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Joe Biden said Tuesday that the United States was “back, ready to lead the world” at an event to introduce its new foreign policy team that marked a clear break with Donald Trump’s administration of “America First.”
Speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, along with his first six cabinet nominees, the president-elect insisted that his national security appointments, all of whom held important positions in the Barack Obama administration, would usher in a new era of multilateralism.
“It’s a team that reflects the fact that America is back, ready to lead the world, not to retire,” Biden said. “Once again, sit at the head of the table. Ready to face our adversaries and not reject our allies. Ready to defend our values. “
Biden spoke less than 24 hours after the Trump administration agreed to begin the formal transfer of power, even as the outgoing president has refused to admit defeat after losing the election earlier this month.
Shortly after Biden introduced the team, Trump briefly defended his approach to foreign policy during the traditional Thanksgiving turkey pardon ceremony.
“As I say, ‘America first,’ we shouldn’t walk away from that,” the president said.
Biden described his foreign policy nominees as a team that embodied his “fundamental belief that America is stronger when it works with its allies,” by revealing its secretaries of state and national security, as well as its national security adviser. , director of national intelligence. , United States Ambassador to the UN and climate envoy.
In prepared remarks, the nominees echoed Biden’s rebuttal to Trump’s approach to foreign policy, which resulted in strained relations with some traditional US allies.
“America is back, multilateralism is back, diplomacy is back,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Biden’s choice for US ambassador to the UN, a role that will be elevated to a level post. cabinet in the next administration.
Two former aides from Biden’s time as vice president will fill the top two foreign policy positions, and Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan will be nominated as secretary of state and national security adviser, respectively. John Kerry, secretary of state during Obama’s second term, will become a climate envoy.
While Blinken, Sullivan and Kerry are all white men, Biden wanted to emphasize the diversity of his other choices. Avril Haines, who has been appointed director of national intelligence, will be the first woman to lead the intelligence community, while Thomas-Greenfield is African American.
Mr. Biden described Ms. Haines as “a professional” rather than a traditional politician with a varied career that led her to study theoretical physics, repair cars, and run a bookstore-café.
“If you are concerned that a threat will reach our shores, such as another pandemic or foreign interference in our elections, you will not stop raising the alarm bells until the right people take action,” he said, implicitly criticizing the Trump administration for allegations that it was insufficient. action in response to Covid-19 and Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections.
If confirmed, Ms. Haines will lead an intelligence community rocked by repeated personnel shakeups and allegations that Trump installed loyal supporters in top positions, including chief director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe.
She said she was determined to deliver accurate information to Mr. Biden even when it might be “inconvenient or difficult” for him to listen.
Trump was known for his regular criticism of the US intelligence community, likening it to “Nazi Germany” during his first presidential campaign and later suggesting that his intelligence chiefs should “go back to school.”
Biden introduced Alejandro Mayorkas as “the first Latino and immigrant” to head the Department of Homeland Security.
Mayorkas, who was born in Cuba, said he was ready “to advance our proud history as a welcoming country” in a thinly veiled critique of the Trump administration’s attempts to tighten immigration controls.
Blinken told the life story of his late stepfather, Samuel Pisar, a Polish Jew who survived the Nazi death camps.
“At the end of the war, he escaped from a death march into the Bavarian forests. From his hiding place, he heard the rumbling of a tank, ”Mr. Blinken recounted.
He added: “He ran to the tank. . . an African American soldier looked at him. He fell to his knees and said the only three words he knew in English that his mother had taught him: “God bless America.” The soldier took him to the tank, to the United States, to freedom. “
