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DON JONES INDEX… |
GAINS POSTED in GREEN LOSSES POSTED
in RED |
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11/25/20… 13,674.93 11/18/20…
13,651.40 6/27/13… 15,000.00 |
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DOW JONES INDEX: 11/25/20…30,116.51; 11/18/20…29,783.35; 6/27/13…15,000.00) LESSON for
November 25, 2020 – “INSIDE the ACTORS’ STUDIO!” Sometimes, strange times elevate strange, previously unknown persons
into positions of unimaginable (and, at times, unwarranted) power. So it’s not that surprising that the annus horribilis of
2020 would place the fate of America into the hands of a pudgy bureaucrat –
to wit, one Evelyn Murphy, Queen of the General Services Administration –
into whose pudgy fingers rests not only the lives of thousands of Americans,
but the continued life and liberty of America itself. The reason for said anomaly is an innocuous coda of electoral
bureaucracy. Once the voters have made
their preferences noted and the ballot counters have counted the ballots (in
Michigan, for example, Biden leading 160,000 votes in Michigan, 80,000 in
Pennsylvania, but a closer 20,000 in Wisconsin), the results are delivered to
the Secretaries of the respective states for confirmation. The spirit of the law, of democracy,
presumes that the bureaucrats will obey the wish of the voters – designate
electors pledged to vote for the victorious candidate and enable the outgoing
and incoming administrations to co-ordinate the affairs of state. But the letter is not… a letter. Absent a specific prohibition, enforced by
the courts, a defeated candidate can tie up the transition process
indefinitely. And, with the nation in the grip of a murderous and spiking plague,
as well as a plethora of hungry enemies hoping for the breakdown of the
national defense to the extent that first-strike nuclear or cyberwarfare
becomes a viable option, Mrs. Murphy finally relented and authorized the
confirmation of the vote and permitted Team Trump to share intelligence with
Team Biden (if they so chose). See her letter to Joe as Attachment Three. Meanwhile, President Trump’s attorney, the former New York Mayor
Rudy Giuliani, has been furiously shedding reams of legal challenges to the
election like an out-of-control serpent that cannot stop shedding its skins –
his brains turned to an oily mush that seeps out of his ears as he attempts
to coax one judge after another into taking his pleadings seriously while
wreaking vengeance upon the “little people”, so to speak, still loyal to His
Vindictiveness. This from the liberal Mother Jones, before his conquest of Hillary… “In speeches and public talks, Trump has
repeatedly expressed his fondness for retribution. In 2011, he addressed the
National Achievers Congress in Sydney, Australia, to explain how he had
achieved his success. He noted there were a couple of lessons not taught in
business school that successful people must know. At the top of the list was
this piece of advice: “Get even with people. If they screw you, screw them
back 10 times as hard. I really believe it.” Yes, the defeated incumbent means to exact his full measure of
revenge… not upon Joe Biden, who took worse from the likes of Kamala Harris
and always, dating back to the disco years, managed to keep alive his capacity
to cut a deal… but upon his scornful prostitute, America. He will lash the ungrateful voters with
plagues, lay waste their defenses against Russians and Chinese and
cybercriminals – he will threaten the families of judges and attorneys
general; walking up and down upon the earth like a half-crazed Fanucci from “The Godfather” until some stronger, calmer
criminal administers lead poisoning.
Let the sick die and the unemployed starve… he’ll play golf. And even after the Orkin
Man fumigates him out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he’ll keep revenge alive
through his surrogates: Mitchie McConnell, the
Republican Senate and his Republican base. Just as they did with the forsook Kenyan President and his forlorn
Supreme Court nominee, the Speaker will block every teacup and chafing dish
of Biden’s cabinet china, ensuring that… while their Master and Commander may
be gone… minions such as AyGee BilBarr
the Barbarian, Mike “de louse” Pompeo and madrassa queen, Betsy deVos, will continue to boil their potions in kettles,
mutter their spells and invectives and Keep America Mired in stoppage and
superstition. And, the Republicans will smirk: nothing Biden can do about it. But he can. There is a cost, however… when bargaining for favors from the
gobble-uns, there always is… which the
President-elect must pay, if he doesn’t want to find himself in the position
of a dime-store Caesar, surrounded by disloyal Senators and Cabineteers. And the price to pay is that… President Biden will have to scrap all his poppytalk
about decency, hope, reconciliation and the such… And get… MEAN! Like… KICK ASS! And here is how he can do it.
The Constitution explicitly provides for contingencies where a Cabinet
Boy falls off the deep end, dies, or takes a better-paying job on Wall
Street. It is simple, yet effective,
and Djonald Discourteous availed himself of it upon
numerous occasions… After the 2018 midterms, while Trump was still empowered (if
enraged) the conservative National Review… already expressing cautious doubts
about his regime, noted this: “The Constitution’s Article
II, Section 2, says that any principal “officer” of the United States can
serve only with the advice and consent of the Senate, with “principal
officer” understood to mean any person who reports directly to the president.
A deputy secretary, by definition, does not meet this criterion, nor does any
other subordinate. Yet for reasons of expediency, we long ago decided to
interpret Section 2 in a fashion that allows inferior officers to transform
into principal officers without the Senate’s having to raise a finger. (See Attachment Three) On to the Cabinet. Incumbents
and Acting Incumbents (designated by an “A”) are in the first quadrant. Those officials definitively nominated and
due to face Mitch McConnell and his gang are designated by (N). Those being floated for the position are
designated (F). The rest of the Biden
contenders are as prognosticated by this Index from the applicants noted in
last week’s Lesson. The “Actors” whom an emboldened
President-elect might appoint should Mitchy prove
recalcitrant are in the third quadrant, those whom a vengeful
President-reject might elevate to high office until January (by which time
America shall have been as fully ravaged and ruined as Carthage) are in the
fourth.
Last week, we brought back DeFoe… in whose “Journal of the Plague Year” we take
notice of the government-mandated shutdowns and the reactions of the people
for their take on the plague and the growing spectacle of re-lockdowns and
(sometimes) armed popular resistance… this week back to Camus, where plague
fatigue is starting to set in. |
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The plague is plague-ing,
but the (modest) recovery continues as the Dow breaks through the 30,000
ceiling, aided not only by the prospect of vaccines and an at least
semi-orderly transition, but also by hot housing sales. Whether people are moving out of the cities
and into the country, or vice versa… or moving out of the country altogether…
homes are selling like hotcake, although prices are up only modestly. President Trump predicted a Biden win would
crash the market, so far Wrong-O (to quote Djonald’s
no-longer-favorite pundit).
THE DON JONES INDEX
CHART of CATEGORIES w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000
(REFLECTING… approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013)
See a further explanation of categories here…
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DON JONES’
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BACK
See further indicators at The Economist – HERE!
ATTACHMENT ONE – from washpost
WHO JOE BIDEN IS PICKING TO FILL HIS WHITE HOUSE AND CABINET?
