White House Correspondents Insider

Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman, co-founders of PunchbowlDC News hosted an evening reception featuring an interview with Clear CEO Caryn Seidman Becker, at Anchovy Social. Palmer announced that PunchbowlDC now has 100,000 subscribers. It was one of the first gatherings of politicos and media this summer.

Guests included Danielle Burr and CR Wooters, former Trump White House aide Johnny DeStefano, Ron Bonjean, Ben and Joanne Ginsberg, Betsy Fischer Martin, Mike Allen and Jill Zuckman. The co-author of the bestseller, “Nightmare Scenario,” Damian Paletta and Jacqueline Alemany, author of the Power Up newsletter were among the media stars along with Brian Stelter and Mike Allen.

NBC News’ White House Correspondent Kelly O’Donnell has been named President of the White House Correspondents’ Association for the 2023-’24 term after a tie breaking vote.

On Monday, the WHCA released results for their annual election to decide three new members for the association’s nine person executive board, only to discover a tie between O’Donnell and the Politico White House Correspondent Anita Kumar for the At-Large executive board seat. Even more surprising, O’Donnell and Kumar were both top choices for the associations’ next presidential term, also on the ballot this year, with O’Donnell winning 204 to Kumar’s 191 votes.

However, according to the WHCA’s bylaws, only a sitting board member can be elected President. As a result, the decision on the next WHCA President of the 2023-’24 term became contingent on a tie-breaking vote by the outgoing executive board. Late Wednesday night, the board made their decision, voting 7 to 2 in O’Donnell’s favor, reports AdWeek.

The current WHCA President, Associated Press White House Correspondent Zeke Miller, will finish his term at the end of this year. CBS News Radio White House correspondent Steven Portnoy will take up the seat for the 2021-’22 term, followed by NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith for the 2022-’23 term.

In her 27 years working for NBC News, Kelly O’Donnell has covered several presidential campaigns, the summer and winter Olympics, and several major events including the Oklahoma City bombings and the O.J. Simpson trials. She was embedded in the 3rd Infantry Division during the Iraq War and was the first to report on live television Hillary Clinton’s concession call to President Trump following the 2016 elections. While at NBC she has worked as a Capitol Hill and White House correspondent, and has appeared on many NBC platforms including NBC Nightly News, Today, and Meet the Press.

Every year the White House Correspondents’ Association holds an election to pick three of their members to join the association’s nine-member executive board – each serving a term of three years. This year, the association also casted votes to see who among those nine board members would serve as the next President of the WHCA. In an unlikely turn of events, this year’s election has ended up with a tie.

According to the election results released by the WHCA, NBC News’ Kelly O’Donnell narrowly edged out Politico’s Anita Kumar in the presidential race, winning 204 to 191 votes. However, according to the association’s bylaws, the President of the WHCA must be elected to the executive board before they can take up the presidency. This means that O’Donnell’s victory is contingent on her also winning the At-Large executive board seat – a race that she tied with Kumar with each receiving 197 votes.

The decision now rests on the outgoing executive board who will reconvene later this week to make a tie-breaking vote for both the At-Large seat and the Presidency. Many White House reporters say they cannot recall the last time that a similar situation has occurred, Politico reports.

The two other board seats up for a vote were won by large margins. ABC News’ Karen Travers won the Radio Seat with 374 votes and Bloomberg’s Justin Sink won the Wire Services Seat with 364 votes. A total of 397 ballots were submitted. The association also voted overwhelmingly to amend their bylaws, with 333 votes in the affirmative.

The White House is partnering with ride-sharing companies Uber Technologies and Lyft to offer free rides to and from vaccination sites through July 4th, according to an exclusive Wall Street Journal report. The details are to be announced in a Tuesday call with governors as the Biden administration gears up to vaccinate 70% of the U.S. adult population before Independence Day.

“To ensure that transportation is less of a barrier,” said President Joe Biden during a virtual meeting with governors Tuesday, “from May 24th to July 4th, Uber and Lyft are both going to offer everyone free rides to and from vaccination sites.” He added, “I think that is really stepping up.”

Uber and Lyft have previously offered some free and discounted rides to vaccination sites, but this new partnership will expand those services to anyone in the United States. The companies are set to receive data on about 80,000 vaccination sites from the Biden administration and will begin promoting free vaccination rides on May 24th. A new feature will be introduced on their apps that will allow users to “simply select a vaccination site near them, follow simple directions to redeem their ride, and then get a ride to take them to and from a nearby vaccination site free of charge,” reports Axios.

This latest push is part of the Biden Administration’s effort to get enough Americans vaccinated for safer gatherings in time for July 4th. According to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker, only 34.8% of Americans are fully vaccinated as of May 10th. The current rate of vaccinations is a little over 2.1 million doses a day, putting the United States on target to hit 75% of the population in 3 months. In mid-April, the vaccination effort reached a peak of about 3.38 million doses per day.

