Biden’s Economic, Communications Team Is Full Of Women

Following his recent decision to appoint Janet Yellen as new Treasury Secretary, Joe Biden has decided to fill many of the key economic advisory spots with female staffers, all close to either Obama or Hillary Clinton.

Biden is turning to longtime Hillary Clinton ally and Democratic policy staffer Neera Tanden to lead his Office of Management and Budget, while Cecilia Rouse will be head the Council of Economic Advisers, according to Bloomberg.

.@neeratanden, Biden’s pick to head the Budget office, has a proven track record of creative budget solutions. My favorite is when she told @fshakir that the US should steal Libya’s oil: “We have a giant deficit. They have a lot of oil.”
🏆https://t.co/d2ItRoIBnJ pic.twitter.com/xvk2p4ZNoU

— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) November 29, 2020

Tanden, who currently leads the the liberal think-tank Center for American Progress, worked on the Obama administration’s health-care reform and was a close adviser to Hillary Clinton on her failed 2016 campaign. 

Rouse also worked in the Obama administration as a member of the CEA and is currently dean of Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Biden will also nominate Adewale “Wally” Adeyemo to be deputy treasury secretary. Previously Wally worked as President of the Obama Foundation.

Biden isn’t stopping there, and according to a separate Bloomberg report Biden’s senior communications team is composed entirely of women, including Jen Psaki as White House press secretary. Psaki, a former Obama White House communications director and State Department spokeswoman, has been an on-camera spokeswoman for Biden’s transition office. 

Other women who will be tasked with interpreting Biden’s “communications” include:

• Kate Bedingfield, deputy campaign manager and communications director during the 2020 campaign, who will be Biden’s White House communications director.
• Karine Jean-Pierre will be principal deputy press secretary after serving as a senior adviser during the campaign. She also worked on Barack Obama’s two presidential campaigns and in his White House as a regional political director.
• Pili Tobar, the Biden campaign’s communications director for coalitions, will be deputy communications director.
• Liz Alexander, whose work with Biden dates back to his time in the Senate, will be communications director for Jill Biden.

President-in-waiting Kamala Harris is also betting heavily on women:

• Ashley Etienne, a former communications director and senior adviser to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will be Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s communications director.
• Symone Sanders, one of Biden’s most visible campaign aides, will be senior adviser and chief spokesperson for Harris. Sanders advised Harris and traveled with her during the final weeks of the campaign, a task she’s continued in during the transition.