“President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate Katherine Tai as U.S. Trade Representative, turning to an experienced trade lawyer with expertise on China and proven diplomatic skills,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“By selecting Ms. Tai, now chief trade counsel for the Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Biden would signal his intention to start working swiftly on pending trade issues while working closely with allies to confront growing economic competition from China.”
President-elect Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden said on Wednesday the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware is investigating his tax affairs, Reuters reports.
From a statement: “I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors.”
NBC News: “Up until March 20th of this year Hunter and his former wife Kathleen Buhle had an IRS lien against them for taxes not paid in the total of $112,805.09, according to publicly available documents. It is unknown if the tax lien is connected to the investigation.”
President-elect Joe Biden’s finalists for SEC chair are Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Gary Gensler, the former Commodity Futures Trading Commission chief, the Washington Post reports.
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House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC), who chairs the inaugural committee for President-elect Joe Biden, told NBC News that most of the events Jan. 20 will take place virtually because of the pandemic.
Said Clyburn: “We will be setting an example with this inauguration. It is going to be, I may call it, hybrid. He will take the oath in the traditional way, but all of the inaugural festivities are going to be 80 percent virtual.”
Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told Reuters that he will not join the administration of President-elect Joe Biden.
Johnson was in the running for several Cabinet positions, including secretary of defense and attorney general.
New York Times: “Michèle A. Flournoy, an experienced military policymaker and mentor to scores of women in national security, may now be remembered as the first female secretary of defense who wasn’t. Three times.”
New York Times: “One president all but declared victory over the pandemic, hailing new vaccines as a ‘medical miracle’ and congratulating himself for doing what ‘nobody has ever seen before.’ The next president declared the pandemic deadlier than ever, calling it a ‘mass casualty’ event that is leaving ‘a gaping hole’ in America with more misery to come.”
“Rarely has there been a single hour on a single day that saw such discordant messages emanating from Washington in a time of national crisis. In the middle of a transition of power that has already proved more unsettling than any in more than a century, the departing and incoming presidents on Tuesday offered the American people vastly divergent assessments of the state of their union.”
Axios: Trump’s departing pandemic failure.
“President-elect Joe Biden is considering a high-profile ambassadorship for Pete Buttigieg, possibly sending him to China,” Axios reports.
“China isn’t the only foreign post where Buttigieg, a polyglot, could end up — and his name remains under discussion for some domestic leadership positions as well.”
President-elect Joe Biden will likely start with a “skeleton staff” in the West Wing to keep him healthy after the Trump administration’s cavalier approach to the coronavirus, Axios reports.
“The incoming president, at 78, is in a high-risk group and already careful to mask up. President Trump and numerous staffers have flouted safety protocols and caught COVID-19, meaning there will have to be some sort of deep cleaning for the White House residence and offices before the new team moves in.”
In line with the rumors, President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack as his Agriculture secretary and Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) as his Housing and Urban Development secretary, Axios reports.
This is a little unusual for this stage in a transition: President-elect Joe Biden explains in The Atlantic why he chose retired Gen. Lloyd Austin as Secretary of Defense.
“Lloyd Austin retired from military service more than four years ago. The law states that an officer must have left the service at least seven years before becoming secretary of defense. But I hope that Congress will grant a waiver to Secretary-designate Austin, just as Congress did for Secretary Jim Mattis. Given the immense and urgent threats and challenges our nation faces, he should be confirmed swiftly.”
This piece, coupled with a statement from Michelle Flournoy just as the pick was announced, suggests that the Biden team believes it has work to do to sell this one.
“A Trump appointee with a short but controversial record of overseeing Voice of America and other federally funded news agencies has declined to cooperate with President-elect Joe Biden’s representatives as they seek access to records and personnel,” the Washington Post reports.
“Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) has vaulted to the front of the pack of candidates to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Biden administration, after losing steam in her bid to become the first Black female Agriculture secretary,” Politico reports.
Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) is the leading contender to become Presdient-elect Joe Biden’s attorney general, NBC News reports.
Biden has also been considering Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.
James Hohmann: “Several Senate Democrats spoke quite eloquently four years ago about the need for civilian control of the military as they opposed a special waiver to a federal law requiring that a secretary of defense be out of uniform for at least seven years to be eligible for the job.”
“All of them insisted that their objections were principled and had nothing to do with President-elect Donald Trump or retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, his nominee.”
“President-elect Joe Biden’s selection of retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin to be secretary of defense will offer an early and crucial test for Democrats who opposed Mattis’s waiver. Now that a Democrat will be in the White House, we will get to gauge the sincerity of their supposed convictions.”
Jonathan Bernstein: “I tend to agree with the critics, but the real question is how Biden proceeds. In some ways, this will begin to establish his professional reputation as president.”
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) predicted on MSNBC that President-elect Joe Biden would nominate Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) to a cabinet position.
Said Clyburn: “Look for her to be in the cabinet. It may not be at Agriculture but she will be nominated to be in the cabinet.”
Politico has more on John Kerry’s role as President-elect Joe Biden’s point person for international climate matters and negotiations.
Kerry will be on the National Security Council but he will work out of the State Department and Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken, if confirmed, will be his boss.
“Joe Biden’s plan to nominate retired Gen. Lloyd Austin to serve as Defense secretary will set off an explosive fight in the Democratic Party about civilian control of the military,” Axios reports.
“Many Democrats have been horrified by what they saw as politicization and the erosion of civilian control of the military under President Trump, and they put the Biden team on notice that Austin wouldn’t be guaranteed the congressional waiver he needs to serve.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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