Last Updated on November 8, 2020
Republican victories in Senate races that led to the GOP maintaining a slim majority in the chamber have hobbled the idea that a President Biden would be able to seat the most radical members of a preferred cabinet.
In recent days, those close to Biden have intimated that there were places in his cabinet for Sen. Bernie Sander (I-VT), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Sanders is a self-admitted Socialist although he is officially slated as an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats.
A source close to the McConnell camp has gone on record with the media saying a Republican Senate would “work with Biden” on proposed centrist nominees but that any “radical Progressives” or nominees that have been caustic or confrontational conservatives would not receive favorable verdicts.
This political reality would necessarily knock out Sanders and Warren, but it would also preclude former National Security Advisor and UN Ambassador Susan Rice and failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, both ideologically far-Left.
The McConnell camp source termed the atmosphere going into a Biden administration saying, “It’s going to be armed camps.”
Were Joe Biden to be inaugurated on January 20, he would almost certainly have to grapple with a hostile Republican-controlled Senate, writes Ed Luce. And the most important relationship in Washington will be between him and Mitch McConnell https://t.co/WLMMDVMREi pic.twitter.com/xuCXTndQjL
— Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) November 6, 2020
With a Republican Senate majority scrutinizing each of Biden’s cabinet picks, the likelihood of far-Left nominations is slim to none. In fact, with the Democrats the minority in the Senate Biden’s choices to fill key positions are limited.
Biden and his team must take into consideration that appointing sitting Democrat Senators or Representatives from states with Republican governors would be an exercise in diminishing the numbers of the Democrat caucuses in the chambers from which they came.
With projections by AP and NBC News on Saturday, Biden claimed victory. But the public should be forewarned that news media outlet projections are just that, projections, and have no bearing on the certification of the votes in each state.
The Trump campaign has lawsuits in each of the battle ground states that remain in question; states where ballot tampering allegations could overturn vote counts to the President’s favor
