Biden names homeland security, intelligence head, other Cabinet picks. Who are they?
President-elect Joe Biden on Monday announced members of his national security and foreign relations team.
Biden was expected to start naming his picks for Cabinet posts this week as the Biden-Harris transition team has been assembling White House staff and preparing for the president-elect to take office on Jan. 20, 2021. His Cabinet nominations will be subject to Senate confirmation.
“We have no time to lose when it comes to our national security and foreign policy,” Biden said in a news release from the transition team. “I need a team ready on Day One to help me reclaim America’s seat at the head of the table, rally the world to meet the biggest challenges we face, and advance our security, prosperity, and values.”
Biden, with just over 51% of the popular vote nationwide, is the projected winner over President Donald Trump with 306 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232, according to The Associated Press. The threshold to win the presidency is 270.
Here’s what to know about Biden’s appointments and Cabinet nominations announced Monday:
Secretary of State: Antony Blinken
He has worked with Biden on foreign policy for nearly two decades.
Blinken was Biden’s “top aide” when he led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to The New York Times. He also served as Biden’s national security adviser during his vice presidency before going on to work as deputy national security adviser and later as deputy secretary of state in former President Barack Obama’s administration.
He’s been working as Biden’s “global liaison” during his transition period, CBS News reports.
The secretary of state serves as the president’s “chief foreign affairs adviser,” the State Department says. If confirmed, Blinken would be a “leading force” in the Biden administration’s efforts to “reframe” the country’s relationships with the rest of the world, The Associated Press reports.
Secretary of Homeland Security: Alejandro Mayorkas
Mayorkas is the first Latino and first immigrant to be nominated for the post, the transition team says.
He served as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration from 2013 to 2016 and as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from 2009 to 2013, per the release.
While working at DHS, he spearheaded the implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which granted legal status to people who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children. He also led the responses to the Ebola virus and Zika virus outbreaks.
The secretary of homeland security leads the DHS, which is responsible for counterterrorism, cybersecurity, border security, enforcement of immigration laws, disaster response and “protection against chemical, biological and nuclear threats to the homeland,” the department says.
Director of National Intelligence: Avril Haines
She will be the first woman to serve as national intelligence director, the transition team says.
Haines has worked with Biden for more than a decade — serving as deputy chief counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while Biden was chairperson. She later worked in the Obama administration as the National Security Council’s legal adviser, deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency and as assistant to the president and principal deputy national security adviser.
She has led the transition’s national security and foreign policy team since June, the release says.
The director of national intelligence is the head of the intelligence community and serves as principal adviser to the president and the NSC on national security-related intelligence matters.
Ambassador to the United Nations: Linda Thomas-Greenfield
She had a 35-year career with the U.S. Foreign Service before retiring in 2017, the transition team says.
Thomas-Greenfield served as assistant secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs from 2013 until 2017 and as director general of the Foreign Service and director of Human Resources from 2012 until 2013. She also worked as principal deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of African Affairs from 2006-2008 and as deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration from 2004-2006.
“Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield’s distinguished Foreign Service career includes an ambassadorship to Liberia (2008-2012), and postings in Switzerland (at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations), Pakistan, Kenya, The Gambia, Nigeria and Jamaica,” the release says.
Her role will be to formally represent U.S. interests in the U.N.
National Security Advisor: Jake Sullivan
Sullivan currently serves as a senior policy adviser to Biden.
He previously worked as deputy assistant to the president and national security advisor to Biden in the Obama administration, the transition team says. He was also director of the policy planning staff at the U.S. Department of State and served as deputy chief of staff to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“During his time in government, Sullivan was a lead negotiator in the initial talks that paved the way for the Iran nuclear deal and played a key role in the U.S.-brokered negotiations that led to a ceasefire in Gaza in 2012,” the release says.
The national security adviser counsels the president, serving as a “focal channel for information during situations of crisis” and organizing the president’s daily national security briefing, according to the White House Transition Project.
Sullivan will be one of the youngest people to hold the position in decades, the transition team says.
Special Presidential Envoy for Climate: John Kerry
Kerry is a former secretary of state, U.S. senator from Massachusetts and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee.
“He was a key architect of the Paris Climate Accord, and signed the historic agreement to reduce carbon emissions with his granddaughter on his lap,” the transition team says.
He also chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2009.
He volunteered for the Navy and served two tours in Vietnam, the release says. He was awarded a Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V and three Purple Hearts.
Kerry will sit on the National Security Council, which marks the first time it will “include an official dedicated to climate change,” the transition team says.
”America will soon have a government that treats the climate crisis as the urgent national security threat it is,” Kerry wrote Monday. “I’m proud to partner with the President-elect, our allies, and the young leaders of the climate movement to take on this crisis as the President’s Climate Envoy.”
This story was originally published November 23, 2020 at 11:37 AM with the headline "Biden names homeland security, intelligence head, other Cabinet picks. Who are they?."
