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Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice.
President JOE BIDEN personally addressed “the fight against gun violence” with Chicago Mayor LORI LIGHTFOOT on a tarmac at O’Hare International Airport during a presidential day trip to Illinois Wednesday.
But the mayor’s office said it was “categorically false” that they discussed the need for a federal troop presence in the city, after a reporter raised the idea at the White House briefing Thursday. And local officials are still waiting for details on the federal strike forces the White House has promised Chicago and four other major cities wracked by gun violence in recent months.
The backdrop of Biden’s talk with Lightfoot was a particularly deadly Fourth of July weekend, where 104 people were shot and 19 were killed in Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. At least 13 of those victims were children. According to the Gun Violence Archive, 189 people were killed and 516 were injured in shootings across the country in a 72-hour period that began on Friday, July 2.
Biden’s visit to Illinois came the same day two ATF agents and a Chicago Police officer were shot. Lightfoot’s office told West Wing Playbook she gave the president an update on the ATF agents' medical conditions and thanked him for his support in the city's fight against gun violence.
The president announced on June 23 that his Department of Justice was launching five firearms trafficking strike forces to target gun trafficking corridors in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay area and Washington D.C. over the next 30 days. So the clock is ticking.
White House aides have been in contact with both Lightfoot and Illinois Gov. J.B. PRITZKER’s offices, but details on the strike forces have been remarkably vague, local officials said. The DOJ in its announcement has said the strike forces will “share information and otherwise collaborate across districts where firearms trafficking schemes cross state or jurisdictional boundaries.”
A DOJ spokesperson told West Wing Playbook the strike forces "will launch with specific plans later this month."
At the White House Thursday, press secretary JEN PSAKI said Biden “reiterated” to Lightfoot what the Department of Justice “had announced just a few weeks ago,” that “Chicago is one of the cities that will be the beneficiary of these groups that will go and help them directly crack down on combating [gun] violence and [gun] trafficking.”
The White House also wants local governments to use some of the funds in the American Rescue Plan to hire more police officers and invest in other measures proven to reduce crime. Chicago received $1.9 billion; Cook County received more than $1 billion; and Illinois received an additional $8.13 billion. Biden has also signed executive orders to target gun violence, including strengthening regulations on ghost guns and redirecting community funds to prevent community violence.
Not all of the local dignitaries who met with the president Wednesday in the Chicago suburb of Crystal Lake wanted to talk about the nation’s spike in violent crime, however. Pritzker spoke with Biden about early childhood investments, supporting small businesses, and strengthening the public health system, among other topics, during their private meeting, Pritzker’s office said.
Biden pulled out a pen and pad and took notes on much of what the Democratic governor had to share with him.
Wonder what else is in that notebook ...
Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Do you have access to the notebook Biden was taking notes in? Are you SEAN SAVETT?
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PRESIDENTIAL TRIVIA
With the Partnership for Public Service
JIMMY and ROSALYNN CARTER are the longest-married presidential couple and recently celebrated their 75th anniversary. (Congrats!)
Which pair comes in second place as the longest-married presidential couple?
(Answer at the bottom.)
The Oval
NEVER TWEET — The White House’s Covid Response team caused a minor international incident Wednesday when they tweeted out the Taiwanese flag as part of a graphic about vaccine donations. After the White House deleted the tweet, Taiwan asked its office in Washington to remind the United States not to cause "unnecessary speculation or misunderstanding," according to Reuters.
The White House called it all an “honest mistake” and that the U.S. “remains committed to our one-China policy.”
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Deputy communications director KATE BERNER tweeted out this NPR Morning Edition interview with NOEL KING and Admiral MIKE MULLEN, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations.
“The Pentagon Plans To Support Afghan Forces After U.S. Troops Withdraw,” is the headline. Berner highlighted Mullen saying, “We've expended blood and treasure for over 2 decades. I think it's time to come home."
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: No one from the White House shared this grim Wall Street Journal piece from YAROSLAV TROFIMOV in Kabul about the brain drain happening in Afghanistan as the Taliban advances.
From the piece: Many are packing their bags.
HASIBA EBRAHIMI is already gone. The 24-year-old actress, who embodied modern Afghanistan’s optimistic youth, was raised, like many Afghans, as a refugee in Pakistan and then in Iran. She returned to Kabul in 2014 and has since become a star in the country’s new film industry.
In a video released in November, Ms. Ebrahimi urged young Afghan women not to lose hope: “Everything is hard, but nothing is impossible.” She traveled to Australia soon after—for what she thought would be a short reunion with her New Zealand-based sister. She is still there.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOOOOOOOOU: “I am a terrible singer, but I am willing to lead a song here if you are all game. Who’s with me?” Psaki said at the top of the briefing today today, daring the press corps to sing Happy Birthday to Reuters’ STEVE HOLLAND.
