICO reports. The avowed Le Diplomate fan and all around Francophile previously worked as the White House’s director of digital strategy and left his role in June.

ANOTHER ONE GONE: CELESTE DRAKE, Biden’s top labor adviser who worked as deputy director on the National Economic Council, is leaving the White House to serve as deputy director-general of the International Labor Organization, Reuters’ NANDITA BOSE scooped.

Drake’s exit comes as the country grapples with a growing number of labor disputes.

Filling the Ranks

ACTING. SUCH A DIRTY WORD: Vice President KAMALA HARRIS voiced her support for acting Labor Secretary JULIE SU on Tuesday, as she has yet to gain the support of the 50 Senators needed for her confirmation.

“I’ll call her labor secretary, I’m not going to say the word ‘acting,’” Harris said while speaking to Philadelphia workers. “I’ve known her for many years and she is a true fighter for the working people and working families of America.”

Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Office said on Monday that it was reviewing a request from Rep. VIRGINIA FOXX (R-N.C.) on how long Su can serve in an acting role under federal vacancy rules.

Agenda Setting

A WIN FOR UNIONS: The White House unveiled a new rule on Tuesday that could give a pay boost to construction workers on federally-funded projects. The Labor Department plans to update regulations in the Davis-Bacon Act, a near-century old law that mandates a “prevailing wage” for federally-funded projects, our NICK NIEDZWIADEK reports for Pro s.

RIGHT TO REPAIR: EPA Administrator MICHAEL REGAN backed legislation that would grant farmers the right to repair their own equipment, an additional part of the administration’s effort to promote competition.

Advocates have argued that large firms are in violation of the Clean Air Act by requiring farmers to only seek repairs at authorized dealers, which can be more expensive. Our MARCIA BROWN has the details for Pro s.

What We're Reading

Joe Biden’s brand is being tested like never before (NBC News’ Jonathan Allen and Natasha Korecki)

A 143-Year-Old Portrait Fuels a Government Turf War (WSJ’s Andrew Ackerman and Richard Rubin)

Abortion’s role as an electoral litmus test hasn’t faded a year after Supreme Court decision overturning Roe (CNN’s Ariel Edwards-Levy)

The Oppo Book

White House director of public engagement STEPHEN BENJAMIN met his wife DeANDREA BENJAMIN while he was a law student at the University of South Carolina and she was a senior at Winthrop University.

After being introduced by two friends, they kept running into each other and eventually connected again while at a church service. "So I met her again at church and we just kept 'meeting' and decided I needed to keep her around," Stephen said in an interview with his alma mater. "Best decision I ever made."

DeAndrea was confirmed by the Senate in February to serve as a U.S. Circuit Court judge after Biden picked her last August. While we love a good D.C. power couple story, we are even more partial to those that involve houses of worship too.

POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER

Hoover-Ball was named after HERBET HOOVER, as the sport was created by the president's physician JOEL BOONE to keep him fit. The game includes elements of tennis and volleyball and includes the use of a medicine ball. The Hoover Presidential Foundation hosted its 35th annual Hoover-Ball National Championships over the weekend.

Want to play Hoover-Ball with your friends or coworkers? Check out this explainer for the rules and how to get started!

Thanks to the Hoover Presidential Foundation for this question!

A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it!

Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.

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