Subject: Re: Barrish interview/story
From: "Molly Magarik" <[email-masked]>
To: "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "Kaufman Ted" <[email-masked]>, "Jim" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 18:00:18 -0500

I spoke to Margaret at length, and she thinks that Cris will definitely
write the article regardless of whether Beau speaks to him, and that he
clearly already has his premise, i.e. Beau's still not well and isn't
really back at work.

In her mind the decision to be made is whether there's more long-term
damage from an article where Beau talks to him, but is cagey and unable to
fully articulate his plans for the future, or an article that's full of
speculation about his health and challenges his ability to do his job or
any future job.

She thinks the latter is more detrimental, and since Beau is back at work
and healthy again, she recommends a 15-20 meeting with Cris in a
controlled, but casual setting along with Hunter or someone else who can
help steer the conversation.  If a meeting is out of the question because
Beau might deck him, then she thinks a phone call would be better than no
comment/couldn't be reached for the story.

She said that regarding the inevitable health questions, we should have a
prepared statement to give him from Beau's doc saying that he's been given
a clean bill of health, has all his faculties, and there's no reason he
shouldn't be back at work. Beyond that he shouldn't offer any other
details, and when asked why he won't, on background he should play the
parent card. She believes that Cris will understand Beau exercising his
right as a parent to stick by the doc's statement and nothing more for the
sake of his kids. It doesn't mean the story won't still take shots at him,
but that they won't be as biting.

She's happy to jump on a call with everyone to discuss further, or you all
can feel free to call her individually.

Just to throw another option out there, I know we discussed an announcement
in April/May. However, if there's a possibility it's in March, we could try
to push Cris off the story now, with the promise of a forthcoming campaign
announcement and interview.  To be clear, I do not believe that we should
time our announcement around Cris or this story, so if April/May is firm,
then this idea is a non-starter.

On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 3:37 PM, Hunter Biden <[email-masked]>wrote:

> Has someone reached out to Margaret- does she know what to say?
>
> RHB
> 202.333.1880
>
> On Feb 13, 2014, at 3:35 PM, Molly Magarik <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
> And Cris just left me a message saying he wants to talk to me about his
> upcoming story.
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 9:10 AM, <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>> We should get Margaret Aitkin involved in this.
>>
>> Sent from Xfinity Connect Mobile App
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: [email-masked]
>> To: [email-masked],[email-masked],[email-masked]
>> Sent:Thu Feb 13 01:17:19 UTC 2014
>> Subject: Fwd: Barrish interview/story
>>
>> See below from Jason about the News Journal story Cris Barrish is
>> supposedly working on for either next Sunday or the Sunday after.
>>
>> Happy to set up a call if we want to discuss further what Jason should
>> say, beyond what he already has.
>>
>> Definitely helpful that Paul Calistro was so forceful at pushing back
>> against Cris and his leading questions about Beau's health. It's also good
>> that Jason and Joe continue to post what Beau is doing on Facebook/Twitter,
>> so Cris can see that he's out beyond the office, and he has people to call
>> who can verify that he's fine and on the job.
>>
>>
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>> *From:* Jason Miller <[email-masked]>
>> *Date:* February 12, 2014 at 5:17:02 PM EST
>> *To:* Molly Magarik <[email-masked]>, Joe Rogalsky <
>> [email-masked]>
>> *Subject:* *Barrish interview/story*
>>
>> Molly - Quick recap of Cris's story:
>>
>> - It's set to run a week from Sunday
>>
>> - Cris has sought a sit-down interview with Beau since his procedure last
>> fall. Initially the story would have been a "how's Beau's health" story.
>> More recently, noting that this is an election year, Cris has argued the
>> sit-down would be for a "state of Beau Biden" story on his election plans,
>> what he has in mind for DOJ in a next term, how's his health, etc.
>>
>> - Cris has indicated that he's writing a story about Beau either way - if
>> he gets a sit-down interview it'll be written as a profile piece.  If he
>> doesn't get an interview it'll be a "where's AG Biden" piece, with a focus
>> being that he hasn't given interviews or held press events or had speaking
>> engagements since he fell ill.
>>
>> - I have reiterated to Cris that Beau is in the office nearly every day,
>> that he looks great, and that's he out in he community a lot.  Cris knows
>> that Beau attended State of the State and led our budget hearing in Leg
>> Hall last Fall.
>>
>> - Cris follows our social media postings.  He saw our posts of Beau's
>> visit to West End Neighborhood House yesterday, and today he contacted Paul
>> Calistro to press him on how Beau looked (did he look healthy, did he look
>> angry?).  Paul replied that Beau was very energetic and looked great.
>>
>> - I have explained to Cris numerous times that Beau is not going to do an
>> interview about his political future and his health - that Beau has said
>> repeatedly and publicly that he does not look too far ahead, and that he
>> talked with media at Leg Hall about his health.
>>
>> - We need to decide whether Beau or anyone is going to talk with Cris for
>> this story, and whether/what a statement from our office says.  We also
>> need to decide whether there are any individuals we want to direct Cris to
>> - individuals who have spent time with Beau and can comment from personal
>> experience on how Beau's doing just fine.
>>
>> Jason
>>
>>
>>
>>
>