Delving Into Biden’s Diverse Cabinet Picks

Since the election, there’s been a lot of talk about the president’s tantrum over losing the election, and the Republican Party’s enabling of that tantrum. The GOP has been actively trying to disenfranchise millions of mostly Black and brown voters while undermining the very core of our democratic institutions.

“Wisdom and competence don’t have to be sacrificed for diversity when it comes to people in positions of power.” — Eugene Scott, Washington Post

Now, it’s time to look ahead to the next administration and what kind of president Joe Biden will be. Biden is going to inherit some of the biggest challenges a president has faced in decades and follows a president that has worked to dismantle many of the key functions of the federal government over the past four years. In recent weeks, we’ve started to get a glimpse of Biden’s approach. He has already released a detailed plan to combat the coronavirus pandemic, and he’s now starting to announce picks for his Cabinet. Biden has been under a lot of pressure to choose a diverse team to run his agencies and recently announced an all-female communications team. Washington Post reporter Eugene Scott discusses the deeper implications of Biden’s picks thus far.

Listen: What we can learn about the future of Biden’s presidency from looking at his selection of an all-female communications team and diverse Cabinet. 

Guest:

Eugene Scott is a reporter covering identity politics for “The Fix” in the Washington Post, and he is also the host of “The Next Four Years,” a podcast exploring the outcome of the 2020 election and what comes next. “It’s not lost on the fact that women were one of the voting blocs that turned out overwhelmingly in support of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” notes Scott on the significance of Biden’s all-female communications team.

 Scott also points out another notable female pick in the nomination of Janet Yellen for Treasury Secretary. “(Yellen’s) gender is significant because we know there are gaps when it comes to men and women when it comes to the economy, employment, and wealth,” says Scott. In more broadly discussing the role of diversity in the forthcoming administration, Scott notes that “critics on the right seem not to often understand that that is the argument that’s being made, that wisdom and competence don’t have to be sacrificed for diversity when it comes to people in positions of power.”