A controversial move to appease the Left on the Supreme Court and a plum job for the wife of a crucial senator.
In recent weeks, President Joe Biden has released controversial, awkward, or embarrassing news on Fridays. In so doing, he is using one of the oldest tricks known to communications strategists, releasing bad news safe in the knowledge its sting will have eased by Monday.
It’s public relations 101, said John Feehery, a veteran Republican strategist.
“It’s kind of like a vaccine. It inoculates you from more stories emerging because it’s old news by the end of the weekend,” he said. “Sometimes, you might have a terrible story that makes the Sunday shows, but if you can manage it so you get a few small stories, then you have done it pretty well.”
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Last week, it was an announcement that Biden was setting up a commission to consider Supreme Court reform, including the thorny issue of increasing the number of justices. Biden famously once dismissed the idea as “boneheaded” but is under pressure from supporters who fear his agenda is at risk from a court that skews conservative after former President Donald Trump’s three appointments.
The White House made its announcement after releasing a statement on the death of the Duke of Edinburgh and before Biden paid a personal tribute to Queen Elizabeth II’s husband.
Two weeks before that, the White House announced it was nominating Gayle Manchin to be federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission, responsible for steering millions of dollars in spending.
The move immediately triggered pointed questions about whether her nomination might be related to the fact her husband Sen. Joe Manchin is emerging as a centrist Democratic thorn in the president’s ability to get legislation through the Senate. Yet, it was not until 72 hours later on Monday that the White House press corps could quiz the press secretary about it.
As Austin Cantrell, a White House spokesman under Trump, put it: “Anyone who has worked with news cycles, or has even watched The West Wing episode entitled ‘Take Out The Trash Day,’ knows Friday is the day to quietly release news you want forgotten.”
That episode features deputy White House chief of staff Josh Lyman explaining the concept.
“Any stories we have to give the press that we’re not wild about, we give all in a lump on Friday,” he tells his assistant, before adding that no one reads their paper on a Saturday.
The days of limited column inches may be gone, and online news sites may offer unlimited space for multiple bad news stories, but the practice continues.
Even Trump’s less regimented press operation made use of the idea. To take one example, in 2017, his White House released a slew of unflattering stories while Hurricane Harvey thundered toward Texas.
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Trump officials used Fridays to announce a ban on transgender recruits joining the armed forces, the pardon of convicted Arizona county sheriff Joe Arpaio, and word leaked that Sebastian Gorka, a controversial presence in the White House, had left his job.
