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In the primary months of his presidency, JOE BIDEN vented his frustration about Vice President KAMALA HARRIS, telling a friend that she was “a piece in progress.”
In line with an upcoming book concerning the Biden presidency obtained by West Wing Playbook, “The Fight of His Life,” word got back to him that second gentleman DOUGLAS EMHOFF had been complaining about Harris’ policy portfolio — which her allies felt was hurting her politically. “Biden was annoyed,” wrote creator CHRIS WHIPPLE, who obtained extensive access to Biden administration officials while writing the book. “He hadn’t asked Harris to do anything he hadn’t done as vp — and he or she’d begged him for the voting rights project.”
Biden wasn’t alone. A senior White House adviser vented that “[Harris’] inner circle didn’t serve her well within the presidential campaign — and so they are ill-serving her now.”
The brand new details of the tensions between the vp and the president are amongst the numerous revelations within the book due out on Jan. 17 that traces the highs and lows of Biden’s first two years.
“I believe Biden’s presidency is essentially the most consequential of my lifetime,” Whipple said in an interview. “His legislative record is comparable to LBJ’s and he’s been underestimated every step of the best way. Nevertheless it’s also been a tale of two presidencies –- the primary 12 months and the second 12 months.
“What makes this such a fantastic story is that Joe Biden and his team really turned it throughout, I believe,” he said, citing the administration’s response to Russia’s war against Ukraine and the resuscitation of the Construct Back Higher package.
Whipple previously wrote a well–reviewed history of White House chiefs of staff, “The Gatekeepers.” His latest book features extensive interviews with Biden’s current chief of staff, RON KLAIN, whom he credits with “patient, nose-to-the-grindstone stewardship.” The book also includes quotes from others within the president’s inner-circle, although Whipple acknowledges the White House approached the book with its usual wariness toward reporters.
“It was tough, because, as you well know, that is essentially the most battened-down, disciplined, leak-proof White House in modern times,” he told West Wing Playbook. His interviews with top senior staff were done on deep background, with quote approval, he said. And Biden and Harris only agreed to reply questions submitted in writing. (Whipple wrote that Harris declined to reply an issue he sent about “turmoil and morale problems amongst your staff going back to your time as California attorney general,” and an issue asking about her worst day as vp.)
Despite such pre-conditions, Whipple’s book is plenty revealing. White House spokesperson ROBYN PATTERSON said in a press release: “We respect that there can be no shortage of books written concerning the administration containing a wide range of claims. We don’t plan to interact in confirmations or denials in relation to the specifics of those claims. The creator didn’t give us a likelihood to confirm the materials which are attributed here.”
Listed below are among the revelations that caught our attention:
Ricchetti’s disappointment about not being chief of staff
After Biden selected Klain as chief of staff, STEVE RICCHETTI, counselor to the president, confided to a friend: “I really like Ron like a brother. But I believe I’d have been the more sensible choice.”
Trump’s letter to Biden
DONALD TRUMP followed a practice carried out by several of his predecessors and wrote Biden a letter before leaving the Oval Office. Biden’s response? “That was very gracious and generous…Shockingly gracious.”
Panetta vs. Klain
The book captures Klain’s anger at the private and non-private critiques of Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan by LEON PANETTA, the previous chief of staff to BILL CLINTON who also served as CIA director and defense secretary under BARACK OBAMA.
Panetta compared the exit to JOHN KENNEDY’s handling of the Bay of Pigs, and he told Whipple he wondered “whether people were telling the president what he desired to hear.”
Klain shot back after being shown those comments. “Joe Biden didn’t pay a trillion dollars to those people to be trained to be the military. He wasn’t on the market saying for years, as Leon was, that we had built a viable fighting force. Leon favored the war. Leon oversaw the training of the Afghan army,” he told Whipple. “He was CIA director and defense secretary when lots of the Afghan troops were trained. If this was Biden’s Bay of Pigs, it was Leon’s army that lost the fight.”
