The New York Times - USA (2020-12-02)

THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONALWEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2020 N A

WASHINGTON — In one of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s clos- ing campaign advertisements, he promised a “new world coming” if Americans voted for “honor,” “decency,” “respect of office” and “truth.” The restoration of “truth” was illustrated in the ad by a photograph of the podium in the White House briefing room, which under President Trump has been used to disseminate falsehoods and to undermine the credibility of a news media that his aides have referred to as the “opposition party.” The White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, for instance, recently refused to take a question from a CNN correspon- dent, saying, “I don’t call on activists.” It was in the briefing room that Mr. Trump suggested that an “injec- tion inside” the human body with a disinfectant like bleach or isopropyl alcohol could help combat the coronavirus; and where his first press

secretary, Sean Spicer, set the tone for the administration when he false- ly claimed that the president’s inauguration crowd was the “largest au- dience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.” The relationship between a White House press office seeking to por- tray the president and his decisions in the best light possible and the news media seeking to separate fact from spin is designed to be adver- sarial. But Mr. Biden is entering office with the stated intent of restoring credibility to government — and to the briefing room. His advisers have said that the communications team will endeavor for a return to pre- Trump “normalcy.” And that seemed to be reflected in the communications team he announced this week.— ANNIE KARNI

Jennifer Psaki Press Secretary

Mr. Biden’s choice of Jenni- fer Psaki, 42, a veteran of the Obama administration who is generally viewed by reporters as fair and accessible, as his chief spokeswoman embodies that return to normalcy approach. Ms. Psaki, a former White House communications director and State Department spokeswoman, did not work on the Biden campaign. But she was brought in by two top Biden advisers, Jeffrey D. Zients and Anita Dunn, to help with the transition. Mr. Biden’s decision to appoint Ms. Psaki as press secretary came together in a rush of meetings over the past 10 days. Mr. Biden, officials said, was particularly drawn to Ms. Psaki by her background at the State Department. There, she worked under Secretary of State John Kerry and grew comfortable delivering 90-minute briefings on foreign policy issues. At the White House, Ms. Psaki intends to bring back the daily press briefing, which has been all but phased out over the past four years. It is not clear, however, when those sessions might re- sume, given the constraints of the pandemic. But as the incoming administration prepares to roll out a coronavirus vaccine and con- vince more than 300 million Americans that it is safe, Ms. Psaki, colleagues said, views a central part of her job as restoring faith in the words spoken from behind the lectern. “The clown games are over,” said Susan Rice, who was Presi- dent Barack Obama’s national security adviser. “Jen will repre- sent the professionalism and decency and commitment to transparency that has been a hallmark of Joe Biden’s career.” Ms. Psaki, pronounced SOCK- ee, was a candidate for the press secretary’s job under Mr. Obama, but she is arguably coming into it now at a more difficult and more critical moment. “The world this administration inherits has more challenges than any in nearly a century,” said Robert Gibbs, who served as Mr. Obama’s first White House press secretary. “Having a steady, experienced voice behind that podium will serve them well.” Since leaving government, Ms. Psaki has worked as a senior vice president and managing director for the Washington office of Global Strategy Group, a public relations firm that works with corporate, nonprofit and political clients, and has served a principal at WestExec Advisors, a consulting firm founded by Antony J. Blinken, Mr. Biden’s choice for secretary of state. Ms. Psaki, a graduate of the College of William and Mary, was most recently a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endow- ment for International Peace, a Washington-based think tank, and a paid contributor on CNN, a position she left in September. — ANNIE KARNI