Updated Nov.
23 at 12:50 p.m.
One of
President-elect Joe Biden’s very first tasks will be filling the top positions
in his White House and Cabinet. In contrast to President Trump’s notably White
and male Cabinet, Biden has promised to be “a president for all Americans” and
build a Cabinet that reflects its diversity.
In making his
selections Biden is looking to appease factions of the Democratic Party from
moderates to progressives and longtime allies to newer faces. Cabinet positions
— with the exception of the vice president and White House chief of staff —
will also require approval from a Republican Senate,
unless Democrats can win two Senate race runoffs in early January.
Once confirmed,
they will be instrumental in carrying out his goals and setting the tenor his
presidency. We’re tracking the people who Biden has already named and the top
contenders for unfilled roles.
Secretary
of Agriculture
Currently: Sonny
Perdue
The Trump
administration has authorized tens of billions of dollars in direct payments to
American ranchers and commodity row crop farmers. Federal payments to farmers
hit a record $46 billion in 2020, with trade mitigation payments and pandemic
relief flowing swiftly to President Trump’s rural base in the South and
Midwest. Trump’s other signature USDA initiatives have been regulatory policies
aimed at reducing the number of Americans eligible for food assistance.It
is likely Biden would reverse erosions of SNAP and other food assistance
programs, as well as restoring more rigorous school nutrition standards that
were the centerpiece of Michelle Obama's Let's Move! effort.
Biden has said he would support beginning farmers, pursue “smarter pro-worker
and pro-family-farmer…policies,” and reward sustainable farming practices that
reduce atmospheric carbon.
POTENTIAL
CANDIDATES
Rep. Cheri Bustos
(D)
Congresswoman from
Illinois
Bustos has
privately signaled interest in the Agriculture position. A member of the House
Agriculture Committee, Bustos led the House Democrats’ campaign arm in the 2020
cycle and oversaw the loss of a slew of Democratic seats that shrank their
majority in the chamber. Bustos narrowly won reelection in her conservative
Illinois district. A Bustos spokeswoman did not rule out an interest in a
Cabinet post.
Rep. Marcia L. Fudge
(D)
Congresswoman from
Ohio
Fudge has served
as the congresswoman for Ohio's 11th District since 2008, chairs the House
Agriculture Nutrition, Oversight and Department Operations Subcommittee, and
ranks fourth on the House Agriculture Committee. She has endorsed Rep. David
Scott (D-Ga.) to be chair of the House Agriculture Committee and has repeatedly
expressed interest in being agriculture secretary.
Heidi Heitkamp
Former senator
from North Dakota
A former senator
from North Dakota, Heitkamp was considered a top pick
for the role of Secretary of Agriculture for Donald Trump in 2016, and she is
once again considered so for Biden. Having served on the Agriculture, Nutrition
and Forestry Committee, she is popular with conventional farm groups and has spoken
about fossil fuels playing a role in the clean energy revolution. Heitkamp started the One Country Project, a nonprofit to
educate Democrats on how to appeal to voters in rural districts. She is backed
by Biden’s agricultural adviser, former secretary Tom Vilsack.
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D)
Congresswoman from
Maine
Progressives are
urging Biden to choose Pingree, the organic farmer
and House Agriculture Committee member from Maine who has introduced bills to
decrease food waste, reduce greenhouse gas emissions from farming and support
small meat processors. In a role typically filled by someone from conventional
agriculture in the Midwest’s Farm Belt, she would represent the concerns of
small farmers.
Reported by Laura Reiley and Seung Min Kim.\
White
House chief of staff
Currently: Mark
Meadows
The chief of staff
is often considered the president's gatekeeper, shaping his schedule and
presidential access. They serve as a close adviser and also oversee White House
staffing. This position does not require Senate confirmation.
NAMED
Ronald A. Klain
Biden's vice
presidential chief of staff from 2009 to 2011
Klain was appointed by then-President Barack Obama to serve
as the White House's "Ebola czar" to coordinate the administration's
response to that epidemic and most recently was a senior adviser to the Biden
campaign. He was also chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore.
Central
Intelligence Agency director
Currently: Gina
Haspel
The Central
Intelligence Agency clandestinely gathers information around the world,
primarily through a network of human sources. It has also played a key role in U.S.
counterterrorism operations. Trump has often assailed the agency as a den of
“deep state” conspirators who tried to undermine his election in 2016 and his
presidency. Biden is expected to appoint a director who emphasizes the agency’s
core mission and invigorates efforts to collect intelligence on nation-states,
primarily Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
POTENTIAL
CANDIDATES
Susan M. Gordon
Former national
intelligence official
Gordon was the
principal deputy director for national intelligence — the No. 2 position —
until August 2019. Prior to that, she was deputy director of the National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and was a CIA officer for more than 25 years.
Mike Morell
Former acting
director of CIA
A former career
CIA officer, Morell served as the deputy director and acting director in the
Obama administration. He was also the director for intelligence, in charge of
the agency’s analysis efforts and effectively the top analyst at the CIA.
Reported by Shane Harris.
Secretary
of Commerce
Currently: Wilbur
Ross
Commerce Secretary
Wilbur Ross led the department to take an active role in President Trump’s
trade wars. He championed an expansive interpretation of U.S. trade law, enabling
Trump to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum in response to alleged
national security threats. The so-called Section 232 tariffs were deeply
controversial and alienated major U.S. trading partners, including Canada.Commerce also was a key player in the president’s
confrontation with China. The department put prominent Chinese corporations
such as Huawei on an export blacklist, all but severing them from critical
American-made components, an important step toward decoupling the world’s two
largest economies.The Biden administration is
unlikely to immediately roll back the Trump tariffs. But the department may put
a greater emphasis on export promotion and, through its management of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, take a more proactive stance
on climate change. Commerce, customarily considered a business community
outpost, is unlikely to be among the first department jobs filled and the
ultimate pick may depend on the demographic and political makeup of the rest of
the Cabinet.
POTENTIAL
CANDIDATES
Mellody Hobson
Co-CEO of Ariel
Investments
A prominent
African American business executive, Hobson could help Biden achieve his goal
of leading a government that looks “like America.” But her ties to the financial
services industry — she sits on the board of JPMorgan Chase — might irk
progressives.
Terry McAuliffe
Former governor of
Virginia and ex-chair of the Democratic National Committee
McAuliffe has long
been seen as a potential commerce secretary, either in a potential Hillary
Clinton administration in 2016 or under Biden. But he now is viewed as more
likely to focus on running next year for a second, non-consecutive term as
governor of the commonwealth.
Meg Whitman
Former CEO of Quibi
Whitman is a
Republican who ran unsuccessfully for governor of California in 2010. She
endorsed Biden in August and, if chosen, would give his Cabinet a bipartisan
cast. She built eBay into a financial success and later oversaw
Hewlett-Packard’s split into two standalone companies. But her involvement in
this year’s stunning collapse of Quibi, a mobile
streaming service that lasted six months, may have dulled her glossy résumé.
