The phone call between Klain and Tribe — held Sunday amid a national outcry over the expiry of the moratorium — set in motion a rapid reversal of the administration’s legal position that it could not extend the eviction ban. Tribe suggested to Klain and White House Counsel Dana Remus that the administration could impose a new and different moratorium, rather than try to extend the original ban in potential defiance of a warning from Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, the person said.
Senior White House officials Gene Sperling, Brian Deese and Susan Rice had the week before raised internally whether the moratorium could be extended, only to be rebuffed by the White House counsel. But Remus got behind the new strategy after consulting with Tribe and proved instrumental in the effort, working late Monday night to push the measure through, the person said.
On Monday afternoon, when Sperling told reporters the administration saw no legal path forward, the health-care agencies had not yet agreed to back the new moratorium, the person said. By Tuesday, government lawyers in the White House, Department of Health and Human Services, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention produced a 19-page document to protect the overwhelming majority of renters from eviction until Oct. 3. It was released that afternoon in a remarkable reversal by the White House, which a day earlier had said it did not think it had the authority to extend the ban.
After the administration announced last week that it could not find a legal justification for extending the ban, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) recommended to the White House that Biden seek out Tribe’s counsel, according to one person familiar with the matter. PunchBowl News first reported that Pelosi told the White House to seek the advice of Tribe and other lawyers.
The behind-the-scenes story of the White House’s sharp pivot reveals how a Biden administration that prides itself on steering clear of drama found itself swept up in a public relations fiasco and tried to limit the fallout. And Biden’s personal involvement showed that he recognized the implications of failing to act on an issue that had the potential to escalate into a national crisis.
Before the reversal, Biden had been open to extending the ban but accepted the advice of the White House counsel that he had no legal means to do so, the person said. Biden, who served as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has known Tribe since the 1980s and frequently seeks his legal advice.
“As important as Larry was,” the CDC went forward “because government lawyers got comfortable with this theory,” said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal details of private conversations.
In an interview, Tribe said he was not at liberty to confirm “any conversation I may or may not have had with the White House or [Biden’s] staff” but added that he had spoken to Pelosi about the matter Tuesday afternoon.
Pelosi had carried out a days-long campaign to push the administration to extend the ban, privately lobbying Klain, White House senior aide Steve Ricchetti and the president himself in phone calls, according to a different person familiar with the matter. This person also spoke on…
