Biden’s Team Steps Up Transition Plans, Mapping Out a White House

Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s advisers accelerated their transition planning on Friday as election results showed him with an advantage in battleground states that could hand him the presidency, with the first senior officials in a potential Biden White House possibly named as early as next week.

In Wilmington and Washington, Mr. Biden’s advisers and allies are ramping up their conversations about who might fill critical posts, both in the West Wing and across the agencies, guided heavily by Mr. Biden’s plan to assemble what would be the most diverse cabinet in history.

The behind-the-scenes activity underscored that even as Mr. Biden publicly offered a disciplined message about counting every vote and refrained from claiming victory, he was already mapping out a quick start in office as the nation faces a worsening pandemic and a damaged economy.

Mr. Biden, who ran from Day 1 on a message of bringing the country together, is said to be interested in making a bipartisan gesture as he plans a prospective government after a divisive election whose results President Trump has tried to undermine. Mr. Biden is looking to fill out his possible White House staff first, with cabinet posts not expected to be announced until around Thanksgiving, according to more than a half-dozen people familiar with the planning process who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the transition.

Mr. Biden’s team quietly began raising money for his transition operation in May and has raised at least $7 million to pay for its efforts. The Biden camp has prepared for multiple scenarios in case Mr. Trump refused to concede and his administration would not participate in a transition.

So far, officials in Mr. Trump’s government have worked in good faith, according to Biden officials, who said they hoped and expected that cooperation to continue.

As coronavirus infections hit new highs, Mr. Biden’s aides are planning for the first critical transition decisions to focus on health care and addressing the pandemic, the central theme of his campaign in the final months. They have assembled an internal group of roughly two dozen health policy and technology experts to look at the development and delivery of a vaccine, improving health data and securing supply chains, among other issues.

“We’re not waiting to get the work done,” Mr. Biden said in a speech on Friday night.

Among those expected to play a key health care role in a Biden administration is Vivek Murthy, a former surgeon general under President Barack Obama, who has privately advised Mr. Biden for months on the pandemic and is expected to play a large public role as a face of the potential Democratic administration’s response to the virus, dispensing advice on mask-wearing and social distancing.

Transition officials are also looking at what types of economic actions could be taken almost immediately, including rolling back some of Mr. Trump’s executive orders, part of a tradition in which new presidents move quickly to change or reverse regulations across federal agencies.

Mr. Biden, 77, has told associates that he considers his two terms as vice president and his knowledge of how a White House operates…