Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. ERIC ADAMS, the Democratic nominee to be mayor of New York, met President JOE BIDEN for the first time Monday. They became fast friends, according to Adams. The meeting was “good” and “authentic” he said, before adding “you know they call me the Biden of Brooklyn.” Speaking to a small group of reporters outside the White House, Adams described Biden as “just a plain talk person “ and said that he had borrowed Biden’s “blueprint” to win the contentious Democratic mayoral primary in New York City. “I think that a large number of New Yorkers responded to him, a large number of Americans responded to him. And it's really just so similar to how people responded to me as a candidate, when you look at those blue collar locations and outer borough[s], it was the same signal,” Adams said. Each privately sees a political upside in locking arms. Adams, a former NYPD police captain and longtime critic of police abuse, gets a higher national profile and a working relationship with the White House. And Biden gets a high-profile surrogate for his more middle-of-the-road approach on policing and crime, especially amidst a rise in violent crimes that has drawn angst from the left and the right. That was part of the reason the White House invited Adams to today’s meeting on reducing gun crime, which included a number of police chiefs as well. And Adams’ victory against both technocratic and left-wing candidates with a coalition of people of color and working-class white voters is a high-profile validation of Biden’s theory of the case that carried him to the Democratic nomination. “I think they both ran values-oriented campaigns. It wasn't a list of plans. It was personal, it was values,” said CELINDA LAKE , one of Biden’s pollsters in 2020. She said that “there are a number of similarities” to their victories. “One is, the personal is political — the importance of Eric Adams’ background, and the degree to which that really reinforced and legitimized much of his message and made it harder to introduce doubts about him. I think that's very parallel to President Biden.” Chief of staff RON KLAIN similarly told the New York Times’ KARA SWISHER this month: "I think that the coalition that Mr. Adams put together in New York is not dissimilar to the coalition that President Biden put together.” There are other similarities, too. They’re both fitness buffs, although Adams prefers the bench press and dumbbells and Biden is more of a Peloton man. Their mouths have a long history of getting them in trouble. They have chips on their shoulders about not being taken seriously by the so-called establishment. The New York Times snubbed both of them in its endorsements in the 2020 presidential and 2021 mayoral primaries. And they both think journalists spend too much time on Twitter. “My advice to the younger reporters — understand that Twitter is not academic research,” Adams said in his election night speech on June 22, when he appeared to have a lead. “And what some candidates misunderstood is that social media does not pick a candidate. People on Social Security picks a candidate. And so you could have a lot of likes on social media but you need a lot of votes for Social Security.” Biden’s aides have repeatedly expressed similar frustration at journalists’ focus on what they see as the distorted kaleidoscope of Twitter commentary. New York City civil rights leader and MSNBC host AL SHARPTON predicted a cohesive relationship between the two Democrats. “I’ve known Joe Biden and Eric both over 30 years and I think that they will probably, on a personal level, get along because they’re both kind of straight shooters and they both are what is commonly known as centrist Democrats,” Sharpton said. That could be a boon for the city as it emerges from the grip of the pandemic, he added. “It could mean resources, if the midterm elections does not wipe out the Democratic party where Biden gets a lot of things through,” he said. “It could mean a lot of attention, a lot of help.” Adams said he wants to see Biden come to the Sept. 11 anniversary events in New York this year. Does he want Biden to come campaign with him? “Well, anytime you could have a sitting president campaign with you is a great thing to do,” he said. “Like I said, I feel like I'm the Biden of Brooklyn.” Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you CARLOS ELIZONDO? We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous: westwingtips@politico.com. Or if you want to stay really anonymous send us a tip through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram, or Whatsapp here. | 
