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Presented by Amnesty International USA; Oxfam America, American Friends Service Committee, Win Without War and Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft: The power players, latest policy developments, and intriguing whispers percolating inside the West Wing. | | | | |  | | By Eli Stokols, Lauren Egan and Ben Johansen | Presented by Amnesty International USA; Oxfam America, American Friends Service Committee, Win Without War and Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft | Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren Special Counsel ROBERT HUR sent Washington into a frenzy last month with his initial report that described President JOE BIDEN as “an elderly man with a poor memory.” But the full, 258-page transcript of their two long conversations, made public Tuesday ahead of Hur’s appearance on Capitol Hill, shows that Biden actually remembers, well, all sorts of things. In fact, the man doth remember too much — including things none of us really needed to know. And many have little to do with the investigation into his retention of classified documents. There’s Biden waxing on about his Corvette, the torque of electric vehicles and making engine noises to his interlocutor. He describes the seven types of wooden moulding in his home, calling himself a “frustrated architect.” And he jokes that he hoped Hur didn’t find any “risque” photos of first lady JILL BIDEN in his search of the president’s garage for classified materials. “Which you probably did,” he said. “She’s beautiful.” While Hur’s report does show a president struggling to recall certain dates and what a fax machine is, the more prominent picture drawn from the transcript is of a Joe Biden with whom long-time staffers are overly familiar. Not senile, just scatterbrained. “I see vintage Joe Biden here,” said KATE BEDINGFIELD, the former White House communications director and long-time Biden aide who’s now a political analyst at CNN. “He has a very conversational style. He frequently interrupts himself to tell stories or use anecdotes to illustrate a point. He’s often pulling from memories and he jumps around a lot.” The transcript, at times, reads like a McSweeney’s parody. Answering a question about documents he had at the Naval Observatory, the official vice president residence, Biden launched into a story about how once, in his brief law career, he represented a client in a freak accident: “He lost part of his penis and one of his testicles and he was 23-years-old,” the president recalled. Ouch. But also, why? When pressed about his Delaware home, Biden offered so many details that some were redacted from the transcript for security reasons. One specific room, he quipped as he described an intense remodeling project, “cost one-third of the entirety of my entire home," Biden said. “Swear to God.” And in trying to explain why he kept so many things from his time as vice president, Biden diverted from a description of the photos in his downstairs TV room to a story about a 2011 visit to Mongolia, describing how his hosts gave him a ceremonial horse and arranged for an archery demonstration. “They were doing a — what they would do at the time of the invasion of the Mongols into Europe in the 14 — in the 800s,” Biden told Hur. “So we’re out in the middle of nowhere… I don’t know if it was to embarrass me or to make a point, but I get handed the bow and arrow. I’m not a bad archer. … and pure luck, I hit the goddamn target.”
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| | These long tangential asides are typical of Biden’s private meetings at the White House and his many public speeches. In his State of the Union address last week, Biden ad libbed from his script on “shrinkflation” to single out one specific candymaker. “You get … charged the same amount, and you got about, I don’t know, 10 percent fewer Snickers in it,” Biden said (Snickers’ parent company, Mars, denied that it shrunk the size of its candy bars — but we digress). Republicans say that these Biden-isms are not evidence of some hokey pol just sharing old tales, but of someone with a loose relationship with reality and the truth. They argue that they’ve gotten worse with age. But Bedingfield and her former colleagues in the West Wing say that they undercut the very point that Biden’s critics are making. “It’s amusing that the Republican line of attack on this is he doesn’t remember details — because [the transcript]’s actually saturated with details,” Bedingfield said. “Social media is designed to clip and capture the most concise and edited version of things, but that is not how Joe Biden talks. He paints big pictures. As he’s raising a point, he will follow a tangent to illustrate his main point and then come back to make the main point clear.” As we’ve written about in this newsletter, the White House has made concessions to the president’s age in an effort to mitigate perhaps his top political liability. But Biden’s halting and often meandering speaking style is hardly a new development. During a presidential debate in 2007, former NBC anchor BRIAN WILLIAMS framed a question to Biden about how “words have, in the past, gotten you in trouble.” “Can you reassure voters in this country that you would have the discipline you would need on the world stage, Senator?” Williams asked. Biden, for once — and to great effect — was succinct in his response: “Yes.” MESSAGE US — Are you KRYSTAL ORTIZ, director of political engagement? 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!
