California dreamin'

Jun 17, 2024

By Ben Johansen, Eli Stokols and Lauren Egan

Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration.

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As any native Californian living in D.C. will attest, getting home can be an expensive, tiring process; not for the faint of heart or those with sleeping issues or sore necks.

But KAMALA HARRIS has managed to make it work.

The vice president, an Oakland native now living in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, has taken a number of trips back home by, in part, adding the California leg of the flight on to an official work trip to a separate state. Occasionally, that state serves a political purpose.

Since the start of the administration, Harris has traveled on Air Force Two to California with a stop in Nevada along the way at least 11 times (a 12th trip was planned for early May but was canceled due to weather), according to a review of pool reports from the trips.

The majority of trips to Nevada — whether it was a June 2022 trip to speak at a conference of mayors or a stop by this past April to moderate a discussion on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — have fallen between Friday and Monday. Often, a weekend visit to her Los Angeles home — which COURTNEY SUBRAMANIAN described in the LA Times as her “sanctuary” earlier this year — comes directly after or before her events in the Silver State.

Harris’ travel to the West Coast has become so common that the president himself joked about it while there last month.

“I’m in a little bit of trouble because Kamala is not here,” President JOE BIDEN said at a campaign reception in California. “Every time I’m going to California, she says, ‘Wh- — wait, wait — I got to go back. I’ve got to go back.’”

The D.C.-Nevada-California swings appear to be largely on the taxpayer dime, since most of the events that Harris attends are not officially campaign related. The White House noted the majority of Harris' California trips didn't include a swing to Nevada and that she traveled all across the country, too.

“Whether it is traveling to the West Coast or more recently to Georgia and North Carolina as part of her Economic Opportunity Tour, Vice President Harris is meeting the American people where they are, and speaking with them about what she and the President have done to make their lives easier,” said her press secretary, ERNIE APREZA.

Harris’ last West Coast visit was a direct one to her home state that included three fundraisers and an appearance on JIMMY KIMMEL.

Sometimes, Harris goes to a different Rocky Mountain-ish state (before you email us, we know, the Rockies don’t extend into Nevada) before heading further west. Last week, she delivered a commencement speech at the Air Force Academy in Colorado before going to California.

One person familiar with the vice president’s schedule stressed that the office does not make scheduling decisions based on her desire to travel to California. Nor is Harris the first or only politician who has combined official travel with trips back home.

“Ask anybody who has ever worked in D.C. — in Congress or the Senate or at the White House — the trip from California, it’s not easy. It doesn’t matter if you’re on Air Force Two or on a United flight,” BRIAN BROKAW, a former adviser to Harris, told Subramanian in the LA Times piece.

It’s also worth noting that Nevada is critical for her and the president. The state is one of six that will likely determine the election this November. Although Biden beat former President DONALD TRUMP there by over two percentage points in 2020, polling averages currently show him trailing Trump by five points. On top of that, Democratic Sen. JACKY ROSEN is facing one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, with Cook Political Report rating it as one of three “toss up” races in the upper congressional chamber this fall.

“From the office’s perspective, if you’re making the trip to L.A., it’s quite far … so it makes sense to hit a state on the way,” one Harris staffer familiar with her schedule said. “And Nevada is a natural one to pick this year.”

Biden himself has been making strategic stops along the way home to Delaware (a slightly less physically exerting jaunt than the one Harris makes across the country). The president, who spends most of his weekends in his home state, often makes a pitstop in Philadelphia. His travel, unlike Harris’, may only involve a short helicopter ride. But it also includes logistical complexities and a bigger security footprint (not to mention a larger press pool).

Harris, for her part, has also made a fair number of Pennsylvania stops recently. Apreza said this year alone she had made more than 50 trips to 19 states.

Regardless of the rationale for Harris’ travel to Nevada, local Democratic officials appreciate the visits. Rep. STEVEN HORSFORD (D-Nev.), who has joined the vice president on many of her trips — greeting her on the tarmac and frequently receiving shoutouts during her remarks — told West Wing Playbook that it doesn’t hurt to have a West Coast VP.

“It’s great to have a Vice President as our next-door neighbor, and we are happy to host her anytime her schedule permits,” Horsford said.

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POTUS PUZZLER

In 1912, what major incident interrupted one of TEDDY ROOSEVELT’s campaign speeches?

(Answer at bottom.)

The Oval

ANGER WITH THE POST. NO, THE OTHER POST: For the second time in the past week, the White House is pushing back against a New York Post headline. The latest one, posted Sunday, claimed President Biden froze at his star-studded Los Angeles fundraiser Saturday night and had to be led off stage by BARACK OBAMA. Many Biden staffers and allies took to X to dispute the Post’s assertion and share other videos capturing the moment.

“Nothing remotely close to this happened,” Biden campaign finance chair RUFUS GIFFORD wrote on X. He shared a video from a different angle and said Biden was “enjoying the enthusiasm of the crowd who had just given him a standing ovation.”

The RUPERT MURDOCH empire has long been a bête noire of Democrats. But things have taken a quick turn towards open hostilities in the last few weeks with the Biden White House.

REMEMBERING THE TREE OF LIFE: Second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF will deliver remarks Sunday at the groundbreaking of a memorial for victims of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, AP’s ZEKE MILLER reports. The ceremony will be hosted by CNN’s WOLF BLITZER. Emhoff, the first Jewish person to serve as the spouse of a nationally elected U.S. leader, has been one of the most outspoken Biden administration officials on antisemitism.

