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DRIVING THE DAY
This could’ve been a celebratory moment for the White House. President JOE BIDEN finally — finally! — got his bipartisan deal on infrastructure, last week’s trip to Europe went well, the pandemic is easing, the country is opening back up, and a new Fox News poll has his approval rating at 56%.
Instead, the White House spent Friday in cleanup mode after moderate Senate Republicans fumed over Biden’s threat not to sign the bipartisan infrastructure bill unless the much more expensive, partisan-crafted reconciliation bill landed on his desk at the same time.
My colleagues Christopher Cadelago and Natasha Korecki have a readout of the whole messy episode at the White House on Friday: “With Republicans threatening to abandon the deal, STEVE RICCHETTI, one of Biden’s lead negotiators, who a day earlier had been credited by the president for his efforts shepherding the deal, scrambled to contain the fallout on Capitol Hill. Both he and LOUISA TERRELL, the White House top congressional liaison, told the Senators involved in negotiations that Biden was enthusiastic about the deal and would soon hit the road to tout its benefits as well as the merits of bipartisanship. According to two sources familiar with his efforts, Ricchetti told Republicans that the White House was going to clarify the comments.
“A White House official disputed the notion that Ricchetti suggested Biden may have misspoke — an impression that those two sources said was left. The official said that the president’s team anticipated dustups during the early phases of the process and noted that White House press secretary JEN PSAKI several times during Friday’s briefing took a softer tone than Biden did on Thursday.”
Think of it as the “moonwalk” approach to damage control: The White House is trying to walk back without appearing like they’re walking back.
It’s clear that the White House knows they messed this one up. The threat to veto the bipartisan bill hasn’t been repeated by staff or the president since his initial remarks, and a readout of his call with Sen. KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-Ariz.) said “the President also reiterated that he would fight to pass the Bipartisan Agreement, as he committed to the group,” and that he “looks forward to signing both these bills.”
Good Saturday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri.
HARRIS AT THE BORDER — On Friday, during her first trip to the border as VP — coming after months of Republicans pressuring the administration to send her there — KAMALA HARRIS was hit with questions about why it took her so long to arrange a visit. “It was always the plan to come here,” she told reporters yesterday when asked.
— The Texas Tribune’s James Barragán has a good overview of the trip: “Harris, who was accompanied by Department of Homeland Security Secretary ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, U.S. Sen. DICK DURBIN, D-Ill., and U.S. Rep. VERONICA ESCOBAR, D-El Paso, visited the El Paso Border Patrol station and the El Paso del Norte Port of Entry, and met with representatives of non-governmental organizations that help immigrants during her four-hour trip to the border city. Inside the border facility, Harris met with five immigrant girls who ranged in age from 9 to 16, according to her staff. Harris then told reporters that migrants don’t want to leave their homes and do so because they are ‘fleeing some type of harm.’”
— From El Paso, CNN’s Jeremy Diamond reports that Harris “accomplished what she came here to achieve: release months of pressure on her to visit the southern border while avoiding igniting any new controversies. … At each of her three stops in El Paso, Harris and her team seemed intent on dutifully going through the motions of an official visit to the border while seeking to create as little noise as possible.”
Though the choice to visit El Paso rather than the Rio Grande Valley was met with criticism from conservatives, SYMONE SANDERS, Harris’ senior adviser and chief spokesperson, says they chose El Paso because it was the “birthplace” of the Trump administration’s family separation policy.
— But here, too, they found themselves in a delicate balance. As Cleve Wootson at WaPo put it: “Harris [faced] sharp criticism from Republicans who claim White House immigration policies are too lax as well as critiques from liberal advocates who argue President Biden is continuing the harsh policies of his predecessor.”
The administration is expected to release a strategy into dealing with the “root causes” of immigration in the coming weeks, and has said that both the trip to Guatemala and trip to the border will inform whatever they come up with.
BIDEN’S SATURDAY — The president has nothing on his public schedule.
HARRIS’ SATURDAY — The VP is in Los Angeles and has nothing on her public schedule.
