President Donald Trump is leaving no stone unturned in a bid to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, claiming that Democrats stole the election from him. Unfettered by these attempts and dubious claims, President-elect Joe Biden announced national security picks on Monday, along with a slate of top foreign policy picks.
Biden chose a woman to lead the US intelligence community, and a first Latino selected by him will helm the DHS (Department of Homeland Security). Former deputy secretary of DHS Alejandro Mayorkas has been nominated to lead the department. The 61-year-old Cuban-American lawyer will be responsible for revamping an agency that accomplished a myriad of severe measures linked to Trump's hardline immigration policy.
This immigration policy includes family separations at the US-Mexico border. Avril Haines, Biden's pick for director of national intelligence, is also expected to make history if the Senate confirms the former top CIA official and deputy national security adviser to the aforesaid position.
Despite Trump's attempts to overturn the election results, Biden is not wasting time crafting his incoming administration. Biden is likely to name Janet Yellen as Treasury secretary, a source familiar with the pick told CNN on Monday. If the nomination and confirmation come to fruition, Yellen will become the first woman to serve as the Treasury secretary.
The recently announced slate of nominations comprises confirmation of Biden's top foreign policy aide, Antony Blinken's selection as the next secretary of state, The New York Times reported. Aside from that, it includes confirmation of Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, while confirming that Jake Sullivan will be joining the White House team as Biden's national security adviser.
These choices reflect Biden's plan to construct a significantly diverse Cabinet, which comprises public policy experts and those with a considerable government experience. Biden picked former Secretary of State John Kerry as his climate czar, per The New York Times.
Perry is a torchbearer of the Paris climate agreement, the landmark deal that Trump withdrew America from. Moreover, he was Biden's pick to co-chair a team dubbed the unity task force, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders. The unity task force was slated to be created after the Democratic presidential primary to focus on climate change.
In his statement, Biden touted Monday's selections as the crux of a team bent on reasserting the nation's leadership on the global stage. This comes in the aftermath of the president's attempts to discontinue multilateral diplomacy and destroy weak pacts such as the Iran nuclear deal.