| | | | |  | | 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 and Harris campaign. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren A week that seemed at first to threaten JOE BIDEN’s legacy and the electoral chances of his designated successor instead ended with the president taking a metaphorical victory lap in the briefing room. The dockworkers strike that endangered the country’s economy was settled Thursday night. And on Friday morning, at 8:30 a.m. on the dot, chief of staff JEFF ZIENTS informed the senior aides gathering in his West Wing office for their daily morning meeting that the September jobs report beat expectations — by an astounding 100,000 jobs. A White House facing three serious crises all week, suddenly, was mulling the best way for Biden to tout these successes. The president himself had recently expressed an eagerness to appear in the briefing room. And so when aides presented him with the option of doing so on Friday afternoon, he quickly agreed. “We’ve proven them wrong,” the president crowed, after entering the room to audible gasps, during his 15 minutes at the podium. He was referencing critics of the pandemic relief in the 2021 American Rescue Plan and putting his economic record in a broader context. “We’ve gone from an economy in crisis to literally having the strongest economy in the world,” he said. That robust economy — and the avoiding of a prolonged work stoppage at ports that could have threatened it — offer a lift for Vice President KAMALA HARRIS as she enters the final weeks of an incredibly close presidential campaign. But Biden’s defiant triumphalism, just months after an intra-party revolt forced him to abandon his bid for a second term, was also a defense of his entire presidency. “It really is a week where the president's leadership, his experience and his steady hand drove strong results,” Zients said in an interview with West Wing Playbook. This account of how the president and his team juggled the week’s various crises is based on conversations with four administration officials, who were granted anonymity to share previously unreported details about a frenetic but ultimately fruitful five days inside the West Wing. Biden, who made clear last weekend he wouldn’t intervene to settle a strike, called ILA leader HAROLD DAGGETT on Monday night to convey that he had workers’ backs, just as Zients and NEC director LAEL BRAINARD were pushing the U.S. Maritime Alliance to put a better deal on the table. On Tuesday, Biden and Harris spent several hours in the White House Situation Room, receiving updates from Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN and CENTCOM Commander Gen. MICHAEL KURILLA, who briefed attendees as Iranian missiles struck Israel, noting how U.S. air defense was helping to minimize the impact. Biden, at various points, left the room for brief updates from aides monitoring the dockworkers’ strike. As he left the Situation Room, Biden also instructed aides to arrange a call with G-7 leaders for Wednesday morning to coordinate a joint response to any escalation in the Middle East. That evening, Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG spoke by phone with local officials in states impacted by Hurricane Helene who expressed concern that the dockworkers’ strike could further slow recovery efforts. When that was relayed to the president Wednesday morning, he became more “worked up,” according to one of the officials in close contact with the president. A short while later, when Biden arrived at Joint Base Andrews, he made a point of speaking with reporters on the tarmac before boarding Air Force One to tour damage from what he said was an “incredibly consequential natural disaster” in North Carolina, before connecting it to the port strike. “We cannot afford a man-made disaster on top of a natural disaster,” he said. With Biden away, Zients, Buttigieg, Brainard and Acting Labor Secretary JULIE SU continued to coordinate efforts to resolve the strike. Following Biden’s support for workers’ right to collective bargaining and his public calls for global shipping conglomerates to share more of their huge profits, Zients wanted to arrange a Zoom call with the six global shipping CEOs, not simply U.S.-based executives, for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. When aides explained the complications of those CEOs being in different time zones, spread across Europe and Asia, plans were shuffled and a call was arranged for 5:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday. As Zients and others outlined the potential impact from a prolonged strike on the call, the CEOs grew receptive to the White House’s proposal for a stopgap agreement and the parties agreed on a goal of resolving the strike by the end of the day. Biden, who was briefed on the call before departing for a second day of surveying storm damage in Florida and Georgia, called back from the road throughout the day to ask where things stood. As he was wheels-up from Georgia and headed back to Washington, Zients informed him that he was “80 percent sure” a written agreement was about to be finalized. And, in the end, it was. MESSAGE US — Are you NICK BATTLES, associate director for White House office operations? 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!
| | When was the press secretary position created? (Answer at bottom.)