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| | BOMBS AWAY: The White House announced on Tuesday that it will send a new $300 million package of military weapons to Ukraine, including a number of Army Tactical Missile Systems, our LARA SELIGMAN and ALEXANDER WARD report. The package will also include the Anti-Personnel/Anti-Materiel, or APAM, a ballistic missile which travels 100 miles and carries warheads with hundreds of cluster bomblets. According to a Defense official who talked to Seligman and Ward about the move, the funds will come from a previous Army contract for Ukraine weapons, since the Pentagon ran out of money to replenish its stocks in December. POLES’ POSITION: The move came as Biden welcomed Polish Prime Minister DONALD TUSK and President ANDRZEJ DUDA to the White House Tuesday. As Ward and Eli report, the two leaders, while domestic rivals, are closely aligned on Ukraine — a show of unity that, Biden hopes, might compel Speaker MIKE JOHNSON (R-La.) to allow a vote on the $60 billion in Ukraine aid already approved by the Senate. Duda, who one European official dubbed “our Republican whisperer,” met with Johnson earlier Tuesday. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: There were many moments from Robert Hur’s Capitol Hill testimony today that the Biden camp would want you to check out. But one in particular was when Hur stated that DANA REMUS was BARACK OBAMA’s special counsel when, in fact, she was Biden’s. Deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES reposted the exchange: “Hope his memory’s ok.” Campaign director of rapid response AMMAR MOUSSA and campaign spokesperson TJ DUCKLO also reposted the moment. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This analysis from The 19th’s CHABELI CARRAZANA, who finds that the pay gap between men and women nationwide remains significant, with the White House being a prime example. Women in the White House were making 80 cents for every one dollar men earned in 2023 — a gap wider than the national average. The numbers were compiled from public salary data and available record. ON THE ADVANCE OFFICE: We reported Monday on departures in the advance office amid allegations of staff mistreatment. Asked about the reporting at Tuesday’s briefing, press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE said she doesn’t comment on personnel matters or any internal investigations, but she also had a statement prepared. “The president is deeply proud of his advance team, its leadership and [director of scheduling and advance] Ryan Montoya,” she said, praising the team’s “expertise, camaraderie and professionalism” as being “critical” to staging hundreds of public events.
| | | | A message from Amnesty International USA; Oxfam America, American Friends Service Committee, Win Without War and Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft: More than 30,000 civilians have been killed in Gaza, including 13,000 children. Two million people are at risk of starvation and children are already dying because of hunger. As the Israeli government’s closest ally, the United States must use its influence to bring about an end to the hostilities while suspending weapons transfers to the government of Israel. President Biden, you have the power to end this. Permanent Ceasefire now! | | | | | CROSSING HIS FINGERS: President Biden met Tuesday with the influential Teamsters union in their Washington, D.C. office, as he battles with DONALD TRUMP for the group’s endorsement, WaPo’s LAUREN KAORI GURLEY reports. The Teamsters, composed of over 1.3 million workers across transportation and other industries, represent a key bloc of voters that Biden is hoping to court this November. “The president appreciated the opportunity to discuss his historic, pro-union record with the Teamsters,” a Biden campaign spokesman said, and “hope[s] to earn the support of the Teamsters.” Teamsters President SEAN O’BRIEN, who also met with Trump, said the union “realizes that President Biden’s time is limited, and we appreciate that he is making it a priority to meet with Teamsters.” OPEN FOR BUSINESS: The Biden campaign on Tuesday announced it will base its Wisconsin efforts out of Milwaukee, the first time a Democratic presidential nominee has made the city its state campaign headquarters in at least two decades, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s MOLLY BECK reports. Campaign officials said Milwaukee was chosen as a reflection of its efforts to court Black and Latino voters and suburban women. HEADED TO DELAWARE: KATHLEEN HOANG has transitioned from the White House to the Biden reelection campaign, where she will be the deputy chief operating officer. Hoang previously served as deputy director of finance in the office of management and administration.
