Presented by The American Petroleum Institute (API)
Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With Allie Bice.
Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina
President JOE BIDEN is flying to Michigan on Tuesday to build support for his bipartisan infrastructure and social spending packages, including from one key resident who is not yet on board.
Rep. ELISSA SLOTKIN, a moderate Democrat first elected in 2018, will be among the local dignitaries to meet Biden at the airport. She is also planning to attend his speech at an International Union of Operating Engineers training facility in Howell, a town smack dab in the middle of her southeastern Michigan congressional district. DONALD TRUMP won the district by less than 1 percent in 2020, though Biden narrowly won the state.
Slotkin, a former CIA analyst, has been on record in favor of passing the BIF, as the infrastructure package is known, and then negotiating out the rest of the president’s Build Back Better proposals that Democrats are looking to pass through budget reconciliation.
“She’s said many times that she’s open to supporting the reconciliation package if it can make a real difference in Michigan and if it’s fiscally responsible — but she is not a guaranteed ‘yes’ and that’s exactly what she’ll tell the president tomorrow,” one of her aides told West Wing Playbook.
The Michigan Democrat is focusing on the child care provisions in the reconciliation bill, her office said.
Officially, the White House says Biden is traveling to Howell to “continue rallying public support for his bipartisan infrastructure bill and Build Back Better agenda, which will grow our economy by investing in working families, paid for by repealing tax giveaways to the rich.”
“We're going to a state and a part of the state that could benefit from all of these packages because they're hugely popular,” said White House press secretary JEN PSAKI. “Whether you're Democrat, a Republican, an independent, people don't think of their roads as partisan for good reason, nor do they think [that] their childcare is partisan.”
But — and let’s be real here — Biden is choosing his stops purposefully. An old-school pol, he knows the value that comes with a presidential visit to an on-the-fence member’s home turf. In fact, Tuesday’s trip is also part of a larger effort to send the president into congressional districts represented by vulnerable Democratic incumbents, according to a Democratic National Committee aide. In July, the president visited a Trump county in Illinois Rep. Lauren Underwood’s district in the Chicago suburbs. Underwood and Slotkin are both on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s list of “frontline” members, whose seats the party is working to protect in the 2022 midterms.
Think of it as a “Don’t Ever Take Sides Against The Family'' approach. Biden may be seeing a serious dip in his approval ratings. There are several parts of his agenda that are "popular in swingier areas," the DNC aide said, citing policies like lowering the cost of healthcare and tax cuts for the middle class.
The economy continues to be a top priority for Michigan voters. The state’s unemployment rate hit an astounding 24 percent in April 2020, with the country shut down from the Covid-19 pandemic. As of August 2021, the unemployment rate had dropped to 4.7 percent, according to the Detroit Free Press. But the Detroit Regional Chamber released a poll last month that found nearly 58 percent of voters in the state thought the economy in Michigan was on the wrong track.
While trying to woo Slotkin, the president will also be looking to bolster another key Democrat — Michigan Gov. GRETCHEN WHITMER, who played a prominent public role in the early pandemic fight and was on Biden’s VP short list.
“Michigan’s governorship really swings based on who’s in the White House. I know there’s probably some political calculus for the governor there as well,” said ANDREA BITELY, a Republican strategist in Michigan.
But Democratic operatives also have a, well, darker rationale for why Biden is, and should continue to be, making these trips. In an evenly split (or near evenly split) Senate, having a Democratic governor is an insurance policy should there be a Senate vacancy in the state.
“I would not be surprised to see the president go to places like Maryland and Massachusetts, where we have Republican governors and Democratic senators. Anything happens to senators, we lose control of the Senate because of Republican governors,” Democratic strategist PETE GIANGRECO said. “I think the gubernatorial politics on Senate appointments is always hanging around. Gretchen is really, really important for a lot of people for a lot of reasons.”
Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you video producer MELANIE DURAN?
We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous: [email protected].
Or if you want to stay really anonymous send us a tip through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram, or Whatsapp here.
PRESIDENTIAL TRIVIA
This question is courtesy of reader KEVIN WHITEHEAD — how many presidents also had or have PhD’s? Bonus points if you can name names!
(Answer at the bottom.)
The Oval
PALM SPRINGS MYSTERY — Vice President KAMALA HARRIS flew to Palm Springs Friday evening and then returned Saturday. Her husband DOUG EMHOFF, meanwhile, was campaigning in Virginia for TERRY McAULIFFE on Saturday.
A White House official told West Wing Playbook that “the Vice President traveled to Palm Springs for a private family matter. She left Friday evening and returned Saturday afternoon.”
