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HARRY TRUMAN The famous said that if you “want a friend in Washington” you should “get a dog”. President JOE BIDENHis staff found themselves a friend and all they had to do was look on Twitter.
Followers of senior White House officials have likely seen numerous tweets over the past few months circulating material from PATRICK DE HOOK. He is a Chicago-based oil analyst and vice president of media relations at GasBuddy, a technology platform that provides information on pump prices across the country.
As gas prices have fallen over the past two months, De Haan, who tweets under the name @GasBuddyGuy and writes a blog about gas prices, has become a favorite in the Oval Office. White House Chief of Staff RON KLAINE regularly shares De Haan’s statistics on falling gas prices across the country. He is not the only one in the administration: De Haan has also attracted the attention of other administration leaders such as AMOS HOCHSTEINone of the president’s top energy advisers and confidantes, who also tweeted his latest statistics.
De Haan is also a familiar face to business media consumers, appearing regularly on financial outlets such as CNBC, Fox Business and Bloomberg to talk about energy. During a call with West Wing Playbook last week, he acknowledged the recent internet love he’s received from Klain, but emphasized that his work is purely analytical and nonpartisan. He said he is not trying to score political points with his tweets, analysis and predictions. He is just a market man.
In that regard, he told West Wing Playbook that he doesn’t actually hold Biden (or any recent president) responsible for fluctuating gas prices, noting that global energy markets are beyond the control of any single leader. . De Haan noted that when prices were rising, right-leaning accounts regularly blasted his tweets, and now that prices are falling, he has found love from many of the president’s supporters.
“It doesn’t surprise me that politicians looking to politicize the awards one way or another are trying to use some of my tweets to make a point,” he said.
The Biden White House has been particularly fixated on the price of gas, believing it will be one of the top issues for voters in the midterms. They have argued that if Biden is to blame for the rise in prices, then he deserves credit for their decline. To claim this credit, they have aggressively amplified any news about the latter.
That includes Gas Buddy Guy, who is part of a number of favorite Klain Twitter accounts that West Wing Playbook has carefully cataloged. Others include Democratic strategist SIMON ROSENBERG, 20-something Biden superfan @BidensWins, and Washington Post columnist JENNIFER RUBIN (though Klain has been chilled by the ex-conservative writer-turned-NeverTrump split).
Being a part of Klain’s Twitter favorites from time to time has its perks. ETHAN WOLF, who manages the @BidensWins account, told us he has received private encouragement from White House staff. And Rosenberg keeps in touch with Klain personally.
De Haan said he hasn’t heard directly from the chief of staff (yet) and doesn’t really keep up his voluminous Twitter engagement — he tweeted over two dozen times in the last day. But he said his company has previously been in contact with “various members of the White House” about gas prices. He has also spoken occasionally with members of Biden’s National Economic Council, and he said the White House sought his company’s help in matters related to Colonial Pipeline, the US gas pipeline that was the subject of a major ransomware attack. in 2021.
While his tweets may be popular these days with the White House, De Haan knows they are conditional. He said he is “cautiously optimistic” about falling gas prices, but he said the administration should also be prepared for those prices to level off because of the fragility of the energy market after the pandemic and the uncertainty surrounding the ongoing war. in Ukraine.
“Should the president be happy? I don’t know,” he said. “Motorists probably think that all the issues behind the scenes have been resolved. But it wouldn’t take much to ruffle the feathers of the market again.”
PROGRAMMING NOTE: The West Wing Playbook will take a week-long break starting Monday, August 29th. We’ll be back in your mailbox on Tuesday, September 6. We hope our absence makes your heart grow fonder.
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With the White House Historical Society
Which president chose the Irish architect JAMES HOBAN to design and build the White House?
(Answer at the end.)
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WILL READ: This WSJ piece from JAEWON KANG AND PATRICK THOMAS about how the cost of beef is falling: “Beef prices, typically among the most expensive grocery store purchases, are falling after more than a year of gains as consumer demand softens for some cuts. Supplies are improving because of better staffing at meat plants and supermarkets are offering more discounts on rib-eye, New York strips and other often expensive products.” JESSE LEEsenior advisor for communications at the National Economic Council, posted the article on Monday.
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE not I WANT YOU TO READ: This write-up from Gallup of its latest poll: “The percentage of Americans who rate their lives poorly enough to be considered ‘suffering’ in the Gallup Life Evaluation Index was 5.6% in July, the highest since the index began in 2008,” he says “This exceeds the previous level of 4.8% measured in April and is statistically higher than all previous estimates in the era of COVID-19.”
