The Biden Bunch: Overview of the New Administration

Sam Zaslow-Braverman’23

    On Jan. 6, after a tense and disconcerting insurrection at the Capitol Building, Joe Biden was officially certified as the president-elect, and succeeded former President Donald Trump on Jan. 20.
    With the arrival of every new president comes a cabinet: a set of public servants working to support both the commander-in-chief and Congress. New cabinets are often subject to both praise and controversy, and Biden’s is no exception.

Perhaps primary in the cabinet is Vice President Kamala Harris, not only the first woman to uphold the position, but also the first person of color. While pundits have mentioned her past job as a criminal attorney to accuse her of perpetuating systemic racism, the amount of room she has created for both women and people of color in political positions is impossible to dispel.
    “I’m excited to have a woman of color as the vice president,” junior Hannah Stoch said. “We’ve had so many white male vice presidents, and hopefully having some diversity will bring a necessary change of perspective to the executive branch.”
    “I’m cautiously optimistic that Harris will be an influential vice president, hopefully for the better,” she added.
    Another notable member of the cabinet is John Kerry, the presidential climate envoy under Biden. Kerry may have difficulty negotiating agreements on an international basis, as the Trump Administration consistently professed to major world leaders that climate reform was among the country’s lowest priorities over the past four years.
However, sophomore Daniel Shapiro is hopeful that Kerry will deliver.
    “I think that Biden’s cabinet is one of the best equipped in the history of the United States to fight climate change,” Shapiro said. “John Kerry is capable of tackling the problems ahead. It remains to be seen if he will be ambitious enough.”
    To the delight of many liberal Americans and the disappointment of many conservative ones, Dr. Anthony Fauci was confirmed as Biden’s chief medical advisor. Fauci, one of the world’s foremost experts on the COVID-19 pandemic, has often been the subject of ridicule by former President Trump. His place in Biden’s cabinet is both instrumental in curbing the pandemic and representative of Biden’s embrace of science and facts over meaningless speculation and conspiracy.
    “Dr. Fauci has done a great job leading the country through this pandemic,” sophomore Issac Groffman, the son of a healthcare professional, said. “It’s obviously a very stressful time to be the nation’s top infectious disease expert, but he has done a good job.”
    “[Fauci has] had to deal with Donald Trump’s disastrous mishandling of the pandemic, which doubtlessly prevented him from being as effective as he would’ve hoped,” Groffman continued. “Despite this, we have a vaccine. My mom, who is a school nurse, was vaccinated about a week ago, and I can’t help but think Dr. Fauci is the reason she was able to get it so quickly.”
    Biden’s win, while monumental, is only a part of the solution to many of the United States’ problems. His cabinet, which contains a fair amount of highly qualified and promising individuals, is just as responsible for making change in the nation as he is. While the country remains divided, this team of politicians just might possess enough conviction and ambition to dispel any fear, anger and hate surrounding them. 
    Jan. 20 marked the beginning of a new era in American history. It is a change that many Americans, both within Golda Och and outside of it, are awaiting with fierce hope.