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The presumptive President-elect of the US has appointed nominees to his national security and foreign policy team, all former members of the Obama administration.
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Former vice president and presumptive President-elect of the US Joe Biden has appointed senior nominees to his national security and foreign policy team, as part of his contested transition into the White House.
The former vice president’s nominees include Antony Blinken for secretary of state, Alejandro Mayorkas for secretary of homeland security, Avril Haines for director of national intelligence, Jake Sullivan for national security adviser, Linda Thomas-Greenfield for US ambassador to the United Nations, and former secretary of state John Kerry as special presidential envoy for climate.
Blinken served as deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration from January 2015 to January 2017, and as deputy national security advisor in the two years prior — replaced by Haines, Biden’s nominee for director of national intelligence.
Blinken also worked closely with the presumptive President-elect, serving as national security advisor to the vice president from January 2009 to January 2013.
Biden’s nominee for national security advisor Jake Sullivan replaced Blinken in 2013 after serving as director of policy planning from 2011.
Mayorkas, nominee for secretary of homeland security, is also an alumnus of the Obama administration, serving as deputy secretary of homeland security from 2013 to 2016.
Thomas-Greenfield, nominated to serve as US ambassador to the UN, previously served as Obama’s assistant secretary of state for African affairs, and director-general of the US foreign service.
Biden’s nominee for special presidential envoy for climate, John Kerry, served as secretary of state in during the second term of the Obama administration.
The announcement comes amid ongoing uncertainty over Biden's transition into the White House, with President Donald Trump contesting the results of the presidential election in key battleground states.
President Trump’s legal team is compiling evidence of alleged voter fraud, and is expected to make an announcement regarding its next steps in the coming days.
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Charbel Kadib
News Editor – Defence and Security, Momentum Media
Prior to joining the defence and aerospace team in 2020, Charbel was news editor of The Adviser and Mortgage Business, where he covered developments in the banking and financial services sector for three years. Charbel has a keen interest in geopolitics and international relations, graduating from the University of Notre Dame with a double major in politics and journalism. Charbel has also completed internships with The Australian Department of Communications and the Arts and public relations agency Fifty Acres.
