My name is Stephanie Jones and I am a Democratic insider. Not the kind who plays one on teevee, but a real honest-to-goodness one.
As true as it is, it feels strange to say because actual insiders don’t go around calling ourselves insiders. Kind of like how fighter pilots with the right stuff never uttered the words “right stuff, ” we are what we are and there’s no need to talk about it.
But I’m going to make an exception just this time. Because some folks are out here claiming to be insiders and causing a whole lot of trouble.
Some background:
I’m an insider who has sat with presidents and senators and members of Congress and cabinet secretaries in quiet rooms where difficult decisions are made. Sometimes I’ve been there to participate in the decision-making, other times my role was to support the deliberations.
I have been the first person a president has looked for when he walked into a room because he knew I knew exactly where he needed to go and what he was supposed to do.
I’ve been one of the first calls more than one candidate has made when they decided to run for president and needed to be sure they reached out to the right key people before going public.
I’ve participated in several debate preps with a presidential candidate and ridden with them to the debate, so I could give a last-minute brief on how to handle prickly questions, and then climbed back into the car with them afterward so we could discuss how they did.
I have watched a candidate’s victory speech on television, only to notice the tight shot wasn’t reflective of the campaign’s diversity, so I picked up the phone and made a call, and within seconds watched the human backdrop rearrange itself according to my instructions.
I have sat in the Speaker’s box in the House Gallery, at her invitation, to watch her preside over a historic vote.
I’m the Stephanie in the sentence uttered on several occasions: “I know you all think I need to do thus-and-so, but I need to know what Stephanie thinks before I make a decision.”
I’m telling you this, not to boast or show off, but to illustrate my bona fides support what I’m about to tell you.
I’ve done all of these things and more.
But you know what I have NEVER done? I have never, not once, not ever, told a reporter that I thought someone I worked for or advised had performed poorly in a debate, speech or interview, or was likely to lose an election or needed to change course.
And I definitely never called or took a call from a reporter during or after a debate, speech, or interview to tell them that I was “jittery” about anything.
Because true insiders don’t do that.
Actual insiders don’t talk to the media about what’s happening on the inside, and they certainly don’t try to send messages to principal through journalists. A hallmark of being an “insider” is that we can communicate directly with the principal or we are well-connected and respected enough by the people in the inner circle that we can tell them and know that our thoughts and advice will make it all the way in.
We don’t go around talking off the record to reporters who are looking for dirt and we definitely don’t provide it to them.
That said, there is a cadre of people in Washington I refer to as “Inside Adjacent”: folks who perhaps worked on the Hill or in a department years ago and have stayed connected enough with certain players to get invited to an occasional DNC briefing or the White House Easter Egg Roll or annual holiday party and have lots of pictures with powerful people they took at fundraisers they paid good money to go to so they could get their pictures taken with powerful people.
I suspect that when we hear pundits talking about how their phones are “blowing up” with calls from “nervous Democratic insiders” and then presenting this as proof that President Biden is “in trouble,” or that “Democrats are wavering,” what you’re really hearing are opinions from the Insider Adjacent crowd. And I strongly suggest that you take what they’re supposedly saying with a huge dollop of salt.
Of course, it’s always possible, even if it’s not likely, that an actual insider has spoken with a reporter. But, unless and until breathless journalists who claim they are talking with anonymous “insiders familiar with Biden’s thinking” reveal who these so-called “insiders” are, THIS genuine insider suggests that you give their reporting the consideration it merits – in other words, just ignore it.