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Welcome back to The Washington Mall, my twice-a-week private email about what’s really going on in this town—on the Hill, in Bidenworld, on K Street, and within the media companies devouring it all. Speaking of which… On Monday, I reported that the New York Times was close to announcing that they had filled the job posting for a Right Wing Media Reporter, after keeping the role vacant since January. Many thought the job, calling for a reporter with “backbone to withstand aggressive blowback,” would be shelved with the transition of executive editors Dean Baquet to Joe Kahn.
Today, they announced their new pick Ken Bensinger, a veteran investigative reporter from Buzzfeed, who has broken ground on the Oathkeepers and their role in the January 6 attacks, which may give him entry and a thick enough hide to endure the worst of MAGAworld. At the same time, the glowing Times announcement notably omits that he was the lead byline at Buzzfeed when they published the Steele Dossier, an admittedly unverified document, which might be a roadblock to convincing Trump’s most ardent supporters to spill their darkest secrets. The Times memo also fails to note that his brother Greg Bensinger is on the editorial board. (Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said the editorial board has “zero role in the interview or selection process for our newsroom journalists.”)
Mentioned in this email: Jill Biden, Michael LaRosa, Symone Sanders, Anthony Bernal, Hope Hicks, Ron DeSantis, Dina Powell, Dr. Oz, Kyrsten Sinema, and many, many more.
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| One of the pre-eminent misunderstandings regarding the West Wing is that it’s a McKinseyified modern political operation professionally run by Ron Klain. Of course, as I’ve reported over the past few months, anyone who truly knows anything about Joe Biden is cognizant that, after a half century in public life, his circle of trust is small and familial. His sister, Val, is long-credited as being his Valerie Jarrett, but the truth is that so many of the big decisions require buy-in from Jill Biden, who will ultimately decide whether or not her husband runs for re-election.
In the White House, the first lady’s power looms large. No one ever wants to say no to Jill Biden because her de facto chief of staff, the testy Anthony Bernal, has a disproportionate amount of power in the White House; he has been with the Bidens since 2008 and is seen as the gatekeeper to the family. And this certainly explains why the race to succeed Michael LaRosa, the press secretary to the first lady, has become so deeply coveted and bizarrely public, with multiple stories about jockeying for the position appearing in the media... |
