The Back Booth, a weekend edition of The D.C. Brief, is TIME’s politics newsletter. Each week it hosts a conversation between political professionals on the right and the left, pulling back the curtain on the conversations taking place in Washington when the tape stops rolling. This week Partner Kristen Hawn sat down with journalist Philip Elliott and Republican consultant Matt Beynon. Read the piece here.
Press
Senate Democrats are bracing for a surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in the wake of President Biden’s decision to rescind Title 42, a key restriction, creating yet another political headwind for Democratic candidates ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. ROKK Senior Vice President, a former aide to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, John LaBombard shares his thoughts on why vulnerable and centrist Democrats are scrambling to distance themselves from President Biden’s decision-read the article here.
A popular refrain PR experts hear from executives is, “I’m an expert on XYZ topic. So, why doesn’t the media call me for interviews?” One reason is that the “reliable source club” is small. Anecdotally, it seems journalists have a cadre of go-to sources they tap consistently, especially when covering breaking news stories. PR News created a list of the basic characteristics of a good source, where ROKK Managing Director Lindsay Singleton explains the importance of offering context on the environment to the generalist reporter-read the article here.
When President Biden ad-libbed a line about how Russian President Putin “cannot remain in power,” he was echoing a popular global sentiment, albeit one with enormous gravity. To some, it was seen as a moment of candor by a president whose decades-long political career had him entrenched in foreign policy matters. Others say that Biden’s tendency toward candidness is a dual-edged sword. ROKK Partner and Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau explains how Biden is being true to himself-read the article here.
The Biden Administration is preparing for a possible new surge in COVID-19 cases and has already started the political blame game in case the response falls short. In fact, The White House has called out Republicans in Congress for not authorizing new funds to make the fourth round of booster shots free and pay for therapeutics and other ways to reduce the impact of another surge in cases. ROKK Partner and Democratic strategist Kristen Hawn said that the politics around the pandemic have put the Biden White House in a tough spot-read the article here.
GOP strategists say that Trump pulling his Mo Brooks endorsement is a reminder of the harsh reality of dealing with the former president. ROKK Co-founding Partner Ron Bonjean weighs in on the relationship between Trump and Brooks-read the article here.
Flashing a red marker and his desire for a larger stage, Texas Senator Ted Cruz was in full viral mode at Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination hearing. Republican strategist and ROKK Co-founding Partner Ron Bonjean explains how the nomination hearings are a way for Senate Republicans to capture a moment inside of Washington where the spotlight is on them-read the article here.
Republicans don’t have the votes to stop Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson from being confirmed to the Supreme Court — but they hope to use her nomination battle to advance their political war against Democrats, with an eye to the midterm elections. GOP strategist and ROKK Co-founding Partner Ron Bonjean explains how the Supreme Court confirmation process has turned into a political campaign and a branding exercise -read the full article here.
Democrats want their brightest stars to hit the campaign trail ahead of November. The only problem? It’s an open question who they are. Democratic strategist and ROKK Co-founding Partner Rodell Mollineau weighs in-read the article here.
U.S. President Joe Biden faced a formidable challenge in his first State of the Union speech, after a year in office buffeted by the COVID-19 pandemic, a jittery economy and now Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
ROKK Co-founding Partner Rodell Mollineau shared his perspective on some of the key takeaways from the speech here.