White House transition new tall task

Level of cooperation by Trump a big unknown

WILMINGTON, Del. — Joe Biden just won the presidency. That may turn out to be the easy part.

The president-elect already was bracing to deal with the worst health crisis the nation has seen in more than a century and the economic havoc it has wreaked.

Now, he has to build a government while contending with a Senate that could stay in GOP hands, a House sure to feature fewer Democratic allies and a public that includes more than 70 million people who would prefer that President Donald Trump keep the job.

There also is the looming question of whether Trump, who has claimed that the election was being stolen from him, will cooperate. Traditionally, the transition process relies on the outgoing administration working closely with the incoming one, even if they are from different parties.

Biden’s top priority in the 10 weeks before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20 will be building a staff and assembling the pieces needed to tackle the coronavirus.

He’s likely to move quickly in announcing Cabinet picks and top aides central to dealing with the pandemic, including leaders of the departments of the Treasury and Health and Human Services and a National Economic Council director.

That’s according to people involved in transition planning who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Biden’s campaign declined to comment.

A senator for decades and vice president for eight years, Biden has a deep understanding of the workings of government, and he’s surrounded by a small group of top advisers with equally deep institutional knowledge.

“The Biden team is the most experienced, most prepared, most focused transition team ever, commensurate with the challenges that Biden will face” Jan. 20, said David Marchick, director of the Center for Presidential Transition at the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. The center advises presidential candidates on the transition.

A key member of Biden’s inner circle who is likely to move into a top administration job is Ron Klain, a former Biden chief of staff. Klain served as President Barack Obama’s Ebola response “czar” during the outbreak of that disease in the U.S. in 2014.

Advisers say Biden will assemble one of the most diverse Cabinets in history, but those choices won’t come without pressure.

South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-ranking House leader, whose coveted endorsement helped resurrect Biden’s flagging presidential bid early in the primary season, has already said he’d like to see the Cabinet include one of Biden’s bestknown African American advisers, Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond.

Transition work began months before Election Day and intensified in the three-plus days it took to declare a winner. The campaign even posted a transition website, although it didn’t link to any content while the race’s winner was still in doubt.

Biden will have to name 4,000-plus political appointees, including more than 1,200 requiring Senate confirmation.

Marchick said much of the work will be done by hundreds of Biden staffers quietly interacting with Trump administration counterparts. They will go to the agencies and ask “what’s happening, what’s in the pipeline, what regulations have just been issued, what regulations are about to be issued, what big problems they have,” Marchick said.

John Minchillo The Associated Press Motorists celebrate Saturday in Philadelphia after the presidential election was called for Joe Biden. He has 10 weeks before Inauguration Day and will spend that time assembling his transition team.