Biden opts for diversity in key intelligence and homeland security postings
President-elect Joe Biden today unveiled a slate of top foreign policy and national security picks, including the first woman to lead the US intelligence community and first Latino to helm the Department of Homeland Security.
Cuban-born Alejandro Mayorkas, a former deputy secretary of DHS who Mr Biden has nominated to lead the department, will be tasked with rebuilding an agency that carried out some of the most draconian measures associated with President Donald Trump's hardline immigration policy, including family separations at the US-Mexico border.
Mr Biden's pick for director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, a former top CIA official and deputy national security adviser, will also make history if confirmed by the Senate.
In this 2013 photo, Alejandro Mayorkas testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee AP
Mr Biden is moving swiftly to craft his incoming administration despite Mr Trump's ongoing efforts to reverse the election results and gum up the transition.
The slate of nominations announced on Thursday included confirmation of the selection of Antony Blinken, Mr Biden's top foreign policy aide, as the next secretary of state, Linda Thomas-Greenfield to be the US ambassador to the United Nations. Jake Sullivan will join the White House team as Biden's national security adviser.
READ MORE: Trump supporter breathing on senior citizens outside golf club charged
READ MORE: Mother of dumped baby found at Qatar airport identified
The choices reflect Mr Biden's desire to construct a diverse Cabinet with experts versed in public policy and deep experience in government.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry has been tapped to serve as Mr Biden's climate czar.
Mr Kerry is a champion of the Paris climate agreement, the landmark deal from which Mr Trump withdrew the US.
Mr Kerry was also Mr Biden's pick to co-chair a "unity task force" on climate change with allies of Senator Bernie Sanders after the Democratic presidential primary.
Avril Haines, former deputy national security advisor and former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Getty
Joe Biden takes his face mask off, as he prepares to speak after the US election. Getty
Mr Biden in a statement described the selections as "the crux" of a team charged with reasserting American leadership on the global stage in the aftermath of Mr Trump's efforts to cut off multilateral diplomacy and wreck fragile pacts like the Iran nuclear deal.
"These individuals are equally as experienced and crisis-tested as they are innovative and imaginative," Mr Biden said.
"Their accomplishments in diplomacy are unmatched, 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 diversity of background and perspective. It's why I've selected them."
With CNN
Share a tip-off, video or photo with us
Most viewed in World
World’s largest crypto exchange hit by suspected North Korean hack in world’s largest heist
The voters Trump needed most have now turned their backs on him
Bloodbath on Wall Street as investors freak out over AI costs
‘I don’t know why I survived’: Christa Pike releases first statement since botched execution