Kate Bedingfield Communications Director

Kate Beding- field has spent the past two years as one of the most visible public faces of the Biden campaign. As communications director, she will help shape the message for the president and the White House. Mr. Biden is known for turning to loyal advisers, and Ms. Bed- ingfield has been a trusted aide since 2015, when she joined the vice president’s staff as communications director as he was weighing whether to run for president in 2016. She was an original member of his 2020 campaign, serving as a deputy campaign manager and communications director. In that role, she often appeared on tele- vision as a surrogate for Mr. Biden, sometimes from her bed- room because of the pandemic. With Ms. Bedingfield running the communications operation, the campaign’s message of unify- ing the country remained consis- tent from Day 1 through Election Day, even amid criticism and second-guessing from some Democrats. During the campaign, she was forced to navigate a number of public relations challenges, in- cluding the attacks from Mr. Trump and his allies on Mr. Bi- den’s son Hunter Biden and his business dealings in Ukraine. Ms. Bedingfield and her team did not hesitate to press reporters on the word choices they made in describing the baseless accusa- tions against Mr. Biden and his son. Ms. Bedingfield was also charged with trying to make a positive case for Mr. Biden after he finished fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in the New Hampshire primary, low points on the Biden campaign that at the time raised serious doubts about his path to the Democratic presidential nomination. “The job she did in the campaign is underappreciated,” said Jennifer Palmieri, who served as White House communications director for Mr. Obama. “When a candidate comes in with the expectations and experience of Joe Biden and then falls so dra- matically as he did, where he came in fourth and fifth, to hold a campaign together and keep the candidate focused and upbeat and optimistic is a very difficult task.” Ms. Bedingfield, 39, who grew up in the Atlanta area and is a graduate of the University of Virginia, worked on John Ed- wards’s 2008 presidential campaign and in the Obama White House during Mr. Obama’s first term. She later worked as vice president for corporate communications at the Motion Picture Asso- ciation of America and as vice president for communications at Monumental Sports & Entertain- ment, which owns the N.B.A.’s Washington Wizards, the N.H.L.’s Washington Capitals and the W.N.B.A.’s Washington Mystics. — THOMAS KAPLAN

Karine Jean-Pierre

Principal Deputy Press Secretary The president-elect is an institutionalist, a deal-making centrist and a consummate political insider who has hired a number of top advisers with backgrounds rooted in the traditional corridors of Washington power. One of his newly selected press aides brings a notably different perspective to the team. Karine Jean-Pierre, who was named Mr. Biden’s principal deputy press secretary, has held a number of governmental and campaign roles. But she is steeped in grass-roots progres- sive activism, too, as a former chief public affairs officer at the liberal group MoveOn. She is also a former political analyst for NBC and MSNBC. Ms. Jean-Pierre has also spoken about her belief that her identity as a woman of color and daughter of Haitian immigrants cut a sharp contrast with the divisive and at times racist rhet- oric promoted by Mr. Trump. “I am everything that Donald Trump hates,” she said in a video for MoveOn. “I’m a Black woman, I’m gay, I am a mom. Both my parents were born in Haiti.” Ms. Jean-Pierre, 46, served in the Obama White House and worked on Mr. Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns. She was also a deputy campaign manager for the unsuccessful presidential campaign of Martin O’Malley, a former governor of Maryland, in

But she was not an original
member of the Biden campaign,
arriving as a senior adviser last
spring after Jennifer O’Malley
Dillon was brought on as cam-
paign manager.
Ms. Jean-Pierre later served
as the chief of staff for Mr. Bi-
den’s running mate, Senator
Kamala Harris. That job that
gave Ms. Jean-Pierre access to
the candidate but did not require
her to engage in the daily spar-
ring with journalists that she
may need to do in her new role,
in which she is expected to work
closely with Ms. Psaki.
Ms. Jean-Pierre, a graduate of
the New York Institute of Tech-
nology and Columbia’s School of
International and Public Affairs,
came up in New York politics,
describing former Mayor David
N. Dinkins, who recently died, as
a mentor.
“She will bring a steadiness, an
evenness,” said Leah Daughtry, a
veteran Democratic strategist
who knows Ms. Jean-Pierre from
New York. “She also brings her
own experience as the daughter
of immigrants, as someone from
the queer community, as some-
one who’s a New Yorker.”
— KATIE GLUECK
and THOMAS KAPLAN

