Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Alexander Ward and producer Ben Johansen. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren During his Sunday evening press conference in Hanoi at the end of a day that started in India, President JOE BIDEN made several self-effacing remarks about the whirlwind nature of this trip. He pretended to second guess himself as soon as he took the stage when he wished reporters a “good evening,” offering as an aside: “It is evening, isn’t it?” And after delivering remarks and taking five questions for 25 minutes, he departed by expressing relief the day was finally over. “I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go to bed,” he said. Biden’s own lighthearted acknowledgment of the grueling nature of overseas trips mirrors the jokes he has made about his age in the past, including at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner and at several private fundraisers. Those remarks were part of an effort to defuse the tension around one of the central questions voters will be weighing next November. But the White House press shop is taking a less humorous approach, engaging aggressively — publicly and privately — on matters relating to Biden’s vitality and stamina, betraying a heightened sensitivity to the subject above seemingly all others. While a number of outlets wrote about Biden’s press conference comment, it was a short CNN piece that incensed top communications aides enough to respond. The headline: “White House press secretary ends news conference as Biden is still responding to questions from reporters.” Principal deputy press secretary OLIVIA DALTON torched the piece from her account on X. Then communications director BEN LABOLT ratcheted up the rhetoric with his reply, calling the piece “utter BS.” He ripped its author, CNN White House producer DONALD JUDD, as a “desk jockey,” noting he was writing from Washington. It was a strikingly sharp and personal rejoinder over a sidebar piece that, however narrow its focus, did not appear to distort what occurred. While tone and treatment may vary, numerous outlets focused on Biden’s self-referential comments — and the implicit subtext related to his age — in their coverage of the trip. LaBolt also ripped a Daily Beast piece with a headline noting Biden’s declaration that he was heading to bed. “Presidents shall never sleep. Not even at night after days of marathon meetings overseas,” he wrote. “Sage guidance from The Daily Beast. Next up in the series: Presidents shall never eat.” A lengthier piece by the New York Times’ KATIE ROGERS, who traveled with the president to New Delhi and Hanoi, also centralized the subject of election-season “questions about his age and stamina.” The trip, Rogers wrote, allowed Biden to show he’s “still up to the challenges of globe-trotting statesmanship.” The story’s “slug” in the web link is, simply, “biden-age.” But the White House did not appear to take issue with it. Rather, deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES quoted lines from the story describing the trip as a “whirlwind” and noting the president met with 30 world leaders since leaving Washington four days earlier. Bates similarly tweeted out a Washington Post trip wrap by MATT VISER and MERYL KORNFIELD, who also called it a “whirlwind trip.” Press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE also leaned in to that aspect of the coverage, sarcastically thanking Fox News correspondent PETER DOOCY for stating during a post-press conference live shot from Vietnam that Biden had been “working all through the night, the equivalent of an all-nighter Eastern time.” Every White House has to deal with storylines they don’t like. What’s different about the topic of Biden’s age is that, barring some BENJAMIN BUTTON-type breakthrough, this one isn’t going away. The president, like everyone else on earth, is only growing older. Some aides have said privately that’s partly why they’re frustrated with the press corps’ fixation on the subject — there’s not much new to say about something so widely known. For people who have previously dealt with similar stories, the best way to handle them is to partake in them, lest you cause a Streisand Effect. CRAIG SHIRLEY, a RONALD REAGAN historian, noted that the 42nd president would joke about his age. “To run away from it is foolish,” Shirley previously told West Wing Playbook. Biden himself seems to have embraced that approach, at least occasionally. His team, less so. “More than anything, we highlighted the consensus takeaway in the mainstream press – that the President’s historic, ‘whirlwind’ trip further restored American leadership in the world, strengthened our national security, and delivered tangible economic benefits for the American people,” Bates said in a statement to West Wing Playbook. “At the same time, it’s incumbent on us to call out unfair spin that omits or downplays key facts, and stories based on agenda-driven and often misinformation-filled criticism from rightwing partisan outlets.” MESSAGE US — Are you JACLYN ROTHENBERG, senior communications adviser for climate policy? 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!
| 
