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The dunking will continue until morale improves.

Many Biden officials spent today not just celebrating the better-than-expected midterm results but relishing in calling out the national press and pundits who cast doubt on their strategy.

President JOE BIDEN has long had a chip on his shoulder — a deep-seeded frustration with those who have underestimated or slighted him. It’s a mentality his White House staff has inherited.

Many of them still fume about, what they saw as, the condescending coverage and punditry during the Democratic primary. Fellow Democrats describe the White House as hyper-defensive.

But given that Biden won the nomination and the White House, and now presided over one of the most successful midterms for his party in modern political history, Biden and his team feel more confident and vindicated than ever. They spent a significant portion of Wednesday essentially saying “told ya so.”

White House deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES liberally posted excerpts from recent stories in Bloomberg, CNN, The New York Times, Reuters, and Fox News that indicated the White House had led congressional Democrats to slaughter.

ANITA DUNN’s chief of staff, JORDAN FINKELSTEIN, tweeted that “If only the pundits had looked at what the American people think of the Biden-Harris agenda (in polls often conducted recently by their own publications).” Assistant press secretary ROBYN PATTERSON wrote that she was “pouring one out for the pundits who slammed @POTUS for defending our democracy 5 days before the midterms elections.”

Top Biden economic advisers privately boasted to colleagues Wednesday that the media had overblown the impact inflation was having on voters’ perception of the economy and Biden himself. Even chief of staff RON KLAIN got in on the action, tweeting a post-election story suggesting “warning signs for Biden” despite the better than expected midterm results with the caption: “It’s almost self-parody at this point.”

[For the record, West Wing Playbook’s punditry is never in doubt, and rarely questioned. If we ever step in it, blame SAM STEIN.]

All the crowing came as Republicans, despite failing to meet their own electoral expectations, remained well positioned to seize control of the House and with the fight for the Senate up in the air. It also masked the White House’s own long-standing doubts about the election beforehand, as evidenced by the refusal to commit to a post-election press conference before knowing the results.

Biden himself was more restrained during his afternoon press conference. But even he gloated. "While the press and the pundits are predicting a giant red wave, it didn't happen," Biden said. "We lost fewer seats in the house of representatives than any Democratic president in his first midterm election in the last 40 years.”

As the White House beat their chests, other Democrats were more circumspect in how much credit the White House deserved. POLITICO’s HOLLY OTTERBEIN and NATALIE ALLISON reported that JOHN FETTERMAN’s team didn’t want Biden to campaign with them the final weekend of the election because of his low approval ratings and the White House pushed them to anyway. “There were times it was very frustrating that they would not let us be,” said a senior Fetterman aide of the White House.

Still, others felt the picture was more nuanced.

"Does he get all the credit? No," one Democratic operative told West Wing Playbook. "But it's complicated. There's something to be said for the guy who said he'd be a return to normalcy and get stuff done and he's delivered on that."

One senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Wednesday: "I don't think we in the administration did anything particularly helpful for [Democratic] candidates to win their races, but there's something to be said for the lack of chaos and politicization coming out of this White House."

In other words, Biden's less polarizing personal brand gave candidates the space to run their own races and not get dragged down by his low approval numbers.

"You can't make the narrative, 'thank you, Joe Biden,’ the senior administration official said. “Democrats mostly ran past him, beating his [2020] margins in these states. But he also didn't tie them down like Obama did in 2010."

MESSAGE US — Are you KAILASH SUNDARAM, special assistant for infrastructure implementation? We want to hear from you! And we’ll keep you anonymous. Email us at [email protected].

This one is from Allie. While campaigning for a legislative seat, this person (who would later go on to be president) bought booze for voters, more specifically: 46 gallons of beer, 40 gallons, one hogshead, one barrel and 10 bowls of rum punch, 35 gallons of wine, two gallons of cider and three and a half pints of brandy.

Who was it?

(Answer at the bottom.)

MEET THE PRESS: Biden held a rare press conference Wednesday. Here are the highlights:

• On 2024: Biden reiterated that he intends to run but also said he feels he doesn't "feel any hurry any way or another to make that judgment today, tomorrow, whatever, no matter what my predecessor does.” He added that he hopes to make a decision early next year.
• On Russia: Biden made note of the timing of Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson, Ukraine, which came today, saying that he “found it interesting they waited until after the election to make that judgment.” He suggested the U.S. knew the withdrawal was coming days ago.
• On ELON MUSK: Biden laughed at a question about whether the billionaire posed a national security threat, and whether he'd look into how foreign governments helped Musk with his acquisition of Twitter. He then said he thinks it’s worth looking at Musk’s cooperation with other countries. “Whether or not he’s doing anything inappropriate, I’m not suggesting that,” he said.
• Who’s who: Biden noted he had a list of 10 reporters to call on. Ultimately he only called on nine as many reporters greedily asked several questions (NBC appeared to be the worst offender). The winners were The Associated Press, CBS, CNN, ABC, The Grio, Bloomberg, NBC News and The New York Times.
• On a potential DONALD TRUMP v. RON DESANTIS Republican primary: “It’ll be fun watching them take on each other.”