LARRY, LARRY, ALL OPPOSITES: Economist LARRY SUMMERS took to Twitter on Monday to offer the White House some advice how to handle student debt relief While many progressive Democrats and even some people in the Biden administration want the president to forgive $10,000 or more in student loans, Summers said Biden should not extend the current moratorium or give what he called “unreasonably generous loan relief student”.
Summers, with whom Biden continues to speak on occasion, argued that “student loan debt relief is spending that increases demand and increases inflation. It consumes resources that could be better used to help those who, for whatever reason, do not have the opportunity to attend college.” The administration is expected to announce a decision on the matter as early as this week ahead of the August 31 deadline.
Media movements: The New Yorker’s ADAM ENTOUS is passing on a gig at the New York Times, according to the NYT ADAM GOLDMAN. We have previously presented Entous’s in-depth piece on the history of the extended Biden familywhich was intended to be part of a book on the Bidens.
EMPLOYMENT OFFICE: In recent weeks we reported on several names in talks to be the first lady’s next press secretary, JILL BIDEN. Previous job holder, MICHAEL LAROSA, gave some advice to applicants in this shipment from Puck’s YOU SEE PALMS.
“If candidates are using this opportunity to raise their own profile, to help their chances, or to minimize someone else’s chances, by proactively putting names out there and pushing them to the press, that kind of public prank is a great way to turn off the East Wing and inspire them to pursue a whole new field of options,” he said. “Bidenworld doesn’t like showboating.”
SO LONG, GOODBYE: ANTHONY FAUCI, Biden’s top medical adviser and the face of the government’s pandemic response for the past two administrations, announced he plans to step down at the end of the year. Fauci, who has directed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health for 38 years, told the DAVID LIM, LAUREN GARDNER AND MYAH WARD it felt “bitter” to leave.
But even at 81, “as long as I have the excitement, the energy, the passion and the good health, thank God, to be able to do something else in the next phase or a few years of my career, I’m excited about it.” .” Fauci also made the rounds today after his departure with The New York Times, The Washington Post, AP and Reuters.
He appears in RACHEL MADDOWThe MSNBC show tonight at 9pm ET.
FIRST IN THE WEST WING PLAYBOOK: CHRIS FARLEY has been promoted to the position of chief of staff in the office of the staff secretary in the White House, DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned Most recently he was staff secretary. DANI SCHULKINwho is an associate staff secretary, is taking on additional responsibilities in the office as well.
ON OTHER PERSONNEL MATTERS … STEPHANIE PSAKI has joined the National Security Council as director of global health response in the directorate of global health and development, three White House officials told Lippman.
Psaki, who holds a doctorate in public health, was most recently senior adviser for human rights and gender equality in the office of global affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to the Biden administration, she led a research center focused on finding effective investments to improve health and education and advance global gender equality. And yes, she is Jen’s sister.
DAD’S DAILY CARE: Secretary of State ANTHONY BLINK is a parent who works like many in the administration – and his two young children (with EVAN RYANchief of cabinet affairs) keep it honest. In a lengthy and mostly flattering Washington Post magazine profile published today, Blinken recalled how he was about to go on a Sunday talk show. “And my wife said to our kids, ‘Daddy’s going to be on TV,’ and the response was, ‘We want to watch Sesame Street’!” Blinken added: “Children have a wonderful way of reminding you of what is true.”
We are with the children: Elmo > Stephanopoulos.
The US steps up enforcement of its long list of sanctions against Russia (WSJ’s Ian Talley)
Indiana’s governor to Taiwan after high-profile US visits (AP’s Huizhong Wu)
Summers urges Fed to deliver a somber message on economic pain (Bloomberg’s Chris Anstey)
One thing Anthony Fauci is likely to bring back when he leaves office later this year? Time to watch basketball or baseball.
Maw told POLITICO in August 2020 that his long working days did not allow for many breaks.
“I love sports, I just haven’t been able to watch any sports on TV because when I come home at night — at a time when I used to like to sit and watch a basketball game in college or in the summer, I like baseball. “I can’t do it because I come back from whatever I’m doing and I have a couple of hundred emails to answer,” he explained.
Those emails usually can’t wait until the next day, he said, “you have to answer them tonight, and that takes me to the middle of the night.”
President GEORGE WASHINGTON I learned about Hoban during a visit to Charleston, SC, and chose to collaborate with him in designing the iconic house.
A CALL – Have a more difficult question? Send us your best one about the presidents with a quote and we might feature it.
Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.
