Kamala Harris begins standard planning for presidential transition

CNN —

Kamala Harris filed paperwork Monday morning to begin planning for a potential presidential transition – a standard move for a non-incumbent candidate but also another measure of her rushed campaign launch.

Former President Donald Trump announced his own transition committee last week.

To lead the effort, CNN has learned that Harris is tapping the same person who ran the process for Joe Biden four years ago: Yohannes Abraham, the current Indonesia-based US ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Abraham and Harris worked together closely on the last transition and then when he was the first chief of staff to the National Security Council under Biden.

Abraham will not start the transition work until he leaves the State Department. He is expected to leave his ambassador job soon and move back to Washington.

Abraham, who did not respond when contacted by CNN for comment, has earned praise for the job he is leaving behind.

Retired judge and and informal advisor to Vice President Mike Pence, J. Michael Luttig, testifies during the third hearing of the US House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the US Capitol, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on June 16, 2022. (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP) (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

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“Yohannes is one of our best,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on a visit to Laos at the end of July. “When he picks up the phone, Washington listens, in no small part because he used to be on the other side of the line in Washington himself.”

The Harris transition operation will be hiring other staff, with Covington &