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President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have tried to emphasize diversity in their appointments and nominations thus far ahead of their January 20 inauguration.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden watches as he speaks at Queen’s headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 5, 2020. Image: AFP.
WASHINGTON – US President-elect Joe Biden announced an all-female White House communications team on Sunday in what his office called a first in American history.
Among those named was Jen Psaki, who will play the highly visible role of White House press secretary.
Psaki, 41, has held several high-level positions, including the White House communications director for the Barack Obama-Biden administration.
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have sought to emphasize diversity in their appointments and nominations thus far before their January 20 inauguration.
“I am proud to announce today the White House’s first senior communications team made up entirely of women,” Biden said in a statement.
“These skilled and experienced communicators bring diverse perspectives to their work and a shared commitment to better rebuild this country.”
In addition to Psaki, six other appointments were announced.
They include Kate Bedingfield, who was Biden’s deputy campaign manager, as the White House communications director.
Bedingfield had also served as Biden’s communications director when he was vice president.
Other appointees include Ashley Etienne as Harris Communications Director and Symone Sanders as Harris Senior Advisor and Lead Spokesperson.
Pili Tobar has been named deputy director of communications for the White House and Karine Jean Pierre will be the deputy chief press secretary.
Elizabeth Alexander was named director of communications for incoming first lady Jill Biden.
Appointments do not require Senate confirmation unlike most Cabinet-level positions.
“It is an honor to be working for @JoeBiden again, a man I worked for during the Obama-Biden administration as he helped lead the economic recovery, rebuilt our relationships with partners (good practice), and injected empathy and humanity into almost every meeting. sat down, “Psaki said on Twitter.
MORE NOMINATIONS FROM LANDMARK
There were reports of a series of landmark nominations set for this week.
The New York Times reported that they were to include Cecilia Rouse as the first black woman to head the Council of Economic Advisers and Neera Tanden as the first Indian-American to head the Office of Management and Budget.
Those reports follow news that Biden intends to nominate former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen to head the US Treasury.
Yellen would be the first woman in the role if confirmed by the Senate.
Biden also appointed the first head of intelligence and the first Latina head of Homeland Security.
The president-elect has tried to move swiftly to build his team, despite Donald Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his defeat in the Nov.3 election and continued unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.
Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results have been met with a series of court defeats that dismiss his accusations.
In his first television interview since losing his re-election bid, Trump indicated Sunday that he would never give in to Biden or abandon his conspiracy theories about massive voter fraud.
“It’s not that you’re going to change your mind. My opinion won’t change for six months,” Trump told Fox News.
“This election was rigged. This election was a total fraud,” he claimed, again without endorsing this. “We won the elections easily.”
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