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

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The relationship between former — and potentially future — presidential rivals Vice President KAMALA HARRIS and Transportation Secretary PETE BUTTIGIEG was under a magnifying glass today as they traveled for the first time together as members of the Biden administration, to a bus and light rail garage in Charlotte, N.C.

And while, in the service of promoting the president’s recently passed infrastructure bill, they projected a kumbaya calm — with a hug hello — it was hard to escape the political undertones. Harris is facing another round of negative headlines, as high-profile members of her office announce their departure. Their jobs, by all accounts, have been challenging during the first year of the administration.

But on Thursday, at least, Harris appeared to be having some fun. At the bus facility, she hopped into the driver’s seat of an electric bus, pretended to drive it, and then honked the horn.

“‘The wheels on the bus go ‘round and ‘round,’ she said, letting out a big laugh,” POLITICO's CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO wrote in a pool report.

“She kept peppering another operator with questions as Buttigieg looked on silently,” Cadelago added.

The trip was intended to promote the $550 billion infrastructure spending bill JOE BIDEN signed last month and tout the improvements it will make in North Carolina. And it follows Harris’s trip to Columbus, Ohio on Nov. 19 with Secretary of Labor MARTY WALSH.

But it was also quite obviously a way to pair Harris with Buttigieg. The Transportation secretary is one of the White House’s go-to communicators and has enjoyed ample positive press coverage, including praise for his appearances on conservative networks to plug the Biden agenda. He’s also only modestly played down the chatter that he’d run for president if Biden doesn’t — an implicit slight to Harris, the president’s second-in-command — by saying he’s focused on the here and now.

A Buttigieg spokesman told us the two have been talking about doing an event together “for awhile.” He also said the two are expected to do more events together in the future and that staffers for both Harris and Buttigieg are frequently in touch.

Former Democratic National Committee Chair DONNA BRAZILE also brushed off the narrative of a political rivalry between the two.

“This is beltway banter. Trust me,” Brazile told us in a text. “It’s not a topic of any conversation outside the White House press corp and a few donors who are trying to woo woo woo new friends.”

As for their relationship, a White House official told us the two have always had “an amicable friendship that just deepened [over time].”

“During the general [election], Mayor Pete played then VP [Mike] Pence [in debate prep with Harris]. So I think that shows that there was an immediate closeness there, and I think their relationship has remained very close,” the official said. “I think there is an actual deep friendship there and one that is nicely complemented by their significant others,” second gentleman DOUG EMHOFF and Buttigieg’s husband, CHASTEN. While Pete and Kamala traveled to North Carolina together, Chasten and Doug also went out for bagels at Call Your Mother Deli in D.C.. "Interviewed a new babysitter today!," Chasten wrote in an Instagram story.

Having to be debate-prep sparring partners may not be the most common foundation for a close friendship. And it certainly hasn’t lessened the chatter that the two of them are on a collision course. Buttigieg, for his part, denied any sort of feud with Harris on “Meet the Press” on Nov. 21.

“She and I are part of a team that is disciplined and doesn't focus on what's obsessing the commentators,” Buttigieg said. “We're too busy with a job to do.”

Underneath the politics, there are elements that bind Harris and Buttigieg. Emhoff and Chasten Buttigieg are indeed real friends, according to multiple people we spoke to. A former Harris aide said the two men “get on particularly well.”

Harris and Emhoff also called the Buttigieg family to congratulate them when they welcomed their twins, Gus and Penelope, in August. A former aide recounted a private exchange between the two couples while campaigning in Manchester, N.H. during the primary where Harris even offered Chasten Buttigieg some marital advice, as Emhoff and Pete Buttigieg listened and grinned. Harris urged them to always try to find joy in the tough moments and a sense of humor about the times they can't, the aide said.

Nevertheless, “rivalry” and “rivalry rumors” have been included in most headlines about the Charlotte trip. And it’s something the White House has to get ahead of in order to get their agenda passed, longtime Democratic strategist PAUL BEGALA told us.

“Democratic divisions on Capitol Hill are damaging the Dems’ brand and making it difficult to pass their agenda. The Biden White House cannot afford for those divisions to come into the administration,” Begala said in an email. “VP Harris and Sec. Buttigieg helped Biden get elected, and he rewarded them with great jobs. They also both have promising futures. So it is very smart to publicly yoke them together in service of their shared agenda.”

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From the University of Virginia’s Miller Center

Which president proclaimed in his final speech, "God and man have linked the nations together. No nation can longer be indifferent to any other. And as we are brought more and more in touch with each other the less occasion there is for misunderstandings"?

(Answer at the bottom.)

FAUCI BACK IN THE FOX HOUSE — After turning down almost all Fox News interview requests for months — in part because of people on air comparing him to Nazis and fascists — Dr. ANTHONY FAUCI is appearing with NEIL CAVUTO tomorrow in an interview that will air on both Fox Business (1 p.m. ET) and Fox News (4 p.m. ET). Parts of the interview will also air Saturday at 10 a.m. ET on Fox News.

It’s Fauci’s first appearance on the channel since a Fox News Sunday appearance on October 17. We couldn’t find any other interview since July, also with Cavuto, who has defended Fauci against some of the attacks from the right-wing.

