White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

Archives for March 2016

EXCLUSIVE: WHC Insider Interviews Special Assistant to the President Ellie Schafer

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Each year the White House Easter Egg Roll extravaganza brings together visitors from around the nation to spend the day on the South Lawn of the White House with the president, first lady, musicians, celebrities, and athletes. This year the White House hosted over 35,000 people for the event which featured performances from Idina Menzel, the first-ever fun run at the White House with First Lady Michelle Obama, a friendly game of basketball between Shaquille O’Neill and President Barack Obama, story time with the cast of Black-ish, and appearances from Beyonce, Jay-Z, and their daughter, Blue Ivy. Behind the scenes of the entire operation is Ellie Schafer, Special Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Visitor’s Center.

According to Ms. Schafer who joined the Obama campaign in 2007, First Lady Michelle Obama “gave me some pretty specific instructions, the first one was, we wanna make sure that it’s very family friendly, focused on a lot of fun activities for the kids. We have sports, we have reading, we have a main stage, things that people have never seen before.”

The Obamas have made clear they wanted to turn 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue into the People’s House from the beginning. “When Barack and I first got here, one of the goals that we had was to open up the White House to as many people from as many backgrounds as possible.” With the help of, the Obamas were able to accomplish that goal. To do it, they decided to use a lottery system for handing out tickets to the Egg Roll. The result? Visitors came to the White House from all 50 states, from all kinds backgrounds and cultures, making this event one of the most diverse in White House history.

Tommy McFly, radio host and MC of the Easter Egg Roll, says Schafer “has 35,000 guests, A-level stars, and the leader of the free world and his wife roaming around but she is just always cool and calm. Everybody else who is part of the crew feels that too.”

Ms. Schafer comes from a Republican family. Her father Ed Schafer was President George W. Bush’s  Secretary of Agriculture and former governor of North Dakota. She is a former aide to John Kerry’s presidential campaign and ran her own political consulting company in San Francisco before joining up with then Senator Obama.  She is married to Heather Rothenberg, a former Transportation Department highway specialist.

This is the last Easter Egg Roll for the Obama family. Michelle Obama, speaking to the crowd said, “Today is a little bit bittersweet for us, because this is the Obama administration’s last Easter Egg Roll.” Schafer teared up as she surveyed the lawn watching families head towards the gates at the end of the final Obama Easter Egg Roll.

MASTERS IN POLITICS: Two Election Vets On Trump’s Prospects in the General

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On the on latest episode of Bloomberg’s Masters in Politics podcast with hosts Tammy Haddad and Betsy Fischer Martin, Bob Shrum, longtime Democratic strategist, said that while issues of honesty and trustworthiness will continue to plague the Clinton campaign through the summer, the voters she will lose on the left will be more than made up for by disaffected Republicans if Trump becomes the Republican nominee.

“I think for every one of those voters that Hillary Clinton lost in the general election to Donald Trump she would pick up suburban Republican voters, she would pick up Independents, she would pick up moderates. The trust question is gonna be there the whole way until November. The Republicans are gonna make sure of it.”

He also thinks Donald Trump could stand to lose a few yes men if he wants to win in a general election contest. “He must not have people around him who can say, ‘You can’t do that,’ One of the most important things in the presidential campaign is you have to have two or three people around the candidate who can look at the candidate and say, ‘That’s a really bad idea.’”

Haley Barbour, Reagan administration Political Director, former RNC chairman, and two-term Mississippi governor thinks the media has had a large part in fueling the Trump phenomenon, and took issue with reporters taking Trump’s phone calls on-air.

“I have commented a number of times, and I’m amazed by it, that the media has become part of the campaign. My first campaign was 1968 and I have in the years through then as RNC chairman, as Political Director for the Reagan White House, I have never seen so much of the media being part of the campaign story. And it goes beyond anything that I have ever seen. Can you imagine Ronald Reagan being on Meet the Press on the telephone? Even when he was President? And here we see Donald Trump being interviewed on TV on the telephone, it’s unimaginable,” while later adding, “The American people are being denied the kind of coverage of substance that they deserve.”

Asked if he has confidence in Trump, Barbour says he has more in Trump than in Hillary Clinton. “He does not have a record, she’s got a terrible record. Of the two, I’ll take my chances with no record.

You can listen to the latest episode of Bloomberg’s Masters in Politics podcast here.

Previous guests include Jeb Bush, the top strategists for the Clinton and Sanders campaigns, GOP superlawyer Ben Ginsberg, and veteran political consultant Mike Murphy.

