‘America is back’: Joe Biden unveils national security cabinet nominees
The President-elect has declared the US is ‘ready to lead the world’ again as he introduced his national security cabinet nominees for the first time.
Joe Biden has declared that “America is back” and “ready to lead” the world again as he introduced his national security team for the first time.
His comments sought to contrast how much the new Biden administration plans to distance itself from Donald Trump’s more isolationist ‘America First’ approach to foreign policy.
“It’s a team that reflects the fact that America is back – ready to lead the world, not retreat from it,” Mr Biden said in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, before introducing his national security team.
“While this team has unmatched experience and accomplishments, they also reflect the idea that we cannot meet these challenges with old thinking and unchanged habits,” the president-elect said.
Mr Biden’s decision to introduce his team publicly came a day after the US Government effectively called the election in favour of Mr Biden.
The General Services Administration said it would provide the financial and other resources needed for the Biden transition despite the president still refusing to concede that he lost the November 3 poll.
Mr Trump has agreed to assist the Biden transition process while still continuing to contest the election result.
On Wednesday (AEDT) the president retweeted the comment “I concede NOTHING!!!”. He also said that the GSA “does not determine who the next President of the United States will be”.
Remember, the GSA has been terrific, and Emily Murphy has done a great job, but the GSA does not determine who the next President of the United States will be.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2020
But his comments came amid further legal setbacks in his unlikely quest to prove mass fraud in order to overturn the election result.
Officials in both Pennsylvania and Nevada certified their results, declaring an official victory for the 78 year old former Vice President.
Mr Trump’s legal team says they will still seek to overturn the certified results in both states using legal appeals, but the prospects of success are considered extremely remote.
A growing number of Republicans are now calling on the president to accept the election result, with former House Speaker Paul Ryan declaring “the election is over, the outcome is certain”.
“I really think it’s in the president’s best interest to acknowledge these things and not just have the GSA technically facilitate the transfer of power, but to embrace the transfer of power, the system we have,” Mr Ryan said.
Mr Trump made two brief public appearances on Wednesday (AEDT), one to announce that Wall St’s Dow Jones index had hit a record 30,000 points.
“That’s despite everything that’s taken place with the pandemic,” he said during a one-minute briefing in the White House press room.
Mr Trump said he believed the enthusiasm of investors reflected the rapid progress of the coronavirus vaccine candidates. “Nothing like that has ever happened medically and I think people are acknowledging that, and it’s having a big effect.”
Later Mr Trump and the First Lady Melania Trump conducted the official pardoning of the Thanksgiving Turkey ceremony, pardoning a turkey called Corn.
Mr Trump’s used the ceremony to briefly warn against any move away from his ‘America First’ approach to the presidency.
“As I say, ‘America First’, shouldn’t go away from that: ‘America First’,” he said as he wished Americans a happy Thanksgiving.
But Mr Biden, in his comments in Wilmington, made it clear that his administration would seek to restore American global leadership.
“I’ve long said that America leads not only by the example of our power, but by the power of our example,” Biden said. “And I’m proud to put forward this incredible team that will lead by example.”
He said his team would “reimagine American foreign policy and national security for the next generation”.
“And they’ll tell me what I need to know, not what I want to know — what I need to know,” he said. “To the American people, this team will make us proud to be Americans.”
Each of Mr Biden’s national security team stepped forward to speak, with his nominee for secretary of state Antony Blinken talking about how his stepfather was the only one of 900 children at his school in Poland to survive the Holocaust.
Mr Blinken said his stepfather went into hiding only to come out when he saw an American tank and that he thanked the US soldier who opened the hatch.
“He got down on his knees and said the only three words he knew in English that his mother had taught him before the war: ‘God Bless America’.
“That’s who we are,” said Blinken, who is a committed globalist and multilateralist. “That’s what America represents to the world, however imperfectly.”
Mr Biden also introduced his new national security adviser Jake Sullivan, his secretary of homeland security Alejandro Mayorkas, his director of national intelligence Avril Haines, his US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield and his special envoy on climate, the former secretary of state John Kerry.
Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia
More Coverage
Luxon runs NZ like a listed company – and he’s getting results
The former Air NZ CEO is applying business principles to the messy world of politics; his ‘management by spreadsheet’ is reshaping NZ’s political and economic landscape.
PM’s claim of US unity ticket on Israel undermined by ceasefire call
Senior US officials have committed only to a ceasefire in Gaza while endorsing IDF operations targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon, which is at odds with Labor’s controversial condolence motion.