President-elect Joe Biden announced additional senior White House staff hires, tapping some of his longest-serving aides to serve alongside newer players in his orbit in key roles in the West Wing.
The moves reflected Biden’s two-pronged strategy for navigating the difficulties surrounding his ascent to the presidency: While he is stepping up attempts to show how President Trump’s unwillingness to cooperate with his team could harm Americans, Biden is also signaling that the roadblocks are not stopping his endeavor to assemble a government prepared to address the crises gripping the nation.
Biden confirmed that former campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon will serve as a deputy chief of staff, while campaign co-chair Louisiana Rep.
Cedric Richmond and campaign adviser Steve Ricchetti will play senior roles in the new administration. Richmond will leave his Louisiana congressional seat to fill the White House job.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez, a Biden deputy campaign manager who had previously been a top aide to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign during the primary, will be director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Chavez Rodriguez is also a veteran of former President Barack Obama’s administration, where she was a special assistant to the president and senior deputy director of public engagement.
Anthony Bernal will serve as a senior adviser to Jill Biden, after he was her chief of staff on the campaign, and Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon, a former Obama Ambassador to Uruguay, as her chief of staff.
The new hires represent an initial wave of what will ultimately be hundreds of new White House aides hired in the coming weeks as Biden builds out an administration to execute his governing vision. The Democrat will be inaugurated Jan. 20
