‘The team meets this moment:’ Biden introduces top admin nominees
“It’s a team that will keep our country and our people safe and secure. And it’s a team that reflects the fact that America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it. Once again, sit at the head of the table,” Biden said, standing in front of his nominees and appointees, who were spaced out in a socially distanced manner on stage.
“The team meets this moment, this team behind me. They embody my core beliefs that America is strongest when it works with its allies,” Biden said. “Collectively, this team has secured some of the most defining national security and diplomatic achievements in recent memory, made possible through decades of experience working with our partners.”
Biden on Monday announced several top roles, including the first woman to lead the US intelligence community and first Latino to head up the Department of Homeland Security. Avril Haines, a former top CIA official and deputy national security adviser, and Alejandro Mayorkas, a former deputy secretary of DHS, would both make history if confirmed by the Senate.
The President-elect also named Antony Blinken as his choice for secretary of state, Linda Thomas-Greenfield as US ambassador to the United Nations, Jake Sullivan as national security adviser and John Kerry as special presidential envoy for climate.
Blinken is Biden’s top foreign policy aide and served in the Obama administration as the deputy secretary of state and principal deputy national security adviser. Thomas-Greenfield, an African American woman with a lengthy career in foreign service, previously served as assistant secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs. Sullivan is a senior policy adviser to Biden and served as national security adviser to Biden when he was vice president and was the director of policy planning at the US Department of State. Kerry was President Barack Obama’s Secretary of State from 2013 to 2017 and was the Democratic Party’s nominee for president in 2004.
Haines, Mayorkas, Blinken and Thomas-Greenfield will need to be confirmed by the US Senate, which is currently controlled by Republicans. Two runoff elections in Georgia on January 5 will determine which party controls the chamber and impact the Cabinet confirmation process.
