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DRIVING THE DAY
It was supposed to be an upbeat town hall to rally the newsroom, as Washington Post leaders highlighted their moves to defend reporter SEUNG MIN KIM from internet trolls. But sources tell us the March 16 Zoom meeting with hundreds of staffers went off the rails briefly when FELICIA SONMEZ, a breaking news reporter who has spoken openly about her experience as a sexual assault survivor, typed a pointed comment in the chat box: “I wish editors had publicly supported me in the same way.”
Sonmez was referring to an incident that occurred the day KOBE BRYANT died in January 2020. Former top editor MARTY BARON and upper management suspended Sonmez for tweeting a reminder that the basketball legend being showered in praise had also been accused of raping a woman. The Post retracted the suspension after more than 300 reporters signed a letter demanding her reinstatement. It also sent physical protection for Sonmez, who had to leave her house after her Bryant missive went viral and she received death threats.
Full disclosure here: I’m a former Washington Post reporter who signed that letter of support for Sonmez.
More than a year after the incident, the wounds are still fresh. On Friday night, Sonmez publicly criticized her boss, national editor STEVEN GINSBERG, after he was quoted in a Vanity Fair piece about the need to support female journalists when they’re subjected to harassment online. “Wish the same Post editor who is quoted in this piece supported me when I was doxxed and had to leave my home,” she wrote on Twitter, adding Ginsberg’s handle. (The decision to suspend her was made by Baron.)
She didn’t stop there. Sonmez also publicized that she is barred from writing about anything related to sexual misconduct or #MeToo. According to several people familiar with the decision, the prohibition began around the time that sexual misconduct allegations surfaced against Supreme Court Justice BRETT KAVANAUGH, and continued recently with news about Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.) acknowledging she is a survivor of assault as well as the harassment allegations against New York Gov. ANDREW CUOMO.
Last Monday, Sonmez had to take herself off a story about former Missouri Gov. ERIC GREITENS running for Senate, according to comments she made in an internal newsroom Slack channel. (Greitens resigned as governor following allegations that he sexually assaulted and blackmailed a woman.) That came just days after the staff meeting, when a fellow reporter followed up on Sonmez’s comment in the Zoom chat and demanded to know why Post leadership defended some reporters but not her. (Acting Executive Editor CAMERON BARR, we are told, said the meeting was not the appropriate venue to address the matter.)
The controversy comes as publisher FRED RYAN is searching for Baron’s replacement. Ginsberg and Barr are in the running for the top job.
Sonmez declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for the Post. But the Post reporters I spoke with about this recently questioned the fairness of the ban. Every reporter has internal biases, they said; part of the job is checking them at the door. One said Sonmez has become something of an advocate for sexual assault victims, making management uncomfortable with her writing on this topic. But even that person said a blanket prohibition is overkill.
Sonmez tweeted Friday that the entire situation has caused distress. “I haven’t been able to work for much of the past two weeks, am taking sick leave next week and have experienced a recurrence of the same debilitating symptoms that I had when I came forward about my assault 3 years ago,” she wrote.
Sonmez, according to emails obtained by Playbook, has implored senior management at the Post to reverse the coverage ban. In an email to Ginsberg and his deputies last May, she wrote that “it is humiliating to again and again have to tell my colleagues and editors that I am not allowed to do my job fully because I was assaulted.”
“I believe it’s important for you to know that The Post’s decision on this matter has had negative repercussions for me personally in the past,” she wrote. “[I]t’s the tortured explanations I have to give whenever there is breaking news on this topic and I’m not allowed to cover it.”
Sonmez was responding to being informed by Ginsberg earlier that day that the Post would maintain its prohibition on her writing about sexual assault or harassment. His deputy, PETER WALLSTEN, followed up soon after, acknowledging that while the policy may cause her “emotional distress,” the newspaper stood by the arrangement: “I’m really sorry you are unhappy with the parameters of your assignment … But it is up to The Post to determine coverage assignments and I do not anticipate yours changing anytime soon.”
