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Advisers to Joseph R. Biden Jr. accelerated his transition planning on Friday, as the election results showed him with an advantage in battlefield states that could hand him the presidency, with the first top officials of a potential Biden’s White House possibly named as soon as next. week.
In Wilmington and Washington, Biden’s advisers and allies are intensifying their conversations about who might fill critical positions, both in the West Wing and across agencies, guided largely by Biden’s plan to reunite what would be the cabinet’s most diverse in history.
The behind-the-scenes activity underscored that even as Biden publicly delivered a disciplined message about the counting of every vote and refrained from claiming victory, he was already planning a quick start in office as the nation faces a worsening pandemic and a damaged economy. . .
Biden, who ran from day one with a message to unite the country, is said to be interested in making a bipartisan gesture as he plans a possible government after a divisive election whose results President Trump has tried to undermine. Biden is looking to fill out his potential White House staff first, and cabinet positions aren’t expected to be announced until around Thanksgiving, according to more than half a dozen people familiar with the planning process who spoke under. condition of anonymity to discuss the transition.
Biden’s team quietly began raising money for its transition operation in May and has raised at least $ 7 million to pay for its efforts. Biden’s camp has braced for multiple scenarios in case Trump and his administration refuse to budge. I would not participate in a transition.
So far, Trump administration officials have worked in good faith, according to Biden officials, who said they hoped and expected that cooperation to continue.
As coronavirus infections hit new highs, Biden’s aides are planning the first critical transition decisions to focus on healthcare and address the pandemic, the central theme of his campaign in recent months. They have assembled an internal group of roughly two dozen health policy and technology experts to discuss vaccine development and delivery, improve health data, and secure supply chains, among other topics.
Among those expected to play a key healthcare role in the Biden administration is Vivek Murthy, President Barack Obama’s former surgeon general, who has privately advised Biden for months on the pandemic and is expected to play a great public role as facing the possible response of the Democratic administration to the virus, giving advice on the use of masks and social distancing.
Transitional officials are also looking at what kinds of economic action could be taken almost immediately, including repealing some of Trump’s executive orders, part of a tradition in which new presidents move quickly to change or reverse regulations in federal agencies.
The 77-year-old Biden has told his associates that he regards his two terms as vice president and his knowledge of how a White House operates from within as crucial advantages to building a government. And he has made it clear in public and in private that a diverse team is central to his mission.
“Men, women, gay, straight, middle, across the board, black, white, Asian,” Biden said this spring when discussing his future cabinet. “It really matters that you look like the country, because everyone brings a slightly different perspective.”
Although Biden and the Democrats had aggressively lobbied for control of the Senate, the party fell short in the contests contested this week. Now, Senate Republicans are likely to have veto power over their most important appointments, a reality looming over the talks, even if Democrats could still control the Senate if they win two runoff elections in Georgia in January.
Even before it was clear that Democrats would not win a clear majority in the Senate, Biden’s advisers began preparing for hard-hitting cabinet confirmation battles, bringing in top Obama veterans to run what is informally called a room. transitional war.
If Biden wins, he is expected to initially focus on filling the highest positions in the White House, including chief of staff, the most powerful staff position. Ron Klain, his former chief of staff as vice president, who served as the Ebola response coordinator in the White House under the Obama administration, appears to have the inside track for that job, though others are reportedly still under serious consideration.
At the center of Biden’s transition planning is Ted Kaufman, his former Senate chief of staff, who was appointed to replace Biden as senator after he became vice president, as well as Jeff Zients, a former Senate official. Obama administration. .
Like Mr. Biden, Mr. Kaufman is viewed as an institutionalist and, in fact, wrote the law dedicating additional government resources to transition teams. Yohannes Abraham, who served in the Obama White House as a senior assistant to Valerie Jarrett and the National Economic Council, is overseeing the day-to-day operation.
Given his decades-long career in Washington, Biden has numerous relationships from his time in the Senate and the White House with people from various political areas. That story also means that his transition team has faced an avalanche of outside boards and former Biden associates vying for jobs and influence.
Cast parts who had Biden’s ear during the presidential campaign: Anita Dunn, Senior Advisor; Steve Ricchetti, another former vice president’s chief of staff; and Mr. Klain – are among those guiding the formation of a possible government. Sen. Kamala Harris of California, her running mate, is generating names and speaking regularly with Biden. In the orbit of Biden’s policies on the campaign, Jake Sullivan and Antony J. Blinken are widely viewed as the most influential figures, with both expected to hold high-level positions in a potential administration.
Where they land is considered one of the first decisions that would help determine other appointments. Sullivan, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton, is lined up for one of several positions, while Blinken, who served as the vice president’s national security adviser, is considered the top candidate for national security adviser.
Some of the most powerful cabinet positions in a possible Biden administration have already been perceived as leaders.
The top candidate to head the Department of Defense is Michèle Flournoy, a former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy who worked with Biden officials during the campaign. She would be the first woman to be appointed to the position.
Lael Brainard, who is on the Federal Reserve board of governors and served in the Treasury Department under Obama, is the most talked about candidate to head the department, especially if the Senate is controlled by Republicans, which would make the task difficult. to confirm a more progressive option like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Susan Rice, a former national security adviser during the Obama administration whom Biden examined for vice president, has been considered one of the top options for secretary of state, but the threat from Senate Republicans preventing her from becoming the top diplomat in the nation in 2012 led to her retirement, and her nomination now would surely spark a fight.
Blinken, a former undersecretary of state, has been discussed among Biden’s allies as a possible option, along with Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a leading Biden supporter who in October wrote an article in Foreign Affairs magazine about his vision of the world.
Representative Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, one of Biden’s campaign co-chairs and adviser, is expected to take on some role in the White House if the Democratic nominee wins. Another campaign co-chair, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who also served on Biden’s vice-president search committee, could join a potential administration, although it was unclear what position might attract him to Washington.
Leaders of the Biden transition are aware that many officials in the federal bureaucracy have become demoralized and have felt marginalized during the Trump administration. In a small gesture, they are calling their potential first arrivals to agencies “agency review teams,” as opposed to what Operation Trump called “landing teams” in 2016.
Discussions are already hanging over the 2022 midterm elections, which have traditionally been a struggle for any party occupying the White House and which could be especially difficult for Democrats during an era of increasingly common progressive primary challenges.
Some members of the Democratic House who supported Mr. Biden from the beginning, such as Representative Filemon B. Vela Jr. of Texas and Representative Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, could be in line for administrative positions if they wanted them.
“We have an expression where I come from: you never forget those who took you to the dance,” Biden said at a stop with Boyle in Philadelphia this week.
Operation Biden is preparing for Trump to potentially hinder the transition. The transition team has already assembled a staff of more than 75 officers, with plans to increase that number to approximately 300 transition staff members by Opening Day in January. The administrator of the General Services Administration has the legal authority to release about $ 6.6 million in federal funds for Mr. Biden’s transition, and in recent years he has done so shortly after the race is called.
Pamela Pennington, a spokeswoman for the GSA, said in a statement that Emily W. Murphy, Trump’s appointee as the agency’s administrator, would begin the official transition when it was clear the race was over.
“The GSA administrator does not pick the winner in the presidential election,” Pennington said. “The GSA administrator determines the apparently successful candidate once the winner is clear based on the process established in the Constitution.”
The reports were contributed by Jonathan Martin, Jim Tankersley, David E. Sanger, and Katie Glueck.
