(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- On Monday, President-elect Joe Biden revealed his initial nominees for some prominent positions within his Cabinet. Among them are the first secretary of the Department of Homeland Security who is Latino as well as the first woman who would oversee the U.S. intelligence community.
In total, Biden’s early Cabinet and other top-ranking nominations are all a distinct move away from the policies of President Donald Trump.
If confirmed by the Senate, Alejandro Mayorkas, who was born in Cuba, would be the first Latino head of DHS. He has served as a deputy secretary of the department in the past. He has received early support from Julian Castro, who once served as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
On Monday, Castro tweeted:
“Alejandro Mayorkas is a historic and experienced choice to lead an agency in desperate need of reform. As an immigrant and a creator of the DACA program, he’s well suited to undo Trump’s damage and build a more compassionate and common sense immigration agenda.”
Meanwhile, Avril Haines would become the first woman to be the director of National Intelligence if she were confirmed by the Senate. She is a former top official with the CIA and also a former deputy national security adviser.
She, too, received early backing from Virginia Senator Mark Warner, who serves as the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Following the announcement of Haines’ nomination, Warner said:
“Avril is smart and capable, with a background that will serve her well as Director of National Intelligence. While I expect that she will face rigorous questioning from Senators on both sides of the aisle, the sooner we can get a confirmed DNI in place to start fixing the damage the last four years have done to our intelligence agencies, the better.”
Other nominees the Biden transition team announced Monday were Tony Blinken as Secretary of State, Jake Sullivan as National Security adviser, Linda Thomas-Greenfield as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and John Kerry as Special presidential envoy on climate.
Biden said he plans to elevated Thomas-Greenfield’s role to Cabinet-level status, after Trump demoted the position during his term.
Kerry and Sullivan won’t have to face confirmation hearings for their positions. Kerry is a former Secretary of State himself. He is a huge proponent of the Paris climate agreement, which Trump withdrew from.
In a statement that revealed the picks, Biden’s transition team wrote:
“This marks the first time that the NSC will include an official dedicated to climate change, reflecting the president-elect’s commitment to addressing climate change as an urgent national security issue.”
The transition team also said the people announced on Monday would make up “the crux” of the team reversing a lot of the policies that the Trump administration either did away with or implemented.
In the statement, Biden said:
“These individuals are equally as experienced and crisis-tested as they are innovative and imaginative. 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.”