Read our story yesterday on the dynamic.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: Deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES shared this CNN story with the headline, “GOP attacks Biden over pandemic response while fighting key tools to curb the virus” by MELANIE ZANONA and MANU RAJU. Bates added: “Self-defeating gaslighting from politicians who act like lobbyists for covid so much that they tried to shut down the government over our work to shut down the virus.”

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: With the emerging Omicron variant of Covid-19 turning up around the globe, the White House is trying to stress urgency but not panic. But the lede in this Washington Post story by LESLEY WROUGHTON may make that more difficult: “South Africa’s new daily coronavirus cases have almost tripled in three days, according to new figures released Thursday, raising alarms over the possible spread of the new omicron variant recently detected by the country’s scientists.”

TV SHY: White House press secretary JEN PSAKI was reminded today by Bloomberg’s JENNIFER EPSTEIN that she has previously said Biden would be promoting the infrastructure plan, in part, by doing local TV interviews. As we have noted, he’s only done one: a seven-minute interview on Nov. 8 with WKRC in Cincinnati.

Psaki acknowledged that and said, “I would very much like that to happen. We are always competing with time on the schedule. I’m going to be honest, his schedule has been quite packed,” Psaki said. “But he would like to do it. We would like to get it on the schedule. So, I don’t have anything to predict or preview for you at this point and time, but hopefully, we will be able to add some local interviews in the next couple of weeks.”

JURASSIC PROTESTS: With National Institutes of Health Director FRANCIS COLLINS stepping down at the end of the year, PETA supporters want Biden to nominate a new NIH director who will commit to stop funding animal-tested research and invest in animal-free testing. So, naturally, they donned giant dinosaur costumes and followed the president around today as he visited NIH.

But — wait for it — they carried signs that read, “Biden: Don’t Appoint Another NIH Dinosaur.” Get it?

BLACK GOLD — Here’s the lede of today’s story in the Financial Times: “Saudi Arabia has agreed to keep increasing monthly crude oil production following a charm offensive by Biden administration officials that included an effort to reframe the relationship between the US and the kingdom.”

The story notes that the decision comes after a visit to the kingdom by DALEEP SINGH, deputy national security adviser for international economics, Deputy Commerce Secretary DON GRAVES, and AMOS HOCHSTEIN, the state department’s senior adviser for global energy security. A source also pointed out that Graves visited the kingdom in late October.

TRUE ‘TIL IT ISN’T: People inside the administration have long indulged in a parlor game of who would replace the 75-year-old Treasury Secretary JANET YELLEN if she leaves after the midterms.

But she told reporters at a Reuters event this morning that "I have no plans to leave this job, I am enjoying it very much."

‘REMAIN IN MEXICO,’ AGAIN — The Department of Homeland Security is preparing to revive the Migrant Protection Protocols, more commonly known as the "Remain in Mexico” policy, under a federal court order, the department announced Thursday. As CLAIRE RAFFORD reports, the Biden administration has tried multiple times to strike down the policy, which requires many migrants seeking asylum to stay in Mexico while awaiting their immigration hearings. But in August, a federal judge in Texas ordered the program restored.

The new iteration of MPP will include several key changes, including that court proceedings would "generally" conclude after six months, increased transparency for migrants enrolled in MPP, improved asylum proceedings and greater access to legal counsel both before and during immigration interviews as well as during hearings for those in the program.

ICE holds growing number of immigrants at private facilities despite Biden campaign promise to end practice (Washington Post’s Maria Sacchetti)

Review finds no answers to mystery of Havana syndrome (NYT’s Julian Barnes and Adam Goldman)

Surgeon General VIVEK MURTHY is on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” at 7pm ET

Dr. ANTHONY FAUCI is on MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes” at 8pm ET

It’s not Biden related exactly but STACEY ABRAMS is also giving her first TV interview since announcing another governor’s bid. It will be on Maddow at 9pm ET

Press Secretary JEN PSAKI is joining “Morning Joe” tomorrow morning in the 8am hour

The president visited the NIH in Bethesda, Md. and delivered remarks on the pandemic and steps his administration is taking to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant.

This evening, he and first lady JILL BIDEN took part in the National Christmas Tree Lighting on the Ellipse. Biden and Interior Secretary DEB HAALAND delivered remarks.

She traveled to Charlotte, N.C., where she and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg toured the Charlotte Area Transit System Bus and Light Rail Garage and delivered remarks.

She headed back to Washington, D.C. in the evening in time to attend the National Christmas Tree Lighting with second gentleman Doug Emhoff.

White House traveling content director OLIVIA RAISNER got into politics at a very young age.

“I can remember sitting on my parents’ bed in second grade, watching the Bush/Gore recount and begging to stay home from school so I could see the results,” she told Bowdoin College’s news outlet in 2013.

Not exactly Ferris Bueller’s Day Off but, as fellow political junkies, we get it.

WILLIAM MCKINLEY, who was shot on Sept. 6, 1901, the day after giving an address on trade in Buffalo, N.Y. He died eight days later and was succeeded by THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

For more on McKinley, assassinations, and the other presidents, visit millercenter.org.

Got a better question? Send us your hardest trivia question on the presidents and we may feature it on Wednesdays. We also want your feedback. What should we be covering in this newsletter that we’re not? What are we getting wrong? Please let us know.

Edited by Emily Cadei