How Biden gets his greens

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A Rose Garden jazz ensemble hits different from the echoey din of Zoom meetings.

For the dozens of environmental activists assembled last week on the White House lawn, it was a sign of how much has changed over the years and how much President JOE BIDEN was counting on them in 2024.

Officially, the advocates for “environmental justice” — those pushing for better outcomes in areas facing disproportionate environmental and health ills, typically minority and low-income communities — were celebrating Biden signing a new executive order bolstering communities’ abilities to resist dirty projects. It was there that they were serenaded by that festive jazz.

As important as the musical numbers, however, was the context of the meeting. That Biden had invited the activists to the White House just days ahead of a rumored reelection announcement seemed, to them, to be no accident.

“They are getting people in alignment for the next big push,” said MUSTAFA SANTIAGO ALI, executive vice president with the National Wildlife Federation, who gave input to the White House on the executive order and previously worked at the EPA.

The environmental advocates Biden feted at Friday’s ceremony were not the usual Beltway green power players. This group of disparate community activists came from areas long overburdened with air and water pollution, whose residents face starker health and economic disparities than the whiter, wealthier members of so-called Big Green organizations that primarily focus on curbing planet-warming gases and preserving pristine nature.

Their DNA seems drawn from the activist communities that populated the civil and social rights movement. They have at times chastised Biden for not doing enough to honor the communities that helped deliver turnout in crucial cities like Detroit and Philadelphia. And, as such, they’re seen as holding a key to driving specific voters Biden needs to win in 2024 — the urban communities that can sell Biden’s green industrial policy as a matter of environmental, economic and social improvement.

The order Biden issued Friday was an evolution of relationships that began early in the 2020 campaign, when the then-candidate’s team began courting groups to shape his environmental platform. And they represent constituencies that Team Biden will need to turn out again in 2024.

CECILIA MARTINEZ was part of that initial wave during the campaign. She came from community environmental organizing through a Minneapolis group she founded. The Biden campaign brought her in, where she led outreach to groups with DAVID KIEVE, the husband of former White House communications director KATE BEDINGFIELD. When the Covid-19 pandemic relegated relationship-building to Zoom, Biden and his team held listening sessions with more than 160 groups across seven different sessions.

HAROLD MITCHELL, an early Biden champion and environmental leader in South Carolina, joined the Biden campaign engagement team. So, too, did eventual Interior Secretary DEB HAALAND, who has taken a prominent role advancing environmental victories for Indigenous tribes. The White House created an Environmental Justice Advisory Council which feeds recommendations to agencies across government. Martinez joined the Biden administration as the White House senior director for environmental justice director, housed in the Council on Environmental Quality.

But weaving the promises into action wasn’t easy. Martinez left the Biden administration in January 2022, burned out with little staff support. Agencies battled with the White House Climate Policy Office, the new outfit tasked with executing Biden’s climate agenda over its handling of environmental justice goals. Members of Biden’s advisory council slammed the White House for not taking their issues seriously enough.

And then came the Friday executive order creating a White House Office of Environmental Justice, potentially offering the level of commitment and resources that activists accused the Biden administration of lacking.

“Where we’re at now as opposed to where we were 20 years ago in this particular area is exponentially in a better place,” said Martinez, now an advisor at The Bezos Earth Fund. “And the fact that we’re in the dialogue, we’re in the conversation — that equity and environmental justice is part of the deliberation process — is in itself a significant accomplishment.”

The mood was “absolutely celebratory,” said MARIA LOPEZ-NUNEZ, who was basking in the moment at The Hamilton — a bar-restaurant-hotel just a quick jaunt from the White House — with much of the White House advisory council. Many of the activists she knows weren’t even alive when former President BILL CLINTON signed the last such action in 1994.

“I saw a campaign promise that was outstanding. And I’m happy it happened,” said Lopez-Nunez, deputy director of advocacy and organizing with Newark-based Ironbound Community Corporation. “Today, we get to celebrate. Tomorrow, we go back to fighting.”

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POTUS PUZZLER

This one is from Allie. Who was the first president to hire the first ever woman staffer?

(Answer at bottom.)

The Oval

SIMON HARDEST HIT: The abrupt dismissal Monday of TUCKER CARLSON by Fox News sent shockwaves across America’s media landscape, creating an unexpected void in the cable news primetime landscape the controversial host has dominated. It also appears to have caused some heartbreak for SIMON ATEBA, the White House correspondent for Today News Africa. Carlson was eager to elevate Ateba after his frequent outbursts in the briefing room, suggesting that press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE’s shutdowns following Ateba’s interruptions smacked of bias. Ateba, a prolific poster of things on the internet, penned a requiem for Carlson on Monday: “In my opinion, Tucker Carlson is a phenomenal journalist and an exceptional person.”

THE KARINE EFFECT?: The sudden firing of DON LEMON by CNN, which broke just minutes after news of Carlson’s at Fox, clarified a couple truisms of modern media: Don’t act like a misogynist on television (especially in the morning!). And definitely don’t come after KAITLAN COLLINS. The network fact-checked Lemon one last time on his way out the door, disputing his claim that CNN brass failed to give him advance notice.

