Both Republicans and Democrats enter yet another week contending with the long-tail consequences of the Big Lie and the Little Lie. For Republicans on Capitol Hill, it’s renewed pressure over the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and whether Jan. 6 rioters who attacked police should receive government payments — something President Donald Trump did not rule out during an explosive “Meet the Press” interview on Sunday. For Democrats, it’s the “Little Lie” that former President Joe Biden was well enough to stand for reelection in 2024 — and the Biden family in general, from former first lady Jill Biden’s book tour to Hunter Biden’s rolling X memoir. Every time the Democratic Party tries to step into its post-Biden future, the Bidens seem to step on a rake. “It’s not my call of course but would suggest a Sunday midnight Hawaii time informal deadline for all Biden discourse,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) posted to X on Friday. (Apologies, senator, for just missing your deadline.) Entering a month when the party’s future will come into sharper focus, the Bidens are reemerging with recriminations about its past. Amid her book tour, the former first lady drew rare pushback from Biden loyalist and former spokesperson Andrew Bates, who told the New York Post he didn’t understand “why that painful conversation for the party needed to be publicly reopened right now.” “I want to say to Andrew: Call me up, and say it to my face, buddy,” the former first lady said, a response that left many Democrats agog. (Biden herself reached out to Bates last week and the two spoke, according to a person familiar.) Who the former first lady hasn’t spoken to: Rep. Nancy Pelosi — not since the former House speaker led efforts to persuade Biden to exit the 2024 presidential race, she shared this past weekend during a Miami-area stop promoting her new book, “View from the East Wing.” Interviewer Ana Navarro asked about an exchange recounted in the book between Joe Biden and Pelosi in January, during the funeral for Tatiana Schlossberg, the daughter of Caroline Kennedy. According to the book, Joe Biden left his pew to approach Pelosi as the priest invited those in attendance to share the sign of peace. Jill Biden explained that even though she didn’t see Pelosi she knew “instinctively” what was happening because of their long marriage and “who Joe was.” “He walked back to her and said, ‘Let’s be friends,’ and they weren’t going to let this destroy — to have this grudge that would go on and on,” she said. Jill Biden added that she no longer held a grudge about what happened, “as hurtful as it was.” And there’s more to come: Joe Biden last week raised the possibility that his own post-presidential memoir could drop as early as September, right in the middle of the post-Labor Day midterm sprint — though Biden spokesperson TJ Ducklo clarified to Playbook and others “the president is still working on his memoir and the release date has not yet been finalized.” All of which means, no matter whether Schatz likes it, the Biden era is certain to haunt Democrats pining to make a clean break. Even so, the Biden staffer diaspora has long since moved on. “I think a lot of us feel like the best thing to do is to try and help Democrats regain ground and pass on lessons that we have learned,” said Bates, who’s advising midterm candidates up and down the ballot including Rebecca Cooke, who’s running for a House seat in Wisconsin. Chris Meagher, the former special assistant to the president and deputy press secretary, is advising Iowa Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek. But perhaps the most telling sign Biden world is looking to the future comes from Ron Klain, Biden’s former chief of staff. Klain, who is chief legal officer at Airbnb, has been using his personal time to advise Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) as he prepares for a possible 2028 presidential bid, three people familiar told Playbook, channeling progressive impulses that were often visible when he steered the Biden White House. (It’s also a sign of Khanna’s intent and preparation to run in 2028.) Playbook also learned that Klain’s personal political activities since he left Biden’s orbit are far more significant and sweeping than previously known. Klain worked on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's debate prep, starting in July 2025, for the last two primary debates and the general election debates; he helped with debate prep and general advising for New York 12th candidate Jack Schlossberg, a former student of his at Harvard Law School; he’s assisting with Xavier Becerra’s California gubernatorial bid; and he’s advising Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on his reelection campaign. Klain declined a Playbook interview, saying he wanted his political activities to remain “low key.” One indication of where Klain sees the energy of the party now: He signed on to do debate prep for Graham Platner in anticipation of a debate with Maine Gov. Janet Mills that never happened. Dispatch from Maine: Platner “sought to move past a recent spate of controversies casting a new shadow over his Senate campaign, returning to his stump speech in front of a mostly supportive crowd days before the Maine primary,” POLITICO’s Jessica Piper reports on the ground in Portland. “He did not address the recent controversies head-on, nor was he directly asked about it by attendees.” On today’s Playbook Podcast: Dasha and Megan Messerly discuss the war with Iran as the conflict stretches to 100 days.
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