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. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren There probably isn’t a staffer in D.C. who’s had as rough of a week as SARAFINA CHITIKA, the national press secretary for the Democratic National Committee. On Tuesday, Chitika went to work like any other day. There was a lot to catch up on after the Iowa caucuses, including responding to news that two more Republican candidates had ended their campaigns — former Arkansas Gov. ASA HUTCHINSON and entrepreneur VIVEK RAMASWAMY. So, as Chitika had done for every other GOP primary drop-out, she began working on responses that would be issued under her name. In those statements, she needled Ramaswamy for using his “last gasp of relevance” to endorse Trump. And she poked fun at Hutchinson’s long-shot campaign with a mere 18 words: “This news comes as a shock to those of us who could’ve sworn he had already dropped out.” The backlash was swift. Anti-Trump Republicans criticized the statement on Hutchinson as gratuitous and alienating to the slice of Republican voters who might be convinced to support JOE BIDEN. Reporters chimed in and Democrats piled on. Pennsylvania Rep. BRENDAN BOYLE said he was “deeply disappointed” by the statement. Minnesota Rep. DEAN PHILLIPS said it was “mean-spirited” and “obnoxious.” Former Obama senior adviser DAVID AXELROD called it “asinine.” Biden chief of staff JEFF ZIENTS quickly called Hutchinson to apologize. Speaking from the White House briefing room the next day, press secretary KARINE-JEAN PIERRE told reporters that Biden has “deep respect for Gov. Hutchinson and admires the race that he ran.” She added that the DNC statement “did not reflect [Biden’s] views.” It’s rare for the White House to so publicly distance itself from the DNC, especially when the Biden campaign has outsourced a huge swath of its work to the committee. The episode caught DNC staffers off guard. They and Democrats close to the White House were left wondering… what’s the big deal? “It is way overblown,” one Democratic strategist told West Wing Playbook. “They were simply doing their job… And to be honest, I forgot that [Hutchinson] was still in the race.” On the personal level, there was also a sense among the D.C. Democratic political class that Chitika had been forced to walk the plank. Biden’s press flaks at the White House and on his campaign have often been snarky in their public statements, but none had been put on blast like Chitika. Seasoned party operatives and other Democratic staffers reached out to Chitika in the wake of the matter to privately offer their support. Few felt like they could back Chitika publicly given that it would be viewed as going against the White House. Multiple people told West Wing Playbook they were concerned about the online attacks they viewed as unfairly directed at her. While Chitika’s name was attached to the Hutchinson statement, she didn’t write it alone. Multiple senior-level staff would have signed off on the statement, according to people familiar with the DNC’s process. “This city can really screw you sometimes,” said a former DNC staffer. A second DNC staffer, who called the backlash “bullshit,” also noted that the DNC had issued far snarkier statements when other Republican presidential candidates dropped out. When South Carolina Sen. TIM SCOTT dropped out, for example, the statement issued by Chitika said there “wasn’t much to remember” about his “sad, lackluster campaign.” And when North Dakota Gov. DOUG BURGUM called it quits, Chitika put out a statement saying Americans responded to the news by asking, “Who is that?” When CHRIS CHRISTIE — who, like Hutchinson, has earned praise from Biden allies for his frank criticism of Trump — dropped out, Chitika said the former New Jersey governor finally “accepted what the rest of the world already knew: He is never going to be president of the United States.” Some Democratic staffers described the Hutchinson uproar as an example of the party’s tendency to clutch its pearls, even as the Republican National Committee churns out daily personal takedowns of the president. Hutchinson, multiple Democrats noted, is still a conservative Republican. He endorsed Trump in 2020 and is not going to support Biden this time around. When POLITICO’s DAVID SIDERS asked him what it would take for him to vote for the president, Hutchinson made it clear, “That’s not going to happen.” MESSAGE US — Are you DNC CHAIR JAIME HARRISON? 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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