He promised he wouldn’t give his family jobs in his administration — but President Biden never said anything about his friends’ families.
President Biden nominated the daughter of Rep. Jim Clyburn to a federal commission, adding to his string of hiring family members of administration officials or political allies, according to a report on Thursday.
The president nominated Jennifer Clyburn Reed as the chair of the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission that was created in 2008 to “address economic distress” in the southeast US but has remained inactive since, Fox News reported.
A coalition has been created to get it up and running.
The nomination raises questions about political-based hiring because Clyburn (D-SC) endorsed then-presidential candidate Biden in February 2020 before the South Carolina primary.
The endorsement was credited for fueling Biden’s win in South Carolina and creating the momentum that allowed Biden to win 10 states in the Super Tuesday contests.
The non-profit government oversight group, American Accountability Foundation, uncovered the possible link between Clyburn’s endorsement and the nomination, the report said.
A White House official said the administration’s priority is “to nominate someone who lives in the Southeast Crescent Region and who will be a strong advocate for investing resources into impoverished communities.”
“Jennifer Clyburn Reed has a long history of serving her community and would bring importance and expertise to this position,” the official told Fox News.
“Reed has a background in public education and focus on equity issues and historically underrepresented populations,” the official said.
A spokesperson for Clyburn did not answer questions from Fox News, directing inquiries to the White House.
Reed did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Fox News.
Soon after taking office, Biden pledged that he would run the White House differently than that of his predecessor.
“No one in our family and extended family is going to be involved in any government undertaking or foreign policy,” Biden told People magazine in February. “And nobody has an office in this place.”
Former President Donald Trump named his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner as White House advisers, but both declined to take a salary.
“While it may not be as bad as appointing your son or daughter to a top government post as Trump did with Jared and Ivanka, it is still bad,” said Walter Shaub, who served as director of the Office of Government Ethics from 2013 to 2017, told the Washington Post in June. “ ’Not as bad as Trump’ cannot be the new standard.”
The report noted that White House press secretary Jen Psaki, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, senior adviser Anita Dunn, White House counselor Steve Richette, White House deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed and Presidential Personnel Office Director Cathy Russell have at least on family member working in the Biden administration.