The progressive group Justice Democrats criticized President-elect Joe Biden for stacking his White House staff with “corporate-friendly insiders.”
Biden’s White House staff thus far includes chief of staff Ronald Klain, who worked as a lobbyist and venture capital executive.
Biden also tapped Steve Ricchetti as a senior adviser. Ricchetti has worked as a lobbyist for telecoms, pharmaceutical companies, insurers, and bankers.
Biden on Tuesday added to his staff Rep. Cedric Richmond, a top recipient of big oil money.
Biden also selected campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon, who cofounded a firm that represents pharmaceutical and private equity firms.
Justice Dems slam picks:
“If Joe Biden continues making corporate-friendly appointments to his White House, he will risk quickly fracturing the hard-earned goodwill his team built with progressives to defeat Donald Trump,” Alexandra Rojas, the executive director of the Justice Democrats, said in a statement.
“A Biden administration dominated by corporate-friendly insiders like Steve Ricchetti and Cedric Richmond will not help the President-elect usher in the most progressive Democratic administration in generations,” she added.
“This move gives greater urgency for Joe Biden to create an office of Climate Mobilization on Day One and appoint progressives with records standing up to the fossil fuel industry,” the statement said. “Progressives make up nearly half of the Democratic Party’s seats in the House of Representatives and should receive adequate representation in the Biden administration.”
Other progressives push Biden:
Other progressive groups have also sounded the alarm over “corporatists” in Biden’s administration.
“This puts us at a state of high alarm,” Jeff Hauser of the progressive group Revolving Door Project, told The New York Times.
“Trump’s government – run by the corporate lobbyists, for the corporate lobbyists – has devastated programs and rules that help working people,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren. “Americans have made it clear: the last thing they want is for Washington to again hand over the keys to giant corporations and lobbyists.”
