| | | | |  | | By Lauren Egan, Elena Schneider, Eli Stokols 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 As Democrats frantically debate whether President JOE BIDEN should be the party’s nominee, they’re racing against an uncomfortable — and uncertain — deadline. Democratic National Committee members are expected to meet next Friday to determine a date to nominate Biden in a virtual roll call, which could come as soon as the end of this month, weeks before the party’s convention in Chicago, which begins on Aug. 19. Officially giving Biden the nomination would effectively blunt some calls for him to drop out and would send a clear message to wavering party members that it was time to put aside their concerns and get in line. The decision to nominate Biden early and online was made well before the president’s poor debate performance. But it’s now creating an optics problem for the party as it faces criticism that it allowed Biden to go too far in quashing his primary competition, including reordering the primary schedule to be more favorable to him and booting alternative candidates in states where the party determines who makes the ballot. Even some of the DNC’s own members have acknowledged that moving ahead with a virtual nomination is not a great look. “I do not want this virtual roll call to be used as a way to protect Biden within this context,” said a DNC member, granted anonymity to speak candidly. Compounding the bad optics of an early virtual roll call is the fact that it’s not technically necessary anymore. The DNC announced in May that it would hold a “virtual roll call” vote before the Chicago convention to meet Ohio’s Aug. 7 ballot access deadline. FRANK LaROSE, Ohio’s Republican secretary of state, had refused to make an exception to the deadline (as is commonly done) and warned that without a legislative change, Biden was at risk of being left off the November ballot. After weeks of political gamesmanship, the state legislature ultimately voted to extend the ballot access deadline to accommodate the Chicago convention. Still, the DNC said it would move forward with its virtual plan. “Through a virtual roll call, we will ensure that Republicans can’t chip away at our democracy through incompetence or partisan tricks and that Ohioans can exercise their right to vote for the presidential candidate of their choice,” DNC Chair JAIME HARRISON said at the time. Some DNC members have suggested that there’s not as strong of a case anymore for Democrats to stick to its nomination plan. “If the Ohio situation wasn’t there, then we should wait until the convention,” said the DNC member. A second DNC member said that for Democrats who want to replace Biden, “it could be problematic through the lens of, ‘Are we rushing into something that doesn’t allow for an open convention and potentially cause more chaos?’” It’s still unclear when the virtual roll call would take place. Some members told West Wing Playbook that it should happen before Aug. 7, while others argued for it to be even sooner. Axios reported earlier this month that some convention delegates were asking for as much time as possible so they could decide whether Biden should remain at the top of the ticket. A group of former Democratic lawmakers on Friday also sent a letter to Biden asking him to allow for an open convention. Still, some DNC members defended the decision to plow ahead with the nomination plan, arguing that Ohio could not be trusted. They noted that the law signed by Ohio Gov. MIKE DeWINE does not go into effect until Sept. 1 and retroactively sets a ballot access deadline of Aug. 23 (the day after the DNC ends). “The reason this process got under way was because Ohio started to play games,” said DONNA BRAZILE, a DNC member. “We don’t want Ohio to equivocate again.” BEN KINDEL, a spokesperson for the Ohio secretary of state, said the issue had long been resolved by the state legislature and any claims to the contrary were unfounded. “It’s totally ridiculous for them to try to scapegoat Ohio just because they’re trying to rush this process,” he said. MESSAGE US — Are you a GREEN BADGE STAFFER WHO SITS IN EEOB? 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!
| | | | Understand 2024’s big impacts with Pro’s extensive Campaign Races Dashboard, exclusive insights, and key coverage of federal- and state-level debates. Focus on policy. Learn more. | | | | | | | | | What was BARACK OBAMA’s childhood dream? (Aside from being president, of course.) (Answer at bottom.)