DOUG’S OLD STOMPING GROUNDS: DLA Piper, the law firm that second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF was a partner in until leaving after last November’s election, has become an agent for King ABDULLAH II of Jordan, Reuters reports. According to the contract, DLA Piper “may advise on public relations strategies and may engage in communications on behalf of the foreign principal with members of the U.S. media." The firm has done a lot of foreign agency work preceding the Biden administration.
THE BUREAUCRATS
PARTING WORDS — HAROLD KOH, a senior adviser and the only political appointee on the State Department’s legal team, is leaving his post, Alex and ALEXANDER WARD report. In a memo dated Oct. 2nd, he wrote of his disapproval of the Biden administration’s use of a Trump-era immigration policy known as Title 42, calling it “illegal” and “inhumane.”
“I believe this Administration’s current implementation of the Title 42 authority continues to violate our legal obligation not to expel or return (‘refouler’) individuals who fear persecution, death, or torture, especially migrants fleeing from Haiti,” he wrote, adding that “lawful, more humane alternatives plainly exist.”
PAGING THE SEC: Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.) called on the SEC to investigate “whether top Federal Reserve officials violated insider trading rules last year,” VICTORIA GUIDA reports.
Warren wrote in a letter to SEC chair GARY GENSLER that the recent “reports of this financial activity by Fed officials raise serious questions about possible conflicts of interest and reveal a disregard for the public trust.”
Agenda Setting
RUH ROH — Biden said he could not guarantee that the federal government will not default on debt payments due later this month, putting the onus on Senate Minority Leader MITCH McCONNELL to back Republicans off their strategic obstructions to Democratic attempts to raise the debt limit, NICK NIEDZWIADEK reports.
“I can't believe that will be the end result because the consequence is so dire,” Biden told reporters today after making a speech on the issue from the White House. “I don't believe that. But can I guarantee it? If I could, I would, but I can't.”
Note: West Wing Playbook is making it a policy not to check its 401k this next month.
TRUMP 2.0: U.S. Trade Representative KATHERINE TAI said in a speech today that the Biden administration will reopen talks with China over its failure to comply with the trade deal signed during the Trump administration. Tai stopped short of threatening any new trade actions against China, but confirmed that tariffs Trump imposed on more than $350 billion worth of Chinese goods will stay in place for now, GAVIN BADE writes.
What We're Reading
With Biden’s agenda in the balance, lobbying kicks into high gear (NYT’s Luke Broadwater)
Biden administration reverses Trump rule barring federally funded family planning clinics from abortion referrals (Washington Post’s Amy Goldstein)
Top Vatican Cardinal: Joe Biden should not be denied Communion (America Magazine’s Michael J. O’Loughlin)
Where's Joe
He and first lady JILL BIDEN came back to Washington after a weekend in Wilmington, Del. Aides traveling with the Bidens included: deputy national security adviser DALEEP SINGH and deputy director of Oval Office operations ASHLEY WILLIAMS.
After returning to the White House, the president delivered remarks on the debt ceiling in the State Dining Room. He also met with NATO Secretary General JENS STOLTENBERG to discuss the international security environment and NATO’s ongoing efforts to safeguard Transatlantic defense.
Where's Kamala
She stopped by the Colada Shop, a D.C.-based Cuban café chain, where she met with the owner, DANIELLA SENIOR.
She also ordered lunch from the shop — one seasonal creamy leek and carrot empanada, one Picadillo empanada, one chicken empanada, one picadillo pastelito and one iced café con leche. Yum.
The Oppo Book
OPAL VADHAN, aide to Vice President KAMALA HARRIS, has always had big dreams.
As a kid, she spent “afternoons watching talk shows with my mom and realized I didn’t see anyone who looked like me on TV,” she told Brown Girl Magazine in 2015. So she decided she wanted to become a television host.
“I would always tell people I wanted to be the next Oprah Winfrey,” she confessed.
She had a planned name for the program too: “The Opal Show.”
Original.
Trivia Answer
There has only been one president to hold a PhD — WOODROW WILSON got his doctorate in the history of government from Johns Hopkins University.
AND A CALL OUT — A big thanks to Kevin for sending over this question. Do you have a really hard trivia question about the presidency? Send us your best one and we may use it: [email protected].
We want your trivia, but we also want your feedback. What should we be covering in this newsletter that we’re not? What are we getting wrong? Please let us know.
Edited by Emily Cadei
"pure" - Google News
October 05, 2021 at 05:20AM
https://ift.tt/3mmt3hv
Biden goes Pure Michigan - POLITICO - Politico
"pure" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3d6cIXO
https://ift.tt/35ryK4M
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Biden goes Pure Michigan - POLITICO - Politico"
Post a Comment