| | | | |  | | By Lauren Egan, Eli Stokols 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 Since it opened its doors 50 years ago almost to the day, The Dubliner has grown into a go-to watering hole for the D.C. political class. The Irish pub — affectionately known as “The Dub” to regulars — sits across the street from Union Station and near the Senate office buildings. It has hosted hundreds of political fundraisers, a sitting president, countless members of Congress, TV anchors, Irish ambassadors and every single Irish prime minister since the ’70s. President JOE BIDEN himself was a semi-regular back in his Senate days. In the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day, West Wing Playbook called up GAVIN COLEMAN, whose family founded the pub and still runs it today. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What made your family want to open The Dubliner? My dad opened The Dubliner with the idea that after John Kennedy was president, a lot of prominent Irish moved to D.C. and there wasn’t really a great Irish pub here. So he thought that he would recreate a great Dublin city pub. For the last 50 years, there’s been a few changes, but at its core, the main part of The Dubliner has never changed. I’ve spent a lot of money to keep the place looking worn in but not worn out. The Dubliner has become this D.C. political institution. How did it take on that identity? At The Dubliner, we love people with opinions. We have people coming into D.C. to voice their opinions, to protest, to raise money, to lobby their legislators — all the things. We’ve made good friends with a lot of members of Congress that have always held their events here, whether it’s Joe Crowley, Nancy Pelosi or Peter King. I can’t think of a member that we haven’t probably held an event for at one point. When did politicians first start coming to the pub? It happened more organically with how Congress used to run. Peter King and Richie Neal used to have a standing dinner at The Dubliner every week. Members used to be here more. They were almost forced to hang out with each other a little bit. Part of it is just our proximity [to the Capitol]. Even to this day, I could have a fundraiser for a Democratic member of Congress and then a holiday party for Fox News because they’re one block away. President Barack Obama famously visited on St. Patrick’s Day in 2012. Have any other presidents visited? He’s the only sitting president. Biden has been there a bunch of times. He used to come in before taking the train as a senator. He’s not a drinker, but he’d come in and get a bite to eat. And he’d come in with his brother sometimes. Bill Clinton, too, when he was governor. What was the Obama visit like? It was crazy. It was on St. Patrick’s Day. It was the Rock ’n’ Roll Half-Marathon that day. They’d just started reopening the streets. Some guy walks up to me and was like, ‘Hey, I heard you’re the owner. The president is going to be here in 10 minutes.’ He was a Secret Service agent who had just been hanging out in The Dub. And then Obama came in. He met my dad, he met me. He was there for about 30 minutes. He drank a pint. He greeted hundreds of people. We ended up in like a thousand papers around the globe, including the Irish Times. We renamed that back bar ‘the President’s Bar,’ and we have a plaque there.
|  President Barack Obama drinks a pint of Guinness at The Dubliner pub on St. Patrick's Day in 2012 next to Henry Healy, Obama's ancestral cousin from Moneygall, Ireland. | AFP via Getty Images/Brendan Smialowski | Sounds like you gotta get Biden back there. That would obviously be great. Biden has always been a good supporter of D.C. restaurants. I don’t know how I lucked out, but I got invited to the St. Patrick’s Day event at the White House this year. So I’m actually leaving The Dubliner on St. Patrick’s Day for the first time ever. If any of our readers were to go to the Dubliner this weekend for St. Paddy's Day, what should they order? Obviously a pint of Guinness. I only discount Guinness once a year, and it’s the first hour that we open on St. Patrick’s Day. MESSAGE US — Are you BRENDAN KELLY, owner of Kelly’s Irish Times in D.C.? 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!
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO GLOBAL PLAYBOOK: Don’t miss out on POLITICO’s Global Playbook, the newsletter taking you inside pivotal discussions at the most influential gatherings in the world, including WEF in Davos, Milken Global in Beverly Hills, to UNGA in NYC and many more. Suzanne Lynch delivers the world's elite and influential moments directly to you. Stay in the global loop. SUBSCRIBE NOW. | | | | | | | | | Which president spoke of his visit to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to spectators in Wexford, Ireland? (Answer at bottom.)
