potential housing and urban development secretaryillinois sen tammy duckworth who was also included in bidens vice presidential shortlist and former south bend indiana mayor pete buttigieg a former primary opponent are discussed for secretary of veterans affairs one person familiar with the transition planning said buttigieg could also be an ambassador to the united nationsother news reports have suggested michele flournoy a top adviser to two secretaries of defense under obama is a top contender for defense secretary and former michigan gov jennifer granholm is a possible energy secretarymassachusetts sen elizabeth warren meanwhile could be a candidate for treasury secretary though she could face confirmation challenges depending on the makeup of the senate if shes seen as too progressivethe biden team is looking at a few other departments as opportunities to make history theres never been a female or a black defense secretary nor a black interior secretary or female veterans affairs secretarybiden might face his first real fight over possible white house aideshis team is expected to roll out a chief of staff and director of the national economic council within days of the election hes believed to be considering former chiefs of staff steve richetti bruce reed and ron klain to reprise their old positions and jeff zeints and brian deese both top officials on the national economic council under obama to returnjeff hauser director of the revolving door project a progressive advocacy group geared toward putting pressure on democratic administrations to appoint liberal nominees and top officials said those picks will have potentially pivotal implications for the success of bidens first 100 days in officethe potential honeymoon for a biden administration with progressives will be very short if he is making impactful decisions that seem to augur four years of moderation in the face of things believed to be serious a serious crisis he saidhauser said the left views richetti and reed as really bad picks because reed is seen as a moderate and richetti is a longtime lobbyistzeints and deese are similarly concerning for progressives hauser said theyd prefer heather boushey or jared bernstein both of whom are current biden campaign economic advisers to lead the national economic councilif biden wins its unclear how closely trump administration officials would work with the incoming team alan kessler a prominent democratic fundraiser said he worries about the possibility that trump could direct his top officials to resist sharing key details with the transitionwhen you have the president saying im not going quietly and if i lose its because it was rigged and theres fraud thats a concern he said is it going to mean the biden campaigns not going to be able to conduct the transition no but it will be a lot harder if the current administration doesnt cooperate