| | | | |  | | By 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 This is a story of how passion, persistence and persuasiveness can lead to the White House. Just not in the way you think. For a Navy veteran living in San Diego, it started in August 2021 with a frantic call from a friend stuck in Afghanistan, surrounded by the Taliban and asking for help getting out. More than three years after getting that call, SHAWN VanDIVER has become a mainstay in the hallways of the West Wing and the State Department, someone who talks to senior government officials on a daily basis about a refugee resettlement program — revamped with input from him and the coalition of veterans groups and activists he assembled — that is still evacuating thousands of Afghans every month. “We brought reality to the highest levels of government,” VanDiver told West Wing Playbook. “We created this collaborative ecosystem where anybody who wants to work collaboratively on this can.” VanDiver, in the frantic weeks after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, was engaged with dozens of veterans groups about the scramble to evacuate Afghans with Special Immigration Visas (SIVs) who’d helped American troops during the two-decade war. He decided to bring them all together under one organization, AfghanEvac. And when he read that then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff MARK MILLEY was meeting with veterans groups, VanDiver talked his way into a September Pentagon-State Department meeting in Crystal City where he began to build a partnership with the government. Weeks later, he emailed deputy national security adviser JON FINER, who he knew from The Truman Project, to flag a letter being drafted to the president and Congress outlining the need for a comprehensive, multi-year, end-to-end strategy meant to keep our promises to our allies — what became Operation Enduring Welcome. Not only was the State Department’s SIV process agonizingly slow, the cumbersome relocation protocol — finding “lily pad” nations where evacuees could receive medical screenings, then military bases in the U.S. where they could stay until being resettled — was being overloaded as arrivals, which had dipped to roughly 12,000 a year, spiked to 80,000 in 2021. VanDiver, who was politically active but didn’t have government connections prior to that 2021 phone call, got his first meeting with Finer in early December and soon after was introduced to CURTIS RIED, then the NSC’s senior director for multilateral affairs, and homeland security adviser LIZ SHERWOOD-RANDALL. At Foggy Bottom, undersecretary JOHN BASS, the last U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan who was coordinating evacuation efforts in 2021, along with chief of staff SUZY GEORGE and now-ambassador TIMMY DAVIS, helped finalize Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN’s approval to overhaul the entire process, in partnership with VanDiver and his organization. VanDiver, who referred to himself as a “pushy [MFer],” recalled blasting White House officials after President JOE BIDEN didn’t mention Afghanistan in his 2022 State of the Union address. “I call it combative but collaborative,” he said of his approach. “But I give them credit: It’s hard to take a bunch of shit from people that do not have the benefit of all the intelligence reports and all of those things.” VanDiver praised senior officials for being accessible and responsive when the sometimes complicated interagency process has hit snags. “Getting in touch with Liz Sherwood-Randall or Jon Finer is a good way to unstick some of those things.” Beyond twice-monthly meetings with NSC officials and daily calls, the White House has allowed VanDiver to bring resettled Afghan evacuees into the West Wing and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to tell administration officials about their experiences. Ried, on a trip to Texas, met with the Afghan whose frantic call to VanDiver in 2021 sparked his activism; and he and VanDiver took part in a SXSW session earlier this year to discuss the impact of civic engagement. “What developed here was a strong partnership that endured, that was beneficial to both the government and veterans coalition, and one that's been mutually reinforcing,” a senior administration official told West Wing Playbook. This August, around the third anniversary, Randall invited VanDiver to co-lead a meeting from the Roosevelt Room on the administration’s ongoing efforts to evacuate Afghans. Over the last three-plus years, the U.S. has gotten 170,000 Afghans out of the country, and flights are expected to continue. “I did not have ‘hosting a meeting from the Roosevelt Room’ on my bingo card for this year,” VanDiver said. During his presentation on “shared successes and ongoing challenges,” Randall, he said, “took a shit-ton of notes.” Biden quietly marked the third anniversary of America’s messy evacuation from Afghanistan with a statement , honoring the 13 U.S. service members killed in the Taliban’s attack on Abbey Gate. VanDiver says he and others who have worked on this issue have been frustrated by the president’s reluctance to talk about Afghanistan, which most Americans think was poorly executed, not just to put a cap on America’s longest war but to recognize a true success story that grew out of the tumultuous withdrawal, one of civic engagement, public-private cooperation and new beginnings for tens of thousands of families. “The political people don’t want to talk about it, but the NSC has been a willing partner. And people of all stripes have been involved in this. No one has cared about anything other than helping these Afghans get out.” MESSAGE US — Are you JACORIA BORDERS, deputy director of presidential advance? 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!
| | Which president was the first to appear on a late-night show? (Answer at bottom.)
