In Playbook this AM: WHAT CEDRIC RICHMOND GIVES JOE BIDEN … ONE THING we have heard a lot about President-elect @joebiden is that he knows Congress better than anyone, and is uniquely qualified to work the broken system that is Washington legislating.

BUT CONSIDER THIS: Nearly 200 members of Congress never worked with BIDEN as VP or during his 36 years in the Senate.

BIDEN’S decision to hire @RepRichmond as a White House senior adviser charged with public engagement gives the 46th president a key link to a Congress and the new brand of Capitol Hill politics that has developed in his four years out of office.

CONGRESS has grown increasingly dysfunctional in the TRUMP era, and may seem a bit foreign to BIDEN. But he has an incredibly aggressive legislative agenda, and a very narrow margin in the House. RICHMOND can be a link to a House Democratic Caucus that’s beset by rifts.

Furthermore, RICHMOND is a key member of the Congressional Black Caucus, a voting bloc that will be crucial to any agenda that BIDEN hopes to squeeze through the institution. He is seen as a middle ground in the caucus -- very close to the old guard, but part of the younger wave

PERHAPS MOST IMPORTANTLY, RICHMOND will give Team BIDEN a window into the House that’s not through Speaker NANCY PELOSI. BARACK OBAMA was forced to rely extremely heavily on then-Senate Majority Leader HARRY REID and PELOSI.

BIDEN will have visibility into the Senate because of his and VP-elect KAMALA HARRIS’ relationships there. But the HOUSE will be akin to a foreign country for BIDEN.

RICHMOND helps on that front. He has a very close relationship with @SteveScalise, whom he served with in DC & Baton Rouge. Remember: RICHMOND vouched for SCALISE’S character back in 2014 when SCALISE was under attack for allegedly having said that he was David Duke w/o baggage

This doesn’t mean that SCALISE will bend over backward to help BIDEN -- not even close -- but it does mean that Team BIDEN now has a link to the Republican leadership in the House, which he didn’t have before.