US Politics | A return to status quo of establishment politics

President-elect Joe Biden speaks at The Queen theater Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

United States President Donald Trump is standing still, crying afoul about the presidential elections, but President-Elect Joe Biden is moving forward. As the big C word — Concession — is yet to come from the Trump campaign, Biden is more concerned with another C — Cabinet.

As Biden continues to name personnel for key positions, The Washington Post journalist Emily Rauhala captured the sentiment perfectly with a tweet, stating how politics is ephemeral and epitomised perfectly in Washington, where the Trump administration could be seen as an aberration with unconventional picks, and Biden is a return to the status quo of establishment politics.

As I previously wrote, Biden was seen to be running on an Obama 3.0 platform. A return of the old guard, the Obama era staffers and appointees, but more importantly less whimsical from the Trump era to more wonk-like of the Obama era.

Biden is said to put together the most diverse Cabinet including women, LGBTQ representatives, and people of colour — all this from a septuagenarian White male. But this was par for the course, given the predominantly White male Cabinet of the last four years, and Biden alluded to diversity in first starting he would be picking a woman as his Veep nominee, and second, his pick, Kamala Harris, a first-generation American.

But Vice Presidents are picked to win elections, and contrary to the proximity on the ballot, Vice Presidents are generally further away from the Oval Office, than they would like to be. However, Biden, a former Veep himself, shared a convivial rapport with Barack Obama, and could task his deputy with a unique portfolio.

The real position that is closest to the POTUS, the counsellor, the confidant, the one with clout is the Chief of Staff (CoS). Not to cite fiction for factual, but fans of US political drama West Wing and Madam Secretary would notice the enormous political influence that the President’s senior-most adviser possesses. Former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld and Leon Panetta have held this position.

Chris Whipple’s book The Gatekeepers underscores the importance of the CoS. It is one position that does not need Senate confirmation, and perhaps the most private position for the world’s most public individual. Biden’s CoS will be Ron Klain.

His first order of business will be to lead the vetting and transition processes for Cabinet appointees. Klain is a known face to Biden and held the same position during his Vice-Presidential tenure, and was also Obama’s Ebola response coordinator in 2014 and 2015.

US’ leading diplomat, Secretary of State has gone to Tony Blinken, another one of Biden’s top aides. Like Klain, Blinken is a Biden insider and served as Biden’s National Security Advisor (NSA) when Biden was second-in-command. Blinken was Obama’s Deputy NSA, working under Susan Rice.

Rice, earlier a top contender for Secretary of State, was overlooked as the Biden transition team anticipated pushbacks from the Senate (likely GOP controlled), an encore of the same tactics that Senate Republicans conjured when Obama tried to appoint her for the job back in 2013.

Blinken has served as Deputy Secretary of State from 2015 to 2017, and his nomination suggests a return to the multilateralism of the Obama administration. Blinken was Biden’s key foreign-policy wonk during the campaign trail.

The NSA for all intents and purposes acts as a counterpart to the Secretary of State given the overlap in diplomacy and security issues. The NSAs such as Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell have gone on to become Secretary of State. Jake Sullivan, who served as Biden’s NSA after Blinken, will hold the coveted post and become a core member national security team. Sullivan was also a former aide to Hilary Clinton.

Biden has selected General Lloyd Austin, a four-star general who retired from the US Army in 2016, to serve as his Secretary of Defense. Pending Senate confirmation, Austin becomes the first Black individual to lead the Pentagon.

John Kerry, former Secretary of State and presidential candidate in 2004, returns to government as ‘climate czar’. Biden announced that he would appoint Kerry as special presidential envoy for climate, a new Cabinet-level role, in a sign that Biden had thrown the gauntlet and wanted to reverse Trump’s decision to renege from the Paris Climate Accords and prioritise climate change.

Another coveted position on the diplomacy scene is the US Ambassador to the United Nations. Career foreign service officer, Linda Thomas-Greenfield will be running affairs from New York. The position in the past has served as a contender for future Secretary of State. George Bush senior too served in this position. In a push towards multilateralism, Greenfield will see a more elevated level of importance.

Obama’s former Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough will be nominated for Secretary of Veterans Affairs, while Susan Rice will be getting a White House domestic policy adviser, eschewing her foreign policy experience and a position that won’t need any Senate confirmation. Jennifer Psaki will serve as White House press secretary. Psaki will now lead the first all-female presidential communications team.

On the economic front, Biden has opted for a team of liberal and centrist economic advisers. Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen, who was the first woman to lead the US Fed, now could become the first woman at the helm of treasury. Neera Tanden, head of the, the Center for American Progress will serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Chinese-American Katherine Tai, will be in line to serve as US trade representative. Biden's future ‘trade czar’, Tai will play a pivotal role in rejigging trade ties and a push for multilateral trade deals. Tai would be the first woman of colour to hold the job.

Another Indian-American in the ranks will be Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, also the former surgeon general for Obama. Murthy is also the co-chair of Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board, and will act as the ‘top medical expert’ and public face of the pandemic effort.

Perhaps the only familiar face from the current federal government will be Anthony Fauci, who will serve as the Chief Medical Advisor on COVID-19. No prizes for guessing why?