Dog Tag Bakery Pays Tribute to Co-Founder Father Richard Curry, Second Line Celebration Parades to Georgetown Waterfront

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Dog Tag Bakery celebrated one of its founders, Father Rick Curry, on what would’ve been his 73rd birthday on Friday, March 18. Colleagues, friends, and family gathered at his beloved bakery to celebrate his life and his work on behalf of the disabled. His sister Denise, who is a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Catholic order, spoke about Father Curry from the stage she had built to feature performances from disabled veterans. Her remarks detailed how her brother never let his disability stop him and how he spent his lifetime encouraging others to do the same.

Connie Milstein, co-founder along with Curry at Dog Tag Bakery, told the story of how they came together so quickly. “I’m creating a happy gathering place for veterans to learn to bake and learn how to become entrepreneurs to Georgetown University,” said Ximena Rozo, a Dog Tag fellow who spoke about the program and how Father Curry changed her life.

Meghan Ogilvie, the CEO of Dog Tag Bakery, and Jim Curry, Father Curry’s cousin, told stories about his great sense of humor and even greater determination to make life easy for the disabled. Guests included Blue Star Families Sheila Casey, birthday girl Kathy Roth-Douquet and her husband Col. Greg Douquet. Hilary Rosen, Betsy Fischer Martin, Polson and Sandy Kanneth, Holly Page, Jacquie Bloom, Philip Dufour.

Tammy Haddad was the MC and, after the program, led the crowd in a second line parade down Wisconsin Avenue to the waterfront to celebrate Father Curry’s life. The Friday night Georgetown crowd stopped to watch the jazz band lead the paraders, who were carrying red Dog Tag umbrellas.

Father Curry would’ve loved every minute of it. Stop by Dog Tag Bakery and try a veteran-made treat. You can learn more about Dog Tag Bakery here.

Here’s a clip from the Dog Tag Second Line Parade.

Preview of Ron Fournier’s “Love That Boy”

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Prior to the upcoming publication of his book, Love That Boy, National Journal’s Ron Fournier and his son, Tyler, sat for an interview with Autism Speaks at the historic Cooper Union.

From the Love That Boy website:

“A uniquely personal story that delves into the causes and costs of outsized parental expectations. What we want for our children—popularity, normalcy, achievement, genius—and what they truly need—grit, empathy, character—are explored by National Journal’s Ron Fournier, who weaves his extraordinary journey to acceptance around the latest research on childhood development and stories of other loving-but-struggling parents.”

Learn more and purchase your copy of the book.

Bloomberg’s Kevin Cirilli on Life in Donald Trump’s Press Pen

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Kevin Cirilli, the Bloomberg reporter who has been covering Donald Trump’s presidential campaign from the beginning, says traveling with Trump is unlike any other in the way his unconventional campaign handles the press and the way the candidate himself utilizes the media.

Cirilli explains to Tammy Haddad and Betsy Fischer Martin on Bloomberg’s “Masters in Politics” podcast just how the Trump campaign operates. “I remember back in New Hampshire ahead of the primary, ahead of Christmas and the holidays, and I had to go to events for Governor Christie, Governor Kasich, and Governor Bush and the difference in the apparatus that was surrounding them just from them having the wifi always work, they had donuts for the press corps, and they had charter buses for all the reporters. Donald Trump’s campaign doesn’t have any of that.”

Cirilli also spoke about the way Trump supporters view the press and how Trump manipulates those anti-media sentiments. “Whenever you’re a journalist and you talk to other folks, they don’t view you necessarily as a young professional who has a job and is just trying to do their work, but they view you as ‘the media’. I think that he has really tapped into that frustration that people have with institutions in general but I will say I think that there have been some rallies where the mood in the room, in the crowd, is a little bit more anxious…and a little bit more angry.”

Listen to the new episode here.

Follow Kevin Cirilli on Twitter: @kevcirilli

You can find Kevin’s latest dispatch from the campaign trail here.

Ben Ginsberg Lays Out the Road to a Contested GOP Convention in Cleveland

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benOn the latest episode of Masters in Politics, GOP super lawyer Ben Ginsberg warned of “political guerrilla warfare” if neither of the three Republican candidates can secure a majority 1,237 delegates to automatically win the nomination. According to Ginsberg, “Right now, Trump’s job is to win 55% of the remaining delegates. It’s gonna take him until at least California to do that.”

Ginsberg also weighed in on the path forward for Ted Cruz and John Kasich. You can listen to the new episode here.

