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President-elect Joe Biden formally introduced his first round of cabinet nominations on Tuesday, a move widely welcomed as a restoration of old Washington and international order after the Trump administration’s turmoil.
Biden has also mitigated criticism from progressives on his left flank by emphasizing diversity and fighting the climate crisis, although the Democratic party’s internal fractures are far from healed.
Speaking in Wilmington, Delaware on Tuesday, the president-elect said, “It is a team that reflects the fact that America is back. Ready to lead the world, not to retreat from it. 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 said that in John Kerry, a former secretary of state and presidential candidate, the United States would have for the first time a full-time climate leader, someone with “a seat at all the tables in the world.” Biden also said that the 2004 nominee, “one of my closest friends,” would be “speaking for America about one of the most prophetic threats of our time. No one I trust more. “
The former vice president spoke at a blue lectern labeled “Office of President Elect,” on a stage with a matching blue background. He promised to restore America’s moral and global leadership, ensuring that service personnel and diplomats are “politically free.”
He added: “They will not only repair, but they will also reinvent American foreign policy and national security for the next generation.”
Biden was beginning a new phase in his transition after the federal government finally recognized him as the “apparent winner” of the November 3 election, granting him access to offices, intelligence briefings and millions of dollars in funding.
Trump, who has spent weeks falsely claiming the election was marred by election fraud, offered his support for the measure, effectively giving up on his risky attempt to overturn the result, though he still refused to formally budge. He spoke to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, touting the stock market gains, but without answering questions.
Biden tweeted: “The election is over. It’s time to put aside partisanship and rhetoric designed to demonize each other. We have to unite. “
There could hardly have been a greater contrast between the disjointed and whimsical selection of Trump’s team four years ago, which favored businessmen, television artists and his own family, and what Politico characterized as Biden’s “revenge of the careerists.” .
The new foreign policy and national security team is steeped in the Washington experience, particularly alumni of the Obama administration. Antony Blinken, Biden’s trusted assistant appointed to head the state department, said in Wilmington on Tuesday that America needed to move forward with humility and confidence.
“We cannot solve all the world’s problems alone,” he said. “We need to work with other countries.” But he added: “America, at its best, still has a greater capacity than any other country in the world to unite others and meet the challenges of our time.”
Jake Sullivan will serve as a national security adviser, while Linda Thomas-Greenfield is nominated as an ambassador to the United Nations. Avril Haines, former deputy director of the CIA, will become, if confirmed, the first woman to be director of national intelligence.
Biden reportedly plans to make Janet Yellen the first female secretary in the 231-year history of the United States Treasury. He led the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018.
Brendan Buck, a former adviser to former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, tweeted: “These Biden nominations and appointments are so delightfully boring.”
Some worry that Biden’s advisers will revert to the Washington policies and ways that fueled Trump’s rise. But Jenna Ben-Yehuda, president of the Truman Center, a foreign policy institute where Sullivan is a board member, told the Washington Post: “I think it would be a mistake to say that just because these are names we know it’s going to be a repeat of the policies we’ve seen.
“These are smart people who have seen the world change under Trump.”
Biden is on his way to building the most diverse American cabinet, including women and people of color.
Alejandro Mayorkas, nominated for Secretary of National Security, is Cuban-American. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, a prominent House progressive, tweeted: “This is a very strong and smart choice. Mayorkas knows personally what it is like to be an immigrant, like me and tens of millions across our country. He … will help us pass humane immigration reform and return humanity to DHS. “
Left-wing activists praised Kerry. Varshini Prakash, co-founder and CEO of the Sunrise Movement, said: “I worked alongside Secretary Kerry on the Biden-Sanders climate task force and I know that he is committed to engaging and listening to the voices of young people, even as we don’t always do it. agree and make sure we have a seat at the table. “
But Prakash added: “What good is participating in diplomacy abroad if we are not doing all we can at home? The next White House should also include a national counterpart reporting directly to the president to lead an Office of Climate Mobilization, which can organize, convene, and lobby federal agencies, departments, state and local governments, industry, and civil society to use all tools. at your disposal to address the climate crisis. “
Critics have said that Trump’s refusal to accept defeat undermined American democracy and undermined the next administration’s ability to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
On Monday night, Emily Murphy, director of the General Services Administration, said she would formally acknowledge the transition. Under mounting pressure from his own party, Trump said he backed Murphy but vowed to continue fighting the election results “at full speed.” He added that “he would never give in.”
Biden won 306 electoral votes to 232 and has an advantage of more than 6 million in the popular vote. There is no evidence of wrongdoing in an election that the Department of Homeland Security described as the safest in US history.
On Tuesday, Biden’s nominees wore masks that they removed when they spoke. Thomas-Greenfield said: “America is back. Multilateralism is back. Diplomacy is back. “
