For Biden, inclement weather ahead

By Myah Ward, 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 producer Ben Johansen.

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As President JOE BIDEN prepares to head to New York next week for the convening of the United Nations General Assembly, climate groups and Democrats are dialing up the heat.

More than 700 organizations will participate Sunday in the March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City. Leaders of advocacy groups and Democratic members of Congress, including Reps. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.) and JAMAAL BOWMAN, (D-N.Y.), will speak at the event.

The march, which groups have been coordinating for months, was planned as a pressure campaign ahead of UN Secretary General ANTÓNIO GUTERRES’ first-ever Climate Ambition Summit next Wednesday, taking place on the sidelines of UNGA. It’s also being envisioned as an opportunity to call on Biden to stop approvals of new fossil fuel projects, phase out production of fossil fuels on federal public lands and declare a climate emergency.

There’s just one problem: Biden, who is set to be in New York until Wednesday, isn’t scheduled to be at the climate convening, national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN told reporters Friday.

There is no answer as to who might step in as his replacement. But the president’s absence will likely be met with a swarm of criticism from climate activists who have targeted the gathering of world leaders as a chance for large-scale organizing and dramatic calls for action.

Center for Popular Democracy co-executive director ANALILIA MEJIA said her organization is tracking over 400 sister actions that have popped up globally.

“President Biden has treated climate change as an emergency — the existential threat of our time — since day one,” said White House assistant press secretary ANGELO FERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ. “That’s why he signed into law the most ambitious climate bill in history, conserved more land and water in his first year than any President since JFK, rejoined the Paris Agreement, attracted $240 billion in private sector investment in clean energy manufacturing, and used his emergency authorities to invoke the Defense Production Act to supercharge domestic clean energy manufacturing.”

He also told West Wing Playbook that the administration is expected to announce “additional actions to combat the climate crisis, create good-paying jobs, and advance environmental justice” next week, while noting that Biden secured commitments at G20 to take additional steps to meet the Paris Agreement.

The White House has so far avoided committing to an official declaration, and Biden spurred backlash last month when he said he has already “practically” declared a climate emergency.

He has not.

“There’s no practically. It’s like how folks say you can’t be a little bit pregnant,” said Mejia, a former Biden administration official and the national political director for BERNIE SANDERS’ 2020 campaign. “Our demand is clear. It’s like, the problem is now. You’ve waited too long.”

A summer of climate disasters — from wildfire smoke to flooding and devastating fires in Maui — has intensified advocates’ pleas. Invoking emergency powers would allow the president to take sweeping actions, and Biden allies in Congress have urged him to do just that.

“The month of July was the hottest month ever recorded. With record droughts, flash floods, 100-degree ocean waters, and fires burning out of control—our planet Earth is quite literally crying out for help,” said Sen. JEFF MERKLEY (D-Ore.) at a rally on Capitol Hill this week. “The President must declare a climate emergency and stop approving new fossil fuel projects.”

But declaring a climate emergency could come with political risks for an incumbent president heading into an election year, potentially spurring a spike in already high gas prices. Plus, any executive action Biden takes would likely face legal challenges, including going up against a conservative Supreme Court.

Still climate groups argue making such a move would actually help the president with key constituencies in 2024, including disillusioned young voters and communities of color who have been disproportionately affected by climate change.

“Americans will start feeling the impact of climate change and the destructive force the fossil fuel industry has been in our communities and to us as individuals. I believe Americans will be feeling that almost daily moving forward,” Mejia said. “And it will show up in big ways in this upcoming election.”

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Who was the only president who later served as a U.S. senator?

(Answer at bottom.)

Second gentlemen Doug Emhoff getting a haircut in Washington D.C. | Liza Acevedo

GIVING THEM A FAIR SHARE: Biden expressed support for striking auto workers during his White House remarks Friday but he stopped short of endorsing the work stoppage, Myah reports. “Over generations, auto workers sacrificed so much to keep the industry alive and strong, especially in the economic crisis and the pandemic,” Biden said. “Workers deserve a fair share of the benefits they helped create for an enterprise.” The administration is dispatching acting Labor Secretary JULIE SU and senior economic advisor GENE SPERLING to Detroit to support negotiations.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by Newsweek’s MATTHEW IMPELLI about Rep. KEN BUCK (R-Colo.) dismissing the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry in an interview with CNN’s MANU RAJU. “I haven’t heard an accurate fact in conference in a long time. I’m not going to waste my time,” Buck said. Speaker KEVIN MCCARTHY’s decision to call for an inquiry presents challenges for some Republicans who have been resistant to calls for impeachment. SHARON YANG, the deputy communications adviser for the White House counsel, blasted the piece out to reporters in an ICYMI email.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by our HOLLY OTTERBEIN, ADAM CANCRYN and ADAM WREN about how SHAWN FAIN, the head of the United Auto Workers, has “privately expressed his frustration with Joe Biden, wanting the president and other Democratic lawmakers to come out more aggressively in support of his union.”

