A heart transplant at 18. The White House at 31.

By Tina Sfondeles and Alex Thompson

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Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice and Daniel Payne

White House deputy director of photography CHANDLER WEST wears his heart on his sleeve — not quite literally but not all that figuratively, either.

The letters “LLL” are etched in cursive in orange, yellow and black ink on his left bicep. They stand for LAUREN LYNNE LUETH , a 17-year-old girl who died in a car accident in Ohio in 2007.

West, who manages the White House photo office, is the recipient of Lauren’s heart — a surgery he underwent at the ripe age of 18 after his own heart swelled to the size of a grapefruit and threatened to crush his lungs. It was called a dilated cardiomyopathy. And it happened suddenly.

It’s a part of his history that West, now 31, doesn’t really share with his White House colleagues. People don’t ask. But his tattoo tells the story.

“It’s something to the effect recently, when I got the [White House] job, of really feeling like some good came out of that loss,” West told West Wing Playbook in an interview this week. “I would say that probably the single most driving force in why I’ve always tried to do well in what I’m doing is I just always really wanted to feel like I did something good with the extra time that I was given by Lauren and the gift her family has given me.”

West has been on a clear upward trajectory in his photo editing career.

He applied to be HILLARY CLINTON’s photo editor for her 2016 presidential campaign via her political website. And he got the job. After the election, he freelanced for Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN and Sen. CORY BOOKER’s presidential primary runs. He also worked for the progressive grassroots groups Indivisible Project and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the non-profit founded by Facebook CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG and his wife.

West was hired as the photo editor for Biden’s presidential campaign in September 2020. The two had met before.

West told then Vice-President JOE BIDEN about his heart transplant back in 2015, as Biden stumped for Clinton. He said Biden paused and talked to him for a while, asking him about his health and recovery. West just wanted to thank him for his years of work pushing the Affordable Care Act, which helped transplant patients like him.

“It was a really cool, really striking moment where you just really felt the empathy that I think he really carries everywhere,” West said of Biden.

Now he manages the day-to-day operations of the photo department — as White House photographer ADAM SCHULTZ follows and photographs the president. The photo office edits and processes all those candid 20-by-30-inch jumbo prints you see framed on the walls of the White House, a tradition that carries back to the Nixon administration.

The nearly 100 jumbos are rotated out every few weeks. New images of Biden’s Europe trip were just added. So was a picture of CHAMP, the president’s beloved German shepherd who died on June 19.

West also manages the White House Flickr account and its Instagram (@whphotooffice) when he’s not making photo assignments.

He was among the staffers who witnessed the transfer of power from former President DONALD TRUMP to Biden on Jan. 20. He watched as furniture and other items were carried out of the Oval Office by Trump staffers.

“What was interesting to me was at the same time as things are moved out, the personnel are changing too. So I was there with the Trump photographers, who were actually very gracious and helpful to us as we were coming in,” West said. “They were there with me for the early part of the day, and there were still some of that administration staffers lingering around. But as the furniture was disappearing, so were some of those people.”

West’s other inaugural day duty was swapping out the Trump jumbos with photos of Biden and Vice President KAMALA HARRIS — right at noon.

Phil Sandy is a videographer who worked with West on Warren’s primary presidential run.

“Every time we would hang out, every time that we would talk, he was talking about wanting to go boating,” Sandy said. “People think that if you have a heart transplant you can't live a great, fun, wonderful life, go out and do cool things like work at the White House. And he's the kind of person that just proves that wrong.”

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A message from Uber:

Meet Asad. An immigrant from Afghanistan and a former interpreter with the US Army, Asad sends money home to his wife and kids every chance he gets. Asad says that driving with Uber gives him the flexibility he needs to visit his family for 2 or 3 months a year—and one day, he hopes, it’ll help bring them to the US. Watch his story in his own words below.

Which president garnered the nickname “the little magician”?

(Answer at the bottom.)

BIDEN GRADES HIMSELF — Announcing the bipartisan infrastructure deal, Biden said: "I've been president about 150 days. I think I've done pretty well so far." ANITA DUNN’s special assistant JORDAN FINKELSTEIN agreed, tweeting: “Where is the lie? (there isn't one)”

JOE BIDEN, MEDIA CRITIC: At the same event, Biden pointedly addressed some of the reporters who were skeptical of the prospect of a bipartisan infrastructure package. “You notice I didn’t have that bleak view you all have,” he said.

“I know the Senate and the House better than most of [the press] does,” he added. Deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES agreed, tweeting: “Fact.”

U-N-I-T-Y: A Democrat close to the negotiations said of the White House,“They want this deal so bad. But they can’t show it.” Read more on the state of the infrastructure talks from MARIANNE LEVINE, BURGESS EVERETT , and NATASHA KORECKI.

