| | | | |  | | By Myah Ward, Eli Stokols, Lauren Egan 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 After months of tending to foreign policy conflagrations, sticky inflation numbers and various other pop-up crises, the White House is zeroing back in on a key part of its domestic agenda: gun violence. A new emergency response team will meet in person for the first time on Friday in the Roosevelt Room, where it will unveil a new protocol for responding to mass shootings and surges in community gun violence, according to plans first shared with West Wing Playbook. Participating in the initiative led by the White House’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention will be officials from the FBI and the departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, Education, and Housing and Urban Development as well as FEMA, AmeriCorps and the Small Business Administration. The meeting comes during a time of year when the nation has witnessed some of its worst gun tragedies. Saturday is the 25th anniversary of the Columbine shooting, and, in just a few weeks, it will be two years since the mass shooting in a Buffalo supermarket. Soon after that, families in Uvalde, Texas, will mark the second anniversary without their loved ones. “We know history is a teacher of when we need to be prepared, and when we need to have our resources ready to go to deploy. And so the urgency of the meeting is to ensure that the team, the coordination, and that our approach is in place so that we’re prepared before tragedy strikes,” said GREGORY JACKSON, the Office of Gun Violence Prevention’s deputy director. President JOE BIDEN announced the new guns office last fall after his administration had exhausted the executive actions they could take to address the gun violence epidemic. Biden had already signed historic legislation, 2022’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, as well as more than two dozen orders on guns. Biden tasked the team with finding new executive actions and implementing the BSCA, which has resulted in the most sweeping expansion of firearms background checks in decades. He also asked the office to coordinate support for survivors, families and communities in the wake of a mass shooting — from emergency trauma care and mental health support to federal assistance for businesses and schools — in the same way FEMA responds to natural disasters. It was Jackson’s job to create this first-ever federal protocol. He’s tested it out in real time, coordinating across agencies after shootings in Maine, Chicago and Kansas City. In the immediate aftermath, the Department of Justice will deploy law enforcement and FBI victim services, as it previously has. The new White House team will now also jump into action, calling mayors, local legislators and governors to map out victim needs. Jackson will then convene an emergency call with federal agencies to figure out which resources are available and how quickly they can deploy them. Sometimes he’ll fly out to the scene to offer extra support on the ground, serving as the primary contact so local officials don’t have to worry about keeping track of a web of federal agencies. “A lot of the resources are now synced up together, and we’re just able to move a lot faster to support communities,” Jackson said. “What would’ve taken weeks to do, we’re now able to do within hours or days.” In Lewiston, Maine, for instance, the administration helped set up a family and victim assistance center. Because Lewiston has a large deaf community, they made sure there were sign language interpreters present. There was a similar effort after the Kansas City shooting to ensure resources were targeted to the sizable Latino community. Jackson, who nearly died after he was shot as an innocent bystander in D.C. 10 years ago, has also drawn on his own experience as a gun violence survivor and as an advocate leading the Community Justice Action Fund. Listening to the communities amid an emergency response is one thing, he learned over the last few months, but hearing from local officials, families and activists who have survived past tragedies can be even more helpful. To that end, the White House has held listening sessions in recent months with community members from Buffalo, Uvalde, Parkland, Florida, Highland Park, Illinois, and other mass shooting sites, as well as people affected by gun violence events that haven’t garnered the same level of media attention — such as Baltimore’s Brooklyn Homes, where 28 teens were shot in 2023. Jackson and his team learned that in Buffalo, for instance, there was unique trauma among seniors and grocery store clerks who were expected to return to work just days after 10 people were killed in their store. In Baltimore, teens needed extra support that local groups weren’t equipped to provide. And in the Newtown, Connecticut, tragedy, Sandy Hook Elementary teachers were sent back to the classroom without any additional resources to deal with the trauma. “I think in almost every one of these tragedies, we’ve seen the lack of guidance and support for local leaders, local officials, and local communities,” Jackson said. “And these are all resources that these agencies have at the federal level. They just haven’t all been coordinated.” MESSAGE US — Are you ALI NOURI, deputy director of the office of legislative affairs? 