Biden starts staffing up with senior White House announcements

close

Video

Joe Biden takes questions from reporters after remarks in Delaware

President-elect answers questions about COVID-19 vaccine, foreign policy in Wilmington, Del.

President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday announced nine senior staffers he will work with in the White House after he is inaugurated on Jan. 20.

The list includes some longtime Biden aides and advisers who worked with the president-elect during his decades as a senator and his eight years as vice president in the Obama administration. And the group also includes some of the top members of Biden's presidential campaign.

BIDEN SELECTS RON KLAIN AS WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF

"I am proud to announce additional members of my senior team who will help us build back better than before. America faces great challenges, and they bring diverse perspectives and a shared commitment to tackling these challenges and emerging on the other side a stronger, more united nation," Biden said in a statement.

President-elect Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, speaks about economic recovery at The Queen theater, Monday, Nov. 16, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Ron Klain, whom Biden named last week as his incoming White House chief of staff, highlighted that “President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris have an ambitious and urgent agenda for action. The team we have already started to assemble will enable us to meet the challenges facing our country on day one.”

Announced on Tuesday are Biden-Harris campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon as deputy White House chief of staff, senior Biden campaign strategist and longtime political adviser Mike Donilon as senior adviser to the president, Biden-Harris campaign chairman and longtime Biden adviser and aide Steve Ricchetti as counselor to the president, and Biden-Harris general counsel Dana Remus as counsel to the president.

Also announced are Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, a Biden campaign national co-chair, as senior adviser to the president and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, Biden-Harris deputy campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who served as chief of staff to Sen. Harris’ presidential campaign, as director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Biden campaign travelling chief of staff and longtime Biden aide Annie Tomasini as director of Oval Office operations.

BIDEN CAMPAIGN MANAGER HEADED TO WHITE HOUSE AS DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF

Anthony Bernal, a deputy campaign manager and chief of staff to Jill Biden during the campaign, will serve as senior adviser to the incoming First Lady. And Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon, a partner at the law firm of Winston and Strawn who served as U.S. ambassador to Uruguay and a deputy assistant secretary of state during the Obama administration, will serve as Jill Biden’s chief of staff.

O'Malley Dillon took to Twitter moments after the announcement to say "Working for @JoeBiden is absolutely the honor of my life. We have hard things to do, and with his leadership, we can do them together for the American people."

Fox News, other news networks and the Associated Press projected Nov. 7 that Biden would win the state of Nevada and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, giving the Democratic presidential nominee the electoral votes needed to defeat President Trump and become president-elect. Trump has yet to concede, as he hopes that a spate of apparent longshot lawsuits he has filed and a couple of recounts in key states will reverse Biden’s victory.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST ELECTION RESULTS FROM FOX NEWS

General Services Administration (GSA) chief Emily Murphy, who was appointed by Trump, has yet to sign a letter of “ascertainment,” which until now was a mostly controversy-free process of declaring the winner of the White House race, allowing access to the federal agencies, and to the funding of the transition.

Trump on Sunday appeared for the first time to acknowledge that Biden had won the election. But he later highlighted on Twitter that "I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go." And on Monday the president claimed on Twitter that “I won the Election!”