Biden's unexpected gun control problem

Jun 26, 2023

By Myah Ward, Eli Stokols and Lauren Egan

Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Lawrence Ukenye.

Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren

It’s been a year since President JOE BIDEN signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law, breaking a 30-year dry spell for gun legislation.

And, by all indications, it should be a boon politically for him. At 76 percent support among battleground voters, the gun law is nearly just as popular as Biden’s infrastructure legislation (77 percent), and even more so than the Inflation Reduction Act (70 percent), according to a new poll released Monday and first shared with West Wing Playbook by Global Strategy Group, commissioned by Giffords.

The problem? A huge swath of voters don’t know it’s passed.

The high approval rating in the poll came only after voters were told about the law. In fact, 56 percent of voters in key battleground states — Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin — said they had heard nothing about the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

“I imagine we’ll expect to see the White House hit the road as they did two weeks ago to talk about the successes of the law,” said PETER AMBLER, executive director of Giffords, when asked about the messaging gap. “But it’s not something that they have done a road tour around yet.”

The communication gap with voters speaks to a challenge for the president’s reelection strategy. Biden’s team plans to center a campaign around a long list of legislative accomplishments and will have to decide how much time and resources to spend on each one. Without ample messaging, some of those wins could fall through the cracks with voters.

Guns will continue to be a major focus for the president through the election as he continues his push for an assault weapons ban, campaign officials told West Wing Playbook. But running on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act isn’t as straightforward as standing in front of a bridge or pointing to new electric vehicle charging stations.

Shootings haven’t stopped since Uvalde spurred lawmakers into action. Halfway through 2023, there have been 328 mass shootings in which four or more people were injured or killed, according to the Gun Violence Archive. And each new shooting serves as a reminder that politicians haven’t been able to solve the problem, said one Democratic pollster who asked to remain anonymous to discuss what they’ve learned from campaign focus groups. It creates unease for Democratic campaigns leaning into success on guns.

“It’s very important when you’re communicating about this law to not oversell it. If you try and tell people that this is everything that we need, they are appropriately skeptical,” Ambler said.

Biden’s speech in Connecticut this month tried to strike this balance: The bipartisan law is an important first step, but not nearly enough.

“State legislators and Congressional Republicans need to use the Act as an opening to do more. If Congressional Republicans want to fight crime, they should join the President in highlighting how the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is doing exactly that, and then they should send an assault weapons ban to the president’s desk,” principal deputy press secretary OLIVIA DALTON said in a statement.

In coming months, Biden and Vice President KAMALA HARRIS, STEVE BENJAMIN, director of the Office of Public Engagement, and NEERA TANDEN, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, will be key among the messengers on this issue, a White House official told West Wing Playbook.

But selling a piece of legislation is easier when there are tangible results to point to. Giffords on Monday also sent the White House a report with a foreword from Sen. CHRIS MURPHY (D-Conn.), highlighting a list of steps the gun group says the administration needs to take to further implement the law.

The White House is also working closely with the Regional Leadership Council, an arm of House Democratic leadership that’s been tasked with promoting the string of legislative wins. Led by Rep. STENY HOYER (D-Md.), the group has deployed its members to promote the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and will continue to do so in the coming months as kids go back to school, which it sees as a natural hook for highlighting the gun law.

Building Back Together, the Biden-allied group that coordinates among Democrats to highlight the administration’s agenda, is also working to sell the gun bill by highlighting local examples of how the money is being used. But they, too, acknowledge that the first step is informing voters that the law exists.

“The value add here is that when folks hear about this stuff, they like it,” said MCKENZIE WILSON, BBT communications director. “They just need to know it happened.”

MESSAGE US — Are you COLLEEN MORAN, assistant supervisor in the Office of Records Management? 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!

LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST: Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today.

POTUS PUZZLER

Which president had a sign on his desk in the Oval Office that said, "The Buck Stops Here?"

(Answer at bottom.)

The Oval

‘NOTHING TO DO WITH IT’: Biden on Monday moved to emphasize that the U.S. and its allies had no role in the Wagner Group’s attempted rebellion in Russia over the weekend, our ERIC BAZAIL-EMIL reports. The president said his remarks were an effort to ensure Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN had “no excuse” to blame the events on the U.S. and its NATO allies.

“We made clear that we were not involved,” Biden told reporters at the White House. “We had nothing to do with it. This is part of a struggle within the Russian system.”

(Which, we should note, is exactly what a coup planner would say in an effort to throw off the scent of their coup planning.)

Despite claiming to be caught off guard by the uprising, the administration plans to continue closely monitoring Russia to assess the fallout.

