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POLITICO Playbook: Ron Klain says ‘season of substance’ could save Dems
By RYAN LIZZA and EUGENE DANIELS 08/19/2022 06:06 AM EDT
Presented by
With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross
www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2022/08/19/ron-klain-says-season-of-substance-could-save-dems

White House chief of staff Ron Klain walks on the South Lawn of the White House.
The president’s aides, led by chief of staff Ron Klain, are making the case that Joe Biden is a transformational president with “historic achievements.” | Patrick Semansky/AP Photo


DRIVING THE DAY
THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW: RON KLAIN — The White House suddenly has a lot to brag about. And the president’s aides, led by chief of staff RON KLAIN, are reaching deep into the 20th century to make the case that JOE BIDEN is a transformational president with “historic achievements.”

Here’s the litany from Klain:

“We now have a presidency where the president has delivered the largest economic recovery plan since ROOSEVELT, the largest infrastructure plan since EISENHOWER, the most judges confirmed since KENNEDY, the second largest health care bill since JOHNSON and the largest climate change bill in history. … The first time we've done gun control since President CLINTON was here, the first time ever an African American woman has been put on the U.S. Supreme Court. … I think it’s a record to take to the American people.”

On Thursday, we ventured over to the White House and sat down with Klain in the Roosevelt Room to review the last 18 months of the Biden presidency and talk about what’s next.

When Biden is out of town, as he was on Thursday, the vibe in the West Wing is a little different. Aides are more relaxed, but often busier. Klain sleeps in a little later, but powers through more work. (“I definitely get more done when he's not here,” he told Playbook. “No question about it.”) It’s also noisier: There’s an ongoing refencing project outside the White House that revs up whenever the president is away.

At the start of the summer, this conversation would have been vastly different. Now, gas prices have dropped, and the last CPI report hints that inflation may finally be trending down after hitting a peak. Election forecasters are writingpieces at least entertaining the idea that Democrats might not suffer the long-predicted midterm wipeout. And there’s that burst of legislative victories that were squeezed out of Congress in July and August that had Biden, a lover of alliteration, calling this period “a season of substance.”

You can listen to the full conversation with Klain on this week’s episode of the Playbook Deep Dive podcast — subscribe here on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — but here are the key highlights:

On moving the reconciliation package talks to Capitol Hill:

“When you negotiate at the White House, the negotiations are very high profile and put a lot of pressure on everyone involved, and kind of create a lot of breadcrumbs for the press to follow. … [It’s] good for the journalism business; not so good, maybe, for the progress business. … One thing we wanted to do was to take the temperature down on these negotiations and have them conducted in a more low-key way. And I think moving it to Capitol Hill was very effective that way. It kind of ended the cycle we had in November, December of just daily breathlessness about who said what to whom and when they said what to whom and how they said what to whom — which was not a not a productive vehicle in which we could get to an agreement.”

On Biden’s temperament:

“Look at the president’s personal history: It’s a personal history of tremendous, joyous successes and devastating tragedies. And I think that helps moderate his spirit at all times. There is nothing I can ever walk into the Oval Office and tell him that’s any bigger than the bigger things he’s already experienced in life. And nothing I could ever tell him is any sadder than the saddest things he’s already experienced in life. And I think that gives him a very level temperament as president.”

Summing up Biden’s/Dems’ midterms message:

“Elections are choices, and the choice just couldn’t be any clearer right now. Democrats have stood up to the big special interests. They stood up to the big corporations and insisted that all corporations pay minimum taxes, stood up to the big oil companies and passed climate change legislation. They stood up to Big Pharma and passed prescription drug legislation. They stood up to the gun industry and passed gun control legislation. Things that this city [was] unable to deliver on for decades because the special interests had things locked down, Joe Biden and his allies in Congress have been able to deliver on.”

On how they’re branding Republicans:

“We have an extreme MAGA group in the Republican Party that has no real plan to bring down inflation. They obviously want to pass a nationwide ban on abortion. They sided with Big Pharma. They sided with the climate deniers. They sided with — most of them sided with … the gun lobby. And so I think that choice [is] between a party that’s standing up to the special interests and delivering change, and … an extreme party, a party that’s talking about, well, some of the leaders talking about abolishing Social Security and Medicare every five years. … The extreme nature of our opponents, whether it's with regard to democracy or Social Security, are all part of a movement that is just very different than we’ve seen in recent years in this country.”

The best day since he arrived?

“For me, it was Jan. 20, 2021. … The fundamental challenge we faced in the 2020 campaign was whether or not democracy would prevail. And there was a profound threat to that during the transition and on Jan. 6, and an effort to prevent that from happening. There were times on Jan. 6 where I really wondered if the electoral votes would ever get counted and if Joe Biden would ever get sworn in as president. So to be here at 12 noon on Jan. 20 to welcome the president here in the Oval Office when he got back from the inauguration ceremonies — to me, that was … the biggest victory we could ever win.”

The worst day?

“There’s no question: The worst day here was Aug. 26 of last year, when we lost 13 service members in Afghanistan. … Just a terrible tragedy and certainly the darkest day.”

On Biden’s public profile:

“I don’t think it’s true he’s out there less than his predecessors. I just think DONALD TRUMP created an expectation of a president creating a shitstorm every single day.”