A White House intern impostor?

Dec 13, 2023

By Lauren Egan, Myah Ward and Benjamin Johansen

Presented by

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

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When NBC News published a piece last week about a letter White House interns sent to President JOE BIDEN pressuring him to call for a permanent cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, some on social media mocked the staffers for their gall to anonymously challenge the president and then leak the effort to the media. Others applauded their boldness.

And some cast doubt on the legitimacy of the entire thing.

Rumors started to circulate that the letter wasn’t actually organized by White House interns, but rather someone outside the administration. A day after the NBC story published, The Hill’s BRETT SAMUELS reported a “source familiar with the letter pushed back on its significance, saying it was organized by a woman named Thara [Nagarajan] who is not directly affiliated with the White House.”

According to a screenshot reviewed by West Wing Playbook, a user named THARA NAGARAJAN mysteriously popped into the White House intern GroupMe chat the Sunday before the letter became public.

“Hi all, as the genocide of Palestinians continues, there is a public letter for White House interns to sign anonymously for those who stand with Palestine,” Nagarajan wrote, along with a link to the letter on a Google Form. She said that interns had until 6 p.m. the following day to “sign” by noting the offices that they work in — but assured everyone that no actual names or emails would be collected or revealed.

There’s no evidence suggesting that Nagarajan orchestrated the letter. Nor has anyone cast doubt that a sizable number of White House interns feel distraught about the president’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

But still, no one could figure out who Nagarajan was — or how she got access to the intern chat. After Nagarajan sent that message, she immediately left the group.

The White House doesn’t run the intern GroupMe, which serves as an informal way for the roughly 150 20-somethings to stay in touch throughout the course of their program.

So, understandably, some interns were weirded out by the situation and flagged Nagarajan’s request to their supervisors. Some who did not want to be associated with the letter’s content said they were uncomfortable with the way they were approached.

As Nagarajan’s name started to circulate around campus, White House staffers combed through social media profiles trying to figure out who she was. Was she related to a White House intern? Who let her into the chat? Why was she encouraging interns to sign the letter?

“I don’t know who that is or how that ended up in the group chat,” one of the interns who signed the letter told West Wing Playbook. “They are not part of our group and they are not even a White House intern to begin with.”

West Wing Playbook attempted to get in touch with Nagarajan — or, at least, who we believe to be the same Nagarajan in the GroupMe. But our multiple calls, emails and texts went unanswered.

The same intern, one of the roughly 40 who signed the letter, said that Nagarajan’s involvement shouldn’t undercut the message they were trying to relay. The person stressed that the letter was organized by interns and not written by Nagarajan. And the person argued the letter exposed real tensions that have rippled throughout the Biden administration in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack.

The 2023 fall internship program ends this month. Some interns are coming to terms with the fact that they might leave campus without any answers about Nagarajan’s identity.

But for some, that’s fine. Right now, their only goal is to hand in their badge and make it off campus without being discovered as one of the letter signers.

“We’re all very scared at the moment,” the intern said, adding that it felt like the Biden administration was “on a witch hunt to find us.”

A White House official told West Wing Playbook that White House leadership has not engaged in any such effort.

MESSAGE US — Are you THARA NAGARAJAN? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com.

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A message from Keep the Promise Coalition:

President Biden, keep your promise to Native Tribes! Secretary Haaland is considering a decision that would pit some of our country’s most marginalized communities against each other and irreparably deprive several Tribes of significant revenues. A bipartisan coalition of senators, representatives, and governors, along with local elected officials and Tribal leaders, strongly oppose this decision, which would harm Tribes and open the floodgates for an explosion of gaming across the country. Read More.

POTUS PUZZLER

Which president was a classically trained pianist and knew how to play four other instruments?

(Answer at bottom.)

The Oval

A SOMBER MEETING: Biden on Wednesday met with the families of Americans held hostage by Hamas for nearly two hours, our ADAM CANCRYN reports. “We have no better friend in Washington or in the White House than President Biden himself,” said JONATHAN DEKEL-CHEN, one of the almost dozen family members who met with Biden.

“They are willing and ready to do all that they possibly can, by any number of means to get the hostages out,” Dekel-Chen said.

PARENTS. THEY CAN’T HELP BUT WORRY: Many close to the president are growing concerned that the legal troubles facing HUNTER BIDEN are taking a heavy personal toll on his father, our JONATHAN LEMIRE reports. According to those close to the president, fears about the election and his son's potential criminal trial have become an “ever-present weight” on Biden.

“In recent months, Biden also has asked some of his closest friends — those he has known for decades from Wilmington and Washington — to call or email his son themselves to check on him, so the younger Biden always knows he has a support system in place,” Lemire writes. Hunter Biden made a surprise appearance Wednesday on Capitol Hill, after refusing to attend a closed-door hearing of the House Oversight Committee. He told reporters he wants to testify publicly.