KAMALA AT STONEWALL: Vice President KAMALA HARRIS, in New York City for a fundraiser Monday night, made an unannounced stop at the historic Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of America's gay rights movement. Joined by Bravo's ANDY COHEN, Harris spoke briefly, framing LGBTQ rights within the Biden reelection campaign's broader theme of freedom and lamenting the 600-plus bills proposed in state legislatures aiming to roll them back. "We can take nothing for granted in terms of the progress we achieved," she said, according to pooler CHRIS KANE of the Washington Blade. "We have to be vigilant. We understand that's the nature of our fight for equality. And so we're up for it and we are not going to be overwhelmed. We're not going to be silenced. We're not going to be deterred."

KIRBY RIPS PRO-MODI TROLLS: National Security Council spokesperson JOHN KIRBY, who took several questions in the briefing room about the situation in Russia, was also asked about the online harassment directed at the Wall Street Journal’s SABRINA SIDDIQUI after she asked Indian Prime Minister NARENDRA MODI on Friday about his country’s democratic backsliding. Kirby said the harassment by Modi supporters, who zeroed in on Siddiqui being a Muslim, was “unacceptable” and “antithetical to the very principles of democracy ... that were on display last week during the state visit.”

We, of course, stand with Sabrina. The question wasn’t just fair. It was good, and important.

Modi’s spotty record on democratic issues was why several prominent Indian Americans declined invitations to take part in his state visit as we wrote Friday.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO ~~READ~~ WATCH: This “Morning Joe” appearance by senior adviser ANITA DUNN offering a White House overview of its main theme for the week: rebranding its economic messaging as “Bidenomics.” It's an effort to not just improve voter sentiment about the economy but to reap political rewards from it.

"When a bridge gets rebuilt quickly on I-95 in Philadelphia, you feel that,” Dunn said. "When your insulin that used to cost $200 a month costs $35 a month, you feel those things.” Numerous White House officials, including senior communications adviser for economic messaging ROB FRIEDLANDER and deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES, tweeted out the clip.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by Bloomberg’s JOSH WINGROVE about how Biden is struggling to live up to his promise of greater transparency about who’s visiting the White House. Bloomberg’s review of records over Biden’s first two years in office “reveals notable gaps in disclosure” stemming from “duplications, anomalies and missing names,” raising questions about “accuracy and completeness.”

Among the top visitors who were recorded: Israeli ambassador MICHAEL HERZOG (80 visits), former French ambassador PHILIPPE ÉTIENNE (37 visits), American Federation of Teachers president RANDI WEINGARTEN (25 visits), Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) (22 visits), JP Morgan Chase CEO JAMIE DIMON (16 visits).

NOTHING TO SAY: The president denied, once more, that he ever spoke to his son HUNTER BIDEN about the business deals that got the younger Biden in trouble. “No,” the president said when pressed by a reporter as he exited a White House press conference Monday on the administration’s infrastructure investments. The comments come after a message surfaced in which Hunter Biden demanded payment from a Chinese businessman while insisting that his dad was sitting next to him.

Filling the Ranks

THE LABOR OF GETTING A SEC. OF LABOR: The White House is still throwing its support behind JULIE SU’s nomination for secretary of Labor although a bipartisan group of senators have continued to stall her bid.

“We believe that Julie Su is highly qualified to be Labor secretary,” said press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE. “We are doing everything that we can in our power to make sure that she is successful in becoming the next labor secretary.”

Su, who has served as the acting Labor secretary since March, has faced staunch opposition from lawmakers who’ve complicated the administration’s first attempt at replacing a departed Cabinet official. While opposition from Republicans has been universal, Biden has battled against a razor-thin Senate margin as Sens. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.), KYRSTEN SINEMA (I-Ariz.) and JON TESTER (D-Mont.) haven’t committed to backing Su’s bid.

Agenda Setting

SUPPORTING TRIBAL BUSINESSES: The Biden administration on Monday announced plans to award $73 million in small business awards to 39 tribal governments with funding from the American Rescue Plan. The effort is part of a series of investments by the administration to Native American communities, who were disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

“Far too often, entrepreneurs and small business owners with big plans and a vision for the future struggle simply because they lack the capital or financial services they need,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement. “That is why we are making this historic investment, which will help Tribal communities grow their small businesses, create jobs, and strengthen our economy.”

AMERICA, LITERALLY, ONLINE: The Department of Commerce unveiled state funding for its Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program to expand high-speed internet, which includes a more than $42 billion grant from the bipartisan infrastructure law.

What We're Reading

What Is Happening in the Housing Market? (NYT’s Jeanna Smialek)

Poll finds US Jews overwhelmingly back Biden over Trump in 2024 rematch (The Times of Israel’s Ron Kampeas)

In Ukraine, a harvest of death as bodies of the fallen are returned to their hometowns (LAT’s Laura King and Marcus Yam)

POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER

HARRY TRUMAN. The sign was made in the former Federal Reformatory at El Reno, Okla., and Fred A. Canfil, a friend of Truman’s and a U.S. Marshal at the time, saw a similar sign while visiting the Reformatory. Canil “asked the warden if a sign like it could be made for Truman. The sign was made and mailed to the president on Oct. 2, 1945," according to the Truman Presidential Library.

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.

SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY.