Meet the Man Who Will Make Sure Trump or Clinton Can Govern on Day 1
The non-profit Center for Presidential Transition helps out the candidates.
— -- Max Stier won’t say whom he’s voting for, but his job is all about putting the next president in the White House.
Stier, along with his colleague David Eagles, head up the Center for Presidential Transition, and have been working closely with the White House and both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s campaigns to ensure the candidates and the outgoing president successfully manage the critical transition of power. The group was launched by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service in January of this year to act as a mediator and helping hand during the transition.
Complete with a floor plan of the mock Mitt Romney White House, once fully staffed in preparation for his team's anticipated victory back in 2012, Stier walked ABC News through the importance of the transition process. He also offered some insight as to where both campaigns stand in the process before it goes into full swing following the July conventions.
“The challenge in the past has been slow to do this type of preparation as important as it is because they didn’t want to be accused of measuring the drapes or being presumptuous, they saw that as a political vulnerability,” Stier said. “Job number one is to win. But the truth is winning and not being ready to govern is a big problem.”
While Trump announced Chris Christie as his transition chairman in early May, Hillary Clinton still has yet to announce hers, nor has her campaign staff offered any insight on their process.
But Stier insists the Clinton campaign is on the right path, telling us that her team is very similar to Trump’s.
“Her campaign is actively preparing, again as they ought to be,” Stier said. “And that’s a new phenomenon. We have not see this level of activity ever before from both sides early in the game.”
He insists preparation is not just essential for the candidates to fulfill campaign promises, but says it’s crucial in the modern era for America’s national security.
“In a post-9/11 world the risk associated with not having the new president ready at the very beginning is severe,” Stier said. “We want to make sure as Americans, whoever is elected, that they are keeping our country safe and to do that they have to do this type of preparation work that’s essential.”