US president-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday formally introduced his national security team, building out a team of alumni from the administration of former US president Barack Obama.
However, Biden said that his administration should not be considered a “third Obama term,” because “we face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration.”
Biden said in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt that he was less likely to choose a member of the US Congress for his Cabinet, because of the slim margins in the US Senate and US House of Representatives.
Photo: AFP
Choosing a person in either chamber, “particularly a person of consequence,” would be “a really difficult decision that would have to be made,” he said.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican political committee, has begun airing a campaign advertisement warning that if a Democratic Senate candidate wins a runoff election in Georgia in January, “liberals” would “control everything” in Washington.
The advert criticizes Democrat Jon Ossoff, who is challenging US Senator David Perdue.
It says that Ossoff supports the agenda of “liberal megadonors” of “job-killing tax hikes, economy-killing regulations.”
“The radical left bought Ossoff. Because if he wins, they control everything, and we lose,” it says.
There is also a second runoff in Georgia pitting US Senator Kelly Loeffler against Democrat Raphael Warnock.
Democrats must win both of the Georgia races to capture the Senate majority. That would create a 50-50 chamber, which Democrats would control because US vice president-elect Kamala Harris would cast the tiebreaking vote.
Biden’s pick for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, worked for Biden in the Senate for years, and held the posts of deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser.
His choice for national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, was the deputy to that post under Obama.
His nominee for treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, was chair of the US Federal Reserve and chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
His incoming White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, was chief of staff to two vice presidents — Al Gore and Biden himself — and was the Obama administration’s Ebola czar.
John Kerry, Biden’s choice to fill the newly created post of presidential climate envoy, was a longtime US senator and his party’s 2004 presidential nominee before serving as secretary of state.
“The team is bringing competency and experience, which are two separate things, but deeply interwoven,” said retired US Navy admiral James Stavridis, who has worked with much of Biden’s new team. “There are deputies stepping up into full roles, seasoned hands returning to the job. They tend to be calm and centered, and they won’t all fight over the ball.”
Biden has showcased a faith in bureaucracy that was born out of his nearly five decades in Washington.
“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 said.
Republicans were unimpressed with Biden’s hires.
“Biden’s cabinet picks went to Ivy League schools, have strong resumes, attend all the right conferences & will be polite & orderly caretakers of America’s decline,” US Senator Marco Rubio wrote on Twitter.
US Senator Tom Cotton said that Biden is surrounding himself with people who will go soft on China.
Other picks were: Alejandro Mayorkas to be homeland security secretary; diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield to be US ambassador to the UN; Obama White House alumnus Jake Sullivan as national security adviser; and Avril Haines, a former deputy director of the CIA, was picked to serve as director of national intelligence.
In the weeks ahead, Biden might also name Michele Flournoy as the first female to lead the US department of defense.
Pete Buttigieg, a former Indiana mayor, has also been mentioned as a contender for a Cabinet agency.
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