Joe Biden names foreign policy team, taps Blinken as State Sec

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Monday named the key members of his foreign policy team, tapping trusted aide Antony Blinken to head the State Department and take the lead in rebuilding Washington’s relationships in Europe and the rest of the world.

Democrat Biden, who has vowed to undo Republican President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies, also named Jake Sullivan as his next national security adviser and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations – both with high level government experience.

Thomas-Greenfield held a senior diplomatic post under President Barack Obama while Sullivan was a deputy assistant to Obama and senior policy adviser to 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Biden is assembling an administration and preparing to be sworn in on Jan. 20 to lead a country facing its greatest public health crisis in living memory, even as Trump refuses to concede and is blocking the government from providing the support normally given a president-elect.

Biden chose lawyer Alejandro Mayorkas to head the Department of Homeland Security, entrusting the Cuban immigrant to help reverse Trump’s hard-line immigration policies.

via Reuters