Joe Biden is already filling his administration with people linked to the oil and pharmaceutical industries even though he campaigned on being tough on those sectors.
As New York Times reporter Kenneth Vogel noted on Twitter, four members of Biden’s White House staff include people associated with the very industries Democrats decry, including Wall Street and Big Pharma.
BIDEN WH STAFF SO FAR:
➡️Venture capital executive (@RonaldKlain).
➡️Former pharmaceutical, insurance lobbyist (Steve Ricchetti).
➡️Top Dem recipient of Big Oil $ (@cedricrichmond).
➡️Co-founder of firm that represents pharma & private equity (@jomalleydillon).— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) November 17, 2020
For example, Biden tapped Ronald Klain to be his White House chief of staff. Klain worked for Biden when the latter was a senator and worked as chief of staff to former Vice President Al Gore and also Biden when he was President Barack Obama’s vice president. Klain is currently the executive vice president of the venture capital firm Revolution, which was founded by Steve Case, AOL’s former chief executive and one of its founders. Klain mostly served in government positions over the past few decades, but easily transitioned into Wall Street executive status thanks to the revolving door of Washington. He also previously worked as a lobbyist and his team “represented drugmaker ImClone when the company faced a congressional inquiry into the life-or-death consequences of its selective offering ‘compassionate use’ of drugs that had not yet been approved,” Fox News reported.
Biden also named Steve Ricchetti as a White House counselor. As The Daily Wire reported, Ricchetti was instrumental in helping President Bill Clinton enact a trade agreement with China that ended up costing millions of American manufacturing jobs. Democrats largely opposed the agreement, yet Ricchetti helped to get it passed. He is also a former lobbyist for pharmaceutical and insurance companies. He co-owned a lobbying firm with his brother and together they “worked with pharmaceutical companies Eli Lily, Novartis and Pfizer,” Fox reported.
Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) was one of the top recipients from the oil and gas sector this election cycle. He will serve as a senior adviser in the White House Office of Public Engagement, Fox reported.
“Biden has pushed for policies that he says would reduce the influence of lobbies and special interests, including expanding public funding for campaigns,” the outlet reported. “His campaign platform includes legislation that would require lawmakers to publicly disclose meetings or communications with lobbyists or special interests trying to influence the passage or defeat of a bill.”
Finally, Biden has named his campaign manager, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, to be his deputy chief of staff. O’Malley Dillon is the co-founder of a firm that Vogel reported represents pharmaceutical and private equity companies.
It should come as no surprise that Biden would fill his cabinet with insiders who represented the very industries he has denounced and said he would take on. Some of these very same industries donated heavily to his campaign, as The Daily Wire previously reported.
“Employers with employees that donated heavily to Biden are big-name universities like Harvard and the University of California, along with Big Tech companies Facebook and Microsoft. Employees at Big Pharma and health insurance companies have also donated heavily to Biden, as have employees at big banks,” The Daily Wire reported.
It should be noted that President Donald Trump is still pursuing legal action in several states in an attempt to retain the presidency.