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Some of the names Biden is currently flowing are just test balloons, intended to gauge how much fire he can expect from Republicans and the ranks of his fellow Democrats. Fundraisers and key supporters will also have a say in decisions. And government bureaucrats, however skilled they may be, are a political constituency that Biden and the Democrats have courted.
Yet Biden’s advisers also have a clear preference for career professionals insane or beaten under the Trump administration. Some left or got the ax because of a lack of loyalty to Trump – “patriots,” a senior Biden adviser called them.
Biden’s senior advisers are yet to speak of specific individuals as real candidates for vacancies, but they underscore his promise to respect the experience and expertise of the public service and the diplomatic corps.
“There is a need for a number of very experienced executives where there is a shortage,” Ronald Neumann, president of the American Academy of Diplomacy and former career ambassador, told CNN of the department. ‘State. “And they’re likely to take some away from it and, since most of them are pretty well-respected people, it’ll probably go smoothly. But it also depends on what people have established in the meantime, and if they have good jobs that pay very well. Some will come back, others will be gone. “
And there are plenty of refugees from the Trump administration – especially in the areas of national security, law enforcement, and diplomacy – who fit the description. For example, Biden doesn’t need to look any further than reporting from the past four years.
Sally yates
One of the first victims of the Trump purge to reach the top of the Justice Department was Sally Yates – and now she’s seen as one of the top contenders for attorney general under Biden.
As Deputy Attorney General in the Obama administration, Yates became Acting Attorney General after Trump’s inauguration and was expected to assume that role until Jeff Sessions was confirmed by the Senate to head the Department of Justice.
Although Yates is a Democrat, she was not known in Washington legal circles as being particularly partisan before her dismissal. But the Georgia native made an appearance at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, accusing the president who fired her of “trampling.[ing] the rule of law. ”
Marie Yovanovitch
Many career Foreign Service officers have been caught amid the events leading up to Trump’s impeachment. None was more important than Marie Yovanovtich, whose impeachment as ambassador to Ukraine in May 2019 was a central fact in the investigation into the president’s wrongdoing.
Like Thomas-Greenfield, Yovanovitch has spent his career in the foreign service, including appointments to the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. The credibility of his damning testimony at impeachment hearings rested on his decades of diplomatic experience and expertise. Her work in the fight against corruption prompted Trump allies to encourage Yovanovitch’s ouster with a smear campaign against her.
After a scholarship to Georgetown University, Yovanovitch retired from the State Department last January. But she delivered a harsh assessment of the administration in remarks weeks after her retirement that could be seen as a manifesto for the foreign service in the Trump era.
Alexander vindman
Another central figure in the impeachment saga, Alexander Vindman was a career military officer with a decade of experience as a regional officer overseas. Previously, Vindman had served in combat in Iraq, receiving a Purple Heart after being wounded by a roadside bomb in 2005. In 2018, he was posted to the White House National Security Council (along with his twin brother, Yevgeny).
Vindman’s own testimony to Congress provided details of the July 2019 phone call with new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when Trump asked Zelensky to help investigate Biden. He also expressed concern to an intelligence officer about what he considered to be the president’s “inappropriate conduct” during the call.
The testimony put Vindman in the middle of a firestorm, with the president accusing him of being disloyal. Trump’s media allies even hinted that Kiev-born Vindman was a traitor to his adopted United States.
In July, Vindman announced he would be retiring from the military, with his lawyer accusing Trump of intimidation and harassment.
Bonnie glick
Glick began his career as a Foreign Service Officer at the State Department and also worked for the Governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan, a Republican, as Deputy Secretary of the State Department for Aging. She was confirmed by the Senate as USAID’s Deputy Administrator, political appointment, in January 2019.
Glick was not seen as particularly disloyal or problematic to Trump, nor did she give the administration the reason for her withdrawal. But his tenure in that role complicated matters for a White House that increasingly relied on acting officials from across government.
Glick’s ouster came on the same day that John Barsa’s tenure as the agency’s interim administrator expired under federal Job Vacancy Reform Act, and sources told CNN that ‘she had been fired so he could stay at the helm. Glick was ordered to quit or be fired, and sources said she refused to quit.
Sources told CNN they feared the ousting of Glick could jeopardize the ease of transition from a Trump presidency to a Biden presidency at the agency. A source close to Bonnie Glick told CNN that since she is a Republican, she would not be interested in joining USAID under a Biden administration. This person said she was asked before the election to help with the transition and told Biden’s team that she was happy to help in an unofficial and unpaid capacity to ensure a transition smoothly at the agency.
Glick is now a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank.
Chris Krebs
As director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at DHS, Krebs had cultivated a stellar reputation, including with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. But he won the ire of the president and his allies after Krebs and his agency began actively debunking numerous claims by Trump and his supporters that there was widespread voter fraud.
The straw seemed to be when Krebs’ agency – along with a group of election officials – released a statement definitively claiming that “there was no evidence that a voting system was suppressing or losing votes, changed voice or was in any way compromised. ” ”
Trump cited the CISA statement in his own tweet explaining the decision to fire the 43-year-old cybersecurity expert.
Since Krebs was ousted, he has continued with the rejection that sacked him and praised federal and state election officials, including his team. He now tweets from a personal account (which quickly racked up over 200,000 followers) and has been more direct in calling for disinformation.
“As a reminder, there is still no evidence that electoral systems and votes were tampered with,” he tweeted after the GSA verified the vote. Following the press conference by Rudy Giuliani and the president’s legal team, Krebs took to Twitter with unusually harsh and direct language, calling it “the most dangerous 1:45 hour of television in American history. . And maybe the craziest. “
Krebs was expected to move and enter the private sector after the election, regardless of the outcome of the election. He did not say what was coming next for him, but did indicate that it could include his own business, writing about his former deputy – who resigned after Krebs was fired – “I’ll be lucky to have a job again. half as good business partner. “
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