PLAYBOOK READS
THE WHITE HOUSE
BIDEN MEETS WITH AFGHAN LEADERS — “Biden vows ‘sustained’ help as Afghanistan drawdown nears,” by AP’s Eric Tucker, Ben Fox and Aamer Madhani: “Afghan President ASHRAF GHANI and ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, chair of the High Council for National Reconciliation, met at the Pentagon with Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN before their sit-down with Biden at the White House later in the afternoon. While Biden vowed that the U.S. was committed to assisting Afghanistan, he also insisted that it was time for the American military to step back.”
POLICY CORNER
UFOS EXIST, WITH AN EMPHASIS ON THE ‘U’ — “Government report can’t explain UFOs, but offers no evidence of aliens,” by Bryan Bender and Andrew Desiderio: “The report — the government’s first unclassified assessment in half a century — does not offer any definitive answers on who or what may be operating a variety of aircraft that, in some cases, appear to defy known characteristics of aerodynamics, and that officials believe pose a threat to national security and flight safety. …
“The Pentagon, assisted by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, found no evidence to indicate that they mark a technological breakthrough by a foreign adversary, or that the objects are of an extraterrestrial origin — though neither explanation has been ruled out in what has been described as a preliminary assessment that lacks sufficient data.”
FRANCE JOINS IN U.S. COLD WAR WITH CHINA — “France and U.S. Agree on the Perils of a Rising China, Blinken Says,” by NYT’s Roger Cohen: “Secretary of State ANTONY J. BLINKEN, speaking in an interview after a meeting with President EMMANUEL MACRON of France, said the United States and France were ‘on the same page’ in their determination to resist the possibility of a Chinese-led world order that would be ‘profoundly illiberal in nature.’ …
“The alternative, [Blinken] suggested, was either no order — a world of chaos that ‘inevitably leads to conflict and that almost inevitably brings us in’ — or Chinese domination. The challenge for democracies was ‘to deliver for their people and hopefully for people around the world’ in order to reinforce a model challenged in recent years by its own internal fractures and by rising autocracies. ‘And I found that President Macron was thinking in exactly the same way and focused on the need to bring practical results,’ Mr. Blinken said.”
CONGRESS
FANONE ‘DISAPPOINTED’ AFTER MCCARTHY MEETING — After several weeks, MICHAEL FANONE, an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department who was beaten unconscious by pro-Trump extremists during the Jan. 6 insurrection and suffered a heart attack, was granted a meeting with House GOP Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY on Friday. “He came away disappointed,” reports the NYT’s Luke Broadwater.
— What Fanone wanted from McCarthy: “I asked him to denounce the 21 House Republicans that voted against the Gold Medal bill, recognizing my co-workers and colleagues that fought to secure the Capitol on Jan. 6,” Fanone said. But more than that, Fanone wanted McCarthy to publicly disavow the misinformation some Republicans are spreading about the attack on the Capitol, including “the baseless theory that the F.B.I. was behind the Jan. 6 insurrection,” and and singled out Rep. ANDREW CLYDE’S (R-Ga.) comparison of the insurrection to a tour of the Capitol as an example of GOP revisionism (“I found those remarks to be disgusting,” Fanone said).
— Fanone on McCarthy: “[McCarthy] said he would address it at a personal level, with some of those members. I think that as the leader of the House Republican Party, it’s important to hear those denouncements publicly.”
— Fanone on some Republicans’ blasé attitude about 1/6: “When you’re that obsessed with gaining power that you’re willing to trample over a bunch of police officers, that’s sickening.”
— Capitol Police Officer HARRY DUNN also attended the meeting, and said McCarthy “had committed to the group that, now that Speaker NANCY PELOSI has said she will move to create a select committee to investigate the riot, he would take seriously the appointment of its Republican members.”
THE WORKING POOR OF CAPITOL HILL — “Lots of congressional staffers make ‘poverty wages’ starting in the low $20,000s. 8 Capitol Hill aides break down how they stretch their paychecks to survive in one of the nation’s most expensive cities,” by Insider’s Kristie-Valerie Hoang and Kayla Epstein: “An entire paycheck going to daycare. Vending-machine ice cream for dinner. Tossing hundreds of dollars at a decade’s worth of credit-card debt. Relying on income-assisted housing to keep a roof over their head.