Reported by David J. Lynch.
Secretary
of Defense
Currently: Christopher
C. Miller (acting)
A Biden presidency
is expected to strike a relatively steady course at the Pentagon, seeking to
restore stability in military decision-making while reemphasizing alliances and
pressing ahead with efforts to respond to China’s rise.Analysts
expect Biden to continue troop cuts in Afghanistan, where violence is surging
as diplomats seek to advance peace talks. But while the Trump administration
has sent mixed messages about whether it will withdraw all troops in coming
months in line with a U.S.-Taliban deal, Biden’s campaign has suggested it
would opt to leave a small force to counter al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
[Biden administration will seek to restore stability at
Pentagon, analysts say]
Promising a break
with often chaotic foreign policy, the new administration is expected to strike
a less adversarial stance against Iran, which Trump has depicted as a chief
American adversary.
POTENTIAL
CANDIDATES
Michèle Flournoy
A former
department official
Flournoy worked in
the Defense Department under both Presidents Clinton and Obama, heading the
department's policy operation during the Obama years. She was also considered
for a senior role by Trump’s first defense secretary, Jim Mattis.
If nominated, she's expected to easily be confirmed and would become the first
woman to serve as Secretary of Defense.
Jeh Johnson
Former secretary
of homeland security
A former homeland
security secretary in the Obama administration, Johnson also served as the top
lawyer in the Pentagon, and earlier in his legal career he worked as a federal
prosecutor in New York City. Johnson’s name has also been mentioned as a
possible pick for attorney general. If nominated and confirmed, he would be the
first African American to head the Defense Department.
William McRaven
Retired Navy
admiral
McRaven spent over three decades in the Navy. He served as
head of Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014 and oversaw the raid that
killed Osama bin Laden. McRaven has been an outspoken
critic of President Trump.
Reported by Missy Ryan and Kate Rabinowitz.
Secretary
of Education
Currently: Betsy
Devos
Under Secretary
Betsy DeVos, the Education Department has rolled back
some civil rights protections as well as Obama-era efforts to hold for-profit
colleges accountable for poor outcomes. She has promoted alternatives to public
schools and tried to slash federal funding for education. Biden is expected to
reverse all of that, with more money for K-12 and higher education, new and
revived civil rights protections and a focus on racial equity.
[With DeVos out, Biden plans
series of reversals on education]
Biden has said he
will name a public school educator as secretary of Education, a stab at DeVos, who had no experience with public schools. Many
expect that to be someone from the K-12 world. Among those talked about for the
job include a handful of big-city school superintendents, such as Sonja Santelises from Baltimore, or a state superintendent such
as Tony Thurmond of California or Angelica Infante-Green
of Rhode Island.
POTENTIAL
CANDIDATES
Lily García
Former head of the
National Education Association
García recently stepped down as president of the National
Education Association, the nation’s largest union. Before that, she was an
elementary school teacher. She is friendly with incoming first lady Jill Biden,
who is a community college teacher and member of the NEA.
Rep. Jahana Hayes (D)
Congresswoman from
Connecticut
Hayes, elected in
2018, is the first Black woman to represent Connecticut in Congress. She sits
on the Committee on Education and Labor and has sponsored some higher education
measures. Before that, she was the 2016 National Teacher of the Year.
Rep. Donna Shalala
(D)
Outgoing
congresswoman from Florida
Shalala just lost
her campaign for reelection to Congress after a single term. Before that, she
was president of the University of Miami and, earlier in her career, chancellor
of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and president Hunter College of the City
University of New York. She also served for eight years as secretary of health
and human services in the Clinton administration. She has deep experience in
higher education, though choosing her might disappoint some who expect Biden to
pick a secretary from the K-12 world.
Randi Weingarten
Head of the
American Federation of Teachers
Weingarten is
president of the American Federation of Teachers, the second largest teacher
union. She previously served as president of the union representing teachers in
New York City, and was a high school teacher in Brooklyn. Nominating a labor
leader could be seen as an affront to those who favor teacher evaluations and
other test-based accountability measures.
Reported by Laura Meckler.
Secretary
of Energy
Currently: Dan
Brouillette
The Energy
Department has been one of Trump's numerous fronts in rolling back
environmental regulations. Under Biden, the department would likely move to
tighten energy efficiency standards across industries and products and invest
heavily in renewable energy. During the campaign, Biden introduced a $2
trillion plan to fight climate change that included pledges to eliminate carbon
emissions from the electric sector by 2035, impose stricter gas mileage
standards and fund investments to weatherize millions of homes and commercial
buildings.
[The Energy 202: Here are some of the contenders to become
Biden's top environmental officials]
POTENTIAL
CANDIDATES
Arun Majumdar
Stanford
University professor
A professor of
mechanical engineering at Stanford, Majumdar served
as the first director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. The
office, which is an incubator for nascent energy technologies, has enjoyed
bipartisan support in Congress, which may bode well for his chances of being
confirmed by the Senate.
Ernest Moniz
Former secretary
of energy
Known for his
eye-catching hair, Obama's former energy secretary played an important role
hammering out the details of the nuclear weapons deal with Iran. Though Trump
abandoned the deal, Biden wants to rejoin it. A nuclear physicist and Massachusetts
Institute of Technology professor, he informally advised the Biden team during
the campaign.
Dan Reicher
Stanford
University scholar
Now at Stanford, Reicher has had several roles at the Energy Department,
including chief of staff, assistant secretary at the energy efficiency and
renewable energy office, and a member of Obama's Energy Department transition
team. He also once led climate and alternative energy initiatives at Google and
helped raise money for Biden during the campaign.
Elizabeth
Sherwood-Randall
Former deputy
secretary of energy
This former deputy
energy secretary under Obama was once a Rhodes Scholar and is now a professor
at Georgia Tech. Under Bill Clinton, she also served as deputy assistant
secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia.
Reported by Dino Grandoni, Juliet Eilperin, Kate Rabinowitz and Steven Mufson.
Environmental
Protection Agency administrator
Currently: Andrew
Wheeler
Biden is planning
for a complete reversal of recent federal environmental policy after the Trump
administration undertook a dramatic rollback in environmental
protections. Over 100 environmental safeguards were
removed across the past four years. Biden plans to impose stricter
environmental standards on industry, a job that would be overseen by his next
EPA administrator.
POTENTIAL
CANDIDATES
Daniel Esty
Yale University
professor
Though now an
academic with appointments at Yale's forestry, law and business schools, Esty once served as commissioner of the Connecticut
Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. There he helped launch a
first-in-the-nation “green bank” for promoting clean energy. Biden has proposed
creating a similar institution nationwide.
Heather McTeer Toney
National Field
Director for Moms Clean Air Force
Besides running
the EPA's Southeast office under Obama, she was also the first female and
African-American mayor of Greenville, Miss. Now a senior director at the Moms
Clean Air Force, she has spoken out against the Trump administration's
rejection of stricter air quality standards during the pandemic in which the
coronavirus attacks the lungs.