Afghanistan blame game
Whipple wrote that Biden “felt let down by his briefers” when it got here to Afghanistan. The book includes several on-the-record interviews with top officials pointing fingers at each other over the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
- Secretary of State TONY BLINKEN said that the elemental problem was that “the worst-case prediction for the failure of the Afghan government and the safety forces, throughout the spring and into the early summer, was eighteen months–plus … Throughout this whole process there was an intelligence assessment that proved to be improper: that the Afghan government and security forces would remain in place and hold on to the key cities well into the next 12 months.”
- When CIA Director BILL BURNS was asked if he thought the outcomes stemmed from an intelligence failure, he told Whipple: “I don’t imagine it was. I believe we and the intelligence community did an honest, straightforward job of declaring the frailties — of the Afghan political leadership, especially, but additionally the Afghan military and the increasing momentum of the Taliban.” All of this, Burns said, was communicated to Biden, Whipple wrote.
- That prompted a senior White House aide to hit back. “Bill can point to things that said, ‘it’s possible that X will occur,’ right? In a twenty-page document, ‘it’s possible that X will occur’ in a single line,” the senior aide told Whipple. “However the overwhelming weight of the fabric provided to the president was that the Taliban would take these rural areas quickly, and it could be an extended time before they might launch an assault on major cities, let alone Kabul itself.”
- After which MARK MILLEY, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the 18-month worst-case scenario wasn’t what he recalled. “The intelligence I saw predicted months,” he said. “So we leave the country in August — and in an affordable, worst-case scenario it’s a Thanksgiving, Christmas, January timeframe when things crumble. I believe the intelligence was very, excellent. The one exception was that nobody predicted 11 days.”
Klain reads West Wing Playbook!
On Election Day this 12 months, ELI and ALEX reported a story for West Wing Playbook that included administration officials critiquing Klain’s performance. Whipple reports that at 1:16 a.m. on election night, because it became clear Biden would defy the pundits (again), Klain sent him an email: “Possibly we don’t suck as much as people thought… Like perhaps the nattering negatives who dumped to POLITICO were improper!”
Possibly they were! Call me, perhaps? We’d love to speak. Regardless, thanks for reading, Mr. Klain. [email protected] if you should chat!
MESSAGE US — Are you HARIS TALWAR, the White House regional communications director? We wish to listen to from you. Email us at [email protected]
This one is from Allie. Who was president when the primary Christmas tree was placed within the Blue Room on the State Floor, where modern presidencies keep the official White House Christmas tree?
(Answer at the underside.)
ZELENSKYY INCOMING: Ukraine’s president, VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, is planning to handle a joint session of Congress on Wednesday and appear with President Biden on the White House, our JONATHAN LEMIRE and OLIVIA OLANDER confirm. The trip, which could still be canceled over security concerns, could be Zelenskyy’s first outside his country’s borders since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion. The administration plans to announce the delivery of a Patriot missile battle system to assist Ukraine with its air defenses, in accordance with two people conversant in the plans. The visit was first reported by Punchbowl News.
BLAME GAME: Biden plans to carry incoming Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU personally liable for the actions of his far-right Cabinet appointees, especially in the event that they advance policies that might endanger a future Palestinian state, our NAHAL TOOSI reports. “Bibi says he can control his government, so let’s see him just do that,” one U.S. official said. The strategy underscores the growing fragility of the U.S.-Israeli relationship.
ANOTHER NYT WALKOUT LOOMING?: In his latest all staff email, deputy managing editor CLIFFORD LEVY urged the Latest York Times guild to reconsider management’s proposal to herald an outdoor mediator to resolve the impasse over wages and other matters. The guild, in an email to members announcing a town hall set for Wednesday, dismissed that proposal, saying it “isn’t appropriate at this stage of negotiations.” Levy, in his note sent at 4:31 p.m. Tuesday, said he’s “confused” by the guild’s refusal to think about a mediator. So it’s going well. Newsroom sources told West Wing Playbook that the guild is starting to gauge member support for a second walkout after the vacations.