As for the backstory, the NYT’s MICHAEL GRYNBAUM, JOHN KOBLIN and BENJAMIN MULLIN report that CNN bookers “had discovered that some guests did not want to appear on-air with Mr. Lemon.” Interestingly, Jean-Pierre recently refused to go on CNN’s new-ish morning show if Lemon was the one asking the questions, according to this Sunday report by the NY Post’s ALEXANDRA STEIGRAD. Make of that what you will.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by the NYT’s SHANE GOLDMACHER about how Biden effectively cleared the Democratic 2024 field. Although, honestly, the thesis is that former President DONALD TRUMP did it for him. By announcing his own campaign so early, Trump — “the greatest unifying force in Democratic politics,” Goldmacher writes — helped clarify “the stakes in 2024 would be just as high for Democrats as they were in 2020.”

Biden has already proved he can beat Trump, which has helped donors to get over their qualms about Biden’s age and middling approval rating. According to Goldmacher’s piece, “one wealthy donor had considered circulating a letter this year to urge Mr. Biden not to run before the person was dissuaded by associates because it would have been for naught and have served to embarrass Mr. Biden, according to a person familiar with the episode.” Former chief of staff RON KLAIN shared the piece on Twitter.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece from the WaPo’s CLEVE R. WOOTSON JR., SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, COLBY ITKOWITZ, MERYL KORNFIELD and DYLAN WELLS about how Democratic voters have “reluctantly” accepted Biden as the 2024 nominee. Yet, they’re still concerned about the president’s age and whether Vice President KAMALA HARRIS would be ready to step into the role if needed. The WaPo team interviewed more than 130 Democrats (one more reporter on the byline and they’d surely have gotten to 150) in five battleground states for the piece.

This quote from a Democratic voter in Georgia sums up the dynamic: “I noticed in speeches when he gets off script, then he starts to make mistakes. I am worried about his health, and I don’t know how much I like [Vice President] Kamala Harris if something happens to him.”

MISSED CONNECTIONS: After winning this year’s national title, UConn men’s basketball coach DAN HURLEY said he missed a call from Biden because he was on the phone with a 2024 recruit and didn’t recognize the 202 area code number. “‘I just assumed when the President calls, it would be someone interrupting your call and saying, ‘The President is on the line,’” Hurley said in an interview with The Athletic’s DANA O’NEIL. “‘So, yeah, I’m on the phone with a ’24 (recruit) that I never saw and missed a call from the President of the United States. But I got a voicemail.’”

THE BUREAUCRATS

SOON FILLING THAT KLAIN VOID ON TWITTER: Staff secretary and senior adviser NEERA TANDEN is being eyed as SUSAN RICE’s replacement when she steps down as the head of the Domestic Policy Council next month, our KIERRA FRAZIER, ADAM CANCRYN and MYAH WARD report. “One former administration official said White House aides were talking openly about Tanden’s consideration for Rice’s job over the weekend, calling her potential appointment ‘pretty damn firm,’” they write.

FIRST IN WEST WING PLAYBOOK: BERNADETTE CARRILLO is joining Tusk Strategies as a managing director, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. She most recently was director of intergovernmental affairs in the office of the secretary at the Commerce Department and is also a Biden White House alum.

MORE PERSONNEL MOVES: ALYSSA CHARNEY is now director for lands and climate-smart agriculture in the climate policy office at the White House, Lippman has also learned. She most recently was chief of staff for the Natural Resources Conservation Service at USDA.

— SEZANEH SEYMOUR is joining cyber insurance company Coalition in May as VP and head of regulatory risk and policy, Lippman has also learned. She most recently was a deputy assistant U.S. trade representative and is a former senior advisor to ANNE NEUBERGER, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging tech.

— ADAM HODGE is getting detailed to the National Security Council to be acting senior director for press and spokesperson while ADRIENNE WATSON is on maternity leave, the indefatigable Lippman has learned as well. Hodge most recently was assistant U.S. trade representative for media and public affairs and has served alongside USTR KATHERINE TAI since day one.

Agenda Setting

BIG SPEECH: National security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN on Thursday will deliver what the White House is billing as a major address on international economics. Our GAVIN BADE reports the “speech at the Brookings Institution will highlight Biden’s new industrial policies — embodied in the CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act — and argue those policies are ‘not just a domestic imperative but necessary for America’s national security and global leadership,’ according to a senior administration official.”

What We're Reading

Biden Plans an Election Bid That Will Be More Complicated the 2nd Time Around (NYT’s Michael Shear)

Biden’s campaign team begins taking shape (POLITICO’s Chris Cadelago and Sam Stein)

The Oppo Book

Deputy Cabinet Secretary of the White House DAN KOH, a longtime mayoral aide to former Labor Secretary MARTY WALSH, looked kind of silly running the 2015 Boston Marathon with a GoPro on his head (doesn’t exactly help with aerodynamics).

Turns out, it was for good reason.

Koh proposed to his then-girlfriend AMY SENNETT at the finish line and caught the whole thing on cam.

Walsh played a role in pulling off the surprise proposal. He held onto the engagement ring during the race and walked over to Koh at the finish line and gave him a hug before he handed it over. Koh then got down on one knee and proposed.

Kinda impressive. But, frankly, a post-Iron Man proposal would have been more notable … Dan.

POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER

President BENJAMIN HARRISON hired ALICE SANGER to be a secretary in 1890, making her the first woman White House staffer. The move was likely Harrison’s nod to the women’s suffrage movement at the time.

A CALL OUT — Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents with a citation and we may feature it.

Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.