Mary Nichols
Chair of the
California Air Resources Board
Over the past four
years, the California Air Resources Board head has been central to the state's
fight with the Trump administration over environmental rollbacks. When the EPA
undid tougher air pollution rules for new cars implemented under President
Barack Obama, Nichols helped forge an agreement with four major automakers to
maintain the more-stringent standards in California. During her 13-year tenure
running the California agency, she has helped put in place the state's
cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions.
Collin O'Mara
CEO of the
National Wildlife Federation
Unlike the leaders
of other some environmental groups, O'Mara, head of the National Wildlife
Federation, has worked with both Democrats and Republicans to advance habitat
conservation efforts in Congress. He also, crucially, has ties to Biden's home
state; O'Mara is said to have been the nation's youngest state Cabinet official
in 2009 when he ran the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and
Environmental Control. That happens to be same Cabinet in which Biden's late
son Beau served as attorney general.
Richard Revesz
New York
University law professor
Revesz is considered one of the foremost legal minds in
environmental law. Originally from Argentina, he has spent most of his career
in academia. But he has managing experience, having served as dean of the NYU
law school from 2002 to 2013.
Mustafa Santiago
Ali
Vice President at
the National Wildlife Federation
Also an executive
at the National Wildlife Federation, Ali made headlines shortly after Trump
took office for resigning from his post as an EPA assistant associate
administrator. He left with more than two decades of experience at the EPA,
having worked in both Democratic and Republican administrations and helped
create the agency's environmental justice office in the early 1990s.
Environmentalists say picking him makes sense for an administration aiming to
tackle the disproportionate impact poor and minority communities face from air
and water pollution.
Reported by Dino Grandoni, Juliet Eilperin, Kate Rabinowitz and Steven Mufson.
Secretary
of Health and Human Services
Currently: Alex
Azar
The Department of
Health and Human Services, one of the government’s largest, has been the Trump
administration’s main vehicle to weaken the Affordable Care Act and shift
health policy in a more conservative direction in other ways. The department
has sought to let states require some people on Medicaid to work or prepare for
jobs, a move blocked by the courts. It has restricted federal funding of
research that uses human fetal tissue.Though a
Republican Congress failed to repeal the ACA, HHS took many steps though
executive action. It slashed funding to help boost enrollment in the insurance
marketplaces created under the law, ended one type of subsidy for insurers, and
widened the availability of inexpensive health plans that can bypass the law’s rules
for insurance benefits and consumer protections.In
contrast, the ACA is the basis of plans President-elect Biden has advocated for
helping more Americans get affordable health coverage. He says that federal
insurance subsidies should expand to help more middle-class families. He wants
ACA health plans to be given to poor residents of a dozen states that have not
expanded their Medicaid programs under the law. Biden also has proposed
lowering from 65 years old to 60 the age for people to join Medicare, the vast
federal insurance programs for older Americans. All these changes would require
Congress to adopt them.
POTENTIAL
CANDIDATES
Mandy Cohen
Secretary of the
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
Cohen is an alumna
of the Obama administration, having been hired in 2013 as a senior adviser in
HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and becoming the agency’s
chief of staff. In 2017, she became North Carolina’s top health official. Since
then, she has worked on plans to upgrade Medicaid — including by integrating
physical and mental health care — and health conditions for young children.
Cohen is trained as an internal medical physician and teaches in the department
of health policy and management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill's School of Public Health.
Gov. Michelle
Lujan Grisham
New Mexico
governor
Grisham has been
the governor of New Mexico since 2019. She also served in the U.S. House from
the state's First District and as New Mexico secretary of health from 2004 to
2007. On Nov. 13, she ordered a statewide two-week shutdown to help bring
coronavirus cases under control. She has won praise from many Democratic
leaders for her health-care policy background and her handling of the state's
coronavirus outbreak, and was the only Latina on Biden's shortlist of potential
running mates over the summer.
Vivek Murthy
Former U.S.
surgeon general
Murthy is co-chair
of President-elect Biden’s Covid-19 advisory board and was one of the public
health experts who briefed Biden frequently about the pandemic during the
campaign. Murthy became the 19th U.S. surgeon general at the end of 2014,
slightly more than a year after his nomination by President Barack Obama. His
nomination had been held up in the Senate for just over a year, largely because
of his view that gun violence poses a public health threat. During his tenure,
he issued a landmark report on drug and alcohol addiction, calling it “a moral
test for America,” and placing it among reports his predecessors had produced
to draw attention to other major public health threats, such as tobacco use,
AIDS, the need for physical activity. Since leaving the government, he has
written and spoken out about loneliness. He was a vice admiral in the U.S.
Public Health Service’s commissioned corps and is trained in internal medicine.
Reported by Amy Goldstein and Yasmeen Abutaleb.
Secretary
of Homeland Security
Currently: Chad
Wolf (acting)
Under President
Trump, the Department of Homeland Security’s focus shifted notably from
counterterrorism to immigration and border enforcement. Trump turned the
nation’s third-largest federal entity into a powerful tool of domestic policy
and electoral politics, using DHS to carry out a wide-ranging immigration
crackdown and quell street protests in American cities.Created
after the Sept. 11 attacks to reassure the American public and project
stability, DHS went through unprecedented leadership turmoil under Trump, with
five secretaries in four years. Biden is expected to try to stabilize the
department by returning its focus to a broad range of threats, including
counterterrorism, cyber threats and the pandemic response.
NAMED
Alejandro Mayorkas
Former Obama
immigration and homeland security official
Currently an
attorney at the D.C. law firm WilmerHale, Mayorkas served as director of U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services during President Obama’s first term, and was promoted to
DHS deputy secretary under Jeh Johnson for Obama’s
second term. Born in Cuba and raised mostly in Los Angeles, Mayorkas’s
experience navigating the politics of immigration enforcement and border
security could be an asset to Biden if the issue remains a topic of intense
partisan focus. Mayorkas’s nomination could run into
trouble over a 2015 report by the DHS inspector general faulting him for inappropriately
helping several companies obtain employment visas. Mayorkas
refuted those findings. He would be the first Latino to run that department.
Reported by Nick Miroff.
Secretary
of Housing and Urban Development
Currently: Ben
Carson
Under the Trump
administration, the agency gutted Obama-era fair lending and fair housing laws.
The new secretary is expected to restore these laws and be a key player in
carrying out Biden's campaign promises to expand affordable housing, increase
the availability of Section 8 vouchers and tackle racial bias in housing.
POTENTIAL
CANDIDATES
Rep. Karen Bass
(D)
Congresswoman from
California
Bass is a
fifth-term California congresswoman representing south Los Angeles. She
currently heads the Congressional Black Caucus and serves on the House
Committee of Foreign Affairs.