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President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden welcome NATO allies and partners to the White House in Washington, Wednesday, July 10, 2024, on the South Lawn for the 75th anniversary of the NATO Summit. | AP/Susan Walch | | | | | NOT GONNA SUGARCOAT IT: After Biden’s press conference last night, House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-N.Y.) met privately with President Biden to relay his caucus’ concerns about the president’s reelection bid. In a letter to House Democrats, Jeffries said he “directly expressed the full breadth of insight, heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward that the Caucus has shared in our recent time together.” It's not clear whether Jeffries called on the president to withdraw from the race, an outcome that many of Democrats are publicly and privately seeking. JOINING THE CHOIR: Rep. MIKE LEVIN (D-Calif.), who earlier today called on Biden to step aside, relayed that message directly to the president Friday, our NICHOLAS WU and SARAH FERRIS report. According to a transcript of the conversation, after Levin made it clear he would be breaking from him, Biden responded: “That’s why I’m going out and letting people touch me, poke me, ask me questions … That’s what people are worried about. ‘I’ve got a grandfather who’s 85 years old and he can’t walk.’ It’s a legitimate concern for people, but that’s why I think it’s important I gotta get out and show people everything from how well I move to how much I know and that I’m still in good charge.” Rep. BRITTANY PETTERSEN (D-Colo.) also released a statement urging the president to abandon his reelection bid, bringing the tally of congressional Democrats breaking from Biden to 19. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This op-ed from WaPo’s DANA MILBANK, who writes that last night, both Biden and former President DONALD TRUMP gave speeches that revealed “the fundamental nature of the man.” Biden, assembling world leaders to mark the 75th anniversary of NATO, rallied his counterparts to accept nothing short of a victory in Ukraine. Meanwhile, in Miami hours earlier, Trump “assembled supporters at his Doral golf club — another transfer of wealth from his campaign to his personal accounts — and ridiculed NATO partners.” Milbank says this splitscreen is what the campaign should be about. “The choice between strong American leadership and appeasement, between democracy and dictatorship,” he writes. White House communications director BEN LABOLT and campaign spokesperson TJ DUCKLO shared the piece on X. WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by NYT’s NICHOLAS NEHAMAS and KELLEN BROWNING, who report that Democrats are growing increasingly alarmed that Biden’s insistence on staying in the race could turn light-blue, Democratic stronghold states into battlegrounds. Down-ballot Democrats, local elected officials and party strategists say Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Virginia could all now be in play this November. On Tuesday, the Cook Political Report with AMY WALTER downgraded New Hampshire and Minnesota from "Likely Democratic" to "Lean Democratic." And in a meeting last week, New Mexico Gov. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM told Biden that she feared he would lose her state. SOMEONE NEEDS AN EGO CHECK: In Playbook this morning, our colleagues quoted an unnamed Biden aide who felt like the most productive way to deal with the inner-party fighting, is to continue inner-party fighting — by dunking on lower level staffers. “The green badge staffers that sit in EEOB and give shitty comments to the press don’t know Joe Biden,” the aide said. “He’s got a core group of folks who have always believed!! And everyone is going to thank us when he wins!” Many current and former White House staffers had some thoughts. In a post from her personal account on X, senior adviser to the chief of staff SALONI SHARMA called the comment “out of line” and said that it was not representative of the staff as a whole. “None of my colleagues here talk like this, and we are all a team and in this together.” But “former green badge staffer” ALEIGHA CAVALIER posted: “can confirm that while the vast majority of us believe in the President & in the country this attitude was always palpable from so much of senior staff and was one of the most demotivating things I’ve ever encountered in my career.” “For god's sake whatever else may divide the party in this temporary moment, I think we can all at least unify around the idea that this person should put a sock in it,” former Obama staffer (and JOD husband) PATRICK DILLON said. “This is just so arrogant and cruel,” JON FAVREAU tweeted. “Just because you have a fucking badge that gives you West Wing access doesn’t give you the right to anonymously shit on your White House colleagues who sit in the building next door.”
