Biden’s first government appointments



[ad_1]

The president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, has made official the first six appointments of his administration, all related to foreign policy and national security. Some of them, such as Antony Blinken’s as Secretary of State, were scheduled for Sunday and had already been discussed by the US media; others, like John Kerry as special envoy for the climate, a new and ad hoc position, were a surprise. If all goes according to plan, Biden will become president of the United States on January 20.

Biden’s chosen people, who will need to be confirmed by the Senate, are: Antony Blinken as Secretary of State (a role similar to that of Foreign Minister), Alejandro Mayorkas as Secretary of Homeland Security (a role similar to that of Minister of Foreign Affairs). Foreign Affairs). Intern), Avril Haines as Director of National Intelligence, Linda Thomas-Greenfield as Ambassador to the United Nations, Jake Sullivan as National Security Advisor and John Kerry as Special Envoy for Climate.

“We have no time to waste when it comes to our national security and foreign policy,” Joe Biden’s transition committee wrote in a statement. “I need a team ready from day one to help me regain America’s place at the head of the table, urge the world to rise to the challenges ahead, and enhance our security, prosperity and values.”

Antony Blinken is 58 years old and has been a friend and confidant of Joe Biden for more than twenty years. He was on Biden’s staff as a senator, served as his national security adviser as vice president, and later became Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser when he was president. Between 2015 and 2017 he was undersecretary of state, also under Obama. Blinken is seen as a centrist and pragmatist who seeks to recover and strengthen the traditional alliances of the United States, weakened by the presidency of Donald Trump. Jake Sullivan, Designated National Security Adviser, along with Blinken led Biden’s foreign policy team during the election campaign. The two are friends and share ideology and worldview. Sullivan served on Joe Biden’s Homeland Security team as vice president and later became one of Hillary Clinton’s most listened to advisers when she was secretary of state.

Alejandro Mayorkas, designated Secretary of National Security, was born into a family that emigrated from Cuba to escape the Castro revolution. He was a California attorney and worked under the Obama administration at the agency that deals with citizenship and immigration rights. If confirmed by the Senate, he will be the first member of the Latino community to occupy the ministry that handles, among other things, immigration policies, which during the Trump administration were distorted and toughened, and were the subject of much controversy.

– Read also: Parents of 545 immigrant children are not in the United States

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, appointed UN Ambassador, is a career diplomat who has worked at the State Department for 35 years. She was an ambassador to Liberia and handled high-level African affairs in the department. Thomas-Greenfield will be the first black person to represent a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. His appointment is also seen as important to revitalizing the State Department: In the Donald Trump years, career diplomats were often ignored and rejected in favor of political appointments.

Avril Haines, appointed Director of National Intelligence, is another longtime Joe Biden adviser, has worked with him since the days of the Senate and during the Obama administration was deputy director of the CIA and deputy director of national security for Obama. If confirmed, she will be the first woman to lead US intelligence (CIA Director Gina Haspel is also a woman, but reports to the intelligence director).

Finally, there is John Kerry, who is obviously the most famous of the nominees. A former presidential candidate in 2004, a former Obama secretary of state between 2013 and 2017, Kerry is a longtime senator and a personal friend of Joe Biden, and has campaigned for him since the start of the Party’s primaries. democratic, when the candidate’s situation seemed uncertain. Kerry will also sit on President Biden’s National Security Council, and it will be the first time there will be a board figure explicitly dedicated to the climate crisis. His appointment, analysts say, is a symptom of the fact that Biden will be very active abroad and in diplomacy on climate-related issues.

– Read also: Trump is testing them all

Of Biden’s six appointments, only Jake Sullivan as national security adviser and John Kerry as climate envoy do not require Senate confirmation. For the others, the Senate must vote and may reject the nominations. It is a plausible risk, because the majority in the Senate depends on two votes that will take place in Georgia in early January: If the Democrats win both seats, then the Senate will be on perfect equality and it will be up to Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the vote. deciding vote. . If, on the contrary, Republicans manage to win at least one of the two ballots, they will have a majority. This eventuality helped shape Biden’s decisions: For example, the US media argue, the president-elect would have preferred Antony Blinken as secretary of state in part because he was more moderate and appreciated by Republicans than Susan Rice, a potential candidate. .



[ad_2]