Keisha Lance
Bottoms
Atlanta mayor
Bottoms was an
early supporter of Biden's 2020 presidential run and served as a surrogate for
him on the trail. She was elected mayor of Atlanta in 2017 after serving on
city council for eight years. Before joining Atlanta politics, she was a
prosecutor and magistrate judge.
Alvin Brown
Former Jacksonville
mayor
Brown served in
various roles during the Clinton administration across the Departments of
Agriculture, Commerce, and Housing and Urban Development, including as adviser
to then-secretary Andrew Cuomo. Most recently Brown was a staffer on the Biden
campaign.
Maurice Jones
CEO of Local
Initiatives Support Corporation
Jones served as
the deputy undersecretary of HUD from 2012 to 2014 and as Virginia's commerce
secretary under Gov. Terry McAuliffe. He currently runs Local Initiatives
Support Corporation, which offers community development loans, grants and
investments.
Diane Yentel
CEO of the
National Low Income Housing Coalition
Yentel served as director of the public housing management
and occupancy division at HUD during the Obama administration. She currently
leads the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an affordable housing advocacy
group, and has been an outspoken critic of Trump's HUD.
Secretary
of Interior
Currently: David
Bernhardt
Under Trump, the
Interior Department opened public lands and waters, including the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge, for fossil fuel extraction and logging. Biden pledges
to reverse those efforts, aiming to restrict fossil fuel exploration on public
lands and waters and expand conservation efforts.
POTENTIAL
CANDIDATES
Michael L. Connor
Former Interior
deputy secretary
Connor was deputy
secretary at Interior from 2014 to 2017 and also worked in the department
during the Clinton years. He served as counsel to the Senate committee on
energy and natural resources during the Bush administration. Connor is
currently a partner at the law firm WilmerHale.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D)
Congressman from
Arizona
Grijalva has been in Congress for more than 15 years and currently
chairs the House Natural Resources Committee. He has been critical of how both
the Bush and Trump administrations managed public land and opened access to the
private sector.
Rep. Deb Haaland (D)
Congresswoman from
New Mexico
Of the New
Mexicans being considered for the job, the congresswomen from the state's 1st
Congressional District has the least experience in Congress, being first
elected in 2018. But picking her would be historic. Haaland,
an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna, would be the first Native American
to run the department charged with overseeing federal and tribal lands.
Sen. Martin
Heinrich (D)
Senator from New
Mexico
A member of the
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, New Mexico's other senator is
also a proponent of clean energy and public land protections. One complicating
factor for any of the state's Cabinet hopefuls: If New Mexico Gov. Michelle
Lujan Grisham (D) becomes health and human services secretary,
that might give Biden's team pause about elevating another New Mexican
to the Cabinet.
Sen. Tom Udall (D)
Senator from New
Mexico
The senator from
New Mexico is retiring from Congress his year, but has said he would consider
joining the Biden administration. In recent years, Udall has been a loud
advocate for conserving 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by the end of the
decade and funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The choice would also
be a nostalgic one; his father, Stewart Udall, was secretary of the department
from 1961 to 1969 under two Democratic presidents.
Reported by Dino Grandoni, Juliet Eilperin, Kate Rabinowitz and Steven Mufson.
Attorney
General, Department of Justice
Currently: William
Barr
The Justice
Department in the Trump administration most notably drew criticism for its
leaders apparently bending to political pressure from Trump and getting
involved in criminal cases involving the president's friends. Biden's Justice
Department would probably seek to change that, restoring the department's
historic independence on criminal matters.Biden's
Justice Department also is likely to focus more on forcing reforms at police
departments through court and other actions. The Justice Department in the
Trump administration had largely abandoned those efforts, positioning itself as
defending the police from unfair criticism.
POTENTIAL
CANDIDATES
Xavier Becerra
California’s
attorney general
Becerra is a
former congressman who is now the attorney general for the state of California.
He has drawn attention recently for the myriad of lawsuits he has brought
against the Trump administration.
Jeh Johnson
Former homeland
security secretary
A former homeland
security secretary in the Obama administration, Johnson also served as the top
lawyer in the Pentagon, and earlier in his legal career he worked as a federal
prosecutor in New York City. Johnson’s name has also been mentioned as a
possible pick for defense secretary.
Sen. Doug Jones
(D)
Senator from
Alabama
Jones is a former
U.S. attorney who won a special election to replace Jeff Sessions as the U.S.
senator from Alabama after Trump named Sessions his attorney general. Jones
recently lost his race to hold the seat to retired football coach Tommy
Tuberville.
Sally Yates
Former Justice
Department official
Yates is a former
U.S. attorney who served as deputy attorney general at the end of the Obama
administration and as the acting attorney general briefly after Trump took
office. She was fired from her position for refusing to defend Trump's travel
ban.
Reported by Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett.
Secretary
of Labor
Currently: Eugene
Scalia
Under Trump, the
Department of Labor has taken a largely employer- and industry-friendly
approach that has frustrated worker advocates, labor unions and Democrats, and
drawn particularly vocal outcry during the pandemic.The
DOL passed rules that exempted large numbers of workers from
the paid sick leave requirements in the Families FirstCoronavirus
Response Act, and issued strict guidelines for unemployment insurance payouts
to gig and self-employed workers that many saw as restrictive.
Its workplace safety division, the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, has declined to institute ironclad safety standards for the
coronavirus, issuing only recommendations for employers instead of an
enforceable set of rules.Before the pandemic, the
Department took moves to restrict the ability of workers told hold joint
employers accountable for wage and hour violations, and reduced the number of
workers who were eligible for mandatory overtime payments.
POTENTIAL
CANDIDATES
POTENTIAL
CANDIDATES
Sharon Block
Director, Labor
and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School
Block, a labor
official in the Obama administration and current director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, co-wrote a widely
touted report released at the beginning of this year that called for a bold
overhaul of the country’s outdated labor laws.
Seth Harris
Former deputy
labor secretary
Harris, a deputy
labor secretary under President Barack Obama, wrote a paper in 2015 arguing
that gig workers should not be entitled to the full benefits and protections
afforded to regular employees, an issue that is likely to dominate labor
debates in the coming years.
Rep. Andy Levin
(D)
Congressman from
Michigan
The Democratic
congressman from Michigan has union ties that run deep: He worked as an
organizer for the SEIU in the 1980s and later held a leadership position at the
AFL-CIO. He is earning praise from some unions and others who want the
department to have a strong pro-labor bent.
Sen. Bernie
Sanders (D)
Senator from
Vermont and former presidential candidate
The former
presidential candidate and de facto leader of the left wing of the Democratic
Party keeps popping up in media speculation about who will lead the Labor
Department.
Julie Su
Secretary of the
California Labor and Workforce Development Agency
Su has been a
MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant recipient and hailed for her work on labor
issues in the state.
