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President-elect Joe Biden will spend the day and weekend considering possible nominees to his cabinet, his aides said. They cautioned that no major announcements are expected in the coming days.
Biden’s advisers describe him as “notoriously deliberative” in making personnel decisions, pointing to the most recent example of multiple delays in selecting his running mate. The deadline for that announcement was repeatedly pushed back, attendees said, as Biden asked for more information and waited for the right moment.
While he has the top contenders in mind for nearly every seat in his cabinet, the election result has changed the calculus, particularly if Republicans retain control of the Senate. For now, attendees said, that’s the operating principle the transition team is working on.
In the words of a longtime consultant, Biden can often be “slow” in making a decision about hiring people, but his advisers say he is also mindful of the fact that time is of the essence. Biden’s team is poised to announce an ambitious timetable for their transition to power, hoping to continue to push the perception that they are not being held back by the Trump administration’s refusal to cooperate.
But there are several reasons to be deliberate, given the political climate and Republican control of the Senate.
“There is no room for embarrassment,” a former senior Obama official, who advises on Biden’s transition, told CNN.
That, of course, is what happened during Obama’s transition. President George W. Bush was remarkably friendly and helpful, which Obama points out again in his new book, but several cabinet nominees were not properly vetted and eventually had to step down: Tom Daschle as Secretary of Health and Human Services and Bill Richardson and Judd Gregg as Secretary of Commerce.
“We took a lot of missteps that Biden can’t afford to take,” the Obama official said, noting that major mistakes also occurred during the Bush-Clinton transitions.
The first month of Obama’s transition was also plagued by allegations that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich attempted to improperly occupy the Senate seat. Obama’s transition launched an internal review of who spoke to Blagojevich, even as the federal prosecutor opened a criminal investigation.
“I would ask for your patience,” Obama told reporters during a press conference, “because I don’t want to interfere with an ongoing investigation.”
While Biden does not face a similar situation (Sen. Kamala Harris is set to resign her post in the coming weeks), the team is conscious of properly vetting all potential Cabinet nominees.
This week in Wilmington, Biden hinted at a Thanksgiving schedule for some members of his cabinet. Health, economics and defense are expected to be the first portfolios to be announced, attendees said, given the growing coronavirus crisis and the unstable economy.
But if you look at his words carefully, the helpers said, there is plenty of room for maneuver at the moment.
“I hope we can be in a position to let people know at least a couple that we want before Thanksgiving,” Biden said Tuesday, “and we’ll fix this.”
