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

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A few weeks ago, West Wing Playbook wrote about how President JOE BIDEN enjoys calling moms — maybe even yours.

Well, a number of you reached out to inform us that he’s got a thing for dialing dads, too.

Whether he’s letting good ol’ dad know how great his kids are, or wishing pops a happy birthday, Biden can’t resist connecting with fellow dads. Stories about his dad-to-dad calls go way back, dating to when cell phones entered the scene in the early 2000s. Honestly, the amount of stories left us wondering how many minutes of his day are devoted to these types of interactions.

Recipients of these unexpected calls say they are a way for Biden to show his appreciation, especially when it comes to his staff.

That was the case early in the 2020 primary when STEVE RITNER was out to dinner with his wife and missed a call from his daughter, MOLLY RITNER, who was working on Biden’s campaign and traveling with him that day in New Orleans. After dinner, Ritner said he was surprised to discover it wasn’t actually Molly trying to reach him, but Biden, who left a two-minute voicemail about how “wonderful” his daughter was. Biden went on about “how he was not the best [University of Delaware] student but his sister was.” (Ritner said Molly had informed Biden that her dad was also a Delaware alum.)

“It was a truly wonderful, personal message from President Biden,” Ritner wrote in an email. “Gotta just love the guy.”

NORM IVERSON received a similar call during Biden’s first term as vice president when his son volunteered at an event with the VP in Chicago and mentioned his dad was a fan. Next thing you know, Iverson was on the phone with Biden for what he described as a “surprisingly long” call, one that prompted the Secret Service to remind the vice president that he shouldn’t be using an unsecured line.

“He’s a retail politician,” said Iverson. “This is a way in the modern world of shaking hands and kissing babies.”

Some people who reached out to us also shared stories that clarified certain moments in Biden’s presidency. Like in September 2021, when The New York Times’ DOUG MILLS snapped a photo of Biden talking on the phone at the Congressional Baseball Game. Many Biden-watchers speculated the president must have been working the phone to hash out a deal on the infrastructure bill.

Not the case, according to ANDREW BUCZEK, a government policy adviser at Dykema law firm, who was one of the Democrats’ baseball coaches at the time.

In an email to West Wing Playbook, Buczek said he was standing in the dugout next to Biden and mentioned it was his dad’s 70th birthday. Biden told Buczek (pictured to the right of Biden in Mills’ photo) to get his dad on the phone. He proceeded to spend the next five minutes chatting and wishing him a happy birthday.

It “made my dad’s day and scored me major points with my parents,” said Buczek.

MESSAGE US —Are you SEAN CROTTY, senior associate counsel? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at [email protected]

This one is from Allie. Who was the first president to oversee all 50 states?

(Answer at the bottom.)

CARTWHEELS IN THE WEST WING: Probably. CNN’s report Tuesday that an attorney for former Vice President MIKE PENCE discovered a dozen documents marked classified last week during a search of his Indiana home lit up the internet. The news could go a long way toward mitigating the political fallout of Biden’s own document mess, adding credence to Biden’s assertion that his own possession of classified materials was inadvertent.

It also shifts some of the focus to the largely exculpatory issue of whether too much material is marked classified. And it could also help to distinguish these cases — in which both Pence and Biden voluntarily submitted to searches and willingly turned over classified materials — from former President DONALD TRUMP’s, which is unique due to his intentional withholding and refusal to cooperate with investigators.

WHAT (ELSE) THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This WaPo opinion column by CATHERINE RAMPELL highlighting GOP strategy in tackling the debt ceiling: “Republicans say they want lower deficits — in fact, they have pledged to balance the budget (that is, no deficit at all) within seven or 10 years. But they have not laid out any plausible mathematical path for arriving at that destination.” White House deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES tweeted out the piece Tuesday morning.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by WSJ’s GORDON LUBOLD about a new study that shows “the war in Ukraine has exposed widespread problems in the American armaments industry that may hobble the U.S. military’s ability to fight a protracted war against China.” The conflict in Ukraine “has also exposed the strategic peril facing the U.S. as weapons inventories fall to a low level and defense companies aren’t equipped to replenish them rapidly, according to the study.”

HEADING HOME: Vice President KAMALA HARRIS will head to California following the recent mass shootings, Biden said during a meeting with lawmakers Tuesday. Our KELLY GARRITY has more.

NO BEAT LEFT TO SWEETEN: Outgoing chief of staff RON KLAIN probably won’t mind if you read this CHRIS WHIPPLE op-ed for the NYT lauding his “rare combination of assets.” Klain, it should be noted, was a primary source for Whipple’s new book on the Biden administration. The author questions whether JEFF ZIENTS will be able to fill Klain’s shoes, citing several potential “weaknesses.” Among them, not having the decades-long relationship with Biden that Klain does and lacking “Mr. Klain’s deep political savvy” (Whipple, perhaps unsurprisingly, lays it on pretty thick).

The author, whose last book focused on White House chiefs of staff, warns that empowering other senior aides to steer Biden’s reelection campaign while Zients focuses on the day to day would be a mistake. “To govern effectively, every president needs an empowered chief of staff who is first among equals,” he writes.

SPEAKING OF…: Our JONATHAN LEMIRE breaks down the challenges Zients is expected to face when he comes on board next month. Those trials include dealing with the fallout from the classified document drama, working with the House Republican majority, maintenance of the economy and navigating a potentially yearslong conflict in Ukraine.

STICKING AROUND: Education Secretary MIGUEL CARDONA said he is “of course” staying for the rest of the president’s term, our JUAN PEREZ JR. reports for Pro subscribers. “I committed to making sure not only that we reopened schools safely, but also make sure we're on the right track to giving all students an opportunity to grow, and really go past reopening schools,” Cardona said Tuesday.

BOILING POINT REACHED: SARAH MARGON, Biden’s nominee to serve as assistant secretary of State for democracy, human rights and labor, withdrew her nomination Tuesday, amid ongoing opposition from Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s ranking Republican, JIM RISCH of Idaho. Margon was nominated for the position back in April 2021, but the nomination stayed stagnant with opposition from Risch, who questioned Margon’s support for Israel. “At present, I don’t see a path forward for confirmation, and after 1 ½ years, it’s time to move on,” Margon said in the statement. Our NAHAL TOOSI has more details.

U.S. closer to approving ‘significant number’ of Abrams tanks to Ukraine (Politico’s Alexander Ward and Lara Seligman)

Debt ceiling: 2011 showdown leaves lessons for Biden, GOP (AP’s Lisa Mascaro)

As Tax Season Starts, a Beleaguered I.R.S. Looks to Bolster Customer Service (NYT’s Alan Rappeport)

President DWIGHT EISENHOWER signed the proclamation admitting Hawaii as an official U.S. state on Aug. 21, 1958, making him the first president to oversee all 50 states, according to the Eisenhower Presidential Library.

A CALL OUT — Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents with a citation and we may feature it.

Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.