Marty Walsh
Boston mayor
Walsh, who got his
union card in 1988 when he joined Laborers Local 223, has a long history in
organized labor, most recently as the head of Boston Building Trades before he
became mayor. He reportedly has a strong relationship with Joe Biden.
Reported by Eli Rosenberg.
Director
of National Intelligence
Currently: John
Ratcliffe
The director of
national intelligence serves as the president’s primary intelligence adviser
and leader of the U.S. intelligence community. The DNI historically hasn’t been
a political role, but under Trump, it has been held twice by loyalists who used
their authority to advance Trump’s claims that he was the target of a
conspiracy by intelligence officials. Under Biden, the DNI is expected to
revert to the norm and act as a manager and setter of priorities for the
agency.
NAMED
Avril Haines
Former deputy
national security adviser
Haines served as
deputy national security adviser in President Obama’s second term and before
that as the first female deputy director of the CIA. She also was deputy
counsel for national security affairs in the White House counsel’s office in
the Obama administration. She would be the first woman to head the intelligence
community.
Reported by Shane Harris and Ellen Nakashima.
Secretary
of State
Currently: Mike
Pompeo
In the Trump
administration, scores of veteran diplomats left after their loyalty to Trump
was questioned and career employees were replaced by political appointees.Under Biden, the State Department is expected to
be at the forefront of reversing some key Trump-era policies and restoring the
centrality of diplomacy in foreign policy and battered U.S. credibility.
Priorities include rebuilding strained alliances with Europe, returning to a
more balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, corralling global
efforts to combat climate change and possibly changing course with Iran if the
U.S. reenters the nuclear treaty Trump abandoned. They also are expected to
maintain pressure on China over human rights and trade issues.
NAMED
Antony Blinken
Former deputy
secretary of state and longtime Biden foreign policy aide
Blinken is a longtime Biden confident with decades of
experience in Congress. During the Obama administration, Blinken
served as deputy national security adviser from 2013 to 2015 and the deputy
secretary of state from 2015 to 2017. Since the start of Biden’s presidential
campaign, Blinken has been on leave as managing
director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, to serve
as Biden’s foreign policy adviser.
Reported by John Hudson and Carol Morello.
Secretary
of Transportation
Currently: Elaine
Chao
The Trump
administration issued a set of weaker carbon dioxide emissions standards for
cars and SUVs and took a largely hands off approach to dealing with new
technologies like automated vehicles. The fight against climate change will
shape the Biden administration’s transportation policies. It is expected to
stiffen emissions standards once again, and promote the adoption of electric vehicles.A grand bargain in Congress on infrastructure
spending eluded the Trump administration, and reaching a spending deal to
repair road and bridges and expand access to transit is expected to be another
major focus for the new administration.
POTENTIAL
CANDIDATES
Eric Garcetti
Los Angeles mayor
Garcetti has been the mayor of Los Angeles since 2013 and
served as a co-chair of President-Elect Biden’s campaign. In LA, he has
overseen an expansion of the notoriously gridlocked city’s metro system.
Reported by Ian Duncan.
Secretary
of Treasury
Currently: Steve
Mnuchin
The Biden
administration is expected to prioritize a massive stimulus package to shore up
the economy’s shaky recovery. Biden also campaigned on tax increases for
businesses and some of the wealthiest Americans — issues that the next
secretary will have to pursue.
NAMED
Janet Yellen
Former chair of
the Federal Reserve
Yellen was a
Federal Reserve governor under both the Clinton and Obama administrations. She
was the first female chair of the Fed, serving from 2014 to 2018. Yellen's term
as chair was marked by lowering unemployment, record highs in the stock market
and low inflation. Despite this, she was the first Fed chair not to be
reappointed after serving a first full term. If nominated and approved, she
would be the first female Treasury secretary.
Reported by Rachel Siegel and Kate Rabinowitz.
United
Nations ambassador
Currently: Kelly
Craft
Under Trump, the
U.N. ambassador was removed from the president's cabinet, as part of a larger
retreat from diplomacy and the word stage. Biden will reinstate the ambassador
to the cabinet as his administration aims to reverse Trump's "America
first" foreign policy.
NAMED
Linda Thomas-Greenfield
Former top U.S.
diplomat to Africa and career Foreign Service officer
Thomas-Greenfield
served as the top U.S. diplomat to Africa under President Obama, an assistant
secretary job that capped her 35-year career in the Foreign Service. Known as
“LTG” among State Department rank-and-file, Thomas-Greenfield retired in 2017
after Trump took power and joined the Albright Stonebridge advisory firm as a
senior counselor where she worked with her mentor former Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright.
Reported by John Hudson.
Special
envoy for climate
Biden pledged to
reverse Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement and to encourage other
nations to increase their commitments. During the campaign he introduced a $2
trillion plan that pledges to eliminate carbon emissions from the electric
sector by 2035.Biden will also elevate a special envoy for climate, a position
outside the Cabinet that would not require Senate confirmation.
NAMED
John F. Kerry
Former secretary
of state and senator from Massachusetts
As secretary of
state during Obama's second term, Kerry helped negotiate and signed the Paris
climate agreement on lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
National
Security Adviser
Currently: Robert
C. O'Brien
The national
security adviser is a gatekeeper of sorts, coordinating the views of the
military, the State Department and the intelligence community and helping the
president understand the policy choices available. Trump has rarely sought or
heeded the counsel of his national security adviser. President-elect Joe Biden
is expected to choose a policy expert with whom he has had a long working
relationship.
NAMED
Jake Sullivan
Top policy adviser
to Biden’s campaign
Sullivan served as
Biden's national security adviser during the Obama years and was a senior
policy adviser to Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign.
Reported by Shane Harris and Ellen Nakashima.
White
House press secretary
Currently: Kayleigh
McEnany
The press
secretary is the mouthpiece of the administration, interacting with the media
and the White House press corps to deliver the administration's updates and
perspectives. This position does not require Senate confirmation.
POTENTIAL
CANDIDATES
Kate Bedingfield
Biden's deputy
campaign manager and communications director
Bedingfield was deputy campaign manager and a frequent
spokesperson for Biden's presidential campaign. She was appointed
communications director for Biden in 2015. Under the Obama administration she
also served as deputy director of media affairs and the director of response.
After the 2016 election, she worked in communications for the entertainment and
sports industry.
Symone Sanders
Senior adviser to
Biden’s campaign
Before joining the
Biden campaign, Sanders was a political analyst and commentator. She served as
national press secretary for Sen. Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential run. She
would be the first African American to hold the job.
Senior
White House roles
Advisers and
strategists play a key role in shaping the president's agenda. Under Trump,
notable figures included Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner and Ivanka
Trump. These positions do not require Senate confirmation.
[Biden builds
White House team and tries to show dangers of Trump’s intransigence]
NAMED
Anthony Bernal
Senior adviser to
Jill Biden
Bernal is a
longtime adviser to Jill Biden, most recently serving as her deputy campaign
manager and chief of staff. He began his White House career as part of the
scheduling and advance teams during the Clinton years and served in multiple
roles for the Obama White House.