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President Joe Biden joins the White House press briefing room for the first time since becoming president. | Getty Images/Andrew Harnik | | | | BIDEN SAYS YOLO: As mentioned above, Biden’s appearance on Friday was his first foray into the White House press briefing room, Lauren reports. Biden entered the less than fully packed room to a sea of audible gasps from reporters who had long ago grown resigned to the fact that they might never have the president address them outside of the Christmas party photo line. During a short Q&A with reporters after his opening remarks on the jobs numbers and strike settlement, the president touched on everything from the Middle East, to the election, which he said he’s confident will be “free and fair,” but questioned whether it will be peaceful. Once Biden wrapped — to many reporters’ dismay that he could have taken more questions — some in the room didn’t stay around for the rest of the show. “Briefing is over,” one reporter could be overheard saying as Lael Brainard stepped to the lectern. Two giddy reporters were AFP’s DANNY KEMP and USA Today’s JOEY GARRISON, who could be seen chatting about the surprise appearance towards the back of the room once the full briefing ended. The briefing had been moved up to 2:15 from 2:30, much to the annoyance of many reporters in the room, including NYT's MICHAEL SHEAR, who had to rush over … only to wait another 30 minutes for the briefing to actually begin. But once the president walked out, most in the room agreed the wait was worth it. NINE TO FIVE, WHAT A WAY TO MAKE A LIVIN’: U.S. employers added 254,000 jobs in September, the Labor Department reported Friday — more than 100,000 above many forecasts, our KATY O’DONNELL and SAM SUTTON report. The announcement also showed that unemployment dropped to 4.1 percent, while hourly wages increased at an annual rate of 4 percent. The surprisingly sound numbers put Federal Reserve Chair JEROME POWELL on pace to reduce interest rates by a modest quarter of a point when the central bank holds its next meeting just days after Election Day. As NYT economic reporter TALMON JOSEPH SMITH summed it up: “LMAOOO --- THE US ECONOMY IS INCREDIBLE.” OBAMA WHO? President Biden, who holds some enduring appeal for blue-collar white voters, will travel to Wisconsin and Pennsylvania on Tuesday, press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE announced at Friday’s briefing. While in Milwaukee, the president will discuss his administration’s efforts at replacing lead pipes and creating good-paying jobs. He’ll then travel to the Philadelphia area for a campaign event in support of Sen. BOB CASEY. COMING SOON: President Biden recorded an interview Friday afternoon with SIMON SINEK for his podcast “A Bit of Optimism,” according to the White House. The interview will air later this month.
| | THERE’S JUST SOMETHING ABOUT HIM: A majority of women prefer Vice President Harris over former President DONALD TRUMP, according to a new American University poll, our ELENA SCHNEIDER reports. The poll, shared first with POLITICO, found that Harris is not only leading Trump by 15 percentage points, but they are starting to give her the edge on one of Trump’s strongest issues: the economy. Women trust Harris over Trump to handle inflation and bring down the cost of living. Harris has “eliminated Trump’s advantage on inflation, narrowed it on the economy more generally and widened that gap with women,” said LINDSAY VERMEYEN, who conducted the survey. 44 HITS THE TRAIL: In the final sprint before Election Day, former President BARACK OBAMA will campaign for Vice President Harris next week, our KIERRA FRAZIER reports. Obama will appear at a Thursday fundraiser in the Pittsburgh area, the start of what the campaign says will be a swing-state “blitz” ahead of Nov. 5. Harris was one of Obama’s earliest supporters in 2008, knocking on doors and raising money to help propel the then-Illinois senator. FACE TO FACE: Vice President Harris met with leaders from the Arab American community in Flint, Michigan, on Friday, Reuters’ NANDITA BOSE, ANDREA SHALAL and JEFF MASON report. Participants included leaders from the Muslim advocacy group Emgage, which recently endorsed Harris, the American Task Force on Lebanon, and a long-standing friend of Harris, HALA HIJAZI, who has lost dozens of family members in Gaza. Notably, the leader of the Uncommitted movement, ABBAS ALAWIEH, wrote on X that the group was not invited to the meeting. “We’re hearing @VP will be meeting with Arab + Muslim groups supportive of her campaign,” Alawieh wrote. “@Uncommittedmvmt, though not invited, is glad our pressure is helping yield more engagement.” WHERE SHE’S COMING FROM: Two profiles from two of the country’s best magazine writers dropped on