[ad_1]
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will appoint veteran diplomat Antony Blinken as Secretary of State and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as Ambassador to the UN, continuing his campaign pledge to restore the United States as leader on the world stage and rely on experts.
Blinken and Thomas-Greenfield bring deep foreign policy experience to the nascent administration while providing a stark contrast to Donald Trump, who was suspicious of such an experience and adopted an “America First” policy that put long-standing American relations strained.
Blinken could be appointed as early as Tuesday, according to sources close to Biden, while Axios first signaled the impending appointment of Thomas-Greenfield.
Blinken’s appointment made another longtime Biden aide and foreign policy veteran Jake Sullivan the leading candidate for the post of U.S. national security adviser, a source told Reuters.
During the campaign, Biden harshly criticized Trump’s foreign policy and pledged to re-engage NATO and other global covenants, while vowing to bring in experts to tackle the Covid crisis and d other problems with him. He has promised to join the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization and potentially the Iran nuclear deal.
“America First made America alone,” Biden said at a public meeting in October.
Blinken is a longtime Biden confidant who served as the State Department’s No.2 and Deputy National Security Advisor in Barack Obama’s administration, of which Biden was vice president.
Thomas-Greenfield, a black woman who served as Assistant Secretary of State for Africa under Obama, aimed to restore morale and help fulfill Biden’s pledge to choose a diverse cabinet, said reported Axios.
Sullivan served as Biden’s national security adviser during the Obama administration and also deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Ron Klain, Biden’s choice as White House chief of staff, told ABC’S This Week that Biden’s first cabinet picks would take place on Tuesday.
Biden said last week he chose a secretary of the treasury. Former Fed Chairman Janet Yellen is said to be the top candidate in Democratic and monetary policy circles.
A spokesperson for Biden’s transition team declined to comment.
Klain once again urged the Trump administration – particularly a federal agency called the General Service Administration (GSA) – to formally recognize Biden’s victory in order to unlock resources for the transition process.
Biden is due to take office on January 20.
“A record number of Americans have rejected Trump’s presidency, and since then Donald Trump has rejected democracy,” Klain told This Week.
Since Biden, a Democrat, was declared the winner of the election two weeks ago, Turmp has launched a barrage of lawsuits and mounted a pressure campaign to try to prevent state officials from certifying their vote totals. , suffering another categorical legal setback Saturday in Pennsylvania. .
Biden received 6 million more votes nationwide than Trump and prevailed 306-232 in the state-by-state electoral college system that determines the winner of the election.
Klain said there would be “scaled-down versions of existing lore” for Biden’s inauguration. Groundbreaking ceremonies and related events usually draw huge crowds to Washington. Covid-19 cases and deaths are increasing in many parts of the country amid a pandemic that has killed more than 256,000 people in the United States.
Critics of Trump, including Democrats and some Republicans, have accused him of trying to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system and delegitimize Biden’s victory by promoting false allegations of widespread voter fraud.
[ad_2]
Source link