WAR ROOM: On Tuesday night, many White House staffers either watched results in the Roosevelt Room of a conference room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building with cookies, pizza, soda, and, yes, some fruits and veggies too. Senior White House leaders also invited BECCA SIEGEL, the chief analytics officer on the Biden campaign since the primary, to help analyze the results.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This elections takeaway from former National Economic Council director and frequent White House critic LARRY SUMMERS. Summers tweeted a thread of takes Wednesday morning, starting with: “It looks like you have to go back to JFK to find a Democratic president whose first midterm election went as well as @POTUS @JoeBiden did last night.” (West Wing Playbook highlighted Summers' role in the Biden administration back in May 2021.)

SEE ALSO: ”Biden is still Trump’s worst nightmare,” by FT’s Edward Luce

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This story by AP’s CHRIS MEGERIAN, ZEKE MILLER and HANNAH FINGERHUT about how the next hurdles for Biden: “None of the Democrats’ success will be able to prevent what’s likely to be a chaotic and bruising phase of Biden’s presidency. Republicans are hoping to take control of the House, which would open the door for extreme members of the party to investigate Biden and his family. Any of Biden’s legislative priorities could be off the table, and merely funding the government could prove challenging.”

THROWBACK: This 2020-era video from NYT’s editorial board candidate interview process is also circulating among some Biden allies. In the clip, then- presidential candidate Biden says: “I’ve been consistently leading the polls after taking all the hits. I go down, and everybody who’s hit me is out. You all declare me–not you–editorially in a broad sense, declare me dead and guess what? I ain’t dead. And I’m not going to die.”

After we reported it was recirculating, White House Communications Director KATE BEDINGFIELD retweeted the video with the words “can confirm.” 

STILL NOT SOLD… Exit polls from Tuesday showed voters are still pretty divided when it comes to supporting Biden and former President Donald Trump, our STEVEN SHEPARD reports. According to the National Election Pool exit poll, conducted by Edison Research, both Biden and Trump were “viewed favorably by only roughly four in 10 voters. And even though Trump has been out of the White House for nearly two years, his continued presence on the political scene meant he was almost as central to Tuesday’s races as Biden was.”

NO END IN SIGHT: U.S. officials are beginning to think that “neither side can achieve all of their goals in the Ukraine war and are eyeing the expected winter slowdown in fighting as an opportunity for diplomacy to begin between Russia and Ukraine,” NBC News’ COURTNEY KUBE, CAROL E. LEE and JOSH LEDERMAN report.

PUTIN’S OUT: Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN will not attend the G-20 summit in  Indonesia next week, as the conflict in Ukraine continues on, Bloomberg News reports. The move officially nixes the possibility of a run-in between Putin and Biden, whose team was already working behind the scenes to avoid direct contact between the two.

MEANWHILE, IN EGYPT… Other nations aren’t exactly thrilled about the Biden administration’s plan to ask businesses to invest in global climate initiatives, a plan U.S. climate envoy JOHN KERRY announced Wednesday at the COP27 summit in Egypt, our JEAN CHEMNICK reports for Pro subscribers. Some see it as a way for the U.S. to avoid providing its fair share of direct aid to countries struggling with climate change.

Democrats’ Elevation Of Election Deniers Worked (HuffPost’s Kevin Robillard)

How a G.O.P. Wave Became a Ripple (NYT’s Lisa Lerer)

My Last Days With Donald Trump (Mike Pence for WSJ)

GEORGE WASHINGTON bought alcohol for voters during his 1758 run for the Virginia House of Burgesses, “which was a rather common occurrence during 18th-century elections,” according to the Mount Vernon website.

The 46 gallons of beer, 40 gallons, one hogshead, one barrel and 10 bowls of rum punch, 35 gallons of wine, two gallons of cider and three and a half pints of brandy cost Washington a whopping total of 39.6 pounds. Those were the days. Now politicians only give you those flimsy lawn signs.

A CALL OUT — Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents with a citation and we may feature it.

Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.