Portico: What It Means To 'Consider' the Amendment
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Toby approaches Leo on the portico to discuss a strategy involving Congressman Mark Richardson's amendment.
Toby suggests studying a version of Richardson's amendment to secure Black Caucus support.
Leo reluctantly agrees to consider studying the amendment to maintain political support.
Toby and Leo discuss the implications of the Kuhndu friendly-fire incident.
Leo instructs Toby to find out what considering the amendment would entail to keep the Black Caucus onboard.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Portrayed as purposeful and insistent (inferred); motivated to provoke accountability and public scrutiny.
Mark is not physically present but is the proximate instigator mentioned by Toby; his demands — for public debate and for studying the amendment — are the catalytic motive for the portico exchange.
- • Spark a public debate about who is accountable for the Kuhndu deaths
- • Use the amendment to force institutional accountability and attention
- • Leverage publicity to influence policy outcomes
- • Public confrontation will produce necessary pressure for action
- • Formal study of the amendment will create the debate he wants
- • The administration can be maneuvered into a posture that serves scrutiny
Resolute and purposeful with a pragmatic urgency; his moral discomfort is present but subordinated to achieving a political outcome.
Toby exits the Outer Oval Office, approaches Leo, and presses him to authorize that the administration 'study' Richardson's amendment. He frames the study as tactical theater—accepting it as a political instrument and then accepts Leo's directive to define what 'consideration' legally and politically requires.
- • Create cover for the Black Caucus so they will support the peacekeeping appropriation
- • Force a public debate that advances accountability and momentum for Kuhndu funding
- • Secure explicit instruction from Leo to translate the stunt into formal White House procedure
- • Protect the administration from appearing indifferent to the soldiers' deaths while preserving policy aims
- • A public debate—however theatrical—will placate stakeholders and advance the appropriation
- • Mark's push for the amendment is tactical and can be used without committing to a draft
- • Procedural 'study' will be sufficient political cover for the Black Caucus
- • The administration can manage optics while maintaining policy priorities
Under political pressure and constrained; his posture is being managed by staff to balance compassion, politics, and policy.
The President is referenced as the ultimate posture — 'going to study reinstating' — framing the administration's public position. He is the implicit authority whose name and policy stance structure the political calculus of the exchange.
- • Maintain support for peacekeeping in Kuhndu
- • Avoid the political and moral cost of actually reinstating the draft
- • Appear appropriately responsive to soldiers' deaths without ceding control to a stunt
- • Reinstating the draft is politically and morally fraught and unlikely
- • Public posture ('we're going to study') can convey seriousness without policy commitment
- • Staff must manage optics to preserve policy aims
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Leo's cigarette functions as a visible prop that punctuates the scene: its ember and smoke mark his weary pauses, underscore his skepticism, and visually communicate exhaustion and world-weariness while he weighs a tactical political maneuver.
Congressman Richardson's amendment draft operates as the narrative 'MacGuffin' — a legislative proposal invoked to create public debate. It is described conversationally as the instrument Toby wants the White House to 'study' in order to leverage the Black Caucus and secure funding.
The Kuhndu peacekeeping appropriation is the resource at stake; it is the objective the administration hopes to secure by trading a show of consideration of the amendment for the Black Caucus's votes.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Outer Oval Office (and the adjacent portico) functions as the private, liminal space where staff-level moral and political calculations are negotiated away from public view. It provides the physical adjacency to power (the Oval) while allowing a candid, exhausted exchange about tactic and optics.
Kuhndu is not physically present but functions narratively as the tragic locus whose friendly-fire deaths supply the moral urgency behind the amendment and the political leverage being negotiated on the portico.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The Congressional Black Caucus is the pivotal political coalition whose votes the administration needs; they are the audience and arbiter for which the 'study' cover is being created. Their alignment is the bargaining chip driving this procedural tactic.
The Office of Management and Budget is referenced as the technical gatekeeper for budgetary feasibility; Leo asks whether OMB had anything, signaling that fiscal analysis is necessary to support any deal that trades study for funding.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Key Dialogue
"TOBY: Study some version of his amendment."
"LEO: We'll look ridiculous."
"LEO: Find out what "considering the amendment" has to look like in order for the Black Caucus to stay onboard."