CNN
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Kamala Harris has a packed schedule lately: multi-state marketing campaign stops; briefings from advisers on points at house and overseas; a gentle stream of cellphone calls, conferences and interviews, all as she hopes that she’s going to defeat Donald Trump in subsequent week’s election.
However amid the flurry of exercise within the closing stretch of the 2024 marketing campaign, there may be one dialogue the vice chairman has made clear to aides she won’t entertain, even in non-public: who would possibly serve in a future Harris Cupboard and administration. Cautious of tempting destiny, Harris has been specific to advisers within the closing weeks of the marketing campaign that she will not be all for having these conversations, 4 sources instructed CNN.
“She has been fairly proof against having these conversations,” mentioned one senior Democrat acquainted with the pre-election discussions with the vice chairman. “Her place has been very a lot: I’ve acquired to go win this factor.”
The vice chairman’s refusal to take part in these planning discussions in earnest is, at the very least partially, rooted in superstition. Harris, who as soon as quipped that she’s “somewhat superstitious,” has lengthy believed that no good can come from placing the cart earlier than the horse, these acquainted with her pondering mentioned.
“She’s superstitious,” one longtime Harris affiliate instructed CNN. “She is a rational and logical and linear thinker and which means she focuses on instantly what’s in entrance of her and she or he resists the temptation to look too far down the road.”
That trait might be one of many few she shares with Trump. The previous president, too, has voiced wariness at transition planning earlier than successful an election, partially as a result of he believes it might quantity to dangerous luck for the ultimate consequence.
However he’s taken his resistance to formal transition planning a step additional, declining to take essential formal steps towards making ready for a transition, blowing previous a pair of key deadlines and breaking with precedent in a method that outdoors consultants warn might in the end pose challenges for a peaceable switch of energy.
Whereas Harris’ transition group has been working out of government-provided places of work in Washington, Trump’s transition group is working from Manhattan and the Willard Resort in Washington. Representatives from each transition groups met with federal company transition planners on the White Home campus on Tuesday to debate “post-election readiness,” a White Home spokesperson mentioned.
Not like throughout earlier campaigns, the Harris group has telegraphed nearly nothing concerning the names or profiles of officers who might fill high roles in a possible administration, whilst some Democrats in Washington and media shops are eagerly fueling hypothesis. When then-candidate Joe Biden was within the concluding weeks of his profitable 2020 bid, names for a number of roles had already been floated.
Neither is the Harris group asking but for lists of names to fill potential roles — although, previously, these lists are sometimes despatched unsolicited to transition officers by teams or people hoping to make a stamp on future administration coverage.
For a candidate who, over the course of her abbreviated marketing campaign, has needed to bridge divides between progressive and reasonable Democrats, these choices will inevitably be delicate ones. That, partially, is why Harris and her group imagine they’re finest left till after Election Day.
Ready till she first is aware of with certainty {that a} position will probably be hers earlier than assuming the duties that include that job was how she operated a lot earlier in her profession, too. These acquainted with her rise in California say she caught to an identical ethos when she was working for lawyer normal and district lawyer.
It was additionally how she extra just lately performed herself earlier than her fast ascension to the highest of the Democratic ticket over the summer season. Even when hypothesis was working rampant that Biden would possibly drop out of the 2024 race, Harris – as CNN reported on the time – was meticulously cautious about not doing something preemptive till the second he shared his resolution.
The resistance to have interaction in in depth pre-election discussions about staffing a possible administration has lent a level of secrecy to the Harris transition effort, notably for these Democrats who’re desirous to find out about open positions.
Sources inform CNN the transition group has been targeted on constructing out infrastructure for vetting, together with recruiting attorneys and placing processes in place which are able to launch if Harris wins. And simply as her marketing campaign has been truncated, so too has the transition planning.
“There is no such thing as a transition with out a profitable marketing campaign and that’s the high precedence proper now. The transition is targeted on organising the infrastructure essential to be prepared for the post-election interval,” a transition spokesperson instructed CNN.
However behind the scenes, transition personnel are additionally making ready for numerous situations, together with if the race stays too near name days after Election Day. In that occasion, each Harris’ and Trump’s groups could begin receiving briefings from the Biden administration following a measure handed in 2022 that lays out protocols for the transition interval.
A Harris victory would set off the primary same-party transition since 1989, when President Ronald Reagan handed off the presidency to his vice chairman, George H.W. Bush. The relative rarity of a Democrat handing over keys to the White Home to a different Democrat injects some uncertainties into the method, most notably how a lot continuity Harris would carry to staffing choices in her personal administration.
Sometimes, departing political appointees are anticipated to submit resignation letters because the presidency transfers to a brand new officeholder. But when Republicans flip the Senate, there have been discussions of maintaining on some Biden holdovers to restrict extended battles over affirmation. And there was speak about how a GOP-controlled Senate would possibly affect who the group brings up for a nomination.
“They’re attempting to face up affirmation processes with a watch towards that prospect,” one supply mentioned.
But the extent to which Harris would retain members of the Biden administration is essentially unknown. She would doubtless usher in her personal roster of senior West Wing advisers, changing those that had labored for years or a long time with Biden. That features her personal choice for White Home chief of workers.
Harris’ present chief of workers, Lorraine Voles, will not be anticipated to transition over to imagine the position of White Home chief of workers, a number of sources mentioned.
And there may be an expectation that a lot of the Cupboard would flip over, permitting Harris to call her personal nominees to high posts. Even in two-term presidencies, high Cupboard officers usually depart their high-stress jobs after one time period.
Biden’s Cupboard has skilled virtually no turnover in 4 years. But it’s not clear whether or not Harris would take into account present Biden officers who is likely to be eyeing higher-profile roles, probably because the secretaries of state or treasury or as lawyer normal.
Whereas Harris has maintained relationships with particular person Cupboard and administration officers, some imagine she’s going to favor to start out anew together with her personal group. Harris has additionally mentioned she would identify a Republican to her Cupboard, however she has refused to invest on who that is likely to be or for what position.
If Harris is tired of mulling over names for high positions in her potential future authorities till she is aware of she has received the election, her transition group has been busy preparing for the opportunity of a dash to Inauguration Day.
The transition work is being led by Yohannes Abraham, former ambassador to the Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations. Others, together with Josh Hsu, the vice chairman’s former normal counsel, and Dana Remus, a senior adviser and outdoors counsel to the marketing campaign, have been concerned within the work of the transition group, a supply acquainted with the method mentioned.
If the election known as for Harris, the transition group is predicted to spring into motion, rapidly forming company evaluation groups, naming key White Home workers and members of the Cupboard, and presenting the vice chairman with an extended record of choices to make.
