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Dear Friend,
Joe Biden has made his first major appointments—and some of them are looking like K Street business as usual.
His chief counselor will be Steve Ricchetti, a former Big Pharma lobbyist.1
Biden must pick a cabinet that is representative of the millions of progressive votes he received in the election. We have to stop him from choosing former lobbyists and corporate executives in order to appease Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. We're putting pressure on Biden to choose an administration that will implement a strong progressive agenda, and we’re organizing hundreds of thousands of voices to make that call.
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The media is pushing a narrative that Joe Biden must choose conservative, corporate Democrats and Republicans for cabinet positions and key appointments if he has any hope of passing them through McConnell’s Senate.2
But the truth is that Biden has the power to appoint the cabinet he wants by using tools like the Vacancies Act and adjourning Congress to make recess appointments.
And he has the support of the people to appoint a corporate-free cabinet. A poll released this week shows that 69 percent of Americans—across the political spectrum—don’t want corporate executives, lobbyists, or billionaires leading the administration’s agencies, and Biden should do whatever it takes to fulfill the will of the people.3
We can’t stress enough how important choosing non-lobbyist, noncorporate administrators is. Ricchetti is a perfect example—Biden promised on the campaign trail to lower prescription drug prices, but now one of his senior advisors is not only a former Big Pharma lobbyist, but his brother still lobbies for pharmaceutical companies, which will definitely impact that agenda.4
There is so much we need to undo from the Trump administration, and we need cabinet members who can end the pandemic, fix the economy, forgive student debt, provide affordable health care and housing, and break up Big Tech and Wall Street—and corporate America won’t do that for us.
Will you donate to help our fight to stop McConnell from choosing Biden’s cabinet?
Thanks for standing with us.
Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress
Sources:
1. CNBC, "Top Biden advisor could face ethics pressure as his brother lobbies for pharma firms," November 18, 2020
2. The Hill, "Will McConnell flout custom by rejecting Biden Cabinet nominees?," November 10, 2020
3. Vox, "Exclusive polling: What likely voters want to see in a Biden Cabinet," November 17, 2020
4. CNBC, "Top Biden advisor could face ethics pressure as his brother lobbies for pharma firms," November 18, 2020
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