“These are the real-life budgets of Capitol Hill staffers, whose pay starts in the $20,000s to work demanding jobs in one of the most expensive cities in the country. Ambitious young public servants often accept low wages in exchange for the opportunity to work on historic legislation or assist their communities. … We received an outpouring of responses from staffers at all levels who felt compelled to speak up about what they considered a practice that hinders diversity, favors hires from privileged backgrounds, and drives talented minds to lobbying shops.”
POLITICS ROUNDUP
A SIGH OF RELIEF FOR HOUSE DEMS — “House Dems head off retirement crisis — for now,” by Ally Mutnick and Sarah Ferris: “Six Democrats so far have announced they will be leaving the House in 2022, most in swing districts where the lack of an incumbent likely makes it tougher for the party to hold the seat. Rep. CONOR LAMB of Pennsylvania will likely be added to that list, as he's expected to jump into his state’s Senate race later this summer.
“But party strategists say that figure is smaller than they expected, delivering a morale boost for Democrats as they brace for a midterm election that could dismantle their narrow majority. And some swing-seat members in Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida — many of whom were openly mulling futures outside the House — are now expected to stay put. … Democratic lawmakers and aides say their party has so far avoided the worst-case scenario, in which their most battle-tested members jump ship even before the redistricting commences.”
BEYOND THE BELTWAY
CHAUVIN SENTENCING — “Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years in death of George Floyd,” by CNN’s Ray Sanchez and Eric Levenson: “DEREK CHAUVIN, the former police officer who killed GEORGE FLOYD on a Minneapolis street last year, was sentenced Friday to 22 and half years in prison. Chauvin, in a light gray suit and tie and white shirt, spoke briefly before the sentence was imposed, offering his ‘condolences to the Floyd family.’ Under Minnesota law, Chauvin will have to serve two-thirds of his sentence, or 15 years — and he will be eligible for supervised release for the remaining seven and a half years.”
AZ GOP TO STRIP DEM SEC OF STATE OF POWER — “Arizona poised to enact new election restrictions, strip power from Democratic secretary of state,” by WaPo’s Elise Viebeck: “The Arizona House approved new election restrictions late Thursday — including language intended to curb the power of Democratic Secretary of State KATIE HOBBS — in budget legislation that will soon head to the governor’s desk. The Republican measure seeks to stop Hobbs from playing a role in litigation related to state election rules and allows third parties designated by the legislature to flag ineligible voters for removal from the rolls. The bill also imposes new ballot printing requirements and provides funds for election security and post-election recounts.”
TRUMP CARDS
NEW DETAILS ON TRUMP’S RESPONSE TO CIVIL RIGHTS PROTESTS — “Trump Aides Prepared Insurrection Act Order During Debate Over Protests,” by NYT’s Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman: “Responding to interest from President DONALD J. TRUMP, White House aides drafted a proclamation last year to invoke the Insurrection Act in case Mr. Trump moved to take the extraordinary step of deploying active-duty troops in Washington to quell the protests that followed the killing of George Floyd, two senior Trump administration officials said. …
“Trump, enraged by the demonstrations, had told the attorney general, WILLIAM BARR, the defense secretary, MARK T. ESPER, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, Gen. MARK A. MILLEY, that he wanted thousands of active-duty troops on the streets of the nation’s capital, one of the officials said. Mr. Trump was talked out of the plan by the three officials. But a separate group of White House staff members wanted to leave open the option for Mr. Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act to call in the military to patrol the streets of the capital. …
“In a statement to The New York Times, [Trump] denied that he had wanted to deploy active-duty troops. ‘It’s absolutely not true and if it was true, I would have done it,’ Mr. Trump said.”
CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 16 funnies
GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Ryan Lizza:
— “The Sky Thief: Beebo Russell’s Last Flight,” by Tim Dickinson for Rolling Stone: “How did Beebo Russell — a goofy, God-fearing baggage handler — steal a passenger plane from the Seattle-Tacoma airport and end up alone in a cockpit, with no plan to come down?”
— “Can Ketamine-assisted Therapy Break Through Mental Health Roadblocks?” by Rachel Feltman for Popular Science: “When conventional therapy and drugs fail, a new wave of clinics are helping patients get high.”
— “Critical Race Theory: Public Schools are Taking Back Civic Unity,” by National Review’s Michael Brendan Dougherty: “CRT is not just an attack on the American inheritance of political institutions; it is an attack on the social function of public schools.”
