With help from Allie Bice
Welcome to POLITICO’s 2021 Transition Playbook, your guide to the first 100 days of the Biden administration
Biden’s Justice Department is lagging behind.
Over 10 weeks since inauguration and nearly a month after MERRICK GARLAND was sworn in as attorney general, the president has yet to fill several critical Justice Department posts, including the assistant attorney generals for the criminal, national security, civil and antitrust divisions, along with a solicitor general. In comparison, BARACK OBAMA had nominated people for all of those positions by his third day in office.
Justice Department insiders along with people familiar with the situation say the delay is partly the result of a delicate stand-off between Garland and the White House over who they want in the positions.
The new attorney general feels entitled to pick at least some of these senior posts himself, they say. But given President JOE BIDEN’s long history dealing with criminal justice matters, the White House has had some of their own people in mind, such as Biden’s former Senate counsel NEIL McBRIDE (McBride did not respond to a request for comment).
“It’s surprisingly slow,” said one former DOJ official.
“I’m sort of flabbergasted,” said another. “You don’t have a national security chief and a criminal division head at the same time you’re putting trillions of dollars out there in programs that have a history of being rife with fraud?“
Part of the problem: The White House is wary of pushing its own choices too hard, for fear it would look like the president is big-footing Garland or stuffing the Justice Department with loyalists.
Biden is determined to draw a contrast with DONALD TRUMP’s repeated attempts to politicize the department. “I’m not going to be saying go prosecute A, B or C,” Biden told CNN in December. “It’s not my Justice Department. It’s the people’s Justice Department.”
That desire to display independence was part of the rationale for selecting Garland over former Sen. DOUG JONES (D-Ala.), who had longstanding ties to Biden.
The ongoing Justice Department investigation into HUNTER BIDEN has only heightened that concern. The criminal division head would be in the chain of officials that would sign off on any decision to prosecute or not prosecute the president’s son if those decisions involve matters beyond the tax issues believed to be at the center of the investigation.
The White House argued that the delay in nominations is more a consequence of Garland’s slow confirmation process rather than the back-and-forth over particular names.
“The biggest factor affecting the timeline for DOJ nominations was the delay of the Attorney General’s confirmation by a small group of Republicans, despite him having overwhelming bipartisan support,” said a White House official. GOP senators like TOM COTTON had put up roadblocks that delayed the confirmation votes.
“We feel we can make these decisions carefully because we have faith in the acting officials currently leading these offices, whether Biden-Harris Administration appointees or DOJ career professionals,” the official added.
The Justice Department also noted that they still have four pending nominations before the Senate: LISA MONACO (deputy attorney general), VANITA GUPTA (associate attorney general), KRISTEN CLARKE (assistant attorney general for civil rights), and TODD KIM (assistant attorney general for environment and natural resources division).
Still, there are early signs of how delicate the relationship with DOJ is for this White House.
Aides have said Biden would not follow Trump’s system for granting pardons, signaling he would resume a century-old process for reviewing cases that relies more on the Justice Department making recommendations, as ANITA KUMAR reported.
After Biden told reporters on March 26 that the Justice Department was “taking a look” at Georgia’s new voting bill, the White House quickly clarified that “the president was just assuming that this was an issue the Department of Justice would look at, nothing more.”
“We refer you to DOJ for any further questions.”
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On the balcony off the White House’s Blue Room with Lt. Col. BRANDON WESTLING, who was dressed as a giant masked Easter bunny, and first lady JILL BIDEN, who was not. He pledged that the White House would hold its traditional Easter egg roll again next year. (Thanks, Covid).
He also took a few questions from reporters after disembarking from Marine One this morning, telling them there was “no evidence” that raising the corporate tax rate would drive companies out of the country. “You’re talking about companies in the Fortune 500 that haven’t paid a single penny in tax for three years,” he said. “Come on, man.”
With Sen. ALEX PADILLA (D-Calif.), Rep. BARBARA LEE (D-Calif.) and California Lt. Gov. ELENI KOUNALAKIS in the kitchen of Red Door Catering in Oakland, Calif., where she held a listening session. She also toured a water treatment plant with Gov. GAVIN NEWSOM.
With the Center for Presidential Transition
A former president loves crossword puzzles — so much so that he landed a cameo in a film about them. Who was it?
(Answer is at the bottom.)
AIMING FOR THAT BIPARTISANSHIP — The White House plans to garner bipartisan support for the newly unveiled infrastructure plan by hitting home how it can help rural states, RYAN MCCRIMMON reports, including at least $10 billion for rural water projects and as much as $100 billion to expand broadband access across the nation.
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BIDEN’S NEW TALKING POINT — The Biden administration has been talking up a projection in a new Moody’s Analytics report, which concludes that the economy would create 18.9 million new jobs by 2030 if Biden’s infrastructure plan becomes law.
“Independent analysis shows that if we pass this plan, the economy will create 19 million jobs — good jobs, blue-collar jobs, jobs that pay well,” Biden said on Friday. White House press secretary JEN PSAKI repeated the claim in the briefing on Friday, and the White House sent out a press release stating the plan would “help create” 19 million jobs.
While the claim isn’t wrong, it’s missing crucial context. The Moody’s report projects the economy would create 18.9 million new jobs if the plan becomes law — but it also projects the economy would create 16.3 million new jobs by 2030 if it doesn’t. So Moody’s is really projecting that Biden’s plan would create 2.6 million more jobs than would be generated otherwise.