| | PERSONNEL MOVES: KOTA MIZUTANI is now a senior adviser for the White House Office of Public Engagement. He previously was the deputy communications director for Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) — ETHAN TAN is joining the TSA as adviser for strategy, policy coordination and innovation. He previously was manager of policy comms and research in DHS’ Office of Public Affairs.
| | | | A message from Amnesty International USA; Oxfam America, American Friends Service Committee, Win Without War and Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft:   | | | | | FEELING THE HEAT: A group of senators are urging President Biden to stop supplying Israel with military weapons, NYT’s ROBERT JIMISON reports. In a letter sent Monday by seven Democrats and independent BERNIE SANDERS, the group argued that by continuing to assist Israel in its war in Gaza, Biden is violating the Foreign Assistance Act, which bars military support to any nation restricting the delivery of humanitarian aid. “We urge you to make it clear to the Netanyahu government that failure to immediately and dramatically expand humanitarian access and facilitate safe aid deliveries throughout Gaza will lead to serious consequences, as specified under existing U.S. law,” the group wrote. And on Tuesday, Sen. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-Md.), who also signed the letter Monday, said that congressional action to block U.S. arms sales to Israel is “certainly something that’s on the table” if Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU goes through with its plan to invade Rafah, our JOE GOULD and Alexander Ward report. BAD NEWS FOR THE EASTER BUNNY: Are potatoes a reasonable replacement for eggs? We won’t weigh in. OK, yes, we will. They are not. But People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) clearly thinks so. In a letter Tuesday to the first lady, PETA urged the White House to swap chicken eggs for potatoes at this year’s annual Easter Egg Roll, which will take place on April 1, The Hill’s JUDY KURTZ reports. “Instead of promoting the deleterious factory farming and slaughter industries, will you please initiate the annual White House Potato Roll?” the letter reads. Last year, the American Egg Board donated 30,000 eggs to the White House for the event. | | | It’s hard to explain to anyone not working in a newsroom what a great editor actually does. Because they do everything: brainstorm and sharpen your ideas, correct your numerous mistakes, save you from your worst impulses — and in the case of West Wing Playbook, Sam’s bad jokes — and then celebrate your published work that they’ve improved tenfold without taking a hint of credit. For the last two years, that’s been what EUN KIM has done for us. As Sam’s (far more understated but quietly brilliant) partner at the helm of our team, she’s had her hands on every newsletter we’ve published. And our work is better for it. This is the last newsletter Eun is editing for us, as she leaves our newsroom for a new opportunity. And it’s our chance to make sure all our faithful readers know how much this newsletter you open every night is the result of her hard work, her brilliance, her ability to get the best out of us for the last two years. It’s also our chance to honor someone who, for all her strengths as a journalist, is an even better human. A year ago when Eli and his wife had their second child, Eun expressed so much enthusiasm and emotion that she was among the first to receive baby pics. Lauren is the first to admit that Eun is often her first and last call of the day. No one gives better advice or has a better laugh. She made this team a family. We love you Eun, and we’re going to miss you so much!
| | | | In 2020, the Biden Campaign Knew Age Was His Achilles’ Heel. Here’s What They Did. (Sasha Issenberg for POLITICO) On the Tripwire of a ‘Red Line,’ It’s Often Presidents Who Trip (NYT’s David Sanger) QAnon For Wine Moms (The Atlantic’s Helen Lewis)
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| | | | A message from Amnesty International USA; Oxfam America, American Friends Service Committee, Win Without War and Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft: President Biden: The Israeli government’s ruthless bombardment continues to kill Palestinians in Gaza every day. We need a permanent ceasefire immediately, and the US must suspend weapons transfers to the government of Israel now. More than 30,000 people have been killed, and over 70,000 and counting have been wounded. As 2.3 million Gazans are at risk of starvation, convoys delivering life-saving aid are being blocked and attacked, and hospitals are being bombed.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. President Biden, if you don’t act now, many more people will be killed. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
