Harris’ non-crisis crisis comms hire

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For months, KAMALA HARRIS’ allies have insisted her office is not in crisis. So why did she hire a veteran crisis communications expert last month?

LORRAINE VOLES was one of two hires, along with former Obama speechwriter ADAM FRANKEL, reported by both the Washington Post and CNN over the weekend. Both worked for the vice president during the transition, and “offered to be of assistance,” an official from the White House said. A Harris aide said Voles and Frankel began their new roles in August.

Although the White House official didn’t use the word “crisis,” Voles is well known as a public relations and crisis communications expert. She most recently led crisis communications at George Washington University and at Fannie Mae, after serving as a strategist and adviser to HILLARY CLINTON’s 2006 Senate reelection race and 2008 presidential bid. In the late ‘90s, she helped AL GORE craft his message as vice president. Now she’ll help Harris with long-term planning, her policy agenda and with “organizational development” and strategic communications, according to a White House official.

The assignment is “temporary,” the official said, although Harris’ office declined to say how long either she or Frankel planned to advise the vice president. A Harris aide disputed the CNN report that initially said the pair would serve between three and six months; the story was updated on Monday afternoon to say “several months.” The aide also wouldn’t confirm the duration of their tenure.

A Democratic source close to the administration said it’s not uncommon to bolster teams with temporary staffers, while noting of Harris: “She’s one of the first VP’s to have a dedicated pool covering all things.”

Still, Voles is a notable add to a team that’s seen its share of bad headlines just eight months into the administration — from the criticism around her first foreign trip, to Mexico and Guatemala, to a late June POLITICO story that detailed “low morale, porous lines of communication and diminished trust among aides and senior officials” in the VP office. Adding to her challenges, Harris has become the face of some of the administration’s thorniest and most intractable issues, including immigration and voting rights.

To some Democratic strategists close to the White House, Voles’ hiring is a clear indication that the vice president and her top aides recognize they need to course correct. Voles is a well-respected and experienced hand who can help fill in some of those “gaps,” a Democratic strategist with close ties to the Biden administration told us.

“This is an important moment,” the strategist said. “We have the first woman as vice president and of course first women of color as vice president, and if we mess up this moment, that will set us back for a long time.”

“This is not only for her political future. But it’s also to make sure that she’s getting the most and maximizing the most of the role as being vice president for the entire administration,” the strategist added.

CHRIS LEHANE, a “master of disaster” who helped former President BILL CLINTON weather various scandals and later served as Gore’s press secretary, heaped praise on Voles.

“Before doing anything, the VP [Gore] would inevitably ask — ‘have you checked in with Lorraine?’ And I learned really quickly that the Vice President’s confidence was well founded as she ‘gets it,’ including the press piece, navigating the internal dynamics that exists within the building and as someone who always brought a sense of calmness to a challenge,” Lehane told West Wing Playbook.

Lehane said the challenge for a veep is there is a “tension” to how they communicate, intentionally or not.

“Everything you say is analyzed at multiple levels like medieval scholars attempting to decipher the Voynich Codex and reading in all sorts of hidden meanings, even when no hidden meaning was meant,” Lehane said.

MARLA ROMASH, Gore’s former communications director and a longtime friend of Voles, agreed: “You want her in the middle of a crisis. You want her when you have something complicated to communicate. You want her when you need to capture the real core of someone’s story.”

Except, there is no crisis, right?

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PRESIDENTIAL TRIVIA

Courtesy of reader RUSHAD THOMAS — which president was initially sworn in by his father?

(Answer at the bottom.)

The Oval

SCOOP — ANDREA FLORES, the White House’s national director for transborder security, is leaving the administration to be Sen. BOB MENENDEZ’s chief counsel, according to sources familiar with the move. Flores was originally tasked with winding down the MPP program (AKA “Remain in Mexico”) that was started under Trump to keep asylum seekers from entering the country. A judge halted the Biden administration’s move late last month and the Biden administration has been noncommittal about its future plans beyond appealing the ruling.

The NSC declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond for comment.

The New York Times reported earlier this month that despite Biden having previously called MPP “inhumane,” some of his advisers were quietly relieved about the court’s decision because it provided them “with the political cover to adopt the policy in some form without provoking as much ire from Democrats who reviled Mr. Trump’s border policies.”

SHOT SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS: Bravely risking making his face a giant magnetic field, the president got his Covid-19 booster shot on Monday. He gave some brief remarks before removing his jacket and rolling up the left sleeve as a nurse (looking remarkably poised considering she was about to jab a needle into the most powerful man on earth) got everything ready. “I know it doesn’t look like it, but I am over 65,” Biden said.

Stuck in a seat waiting for said needle, the president was a sitting duck for reporters. Among his responses to their questions: He had no side effects on the first or second shot; the first lady would get a booster shot too; and he was optimistic about his domestic agenda being passed by Congress this week. Easy peasy!