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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| | SLAPPED DOWN: The U.S. and United Kingdom issued a new round of economic sanctions on Iran Thursday as punishment for its unprecedented attack on Israel last week, our MICHAEL STRATFORD reports. The Treasury Department’s latest sanctions target 16 people and two entities that produce the engines powering the drones Iran used in the attack. In addition, the Commerce Department is imposing new controls restricting Iran’s access to commercial-grade microelectronics. “Let it be clear to all those who enable or support Iran’s attacks: The United States is committed to Israel’s security,” the president said in a statement. “And we will not hesitate to take all necessary action to hold you accountable.” STAYING LOW-KEY: The images of former President DONALD TRUMP in court has been a great look for the Biden camp. But as our EUGENE DANIELS and JEFF COLTIN report, the campaign has largely stayed mum on the Manhattan hush-money trial. When NYT’s MAGGIE HABERMAN dropped the bombshell that Trump appeared to snooze off in the courtroom, the campaign barely touched it. Instead, they used it to highlight the abortion issue: “Wake Up Donald: After Stormy Abortion Ban Coverage, Trump Poll Memo Attempts to Hush Panic,” read the memo sent out by the campaign later in the day. The president kept it similarly mild during remarks to the United Steelworkers Union HQ on Wednesday. “Under my predecessor, who’s a little busy right now, Pennsylvania lost 275,000 jobs,” he said. But in such a tight race, some Democrats are worried the muted approach isn’t the right strategy. “Given where we are, we’ve got to take some risks,” a senior 2020 Biden campaign official said. FISA PUSH IN OVERDRIVE: A slew of administration officials spent the day meeting with and calling senators, urging quick passage of the bill to reauthorize a key part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, our JENNIFER HABERKORN writes in. National security advisor JAKE SULLIVAN was on Capitol Hill and several other officials have been talking with lawmakers, including DNI AVRIL HAINES, CIA Director BILL BURNS and Attorney General MERRICK GARLAND. They want the bill approved by Friday’s deadline and oppose an amendment from Sens. RICHARD DURBIN (D-Ill.) and KEVIN CRAMER (R-N.D.) to require the government to obtain warrants before reviewing the contents of Americans’ private communications. The administration argues the amendment would "badly damage the government's ability to review vital intelligence on key threats," such as terrorist threats or fentanyl supply chains, according to a DOJ-drafted fact sheet circulating on the Hill. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by WBTV’s NICK OCHSNER, who reports that Donald Trump’s fundraiser in Charlotte this weekend is being co-hosted by the CEO of a company under fire by veterans and veteran-focused organizations. SCOTT GREENBLATT founded Veterans Guardian, which is under scrutiny for helping veterans appeal their VA disability rating in exchange for a fee tied to the amount of extra money they receive. But the kicker is that veterans can obtain that same service for no cost from veteran service officers instead. An official with the American Legion called the company “a pack of vultures” in 2022. Campaign director of rapid response AMMAR MOUSSA shared the story on X. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by our LISA KASHINSKY detailing how Biden’s advantage with younger voters is down to single digits. According to a new survey Thursday from Harvard’s Institute of Politics, Biden leads Trump 45 percent to 37 percent. At the same time in the 2020 cycle, Biden held a 23-point edge with the same group. “This is a different youth electorate than we saw in 2020 and 2022, and young voters are motivated by different things,” said JOHN DELLA VOLPE, the expert on polling young voters who has long overseen the IOP’s youth poll and served as an adviser on Biden’s 2020 campaign. “Economic issues are top of mind, housing is a major concern — and the gap between young men’s and young women’s political preferences is pronounced,” he said. SEEING ORANGE: President Biden will visit Syracuse, New York, next week to celebrate a $6.1 billion deal between the Commerce Department and Micron Technology — the largest U.S. manufacturer of computer memory chips — to help develop advanced memory chips in New York and Idaho. CitrusTV News’ LUKE RADEL reports that a plan for Biden to visit his alma mater Syracuse University is in the works. No word if OTTO THE ORANGE will be in attendance. PICK A SIDE, GODDAMNIT: The Wawa-Sheetz rivalry is as heated a battle as it gets. One doesn’t simply go to Sheetz one day and Wawa the next. But that’s exactly what the president did. Before heading out of Philadelphia on Thursday, Biden stopped in at a local Wawa, grabbing a hoagie and milkshake with Philly Mayor CHERELLE PARKER. Now, our readers may be disgusted. Fair enough. But we would make the argument this is the essence of public service. In these partisan times, this type of diplomacy is invaluable. And if he wants to stand a chance in Pennsylvania this fall, he’ll need to bring together both teams. By the way, has anyone told him about Rutter’s?
| | | | A message from Center for Western Priorities: The most recent “Winning the West” poll found that 74% of voters in key Western states say doing more to protect and conserve public lands and designate national monuments would make them view the Biden administration more favorably. That view is held by 93% of Democrats, 76% of Independents, and 53% of Republicans. Overall, 87% of Western Voters prioritize a candidate’s support for conservation issues to determine how they cast their ballots. | | | | | | FAMILY TIES: More than a dozen members of the extended Kennedy family endorsed President Biden’s reelection bid on Thursday, highlighting the clan’s almost-united condemnation of ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.’s third-party challenge, our ELENA SCHNEIDER reports. At a campaign rally in Philadelphia, six members of the Kennedy family appeared on stage with the president, including his sister KERRY KENNEDY, who introduced Biden as her “hero.” (That’s roughly a quarter of the Kennedys who attended the White House St. Patrick’s Day celebration last month, when the family made its implicit support abundantly clear.) “We can say today, with no less urgency, that our rights and freedoms are once again in peril,” she said during her remarks. “That is why we all need to come together in a campaign that should unite not only Democrats, but all Americans, including Republicans and independents who believe in what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature.”