*Nervous reporter laughter*
Playboy’s BRIAN KAREM became the star of the impromptu show, with Psaki commending his “excellent” singing voice. FROM MAEVE SHEEHEY
Flashback: Read reporter MARK KNOLLER’s 2007 piece about Holland.
THE BUREAUCRATS
NEW FACE — The latest addition to the White House Office of Science and Technology:
BECERRA CLEAN-UP: HHS Secretary XAVIER BECERRA is aiming to clarify his comment that “it is absolutely the government’s business” to know who is vaccinated against the coronavirus, after backlash from Republicans, QUINT FORGEY reports.
Becerra said the comment was “taken wildly out of context,” in a tweet Thursday morning.
“To be clear: government has no database tracking who is vaccinated,” he wrote. “We’re encouraging people to step up to protect themselves, others by getting vaccinated. It’s the best way to save lives and end this pandemic.”
Agenda Setting
AFGHANISTAN ANGST — Biden explained his rationale Thursday afternoon for the fast withdrawal from Afghanistan. “Nearly 20 years of experience has shown us that the current security situation only confirms that just one more year of fighting in Afghanistan is not a solution,” he said, “but a recipe for being there indefinitely.”
QUINT FORGEY and ANDREW DESIDERIO report that Biden has at least one Democratic detractor. Sen. JEANNE SHAHEEN of New Hampshire said Biden’s speech did not fully address all of her concerns, including on the plight of women and girls in the country.
“Sadly, this follows a trajectory that I feared: a resurgence of the Taliban and direct threats to communities vulnerable to their violence and oppression,” Shaheen said. “It is critical that there is a clear plan in place in the days, weeks and months ahead to maintain the progress made to advance women’s rights and to ensure the safety of our allies who risked their lives, and the safety of their families, in support of the U.S. mission.”
Flashback: Want to understand why Biden is so intent on getting out of Afghanistan? It’s been over a decade in the making. Here’s the March 19 edition of West Wing Playbook: “Biden gets his chance on Afghanistan.”
POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS: Some Republicans believe that the Taliban potentially taking over Afghanistan will rebound to their political benefit in 2022. In a 2010 private meeting with famed diplomat RICHARD HOLBROOKE about Afghanistan, however, Biden expressed a different political calculus, as recounted in the book “Our Man” by GEORGE PACKER (which is largely written in the first person as if Holbrooke is writing it since Packer had access to his papers).
“[Biden] said we’re facing a debacle politically, he said we’re going to lose the presidency in 2012 if unemployment remains high, and Afghanistan was the other issue that could pull us down and we have to be on our way out, that we had to do what we did in Vietnam.
This shocked me and I commented immediately that I thought we had a certain obligation to the people who had trusted us. He said, ‘Fuck that, we don’t have to worry about that. We did it in Vietnam, Nixon and Kissinger got away with it.’ I said, ‘But there are larger strategic consequences here,’ and he said, ‘What are they?’ and I tried to outline them. He clearly thought I was mouthing some kind of right-wing crap, and it got quite intense.”
What We're Reading
Biden is on track to shatter previous records on female judicial nominees (The 19th’s Amanda Becker)
Biden’s budget would cut a key Pentagon program aimed at reducing WMD threat (Arms Control Today’s Shannon Bugos)
What We're Watching
Secretary MARTY WALSH will be on MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” tonight at 10pm ET.
Where's Joe
He and Vice President KAMALA HARRIS received an update on the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, and Biden then delivered remarks on the end of the longest war in U.S. history in the East Room.
He and Harris then met with leaders from civil rights organizations in the Roosevelt Room.
White House domestic policy adviser SUSAN RICE, senior adviser CEDRIC RICHMOND, counsel DANA REMUS, deputy counsel DANIELLE CONLEY, and the vice president’s chief of staff, TINA FLOURNOY, were also in attendance.
Where's Kamala
Following the meeting on Afghanistan with the president, she announced a $25 million expansion of the DNC’s voting rights campaign at Howard University.
“With this $25 million, the Democrats are investing in the tools and technology to register voters, to educate voters, to turn out voters, to protect voters,” Harris said. “People say, ‘What’s the strategy?’ Well, I just outlined it."
The Oppo Book
We previously noted that JOHN KERRY’s first wife, JULIA THORNE, made fun of Kerry for the shape of his face. Thorne nicknamed him “Pterodactyl” “because his long face made him look like a dinosaur,” according to DOUGLAS BRINKLEY’s book Tour of Duty.
As it turns out, Thorne wasn’t the only one who poked fun at Kerry for this facial feature.
When serving in Vietnam, another officer, BILL ROOD, nicknamed Kerry “Ichabod,” an ode to Ichabod Crane.
Even his radio call sign in Vietnam was about his distinct face: “Rock Jaw.”
Trivia Answer
GEORGE H.W. and BARBARA BUSH were married for 73 years, 3 months and 8 days, until Barbara’s death in 2018.
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