Scott Mulhauser had written the memo. Five governors were coming to the White House to talk education, and he knew what every one of them cared about. He was a 25-year-old intern and certain he belonged in that room.
Then someone asked him to go to the Mess. Governor Romer was thirsty. And you can’t bring one governor a Coke, so make it 20 Cokes and Sprites.
Mona Mohib, a senior staffer he’s still close to, set him straight.
“You’re clearly going places, and it’s going to come and come fast for you, but it’s not coming today.”
It came. Puck recently called him the most omnipotent guy in DC. He laughed it off when Brody brought it up. What he told us next was the real news.
Democrats are widely expected to win the House. Scott’s clients are getting ready, and he isn’t sugarcoating it for them. Oversight moves faster than litigation. The subpoenas are already being teed up. Brody made the sharper point: most of what gets hammered won’t be illegal. A check to the ballroom. A check to the inaugural. All legal. All about to be very public.
Saying you were asked won’t be an answer. The question will be what you got for it.
And most companies are still preparing for a fight that already moved.
“Too many people are fighting the last battle.”
One BPI client spent a year battling its top five news stories, about 4 million eyeballs. The five short-form videos it barely noticed drew 43 million. Nearly eleven times the audience, and nobody was watching it.
Scott’s answer isn’t another tip sheet the night before a hearing. It’s an outside game — reputation, culture and leaders who are clear about what they stand for long before the gavel comes down. BPI’s new Reputation Resilience Index found 81% of people say AI makes it easier for rumors to spread. Only 15% feel ready to deal with it.
“When you stand for something and when it’s clear who you are and what folks know about you, that’s a bank of goodwill you can draw down when you’re making decisions.”
What stayed with me most was a smaller detail. CEOs are buying houses in Washington again. Not to sell in two years. They’re planning for this administration and the next one, this Congress and the next one.
Nobody buys a house for one hearing.
Takeaway line: In the next Washington, the legal defense is the floor, not the plan.