Joe Biden fills out more senior-level staff positions

Presumptive President-elect Joseph R. Biden is going back to the future as he fills out the team to help lead the country.

Mr. Biden announced several senior-level staffing positions on Tuesday that included veterans of his 2020 campaign, longtime advisers and top hands from the administration of former President Barack Obama, with whom Mr. Biden served eight years as vice president.

As some liberals panned the top picks, the former vice president touted the diversity of his team, which includes female and Black appointees.

“America faces great challenges, and they bring diverse perspectives and a shared commitment to tackling these challenges and emerging on the other side a stronger, more united nation,” Mr. Biden said.

Mr. Biden is pressing forward with the transition as President Trump fights the election results with lawsuits in a handful of states.

The new White House roster includes:

⦁ Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon, who played crucial roles on Mr. Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns. She’s been named deputy chief of staff, under longtime Biden adviser Ron Klain, who was named chief of staff last week.

⦁ Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, a national campaign co-chair and an early endorser of Mr. Biden. The congressman is leaving his solidly Democratic New Orleans-area seat to serve as a senior advisor and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

⦁ Steve Ricchetti, the 2020 Biden campaign chairman, who will be a counselor to the president.

Mr. Ricchetti has spent much of his lengthy career in Washington as a lobbyist and was Mr. Biden’s chief of staff during Mr. Obama’s second term in office.

⦁ Mike Donilon, a longtime adviser and chief strategist for Mr. Biden’s 2020 campaign. He will be a senior advisor.

⦁ Dana Remus, the campaign’s general counsel who has served as general counsel of the Obama Foundation. He will be counsel to Mr. Biden.

⦁ Julie Rodriguez, a deputy campaign manager, will be the director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Ms. Rodriguez helped run presumptive Vice President-elect Sen. Kamala D. Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign and held a top position in the Office of Public Engagement during the Obama administration.

⦁ Annie Tomasini, Mr. Biden’s traveling chief of staff who has served the Biden family since Mr. Biden’s time in the U.S. Senate. She is set to become the director of Oval Office Operations.

Liberal activists were not impressed with the selections of either Mr. Richmond or Mr. Ricchetti.

Alexandra Rojas, executive director of the group Justice Democrats, pointed out that Mr. Ricchetti is a former pharmaceutical industry lobbyist and that Mr. Richmond has taken campaign money from the oil and gas industry.

“If Joe Biden continues making corporate-friendly appointments to his White House, he will risk quickly fracturing the hard-earned goodwill his team built with progressives to defeat Donald Trump,” Ms. Rojas said.

Asked about that criticism, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries defended his soon-to-be-former colleague.

“Cedric Richmond is a great member of Congress and Steve Ricchetti has worked closely with the vice president,” said Mr. Jeffries, New York Democrat. “Both of them, I believe, will be phenomenal additions to a Biden presidency and administration.”

Mr. Biden also announced some senior staff for his wife Jill Biden, who would become the first lady.

Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon, a former U.S. ambassador to Uruguay during the Obama administration, was announced as chief of staff to Ms. Biden.

Anthony Bernal, a deputy campaign manager, is set to be a senior advisor to Ms. Biden.

Other veterans of the Obama White House and congressional Democrats praised the picks.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn said Mr. Richmond was a vital part of Mr. Biden’s campaign.

“He’s just at that transitional age,” the South Carolina Democrat said of the 47-year-old Mr. Richmond. “That means he has one foot in my group and one foot in my grandsons.’.”

⦁ Gabriella Muñoz contributed to this report.