Pfeiffer: Post-midterms, the WH decided to be the opposite of contrite and it worked

August 11, 2024

On the heels of his last day at the White House, longtime Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer is shedding light on the administration's unexpectedly aggressive posture since Democrats suffered sweeping losses in November.

In a candid interview with New York Magazine, Pfeiffer bemoaned partisan gridlock in Washington while admitting there's little the president can do to curb it. And that seems to have informed the White House's decision not to make overtures to Republican leaders. Pfeiffer told Jonathan Chait:

“[A] lot of the advice we got around town was, You have to show major contrition; heads have to roll; you have to give some sop to the Republicans. The president’s view was, No, we’re not going to do that. We’re going to go out and we’re going to be the opposite of contrite; we’re going to be aggressive in our policies and our politics. And that worked. It caused people to cheer.”

He added that there has “never been a time when we’ve taken progressive action and regretted it.”

At the heart of the White House's approach, Pfieffer indicated, is the view that there is little chance that the administration will be able to break through to Republicans in a meaningful way.

“We don’t have the ability to communicate with them — we can’t even break into the tight communication circles to convince them that climate change is real,” Pfeiffer told Chait. “[T]he president is probably the person with the least ability to break into that because of the partisan bias there.”

Against that backdrop, the Obama White House has been known for experimenting with creative ways to reach supporters and new audiences. That was perhaps best exemplified by the heavily mocked interviews the president did with several YouTube personalities in January.

In an interview published Monday with Medium, Pfeiffer said the YouTube interviews were effective, even if they raised eyebrows.

“We knew we would get some critics from the traditional Washington reporters who would say they asked a bunch of softball questions. But [the YouTube stars are] asking the questions that they think their audiences want to hear. Which is why they’re so popular,” he told Medium.

He added: “It’s not a substitute for a White House press conference or an interview with a traditional mainstream journalist. It’s just another way of trying to engage.”

Pfeiffer announced his departure last month, another in a series of high profile exits that include John Podesta and Jennifer Palmieri. Both Podesta and Palmieri are expected to join Hillary Clinton’s likely campaign-in-waiting.

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