The White House is preparing for turnover among senior-level staff after the November elections, looking to shuffle personnel into position as Democrats eye a path to 2024.
Much of the speculation has centered on President Joe Biden’s economic team, with a change in senior personnel already afoot.
The White House is “prudently planning for potential transitions,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters this week, noting that Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Cecilia Rouse was expected to return to her academic post in the new year.
Biden has struggled to find a persuasive economic message, while a fumble this week has revived scrutiny over his age.
Biden has touted a strong job market and low jobless claims as evidence of a healthy economy and healthcare and infrastructure investments that the White House says will bring down prices. Yet inflation continues to eat into people’s pocketbooks.
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Polls indicate that Biden’s handling of the economy remains a political liability for Democrats and himself.
“The sticking point is people want to feel the positive effects immediately — relief can’t come soon enough,” said former Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman T.J. Rooney. “However, much of the relief contained in the legislation will require some time to be felt.”
With a little over a month until the elections, former administration officials Jeff Zients and Natalie Quillian have been tapped to lead the “talent search” in preparation for the turnover, a senior official told Axios.
The outlet later identified two of Biden’s top economic advisers as candidates to step down, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who has faced scrutiny over her messaging on inflation.
But Biden faces difficulties beyond the economy.
Over the summer, some Democrats began to question Biden’s future electoral prospects, suggesting the party weigh the president’s age when deciding who should lead the party heading into 2024.
The chatter quieted as Biden passed sweeping climate and healthcare legislation and focused his sights on “MAGA” Republicans.
Yet they resurfaced on Wednesday when Biden mistakenly called out for the late Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) during his remarks at an event on hunger. Walorski, one of four co-sponsors on a bill to fund the conference, died in a car crash in August, with Biden and first lady Jill issuing a statement extending their condolences to the congresswoman’s family at the time of the accident.
Richard Harpootlian, a former South Carolina Democratic Party chairman and close Biden ally, blamed “bad staff work” for the hiccup and said they should face the consequences.
“There are 400 and something members of Congress, and he was just giving a shout-out to one of the sponsors. The staff should have written in, ‘And let us remember so and so, who passed away on August 6,’” Harpootlian told the Washington Examiner. “That’s just bad staff work. That’s not Joe Biden.”
Harpootlian added, “Whoever was responsible for that probably ought to go somewhere else.”
The South Carolina Democrat said he would endorse Biden for reelection in 2024. “Yes, he should run. Yes, I will support him,” he said.
Publicly, Biden and his economic team have consistently touted the positives they see in the economy.
The president met with his economic team on Wednesday, along with the secretaries of treasury, energy, and labor, and issued a statement that the economy was in “resilient” shape after his economic plan spurred a “historic recovery.”
Last year, the administration insisted that inflation was likely to be fleeting, dismissing concerns about the effects of a sweeping coronavirus aid bill.
But a report this summer revealed that Yellen deviated privately from the administration’s stance and that the secretary agreed with criticism that the Biden administration was spending too much too quickly.
Yellen “sought without success to scale back the $1.9 trillion relief plan by a third” before Congress passed the American Rescue Plan in 2021, according to a forthcoming biography.
The message stood contrary to her public assessments, fueling concerns about the president’s strategy.
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Her departure could mark the first of Biden’s Cabinet officials to leave, though she has told White House officials that she intends to stay, according to Bloomberg. There has been zero turnover in the president’s Cabinet so far, while the rate among Biden’s top non-Cabinet advisers was 32% as of mid-September, according to a Brookings Institution analysis.
The White House this week said neither Yellen nor White House economic adviser Brian Deese were part of the planned post-midterm maneuvering.