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JOIN US — President JOE BIDEN’S agenda is moving along with an ambitious timeline of having enough Covid-19 vaccines for all adults by the end of May, the deployment of $1.9 trillion in pandemic relief and a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure plan. But the White House is also dealing with a rise in the number of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, the fallout from back-to-back mass shootings and a coming showdown over the Senate filibuster. Join RYAN on Thursday at 9 a.m. for a conversation with White House chief of staff RON KLAIN to discuss what’s next on Biden’s agenda. Register here
SUNDAY BEST …
Sen. CHRIS MURPHY (D-Conn.) on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on gun reform legislation: “I think that Republicans have to argue, as a means of defending the current rules, that the Senate can still work under the 60-vote requirement. I think Republicans may be looking for issues to prove that Democrats don’t need to obliterate the filibuster. Here’s their opportunity.”
And Murphy, a leading Democrat on this issue, on the most plausible option: “I think right now our best chance to get something passed is universal background checks. And I think that the theory of the case is that once we convince Republicans that the sky doesn’t fall for you politically when you support a reasonable expansion of something like background checks, you can move on to other interventions.”
White House press secretary JEN PSAKI on “Fox News Sunday” on the next legislative proposals: “Well, we’re not quite at the legislative strategy yet, Chris, but I will say that I don’t think Republicans in this country think we should be 13th in the world as it relates to infrastructure. Roads, railways, rebuilding them, that’s not a partisan issue. That’s a lot of what the president will talk about this Wednesday [in Pittsburgh].
“Then he will have another package, another proposal that he will put forward in just a couple of weeks that will address a lot of issues that American people are struggling with — child care, the cost of health care. So that’s what they can expect to hear from him in April.”
Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) on “Fox News Sunday” on Biden’s filibuster comments: “You know what’s sick is to have the president of the United States to play the race card continuously in such a hypocritical way. He said the filibuster was a relic of the Jim Crow era. Well, he made an hour speech when he was a senator suggesting the filibuster was the best thing for the Senate to make it different in the House. … They use the racism card to advance a liberalism agenda and we’re tired of it.”
BIDEN’S SUNDAY — The president and VP KAMALA HARRIS have nothing on their public schedules.
GOLD RUSH — “Trump helped the GOP raise $2 billion. Now former aides and allies are jockeying to tap into his fundraising power,” WaPo with an important story on GOP politics: “One day before the Republican Party’s elite donors are slated to gather for their April retreat in Palm Beach, Fla., [the Conservative Partnership Institute,] a nonprofit group aligned with onetime aides to former president Donald Trump is hosting an ‘investors meeting’ a few miles away for major GOP contributors. The keynote speaker is Trump himself, and his gilded Mar-a-Lago Club is hosting the event. …
“The goal … is to woo at least some wealthy party donors in town for the Republican National Committee retreat and persuade them to devote large sums to the group. The aggressive pitch to Republican contributors comes as the number of independent money operations connected to Trump — some directly associated with the former president, others that have his tacit blessing — has been rapidly expanding since he left office.”
PLAYBOOK READS
CONGRESS
NRA ON ITS HEELS — “In the latest debate on guns, a hobbled NRA takes a backseat,” CNN: “But thanks to years of shedding its claim to bipartisanship and aligning almost entirely with the Republican Party, the country’s premier pro-gun lobby’s agenda has firmly planted its agenda within the GOP, a legacy that continues to frustrate efforts to change gun laws. … Both Republican and Democratic aides have told CNN the NRA has not been much of a factor on Capitol Hill in recent months.”
BUT PROSPECTS FOR NEW GUN LAWS REMAIN DIM — WaPo: “Across the country, lawmakers at all levels have struggled to pass meaningful legislation, and courts sometimes strike down what does become law. It’s an even bigger challenge at the federal level, where no major gun-control measure has passed in more than two decades, even though nearly 20,000 Americans were killed by guns last year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
“‘Solutions are not the priority for our politicians. It’s never ending,’ said Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin, 17, was killed in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in 2018.”
AS ARE THE CHANCES OF HATE CRIME LEGISLATION — Nicholas Wu and Marianne LeVine: “Unlike immigration or voting rights, hate crime is an issue with few obvious political pitfalls — and the discriminatory violence against Asian Americans that’s increased during the coronavirus pandemic has raised its national profile. Yet Congress is still confronting a dynamic that recalls its long-running inability to respond to rising gun violence: While lawmakers in both parties are quick to condemn wrongdoing after mass shootings and other tragic events, enacting a law that addresses them is once again proving elusive.
