INSIDE BIDEN'S WAR ROOM

Under siege by GOP investigations, the president is preparing for the fight of his political life, backed by a team of lawyers, strategists and allies

- DANIEL BUSH

AT 4:30 A.M. ON DECEMBER 29, the White House lawyer in charge of handling the administration's response to the slew of investigations planned by the incoming Republican House majority fired off a warning shot in an email to the two GOP representatives expected to head the probes. They were demanding documents related to everything from the chaotic U.S. exit from Afghanistan to the migrant crisis at the border in the weeks after the midterm elections, and the Biden defense team wasn't having it. The language was lawyerly but firm: Call me after the new Congress is sworn in, when you actually have some authority.

At 5 a.m., the story appeared in the press.

The message was clear to both Republicans and the public, says Mark Tuohey, a veteran D.C. lawyer and congressional oversight expert: "The White House is not going to just roll over and comply."

Just the opposite, in fact. As House Republicans barrel down on President Joe Biden with alarming speed, launching aggressive new oversight investigations on a near-weekly basis in an all-out assault ahead of the 2024 presidential election, the White House is digging in for the biggest fight of Biden's half-century political career. Working behind the scenes to craft and execute the battle plan: a war room of lawyers and political strategists chosen by the president and his advisers for whom the pre-dawn email and press leak on documents was just an opening salvo.