SPEAKING BIDEN’S LANGUAGE — The current leader in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary vote count, ERIC ADAMS , had some advice for fellow Democrats across the country that vibes with what Biden’s political advisers have been privately arguing.

“If the Democratic Party fails to recognize what we did here in New York, they’re going to have a problem in the midterm elections and they’re going to have a problem in the presidential elections….We want to have justice and safety and end inequalities. And we don’t want fancy candidates, we want candidates that nails are not polished, they have calluses on their hands, and they’re blue collar people that understand a blue collar country.”

EARLY DEPARTURES: We were jealous that ANNIE KARNI and KATIE ROGERS scooped that two aides to KAMALA HARRIS are already leaving. Director of advance KARLY SATOWIAK and advance coordinator GABRIELLE DeFRANCESCHI have told the VP’s office that “they plan to leave in the coming weeks, according to three sources familiar with their plans.” Harris’ office said the departures were long planned.

ICYMI — KATY O’DONNELL reports that Biden appointed SANDRA THOMPSON as acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency late Wednesday, after removing the previous director, Trump appointee MARK CALABRIA, as the regulator of U.S. mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Thompson has served as deputy director of the agency's Division of Housing Mission and Goals since 2013.

NEXT STOP, THE BENCH — The Senate confirmed CANDACE JACKSON-AKIWUMI to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, 53-40, with Republican Sens. SUSAN COLLINS (Maine), LINDSEY GRAHAM (S.C.) and LISA MURKOWSKI (Alaska) joining all 50 Democrats.

NEXT STOP, THE FLOOR: The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nominations of DAVID CHIPMAN to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; UR JADDOU to be director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; and IRENE STRICKLAND to be a judge on New Mexico’s District Court.

The Foreign Relations Committee approved assistant secretary of State nominees MICHELE SISON, TODD ROBINSON and DANIEL KRITENBRINK as well as six nominees to ambassadorships in Africa.

GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES — Biden risks being seen as the president who lost Afghanistan and Republicans know it, NAHAL TOOSI and ANDREW DESIDERIO report. In recent days, the U.S. has completed more than half the troop withdrawal ordered by this White House, and the Taliban have seized dozens of Afghan districts amid warnings that the government in Kabul could fall in a matter of months once the U.S. leaves.

On Friday, Afghanistan’s president, ASHRAF GHANI, will visit the White House, where he has an opportunity to ask Biden to rethink his plans to withdraw all American troops from the country by Sept. 11.

U.S. Labor Board prosecutor hopes to bulk up staffing, budget as gig worker scrutiny grows (Reuters’ Nandita Bose)

Biden whisperer, longtime Washington lobbyist helps secure breakthrough in infrastructure talks (The Post’s Jeff Stein and Tyler Pager)

Biden administration backs oil sands pipeline project (NYT’s Hiroko Tabuchi)

Biden puts his arm on Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) as he speaks after the bipartisan group of Senators reached a deal on an infrastructure package | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

He met with a bipartisan group of 10 senators to discuss infrastructure spending then announced they’d agreed to the framework for a deal. “Neither side got everything they wanted in this deal,” he told reporters in the East Room. “That’s what it means to compromise. And it reflects something important. It reflects consensus. The heart of democracy.”

The president then traveled to Raleigh, N.C. where he visited a mobile vaccination unit and met with workers. He delivered remarks about vaccinations at the Green Road Community Center in Raleigh, and is headed back to Washington in the evening.

She met virtually with volunteer organizations that are helping people get vaccinated.

Veteran Affairs Secretary DENIS McDONOUGH was a star football player when he attended Saint John's University in the 90’s. He played safety, and later helped his college coach, JOHN GAGLIARDI, get inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006.

St. Johns won two conference titles in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference when McDonough was on the team. While those days are gone, he has suggested there are parallels between playing football and navigating work in the White House.

When McDonough became Obama’s national security adviser, he said in a 2009 interview for the SJU alumni network that he couldn’t “help but feel the pressure.”

But, he added, “like any big game, if you don’t feel the pressure, you’re probably not ready to play to the best of your ability.”

Here’s one thing athletes and politicians have in common: they love giving bromide-filled quotes.

MARTIN VAN BUREN was nicknamed “the little magician” by his friends for his skills as a politician.

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Edited by Emily Cadei

A message from Uber:

After moving to the US, Asad worked as a taxi driver before switching to Uber. Since then he’s done over 12,000 trips.

As he explains, the ability to make his own hours gives Asad the freedom to take 2-3 months off a year to go back to Afghanistan to see his wife and kids. He also supports his 2 sisters, both widows, as well as several nieces and nephews. They all rely on Asad to send money as often as he can.

“Back home, I am the only hope for my entire family,” he says. “One day I hope to bring them here.”

To see more stories like Asad’s, click here.

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