Biden Says He May Announce His Presidential Transition Team And Cabinet Before The Election

During a virtual fundraiser Thursday, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden said he has begun assembling a presidential transition team and is contemplating elevating some White House offices to cabinet-level positions. The Office of Science and Technology Policy, the global health security pandemic office, and a separate climate change office that “goes beyond the EPA,” are among the offices being considered to be raised to cabinet-level importance.

Biden said that he “would consider announcing some cabinet members before the election,” but that decision has yet to be made. It is not unusual for a presidential candidate to consider cabinet-level and transition team officials this early in the general election, but it would be unusual for Biden to officially announce them. In 2008, Barack Obama did not publicly declare any of his cabinet or transition team members until after he won the election.

Biden signaled that he already has an idea of who he plans to add to his administration should he defeat President Trump in the November 2020 election, saying “If the Lord Almighty said ‘Joe, I tell you what. You have to decide in three hours what your cabinet is or you’re going to be bounced out of the race,’ I could write down who could be in the cabinet. There are at least two or three people qualified for every one of those positions.”

The fact that Biden is contemplating these announcements much before when they typically occur demonstrates how the 2020 presidential campaign may buck norms on both sides of the political aisle. Biden may have a reason to move quickly. An ABC/Washington Post poll indicates that enthusiasm for the presumptive Democratic nominee is the lowest on record for a Democratic presidential candidate in their 20 years of polling. An early move to announce members of his cabinet could be an attempt to generate enthusiasm on the left from a candidate who was only able to generate broad-based support after many of his rivals dropped out and endorsed him along with an array of influential Democratic establishment politicians like Elijah Cummings, D-S.C.

Biden has publicly committed to making a woman his vice president, and during a virtual fundraiser on April 3 he committed to creating a diverse cabinet, saying it would be comprised of “men, women, gay, straight, center, across the board. Black, white, Asian. It really matters that you look like the country, because everyone brings a slightly different perspective.”