| | $90 MILLION. IS THAT A LOT? Some top donors to Future Forward, the primary super PAC tasked with amplifying Biden’s reelection argument in TV ads, have signaled that $90 million in pledged contributions to the organization are on hold and will remain so as long as Biden remains the Democratic nominee. As NYT’s SHANE GOLDMACHER and CHRIS CAMERON report, it’s an effort to compel the president to reconsider staying on the ticket. THE DEEP STATE OF THE POD BROS: NYT’s KATIE ROGERS wrote in a piece yesterday that Biden’s advisers have shrugged off the loudest voices calling for him to step down, including the “Pod Save America” bros. Rogers wrote that the Biden team views them as Obama aides who “worked for a cerebral, cool-guy president and never understood the world according to a scrappy kid from Scranton.” They did not take too kindly to that. "As a political operative, the incompetence of spending your time fighting Pod Save America, David Axelrod, George Clooney and the most popular figure in the Democratic Party [Barack Obama] — at a time when you’re struggling with Black voters — is fucking insane,” said co-host DAN PFEIFFER. “Do whatever you want to us, it’s fine. But you have bigger fucking fish to fry. What are you spending time on us for? Go fucking beat Donald Trump or help your candidate be on message,” Jon Favreau added on Friday’s Pod episode. And supposedly, there are talks around the White House that Favreau wrote the GEORGE CLOONEY op-ed (he said he had no involvement). Four more months of this, folks. SUNSETTING ON JOE: The Sunrise Movement — an influential youth-led climate organization — called on Biden to drop his reelection bid to “protect” his climate legacy, our JOSH SIEGEL reports. In a statement, Sunrise’s Executive Director ARU SHINEY-AJAY cited low enthusiasm for Biden among young people, which she said has continued to drop since his debate performance, urging the president to “pass the torch to a new nominee.”
| | THAT SUMPTUOUS POST-SUMMIT LUNCH: At the end of a long week of meetings during and on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington, it was time for outgoing Secretary General JENS STOLTENBERG to relax just a bit. A tipster spotted Stoltenberg, with no tie and a massive security detail, having a long Friday lunch at Joe’s Stone Crab a few blocks from the White House. If anyone has earned that shellfish tower and afternoon martini, it’s Jens, who’d wanted to move on from this post a few years earlier but stuck it out as the alliance grew consumed by the response to the Ukraine war and a lack of consensus among the 32 member nations about a successor. THE PRESIDENT WILL BE GONE IN THREE DAYS! Wait, who did you think we were talking about? NBC’s KELLY O’DONNELL will finish her term as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association on Monday. Sure, you get to put your stamp on the annual dinner in April (and this year’s was a very NBC News affair), but the president’s job requires a ton of work on a daily basis. We thank you, KellyO, for your service.
| | BREAK IT UP, GUYS: The Department of Justice is gearing up to challenge what it says is collusive conduct in the rental housing market, our JOSH SISCO reports. The DOJ is planning to sue RealPage Inc., a software company used by landlords across the country, for allegedly allowing large landlords to fix prices. DOJ staff recently recommended a civil lawsuit against the company that would accuse it of selling software that allows landlords to illegally share confidential pricing information in order to collude on setting rents.
| | | | Biden’s Path to Re-election Has All But Vanished (Doug Sosnik for NYT) Biden’s Heartbreaking Press Conference (The Atlantic’s David Frum) Americans Worried About Reagan’s Age, Too (WSJ’s Gerald Seib) I'm calling on Biden to step aside. Beating Trump is too important. (Ashley Judd for USA Today)
| | | In 2009, SUSAN DAVIS wrote for the Wall Street Journal that Obama was, perhaps, able to fulfill his childhood dream of appearing in a SPIDER-MAN comic. In January 2009, Obama starred on a bonus issue of Marvel Comics’ Amazing Spider-Man series. Obama has said he collected Spider-Man comics as a child, and for fellow comic book enthusiasts, it was an exciting prospect having a fellow nerd in the White House. “How great is that? The commander in chief to be is actually a nerd in chief,” said JOE QUESADA, Marvel's editor in chief at the time. “It was really, really cool to see that we had a geek in the White House. We're all thrilled with that.” 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 Steve Shepard.
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