“‘It all fits in that same swirl of the things that the American people want us to do. But Congress continues to fail because of the filibuster,’ said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).”
MORE PRESS FOR THE MAJORITY LEADER — “In Washington, Policy Revolves Around Joe Manchin. He Likes It That Way,” NYT: “A former high school quarterback who friends say still relishes being at the center of the action, Mr. Manchin is something of a unicorn in today’s Congress. As a pro-coal and anti-abortion Democrat, he reflects a less-homogenized era when regionalism was as significant as partisanship and senators were more individual actors than predictable votes for their caucus. …
“While out of step with his national party on some issues, and written off by parts of the left as little better than a Republican, his politics are more complex, even confounding, than they appear at first glance.”
THE WHITE HOUSE
BEZOS’ PAPER ON THE AMAZON UNIONIZATION EFFORT — “Biden walks the union line, making a play for blue-collar workers,” WaPo: “By February, the pitch from [Rep. Andy] Levin and a chorus of labor leaders paid off. Seth Harris, now a top labor adviser to Biden, wrote a script for a Biden video promoting the union effort. Biden’s speechwriters tinkered with it, the president added some personal touches, the White House recorded it — and on Feb. 28, it went online.
“The decision to publish the video, described by people with knowledge of its creation, was hailed by allies as proof that Biden is committed to being, as he promised, ‘the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.’ … The video culminated a series of early policy, political and personnel decisions by Biden to champion organized labor, perhaps more aggressively than any president since Franklin D. Roosevelt.” (Re the timing: “Monday is the final day for Amazon workers to vote on unionization, though it may take time to finalize the results.”)
— TO WIT: “First Lady Jill Biden to visit California next week for Cesar Chavez holiday,” L.A. Times
EAST WING FILES — “After two months in office, Kamala Harris is still living out of suitcases — and she’s getting frustrated with it,” CNN: “It’s unclear why the renovations [to the VP’s private residence] are taking so long, said one administration official, but it’s a situation that has left Harris increasingly and understandably bothered, according to several people who spoke to CNN about her situation …
“CNN has looked at various government contracts, awarded for myriad issues at the vice president’s residence over the last few years, many of which detail intensive foundational work. … The contracts, while substantial, aren’t overtly egregious in terms of cost and expectation … Two administration staff with knowledge of the ongoing updates told CNN that Harris — who likes to cook — requested work be done on the kitchen.”
IMMIGRATION FILES
TRUMP TO TEXAS? — Former President DONALD TRUMP told Fox News’ JEANINE PIRRO on Saturday that he’d “probably” go to the U.S.-Mexico border, denouncing Biden’s immigration policies: “Over the next few weeks I guess I’ll go. And I’m not sure that I really should do it, Jeanine, other than the fact that I have such respect for the Border Patrol and for ICE. And these people — they’re dying for leadership. There’s nothing. There’s no leadership.” The clip
A FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT — “What is motivating migrants,” WaPo: “Thousands are journeying to the border, motivated by complicated personal and practical reasons that intersect where survival meets opportunity.”
POLITICS ROUNDUP
2022 WATCH — “DeSantis hires top GOP operative for 2022 campaign,” by Alex Isenstadt: “Phil Cox, a former executive director of the Republican Governors Association, has joined the DeSantis team as a senior-level adviser. The Florida governor had been in talks with several candidates for the post but ultimately settled on Cox, who has established close relationships with a number of Republican governors over the years.”
GONE GUY — “‘He’s toast’: GOP leaves Raffensperger twisting in the wind,”by David Siders and Zach Montellaro: “[A]s the GOP forges its post-Trump era identity, Raffensperger’s reelection campaign is emerging as one of the earliest and most contentious test cases for the direction of the party. At issue is more than just whether critics of the former president can succeed in the party. It’s whether a Republican who rejects the lie that the last election was stolen has any chance of winning another one.”
ON THE OTHER HAND … “Maine GOP votes overwhelmingly to reject Susan Collins censure,” Bangor Daily News
PANDEMIC
A LITERAL POST-MORTEM — “Birx shares her chilling conclusion as America arrives at a moment of introspection on the coronavirus,” CNN: “[Deborah] Birx gives [Sanjay] Gupta her gut-wrenching answer when asked how much of an impact it would have made if the US had paused earlier and followed through with the safety measures that were proven to slow the spread.
