| | | | |  | | By Lauren Egan, Eli Stokols and Ben Johansen | | Presented by |  | | | 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 Each presidency has, to a degree, a TV show that captures the political essence of that era. AARON SORKIN’s “West Wing” began at the tail end of the BILL CLINTON administration, offering Democrats political nostalgia for those years. KIEFER SUTHERLAND’s starring role in “24” reflected the post-9/11 climate under GEORGE W. BUSH. During BARACK OBAMA’s presidency, “Parks and Recreation” and “Scandal” symbolized the hokey idealism and over-glamorization of politics. Perhaps no show better captured the stranger-than-fiction elements of DONALD TRUMP’s presidency than “Veep.” But since it started running during Obama’s time in office, “Succession” or (for the liberal minded) “Handmaid's Tale” became emblems instead. More than three years into JOE BIDEN’s presidency, there is no era-defining political TV experience; and Biden, for his part, doesn’t seem to be inspiring much culture. All of that is the backdrop during which AMY CHOZICK worked on turning her best-selling book Chasing Hillary into the TV series, “Girls on the Bus.” Can you make political entertainment work in an era where the most powerful politician is deliberately not entertaining? The show, now streaming on Max, follows a group of four fictional female reporters as they cover a presidential primary. It’s sugary and at times superficial, leaning more into the drama in the reporters’ lives and presenting us with a cloying, imaginary version of American politics. “I just had Hillary-Trump fatigue. Maybe that’s a show that somebody wants to make and watch. That was not the show I wanted to make or watch,” Chozick told West Wing Playbook. “For me, in a time when it’s, like, very dark in the world, I want to watch something kind of hopeful and escapist.” To a degree, the show represents a bit of what Biden pledged to be — a salve from the Trump years. But it struggles with the same things Biden has: People aren’t inspired by politics anymore (were they ever?). It certainly all feels less… enjoyable. Chozick tries to make it more so by including some wild fictions of life on the trail. The reporters always seem to have a brand new outfit for each scene despite living out of a suitcase. They tell their editor that they’re gonna “front page that shit” once they see the quality of their articles. And, of course (SPOILER ALERT), the main protagonist, SADIE, sleeps with her source in the very first episode. You would think if any show could break out of that trope it would be a girlbossy drama. But the viewers have to be hooked somehow in an age of grim Chartbeat scores. Chozick said she wanted to keep “The Girls on the Bus” world rooted in a sense of reality. The script is peppered with references to contemporary figures and media personalities, including NBC’s CHUCK TODD, political commentator CHRIS CILLIZZA and Nevada journalist JON RALSTON. Former Obama spokesperson ERIC SCHULTZ is cast in the role of “bitchy press aide” (typecast much???). The hotel breakfast buffet at a Hampton Inn in rural Iowa looks just as grim as many of you reading this newsletter know it to be. The press file is messy, reporters are always looking for an outlet and everyone drinks too much diet coke. But her smattering of references to real life Washington characters can’t fully compensate for the centrality of damaging stereotypes about female reporters — stereotypes some real journalists warned against. “I feel like I was very bullish on the whole FEMALE REPORTERS DON’T ACTUALLY SLEEP W THEIR SOURCES front,” texted The Washington Post’s ASHLEY PARKER. Parker was one of several reporters who offered advice to actors for the show as they looked to inject a realistic feel to their campaign world. MELISSA BENOIST — who plays Sadie — brushed up on old pieces by MARK LEIBOVICH and read the classics: Fear and Loathing, What it Takes, Making of the President and Boys on the Bus. BRANDON SCOTT, who plays one of the main press flaks, said he reached out to several contacts to advise him, including GORDON JOHNDROE, a former Bush administration spokesperson. CNN’s ABBY PHILLIP consulted on the show too. But despite the lengths that Chozick and her team went through to make the set and the script authentic, they very intentionally left out any mention of modern day candidates. That includes Biden. “There’s definitely people who are like, ‘this is so detached from what’s happening,’” Chozick said. “That was by design. For me and my partners, creating an escape was what we wanted.” MESSAGE US — Are you MATTHEW AIKEN, associate counsel at the White House? 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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| | LATEST IN NEW YORK: Overnight, the Pro-Palestine student protesters at Columbia University took over and barricaded themselves within Hamilton Hall, a building demonstrators also occupied during the anti-Vietnam War protests in 1968. The White House condemned the escalation, with National Security Council spokesperson JOHN KIRBY saying it was “absolutely the wrong approach.” Deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES said Tuesday that although the president respects the right to free expression, the protests must be peaceful and lawful. “Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful — it is wrong,” Bates said. HILL HUDDLE: Chief of staff JEFF ZIENTS, counselor to the president STEVE RICCHETTI, Legislative Affairs Director SHUWANZA GOFF and deputy chief of staff NATALIE QUILLIAN were spotted leaving Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER’s office this afternoon. They huddled along with House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES to discuss Democrats' legislative agenda, according to people familiar with the meeting. