US president-elect Joe Biden has given top positions to female former aides to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, as he announced senior appointments to his economic and communications team on Sunday.
Mr Biden announced that Jennifer Psaki, the former White House communications director and State department spokesperson under Mr Obama, would serve as White House press secretary. He also tapped Kate Bedingfield to be White House communications director after serving in that role for his presidential campaign.
The announcement of the communications team came as it emerged that Neera Tanden, a former senior aide to Mrs Clinton, was set to be tapped by Mr Biden to be White House budget director, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr Biden is also poised to name Cecilia Rouse, a Princeton University labour economist, to be chair of the White House council of economic advisers. Serving alongside her on the council will be Jared Bernstein, Mr Biden’s former chief economist when he was vice-president, and Heather Boushey, an economist whose research is centred on combating inequality.
The economic appointments are likely to be announced this week with the selection of Janet Yellen, the former Fed chair, as Treasury secretary.
Ms Yellen is expected to be flanked by Wally Adeyemo, the president of the Obama foundation and a former international economic official during his administration, as deputy Treasury secretary. Those economic appointments were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Additionally, Brian Deese, a former Obama administration official who works on sustainable investing at BlackRock, is the frontrunner to be director of the White House National Economic Council, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr Biden’s choices emerged at the end of the long Thanksgiving holiday, as the president-elect continued to fill out his team with a more diverse cast of senior officials than has been the case in past administrations. This was one of the key promises of the Democratic candidate during his campaign.
“Communicating directly and truthfully to the American people is one of the most important duties of a President, and this team will be entrusted with the tremendous responsibility of connecting the American people to the White House,” Mr Biden said in a statement about his communications team on Sunday.
“These qualified, experienced communicators bring diverse perspectives to their work and a shared commitment to building this country back better,” he added.
The economic choices also reflect his need to balance the different factions of the Democratic party. Ms Tanden has at times clashed with progressive Democrats, so her nomination risks a backlash that could prove problematic given that the budget director position requires Senate confirmation.
Republicans also scoffed at her selection, and warned that Ms Tanden would fail to get widespread support. “Neera Tanden, who has an endless stream of disparaging comments about the Republican Senators’ whose votes she’ll need, stands zero chance of being confirmed,” said Drew Brandewie, a spokesperson for John Cornyn, the Texas senator.
Mr Biden’s picks for the White House council of economic advisers will be welcomed among liberals — since they are a group of economists committed to large-scale stimulus and investment, partly offset by higher taxes on the wealthy.
“Simply getting back to the old normal in terms of the economy and the kind of economic policy architecture, that sets the bar far too low,” Mr Bernstein told the FT in September.
Former Obama administration officials reacted positively to Mr Adeyemo’s expected appointed as the second-in-command at the Treasury department. Mr Adeyemo was part of the US negotiating team for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which president Donald Trump ditched once he arrived in office in 2017.
He also helped set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was established by Mr Obama after the financial crisis. “Wally knows Treasury — its policy remit and all of its parts — inside out. He’s efficient, pragmatic and knows how to get things done,” Mark Sobel, US chairman of Omfif, the central banking think-tank, and a former US Treasury official.
Mr Biden has ploughed ahead with key appointments even though Mr Trump has failed to concede defeat in the presidential election in the face of a string of failed legal challenges to the result in key swing states. However, Mr Trump did last week give the green light for the bureaucratic transition to begin, which allows incoming Biden officials to prepare for their arrival at government agencies in January.
The announcement of Mr Biden’s communications team came as he sustained an injury to his foot after slipping while playing with his dog.
The accident resulted in small fractures that would “likely require a walking boot for several weeks”, according to a statement from Dr Kevin O’Connor of GW Medical Faculty Associates released by the president-elect’s office.