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Three times on Monday, chief of staff RON KLAIN’s Twitter feed (we’re clearly obsessed, send help) amplified a column from Washington Post opinion writer MAX BOOT, arguing Biden deserved more credit for his response to the Haitian migrants massing at the southern border.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: A new Morning Consult poll that goes against the grain of the administration’s major talking points around voting rights. The poll found that more Americans think it’s too easy to vote, not too hard. The White House and allied Democrats have railed against Republican state houses for passing restrictive voting rights measures.

Aides to Senate Minority Leader MITCH McCONNELL (R-Ky.), a key opponent of new voting rights legislation being pushed by congressional Democrats, were circulating the poll today.

WHAT’S THAT SAYING ABOUT FRIENDS IN WASHINGTON?: Vice President Harris is hosting a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee next week, according to an invite obtained by West Wing Playbook. An invitation sent out to some Democrats said it would be an in-person event, but a DNC aide said it will actually be virtual.

“As the event format was still under consideration, an invitation for an in-person event was drafted and then published in error. The invitation was taken down as soon as we became aware and a corrected invitation has been distributed to all individuals who received the errant invite,” the aide said.

The event’s tickets are currently going for $100,000 to be a host, $50,000 to be a “sponsor,” $36,500 to be a “supporter” and $10,000 to be a “friend.”

First lady JILL BIDEN, meanwhile, is headlining a virtual DNC fundraiser later on Monday, according to an invitation. Tickets are $36,500 for “sponsors,” $25,000 for “supporters” and $10,000 for “friends.” The event will be Biden’s first major donor event for the DNC although she participated in a grassroots fundraiser earlier this year.

REAL HOUSEWIFE SNAGS A BIDEN: Reality TV star MEGHAN KING confirmed that she’s dating the president’s nephew, CUFFE BIDEN OWENS, in an Instagram post over the weekend. King was a cast member on Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Orange County” from 2015 to 2017, when she was married to her now ex-husband and professional baseball player, JIM EDMONDS.

King was one of the youngest housewives on the show, her storyline focusing mostly on juggling home life with Edmonds’ baseball career. She’s best known for feuding with one of the original cast members, VICKI GUNVALSON, over rumors about the validity of Gunvalson’s boyfriend’s cancer diagnosis.

GIVE MY REGARDS TO BROADWAY: MARTHA GIMBEL, a senior adviser for Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers and noted member of #econtwitter, celebrated her husband, LEE SEYMOUR, last night for winning a Tony Award. He was a co-producerof The Inheritance, which won best play. “My husband just won a Tony award and I am so f***ing proud of him,” she tweeted (we added the asterisks).

Agenda Setting

HEALTHCARE AMBITIONS CURTAILED — Biden’s call for $400 billion to boost long-term care services is expected to be sharply trimmed in Democrats’ social spending package, ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN writes. Plans to expand Medicaid to more than 2 million people in states that have for a decade refused to do so may also have to be curtailed, House Majority Whip JIM CLYBURN (D-S.C.) told progressive advocates on a conference call Friday.

Filling the Ranks

NEW LEADER FOR PEPFAR — Biden will nominate JOHN NKENGASONG, the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, to lead the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, the U.S. program fighting HIV and AIDS around the world. CARMEN PAUN has more for Pros on Nkengasong’s nomination.

What We're Reading

EU-U.S. trade meetings faces French objections (Bloomberg’s Alberto Nardelli, John Follain and Nikos Chrysoloras)

Jake Sullivan meeting with Saudi Crown Prince MBS (AP’s Aamer Madhani)

Where's Joe

He got his booster shot at the White House today.

Where's Kamala

She hosted a reception for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus for National Hispanic Heritage Month at her residence.

The Oppo Book

JON FINER, deputy national security adviser under JAKE SULLIVAN, has a connection to A-List actors CHARLIZE THERON and SETH ROGEN.

In the 2019 rom-com “Long Shot,” Theron plays the secretary of State, who employs and then, of course, falls for Rogen, an unemployed journalist — two characters that Jon could identify with given his background as a former reporter and State Department official.

Finer worked as a consultant on the film, helping ensure the scenes were as realistic as possible, given the plotline, he told the Washington Post back in 2019. “I saw the goal as being that the ridiculous things would be intentional instead of things that are very easy to get wrong,” Finer said. “Of course, I know that a secretary of State wouldn’t go on a drug-fueled bender in Paris, but I thought about what it might look like if she did.”

As much as he enjoyed consulting, Finer confessed that his “usefulness is probably limited” in Hollywood. “I’d certainly do it again; I just don’t know how many movies there would be in this particular vein.”

Trivia Answer

CALVIN COOLIDGE was sworn in by his father, who was a notary public, just hours after the death of WARREN HARDING.

AND A CALL OUT — A big thanks to Rushad for sending this question. Do you have a really hard trivia question about the presidency? Send us your best one and we may use it: [email protected].

We want your trivia, but we also want your feedback. What should we be covering in this newsletter that we’re not? What are we getting wrong? Please let us know.

Edited by Emily Cadei