Post Politics Now Biden touts work on bolstering retirement savings in Ohio visit

The president was in Ohio to talk about yes, his administration’s efforts to protect the retirement benefits of 3 million working-class Americans, but he also gave us a preview for how Biden will cast the upcoming election.

He touted the benefits of the American Rescue Plan — one of his administration’s earliest achievements — and offered a sharp distillation of how he views the Republican Party, Matt Viser and Joanna Connors write.

But the address also offered a reminder of some of the political challenges he is facing: A politician who has long prided himself on being a sought-after surrogate — and one with blue-collar appeal in states like Ohio — is a less desirable commodity at the moment for some within his party.

Six Democratic senators asked the Biden administration to reclassify cannabis and pardon nonviolent offenders, a push to get the president closer to marijuana legalization.

The senators — Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Edward J. Markey (Mass.), Bernie Sanders (Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Ron Wyden (Ore.) and Cory Booker (N.J.) — sent a letter to Biden on Wednesday calling on him to use his authority to pardon “all individuals convicted of non-violent cannabis-related offenses” and to remove cannabis’s classification as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act. The letter was addressed to Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

Joe Rogan, the color commentator for the Ultimate Fighting Championship who has recently come under fire from critics who say his popular podcast promotes conspiracy theories, said this week that there is one guest he won’t have on his show: former president Donald Trump.

In fact, Rogan revealed Monday that he’s turned down Trump multiple times from appearing on the podcast, Spotify’s “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

“I’m not a Trump supporter in any way, shape or form. I’ve had the opportunity to have him on my show more than once; I’ve said no every time,” Rogan said on Lex Fridman’s podcast. “I don’t want to help him; I’m not interested in helping him.”

President Biden, speaking before union workers and retirees in Cleveland, on Wednesday highlighted his record in creating jobs and contrasted it with that of his predecessor, Donald Trump.

“The previous administration lost more jobs in his watch than any administration since Herbert Hoover,” Biden said. “That’s a fact, all based on failed trickle-down economics to benefit the wealthiest Americans. It hit the middle class and working people the hardest.”

In Biden’s first year in office, employers added a record 6.6 million jobs — the strongest for any president in his first year. Trump’s first 12 months saw a gain of 2 million jobs.

Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director, is leaving the Biden administration within the coming weeks.

Our colleague Tyler Pager reports that Bedingfield, 40, is a longtime Biden aide who served as communications director when Biden served as vice president. After months on the 2020 campaign and more than a year and a half at the White House, Bedingfield is leaving to spend time with her family.

“Without Kate Bedingfield’s talent and tenacity, Donald Trump might still be in the White House, the Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Law might still be unrealized goals, and Ketanji Brown Jackson might not be sitting on the Supreme Court,” said White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain in a statement. “She has played a huge role in everything the President has achieved — from his second term as Vice President, through the campaign, and since coming to the White House.”

On the day before he is scheduled to award Presidential Medals of Freedom to 17 people for a wide variety of endeavors, President Biden tweeted a video that included phone calls with several of them, including soccer star Megan Rapinoe and former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, relaying the news of his decision.

A ceremony is planned for 2 p.m. Thursday at the White House. A full list of the award recipients is available here.

Every week, Post Politics Now interviews one lawmaker about their work on the Hill. This week’s guest is Democratic Rep. Judy Chu (Calif.), who introduced the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that would codify abortion rights into law.

Q: Should Democrats set up votes on bills to enshrine abortion rights with exceptions for rape and incest?

A: It is absolutely necessary for us to put bills on the floor that will uphold the rights of women to abortion. And that certainly can be accomplished with a [WHPA], which is my bill, and passed in September with a vote of 218 to 211, making it the most supported pro-abortion bill ever passed in the history of Congress.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday sought to downplay the expected absences at President Biden’s event in Cleveland of the state’s Democratic nominees for U.S. Senate and governor.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One en route to the event, Jean-Pierre said the White House has been in close touch with both Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), the Senate nominee, and former Dayton mayor Nan Whaley, the gubernatorial nominee.

“Tim Ryan put out a statement supporting this trip, and we’re in constant communication with both of them,” Jean-Pierre said.