| | | | |  | | By Eli Stokols, Lauren Egan and Ben Johansen | 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 Lasting more than seven years as the boss of a political party controlled by DONALD TRUMP is no small feat. But it now appears former Republican National Committee chairwoman RONNA MCDANIEL may not last seven days in her gig as a paid political commentator at NBC News, with network executives facing intense blowback from their audience and many top anchors about her hiring. For some operatives close to President JOE BIDEN, the most important takeaway has less to do with McDaniel than the press itself. However dismayed they were initially at the network’s willingness to reward and rehabilitate a party boss who backed former President Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Biden aides have been pleased to see a faction of the media set boundaries for how they will and won’t cover the 2024 election and the presumptive GOP nominee. A senior Biden campaign official, who agreed to comment on the situation on the condition of anonymity, said it’s been “heartening seeing members of the free press drawing a line and saying we will not normalize someone who actively worked to undermine and deconstruct our democracy.” The adviser pointed to host RACHEL MADDOW’s Monday night monologue on the matter as the purest distillation of why, in their view, McDaniel’s hiring drove so many journalists to speak out. It wasn’t, as Maddow explained, that the former RNC chair supports Trump or had routinely criticized the press. It was almost entirely a response to her abetting Trump’s attempts to nullify the 2020 election and her defense of the violent Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection — positions she only disavowed after her hiring by NBC. That, to them, distinguished McDaniel’s move from operative to pundit from others who have made similar journeys, Democrats and Republicans alike. No one at the White House was spiking the football over McDaniel’s rumored dismissal by NBC, but administration officials generally share the view of their campaign colleagues — and the president himself — about what’s at stake. Biden has framed the coming election as a choice between a candidate who wants to preserve American democracy and one whose autocratic inclinations threaten its survival. When asked on Monday about the administration’s response to the McDaniel controversy, press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE quoted the president’s remarks at the Gridiron Dinner earlier this month where he recognized “the critical role that journalists play and have in protecting our democracy.” Although she didn’t speak to any specific personnel matter, Jean-Pierre hit on the issue beneath the backlash at NBC: McDaniel’s amplification of Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and defense of the Jan. 6 insurrection. “It was an attack on our democracy,” Jean-Pierre said, “and it is important — it is important that we are very clear to the public about the facts.” However the McDaniel situation ends, it will still leave unsettled one major question for news networks: How to find credible voices who can provide insight into Trump and articulate his policies who aren't so tainted by their associations with him as to be unacceptable to a broader audience. The senior Biden campaign adviser who spoke to West Wing Playbook said they were somewhat sympathetic to reporters and editors grappling with the challenge of covering a political candidate who obliterates norms, lies routinely and has undermined America’s democratic system. Their frequent frustrations with the press, the adviser said, often arise from coverage that underplays the dangers of Trump or equates them to Biden’s own political deficiencies. That view is shared by the left more broadly. Ever since Trump’s victory in 2016, progressives have increasingly focused on the media’s role in American politics. Praise for the tough coverage Trump endured during his presidency has since given way to frustration with the press' approach to the current campaign. They’ve largely adopted the viewpoint of the “DOUG J. BALLOON” @NYTPitchbot account that sees the media as desperate, above all else, to prove its impartiality by creating faux equivalency: nitpicking Biden’s every mistake and harping incessantly on his age while grading his predecessor on a curve. The leaders of many newsrooms have vowed not to be cowed by blowback to their coverage, be it online or bubbling up from within, and to hold true to traditional journalistic methods and ethical guidelines. But a growing chorus of press critics are, at times, breaking through. What’s notable about this week is that they’ve been joined by some notable journalists themselves. “The more people who are speaking up about why this stuff matters, the better,” the senior Biden campaign adviser said. MESSAGE US — Are you RONNA MCDANIEL? 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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| | BEARING THE BRUNT: President Biden said on Tuesday that the federal government would pay for the entirety of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge rebuild after it collapsed in the early morning, our MYAH WARD reports. “As I told Gov. [Wes] Moore, I’ve directed my team to move heaven and earth to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible," he said. A container ship collided with the bridge in the early hours Tuesday, causing it to collapse in a matter of seconds. Biden added that he would visit Baltimore “as quickly as I can” and that there is no indication of it being more than an accident. ONE BEAT AHEAD: Vice President KAMALA HARRIS has consistently gone farther than her boss in criticizing Israel’s military campaign, our EUGENE DANIELS, ALEXANDER WARD and JONATHAN LEMIRE report. Over the weekend, Harris said that the U.S. would not rule out consequences for Israel if it were to go through with its planned operation in Rafah. That followed her warnings about the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The administration says that Biden and Harris are reading from the same script, even if Harris takes a more pointed approach. Allies and Democratic operatives argue that Harris’ blunter critiques of the Israeli government can resonate more with progressives eager to see a shift in the White House’s approach to the war. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This new monthly Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll released this morning, which found that President Biden has gained ground on Donald Trump in six of seven key battleground states, Bloomberg’s GREGORY KORTE writes. The shift was significant in Wisconsin, where Biden now leads Trump by one point, and Pennsylvania, where the two candidates are tied. The Biden camp has made it clear that they’re not taking polls seriously. But, they’re definitely not mad about this one. “Excited to see this positive movement get all the attention that one-off bad polls have,” DNC executive director SAM CORNALE wrote. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by AP’s DEE-ANN DURBIN, who reports that as Easter and Passover approach, egg prices are at near historic highs in many parts of the world. It comes as the market has been impacted by disease, high demand and growing costs for farmers. The White House also announced today that it will host its annual Easter Egg Roll on April 1. Maybe they should heed PETA’s advice and go with potatoes this year.