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President Biden speaks during the annual Friends Of Ireland Speaker Luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on Friday. | Getty Images/Tom Brenner | | | | A LOVELY DAY FOR A 2-BY-2: The White House on Friday welcomed Ireland’s Prime Minister LEO VARADKAR for his annual St. Patrick’s Day visit. The two leaders, both sporting green ties, pledged to work on securing a ceasefire in Gaza, as the Irish leader was blunt with the president over the need for one. The visit, notably, came with no joint presser, which is becoming an annoying theme for the Biden administration. Under past administrations, when world leaders visit the White House, a joint presser (or “two-by-two”) is expected. It’s an opportunity for reporters to ask both the president and foreign leader questions — which, you know, is generally important. BARACK OBAMA held 95 while in office, and DONALD TRUMP held 44, despite only one term in office. Under Biden, the number of joint pressers has significantly declined. Biden has held 19, according to the American Presidency Project — pretty soft if ya ask us. I DIDN’T SAY IT, BUT… Biden on Friday praised Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER’s speech yesterday, in which he called for new elections in Israel and labeled Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU “an obstacle for peace,” our JONATHAN LEMIRE reports. “He made a good speech,” Biden told reporters at the White House. “I think he expressed serious concern shared not only by him, but by many Americans.” He added that Schumer had contacted his staff ahead of his speech. Biden said he would “not elaborate” on the speech and has not commented publicly about the future of Israeli elections, but he and his aides have grown increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu’s approach to the crisis in Gaza. ANOTHER PAGER DEEP DIVE: If you tune in to a random Wednesday speech from the president touting infrastructure investments, for example, you might doze off to sleep. Biden aides know it. And even Biden himself knows it, according to a new piece from WaPo’s TYLER PAGER, titled: “Joe Biden’s obsessive search for the right words.” Aides appreciate his attention to detail and focus on substance over performance. But they also feel like the enormous amount of time spent on speech preparation can produce a speaking style that “often fails to connect … and fuels voters’ concerns about his age.” “I know that’s a boring speech,” the president once said following remarks in July 2021 aimed at building enthusiasm for his agenda. RON KLAIN, Biden’s former chief of staff, wished that his boss spent more time working on delivery rather than obsession with specific word choice: “Sir, the speech is good. Let’s practice.” Biden would respond: “I’m just not happy with the text yet, Ron. I’m going to work on it more.” WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE (AND RONNA MCDANIEL) WANTS YOU TO WATCH: This Fox News interview on Friday with new Republican National Committee chair MICHAEL WHATLEY, who botched a classic talking point. “Were you better off four years ago than you are today? The answer for this entire country is no. I mean, yeah, we are better off today, I mean… we will be …” Campaign director of rapid response AMMAR MOUSSA jumped on the remarks: “The RNC’s new election-denying chair … We agree,” Moussa wrote on X. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: (If you’re JACK SHAFER, cover your eyes.) This piece by Newsweek’s KATE PLUMMER, who reports on two recent polls showing Biden with a slight lead over his opponent Donald Trump. One Reuters/Ipsos poll showed the president getting 39 percent of the vote, compared to Trump’s 38 percent. Another, conducted by Civiqs/Daily Kos, again gave Biden a one-point lead against Trump, 45 percent to 44 percent. The Biden team has been preaching that polls aren't gospel, especially this far out. But communications director BEN LABOLT shared the piece on X, captioning the post: “Momentum shift.” We’ve got eight more months of this, folks. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by Lauren and our ADAM CANCRYN, who report that the White House is weighing a scaled-down version of its traditional ceremony to mark the end of Ramadan after Muslim leaders warned that people would decline the invitation over the administration’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war. Traditionally, the president hosts hundreds of Muslim leaders from around the country to mark the holiest month of the Muslim calendar. But this year, the White House is considering limiting invitations to members of the administration and ambassadors from Muslim-majority nations.
| | | | 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! | | | | | SOUTHWEST BOUND: DELANEY CORCORAN has joined the Biden campaign’s efforts in Arizona where she will serve as deputy communications director. She previously served as communications director for New Mexico Gov. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM’s gubernatorial reelection campaign and deputy comms director for the Democratic Party of New Mexico.
| | ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST: A top White House staffer in the office key to pushing through the president’s legislative priorities is leaving his post, our JENNIFER HABERKORN reports. ALEX HASKELL, chief of staff for the Office of Legislative Affairs, is stepping down from the job he has held for nearly two years. Haskell plans to move to New York, where he will help on the Biden campaign. GARRETT LAMM, who is currently the White House director of correspondence, will succeed Haskell as OLA chief of staff. MORE PERSONNEL MOVES: GABRIELA SIBORI is joining the National Association of Broadcasters as senior communications director. She leaves the Department of Health and Human Services, where she was an adviser.
| | | | A message from Amnesty International USA; Oxfam America, American Friends Service Committee, Win Without War and Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft:   | | | | | PIER REVIEW: Top Senate Democrats are joining their Republican colleagues in wanting more answers on the president’s order to build a pier to help deliver aid to Gaza, our JOE GOULD and LARA SELIGMAN report. Lawmakers have raised questions over how the mission will actually work and what guardrails are in place to secure the safety of service members constructing the pier. Top Democrats, including Sens. MARK WARNER (D-Va.) and CHRIS COONS (D-Del.), have called for briefings. Sen. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-Conn.), a senior member on the Armed Services Committee, said he has “very serious questions about how the construction will be done, with the assurance of safety to our troops.” WHAT’S NEW: The Biden administration on Friday announced new steps to crack down on junk fees for college students and student loan borrowers. The White House is targeting “loan origination” fees that students get when they take out their first federal student loans to go to college, asking Congress to eliminate the fees in his 2025 budget proposal.
| | Irish agribusiness group ClonBio to invest $500m in US biorefinery (The Irish Times’ Colin Gleeson) Why abortion politics might not carry Democrats again in 2024 (Vox’s Rachel M. Cohen) Murphy’s, Kelly’s, O’Malley’s: Why so many Irish pubs have the same names (WaPo’s Carson TerBush)
| | | | 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. | | | | | President JOHN F. KENNEDY visited Wexford, Ireland, and, while there, remarked upon his visit to the Gettysburg battlefield. Specifically, he noted the Irish-American sacrifice during the war, according to the White House Historical Association. To learn more about the interwoven history between the United States and Ireland, listen to The White House 1600 Sessions podcast episode, “America’s Irish Roots.” (Thanks to the White House Historical Association for this question!) 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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