Symone D. Sanders

Senior Adviser and Chief Spokeswoman for Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris As Mr. Biden reveled in his Super Tuesday victories in March in a speech in Cali- fornia, two protesters threatened to ruin the moment, climbing on- stage with the septuagenarian candidate. Symone D. Sanders did not waste any time. She charged forward and, with the help of Mr. Biden’s wife, Jill Biden, and several aides, hauled one of the protesters away. Ms. Sanders is no stranger to brawling on behalf of her boss. She served as an outspoken senior adviser to Mr. Biden’s presidential campaign, emerging as a prolific surrogate at news conferences and on social media. Now, she will be a senior adviser and chief spokeswoman for Ms. Harris, whom she advised during the general election, traveling with her and assisting with debate preparations. Ms. Sanders is expected to play key roles both in guiding the press operation and in advising as Ms. Harris pursues her own initia- tives as vice president. Ms. Sanders, 30, a Nebraska native, is fluent in both the lan- guage of the left and internet discourse — in contrast to some of Mr. Biden’s longer-serving advisers — and she was an important point of contact for several key political constituencies during the race. But she does not have the decades of traditional campaign and Washington experience that many in Mr. Biden’s orbit value. Indeed, she signed on with the Biden campaign after working as press secretary for Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign at age 25. Yet a combination of loyalty to Mr. Biden and a different perspective from many in his inner circle helped Ms. Sanders become an important and re- spected voice in the campaign. In the vice president’s office, Ms. Sanders will work closely with Ashley Etienne, the communications director for Ms. Harris who is a veteran of the Obama administration and also served as a top aide to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. This year, Ms. Sanders, a graduate of Creighton University, published a book titled, “No, You Shut Up: Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America.” She has also done strategic communications consulting work, but does not intend to continue that while in government. In an interview, Ms. Sanders noted that the transition had rolled out at one time the White House communications team’s leadership, made up entirely of women — both white women and women of color. “The most qualified people for the job also happen to all be women,” she said. “That is his- toric. Not too long ago, the pow- ers that be would not have picked us.” — KATIE GLUECK

Greeting the Press: 4 Faces of the Biden White House

AL DRAGO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Transition in WashingtonVoices

WASHINGTON — The fierce
and pre-emptive Republican
pushback against President-elect
Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s choice of
Neera Tanden this week to head
the White House budget office un-
derscored the difficulties the in-
coming administration will face in
maneuvering its nominees
through a polarized Senate.
In the 11 years since President-
elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. served in
the chamber, partisanship has in-
tensified, and nominations — once
an area dominated by courtesy,
comity and a presumption of ac-
commodation — have become just
another brutal battlefield.
Republicans will not be eager to
accede to Mr. Biden’s choices if
they can find reason for opposi-
tion. And disparaging comments
about Republicans on Twitter
from Ms. Tanden, a longtime
Democratic policy adviser and
head of a liberal think tank, were
enough for many Republicans to
threaten the nomination before it
was made official on Tuesday.
“Trumpism has infected the en-
tire Republican caucus,” said
James P. Manley, a former long-
time top Senate Democratic aide,
who urged the incoming adminis-
tration to brace for intense opposi-
tion from Republicans led by Sen-
ator Mitch McConnell of Ken-
tucky. “I am not sure everyone has
figured out yet what is going on
here, but I hope they will soon, and
prepare for what is coming.”
Should Democrats win two Sen-

ate seats in runoff elections to be
held on Jan. 5 in Georgia, the party
would control the agenda and
make approval of Mr. Biden’s
nominees much easier. But if
Democrats fail, Republicans will
have the power to decide the fate
of Mr. Biden’s executive and judi-
cial branch picks.
The reality of a Democratic
White House and a Republican
Senate will take some adjusting to
on Capitol Hill after four years of
Republicans working hand-in-
hand with President Trump on
nominations.
Republicans said they were
stunned by the selection of Ms.
Tanden, whom many knew mainly
as a hostile social media presence,
to head the Office of Management
and Budget. Even though many
Republicans have refused to rec-
ognize Mr. Biden as the winner of
the election, they said they were
surprised that his team had not
checked in with them on how they
might react to her nomination to
an agency that lawmakers in both
parties see as critical when it
comes to advancing congres-
sional priorities.
“That was just an unforced er-
ror,” Senator John Cornyn, Repub-
lican of Texas, said on Tuesday. He
said that moving forward in future
cases without weighing Republi-
can sentiment was “a roll of the
dice” that could cause unneces-
sary embarrassment to a nominee
or to Mr. Biden’s White House.
Initially, Republicans — who
had refused to hold hearings for
President Barack Obama’s Su-
preme Court nominee in 2016 —
suggested that they might not
even take up Ms. Tanden’s nomi-
nation were it sent to the Senate.
But Senator Rob Portman of Ohio,
who is poised to be the top Repub-
lican on one of the two committees
that would oversee hearings for
Ms. Tanden, said he believed she
should receive one even if he was
skeptical about her chances.
“That’s our responsibility,” said
Mr. Portman, who oversaw the
budget office under President
George W. Bush. “But it doesn’t
mean she’ll get the votes.”
The handling of the announce-
ment of Ms. Tanden’s nomination
left some in both parties wonder-
ing whether Mr. Biden’s team was
misreading the environment on
Capitol Hill, where voting against
an administration’s nominees has