CAN TOM VILSACK HELP BIDEN’S BLACK VOTER SLACK? That’s not a sentence we thought we’d ever type. But there is a hook here for the former Iowa governor and current agriculture secretary.

It dates back to the 2021 American Rescue Plan, in which the Biden administration set out to help Black and other “socially disadvantaged” farmers by including $4 billion in debt forgiveness for them. In response, a group representing white farmers and led by former Trump aide STEPHEN MILLER filed a lawsuit that succeeded in blocking the program.

Now, as NYT’s ALAN RAPPEPORT reports from Georgia, some Black farmers are frustrated over unfulfilled promises — and blaming Biden. And so, TOM VILSACK traveled to Georgia last month to plead patience, arguing that progress is on the way while acknowledging that delivering relief has been “an uphill battle.”

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece from lefty journalist JUDD LEGUM, who reports that Sinclair Broadcast Group is flooding a vast network of local news sites with misleading articles suggesting Biden is mentally unfit to serve. “The articles are based on specious social media posts by the Republican National Committee, which are then repackaged to resemble news reports,” Legum writes. “The thinly disguised political attacks are then syndicated to dozens of local news websites owned by Sinclair, where they are given the imprimatur of mainstream media brands, including NBC, ABC, and CBS.”

Senior deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES reposted the story on X.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by The Atlantic’s JOHN HENDRICKSON, who brutally juxtaposes Dallas Mavericks’ star LUKA DONČIĆ with the Biden campaign. Not by comparing the NBA star’s near triple-double a game to the campaign’s outreach efforts in battlegrounds — but by comparing his ~~whiny~~ critical qualms with the refs to how the campaign has launched a public spat every week against not only Trump, but also members of the media.

“In [Dončić’s] eyes, the referees are incapable of correctly calling the game, no matter the circumstance. Whining has become muscle memory,” Hendrickson writes. He adds: “When Biden-campaign allies work the media, they’re at best wasting time, suggesting that they have run out of better ideas for how to try to save their candidate.”

Does this make Donald Trump the PAYTON PRITCHARD of the election?

CAMPAIGN HQ

DIGGING IN: The Biden campaign is out with its sharpest attack yet on Donald Trump, launching a new ad Monday that rips into his 34 felonies, our ELENA SCHNEIDER reports. The ad, part of a $50 million June ad buy, will air across battleground states — a test of whether the campaign can paint Trump in enough of a negative light to drag down his polling lead.

The ad describes the election as a contest “between a convicted criminal who’s only out for himself and a president who’s fighting for your family.”

“In the courtroom, we see Donald Trump for who he is. He’s been convicted of 34 felonies, found liable for sexual assault and he committed financial fraud,” the narrator says, flashing photos of Trump sitting in the courtroom. “Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s been working — lowering health care costs and making big corporations pay their fair share.”

THE BUREAUCRATS

FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: ANNA CANFIELD ROTH is leaving the Treasury Department in mid-July where she has been assistant secretary for management, according to an email she sent her colleagues that our DANIEL LIPPMAN obtained. ADITI HARDIKAR, deputy chief of staff at Treasury, will replace her.

MORE PERSONNEL MOVES: Former Interior Department communications director TYLER CHERRY has moved to the White House to lead its climate communications, E&E News’ ROBIN BRAVENDER reports. After more than three years at the Interior, Cherry started last week as associate communications director. MARIA MICHALOS, who has held the post for over a year, plans to step down later this month to attend Yale Law School.

Agenda Setting

NO, REALLY, STOP SCROLLING: U.S. Surgeon General VIVEK MURTHY on Monday pushed for adding a warning label on social media platforms reminding parents and adolescents how social media can harm their mental health. The warning label would be the same as those used on tobacco and alcohol products, but implementing it requires legislation from Congress, which neither chamber has introduced.

During Monday’s press briefing, press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE would not say whether Biden himself supports adding a warning label — only that the administration is considering “a range of options” to address mental health concerns for young people and to call on Congress for a bipartisan solution.

KEEP CALM EVERYONE: U.S. diplomat AMOS HOCHSTEIN has traveled to the Middle East in an effort to ease tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, after Israel warned that it was on the brink of a “wider escalation” with the Lebanese militant group, Bloomberg’s ALISA ODENHEIMER reports. Hezbollah has traded fire with Israel nearly every day since Oct. 7, as Israeli authorities have evacuated tens of thousands of residents from towns and villages in the north of the country.

Hochstein will meet with Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Defense Minister YOAV GALLANT and President ISAAC HERZOG while in Israel.

What We're Reading

New Washington Post Editor’s Elon Musk End-Run Raises Eyebrows (Hollywood Reporter’s Lachlan Cartwright)

The 2024 ‘Deciders’: Who are they and what makes them tick? (WaPo’s Scott Clement, Emily Guskin and Dan Balz)

Biden backstory: Runs darkened by family trauma, addiction (Axios’ Alex Thompson)

The Queen Bee of Bidenomics (NYT’s Farah Stockman)

POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER

On October 14, 1912, Roosevelt was giving a speech at the Milwaukee Auditorium — and was interrupted by a bullet just as he finished his first line. “I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot,” Roosevelt told the crowd.

The audience gasped as the president unbuttoned his bloodstained shirt. “It takes more than that to kill a bull moose,” Roosevelt said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bullet-riddled speech. “Fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is a bullet — there is where the bullet went through — and it probably saved me from it going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best.”

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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