World News – USA – Biden appoints first woman to head intelligence and first Latino to head homeland security

John Kerry, the former Secretary of State, will be climate bazaar, according to the Biden transition team.

WASHINGTON – President-elect Joseph R. . Biden Jr. . According to his transitional office, he plans to name several top national security tips on Tuesday, including being the first Latino to head the Department of Homeland Security, the first woman to head the intelligence community, and a former Secretary of State, John Kerry, as his climate tsar.

At an event in Wilmington, Del. , Mr. Biden will announce plans to appoint Alejandro Mayorkas as his secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, his interim office said, and Avril Haines as his director of national intelligence. He intends to call mr. Kerry as the President’s Special Envoy on Environment. The transition office also confirmed reports on Sunday evening that Mr.. Biden will nominate Antony J.. Blinken becomes Secretary of State and Jake Sullivan becomes National Security Advisor.

Mr. . Biden will also appoint Linda Thomas-Greenfield as ambassador to the United Nations and bring the job back to cabinet level. Thomas-Greenfield, an African American woman, sits on his National Security Council. Mr. Kerry will also get a seat on the council, although his job is not a cabinet position and does not require Senate approval.

The aspiring team is reuniting a group of former senior Obama administration officials, most of whom have worked closely in the State Department and the White House and, on several occasions, have close ties with Mr.. Biden from years. They are known to foreign diplomats around the world and share a belief in the basic principles of the democratic foreign policy establishment – international cooperation, strong U. . S.. . Alliances and leadership, but beware of foreign interventions after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The race and gender mix also reflects gentlemen. Biden’s stated commitment to diversity has notoriously lagged behind in the areas of foreign policy and national security, in which white men are disproportionately represented.

The shortlist also showed Mr. . Biden’s determination to push ahead with building his administration despite President Trump’s continued refusal to approve or support him, even as a small but growing number of Republican lawmakers and supporters of the president call for a formal transition.

If confirmed, sir. Mayorkas, who served as Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2016, was the first Latino to head the department tasked with implementing and managing the country’s immigration policy.

A Cuban-born immigrant whose family fled the Castro Revolution is a former U. . S.. . Attorney at Law in California and started Mr.. Obama’s first term as director of U. . S.. . Citizenship and Immigration Services. He will have to restore confidence in the department after many major Democratic constituencies have viewed it as a ship to some of Mr.. Trump’s most controversial policies, such as separating migrant children from their families and building a wall along the southern border.

Senior immigration officials in the Obama administration recommended Mr.. The nomination of Mayorkas as a means of building support for the immigrant community while satisfying moderates and career officials within the agency who are seeking a leader with a background in law enforcement.

woman. Haines served as the deputy director of the C. . I. ONE. in the Obama administration before succeeding Mr.. Flashing as Mr. . Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor. She is also a former advisor to Mr.. . Biden, Deputy Chief Counsel of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 2007 to 2008, while Mr.. Biden was chairman. Mrs. Haines also served as Mr.. Obama’s National Security Council, which helps resolve legal issues related to counter-terrorism and urges more restraint to reduce civilian casualties.

If confirmed, woman. Haines will be the most senior woman serving in the intelligence community. The director of the C. . I. ONE. , now led by its first female director in Gina Haspel, reports to the director of the National Secret Service.

woman. Thomas-Greenfield is a 35 year old foreign service veteran who has served in diplomatic positions around the world. She was Deputy State Secretary for African Affairs from 2013 to 2017. Equally important for Biden officials is their time as former director general and human resources manager of the Foreign Service; They see it as positioning to restore morale to a State Department where many career officials felt ignored and even undermined during the Trump years.

woman. Thomas-Greenfield, who recently said he joined a « still very manly and very pale » foreign service decades ago, also served as U.. S.. . Ambassador to Liberia and has been posted to Switzerland, Pakistan, Kenya, Gambia, Nigeria and Jamaica.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was Mr.. . Biden’s decision to bring Mr. back. Kerry in a new role that would signal the new administration’s commitment to fighting climate change. Mr. Kerry, 76, is a former long-time Senate colleague and friend who stands up for Mr.. . Bide through some of the darkest days of his candidacy and, according to Democrats, keep his voracious appetite for international affairs. Since working as Mr. . Obama’s Second Secretary of State from 2013 to 2017, Mr.. Kerry has raised his longstanding interest in the climate on his signature issue and currently heads an organization dedicated to the issue. His will be a full time job.

« We have no time to waste when it comes to our national security and foreign policy, » said Mr.. . Biden said in a statement from his transitional office. « I need a team ready on day one to reclaim America’s place at the top of the table, gather the world together to meet the greatest challenges, and advance our security, prosperity and values. « . This is the core of this team. ”

« These people are just as experienced and crisis-tested as they are innovative and resourceful, » he added. “Your diplomatic achievements are unsurpassed, but they also reflect the idea that we cannot meet the profound challenges of this new moment with old thinking and unchanged habits – or without different backgrounds and perspectives. That’s why I chose her. ”

In Mr. . Blink, 58, mr. . Biden selected a confidante of more than 20 years to serve as his best advisor on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before moving to his vice presidential staff, where he served as Mr.. . Biden’s National Security Advisor, then Deputy National Security Advisor to Mr.. Obama and then Assistant Secretary of State from 2015 to 2017.

Mr. . Blinken is widely seen as a pragmatic foreign policy centrist who, like Mr.. . Biden has supported previous American interventions and believes the United States has a central role to play in the world leadership. Mr. Biden probably expected the softly spoken Mr.. . Blinken, greatly appreciated by many Republicans, will face a less difficult Senate confirmatory battle than another top candidate, former National Security Adviser Susan E.. . rice.

Mr. . Blinken began his career in the State Department during the Clinton administration. He spent much of his youth in Paris, where he attended high school. He is a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Law School.

Mr. . Sullivan will serve as the White House’s top national security post and will be the youngest person to hold that position at 44 years of age, after McGeorge Bundy, who took the post at 41 under President John F.. took over. kennedy.

Long considered one of the best talents in his party, Mr.. . Sullivan followed Mr.. . Flashing as Mr. . Biden’s top national security aide then rose to become senior advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has called him a « one-off talent. ». On the way, Mr.. . Sullivan found admirers even among conservative Republicans in Congress while playing a key role in the negotiations that led to the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal.

A Yale Law School graduate from Minnesota, Mr.. . Sullivan has helped lead a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace project that is reimagining the U for the past several months. S.. . Foreign policy around the needs of the American middle class.

Joe Biden, John Kerry, Antony Blinken and Avril Haines