become essentially the default position for senators in the party out of power in recent years. But people close to the transition team said opposition to Ms. Tanden’s nomination from some Republicans was no surprise to the president-elect or his team, nor was it evidence that Mr. Bi- den, who served almost four decades in the Senate, was naïve about what it would take to win confirmation of his choices. One person familiar with the delibera- tions said they expected as much from Republicans already angling to run for president in four years. Advisers said Mr. Biden was cleareyed about the need to use some of his political capital to fight for Ms. Tanden’s nomination, cit- ing her years of policymaking experience and a compelling per- sonal story as reasons to fight to get her confirmed. They noted that the reaction from Republicans to Mr. Biden’s other nominees has been more muted, with some Republicans suggesting they would be willing to give the president-elect defer- ence in terms of who he wants in his cabinet. One person close to the nomination process said that Mr. Biden and his team had, in fact, been reaching out to Republi- can lawmakers in recent weeks. Transition officials said the cri- sis situation in the nation makes quick confirmation imperative. “The country is facing multiple crises, from a pandemic that is killing over 10,000 Americans a week to a recession that is con- tinuing to push thousands out of the work force,” said Andrew Bates, a transition spokesman. “The American people cannot af- ford partisan obstruction of qualified and experienced women who are nominees.” Democrats scoffed at the criti- cisms surrounding Ms. Tanden’s selection, particularly over her Twitter feed — given that most Senate Republicans have dili- gently spent four years evading queries about the array of policy announcements, racist commen- tary and inflammatory attacks on their own colleagues from Mr. Trump on Twitter. “After spending four years pre- tending that they didn’t see the latest insane tweet from Presi- dent Trump, Senate Republicans seem to have found a newfound in- terest in the Twitter feeds of Presi- dent-elect Biden’s cabinet selection,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said on the Senate floor. “A few critical tweets about substantive policy positions have caused Sen- ate Republicans to label Ms. Tanden’s nomination ‘radioac- tive.’ Spare us the hyperbole.” Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, said he believed that Mr. Biden and his team should reach out to Capitol Hill about the looming nominations. He added that he had been in touch with some of the intended nominees about scheduling private, one-on- one meetings. (On Tuesday, Mr. Schumer’s office circulated photo- graphs of him in a video confer- ence with Mr. Biden’s choices for secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, and director of national intelligence, Avril D. Haines.) “That’s probably the most important first thing because there’s nothing like making your case for yourself,” Mr. Kaine said. “Four years ago, President Trump put some nominees up — if they said things in tweets or whatever that we didn’t like, we’d ask them tough questions about that, so she will expect the same.” Democrats also said they were astounded by calls from Republi- cans for extensive disclosures of business dealings from Mr. Bi- den’s potential picks after the record compiled by Mr. Trump. “This is just stunning, even by the double standards of Washing- ton,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, who labeled the Trump administration “the Babe Ruth of darkness.” “The Trump administration has stonewalled on so many things — starting with the president’s taxes — and then they come in and the first thing they’re doing is saying, ‘Oh, my goodness, there’s no transparency in the Biden administration,’ ” he added.

Balking at Tanden,

G.O.P. Signals Fight

By CARL HULSE and EMILY COCHRANE

Neera Tanden is a longtime Democratic policy adviser and head
of a liberal think tank. She has targeted Republicans on Twitter.

KRISTON JAE BETHEL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Does Biden recognize

the polarization he

will confront?

The New York Times - USA (2020-12-02)

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