| | | | |  | | By Jonathan Lemire, 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 HUNTER BIDEN’s guilty verdict today was long anticipated inside JOE BIDEN’s political orbit. But aides to the president were also wary of talking about it with him. The topic isn’t taboo. But it’s a major point of sensitivity for the elder Biden, prone to set him off if discussed in the wrong context. All of which, for Biden’s allies, made Tuesday’s courtroom proceedings more difficult to swallow. Hunter Biden was found guilty on three felony charges stemming from his purchase of a handgun in 2018 while he was in the throes of addiction. The news broke right before President Biden was set to give a major address on gun safety. And just a day before he is set to depart for Italy for the G7 summit. Biden didn’t change his speech on Tuesday. And he’s not likely to alter his G7 plans, save to call in and check on his son while abroad. But one thing the guilty verdict will likely change is the upcoming debate between him and DONALD TRUMP. As we reported today, the president’s “team held a series of conversations at their campaign headquarters to discuss the potential aftershocks from the verdict, according to three Biden officials familiar with internal meetings who were granted anonymity to relay details of them. The general belief among aides is that it would not change the trajectory of the race but would likely become a focal point for the upcoming debate.” The president has not yet done a formal debate prep session. That could begin at Camp David, where Biden is considering holing up for days later this month, according to two of the officials, though they cautioned that plans were not finalized. Aides to the president are of the mindset that Trump could use the debate to badger Biden as an inadequate father. And privately, there is a faction of advisers who feel the president would be wise to let out his famous temper in response — the logic being that an authentic, forceful rejoinder to an attack on a son who suffered from addiction would resonate with voters. But there is also another question with regards to how the debate will go: Will the Hunter verdict change how Biden himself addresses Trump’s own status as a convicted felon? On that front, the answer is no. Biden is still, on occasion, expected to bring up Trump’s hush money conviction — including during the upcoming debate. “Hunter Biden is a private citizen and not on the ballot. Donald Trump was president and is running to be again,” said one of the officials who, like the others, was granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. “These are apples and oranges. We are not going to shy away from it.” Ultimately, Biden’s top advisors believe that Hunter Biden’s issues are already baked into the 2024 election, with polls consistently showing attacks on Hunter Biden and a recent impeachment inquiry into the president having little impact. And some Biden aides believe that a not guilty verdict for Hunter would have been more problematic politically, as it would have given fuel to Trump’s and Republicans’ cries of a biased system of justice that only targeted the GOP, according to one of the officials. MESSAGE US — Are you ABBE LOWELL? 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!
| | | | THE GOLD STANDARD OF POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries—finance, defense, technology, healthcare, energy—equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists.
Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced, and better sourced than any other—with teams embedded in the world’s most active legislative and regulatory power centers. From Brussels to Washington, New York to London, Sacramento to Paris, we bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY. | | | | | | | | | How many movies did JIMMY CARTER screen during his presidency? (Answer at bottom.)
| | THE SCENE IN THE COURTHOUSE: So, what’s next for Hunter Biden? The president’s son faces a maximum prison sentence of 25 years but is much more likely to receive two years or less — or even no prison time at all, because he is a first-time offender and the crimes involved only a single gun that was never used violently. Our BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN and JOSH GERSTEIN report that Hunter Biden remained perfectly still as the verdict was read, then departed the courtroom with his wife MELISSA COHEN BIDEN and first lady JILL BIDEN. As for the president, he went to Wilmington, Delaware, to be with his extended family. The WSJ’s CATHERINE LUCEY, one of the reporters on the tarmac when Biden arrived in Delaware, filed this pool report: “Marine One landed at Delaware Air National Guard Base at 4:37 p.m. The motorcade pulled up and POTUS exited Marine One at 4:40 p.m. Hunter Biden, Melissa Cohen Biden and his son Beau Biden greeted the president on the tarmac and he hugged them and spoke to them for several minutes. POTUS bent over to kiss the top of Beau’s head.” TOUGH TIMING: Just hours after his son was convicted of illegally purchasing a firearm, President Biden spoke at an Everytown for Gun Safety event, where he heralded his administration's extensive reforms on firearms safety, NYT’s NICHOLAS NEHAMAS reports. During the remarks, Biden attacked Donald Trump for not doing more to reduce gun violence while in the White House. Biden also called for a ban on assault weapons, an end to legal immunity for gun manufacturers and the passage of universal background checks. Two minutes into his speech, Biden was interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters yelling, “stop committing genocide” — and they were, in turn, met with boos and chants of “four more years” from the crowd. “No, no, no. They care, innocent children have been lost,” the president replied. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by WaPo’s DAVID J. LYNCH, who reports that the global economy is in better shape than it was at the start of the year, in large part because of the United States, according to the World Bank’s latest forecast Tuesday. Global growth is expected to reach an annual rate of 2.6 percent this year, up from a January forecast of 2.4 percent. The World Bank also expects the U.S. economy to grow at an annual rate of 2.5 percent — nearly a full percentage point higher than what it had predicted in January. This makes the U.S. the only advanced economy growing significantly faster than the bank anticipated at the start of the year. Campaign spokesmen JAMES SINGER and DANIEL WESSEL shared the piece on X. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO WATCH: This video compilation from our KRYSTAL CAMPOS of an assortment of Biden administration spokespeople (looking at you, JOHN KIRBY) arguing they have been “very clear” and “crystal clear” over its national security policy. Hint: They haven’t been.
