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DETROIT: US President-elect Joe Biden on Monday (November 23) appointed the top members of his foreign policy team, and appointed trusted aide Antony Blinken to head the State Department, as Michigan certified Biden as the winner on the Midwestern state electoral battlefield.
The Michigan State Board of Polls confirmed previous projections that Democrat Biden beat Republican President Donald Trump in a close race.
With the certification, Trump’s effort to deny Biden a victory alleging electoral irregularities and fraud in many states became even more unlikely to be successful.
Biden, who has said he would undo Trump’s “America First” policies, also appointed Jake Sullivan as his national security adviser and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as the United States ambassador to the United Nations, both with high government experience. level.
The 78-year-old Democrat is assembling an administration from his home in Delaware as he prepares to take office Jan. 20 to lead a country facing the largest public health crisis in memory, even as Trump refuses to admit defeat in November. 3 elections and blocks the government from providing the support normally given to an elected president.
Biden appointed former United States Senator and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry as his special envoy for the climate. She is also likely to turn to former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen to become the next Treasury secretary, said two Biden allies, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a staffing decision that was not yet. public.
While Blinken, 58, is not a household name for the post of secretary of state, he has held important foreign policy positions in the last two Democratic administrations, including a spell as undersecretary of state under President Barack Obama.
Along with Sullivan, who was Obama’s deputy aide and senior policy advisor to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, Blinken has helped Biden formulate a strategy that will include a swift outreach to allies who have often been harassed by Trump. , and demonstrate their willingness to Work together on major global problems such as the coronavirus pandemic and its economic consequences.
READ: Biden to start naming cabinet elections Tuesday as Trump resists
Biden, a longtime member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has vowed to join a nuclear deal with Iran if Tehran restores compliance, returns to the Paris climate accord, abandons plans to quit. the World Health Organization and ends a US government that bans funding of advocacy groups debating abortion. Each move would reverse Trump’s policies and some could take place quickly after the inauguration.
The prospect of an American reversal of Trump’s foreign policy is music to the ears of many allies, especially in Europe, where there has been discontent over Washington’s approach to NATO, trade and relations with Russia.
READ: Biden’s choice for UN envoy will find a decline in American influence
The NATO chief and a senior European Union official, in phone calls with Biden on Monday, invited him to rebuild transatlantic ties and meet with Washington’s European allies next year.
Biden took a step to reverse Trump’s hardline immigration policies by appointing Cuban-born attorney Alejandro Mayorkas to head the Department of Homeland Security.
If confirmed by the Senate, Mayorkas would become the first foreign-born leader of the sprawling department that was created after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Mayorkas was his undersecretary in the Obama administration.
CRACKS IN REPUBLICAN SUPPORT
Meanwhile, Trump has repeatedly been defeated in his persistent legal battle to overturn election results in a series of battle states and prevent Biden from taking the oath. Trump and his campaign have made unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud.
Pennsylvania sought to go ahead with the certification that Biden was the winner, following the Michigan vote.
US President Donald Trump raises his thumb as his caravan leaves the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia on November 22, 2020 (Photo: REUTERS / Hannah McKay).
Biden beat Trump in Michigan by more than 150,000 votes, or nearly 3 percentage points, and the election canvassing board must validate the count.
Norman Shinkle, one of two Republicans on Michigan’s four-member board, had suggested he was in favor of delaying certification due to technical irregularities that may have affected a few hundred votes in a county. He abstained from voting on Monday.
The board’s other Republican, Aaron Van Langevelde, said repeatedly during a meeting Monday that he saw no indication in the law that the board has any option but to certify the results presented to it. “Our duty is very simple, and it is our duty,” said Van Langevelde. He voted for certification, which passed 3-0.
Monday is also the Pennsylvania deadline for counties to report their certified accounts to Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat. Boockvar is likely to certify the results on behalf of the state within days. Biden won Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes, or just over 1 percentage point.
READ: Trump campaign to ask appeals court to stop Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania
Voters from each state will meet as an Electoral College on December 14 to formally select the next president. Biden won 306 electoral votes, 36 above the threshold of 270 needed to win.
While the majority of Republicans publicly endorse Trump’s efforts or remain silent, a growing number beg him to give in and help with the transition to the Biden administration.
The U.S. General Services Administration, a federal agency that must approve the presidential transition, said it had not yet approved the transfer activities to Biden, but would report to Congress next week.
In an op-ed in Cincinnati.com on Monday, Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio urged the GSA to provide resources for Biden’s transition team. Portman also said that there is now no evidence of widespread fraud or wrongdoing changing election results in any state.