The claim already seems to have created confusion. “President Biden is throwing around this projection that the entire bill will create about 19 million jobs,” MARGARET BRENNAN asked Council of Economic Advisers Chair CECILIA ROUSE on “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “What does that number come from?” Rouse cited the Moody’s report but didn’t correct Brennan’s mischaracterization of it.
BATTING CLEANUP: When Biden was asked last week what he thought of Major League Baseball moving its All-Star game out of Georgia in response to the state’s restrictive new voting law, he told ESPN he would “strongly support them doing that.” On Friday, the league announced it would hold the game elsewhere — a move that upset some Georgia Democrats who oppose the law but argued moving the game would only punish Georgians.
Asked during the briefing whether Biden supported the league’s decision to move the game, Psaki re-read Biden’s remarks and distanced the president from the boycott. “So he was not dictating what Major League Baseball should do,” she said. “He supports them being able to make the decision and respond to what their players’ asks are given that many of them are impacted, of course, by these laws,” she said.
BUNNY DUTY: The Easter bunny who dropped into the White House briefing room this afternoon was NOT the same White House bunny costume worn by former Trump press secretary SEAN SPICER circa 2008, when he was assistant U.S. trade representative under GEORGE W. BUSH.
“There are two bunny costumes,” the White House press office said in a statement.
Spicer “wore a different suit than the bunny who visited the Brady Press Briefing Room today. There are indeed longer lashes on the bunny who visited the Briefing Room today.”
So who was beneath the costume? The White House’s Director of Message Planning MEGHAN HAYS volunteered to assume the role. “I was thrilled to be able to participate in a long-standing White House tradition and hopeful next year it will be from the South Lawn,” Hays told us.
POWER-FUL PRAISE — Biden is bringing on GAYLE SMITH as the State Department’s coordinator for global Covid response. The move elicited a congratulatory Twitter thread from SAMANTHA POWER, Biden’s nominee for U.S. Agency for International Development administrator — the same job Smith held during the Obama administration.
“This is big news—both because creating this position shows @POTUS belief that America will not recover ’til the world does, and because Gayle is perfect for the role,” Power wrote on Twitter.
FOR FOIA’S SAKE — Dozens of groups advocating for government transparency will push Attorney General Merrick Garland to begin the process of fixing a broken public records system at DOJ, Anita Kumar writes.
The coalition, convened by the group Open the Government, will ask Garland in a letter to be sent this week to issue a directive to agencies about the Freedom of Information Act, review pending FOIA lawsuits within two months and support legislative reforms to the law. (The groups will also write to Sens. DICK DURBIN (D-Ill.) and CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-Iowa), leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, this week to push for FOIA oversight.)
There have long been complaints about the FOIA system, but they only grew during the last four years when federal agencies failed to make public records requests a priority even as demand increased. Some requests have taken years to be processed while others were denied or never answered. “Too many agencies have used the FOIA as a shield from public accountability, particularly during the Trump administration,” the groups write in the letter obtained by POLITICO.
The pair of letters come as Biden is under pressure to do more to restore transparency in the federal government following Donald Trump’s chaotic term.
FIRST IN TRANSITION PLAYBOOK — Starting tomorrow, the Judicial Crisis Network is launching a $1 million TV ad campaign attacking the Biden administration’s early judicial picks. The ad, titled “All In,” will run in Washington D.C., West Virginia, Arizona and Georgia to pressure Democratic senators from those states. It will run over the next 10 days. Watch the ad here.
MANCHIN MAKES HIS MOVE — JOE MANCHIN, Democrats’ most right-leaning senator, holds immense sway over Biden’s agenda. And as BURGESS EVERETT writes, he made clear on Monday that he plans to use it as the president pushes infrastructure legislation through Congress.
“The bill, basically, is not going to end up that way,” Manchin told West Virginia radio host HOPPY KERCHEVAL earlier today. “And it’s more than just me, Hoppy, there’s six or seven other Democrats that feel very strongly about this.”
Indeed, a few hours later, Sen. MARK WARNER (D-Va.) told Burgess he needs to have more input into the White House’s plan than he’s received so far: “I expect to have that input before there’s any package I could support.”
In video, Biden thanks new U.S. citizens for ‘choosing us’ (AP’s Zeke Miller)
Biden team seeks public’s help to outrun GOP on infrastructure (Bloomberg’s Nancy Cook)
When climate adviser GINA McCARTHY went on HBO’s Real Time with BILL MAHER in 2019 to talk clean energy, she slipped up.
Maher asked McCarthy about the risk climate change poses to the planet, which segued into a conversation about how individuals can be part of the solution.
“You mentioned that clean energy is going gangbangers because it’s cheaper, it’s better, the air is cleaner,” she said.
Maher interrupts: “Gangbusters.”
*nervous laughter*
“You meant gangbusters,” Maher said.
“Did I say gangbangers?” she asked.
“Yes, you did,” Maher laughed.
McCarthy blamed Maher for his monologue earlier in the segment.
“You’re right, blame it on me,” he said. “Mr. Potty Mouth, it’s infectious.”
In 2006, BILL CLINTON was featured in a documentary called “Wordplay.” Coooool.