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: TIME Magazine’s ERIC CORTELLESSA sat down with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month where the former president laid out, as Cortellessa writes, “the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world” should he return to the White House. Trump said he would let red states “monitor women’s pregnancies” to make sure they don’t get abortions. He also dodged a question on whether he was comfortable with states punishing women, saying: “It’s irrelevant whether I’m comfortable or not… the states are going to make those decisions.” On the border, Trump said he would be willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military, both there and inland, to remove more than 11 million people from the country. The interview gave the Biden camp a lot of ammo. “November’s election will determine whether women in the United States have reproductive freedom, or whether Trump’s new government will continue its assault to control women’s health care decisions,” campaign manager JULIE CHÁVEZ RODRÍGUEZ wrote in a statement. OF COURSE THEY DID: The Times’ NICHOLAS NEHAMAS and REID J. EPSTEIN decided to keep up the petty feud with the White House with their write up of the interview. “Mr. Trump’s interview… reveals the pitfalls for candidates when they sit down with mainstream news organizations,” the duo wrote. “Mr. Trump does so rarely. But Mr. Biden has been even more averse to being questioned by journalists, a traditional undertaking of those running for the White House.” Naturally, Eric Schultz dug in: “The New York Times will now end every political story slamming Biden for not giving them an interview,” he wrote on X. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by NYT’s PETER S. GOODMAN, who writes that Biden shouldn't bank on support from Black Americans in Georgia, as many Black entrepreneurs are facing financial anxiety from higher borrowing costs. One entrepreneur in Atlanta, 32-year-old KIMBERLY JOLASUN, said that although she doesn’t directly blame Biden for higher interest rates, she thinks former President Trump “is more in tune with the needs of business owners.” Black voters are a crucial bloc in Georgia, making up 27 percent of the electorate four years ago. And by many indicators, they are disproportionately affected by higher interest rates on mortgages, credit cards, student loans and business debts. Many Black entrepreneurs who flock to Atlanta struggle to secure adequate funding for their start-ups, resulting in a Black unemployment rate that has reached 5.7 percent in the state — compared to white unemployment at 2.2 percent. RACLETTE AND CHOCOLATE STATIONS FTW: Politico’s annual brunch Sunday at the home of founder ROBERT ALLBRITTON topped this list by The Guardian’s HUGO LOWELL of the five best White House Correspondents’ Dinner weekend parties based on food options. Lowell noted the two Alphorn players out front and the toy cable cars ascending behind the bar (you know, to really sell that Switzerland theme) but he especially loved the waffles. We applaud the thorough job — you went to a lot of parties, bud — but would note that the truffle sliders and jumbo shrimp at CAA’s Friday night bash inside the stunningly high-ceilinged La Grande Boucherie were far superior to the offerings at some of the other soirees on this list. (Not that anyone who writes this newsletter went home hungry Saturday night and had to microwave some Trader Joe’s orange chicken.)
| | | | A message from Bayer: Food prices are already high, but without advanced agricultural products, like glyphosate, sold to farmers as Roundup® , farm yields will go down, farmers’ costs will go up, and food prices will rise even more dramatically. Farming has never been easy. If American farmers lose a critical tool like glyphosate based on the litigation industry’s actions, they will face even harder choices. Learn more. | | | | | FOOTPRINT FLEXING: The Biden campaign is taking a more aggressive approach than four years ago, looking to break away from that dreaded “Biden basement campaign” label, CNN’s JEFF ZELENY reports. The campaign has opened 24 offices in Pennsylvania, 30 in Michigan and 44 in Wisconsin, flexing its fundraising arm as it looks to lock in on key battleground states. And the principal campaign committee for Biden entered April with $88.5 million in its war chest — compared to Trump’s $45.1 million. “The advantage that we have both on time — we’re not sitting in court — and infrastructure and the cash advantage is something that we want to push everywhere,” DAN KANNINEN, the Biden campaign’s battleground states director, said. “This is not something that you can do overnight. It takes months to do properly, and the Trump campaign cannot buy that time back.”
