US president-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday formally introduced his national security team, building out a team of alumni from the administration of former US president Barack Obama.
However, Biden said that his administration should not be considered a “third Obama term,” because “we face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration.”
Biden said in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt that he was less likely to choose a member of the US Congress for his Cabinet, because of the slim margins in the US Senate and US House of Representatives.
Photo: AFP
Choosing a person in either chamber, “particularly a person of consequence,” would be “a really difficult decision that would have to be made,” he said.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican political committee, has begun airing a campaign advertisement warning that if a Democratic Senate candidate wins a runoff election in Georgia in January, “liberals” would “control everything” in Washington.
The advert criticizes Democrat Jon Ossoff, who is challenging US Senator David Perdue.
It says that Ossoff supports the agenda of “liberal megadonors” of “job-killing tax hikes, economy-killing regulations.”
“The radical left bought Ossoff. Because if he wins, they control everything, and we lose,” it says.
There is also a second runoff in Georgia pitting US Senator Kelly Loeffler against Democrat Raphael Warnock.
Democrats must win both of the Georgia races to capture the Senate majority. That would create a 50-50 chamber, which Democrats would control because US vice president-elect Kamala Harris would cast the tiebreaking vote.
Biden’s pick for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, worked for Biden in the Senate for years, and held the posts of deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser.
His choice for national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, was the deputy to that post under Obama.
His nominee for treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, was chair of the US Federal Reserve and chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
His incoming White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, was chief of staff to two vice presidents — Al Gore and Biden himself — and was the Obama administration’s Ebola czar.
John Kerry, Biden’s choice to fill the newly created post of presidential climate envoy, was a longtime US senator and his party’s 2004 presidential nominee before serving as secretary of state.
“The team is bringing competency and experience, which are two separate things, but deeply interwoven,” said retired US Navy admiral James Stavridis, who has worked with much of Biden’s new team. “There are deputies stepping up into full roles, seasoned hands returning to the job. They tend to be calm and centered, and they won’t all fight over the ball.”
Biden has showcased a faith in bureaucracy that was born out of his nearly five decades in Washington.
“Collectively, this team has secured some of the most defining national security and diplomatic achievements in recent memory — made possible through decades of experience working with our partners,” Biden said.
Republicans were unimpressed with Biden’s hires.
“Biden’s cabinet picks went to Ivy League schools, have strong resumes, attend all the right conferences & will be polite & orderly caretakers of America’s decline,” US Senator Marco Rubio wrote on Twitter.
US Senator Tom Cotton said that Biden is surrounding himself with people who will go soft on China.
Other picks were: Alejandro Mayorkas to be homeland security secretary; diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield to be US ambassador to the UN; Obama White House alumnus Jake Sullivan as national security adviser; and Avril Haines, a former deputy director of the CIA, was picked to serve as director of national intelligence.
In the weeks ahead, Biden might also name Michele Flournoy as the first female to lead the US department of defense.
Pete Buttigieg, a former Indiana mayor, has also been mentioned as a contender for a Cabinet agency.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2