| | 538 CHIMES IN: Polling site FiveThirtyEight gave President Biden some welcome news Tuesday. In its new model for predicting elections, 538 has Biden projected to win 53 times out of 100 in its simulations of the election — a narrow edge over Trump, who it has winning 47 times. The former president has lost ground in polls since his conviction, with his national margin in 538’s polling average falling from +1.7 to +1.0 as of Monday afternoon. For what it's worth, there is a less than 1-in-100 chance that no candidate wins a majority of the Electoral College votes, which would throw the election to the House of Representatives. SENIORS GET PHONE BANKS AND PICKLEBALL: The Biden campaign on Tuesday launched Seniors for Biden-Harris, a national organizing initiative to leverage his growing popularity with voters 65 and older, NBC’s MIKE MEMOLI reports. That’s become an imperative given Biden’s drop-off in support from younger voters. Second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF will launch the effort with an event Friday in New Hampshire, the swing state with the highest senior population, according to a campaign spokesperson. AND THE KIDS GET BEER AND BIRTH CONTROL: How does one convince young people to vote? A group of Democratic donors are betting on pizza, beer and birth control as they look for a cure to Biden’s anemic support with younger voters, WaPo’s MICHAEL SCHERER reports. These donors want to make politics look different in the battleground states that will decide the race — and they’re using millions of dollars from allied groups to test their theory. In Phoenix on Saturday, a group called Vote for Abortion drove around handing out free emergency contraceptives to create buzz for a midday concert with ex-Fifth Harmony member LAUREN JAUREGI and several DJs. Other groups are exploring hosting early morning raves, delivering food to people standing in long lines on Election Day and, of course, handing out free beer. ‘TIS THE MONTH: The Biden campaign will debut new ads on Tuesday targeting LGBTQ+ voters in battleground states, Washington Blade’s CHRISTOPHER KANE reports. The ads will “uplift” the president’s record as “the most pro-LGBTQ+ president in history” while also highlighting “Donald Trump’s history of attacking their rights and his plans to go further.”
| | SUCCEEDING GRU: The White House is close to naming derivatives regulator CHRISTY GOLDSMITH ROMERO as the next head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, WSJ’s ANDREW ACKERMAN and ANDREW RESTUCCIA report. She would replace the banking agency’s longtime chairman MARTIN GRUENBERG, who announced he would resign after an external investigation found rampant bullying and sexual harassment throughout the agency. A formal announcement could come later this week, though President Biden hasn’t made a final decision. Goldsmith Romero is a Democratic member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where she has served since March 2022.
| | | | SO ... DO WE HAVE A DEAL? Hamas on Tuesday gave Qatari and Egyptian mediators an official response to the Israeli hostage and ceasefire deal, Axios’ BARAK RAVID reports. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby confirmed this afternoon that the U.S. had also received the response and is evaluating it. “We're in receipt of this reply that Hamas delivered to Qatar and to Egypt, and we're evaluating it right now, and I think that's as far as I'm going to go today,” Kirby told reporters. IN THE MEANTIME: Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN announced an additional $404 million in humanitarian aid to Gaza as he spoke in Jordan on Tuesday, WaPo’s JOHN HUDSON, SUSANNAH GEORGE, SARAH DADOUCH and JENNIFER HASSAN report. Blinken also urged Hamas to accept the current ceasefire proposal “without delay.” He met with United Arab Emirates foreign minister SHEIKH ABDULLAH BIN ZAYED AL NAHYAN and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister MOHAMMAD MUSTAFA to stress that the current proposal is beneficial for both Israelis and Palestinians. WHAT’S NEW: The Biden administration is considering additional restrictions on China’s access to chip technology used for artificial intelligence, Bloomberg’s MACKENZIE HAWKINS and IAN KING report. The U.S. goal is to make it more difficult for China to assemble the complicated computing systems needed to build and operate AI models. PULLING OUT ALL THE STOPS: The Biden administration on Tuesday announced rules to bar credit reporting agencies from considering medical debt when calculating credit scores, WaPo’s DAN DIAMOND and AARON GREGG report. The rules would also block lenders from using medical debt to determine loan eligibility. Roughly 15 million people have medical bills on their credit reports and disproportionately live in the South or in low-income communities, according to an April study from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
| | Team Biden bets an unfiltered Trump at the debate can shake up the race (NBC’s Natasha Korecki) Unfounded attacks on the Justice Department must end (Merrick Garland for WaPo) Michael Rafidi and Masako Morishita Win Big at the 2024 James Beard Awards (Washingtonian’s Ann Limpert)
| | | We’ve highlighted Ambassador to India ERIC GARCETTI’s musical chops, but his on-air talents have somehow slid under the radar. From 2010 to 2012, the then-city councilman played Los Angeles Mayor RAMON QUINTERO in the TNT show “The Closer” and its subsequent spin-off “Major Crimes.” He clearly was influenced by the role, later serving as the actual mayor of Los Angeles (from 2013 to 2022). Comedian and former Late Night host JAMES CORDEN also teamed up with Garcetti during his mayoral years. The Brit stepped in as mayor for a day, where he did some ribbon cutting and took questions from the press.
| | In only four years, Carter screened over 400 movies at the White House or at Camp David, according to blogger MATT NOVAK, who dug through the former president’s journal in the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. In May of 1979, Carter held a private screening of Apocalypse Now with director FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA and 75 other people — three months before the movie would be released in theaters. The most interesting screening Novak found? In 1978, Carter watched Star Wars with then-Egyptian President ANWAR SADAT. 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.
| | | | JOIN US ON 6/12 FOR A TALK ON THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY: As air travel soars again, policymakers and airlines are grappling with a series of contemporary challenges to the industry's future. Join POLITICO on June 12 for a topical and timely conversation with government leaders and aviation stakeholders about the state of the airline industry. From what passengers want to what airlines need amid the high demand for air traffic, workers and technology solutions. What can Washington do to ensure passengers and providers are equipped to fly right? REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