Former Jeb Bush Super PAC Director Mike Murphy Defends Campaign and Calls Out Media for “Cheapened” Political Coverage and the Rise of Trump

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murphyLongtime Republican political strategist Mike Murphy, who ran the pro-Jeb Bush “Right to Rise” Super PAC, is defending his strategy and striking back against critics who claim his group didn’t do enough to go after Donald Trump earlier in the race.

Murphy tells Bloomberg’s Masters in Politics podcast that it was really the other campaigns who “were late converts” to challenging Trump and his record.  “Jeb jokes that they were all in witness relocation when he was on the stage trying to take on Trump,” Murphy says.

Defending the decision to not unleash more of the $100 million the Super PAC raised against Trump, Murphy points out that such a line of attack would have only served to help Bush’s other opponents.

“We did polling and we saw the most voters who were for Trump were definitely against Jeb. They saw him as too much of an establishment guy and not angry enough,” Murphy argues. “So by attacking Trump early we would have done a great service to Ted Cruz and maybe to a lesser extent Marco Rubio.”

Ultimately, Murphy admits that while “Jeb worked really hard and ran a classy campaign, “ his “kind of reform conservatism and optimistic campaign was just not what the primary voters were looking for this year.”

Murphy – who also works as a Hollywood screenwriter and is a frequent guest on TV news programs – faults the news media for bestowing what he describes as an excessive and irresponsible amount of attention on the reality TV star turned presidential front-runner.

“On television it’s a ratings war and Trump is a carnival, and carnivals get ratings,” he says.  “If Trump started doing human sacrifices they’d probably think, ‘How many cameras to bring?’

“And so we’ve cheapened the coverage tremendously and when we look back there will be some soul searching in the media about, ‘Wow, we’ve found a three-legged dancing mule and we’ve stuck it on TV to make money selling sugar to kids and did we give the country the presidential debate it deserves?’ and that will be their question to ask themselves.”

Despite Trump’s success on Tuesday, Murphy says he is “not on the media bandwagon that the Trump thing is a done deal.”   While admitting that Trump clearly has an advantage, Murphy doesn’t believe he’ll be able to arrive at the convention with a majority of delegates.

Nevertheless, Murphy, who claims his days as a full-time political professional are over, is still trying to do his part, even from the sidelines, to ensure that Trump is not the Republican nominee.

“I’ve been in touch with my friends in the anti-Trump operation, they called me up and asked me to chip in some ideas- I’ve done that,” he reveals.  “I am happy to be a volunteer in that effort because I think stopping Trump is so important for, frankly, the country, not just our party.”

Still up for debate for some anti-Trump voters is which Trump alternative to get behind.

As Murphy notes: There is kind of a dilemma for everybody observing the race: the candidate with the strongest delegate power to oppose Trump is Cruz yet the candidate who is by far the strongest to have a reform conservative agenda and win a general election to beat Hillary Clinton is Kasich.”

You can listen to the latest episode of Masters in Politics here.

Broadway’s Hamilton Cast Dazzles at the White House

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Cast members perform musical selections from the Broadway musical "Hamilton" in the East Room of the White House, March 14, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)

(Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)

Barack and Michelle Obama paid tribute to the performing arts on Monday with the cast of the smash Broadway musical Hamilton, who joined forces to host a full day of workshops, performances, and panels for students. The cast comes to the White House at a time when writer/composer and star of the show Lin-Manuel Miranda’s wildly popular hip-hop retelling of Alexander Hamilton’s life is selling out theaters at over $1000 a seat.

The Hamilton cast performed highlights from the musical to a packed crowd in the East Room. According to the First Lady, “We wanted to change things up here in the White House a little bit. We wanted to open the doors really wide to a bunch of different folks who usually don’t get access to this place.” Lin-Manuel Miranda even performed a freestyle for the President in a video which has nearly 8 million views.

You can watch the freestyle here.

Masters in Politics Episode 3: Tad Devine and Katie Packer say ‘not so fast’

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f8736e54-a54f-4a97-b378-98a9871a7631Conventional wisdom in Washington may hold that the 2016 presidential race will pit Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton in the general election, but two seasoned political veterans tell Bloomberg’s “Masters in Politics” Podcast, “not so fast.”

Tad Devine, senior strategist of the Bernie Sanders campaign, says even though Hillary Clinton had a good night on Super Tuesday, her winning streak may be over. “We see a path forward and I understand the math that’s involved and also the working of proportional representation in the Democratic Party. I think we can do it.”