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Former President Barack Obama applauds Vice President Kamala Harris during a campaign rally at the James R Hallford Stadium in Clarkston, Georgia on October 24, 2024. | AFP via Getty Images/Drew Angerer | | | | | DEMOCRACY DIES IN BILLIONAIRE PUBLISHERS HEDGING THEIR BETS: Days after Los Angeles Times’ owner PATRICK SOON-SHIONG blocked the paper’s editorial board from endorsing a presidential candidate, the Washington Post is following suit, NPR’s DAVID FOLKENFLIK reports. “We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” WaPo publisher and CEO WILL LEWIS wrote in a note on the paper’s website. The last time the Post did not endorse a presidential candidate in the general election was 1988. Folkenflik reports that a KAMALA HARRIS endorsement had been written by editorial page staffers and prepped to publish before the paper’s owner, JEFF BEZOS, killed it. Colleagues told NPR that Bezos chose Lewis in part for his ability to schmooze with powerful conservative figures, including conservative media kingpin RUPERT MURDOCH. MARTY BARON, the former executive editor at the Post, wrote on X that the decision is “cowardice, with democracy as its casualty,” adding that DONALD TRUMP “will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner @jeffbezos,” and characterizing it as “Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.” WaPo editor at large ROBERT KAGAN, a conservative and consistent critic of Trump, resigned Friday following the decision. OLIVER DARCY, who, like Folkenflik, is a media reporter who’s unafraid to challenge the more powerful people in the industry, reports in his Status newsletter that executive editor MATT MURRAY was "confronted during a meeting by his own furious news staff” and told them he only found out about it all Thursday night. Of these billionaire publishers prioritizing their personal interests over their newspaper’s credibility with readers, Darcy writes: “Instead of sounding the alarm about the Adolf Hitler-praising candidate who publicly talks about jailing Americans who speak out against him, they have chosen to self-sensor. Trump hasn't even been elected to office yet and the powerful have already chosen to bow to pressure. Which raises an important question: What will happen if Trump actually ascends once again to the White House? How far will they bend the knee?” TEXAS HOLD ‘EM: In just a few hours, Vice President Harris will rally supporters in deep-red Texas, one of the Republican-controlled states that has felt the impact of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. While in the Lone Star state, Harris plans to warn that if Trump is elected again, abortion restrictions like the ones seen in Texas could spread nationwide, our MEGAN MESSERLY and EUGENE DANIELS report. “Texas is the stage and the audience is the battlegrounds,” a senior campaign official said. “It definitely arrests people’s attention in a way that is hard to do by just going back to another battleground at this point in the cycle. This is our strategic way to break through the news.” Key to breaking through will be appearances by Houston natives BEYONCÉ and WILLIE NELSON (!!!!), both of whom are likely to sing a few songs about Harris’ central campaign theme of freedom. SURPRISE, SURPRISE: A new New York Times/Siena College poll — the final one of the cycle (hooray!) — found Vice President Harris and Donald Trump knotted up at 48 percent each. In the same poll taken in early October, the vice president had a slight lead — 49 percent to 46 percent — as the Times national polling average has registered a tightening race over the past several weeks. Several grafs down, the write up of the poll notes that the 9 percent of Americans who say they have already voted lean heavily towards Harris — 59 percent to 40 percent — adding that it’s, “consistent with the advantage Democrats have historically had in early voting and mail voting, though there are signs this year that Republicans, unlike in 2020, are casting early ballots in unusually heavy numbers.” HANG IT IN THE LOUVRE: In the sports world, STEPHEN A. SMITH has been honed into a lethal machine, leveraging his loud mouth to become the leading voice of the new era of hot-take sports journalism. So, for better or for worse, he took his talents to SEAN HANNITY and Fox News. As one X user acutely put it, “unleashing him upon political coverage is like letting a leopard out at a petting zoo.” He may have cooked.
|  | WHAT WILMINGTON WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by our MERIDITH McGRAW, who reports that more than a dozen former Donald Trump administration officials on Friday came out in support of former chief of staff JOHN KELLY , who went on the record this week saying his former boss fits the bill of a fascist, would govern like a dictator and has no concept of the Constitution. In a new letter, shared exclusively with POLITICO, the former Trump administration officials — some of whom have been outspoken Trump critics for years — stated, “this is who Donald Trump is.” “The revelations General Kelly brought forward are disturbing and shocking. But because we know Trump and have worked for and alongside him, we were sadly not surprised by what General Kelly had to say,” the letter states. Campaign director of rapid response AMMAR MOUSSA and spokesperson JAMES SINGER shared the piece on X.