| | | REVERSE COATTAILS? As Biden headed to Raleigh Tuesday, his campaign put out a memo laying out its strategy to compete in North Carolina and Georgia by drawing “sharp contrasts” with “MAGA Republicans.” In North Carolina, as well as in Arizona, extremely Trumpy GOP nominees running statewide are giving the president’s campaign an opening, our ELENA SCHNEIDER and her lesser husband report. Between KARI LAKE, the Republican Senate nominee in Arizona, and MARK ROBINSON, the GOP’s nominee for governor in North Carolina, Biden has two candidates whose flaws complement and amplify Trump’s own and will enable the president to reprise the case against Republican extremists that worked well for Democrats in the 2022 midterms. BUT WILL THEY GIVE HIM THE DOG FILTER?? The Biden campaign has so far spent nearly $72,000 on advertising on Snapchat, FWIW’s LUCY RITZMANN reports. The campaign is also up to over 15 million impressions gained, which Ritzmann notes is more than any advertiser on Snapchat in 2024.
| | ANOTHER POOP SCOOP: After our DANIEL LIPPMAN reported that manure was put in front of national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN’s house in Washington on Monday, he writes in to report that pro-Palestinian protesters also dumped manure outside Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN’s house. The activist-shot video from Turkish state TV channel TRT’s YouTube channel shows a significant heap of manure in front of Austin’s house in Great Falls, Virginia, with activists yelling “Austin, Austin, you ain’t shit, we’ll keep fighting until you quit.” They also yell “Austin, Austin, rise and shine, occupation is a crime!” Shockingly, Daniel still has not nailed down what type of manure this actually is or how or why protestors chose to gather so much of it. Step it up, Lippman. [DIAL TONE SOUNDS]: It appears that Karine Jean-Pierre did not enjoy an interview she did with a local radio station in advance of the president’s trip to North Carolina today. The host of the program asked her whether Biden had dementia. That didn’t go over well. The topic then turned to inflation and the price of gas. But Jean-Pierre clearly had had enough and hung up the phone. The audio was captured here.
| | WILL SCOTUS DO A DOBBS AGAIN? In the first major post-Dobbs reproductive rights case to come before it, the Supreme Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments in a case that could further curtail abortion rights nationwide, our ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN and JOSH GERSTEIN report. The judges appeared skeptical over efforts to restrict access to mifepristone, an abortion drug that accounts for nearly two-thirds of abortions nationwide. The Food and Drug Administration issued rules in 2016 and 2021 making it easier to access the pills, allowing telemedicine prescription and mail delivery. A majority of judges questioned whether the petitioners, a group of anti-abortion doctors, had sufficient legal grounds or standing to bring the lawsuit. Both conservative justices NEIL GORSUCH and AMY CONEY BARRETT expressed doubts over the harm anti-abortion doctors claimed their patients who have taken the pill have faced. A decision from the court is likely to come in June. DELICATE TIMING: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with his Israeli counterpart YOAV GALLANT at the Pentagon on Tuesday, where he urged Israel to abandon its plans for a ground offensive in Rafah, WaPo’s MISSY RYAN reports. The meeting comes a day after Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU canceled a high-level delegation visit to Washington. During their talks, Austin described what was a growing “catastrophe” in Gaza and said there was a “moral necessity and a strategic imperative” to assist and protect Gazan civilians.
| | Inside the shadowy global battle to tame the world's most dangerous technology (POLITICO’s Mark Scott, Gian Volpicelli, Mohar Chatterjee, Vincent Manancourt, Clothilde Goujard and Brendan Bordelon) Biden's TikTok Challenge: Reach Gen Z, Without Drawing Its Wrath (NYT’s Anjali Huynh) The data is clear: Israel-Hamas war hurt Ukraine in DC (POLITICO’s Matt Berg, Rosmery Izaguirre and Sean McMinn)
| | AYODELE OKEOWO, director of intergovernmental affairs in the CHIPS Program Office at the Department of Commerce, was a child actor in Zambia — though not exactly on the big screen. Before moving to the U.S. in 1996, Okeowo starred in a sugar company’s commercial at age 5. We assumed that as a toddler, Okeowo would not be able to recall much of the experience. “No, I remember all of it,” he interjected in an interview with West Wing Playbook. “It was the coolest thing I’ve ever done.” Okeowo’s father was a dentist in Zambia and commissioned his son to star in a sugar company’s commercial aimed at making sugar healthier (hmmm). The Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation aired the commercial. Okeowo was paid a whopping $70, which goes a long way for a 5-year-old. However, he said, his parents took the cash, and he still hasn’t gotten his hands on it.
| | | | The White House swimming pool, which was initially installed in 1933 at request of President FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, who swam regularly. But as the press corps expanded, and Nixon left the pool mostly unused, it was covered with flooring and converted into the White House press room, according to the White House Historical Association. “We were told in no uncertain terms that Nixon did not want any harm done to the pool, and the design of the press room must be done in such a way that the pool could be restored easily, apparently in case he received comments that he destroyed the FDR pool,” the project architect said. 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 Sam Stein.
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