“‘I look at it this way. The first time we have an excuse,’ Birx says. ‘There were about a hundred thousand deaths that came from that original surge. All of the rest of them, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially.’”
JAN. 6 AND ITS AFTERMATH
E-RING READING — “‘Be aware’: The Pentagon’s target list for extremist infiltrators — right and left,” by Betsy Woodruff Swan and Bryan Bender: “Flags from the left-wing Antifa movement. Depictions of Pepe the Frog, the cartoon character that’s been misappropriated by racist groups. Iconography from the far-right Proud Boys, including the phrase ‘stand back and stand by’ from former President Donald Trump.
“They are all signs that extremists could be infiltrating the military, according to internal training materials that offer a more detailed view into the array of radical groups and ideologies the Pentagon is trying to keep out of the ranks. … The materials were prepared as part of a broader Pentagon effort to crack down on extremists who may be lurking inside the military after dozens of ex-service members were arrested for their roles in the Jan. 6 attack.” The briefing
ON THE WORLD STAGE
PAGING JOE MANCHIN — “China Hits U.S., Canada With Sanctions in Xinjiang Fallout,” Bloomberg: “A quarrel over allegations of human-rights abuses in China continued as Beijing announced retaliatory sanctions on individuals in the U.S. and Canada and the corporate fallout spread. Tensions have flared over reports of forced labor being used to harvest cotton in China’s western province of Xinjiang …
“The sanctions announced Saturday target [U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom] Chair Gayle Manchin, who is the wife of Democratic Senator Joe Manchin; USCIRF Vice Chair Tony Perkins, who’s also president of the Christian conservative lobbying group Family Research Council; Canadian MP Michael Chong; and the Canadian Parliament’s Subcommittee on International Human Rights.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s response
PUTTING THE PRESSURE ON — “Exclusive: Top military officers from U.S., allies to condemn violence by Myanmar security forces,” Reuters
DEEP DIVE — “They Were Guantánamo’s First Detainees. Here’s Where They Are Now,” NYT: “Just two of those first 20 men are still at Guantánamo. … The rest — a mix of hardened fighters, low-level combatants and men who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time — are long gone, repatriated or dispersed across the globe to 11 nations, including Australia and some in the Persian Gulf. …
“Some of the first 20 have managed to make good on Guantánamo dreams of marrying and having children. Some have sought obscurity. Many have not put the past behind them. They include four men who have emerged as Taliban political and military leaders. Two others are languishing in a prison in the United Arab Emirates under an American diplomatic transfer arrangement that soured.”
MEDIAWATCH
WHITE KNIGHT? — “Swiss Billionaire Joins the Bidding for Tribune Publishing,” NYT: “An octogenarian Swiss billionaire who makes his home in Wyoming and has donated hundreds of millions to environmental causes is a surprise new player in the bidding for Tribune Publishing, the major newspaper chain that until recently seemed destined to end up in the hands of a New York hedge fund.
“Hansjörg Wyss (pronounced Hans-yorg Vees), the former chief executive of the medical device manufacturer Synthes, said in an interview on Friday that he had agreed to join with the Maryland hotelier Stewart W. Bainum Jr. in a bid for Tribune Publishing, an offer that could upend Alden Global Capital’s plan to take full ownership of the company.” The op-ed that inspired Wyss
PLAYBOOKERS
TRANSITION — Liz Hipple will be a senior policy analyst at the Joint Economic Committee. She previously was senior policy adviser at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.
BIRTHDAYS: Reps. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.), David McKinley (R-W.Va.) and Kai Kahele (D-Hawaii) … CBS’ Ed O’Keefe and Bob Kovach … Fox News’ Todd Piro … OPM’s Lauren Ehrsam Gorey … Ian Blue … Cheryl Oldham … Ricky Moxley … Josh Cook … Tori Bice … Dennis Sills … Aaron Davis, FEMA expert… Hank Paulson … Kirk Marshall … Ben Porritt … Tim Phelps … Peter Ambler … POLITICO’s Rex Willis, Danielle Banks and Abbey Sattele … Lee Hancock … Jake Adelstein … Keith Nahigian … Bill Gertz … Alexander Grieve … James Singer … Janine Benner … former Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) … Florida A.G. Ashley Moody … Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte (76)
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