President Joe Biden’s campaign is preparing to make a full pivot to the general election with some of the president’s top advisers in the West Wing set to move over to the reelection campaign, as it watches former President Donald Trump’s quick consolidation of the GOP primary.
Biden’s 2020 campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, will transition to his reelection efforts as campaign chair, according to a senior Biden adviser. Her departure from the White House could come sooner than previously thought, another senior Biden adviser told CNN, because of what the Biden campaign sees as Trump’s quick move to the Republican nomination.
O’Malley Dillon has served as White House deputy chief of staff since Biden’s inauguration.
According to the adviser, another top Biden White House adviser who is in the president’s inner-most circle of aides, Mike Donilon, will also move over to the campaign, becoming its chief strategist. Donilon will be focused on the campaign’s messaging and paid media strategies, campaign officials said.
The moves, set to take place in the “coming weeks” per campaign officials, clearly signal that the Biden campaign is already in general election mode.
“This is the time when the campaign needs to have all hands on deck,” one senior Biden adviser said.
In a statement, Biden praised O’Malley Dillon for leading his “winning campaign in the midst of a historically challenging environment” in 2020 and argued, “no one knows my voice and values better” than Donilon.
“I’m thankful to Mike and Jen both for their service in the White House these last three years, and I am grateful that in rejoining the campaign, they are stepping up one more time to ensure we finish the job for the American people,” the president said.
Shifting some West Wing staff to Biden’s 2024…
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