Friday — complementary studies of both of Harris’ parents and how they shaped who she’s become. POLITICO Magazine’s MICHAEL KRUSE goes deep on Harris’ mother, SHYAMALA GOPALAN, who remains “her most significant, most lasting influence.” For as much as Harris references her mom in speeches, she may still be “underselling” the impact she had on her life, Kruse writes. And in the NYT Magazine, ROBERT DRAPER has a look at Harris’ estranged father, the economist DONALD J. HARRIS, who lives just two miles from her residence in Washington but rarely speaks with his daughter. Draper suggests that the distance between father and daughter stems from the family’s breakup when the vice president was a young girl — and, quite possibly, from the fact that they are so much alike. “Both are focused, demanding much of themselves and of others,” Draper writes. “Both can be generous mentors and devoted friends while warily maintaining a zone of privacy from everyone else. Both place a high premium on loyalty. Both can be stubborn.” WHAT WILMINGTON WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by WaPo’s GLENN KESSLER, who fact-checks recent false claims by former President Trump that the Biden administration used FEMA relief money to use on illegal immigrants that “they want to have vote for them.” Kessler writes that in fact, this is false, and that Trump himself did this in 2019 — telling Congress in the middle of hurricane season that it was taking $271 million from Department of Homeland Security programs, including $155 million from the disaster fund, to pay for immigration detention space and temporary hearing locations for asylum seekers who have been forced to wait in Mexico. White House deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES, campaign director of rapid response AMMAR MOUSSA and campaign spokespeople IAN SAMS shared the piece on X. WHAT WILMINGTON DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by CNN’s ROB KUZNIA, NELLI BLACK and KYUNG LAH, who report that TIM WALZ has been a “hands off-leader” as Minnesota governor when it came to seeking accountability for several instances of fraud and mismanagement in his administration. One state audit found that bonus checks intended for frontline workers during the pandemic were handed out to undeserving recipients. Another criticized a state agency for failing to ensure there was no conflict of interest in taxpayer-funded mental health and addiction programs. And the state’s nonpartisan auditor, JUDY RANDALL, told CNN that when confronted with these, and other examples of troubling behavior, some state agencies working under Walz repeatedly minimized or dismissed the allegations. Some agencies headed by Walz’s appointees have responded defensively in recent months to the audits — a dynamic Randall, who has been on the job for 26 years, found surprising.
| | | | PERSONNEL MOVES: SHAUNA RUST is now health policy adviser for Sen. PATTY MURRAY (D-Wash.), our DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. She most recently was senior policy adviser at the Health Resources and Services Administration at HHS. — JAMIE GREEN has been promoted to be digital external engagement director at the EPA, Lippman has also learned. She most recently was digital strategy director at EPA.
| | KEEPING IT BLUNT: As Israel pummeled Gaza with airstrikes last October, ordering the evacuation of over a million Palestinians from the area, a senior Pentagon official delivered a stark warning to the White House, Reuters’ HUMEYRA PAMUK reports. DANA STROUL, then the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East wrote to senior Biden aides that the mass evacuation would be a humanitarian disaster and could violate international law, leading to war crime charges against Israel. MUSK VS. BUTTIGIEG 2028? Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg fact checked ELON MUSK in his X comments section on Friday, after the tech billionaire claimed in a text exchange that FEMA is “shutting down air space” and blocking supplies from getting to affected areas. No one is shutting down the airspace and FAA doesn’t block legitimate rescue and recovery flights,” Buttigieg wrote. “If you’re encountering a problem give me a call.”
| | | | Trump’s false claim of ‘EV mandate’ gains traction in Michigan (POLITICO’s Gavin Bade) The New York Times won’t endorse in local races. A group of prominent journalists aims to fill the gap (CNN’s Brian Stelter) What College GameDay in Berkeley means (Avinash Kunath on Substack)
| | | In 1929, GEORGE AKERSON was appointed to be the first presidential press secretary to President HERBERT HOOVER (who certainly needed one). Akerson served in the position until 1931, when he left to work in Hollywood at Paramount-Publix. 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 | | | | |