| | | HELLO DARKNESS, MY OLD FRIEND: President Biden views a potential Harris victory this November as key to his presidential legacy. But as Eli and our JONATHAN LEMIRE report, in the final days of a hard-fought race, he has little role in the campaign. Biden’s scattershot travel and focus on legacy-burnishing policy accomplishments has left his events largely overshadowed by Harris and others playing a larger surrogate role on the trail. Biden and Harris have appeared at official events together in recent weeks, but they’ve made only two joint campaign appearances away from the White House. After the August Democratic convention, Biden signaled he would be open to doing whatever the Harris team needed from him — even if privately, he’s said he thinks he could do more. He will campaign in Pittsburgh on Saturday but it’ll be a solo show while Harris stumps with MICHELLE OBAMA in Michigan. “It’s not about Biden’s feelings. It’s about winning. And the Harris campaign is being very strategic about how they use the president,” said CORNELL BELCHER, a Democratic pollster who worked on BARACK OBAMA’s presidential campaigns. “Harris’ whole pitch is ‘a new way forward,’” Belcher added. “If Biden is on the main stage with her at rallies, it just brings back a conversation that is not ‘forward.’ And that would be a mistake.” INDIAN COUNTRY APOLOGY: Biden’s visit to the Gila River Indian Community outside of Phoenix on Friday was historic, as the president spoke about and formally apologized for the atrocities the government committed against Indigenous children and their families during a 150-year era of forced federal Native American boarding schools. “I say this with all sincerity: This, to me, is the one of the most consequential things I've ever had the opportunity to do in my whole career as president of the United States,” said Biden, who, as we wrote in May, has used his time in office to highlight several darker, lesser-known aspects of American history. Accompanying the president in Arizona was Interior Secretary DEB HAALAND, the country’s first Native American Cabinet member, who commissioned an investigation of the forced boarding era, which impacted her own grandparents. WHITE HOUSE TOUR GETS A MAKEOVER: When first lady JILL BIDEN first arrived at the White House, she was not impressed by the public tours, WaPo’s ROXANNE ROBERTS reports. “They weren’t dynamic,” the first lady told Roberts in an interview. After months of work, the first lady has finally unveiled a revamped public tour that includes interactive digital technology, educational displays and access to rooms that were previously off-limits to visitors. The old tour only allowed visitors to take a quick look into the White House rooms. Under the revamped tour, they can “step inside each space and see, hear and touch,” Roberts writes. The newly opened Diplomatic Reception Room, where FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT gave his fireside chats to the nation, includes an audio recording of one of those addresses. In the Blue Room, people can run their fingers over copies of marble busts and antique embroidery. And in the East Room, a large video screen of President Biden in front of the portraits of GEORGE and MARTHA WASHINGTON greets tourists.
| | PERSONNEL MOVES: ELIZABETH VERARDO is now a director at the National Security Council. She most recently was a White House fellow. — BEATRIX EVANS is now deputy White House liaison at the Department of Commerce. She most recently was White House liaison at AmeriCorps. — LAURA CRESSEY is now acting deputy assistant secretary for regional security in the Bureau of Political Military Affairs at the State Department.
| | A FOR EFFORT: The Biden administration is expanding its proposed student loan forgiveness regulation to include debt relief for people experiencing financial hardship — despite ongoing litigation preventing the rule from being executed, WaPo’s DANIELLE DOUGLAS-GABRIEL reports. On Friday, the Education Department released a proposal that would authorize loan forgiveness for approximately 8 million borrowers experiencing hardship preventing them from paying their debt, such as unexpected medical bills or caring for loved ones with chronic illnesses. In the latest in a series of back-and-forths with federal and state courts, this proposal is likely to face steep legal challenges.
| | Harris’ secret weapon to unlock the Rust Belt (POLITICO’s Holly Otterbein) Elon Musk’s Secret Conversations With Vladimir Putin (WSJ’s Thomas Grove, Warren P. Strobel, Aruna Viswanatha, Gordon Lubold and Sam Schechner) ‘A civic disappointment’: Fallout continues after Los Angeles Times chooses not to endorse (Semafor’s Max Tani)
| | Although not technically president at the time, in 1960, JOHN F. KENNEDY appeared on “The Tonight Show” with JACK PAAR while on the campaign trail. Kennedy, then a 40-something charming senator from Massachusetts, turned the focus of Paar’s typically light-hearted show to some of the world’s largest issues. “The United States is really the only guardian at the gate against the communist advance,” Kennedy said. “The responsibility is heavy on us.” 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 and Rishika Dugyala. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