STILL SEARCHING FOR A SOLUTION TO GUN VIOLENCE: On Wednesday, Vice President KAMALA HARRIS hosted a group of state legislators at the White House to unveil the administration’s new policies to combat gun violence, Myah reports. Harris announced the “Safer States Initiative,” which outlines recommendations states can take in combating gun violence. She also announced two new executive actions from the Department of Justice that provide states with model legislation for safe storage measures and the reporting of lost and stolen firearms.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by CNBC’s JEFF COX, who reports that wholesale prices in November were unchanged from the month prior. The producer price index, which measures the range of prices on final demand items, remained unchanged despite estimates of a 0.2 percent increase. This, along with the Labor Department’s consumer price index numbers and other encouraging economic data, gave the Federal Reserve enough to leave interest rates unchanged going into the new year.

Chief of staff JEFF ZIENTS retweeted a post from the president praising the news. “This morning, we witnessed the latest evidence that our economic plan is making progress tackling inflation,” Biden said.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by WSJ’s SCOTT PATTERSON and ANDREW DUEHREN, who report that a major pillar of Biden’s climate agenda — tax credits to boost electric vehicle sales — could become difficult to claim in years ahead. Biden’s championed Inflation Reduction Act stipulates that those tax credits cannot be used for EVs containing batteries manufactured in China. The kicker: China produces 97 percent of graphite used in EVs, the largest component of EV batteries.

As the U.S. pushes the auto industry to shed its reliance on China, it leaves many automakers struggling to find an alternative. “As a result, consumers might have a hard time claiming the tax credit in the years ahead,” Patterson and Duehren write.

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THE BUREAUCRATS

PERSONNEL MOVES: LAURA DANIELS is starting at the National Security Council as a director for Western Europe, our DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. She most recently served as special assistant to State Department counselor DEREK CHOLLET, where she worked on the Europe and legislative affairs portfolios.

A message from Keep the Promise Coalition:

Agenda Setting

WORKING FOR THE LATINO VOTE: In a new ad targeting Hispanic communities in battleground states, the Biden campaign compared former President DONALD TRUMP to Latin dictators HUGO CHAVEZ and NICOLAS MADURO. This comes a week after Trump said he wouldn’t be a dictator if reelected "except for day one.” In the ad, titled “Nos Ve” and “Sees Us,” the campaign says that Biden has the backs of Latino families and businesses, whereas they are “invisible” to extremist Republicans such as Trump.

The ad will run on television programming in Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania and targeted digital platforms in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

FEELING THE BERN: On Wednesday, Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) sent a letter to Biden, urging him to cut the proposed aid package to Israel down by $10.1 billion. In the letter, Sanders stressed that although Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas, their current military strategy is “deeply immoral.” Sanders also pressed the president to support the humanitarian ceasefire presented by the United Nations, which the U.S. has continually vetoed.

HEADING EAST: Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN will travel to the Middle East next week, our LARA SELIGMAN reports. It will mark the second time Austin has traveled to the region, where he will meet with leaders in Bahrain, Qatar and Israel, according to Pentagon officials.

“Top of mind will be the immediate threat to American forces in the region from a recent increase in attacks in Iraq and Syria, as well as on commercial shipping in the Red Sea that put U.S. warships at risk,” Seligman writes.

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What We're Reading

‘Rude awakening': Biden takes progressive fire in border talks (POLITICO’s Jennifer Haberkorn, Burgess Everett and Nicholas Wu)

Why People Feel So much Angst When the Economy is So Good (Gerald F. Seib for the Wall Street Journal)

‘A disservice to the American public’: Democrats rip Biden over weapons sale to Israel (POLITICO’s Connor O’Brien, Joe Gould and Lara Seligman)

POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER

RICHARD NIXON’s mother encouraged him from early on to master the piano, and in seventh grade, he was sent 200 miles away to take lessons with his aunt. Nixon also would learn the violin, clarinet, saxophone and accordion, despite never learning how to read music.

We couldn’t imagine our readers have anything better to do tonight than watch this clip of our former president rock it out on the piano on the Jack Parr program in 1962.

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.

A message from Keep the Promise Coalition:

President Biden, keep your promise to Native Tribes! The Interior Department is considering a decision that would undermine your historic support of Native communities and commitment to advancing equity—both for and among Tribes.

Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) to support Tribal communities through gaming revenues, while limiting the risks associated with gaming in communities across country. Now, one Tribe wants the Interior to help them circumvent the law and open more casinos, which would not only harm Tribes in Oregon, but open the floodgates for an explosion of gaming across the country. Read More.