Share this page!

Marc Ambinder Profile picture
Twitter logo
27 Nov, 5 tweets, 1 min read
* Biden will choose either Michelle Flournoy, Jeh Johnson or Tammy Duckworth for SECDEF. He takes the civ-mil distinction seriously.
* former ADDO Justin Jackson is being considered for DCIA, along with Donilon, Jeh Johnson and some others. Jackson is on the CIA landing team
Note that, for each position here, 5-7 people are being vetted; some candidates are vetted as fallback choices. The nat sec team faces huge challenges. Biden wants them to work well together and to support his vision. Lots of conversations taking place. Process takes time.
One big consideration: Biden knows that morale in these agencies is shot because of Trump. He wants nominees who can win over their constituencies quickly. He cares about the federal workforce.
He wants to avoid the turf battles that sometimes flares up during the Obama admin. Trusting their judgment is more important than 100% previous agreement w his policies. Some of these folks Biden doesn’t know well. He’s taking his time.
This information comes from several folks who are part of and advising the transition teams, in response to questions about the process and what PEOTUS is looking for.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Marc Ambinder

Marc Ambinder Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @marcambinder

Marc Ambinder Profile picture
25 Nov
The sad truth here is that LA has been locked down to the point where there are no more plausible interventions and closures in the government’s toolkit. So health authorities are improvising and then getting their backs up when citizens dare question them.
And closing down OUTDOOR dining might well drive people to have more private parties and dinners inside, which does facilitate transmission. So, LA closed down outdoor dining for three weeks. They mean well. But this is the “last mile” enforcement problem.
You can’t enforce “don’t gather with friends indoors” at the point of a gun, so the idea is to maximize safe options. In LA, there’s still a rush to shut down OUTDOOR stuff ... which always has increased indoor stuff. It doesn’t make sense. We know it doesn’t.
Read 4 tweets
Marc Ambinder Profile picture
5 Nov
President’s pollster willfully amplifying completely BS claim here. Percentages are of RV, not VAP and are not out of line with history. Also, the source for the claim of turnout exceeding 100 percent has retracted its data. This adult human knows better. Receipts to follow. Image
This is the source for the claim that Powerline amplified. It has corrected its data. worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings… Image
Wisconsin routinely has dealt high turnout among registered voters, often exceeding 80 percent. But the claim falsely says that this is 80 percent of eligible voters - a much larger category. In 2016, turnout was 64 percent among *eligible voters* Image
Read 5 tweets
Marc Ambinder Profile picture
4 Nov
1) Denying agency to Cuban American voters in Miami-Dade and assuming they were the victims of disinformation OR that Dem consultants didn’t spend enough money “reaching out” is a fundamental misreading of why people vote.
2) some (but not all) consultants who spend money on ads (which generally don’t work) targeted at “Latinx” voters as a group are grifters. Cuban American voters do not consider themselves as Latinx. They are Americans with Cuban heritage, South Floridians, with diverse concerns.
3) for a party that embraces intersectionality, some folks in it (not all) sure have a habit of assuming that, for example, the politics of immigration play the same with women and men whose parents emigrated from very different countries for very different reasons.
Read 9 tweets
Marc Ambinder Profile picture
2 Oct
The continuity of government programs don’t say much about *successor incapacitation* , much as security protocols can’t do a heck of a lot with “everyone including the PPD, has to quarantine” while protecting a president who might be sick with a contagious, deadly virus.
In emergencies, WHMO and the White House staff have places to go, people to protect those places, and decent, secure communication networks. This is uncharted territory.
Starting early in the summer, WHMO and the @SecretService sketched out new ad hoc arrangements for precisely this scenario. The details and logistics are really complex because of the stochastic nature of this situation and the virus.
Read 12 tweets
Marc Ambinder Profile picture
30 Sep
I used to think that the @JoeBiden campaign had no counter disinformation strategy. Now I think that the President’s disinformation avalanche has had the effect of rebutting and limiting itself, to some degree, because it has maxed out its plausible audience. However ....
It has still has an enormous unhealthy effect on the public health and voting integrity. The result of disinformation campaigns is usually paralysis and confusion, layered in with fear and aversion to norms. People who aren’t in the President’s audience have also suffered.
It has become an existential question: how can one possibly create a national counter disinformation campaign when the TOP of the information chain is the main vector of misinformation? One can’t... one CAN surgically create campaigns around specific issues.
Read 6 tweets
Marc Ambinder Profile picture
30 Sep
Is there any purpose in having any rules when we know the President won’t or can’t abide by them? What’s the format for a debate using the frame of a national emergency? Chaos came from one direction. And there’s nothing a moderator can do.
Will the debate commission make the first move to allow the producer to shut off mics? Will the other debates be canceled?
The idea that someone can or even should “moderate” two candidates during a national emergency is quaint. And Trump is constitutionally not moderate-able. So.... what to do?
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get email notifications when new thread is out from this Author!

Check out other threads from this Author!

Read all threads by @marcambinder