The item includes this juicy nugget in which Rep. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-Mich.), who is a close White House ally, relays to Fain a call she had with Biden adviser STEVE RICCHETTI. Dingell, the trio write, “screamed at him over [Biden predicting there would be no strike], according to a person familiar with the talk and granted anonymity to discuss details. ‘Are you out of your f---ing minds?’ Dingell said.”

Meanwhile… Wren also spoke to UAW members in Indiana on Thursday night, just hours before they officially went on strike, about their frustration with Biden. One member, DENNY BUTLER, told Wren that the president’s party has shifted: “Democrats were for the working people. That shit has changed.”

UNGA SUMMITRY SCHEDULE: As noted above, Biden will depart Sunday for New York City and three days of meetings as the United Nations General Assembly shuts down Midtown convenes. On Friday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan outlined the president’s schedule, which includes his address Tuesday to the U.N. Biden will convene a summit on the sidelines of the U.N. that day with the C5+1, a group of five Central Asian countries. And on Wednesday, he’ll meet with Brazil’s president LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA and Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, before returning to Washington to host Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY at the White House Thursday.

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS: Federal Trade Commission chair LINA KHAN was among the hotel patrons inconvenienced this week by the MGM cyberattack. Bloomberg’s KATRINA MANSON reports that Khan and her staff were in Las Vegas to attend listening sessions on the proposed $24.6 billion merger of the grocery-story giants Kroger Co. and Albertsons Cos. When they arrived at the MGM Grand on Tuesday night, they were confronted with a long line. Hotel workers were locked out of their systems and fulfilling reservations by hand — even taking down Khan’s credit card information on a piece of paper.

“Khan and the senior aide, who booked their reservations through a third-party site because MGM’s systems were down, didn’t receive a receipt, according to the aide. And on the way to their rooms, they bumped into some other guests who shared good news: The digital key cards to their room worked. The bad news, they said: They walked into the room and found strangers were already staying in it,” Manson writes.

NEWS THE BUREAUCRATS CAN USE: When Biden took office, he canceled an executive order that DONALD TRUMP had issued that could have allowed him to fire thousands of career civil servants and replace them with his loyalists — which critics of the former president viewed at the time as a throwback to the patronage system. With Trump looking like the Republican presidential nominee, the NYT’s JONATHAN SWAN, CHARLIE SAVAGE and MAGGIE HABERMAN report that the Biden White House is now trying to “Trump-proof the civil service.”

The trio reports that on Friday, the White House proposed a new rule that would add protections for federal employees and make it more difficult for Trump to reinstate his executive order, should he take office again.

PERSONNEL MOVES: ​​SHANNON MYRICKS is now senior director of West Wing operations for the Office of the Vice President. She most recently was White House liaison at the Department of Education.

— JULIA MURPHY is now special assistant to the deputy secretary of Commerce. She most recently was chief of staff for Massachusetts State Rep. Smitty Pignatelli (D).

— SABRINA BOUSBAR is now senior adviser for the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response at HHS. She most recently was detailed to the White House to be associate director of strategic outreach at the office of political strategy and outreach.

NOT MUCH THEY CAN DO: The Biden administration continues to grapple with increases in the number of unlawful arrivals at the southern border and having few tools to solve the growing crisis, the Wall Street Journal’s MICHELLE HACKMAN and TARINI PARTI report. 

Through a carrot-and-stick strategy of dissuading migrants from crossing while offering additional legal pathways, crossings fell sharply. But they ultimately began rising again as federal courts dealt blows to the administration’s policies. The White House believes only legislation from Congress can solve the issue though the administration remains committed to maintaining an “orderly and humane” immigration system with the tools available.

EMBRACING THE SPOTLIGHT: Biden will have an outsized share of influence at next week's annual United Nations gathering that could help sway countries away from China and Russia.

Leaders of both countries — along with France and the United Kingdom — will miss the U.N. General Assembly, which could provide a path for the U.S. to build on efforts made during the G-20 by courting smaller countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Our NAHAL TOOSI has the details.

From Paul Ryan Confidant to Oprah Coauthor: Inside the Wild Transformation of Arthur Brooks (POLITICO’s Ian Ward)

Biden and Trump are both old. So why are voters keying in on only one of them? (NBC News’ Amanda Terkel, Emma Barnett, Jake Traylor and Alex Tabet)

‘Triple threat': Auto strike joins a messy season for Biden’s economy (POLITICO’s Sam Sutton)

The only president to serve in the Senate after time in the White House was also the first president to be impeached in the House and tried by the Senate: ANDREW JOHNSON. On March 5, 1875, Johnson took his Senate oath before the same body that only seven years earlier had failed by a single vote to remove him from the presidency.

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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