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: The U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday that three of each 4 latest mail trucks being purchased — largely with funding from the Inflation Reduction Act – can be electric. And by 2026, 100% of recent trucks can be electric vehicles, the Washington Post’s JACOB BOGAGE scooped. That’s an enormous acceleration within the organization’s timeline for replacing its fleet of 30-year-old trucks with EVs and a serious boost to Biden’s climate goals.
JOHN PODESTA, who Biden has tasked with implementing his climate initiatives, suggested the shift can be a boon for domestic EV manufacturers and will spur USPS’ competitors, like UPS and FedEx, to hasten their very own efforts toward carbon-neutral fleets. The Office of Management and Budget shared the article from its official Twitter account.
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This Fox News report by JOSEPH A. WULFSOHN that details the seven interviews Biden did this 12 months: “His first was the pre-Super Bowl sit-down with NBC’s LESTER HOLT in early February. He waited until June, over 4 months, to do an off-camera interview with the Associated Press. The next month, Biden sat down with Israeli anchor YONIT LEVI of Channel 12. He then waited until September before doing an interview with CBS News’ SCOTT PELLEY that aired on ‘60 Minutes.’
“In October, in the ultimate stretch ahead of the 2022 midterms, Biden did interviews with CNN’s JAKE TAPPER, MSNBC host and Washington Post columnist JONATHAN CAPEHART, and Nexstar’s RESHAD HUDSON.”
NEW YEAR PLANS: The president is ready to travel to Mexico City to attend the North American Leaders’ Summit Jan. 9-10, the White House announced Tuesday. Biden can also be considering a visit to Nagasaki, Japan with Prime Minister FUMIO KISHIDA during a G-7 summit in May, a potentially historic move as no sitting president has visited the town. Nagasaki and Hiroshima were each cities the U.S. bombed in 1945. The summit can be hosted in Hiroshima. Reuters has more.
CLEAR THE CALENDAR: Speaking of travel, Vice President Kamala Harris told NPR’s ASMA KHALID that having to be in D.C. in case she was needed to interrupt a tie within the Senate “had an actual impact on the power to then plan any form of travel, be it domestic or international.” That’s all going to vary in the brand new Congress. “Which may look like a secular fact, but it surely actually can be an enormous difference when it comes to how I’m capable of do my work as vp,” she said.
THE RESULTS ARE IN: A Punchbowl News poll found that “52 percent of senior Dem staffers on Capitol Hill expect [Transportation Secretary PETE] BUTTIGIEG to be the Democratic Party nominee in 2024 if Biden doesn’t run … Next is KAMALA HARRIS (39 percent), followed by GRETCHEN WHITMER (38 percent), then GAVIN NEWSOM (29 percent),” Washington Examiner’s KATHERINE DOYLE summarizes. Respondents were capable of select their top two picks.
PERSONNEL MOVES: SUBHAN CHEEMA is the brand new communications director for the Office of Science and Technology Policy, a White House spokesperson confirmed to West Wing Playbook. Cheema previously worked on the White House Covid-19 response team, where he was deputy director for strategic communications and external engagement.
PUTTING IT BLUNTLY: While meeting rally goers on Nov. 4, Biden told one attendee the Iran nuclear deal “is dead” but that the administration was not “going to announce it,” in accordance with a video posted to Twitter on Tuesday. “Long story,” the president added. It’s essentially the most clear indication of the status of negotiations, because the administration had hoped to revive the 2015 deal but talks stalled. Axios’ BARAK RAVID and HANS NICHOLS have the story.
Suspense builds at border over way forward for US asylum rules (AP’s Morgan Lee, Giovanna Dell’orto and Rebecca Santana)
How Diane Foley Made It Her Mission to Prioritize U.S. Hostages Overseas (NYT’s Peter Baker)
The primary Christmas tree was placed within the Blue Room in 1912, when WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT was president. But he didn’t put up the tree.
In line with the White House Historical Association, “the Taft children — ROBERT, HELEN, and CHARLIE — placed the primary tree. [President] Taft and First Lady HELEN TAFT were away on a visit to Panama.”
A CALL OUT — Do you think that you could have a harder trivia query? Send us your best one concerning the presidents with a citation and we may feature it.
Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.