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AThe core of the administration Joe Biden is building is a circle of trusted public servants, bound by many years of collaboration as a tight-knit team within the Obama administration, by a common faith, or, in some cases, by a tie with Biden’s late son Beau.
This is the very opposite approach to that taken by Donald Trump, who assembled a “team of rivals” with sharp elbows – powerful men from different walks of life, whom he had never met but thought. have the role. Biden cherishes the familiarity and collegiality of nice guys, and warned the new appointees Wednesday that if they don’t treat each other with respect, “I’ll fire you right away.”
Tony blinking
The nominee for Secretary of State has worked alongside Biden for almost two decades. He was his Senate foreign policy adviser and as an adviser to the Vice President for National Security in the Obama administration. Those who know them speak of a fusion of mind between them on foreign policy and more. Just as Biden is the anti-Trump, Blinken is the anti-Pompeo: soft-spoken, low-key, and collegial. During his confirmation hearing, he called for American confidence and humility on the world stage, in contrast to Pompeo’s “swagger”. Unlike his predecessor, Blinken is an instinctive multilateralist, having grown up in France and being bilingual.
Jake sullivan
Sullivan, at 43 the youngest national security adviser in 60 years, this is also a quantity fully known to the president. The former Rhodes scholar, who received his master’s degree in international relations from Oxford, succeeded Blinken as Biden’s national security adviser in the Obama administration, and held that post for 18 months.
He is best known for starting secret talks with Iranian officials that ultimately led to the 2015 nuclear deal, but his broader philosophy, which he developed at Yale after leaving the Obama White House, is closely aligned with that of Biden: this American force. abroad is built on social cohesion and prosperity in the heart of America.
Lloyd Austin
Nominated by Biden for defense secretary has been described as “the silent general” for his record of avoiding the press, but he is said to have strong political views behind closed Pentagon doors – and those views align closely with those of Biden. He has a strong preference for diplomacy over military force, especially in the Middle East. He categorically opposed US support for the Saudi intervention in Yemen, where the US central command had cooperated with the Houthis to fight al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
Equally important, Austin had known Beau Biden in Iraq 10 years ago, when the general was in charge of American forces there and young Biden was a major in the body of the judge advocates general. The two attended Catholic services together, and Catholicism is another important area of private common ground with the new president.
April Haines
Haines, the new one director of national intelligence who was Biden’s first choice to be confirmed by the Senate, also has a long history with Biden. She worked for him during the Senate days and briefed him almost daily when she was Deputy Director of the CIA and Deputy National Security Advisor in the Obama administration. Senior executives on this national security council are the main recruiting pool for high-level positions in the Biden administration. As with Blinken, most people who have worked with Haines point to her kindness and hard work, but she faces skepticism on the left for her past involvement in the Obama administration, codifying the rules and procedures for targeting suspected terrorists. for drone strikes, and his role in drafting CIA documents on torture and overturning an Inspector General’s recommendation to discipline officers who had participated.
Kamala harris
Biden’s choice of Harris as running mate involved overcoming some wounds inflicted in the primaries, when she tried to stand out from the Democratic crowd with a scathing attack on the front-runner in debates, over the bus and racial integration. But the vice-presidents the roots of the Biden family run deep. When she was attorney general in California, Beau Biden did the same job in Delaware, and they joined forces during the housing crisis and financial crisis, pushing for real banking regulation. They remained close friends until his death in 2015, at the age of 46. “There were times, when I got hot, when Beau and I talked every day, sometimes several times a day,” she says in her memoir.
Ron Klain
Klain has three attributes that made him an obvious choice as chief of staff for the new White House. He knows the president very well, having served as Biden’s chief of staff in the early years of the Obama administration, and has worked on three of Biden’s election campaigns. He worked very closely, and apparently harmoniously, with Jake Sullivan. And he has plenty of experience with pandemics, having coordinated Obama’s response to the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and 2015 – very relevant credentials in a presidency likely to be dominated by the coronavirus in its first year.
John Kerry
Kerry and Biden have worked together in the Senate for decades in a natural partnership – two senators from the northeast, practicing Catholics with Irish roots and a deep interest in foreign policy. Kerry was an early supporter of Biden’s third presidential candidacy and joined him on the electoral trail. When he made Kerry his climatic envoy, Biden said the former secretary of state was “one of my closest friends,” so the world would know he would speak for the president. Biden added that there was, “No one I trust more.”
Jill biden
This is not entirely true. The president’s wife of 43 years, Jill Biden, is a close confidante and fierce protector, in the mold of Barack and Michele Obama, and in stark contrast to the cold and distant White House partnership of Donald and Melania Trump. During the election campaign, she physically intervened to protect her husband from protesters and journalists who came too close during the pandemic. She is the stepmother of her surviving son, Hunter, and they have a daughter together, Ashley, born in 1981. Jill Biden will break the mold of the first ladies, however, by continuing her career while living in the White House, teaching. writing at Northern Virginia Community College part-time.
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