Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers within the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice.
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JILL BIDEN has tried to make the president’s proposed “Cancer Moonshot” initiative a centerpiece of her role as first lady.
The country’s partisan divisions have made the duty difficult.
In February, when the primary lady visited the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, her office invited Republican Gov. RON DESANTIS, a possible 2024 presidential rival, to attend. The middle was where DeSantis’ wife CASEY had recently been treated for breast cancer, an experience she has talked about on the campaign trail this fall.
The governor declined, in accordance with emails shared with West Wing Playbook. An official in DeSantis’ office wrote back: “thanks for the invitation. Unfortunately, the Governor is unable to hitch.” The primary lady visited the middle on Feb. 18 with Dr. NED SHARPLESS, the top of the National Cancer Institute. It was her second cancer-related event within the state.
The primary lady’s office declined to comment.
The primary lady’s interest within the cancer initiative is personal, owing largely to the 2015 death of BEAU BIDEN. She and JOE BIDEN began their work a 12 months later through the Obama administration after which launched the Biden Cancer Initiative in 2017. As president, Biden tried to reignite “Cancer Moonshot” in February but the brand new research agency at the middle of the initiative, often called ARPA-H, received only a fraction of the initial funding sought by the administration, as we reported previously. In September, Biden signed an executive order to “break logjams” on funding and likened the duty to going to the moon.
The Bidens have also discovered that even something as unobjectionable as fighting cancer has not been immune from politics in 2022.
Last month, when the primary lady attended a cancer awareness night on the Philadelphia Eagles’ stadium in her hometown, some fans booed her and shouted, “Let’s go Brandon” (viral clips with fake audio exaggerated the heckles). A couple of people in Biden world told West Wing Playbook they’re bracing for the primary lady to get booed again Wednesday night when she returns to Philly for Game 4 of the World Series as a part of a cancer awareness initiative with MLB.
The primary lady has shown no reluctance to bring her message into tough environs. She recently sat for an prolonged interview with Newsmax. The talk focused on her cancer advocacy, was substantive, and helped her reach a more conservative audience.
However the efforts to succeed in across the aisle haven’t resulted in a wholly de-politicized reception. And the ups-and-downs over the present cancer initiative have turn out to be emblematic of the sharp partisanship that has occasionally caught each Bidens off-guard. They’ve tried to recently engage within the type of partisan barbs that do not all the time come naturally. On Tuesday night at a fundraiser, Biden called DeSantis “Donald Trump incarnate.”
MESSAGE US — Are you RON DESANTIS? We wish to listen to from you! Seriously! And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at [email protected].
This ones from Allie. Which first lady harvested silk from silkworms while within the White House?
(Answer at the underside.)
GEARING UP FOR REELECTION: The president and first lady have been meeting since September with advisers a few potential 2024 reelection bid, WaPo’s MICHAEL SCHERER and TYLER PAGER report. Although he hasn’t made a final decision on running again, Biden maintains he intends to.
SKIMM-PING ON INTERVIEWS: Biden has yet to take a seat for interviews with The Recent York Times, Washington Post, or The Wall Street Journal, so we were impressed when theSkimm newsletter published a Q-and-A with the president Tuesday morning by which he responded to readers’ questions.
It’s not clear how the interview was actually conducted and if Biden or his press team was answerable for the answers. Asked how they verified it was actually the president responding, a spokesperson for Skimm said “I can confirm that these responses for theSkimm’s Q&A were provided by President Joe Biden’s office.” The White House press team publicly has said Biden took the questions.
POTUS BOOK CLUB: When the president boarded Air Force One en route Tuesday to Florida, he was holding JOHN MEACHAM’s book on Lincoln, in accordance with White House press pooler MICHAEL WILNER. Meacham is an occasional Biden speech author.
[THE O.C. THEME SONG VOICE] “CALIFFORNIIIIAA!”: Biden is slated to return to California at the top of the week and plans to take part in a campaign event for Rep. MIKE LEVIN.