Mike Donilon
Senior adviser to
the president
Donilon is a veteran political strategist who has advised the
president-elect for nearly four decades, including during Biden's previous
stint in the Obama White House.
Jen O'Malley
Dillon
Deputy chief of
staff
O'Malley Dillon
became Biden's campaign manager earlier this year, stepping onboard as the team
retooled after struggling in the early nominating contests. A veteran of Barack
Obama's 2012 reelection run, she managed former congressman Beto
O'Rourke's unsuccessful Democratic presidential bid in 2019.
Dana Remus
Counsel to the
president
Remus most
recently worked as general counsel to Biden's presidential campaign. Under
Obama, Remus was the deputy assistant to the president and deputy counsel for
ethics. She went on to work for the Obama Foundation and for the Obamas'
personal offices.
Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon
Chief of staff to
Jill Biden
Reynoso is a
former ambassador to Uruguay who served in the State Department under Obama. Before
joining Biden's team, she was a partner at the law firm Winston & Strawn.
Steve Ricchetti
Counselor to the
president
Ricchetti is one of Biden's most trusted strategists and served
as his chief of staff when Biden was vice president. He was a liaison to the
Senate under Bill Clinton. Outside of government service he worked as a
registered lobbyist.
Rep. Cedric L.
Richmond (D)
Senior adviser to
the president
Richmond is one of
Biden's most prominent African American allies and will also serve as Director
of the White House Office of Public Engagement. He was an early supporter of
Biden who frequently campaigned for him and appeared on television on his
behalf.
Julie Rodriguez
Director of the
White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs
Rodriguez was
deputy campaign manager on Biden's presidential campaign. She joined from
Harris's presidential campaign, whose Senate office she had previously worked
for. She served as special assistant to the president during the Obama
administration, as well as other roles in the White House and Interior
Department.
Annie Tomasini
Director of Oval
Office operations
Tomasini has served as Biden’s traveling chief of staff and
worked with the Bidens for over a decade. Prior to
that, she worked in public relations for Harvard University.
Reported by Sean Sullivan and Kate Rabinowitz.
Sharon Block
Director, Labor
and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School
Block, a labor
official in the Obama administration and current director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, co-wrote a widely
touted report released at the beginning of this year that called for a bold
overhaul of the country’s outdated labor laws.
ATTACHMENT TWO – from RCP
|
Wednesday,
November 25 |
|
Race/Topic (Click to Sort) |
Poll |
Results |
Spread |
|
Disapprove +12 |
|||
|
Tie |
|||
|
Disapprove +12 |
|||
|
Disapprove +56 |
|||
|
Wrong Track +38 |
|
Tuesday,
November 24 |
|
Race/Topic (Click to Sort) |
Poll |
Results |
Spread |
|
Approve +2 |
|||
|
Wrong Track +30 |
|
Monday,
November 23 |
|
Race/Topic (Click to Sort) |
Poll |
Results |
Spread |
|
Wrong Track +28 |
|
Thursday,
November 19 |
|
Race/Topic (Click to Sort) |
Poll |
Results |
Spread |
|
Disapprove +5 |
|||
|
Disapprove +44 |
|||
|
Wrong Track +40 |
|
Wednesday,
November 18 |
|
Race/Topic (Click to Sort) |
Poll |
Results |
Spread |
|
Disapprove +14 |
|||
|
Disapprove +21 |
|||
|
Disapprove +8 |
|||
|
Disapprove +47 |
|||
|
Wrong Track +41 |
|||
|
Wrong Track +38 |
|||
|
Wrong Track +38 |
ATTACHMENT THREE – from GSA
via Newsweek
Dear
Mr. Biden,
As
the administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration, I have the
ability under the Presidential Transition Act of 1963. as
amended, to make certain post-election resources and services available to
assist in the event of a presidential transition. See 3 U.S.C. § 102 note (the
"Act"). I take this role seriously and, because of recent
developments involving legal challenges and certifications of election results,
am transmitting this letter to make those resources and services available to
you.
I
have dedicated much of my adult life to public service, and I have always
strived to do what is right. Please know that I came to my decision
independently, based on the law and available facts. I was never directly or
indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official—including those who work
at the White House or GSA—with regard to the substance or timing of my
decision. To be clear, I did not receive any direction to delay my
determination. I did, however, receive threats online, by phone, and by mail
directed at my safety, my family, my staff, and even my pets in an effort to
coerce me into making this determination prematurely. Even in the face of
thousands of threats, I always remained committed to upholding the law.
Contrary
to media reports and insinuations, my decision was not made out of fear or
favoritism. Instead, I strongly believe that the statute requires that the GSA
Administrator ascertain, not impose, the apparent president-elect.
Unfortunately, the statute provides no procedures or standards for this
process, so I looked to precedent from prior elections involving legal
challenges and incomplete counts. GSA does not dictate the outcome of legal
disputes and recounts, nor does it determine whether such proceedings are
reasonable or justified. These are issues that the Constitution, federal laws,
and state laws leave to the election certification process and decisions by
courts of competent jurisdiction. I do not think that an agency charged with
improving federal procurement and property management should place itself above
the constitutionally based election process. I strongly urge Congress to
consider amendments to the act.
As
you know, the GSA administrator does not pick or certify the winner of a
presidential election. Instead, the GSA Administrator's role under the Act is
extremely narrow; to make resources and services available in connection with a
presidential transition. As stated, because of recent developments involving
legal challenges and certifications of election results, I have determined that
you may access the post-election resources and services described in Section 3
of the Act upon request. The actual winner of the presidential election will be
determined by the electoral process, detailed in the Constitution.
Section 7 of the Act and Public Law, 116-159, dated October, 1
2020, which provides continuing appropriations until December 11, 2020 makes
$6,300,000 available to you to carry out the provisions of Section 3 of the
Act.
In addition, $1,000,000 is authorized, pursuant to Public Law 116-159, to provide
appointee orientation sessions and a transition directory. I remind you that
Section 6 of the Act imposes reporting requirements on you as a condition for
receiving services and funds from the GSA.
If
there is anything we can do to assist you, please contact, Ms. Mary D. Gilbert,
the Federal transition coordinator.
Sincerely,
Emily
W. Murphy
Administrator
U.S. General Services Administration
CC:
The Honorable Edward Kaufman
The
Honorable Jeffrey Zients
The
Honorable Mark Meadows
The
Honorable Chris Liddell
ATTACHMENT FOUR – from the National Review
DO WE EVEN NEED ‘ACTING’ CABINET
MEMBERS?
November 20, 2018 6:30 AM
Quick political quiz: Who are Tom
Shannon, Adam Szubin, and Kenneth Hyatt?
Answer: Donald Trump’s first secretaries
of state, the Treasury, and commerce.
