President-elect Joe Biden appeared to indicate that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will not be a part of his cabinet.
In an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Biden expressed a desire to keep the two progressive Democrats in the U.S. Senate. In the interview Biden told Holt there is already “significant representation among progressives in our administration,” before adding “there’s nothing really off the table.”
Biden added he has a significant progressive agenda and will need help from those in the House and Senate in order to pull it off.
“But one thing is really critical: taking someone out of the Senate, taking someone out of the House (of Representatives), particularly a person of consequence, is really a difficult decision that would have to be made,” Biden said. “I have a very ambitious, very progressive agenda, and it’s going to take really strong leaders in the House and Senate to get it done.”
According to USA Today, Sanders has been pushing for the Labor Secretary position saying he would accept the nomination if he was appointed to the position by Biden.
“If I had a portfolio that allowed me to stand up and fight for working families, would I do it? Yes, I would,” Sanders told USA Today.
Progressives have been throwing Warren’s name as Biden’s Treasury Secretary since she dropped out of the Democratic primary, but Biden announced he chose Janet Yellen, who Warren praised in 2013.
“She has great experience, she has great judgment. I think she would make a terrific Federal Reserve chair,” Warren said in 2013 when Yellen was being considered for the Fed chair.
Progressive Democrats weren’t happy when Biden told Holt that he would nominate a Republican or someone who voted for Trump. However, Biden brought up Cindy McCain, the wife of the late senator John McCain and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Both have been very critical of outgoing President Donald Trump.
“I want this country to be united,” Biden told Holt. “The purpose of our administration is once again reunited. We can’t keep this virulent and political dialogue going. It has to end.”
Credit: Source link
