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After being elected, Biden will quickly face the challenge of forming a power transfer group to lead the divided nation under Trump.
After a campaign focused on criticizing Donald Trump’s handling of Covid-19, Joe Biden will have to show that his team can better cope with the medical crisis. He is also under pressure to elect his own staff and cabinet officials to please the liberals, to make sure they will back his policies in the future.
“This will be one of the most important, most difficult and costly power transitions in modern American history,” wrote Chris Korge, chief financial officer of the Democratic National Committee in a letter to donors last month. “There is much work to be done”.
Joe Biden speaking in Delaware on November 6. Image: AFP.
According to the Cooperation for Public Services, a nonprofit that advises presidential candidates in transition, Biden will have to politically appoint more than 4,000 people, including more than 1,200 positions that need Senate approval. . There are 700 seats in the executive branch that must be approved by the Senate, 153 of which are vacant.
Chris Lu, President Barack Obama’s transitional executive director in 2008, said having vacant positions in various ministries would play a key role in the country’s position in the international arena and in the crisis. weather.
“Many good professional officials have left, especially agencies like the Department of State, the US Department of Environmental Protection or the Department of Home Affairs,” he said.
Biden’s number one priority will be rushing to handle Covid-19. He is more likely to be quick to announce positions in his pandemic response policy cabinet, according to anonymous sources involved in the transition plan.
Those roles include the leadership of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health and Human Services, and the director of the National Economic Council.
Delaware Senator Chris Coons, a longtime ally and friend of Biden, is seen as the leading candidate for secretary of state and has been increasingly vocal about foreign policy in recent weeks. He wrote an essay on diplomacy and recently participated in a discussion about the future of US foreign policy.
(From right) Joe Biden, Obama and Chris Coons in Delaware in 2010. Photo: AFP.
Biden will also reportedly seek out some of his former rivals and people he considered to elect “vice generals,” naming them to the highest cabinet positions.
Californa MP Karen Bass, once considered by Biden for the position of vice presidential candidate, could serve as the Minister of Housing and Urban Development.
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, also considered by Biden as a “deputy general,” and former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg, Biden’s former primary rival, are running for the Veterans Affairs secretary job. . A source familiar with the transition plan said Buttigieg could also be an ambassador to the United Nations.
Michèle Flournoy, the top adviser to two defense ministers during the Obama era, was the top candidate for the post of defense secretary, and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm could be the energy minister.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is likely to fill the post of Secretary of the Treasury, though she is more likely to face the challenge of the Senate approval process, if deemed too radical.
Biden’s team is considering an opportunity to make historyThe United States has never had a black defense secretary or defense minister. Nor did they ever have a colored interior minister or a veteran minister.
Michèle Flournoy at the Pentagon in 2010. Photo: Ministry of National Defense of America.
Biden could face his first fight in the term over the appointment of aides to the White House.
His team plans to announce the chief of staff and director of the National Economic Council a few days after being elected. He is reportedly considering one of the former chief of staff Steve Richetti, Bruce Reed and Ron Klain. It could also bring back Jeff Zeints and Brian Deese, two top officials of the National Economic Council during the Obama era.
Jeff Hauser, director of the Rotation Project, a radical advocacy group that lobbies Democratic governments to appoint liberals to the highest positions, said those options would be. it was crucial to the success of Biden’s first 100 days in office.
“The Biden administration’s honeymoon with the radicals would be very short, if it elected the moderates,” says Hauser.
The left sees Richetti and Reed as “really bad” options, Hauser said, because Reed is seen as a moderate and Richetti is a longtime lobbyist.
Zeints and Deese were also unpopular radicals. Hauser said they prefer Heather Boushey or Jared Bernstein to take over the National Economic Council, both economic advisers to Biden’s campaign.
If Biden was elected, It’s unclear how closely Trump administration officials will work with the transition group.. Alan Kessler, the prominent Democratic fundraiser, said he was concerned that Trump could order his top officials not to cooperate with the new team.
“The president said ‘I will not leave quietly and if I lose it is because the election is fraudulent’, that is very worrying,” said Kessler. “Does that mean the Biden campaign will not be able to transition? No, but it would be much more difficult if the current administration does not cooperate.
Phuong vu (According to the AP)