Among many others, these three men
served as “acting” members of Trump’s cabinet during the first weeks of his
administration, as the president pondered permanent replacements. For reasons
of partisan politeness, it is standard practice for the cabinet of the prior
administration to resign en masse upon the inauguration of a new president, yet
for some reason it’s considered no big deal for their deputies to hang around
in their place for a while. This is how President Trump briefly got Obama
appointee Sally Yates as his attorney general — and the ensuing consternation.
Once a president is more firmly
ensconced, his secretaries may be fired or quit and be succeeded by a deputy
chosen by the same president who appointed them. This is how we got our current
acting secretary of the interior, Andrew Wheeler, the department’s
Trump-appointed deputy secretary, who’s been serving since Scott Pruitt’s July
7 resignation.
For other offices, it’s apparently
standard practice for presidents to unilaterally fill an empty cabinet seat
with an acting secretary of their choosing, subject to certain restraints.
Hence, Trump’s appointment last week of Matthew Whitaker to directly succeed
departed attorney general Jeff Sessions.
Acting secretaries aren’t functionally
much different from normal ones. They may be humbler in ambition, due to the
nature of how they assumed office, but their powers are broadly
indistinguishable. Acting attorney general Yates refused to offer Justice
Department legal support to President Trump’s “travel ban,” a decision that
presumably would have stood had Trump not proceeded to fire her. This past
April, acting secretary of state John Sullivan, who briefly served between Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo, attended a G7 foreign ministers’
summit in Toronto and was welcomed as an equal by the other six. He
participated in the round-table discussions and signed off on the ensuing communiqué.
Should America declare war tomorrow and
James Mattis be hit by a bus the day after, our
military strategies would be dictated by the acting secretary of defense —
whoever that may be.
This is all very confusing, since
cabinet appointments are supposed to be confirmed by the Senate. The
Constitution’s Article II, Section 2, says that any principal “officer” of the
United States can serve only with the advice and consent of the Senate, with
“principal officer” understood to mean any person who reports directly to the
president. A deputy secretary, by definition, does not meet this criterion, nor
does any other subordinate. Yet for reasons of expediency, we long ago decided
to interpret Section 2 in a fashion that allows inferior officers to transform
into principal officers without the Senate’s having to raise a finger.
In a complex 2016 case that attempted to clarify the terms of a president’s power
to appoint “acting” people, Clarence Thomas argued that acting appointments
could not be justified by any logic found in the Constitution, only the logic
of bureaucracy. Conceding that giving “the President unilateral power to fill
vacancies in high offices might contribute to more efficient Government,” he
nevertheless concluded that America “cannot cast aside the separation of powers
and the Appointments Clause’s important check on executive power for the sake
of administrative convenience or efficiency.”
This is the debate we should be having
over acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker — not whether his appointment was
kosher under the various dubious executive-branch succession laws Congress has
dreamed up, but whether “acting” cabinet officers should be an understood part
of American government at all.
Acting secretaries are a strange
artifact of the American state’s top-heavy nature, the notion that the
executive branch’s power to regulate, spend, dictate, and control is so
essential that it cannot possibly afford to leave a single post unmanned for
even a moment. No other branch of government guards its authority this
jealously. There is no such thing as an “acting” congressman, senator, or
Supreme Court justice. When vacancies occur due to death or abrupt resignation
in those institutions, an expedient but methodical replacement process occurs
involving some other part of the government. The House holds special elections,
state governors appoint interim senators, and the Senate confirms a new
justice. (The Supreme Court, as we have seen, can be left waiting quite a while
when vacancies occur on its bench.)
It is only the executive branch where we
have come to expect the sort of instantaneous, king-is-dead-long-live-the-king
succession to occur, wherein if a secretary resigns on Monday morning there
must be an acting replacement in his chair by Tuesday — if not Monday
afternoon.
Imagine, if you can, a world where
Attorney General Sessions was succeeded by . . . no one. A world in which the
attorney general’s office simply became vacant on November 7, 2018, and will
continue to be until the president nominates someone to fill it and the Senate
gets around to interviewing and confirming him or her.
Would the Justice Department get less
done? Almost certainly, but as Justice Thomas noted, there should exist
principles higher in American government than ensuring that a team of federal
lawyers have a boss for a few weeks.
ATTACHMENT FOUR – from the White House
TRUMPTWEETS
President Trump
@POTUS
US government
account
45th President of
the United States of America,
@realDonaldTrump
. Tweets archived:
http://wh.gov/privacy
Washington, D.C.WhiteHouse.govJoined January 2017
39 Following
32.9M Followers
Tweets
Tweets &
replies
Media
Likes
President Trump’s
Tweets
President Trump
Retweeted
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
Nov 16
STOCK MARKET
GETTING VERY CLOSE TO 30,000 ON NEW VACCINE NEWS. 95% EFFECTIVE!
President Trump
Retweeted
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
Nov 16
Another Vaccine
just announced. This time by Moderna, 95% effective.
For those great “historians”, please remember that these great discoveries,
which will end the China Plague, all took place on my watch!
President Trump
Retweeted
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
Nov 15
A great launch!
@NASA
was a closed up
disaster when we took over. Now it is again the “hottest”, most advanced, space
center in the world, by far!
Quote Tweet
NASA
@NASA
· Nov 15
LIVE NOW: We are
ready to #LaunchAmerica. Are you? Rocket
Watch coverage of
the NASA @SpaceX Crew-1 mission. Liftoff is at 7:27pm
ET: https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1ypKdgRrpjoxW
https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1ypKdgRrpjoxW
President Trump
Retweeted
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
Nov 14
....We cannot
waste time and can only give to those states that will use the Vaccine
immediately. Therefore the New York delay. Many lives to be saved, but we are
ready when they are. Stop playing politics!
Show this thread
President Trump
Retweeted
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
Nov 14
I LOVE NEW YORK!
As everyone knows, the Trump Administration has produced a great and safe
VACCINE far ahead of schedule. Another Administration would have taken five
years. The problem is,
@NYGovCuomo
said that he will
delay using it, and other states WANT IT NOW...
Show this thread
President Trump
Retweeted
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
Nov 14
President Trump
Retweeted
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
Nov 14
Congress must now
do a Covid Relief Bill. Needs Democrats support. Make it big and focused. Get it done!
President Trump
Retweeted
The White House
@WhiteHouse
·
Nov 13
US government
account
.
@VP
@Mike_Pence
: "Before the
year is out, we'll be able to administer a vaccine to tens of millions of
Americans."
President Trump
Retweeted
The White House
@WhiteHouse
·
Nov 13
US government
account
Dr. Moncef Slaoui: We expect to have
enough vaccine doses available to immunize 20 million Americans in the month of
December and another 25-30 million per month after that.
President Trump
Retweeted
The White House
@WhiteHouse
·
Nov 13
US government
account
Thanks to
President
@realDonaldTrump
's leadership,
we're on track to deliver a safe and effective vaccine to our most vulnerable
this year.