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This column by Yahoo! senior columnist RICK NEWMAN with the headline, “Biden has done higher than most voters think.” It notes that “Biden’s day of reckoning could possibly be painful” depending on the severity of midterm election losses. But, “inflation and its dominance as a pocketbook concern obscure some things that Biden has done right since he took office 19 months ago.” Chief of staff RON KLAIN shared the piece, with the intro: “Progress on key challenges.”
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This assessment from Democratic pollster JOHN ANZALONE, who also has served as Biden’s pollster. Anzalone helped conduct a latest Wall Street Journal poll and the paper put it this fashion: “Mr. Anzalone said probably the most concerning matter for Democrats is that independent voters don’t trust the party to handle rising prices. Whichever party is in power, he said, finds that independent voters ‘break against the party when you’ve got economic diagnostics like we’re seeing. End of story, done.’
OUCH: While Biden was moving between spots Tuesday in Florida, the White House pool report noted that “one cop driving a motorbike within the motorcade worn out en path to the venue.” The pooler was checking on the officer’s condition.
ANOTHER COVID CASE: Education Secretary MIGUEL CARDONA tested positive for Covid on Tuesday and is experiencing mild symptoms, our JUAN PEREZ JR. reports for Pros. The president and first lady weren’t close contacts of the secretary, in accordance with the Education Department.
PERSONNEL MOVES: CHRISTINA WILKES is the brand new press secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. She most recently was the press secretary for the General Services Administration.
— JONATHAN “JONNY” POWELL has been named senior adviser and speechwriter for Deputy Secretary of State WENDY SHERMAN, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. Powell most recently was director of speechwriting on the Department of Homeland Security and can be an alum of House Speaker NANCY PELOSI, former Secretary of State JOHN KERRY and former Commerce Secretary PENNY PRITZKER.
THE MONA FAUCI: The Post’s ROXANNE ROBERTS reports that Dr. ANTHONY FAUCI got an early take a look at his portrait that can hang within the National Portrait Gallery. “It’s a video — a stop-motion animation — chronicling his landmark profession through a series of intense drawings that leap out from the screen,” she reports.
POLITICO 15 CONVERSATION: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD spoke to our RYAN HEATH and RENEE KLAHR about what it’s like being a girl in foreign affairs — which sometimes means being the one woman within the room. The total interview, which also includes former USAID administrator GAYLE SMITH, is here.
LARRY, LARRY, ONCE MORE CONTRARY: After Biden on Monday threatened a windfall profit tax on oil firms, LARRY SUMMERS tweeted: “I’m unsure [I] understand the argument for a windfall profits tax on energy firms. In the event you reduce profitability, you’ll discourage investment which is the other of our objective.”
HALLOWEEN ON THE BRAIN: POLITICO’s JOSH GERSTEIN reports that D.C. Circuit Judge JUSTIN WALKER had a notable hypothetical Tuesday morning. He heard arguments on Trump appointee ROGER SEVERINO’s lawsuit protesting Biden firing him from a board that advises federal agencies on how one can improve their operations (more context here).
“If it’s something much more protective than for-cause removal, then the one way I suppose to remove mean let’s say, a serial killer from the council can be either something like impeachment, and even worse — no approach to remove a serial killer,” Walker said.
Saudi Arabia, U.S. on High Alert After Warning of Imminent Iranian Attack (WSJ’s Dion Nissenbaum)
Refund Checks Arrive for Student Loan Borrowers Who Paid During Pandemic (Bloomberg’s Ella Ceron and Claire Ballentine)
The Axios News Shapers discussion on Nov. 2 starting at 8:15 a.m. EST. A number of the guests include White House senior adviser ANITA DUNN and White House deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president, JEN O’MALLEY DILLON.
LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS took care of silkworms while within the White House.
She “found solace in caring for [them],” in accordance with the White House Historical Association. “On June 23, 1828, President JOHN QUINCY ADAMS wrote in his day by day diary that ‘Mrs. Adams is winding silk from several hundred silkworms that she has been rearing.’ Using these silkworms, which grew on mulberry trees on the White House Grounds, she harvested silk and used it in her own sewing projects.”
A CALL OUT — Do you’re thinking that you’ve got a harder trivia query? Send us your best one in regards to the presidents with a citation and we may feature it.
Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.