Biden picks for top White House jobs draw contrast with Trump not only on policy but also style

WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden signaled Tuesday he intends to draw on longtime, loyal aides with deep government experience when he enters the White House next year – breaking with the anti-establishment approach President Donald Trump embraced after his election four years ago.

With a series of personnel announcements Tuesday, the shape of the team that will occupy the West Wing after Jan. 20 came into sharper focus, with Biden turning to several aides who worked for him as vice president and others who either served President Barack Obama or have lengthy resumes from elsewhere in government.

"It’s a lot of experience," Phil Schiliro, former director of legislative affairs for Obama, said of Biden's picks, adding that they should help him get up and running quickly.

Biden is starting the work of staffing his White House even as Trump continues to dispute the results of the Nov. 3 election, pursuing a series of lawsuits in battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has so far also held off on beginning a formal transition.

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Biden's appointments, which included Steve Ricchetti, a longtime adviser and lobbyist, and Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, represented a departure from many of Trump's early appointments of outsider figures to top White House jobs – from strategist Steve Bannon to son-in-law Jared Kushner. Trump was limited in part because of the aggressively anti-establishment route he took to the presidency, experts said.

Ricchetti will serve as a counselor to Biden, the campaign said Tuesday. Richmond will direct the White House Office of Public Engagement. Those appointments were among several Biden aides have announced in recent days, including Ron Klain, who will serve as White House chief of staff. Klain is a Washington veteran with White House experience – including as a former chief to Biden when he was vice president.

"This is one area where a VP or former VP is ideally situated to build a White House staff: The ability to draw on their own staffs or those of the president with whom they served," said John Burke, a political scientist at the University of Vermont, adding that Biden appears to be naming a team that has both experience and loyalty to him.

"Challenge ahead: Will they also function as an effective team?" Burke said. "Will they play well with each other?"

Trump ran a campaign in 2016 that rested heavily on a promise to shake up Washington – "drain the swamp" became a stump speech mantra. And while he named some well-known figures to posts, such as former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, many others were plucked from his campaign or business empire.

"It helps that Biden has been out of office for only four years and can draw on these experienced people," said James Pfiffner, a professor emeritus of public policy at George Mason University who co-authored the book Organizing the Presidency. "Donald Trump was at a great disadvantage because he was not able or willing to call on experienced Republican staffers."

Four years later, Biden's campaign represented a 180-degree turn – not just on policies but also style. The former vice president who served 36 years in the Senate ran in part on having the experience and relationships needed to steer the nation through its fight with COVID-19, economic challenges and tensions with longtime allies.

The early picks also indicate a commitment to diversity in the West Wing, with several people of color named as staffers Tuesday. Three of the staff announced Tuesday are Latino. Richmond is a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Biden met virtually Tuesday with defense and foreign affairs advisers. The group included several well-known national security and military figures, such as retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who led troops in Afghanistan, retired Navy Adm. William McRaven, who headed the special operations command, and Tony Blinken, a former deputy secretary of State and deputy national security adviser.

Several of the officials are under consideration for posts as well. Biden is expected to begin naming Cabinet members in the coming days.

"I think we have to renew America's leadership and put the United States back at the head of the table," Biden told the group Tuesday.

The emphasis Biden is placing so far on Washington experience may rub some Democrats the wrong way, highlighting a divide within the party the former vice president is likely to confront often. Some liberal groups such as Justice Democrats have called on the president-elect to pick more progressive candidates for top jobs.

The group slammed Biden's choice of Ricchetti and Richmond in particular Tuesday, calling them "corporate-friendly appointments" and warning that Biden risks "fracturing the hard-earned goodwill his team built with progressives to defeat Donald Trump."

Other top jobs announced Tuesday included Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden's campaign manager, as deputy chief of staff. O'Malley Dillon worked on Obama’s 2012 and 2008 campaigns and is a former executive director of the Democratic National Committee.

Mike Donilon, named as a senior adviser on Tuesday, was previously an aide to Biden in the vice president's office and worked on six presidential campaigns.

Dana Remus, the Biden campaign's general counsel, was named White House counsel. Remus had been general counsel to the Obama Foundation and the former president's personal office. During the Obama administration, she served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy counsel for ethics.

"It also seems that several of these designated staffers have the stature and experience with Joe Biden that they will be willing to bring him bad news and disagree with him, as Biden was able to do with Barack Obama," Pfiffner said.

"Contrast with the whole Trump White House staff," he added.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden leans on former aides with deep experience for White House posts