Devine, who was also a top strategist to the Gore and Kerry presidential campaigns, recognizes that it’s a tall order. He concedes that the Sanders campaign needs a big win to move forward, but he is hopeful that he can run up the delegate tally in his favor. “We are going to have to beat her in a number of upcoming states and we are going to have beat her in some decisive battleground states – big states, like probably New York her own home state, and a state like California, at the end of the process. And I think if we do, if we can put together enough delegates, if we can win the race for pledged delegates, I think it’s going to be close but I think we can still win it.”

Devine also gave a preview of the Sanders campaign’s message to Democratic Party super delegates who, in the case of a close nomination fight, would need to be convinced to abandon the so-called “establishment” candidate Hillary Clinton. The key to that argument, according to Devine, is that Sanders would be “a stronger candidate in the general election. I think we’ll have a very strong case to the leadership of the Democratic Party, to the super delegates and to others that it would be best if Bernie were the nominee, we’d have the best chance of defeating the Republicans.”

The veteran strategist waved off arguments that the Sanders campaign is purely symbolic or that he is a protest candidate. Devine said, “This is not a symbolic candidacy, this is not a message campaign, this a campaign to win the Democratic nomination. So if we feel that that’s not a real possibility, then sure, he’ll look at it, he’ll reevaluate it. But I think right now we all feel right now – that yes, it’s an uphill road, we concede her advantage but we still believe we can win this race. We’ve got a plan. The plan is going to go all the way through June and we are going to stick to it.”

On the Republican side is veteran strategist Katie Packer, who has made stopping Trump her political mission as the Executive Director of a newly formed anti-Trump Super PAC. Responding to the charge that it’s too late to defeat Trump, who has a sizable lead in delegates coming out of Super Tuesday, Parker said, “I think it’s insane to think it’s too late. Seventy percent of the delegates have not been awarded. And everybody wants to say that it has never happened before where somebody has won all of these early states, and has not gone on to win. Well nothing about this cycle is like ever before.”

Packer brings her credentials as the former Deputy Campaign Manager for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign to her new role as Super PAC director. In light of Romney’s recent, biting criticism of the Trump campaign, Packer acknowledges that the Trump-Romney relationship looked a lot different in 2012. But, she says, the reason for that was simply political survivorship. “Trump said a lot of bombastic things about all the candidates [in 2012] and we sort of made a strategic decision that either we have this guy on our team, so he’s not ripping on our candidate all the time, or we don’t. And maybe it was a mistake, but we reached out to him, and he supported Governor Romney.” In fact, she explained that it was her interaction with Trump four years ago that sparked her “passion” in helping to defeat him. “I found him [then] to be just as pompous and narcissistic as he’s turned out to be as a candidate.”

The “Our Principles” Super PAC has been up and running since January, and has been responsible for churning out political ads that aim to shine a light on the litany of past controversies that have plagued Donald Trump’s business career. “The next phase we are looking at is Donald Trump as a businessman. He touts his success but the truth of the matter is that if you talk to financial experts they will tell you that if he had taken his inheritance that his daddy left him and he had simply invested it in the stock market, he would be far wealthier than he his today. He has actually squandered a good deal of his wealth.” In the coming days, she warns, “You are going to be hearing from a lot of real people telling their story about this con man and the ultimate con that he is trying to push on the American people.” Her goal is “a much more concentrated effort to tell these stories in states that have big delegate contests.” By the time the March 15th primaries arrive, she contends that “those voters are going to be very familiar with his record.”

Packer also did not hold back on her view of Chris Christie’s surprise endorsement of Trump last Friday. To Packer, the Christie decision to embrace Trump at this critical time, was “a further example of the lengths that Chris Christie will go to exact revenge on people. It makes the Bridgegate thing all the more plausible to me now. Because we see what he’s willing to do when he is angry at somebody. He clearly doesn’t like Marco Rubio, he was angry at John Kasich for ever getting into the race, and so this was his way to sort of exact some revenge on them.”

Overall, Packer says that “everything about Chris Christie’s support for Trump has been very sad, for a guy that a lot of people used to have a lot of respect for. He’s made a mockery of himself. Everywhere you turn today people are mocking Chris Christie. Six newspapers in New Jersey called for him to resign as governor. He has sort of reached a new low as a governor.”

If, in the end, Trump does emerge as the Republican nominee, Packer warns that there will be a “civil war within the party” which just may spark a third-party candidacy of someone who could be “a more conservative alternative”. Ultimately, Packer argues that such a candidacy would “ensure that Hillary Clinton will win in the fall because I think the Democrats are not going to be nearly as kind to Trump as his primary opponents have been.”

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