The Biden administration is hoping that by shifting their allocation methods towards state and local governments and private companies, they will be able to incentivise new audiences to get vaccinated. White House COVID-19 Coordinator Jeffrey Zients points out that “not everyone has had the chance to get vaccinated yet.” 

“That’s why,” he explains, “we are using all of the tools at our disposal and enlisting partners across sectors to meet the president’s goal of getting 70% of adult Americans with at least one shot by July 4th.”

Uber and Lyft will not be paid by the federal government in order to provide the free rides. Instead, the companies are hoping the program will bring new users back to their services after the pandemic put pressure on their ride-sharing services. 

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that this latest partnership will help expand on the company’s global commitments to facilitating access to COVID-19 vaccines. “Vaccines are our best hope to beat this pandemic, and soon everyone in America will be able to take a free Uber to get their shot. We are honored to deepen our previous global commitments, and partner with the White House and Lyft to provide free rides to vaccination sites across the US. This is a proud moment for me, for Uber, and for our country,” Mr. Khosrowshahi said. Uber also partnered previously with Moderna to help provide vaccine-safety information.

“Helping more Americans get vaccinated helps the Lyft community of drivers and riders, and we’re grateful to the Biden administration for prioritizing access,” said John Zimmer, the co-founder and president of Lyft.

As partisan politics continue to slow down key legislation in Congress, the founder and head of ENGAGE, Rachel Pearson, has proposed a clever solution: keep the focus on women’s economic security.

ENGAGE is a bipartisan women’s organization that hopes to clue in politicos and policy wonks on the commonly overlooked fact that issues of economic security are, by and large, women’s issues. In a recent op-ed published by The Hill, Pearson lays out her case for why appealing to women on these matters might just bring about the unity that this country has been longing for.

“Women outnumber, outvote, and outlive men,” Pearson points out. “The well-being of American women is, to a significant extent, the well-being of America. Secure their economic prospects and you will have gone a long way in securing the prospects of our many diverse communities.”

Pearson explains three key issues that have stalled in Congress and that women ought to have an outsized interest in:  paid family leave, internet connectivity for all, and retirement security. 

With 7 out of 10 family caregivers being women, Pearson makes the obvious case for why women should care about paid family leave: “How is a working mother who makes less than $75,000 a year on average — and many earn much less — supposed to manage her life and take care of a child with special needs, a father with Alzheimer’s, or a mother who needs to be driven to chemotherapy?”

However, things like internet connectivity and retirement security are also significant issues that impact women disproportionately. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the impact of digital access, or lack thereof, on productivity and success, especially among school age children. Yet, according to Connect the Future, 31 million Americans still lack access to computer technology.

“These millions of Americans have been economically and socially trapped by a lack of technology,” writes Pearson. “Besides education, the absence of access impacts health care and economic security — think of telehealth and entrepreneurs whose small-businesses depend on connectivity,” she adds.

Meanwhile, these inequities tend to build up after a lifetime. With women living longer lives with less earnings, paired with various disparate impacts, women are finding themselves heading towards a retirement cliff.

“All these disadvantages make saving for retirement a daunting challenge for American women,” Pearson explains. “We must immediately grapple with how to support generations of destitute retirees.”

Pearson calls on the Biden administration to take up these issues given the widespread effects it would have, not just for women, but for all demographics. 

“In advancing women’s economic security, you will, by extension, be lifting up our fathers, our brothers, our husbands, and our sons. Women need the Biden administration and Congress to compromise and find the path forward.”

Rachel Pearson founded ENGAGE: Promoting Women’s Economic Security in the wake of the 2018 election. ENGAGE is a bipartisan organization focused on expanding economic opportunity for all American women in the 21st century. Find out more about ENGAGE here.

Washington, D.C. — Uber Technologies, Inc., has teamed up with PayPal and Walgreens to launch an $11 million Vaccine Access Fund, which will provide free rides to COVID-19 vaccination sites in the United States for communities hit hard by COVID-19, as reported by Reuters.

The creation of the fund was announced in a letter to the White House from the CEOs of Uber, PayPal, Walgreens, and the U.S. non-profit Local Initiatives Support Corporation, which is managing the Vaccine Access Fund.

Uber’s support of the Vaccine Access Fund comes in addition to their international commitment to give 10 million free or discounted rides to vaccination sites around the world.

In addition to the federal government’s efforts to combat the pandemic, creative initiatives driven by the private sector, like the Vaccine Access Fund, will help bring us one step closer to returning to normalcy. 

To contribute to the Vaccine Access Fund, donations are accepted here via PayPal or via the donate button found directly in the Uber app.

President Joe Biden answered questions on COVID-19, infrastructure, his plans for the senate filibuster and more during his first official news conference since his inauguration. Journalists who have been patiently waiting for a formal question-and-answer session from the President were quick to draw comparisons to the last administration.