— “Culture War in the K-12 Classroom,” by The Nation’s Jennifer Berkshire: “The Trump-era GOP’s insatiable appetite for red-meat issues has led to a wholesale attack on public education.”
— “Forging an Early Black Politics,” by Sean Wilentz for the New York Review: “The pre-Civil War North was a landscape not of unremitting white supremacy but of persistent struggles over racial justice by both Blacks and whites.”
— “He Thought He Could Outfox the Gig Economy. He Was Wrong,” by Lauren Smiley for Wired: “Jeffrey Fang was a ride-hailing legend, a top earner with relentless hustle. Then his minivan was carjacked — with his kids in the back seat.”
— “The Rise of the $10 Million Disc Golf Celebrity,” by David Gardner for The Ringer: “How much can athletes really make in niche sports? A whole lot more than you might think. Disc golfer Paul McBeth set a new standard by signing an eight-figure endorsement contract—and his deal might only be the beginning.”
PLAYBOOKERS
SPOTTED: Joe Scarborough at the Red Sox/Yankees game Friday night.
STAFFING UP — The White House announced several new nominations, including Lisa Carty as U.S. representative on the Economic and Social Council of the U.N. and Ernest DuBester as chair of the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
TRANSITIONS — Jim Simpson will be executive director of the new Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University. He most recently was director of the president’s office and director of advocacy at Sojourners, and is a Capitol Hill alum. … Whitley Alexander is now an account supervisor at Qorvis. She previously was press secretary for Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) and is a Phil Roe alum. …
… Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) is shuffling her press office, with Laura Epstein moving up to be comms director, Anne Feldman joining as deputy comms director from Rep. Jason Crow’s (D-Colo.) office and Sydney Petersen moving up to be press secretary.
WEDDING — Noemie Levy and Graham Gottlieb, via NYT: “She is to begin her internal medicine residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He is now a founder and the executive director of a Palo Alto organization, Mind the Gap, that works to encourage Democrats to vote. On June 6, Marcy S. Friedman, a retired New York Supreme Court justice, officiated virtually at the Warwick Hotel in New York.”
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: WaPo’s Juliet Eilperin … WSJ’s Mike Bender ... Bloomberg’s Emma Kinery ... Airbnb’s Elizabeth Wilner … POLITICO’s Scott Bland ... Brunswick Group’s Dave Brown … Rachel Gantz … Mark Kadesh ... Emily McBride of Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) office … Mark Ritacco ... Emmalee Kalmbach ... Mayer Brown’s Mickey Leibner … Matthew Fery … Carly Hagan … Judy Havemann ... Global Citizen’s Alex Hayden DiLalla ... Julie Norton … King & Spalding’s Preeya Noronha Pinto … former Virginia Gov. Chuck Robb ... Icelandic President Guðni Th. Jóhannesson … Haitian President Jovenel Moise … Ross Baker … Merit’s Trevor Cornwell … new dad Chris Weideman … former Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie … NYT’s Daniel Victor
THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here):
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“This Week”: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) … Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) … Minnesota A.G. Keith Ellison. Panel: Donna Brazile, Yvette Simpson, Sarah Isgur and Ramesh Ponnuru.
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“State of the Union”: Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) … Cedric Richmond.
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“Meet the Press”: Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) … Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Panel: Yamiche Alcindor, Joshua Johnson, Andrea Mitchell and Danielle Pletka.
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“Full Court Press”: Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) … House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.).
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“Face the Nation”: Cedric Richmond … Miami Mayor Francis Suarez … Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) … Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson … Scott Gottlieb.
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“Fox News Sunday”: Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) … Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Quinton Lucas … Cedric Richmond. Panel: Dana Perino, Jonathan Swan and Mo Elleithee. Power Player: Marc Polymeropoulos.
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“The Sunday Show”: Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) … Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) … Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) … Matthew Dowd … Sophia Nelson.
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“Inside Politics”: Panel: Molly Ball, Seung Min Kim, Phil Mattingly, Brittany Shepherd and Jonathan Reiner.
Send Playbookers tips to [email protected]. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike Zapler, deputy editor Zack Stanton and producers Allie Bice, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross.
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