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“Obama’s staff are now eliminating the people who got Biden elected,” said a senior Biden official, expressing the sentiments of the old guard Biden campaign, who requested anonymity for the obvious reason. “None of these people found the courage to help the Vice President when he was a candidate and now they are raising their friends above the Biden people. It’s f —– up.
Another Biden adviser who worked on the campaign echoed this point. “This is a very valid criticism,” the adviser said. “A lot of people live in uncertainty.”
There are a few caveats, both regarding the 2008 transition battle between the campaign and the 2020 transition and sequel. At the time, Obama was a member of the United States Senate, where he did not have one. important staff to rely on for government positions. He was also taking the presidency amid a raging economic crisis. It shouldn’t have been surprising that he tapped into a pool of talent that dominated the administration of the last Democratic president.
Conventional wisdom today is that Biden is in fact storing his administration with his campaign loyalists at the expense of other factions within his party. And in a way, it’s true. The top of the campaign – Ron Klain, Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti – will take the top spots in the White House Biden. Biden’s two main national security advisers for the campaign will take over the two main national security positions in the administration: Tony Blinken as secretary of state and Jake Sullivan as national security adviser. Campaign director Jen O’Malley Dillon and one of the campaign co-chairs, Rep. Cedric Richmond, will have high-profile roles in the White House.
The relatively uncontroversial nature of these choices was intentional. Internally, Biden executives have been tasked with pointing out to reporters how normal the choices are, how “these are leaders tested.” It’s considered a success if the announcements from Biden staff and the Cabinet don’t make much news.
But just below that elite level is bordering on panic – depending on who you talk to – about the perceived lack of awareness of many campaign alumni. “There is real doubt that they will be taken care of,” Biden’s adviser said.
Some of the grumbling goes back to one of the main cleavages in the Biden campaign: the people who joined the campaign before Dillon was appointed campaign manager in March and those who arrived after. Some in the old guard feel underestimated – they won the Democratic nomination! – and have been overlaid by Dillon hires who are now prioritized for White House jobs.
Several people I spoke to pointed out that Dillon and Julie Rodriguez, one of his campaign assistants, were given top positions in the White House in front of people like Kate Bedingfield and Symone Sanders, two veterans of the pre-Dillon era who are still widely regarded as likely to receive the best communications jobs. “The people who were not in the contested primary victory were placed before the people who were in it,” Biden’s adviser said. “If you’ve noticed, Jen’s people are taken care of. ”
Responding to these criticisms, a Biden transition official, who asked to remain anonymous because he was concerned that Biden’s campaign officials speaking out were “focusing their frustrations on me,” said in a statement. Prepared: “The Biden-Harris transition team includes many longtime campaign staff working alongside the transition staff who laid the groundwork for a smooth transition for months. It is still extremely early in the staffing process of the Biden-Harris administration and the people who worked hard to win will continue to be an integral part of the job ahead. “
Some of the factionalism that is forming is tied to Biden’s long career. Not everyone involved in helping him get to the White House has formally worked on the campaign. There are Biden Senate staff, Biden vice-presidential staff, Biden presidential primary staff, and Biden general election staff. Some people straddle several eras. Current fears about the transition taken over by the previous generation of Obama employees who make up the permanent establishment in Washington come from a younger group of true believers in Biden who chose to work for him early in 2019, even when all the cool young agents were. flock to Beto and Bernie and Warren.
Even then, there was a disconnect between the brain trust at the top of the campaign, which now moves seamlessly up the White House, and the Biden proletariat which formed the bulk of the operation. the country. The fear of the proletarians is that the brain trust does not understand that they are being left behind. So they are speaking out – anonymously – in the hope that people like Klain, Ricchetti and Donilon, and perhaps the president-elect himself, will take notice.
In the meantime, many of these people sit and wait, often without really understanding how they apply for crucial jobs.
“People are pissed off,” Biden’s adviser said. “I think I’m going to be taken care of but I haven’t been taken care of yet. I’m really interested in how you even find out how you got a job in the White House. “
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