Vice President-elect Kamala Harris garnered her own share of the news spotlight Thursday, announcing senior members of her White House team, including Tina Flournoy — currently a key aide to former President Clinton — as her chief of staff.
Harris’s first joint interview with President-elect Joe Biden since winning the election is also scheduled to be broadcast prime-time Thursday on CNN.
The contours of the role Harris will carve out for herself are still becoming clear. Continue reading.
The president-elect is lining up appointees to fill lower-level jobs that don’t require running the gauntlet on Capitol Hill.
Now that he’s chosen a big chunk of his Cabinet nominees, President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team is focusing increasingly on selecting candidates for government positions that do not require Senate confirmation.
Concerned about Republicans slow-walking confirmation hearings for Cabinet appointees and hollowed-out federal agencies, Biden and his aides are eager to place mid- to lower-level officials across the federal government, particularly in national security roles, to ensure his administration can begin to enact his agenda immediately, according to three people familiar with the situation.
By quickly selecting candidates for slots that don’t require Senate confirmation, such as deputy assistant secretaries, the transition team also can try to ensure that many of those hired can obtain security clearances by the time Biden takes office. Continue reading.
Republican senators with an eye on running for the White House in 2024 are gearing up to battle against President-elect Joe Biden’s Cabinet picks, setting up a debate within the Senate GOP conference over how hard to push back on Biden’s nominees.
While the Senate traditionally gives a new president deference to fill his administration’s senior ranks, the environment has changed after four years of bitter partisan fighting under President Trump.
Four Senate Republicans with potential White House aspirations in 2024 have already signaled their opposition to Biden’s picks, setting the tone for a contentious debate when Biden submits his nominees before what is expected to be a GOP-controlled Senate next year.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Wednesday said Alejandro Mayorkas, whom Biden has tapped to head the Department of Homeland Security, “is disqualified” because of controversy over his role in a decision to provide green cards to Chinese and Thai citizens who pledged funds to a Las Vegas casino. Continue reading.
President-elect Joe Biden on Monday began filling out his Cabinet positions, even as President Trump‘s campaign launched new long-shot efforts to challenge the results of this month’s presidential election.
Biden rolled out his national security team on Monday, announcing his intent to nominate longtime aide Antony Blinken as secretary of State — a decision that had leaked out a night earlier.
Biden also tapped the first ever Latino to run the Department of Homeland Security, the first ever woman to be Intelligence chief, and announced that former secretary of State John Kerry would lead his administration’s efforts to combat climate change. Continue reading.
Former chair of Federal Reserve would be first woman to hold nation’s top economic position
President-elect Joe Biden will nominate former Federal Reserve chair Janet L. Yellen as his treasury secretary, according to three people in close communication with aides to the president-elect.
Yellen, who was appointed chair of the Federal Reserve by President Barack Obama, would be the first woman to lead the Treasury Department if confirmed by the Senate. Biden said last week that he has decided on his choice for treasury secretary and that the name would be announced publicly either shortly before or after the Thanksgiving holiday.
On Monday afternoon, Biden adviser Jen Psaki wrote on Twitter: “The President-elect looks forward to announcing some members of his economic team early next week who will work with him to build the economy back better.” Continue reading.
President-elect Joe Biden on Monday unveiled his nominations for top national security positions in his administration, tapping former Secretary of State John Kerry as his climate czar and former deputy national security adviser Avril Haines as director of national intelligence.
Why it matters: Haines, if confirmed, would make history as the first woman to oversee the U.S. intelligence community. Biden also plans to nominate Alejandro Mayorkas to become the first Latino secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Full list:
President-elect Joe Biden is facing pressure to lean heavily on women as he fills out his Cabinet. So far, he seems intent on delivering.
Biden vowed to put an emphasis on diversity when building his team, and he has already picked women for a series of key positions.
Biden named Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his vice president, a historic choice that made her the first woman, the first Black and the first Indian American vice president-elect. Continue reading.
President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday named Ron Klain as his chief of staff, according to two sources close to the transition.
Klain, Biden’s longtime confidant and chief of staff during his years as vice president, had been considered a favorite for the role.
He served as one of Biden’s main advisers as the former vice president prepared to debate President Trump ahead of the election.
“Ron has been invaluable to me over the many years that we have worked together, including as we rescued the American economy from one of the worst downturns in our history in 2009 and later overcame a daunting public health emergency in 2014,” Biden said in a statement. Continue reading.
The Senate is looming as a roadblock for several of President-elect Joe Biden‘s policy priorities as Democrats start to assemble their 2021 agenda.
Biden and congressional leaders pledged to tackle a bold, aggressive slate of legislation when they felt bullish about their chances for a Democratic trifecta for the first time since 2010 and amid fierce pressure from their base to go big after four years of President Trump.
But in a setback, Biden will at best have a 50-50 Senate majority or, more likely, find his party in the minority by a seat or two, a significant hurdle that will test his ability to cut bipartisan deals while making it difficult if not impossible to pass several Democratic priorities for at least two years. Continue reading.
