Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina In JOE BIDEN’s Senate office, new hires were sometimes given a book to help them understand their new boss. “What It Takes,” RICHARD BEN CRAMER’s hefty tome on the 1988 presidential campaign, has long been considered by Biden himself the most insightful writing on what makes him tick. "It is a powerful thing to read a book someone has written about you, and to find both the observations and criticisms so sharp and insightful that you learn something new and meaningful about yourself," Biden said in 2013 after Cramer’s death (he also spoke at his funeral). Others in Biden’s orbit have agreed with that assessment. So around 2006, when Biden was looking for someone to help write a memoir ahead of a presidential run, he chose Cramer’s researcher, MARK ZWONITZER. The book, “Promises to Keep,” followed Biden’s life but was also a story about the evolution of the Senate during his time there. Biden again turned to Zwonitzer in late 2015, after he had decided against running for president and was contemplating his post-vice presidential legacy. Together, they wrote a second memoir, “Promise Me Dad.” That writing process over the next year or so ended up becoming a part of Biden’s grieving for his son BEAU, who had died in 2015, according to people familiar with the dynamic. “I think it helped him kind of process the meaning of all that and come out the other side — kind of how to put one foot in front of the other,” said one person. And it helped Zwonitzer form an intimate bond with Biden that has made him one of the most knowledgeable people on earth when it comes to matters of the 46th president. “I trust him with my life,” Biden said of Zwonitzer in an interview with MIKE BARNICLE for the Audible version of “Promise Me, Dad.” When documentarian DAVIS GUGGENHEIM was working on a video for the 2020 Democratic National Convention, he called Zwonitzer to help understand Biden better, according to a source with direct knowledge of the project. A representative for Guggenheim didn’t respond for comment. "He's seen Joe Biden in ways that nobody outside of his family has, except maybe [longtime Biden aide] TED [KAUFMAN],” said an official who’s seen Biden and Zwonitzer work together. Zwonitzer, who declined to comment for this piece, is more of a Biden friend than a political ghostwriter. He has worked as a writer and director for several PBS documentaries and wrote a book on MARK TWAIN, former Secretary of State JOHN HAY, and the rise of American imperialism in the late 19th century. He largely stayed away from the 2020 campaign and has kept his distance from the White House too, sources say. Besides helping with the DNC video, he joined Biden for a ride in the car one day in New Hampshire last year during the primary. But Zwonitzer is still counted as one of the few people Biden trusts to get his voice. “You can count on one hand the people who I think Joe Biden would give an A-plus grade to for the writing,” said one Biden world confidante, who placed Zwonitzer alongside adviser MIKE DONILON and longtime aide MARK GITENSTEIN (who helped set up the Zwonitzer relationship in the mid-2000’s). “It's just really tough, he's a really tough grader, right?” Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you AMANDA BROCKBANK, deputy director of Covid-19 operations? 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. Or you can text/Signal Alex at 8183240098. | 