| | THINK INSIDE THE CUBE: During a speech at the Economic Club in Washington on Thursday, White House chief of staff JEFF ZIENTS chided his fellow feds for not getting back to an in-person schedule, Bloomberg’s JENNIFER JACOBS reports. “We don’t have the return-to-work levels that we should have across the federal government,” Zients said. “We’re headed in the right direction. But that’s an area we need to focus on.” In January, the White House ramped up pressure on agencies to get their workforce back into the office. Jeff, you might wanna let the people have their remote days. It gives them a little more time to get their morning Call Your Mother.
| | | | A message from Center for Western Priorities:   | | | | | IN CASE YOU FORGOT ABOUT THIS ONE: The U.S. and Israel will hold a high-level virtual meeting on Thursday to discuss a possible Israeli invasion into Rafah, our ALEXANDER WARD reports. The group of senior leaders will discuss how to dismantle the roughly 3,000 Hamas fighters believed to be hunkering in the south Gaza city, while protecting the city’s 1.4 million civilians. The meeting was initially meant to be in person in Washington, but Iran’s attack over the weekend postponed the trip. The U.S. side will be led by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, while his counterpart national security adviser TZACHI HANEGBI will head up the Israeli side. A BLUNT WARNING: CIA Director Burns offered a blunt assessment of the war in Ukraine Thursday, urging lawmakers to pass the national security supplemental, our MATT BERG and PHELIM KINE report. “There is a very real risk that the Ukrainians could lose on the battlefield by the end of 2024, or at least put Putin in a position where he could essentially dictate the terms of a political settlement,” Burns said at an event at the George W. Bush Presidential Center. It’s perhaps the most pointed evaluation of the war from an administration member as officials in Kyiv urge the U.S. to send further aid.
| | | | There’s No Easy Answer to Chinese EVs (The Atlantic’s Rogé Karma) Chinese Exports Are Threatening Biden’s Industrial Agenda (NYT’s Jim Tankersley and Alan Rappeport) Opinion: The terrible lesson Biden learned from Trump on trade (WaPo’s Catherine Rampell)
| | | | A message from Center for Western Priorities: Outdoor Voters want more national monuments in 2024. President Biden has an opportunity to inspire the 3 million active outdoor enthusiasts in the Mountain West region known as Outdoor Voters. Outdoor Voters consider public lands protections and conservation issues to be pivotal to their electoral choices. By designating new national monuments, President Biden can unify Americans across party lines and demonstrate his commitment to achieving his 30x30 promise. This strategic move can greatly influence candidates' ability to secure support and win the West. Find out more at outdoorvoter.org. | | | | | Remember when PETE BUTTIGIEG supporters took the internet by storm in 2019 with their cringy “High Hopes” dance? We sure do. Known to fewer is that Buttigieg has a longstanding history with music beyond Panic! At The Disco. His love for classic rock goes back to his school days, when his dad introduced him to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Cosmo's Factory.” “It’s such a great piece of music that I didn’t mind that for probably around three years, it was all we ever listened to,” Buttigieg said at a 2020 campaign stop. And in high school, when he picked up the guitar — you can find a compilation of his guitar and piano chops here — Creedence, Led Zeppelin and JIMI HENDRIX became his go-to repertoire. Buttigieg is also a well-known Dave Matthews Band fan. In this episode of the podcast “Kelly Corrigan Wonders,” Buttigieg said that DMB was not only his first concert but the best live performance he’s ever seen. And at Harvard in 2003, he penned a column called “Rock the Vote?” for the Crimson, where he discussed Dave Matthews, Radiohead, EMINEM and the “tonal shift” in the music Harvard’s campus was listening to in a post-9/11 world. “What sense could the old Dave Matthews make when Dave Letterman was weeping on air?” he wrote. (Remember, folks, everyone needs an editor.)
| | | The cause of Taylor's unexpected death is widely contested, but one popular theory is that he died from cholera morbus, a bacterial infection. After attending Fourth of July festivities on the grounds of the future Washington Monument, Taylor gulped down iced milk (yuck) and a large quantity of cherries. Outbreaks of cholera during the hot Washington summers in the 1800s were frequent, and some say the deadly bacteria was most likely present in the milk. But others argue it was simply the combination of the acidic cherries and fresh milk that did him in. 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 Mike DeBonis and Rishika Dugyala.
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