| | THAT’S A LOT OF CABINET: Five Cabinet members were on the Hill this morning, testifying in front of different House and Senate committees, our Congress team reports. Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator MICHAEL REGAN both testified in front of two different House appropriations subcommittees. Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN appeared in front of the House Ways and Means Committee, while Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN joined the House Armed Services Committee. Education Secretary MIGUEL CARDONA joined the upper chamber, testifying in front of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee. CRYPTO, APPARENTLY STILL A THING: Biden’s former Office of Public Engagement director KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS has joined the global advisory council of Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s MIRTHA DONASTORG reported Tuesday. Former Los Angeles Mayor ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA also joined the Coinbase board to help push for more favorable regulations from Congress, the LA Times’ LAURA J. NELSON reported Friday.
| | | | A message from Bayer:   | | | | | BIG WIN FOR SNOOP: The Department of Justice will significantly loosen federal restrictions on cannabis, a seismic shift in drug laws, our NATALIE FERTIG reports. Reclassifying weed from a schedule I drug to a schedule III drug is recognition that it has some medical benefits. The move also makes it easier to research the drug — but would not impact criminal penalties. NO WAY AROUND IT: Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU vowed Tuesday that Israel’s military will go through with its planned invasion into Rafah “with or without” a cease-fire deal with Hamas, AP’s TIA GOLDENBERG and MATTHEW LEE report. Bibi’s comments came hours before Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN arrived in Tel Aviv to advance the truce talks. “The idea that we will stop the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question,” Netanyahu said. “We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate Hamas’ battalions there — with or without a deal, to achieve total victory.” WOKE EPA STRIKES AGAIN: The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday announced a new rule that would ban consumer uses of methylene chloride — a chemical that is widely used as a paint stripper but is known to cause liver cancer and other health issues, AP’s MATTHEW DALY reports. Methylene chloride is a colorless liquid that emits a toxic vapor that has killed at least 88 workers since 1980, according to the EPA. The new rule would still allow certain “critical” uses in the military and industrial processing.
| | White House considers welcoming some Palestinians from war-torn Gaza as refugees (CBS News' Camilo Montoya-Galvez) Biden Tax Increases Won’t Hit Middle Class, Yellen Says (NYT’s Alan Rappeport) The surprising reason few Americans are getting chips jobs now (Heather Long, Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst for WaPo)
| | | | A message from Bayer: For over 160 years, Bayer has stood at the forefront of health and safety while producing some of America’s most trusted and iconic brands. One such product is the herbicide glyphosate, which, sold to farmers as Roundup® , is one of the most important inventions in agriculture in the last 50 years. It has enabled millions of American farmers to have better yields and lower their weed control input costs. Despite the clear science behind Roundup’s safety and benefits, thousands of lawsuits persist in courts across the country, fueled by over $100 million dollars in expansive marketing and TV ads by the litigation industry to recruit and accumulate plaintiffs.
Bayer is the only domestic manufacturer of glyphosate. If this keeps up, farmers will be left with two options – grow less food or rely on foreign supplies of the product. See what’s at stake. | | | | | | Do you remember that guy down the hall in your freshman dorm that was a bit odd? Well, we hope you were nice to them, because 20 years later, they may be doing an impression of you on SNL. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and SNL cast member COLIN JOST lived in the same dorm at Harvard back in the early 2000s. And during the 2020 presidential campaign, Jost did an impression of Buttigieg that… well… could’ve been better. In a conversation between the two, Buttigieg asked what a 20-something-year old Jost would have thought if someone told him that he would be doing an impression twenty years later of the then-presidential candidate. “None of those thoughts crossed my mind,” Jost said. “I remember when Lorne [Michaels] talked to me about playing you on the show, he was like ‘I think you just have to. It just makes too much sense.’”
| | | | Bear with us… it was oyster ice cream. What is oyster ice cream, you may ask. Tasting Table described it as “basically frozen oyster stew minus the oysters.” Ermmm. To each their own. But in 2011, chef JOSÉ ANDRÉS prepared the… delicacy? And actually liked it! “You will get that cream, with a beautiful, oyster, salty, briny flavor,” he said. “And you will have this amazing oyster-flavored ice cream that will be as much savory as it could be sweet.” 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 and Rishika Dugyala.
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