Among the mercenaries Tuesday announced Mike Donilon, Biden’s senior campaign strategist, who played an important role in developing his speeches and advertisements when he conceived the 2020 campaign as a blow to the nation’s soul, will be the chairman’s chief advisor. And Steve Ricchetti, campaign president Biden and a White House veteran of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, will be an advisor to the president.
The announcements come days after Biden appointed veteran Democrat Ron Clayne as his chief of staff, and show that Biden will first occupy the White House headquarters that will surround him before proceeding with cabinet announcements.
Message indicating that at least two meetings have already been cancelled on Monday: Jen O’Malley Dillon, campaign manager who took office after Biden’s limp to the Democratic Primary and made his campaign the biggest fundraising tycoon in history, is Biden’s deputy chief of staff.
And Louisiana Congressman Cedric Richmond, former president of the Congressional Black Caucus, is leaving his seat in the House of Representatives to become Biden’s senior advisor and director of White House public affairs.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Baiden’s deputy campaign leader, who previously served as senior advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris during the presidential campaign, will lead the White House Office for Intergovernmental Affairs. Chavez Rodriguez is also a veteran of the former administration of President Barack Obama, where she was special assistant to the president and senior deputy director of public affairs.
Dana Remus, senior counsel for the Biden campaign and former Supreme Court clerk Samuel Alito, senior counsel for the Obama Foundation and Obama’s personal law firm, is appointed legal advisor to the president.
Annie Tomasini, who was seconded by Biden’s chief of staff during the campaign, becomes director of operations for the Oval Office, a role that keeps the front door close to the elected president.
President-elect Biden and Vice President Harris have an ambitious and urgent agenda. The team that we have already started construction will allow us to meet the challenges that await our country from the first day, Clay said in a statement announced Tuesday morning.
Jill Biden’s transition team announced the names of some of her top employees. Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón, former US Ambassador in Uruguay and Assistant Secretary of State, currently partner in the law firm Winston & Strawn, will become Chief of Staff in Biden. Anthony Bernal, who quickly became the First Lady’s chief of staff during the 2020 campaign, becomes the senior advisor.
During the long period of the 2020 election campaign, Tomazini and Bernal were Biden’s only assistants, who regularly met the candidate and his wife. Biden conducted campaigns during the coronavirus pandemic for several months, mainly from his home, blocking states and restricting travel during the coronavirus pandemic because campaign workers worked remotely. Tomazini and Bernal were the only employees who regularly went in and out of their Delaware home.
