- Susan Rice, Robert Gates, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Chuk Hagel, Ray Lahood, Others in Contention
There is expected anxiety as United States President-elect Joe Biden is set to announce his first set of Cabinet picks on Tuesday.
Biden’s Chief of Staff , Ron Klain who disclosed this on Sunday however declined to give specifics and details. According to AFP, Mr Klain urged journalists to await the announcement of the President-elect himself.
“You are going to see the first of the president-elect’s cabinet picks on Tuesday of this week,” Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain told ABC.
He added: “You’ll have to wait for president-elect to say that himself on Tuesday.”
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Recall that The New Diplomat had reported that following the election of former Vice President Joe Biden as President-elect of the United States in a fiercely contested presidential election, attention has now shifted to potential nominees as cabinet picks that would help drive the agenda of the Biden administration.
The New Diplomat reports that going by Biden’s pronouncements, policy analysts believe that the president-elect would likely tap a broad range of experts from diverse background representing the diversity and dynamics of the United states, to man various departments of government.
To this end, there has been growing speculations that potential cabinet picks “range from former officials from President Barack Obama’s administration to former rivals in the Democratic primaries and even Republicans.”
Recall that Biden in his maiden address to the American people after securing the mandatory electoral college votes said: “I said from the outset I wanted a campaign that represented America, and I think we did that. Now that’s what I want the administration to look like.”
According to Politico, a United States based newspaper, “part of that diversity could extend to Republican party. Obama’s Cabinet included Republicans such as Robert Gates and Chuck Hagel at Defense and Ray LaHood at Transportation”.
“I’m running as a proud Democrat – but I will govern as an American president – to unite and to heal,” Biden was quoted as saying repeatedly during his campaign tours across the United States.
However, some democrats and political strategists of the progressive bent are quite skeptical about the likelihood of inviting Republicans to join the Biden cabinet .
But some analysts however posit that the presence of Republicans on the yet-to-be constituted Biden cabinet might likely depend on whether Republicans could retain control of the Senate – a balance and dynamics which strongly depend on undecided seats in Georgia and elsewhere in the US .
However, regardless of whatever direction the pendulum swings, some names have consistently continue to feature prominently as potential picks in a Biden cabinet.
They include Ambassador Susan Rice, a former United States Ambassador to the United Nations(UN) who is being strongly mentioned as potential front runner for the position of Secretary of State, and Senator Bernie Sanders, the Senator from Vermont who is being speculated as a likely pick for the role of Secretary of Labour.
Another strong voice being mentioned is Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts who has been speculated as being considered for the position of Secretary of Treasury.
Another name that has come up is Ron Klain, a senior adviser to the Biden campaign who was chief of staff to vice presidents Biden and Al Gore and headed the White House response to the Ebola epidemic in Africa during the Obama administration.
According to the Politico, Klain is speculated as a potential candidate for the position of Chief of Staff. And true to speculation, he made it to that role when he was so announced recently by Joe Biden.
Others speculated to be in contention for various roles include Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles and co-chair of Biden’s vice presidential search committee, Rep. Karen Bass of California, who was considered as Biden’s running mate.
As speaker of the state Assembly, she made history as the first Black woman to lead a state legislative chamber.
Another name being speculated as a potential candidate according to Politico, is Pete Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who is said to be in reckoning for the position of Secretary for Veteran Affairs.
Meanwhile, should Biden pick Susan Rice, as Secretary of State, analysts believe that it implies that the administration would also have Africa strongly on its foreign policy radar.
Rice who once served as national security adviser and U.S. ambassador to the UN in the Obama administration.
Recall that Biden had previously considered her as his running mate after working with her in the White House studied International Affairs at Stanford University and the University of Oxford, respectively.
She worked previously with President Bill Clinton as part of the National Security Council where she was responsible for African affairs, and later working at the Brookings Institution.
In 2009, Rice joined Obama’s Cabinet, receiving Senate confirmation to be the U.N. ambassador. Later, she served as the national security adviser for the second term of the Obama administration.
Susan Rice was born in Washington, D.C., on November 17, 1964, Lois Dickson Fitt and Emmett J. Rice.
Her father is a Cornell University economics professor and former governor of the Federal Reserve System, while her mother is an education policy researcher and guest scholar at the Brookings Institution.
