Women are in the majority on President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team, while almost half of his staff are people of colour, according to new diversity data.
The data, provided to several outlets including CNN, shows that 46 per cent of transition staff are people of colour, and 41 per cent of the senior staff are people of colour.
A total of 52 per cent of staff are women, and 53 per cent of the senior staff are women.
The transition team’s advisory board also represents a diverse cross-section of Americans, with 43 per cent being people of colour and 52 per cent being women.
Mr Biden has repeatedly stressed that ensuring diversity in his administration and his Cabinet would be a top priority.
“My administration’s going to look like America, not just my staff, the administration from the vice president straight down through Cabinet members to major players within the White House, and the court,” he said during a June townhall event. “It’s going to be a reflection of who we are as a nation.”
Incoming vice president Kamala Harris broke ground by becoming not only the first woman to serve in the role, but the first African American and South Asian American to hold the role.
Ms Harris, whose father is Jamaican and late mother was Indian, was the first black female attorney-general of California, then the first woman of South Asian heritage elected to the US Senate.
The Trump administration was 71 per cent white men in 2016, according to an NPR analysis.
Donald Trump had the highest percentage of white men employed in his cabinet since the Reagan administration, while women and people of colour made up less than 20 per cent each.
Mr Biden focuses on economy as Mr Trump pursues legal challenges
Mr Biden will focus on plans for reviving a pandemic-battered US economy as he prepares for his new administration, while Mr Trump vowed to press ahead with long-shot court challenges to the election results.
With the number of coronavirus cases surging across the country, Mr Biden will receive a briefing and give a speech in his home state of Delaware on rebuilding an economy that has suffered millions of job losses as the pandemic has killed more than 245,000 Americans and closed many businesses.
Mr Biden’s scientific advisers will meet this week with pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines to battle COVID-19, a top aide to the president-elect said, in preparation for the logistical challenges of widespread vaccination.
Mr Trump sent mixed messages on Sunday, briefly appearing to acknowledge defeat in a morning tweet, only to backtrack, saying he concedes “nothing” and repeating his unfounded accusations of voter fraud.
He later promised on Twitter to file “big cases showing the unconstitutionality of the 2020 Election,” even though he has made no headway with his legal challenges in multiple states so far.
Legal experts have said the Trump litigation stands little chance of altering the election’s outcome, and election officials of both parties have said there is no evidence of major irregularities.
In another blow to Mr Trump’s legal strategy, his campaign on Sunday dropped a major part of a lawsuit it brought seeking to halt Pennsylvania from certifying its results, narrowing the case to an issue affecting a small number of ballots. Mr Biden won the state by more than 60,000 votes.
More than a week after Mr Biden was declared the victor by major news organisations based on state-by-state vote counts, the General Services Administration has still not recognised him as president-elect, preventing his team from gaining access to government office space and funding normally provided to an incoming administration to ensure a smooth transition.
Mr Biden’s top advisers warned that Mr Trump’s refusal to begin a transition could jeopardise the battle against the virus and inhibit vaccine distribution planning.
The number of US coronavirus cases passed 11 million on Sunday, a million more new cases than a week ago and the fastest increase since the pandemic began. The number of COVID-19 patients in US hospitals also has reached an all-time high.
– Additional reporting by Reuters.
