Report on 'Abstinence‑Plus' Drops on C.J.'s Desk
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Josh drops the explosive sex-ed report on C.J.'s desk, revealing political dynamite that contradicts administration-compromised abstinence policies.
The 'abstinence plus' recommendation crystallizes the episode's central conflict between scientific truth and political expediency.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Professionally calm and quietly attentive; prepared to execute directions and assist in rapid messaging tasks.
Carol is present in C.J.'s office before Josh arrives and contributes a single, practical line about doing 'homework'; she is a passive witness to Josh dropping the report and remains a ready staff resource for follow‑up.
- • Support C.J. by providing whatever factual or logistical follow‑up is needed once the report is read.
- • Maintain the integrity of briefing materials and correct small errors (e.g., misspellings) before they reach the public.
- • Preparation and facts reduce errors and reputational risk.
- • The communications team must respond quickly and precisely to internal surprises.
Mildly exasperated and tired; surface calm hides the pressure of being forced to manage a new, combustible story late at night.
C.J. receives the report with a mix of weary humor and professional composure, asking direct questions about its findings and political implications, then defers immediate reaction by ordering food and assigning herself the task of reading it.
- • Understand the report's conclusions quickly so she can shape or blunt any resulting media narrative.
- • Protect the President's and Leo's political positions by deciding whether to bury, manage, or own the report.
- • Maintain control of communications despite the late hour and accumulating crises.
- • Scientific truth that contradicts political commitments must be carefully managed, not ignored.
- • Media and political opposition will exploit inconsistencies between policy and evidence.
- • She, as Press Secretary, is the proper steward of the administration's public face and must triage this threat.
Controlled and businesslike with an undercurrent of urgency; pragmatic about political fallout while trying to keep the conversation efficient and not alarmist.
Joshua Lyman arrives in C.J.'s office, delivers a clipped setup line about a 'sticky wicket,' and cold‑drops a commissioned sex‑education report on her desk, summarizing its politically inconvenient findings aloud.
- • Inform C.J. immediately about the report's findings so communications can prepare a response.
- • Gauge whether the messaging team can reconcile the report with the abstinence stipulation demanded by Congress.
- • Limit surprise by making the report a staff problem rather than a surprise crisis for Leo/the President.
- • The report's scientific conclusions are likely to conflict with political commitments and will create a communications problem.
- • C.J. should own the messaging response; frank disclosure to her will lead to better damage control.
- • Protecting the administration's broader agenda requires triage rather than denial.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The commissioned sex‑education report is physically dropped onto C.J.'s desk by Josh and functions as the event's detonator: its plain cover and blunt findings instantly reframe the staff's late‑night calculus by contradicting the abstinence‑only bargain and recommending 'abstinence‑plus.' The packet's presence forces immediate triage decisions about messaging, congressional bargaining and whether to bury, own, or spin the findings.
C.J.'s press briefing salad is referenced at the end when C.J., exhausted by late work and the report's implications, asks for a salad — a small human detail that marks staff fatigue, personal needs, and the shift from public performance to backstage crisis.
The guest list (referenced earlier in the briefing) functions as the logistical paper trail that placed Jonathan and Jennifer Lydell on the signing roster. It is the administrative object that links private citizens to public ceremony and whose entries have become politically consequential.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The White House Press Briefing Room hosts the strained late‑night briefing where C.J. guarantees the Lydells' attendance, fields reporters' skeptical questions, and sets the public stage that immediately precedes the internal crisis. It acts as the public arena that produces the optics the staff must now manage internally.
The Rose Garden is repeatedly invoked as the ceremonial venue for the upcoming signing; although not the site of the confrontation, its presence as the planned stage intensifies the urgency of the report because any optics there will be highly visible.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The sex-ed report's controversial findings lead directly to the decision to shelve it for political expediency."
"The sex-ed report's controversial findings lead directly to the decision to shelve it for political expediency."
"The sex-ed report's arrival triggers Bartlet's personal engagement with its content."
"Mandy's initial warning about the Lydells culminates in their explosive confrontation."
"Mandy's initial warning about the Lydells culminates in their explosive confrontation."
"Both beats explore the tension between the White House's crafted narratives and uncontainable human truths."
"Both beats explore the tension between the White House's crafted narratives and uncontainable human truths."
Key Dialogue
"JOSH: We commissioned a report about a year ago on Sex Education in public schools, and, well, this is it."
"JOSH: It says basically that teaching abstinence only doesn't work- that people are going to be prone to have sex whether they're cautioned against it or not."
"C.J.: Abstinence plus?"