Biden declares ‘America is back’ as security team picked

PRESIDENT-ELECT Joe Biden introduced selections for his national security team yesterday, declaring ‘America is back’.

It was his first substantive offering of how he will shift from the Trump administration’s ‘America First’ policies by relying on foreign policy and national security experts from the Democratic establishment to serve as some of his most important advisers.

Mr Biden’s Washington veterans all have ties to former president Barack Obama’s administration as the president-elect has sought to deliver a clear message about his desire to re- establish a more predictable engagement from the United States on the global stage.

‘It’s a team that reflects the fact that America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it,’ said Mr Biden, at an introductory event at which his selections stood on stage, apart and masked.

The president-elect’s team includes Antony Blinken, a veteran foreign policy hand well regarded on Capitol Hill, whose ties to Mr Biden go back some 20 years, as secretary of state; lawyer Alejandro Mayorkas as homeland security secretary; veteran diplomat Linda ThomasGreenfield as US ambassador to the United Nations; and Obama White House alumnus Jake Sullivan as national security adviser.

Avril Haines, a former deputy director of the CIA, has been picked to serve as director of national intelligence, becoming the first woman to hold that post, and former secretary of state John

Kerry will make a curtain call as a special envoy on climate change.

Meanwhile, there were signs yesterday that the stalled formal transition of power is now under way.

The Pentagon said that Kash Patel, the chief of staff to the acting secretary of defence, is heading the department’s transition work.

President Donald Trump, who continues to press a legal challenge to overturn the election results, yesterday once again refused to concede his loss.