President Biden opened up his first press conference by touting the success of his COVID-19 response and doubling his promised number of vaccines by 100 days from 100 to 200 million vaccines. Biden also said he expects the majority of K-8 students will soon return to their classrooms and announced that more than a 100 million Americans have already cashed their $1,400 stimulus checks.

Biden then opened up the room to questions from reporters. Confronted about the migrant surge on the border Biden said, “Truth of the matter is nothing has changed.”

“As many people came, 28% increase in the children in the border in my administration, 31% in the last year in 2019 before the pandemic in the Trump administration. It happens every single solitary year,” Biden elaborated. 

The president also added that the “vast majority” of migrants at the border are being sent back home. CNN’s Daniel Dale fact-checked this claim, saying “Biden made a more accurate claim about the overall group of migrants but for families in particular, for this particular claim, his claim is not true.” Dale pointed out that while 71% of single adults are being turned away, only 41% of migrants coming as a family were being sent back.

With big plans down the line, reporters were interested in how the President plans to work with Republicans moving forward. Biden’s response was that the filibuster was being “abused in a gigantic way” and said that Republicans will have to decide whether they want “to divide the country, [or] continue the politics of division.”

Though President Biden did acknowledge that the filibuster was a “relic of the Jim Crow era,” he did not show interest in abolishing the filibuster just yet. Though Biden did warn Republicans that, “If we have to, if there’s complete lockdown and chaos as a consequence of the filibuster, then we’ll have to go beyond what I’m talking about.”

Biden talked about his big plans on infrastructure, teasing a major announcement on the topic in Pittsburgh next Wednesday, the 31st. Biden says he hopes to rebuild the “physical and technological infrastructure in this country so we can compete and create significant numbers of really good-paying jobs.”

President Biden also turned heads when he announced interest in running again in 2024: “Yes, my plan is to run for reelection,” he said. “That’s my expectation.”

In an ABC News article, AP Media Writer David Bauder pointed out that the press conference was most notable for what it was missing following the Presidency of Donald Trump. In particular, President Biden received no questions on COVID-19, or any questions from Fox News.

Not taking any questions from Fox News had been expected beforehand because of prior history between Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy and the President. Following the press conference, Doocy said he had a “binder full of questions” for the president, reports RealClearPolitics.

The lack of questions of COVID-19 left some reporters a little more surprised. The New York Times Washington Correspondent Sheryl Gay Stolberg said the questions “suggest that coronavirus is no longer Topic A.” White House Chief of Staff responded saying, “Pretty sure it is for the American people and the Biden White House.”

Washington Post reporter and author of the ‘Power Up’ morning newsletter, Jacqueline Alemany, spoke with Senator Kevin Cramer about his legislative priorities for the 117th Congress this week. The conversation with the junior Senator from North Dakota covered a number of hot button issues including the recent mass shooting in Boulder, CO, the Senate’s filibuster rules, immigration, infrastructure, climate and the future of the Republican Party. You can see the full interview via Washington Post Live, here, or read about it in Alemany’s newsletter, here.

When asked about two gun bills recently introduced in the House, Senator Cramer expressed openness to the legislation, but suggested that a better route would be to ensure that previous gun legislation is properly enforced. 

“Conceptually, I am open to anything,” said Senator Cramer. “There are very few times when I say ‘I will never do that.’ I think you can’t have an honest discussion on non-starters.” 

The senator also said, “We are not adequately enforcing the existing laws within our Constitution.” 

He went on to explain that, “By enforcing, I don’t just mean catching the bad guys… but that registration, the background checks, not making it into the NICS list, the FBI not adequately vetting, not sending in the information for people who should not be eligible for a gun. We have seen that play out in tragic ways.”

On the Senate filibuster, Senator Cramer said he was willing to work with Democrats, but suggested that the Democrats would have to make the first move.

“One of the challenges with regards to the filibuster, you said upfront that the Democrats are taking a ‘wait and see’ attitude to see if we will work with them,” said the North Dakotan senator. “The first thing they have to do — they have to introduce legislation and have hearings.”

“It has been all executive orders and there wasn’t even an invitation, there has never been a public hearing on this. Even if the filibuster is a principle worth maintaining or not,” Senator Cramer continued.

Senator Cramer also reassured Alemany that the upcoming infrastructure package wouldn’t likely go through a budget reconciliation process, saying that, other than opposition to China, it was one of the few issues with a wide base of bi-partisan support.

“I can’t think of a topic where it makes more sense to go the bi-partisan route. We’ve already had a fair bit of success,” said Senator Cramer.

Jacqueline Alemany has worked for the Washington Post since 2018, following up her six years at CBS News where she worked as a Broadcast Associate for ‘Face of the Nation.’ Her morning newsletter features news critical of the many power centers in the United States, including the White House, Capitol Hill, government agencies, and the Pentagon. To see more of her work, check out the ‘Power Up’ newsletter at The Washington Post linked here.