Joe Biden will pick Antony Blinken as U.S. Secretary of State, a person close to the president-elect's transition, reports Reuters. The two have worked together for several decades. The job as foreign minister is considered the most prestigious in the government.
Blinken (Anthony J. Blinken) was from 2015 to 2017 Deputy Secretary of State in the Obama administration. He also worked as an assistant national security adviser from 2013 to 2015, according to N.Y.
Times, Mr. Biden is also expected to name another close aide, Jake Sullivan, as a national security adviser.
Sullivan, 43, is an American policymaker who was a senior policy advisor to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential election campaign, with foreign policy expertise. At present, Sullivan is the Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College and a senior fellow and Master in Public Policy faculty member at the Carsey School of Public Policy. Sullivan was also a senior advisor to the U.S. government for the Iran nuclear negotiations and a visiting professor at Yale Law School.
Cabinet picks
Ron Klain, Biden's choice as White House chief of staff, told ABC'S "This Week" that the first Biden cabinet picks would come on Tuesday.
Biden's actions are a tangible sign that a new administration is moving ahead despite President Trump's continuing efforts to hinder it and overturn the election result. Concerned that President Trump's refusal to accept the election results is hurting the country, more than 100 chief executives plan to ask the administration on Monday to immediately acknowledge Biden as the winner and begin the transition to a new administration.
Appearing separately on CNN's "State of the Union," senior adviser Jennifer Psaki spoke about Biden's Cabinet picks. In the wake of calls from Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Republican Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), among others, to including in the process following the progressives' role electing Biden.
"President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect (Kamala) Harris were elected by a coalition of people across the country and that included people who are progressive and moderate and Republican, although most Americans don't think of themselves by those definitions," Psaki said on CNN. "Their Cabinet and the team will look like America, so that means diversity of ideology, and he wants to have a range of views of people at the table."
Recount in Georgia
Georgia will conduct another recount of its presidential ballots following a Trump campaign request Saturday, but the recount is extremely unlikely to change his loss in the state. President-elect Joe Biden, who was declared the winner Friday as the state certified the results, has a 12,670 vote or 0.2% lead over Trump in Georgia.
In separate interviews on Sunday, the two Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate in Georgia said their runoff elections in January would be decisive for America's future.
Trump's legal disarray
Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, two of the Trump's other lawyers, issued a curt statement last night announcing that Powell was no longer "a member of the Trump legal team," adding, "She is also not a lawyer for the president in his personal capacity."
On Thursday, Trump's personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani claimed at a news conference that Trump was the victim of a convoluted, nationally coordinated conspiracy by Democrats to steal the election through fraud. The eldest children of both President Trump and Giuliani have tested positive for COVID-19.
A staunch ally of Donald Trump said Sunday it was time for the President to end his futile gambit to overturn the election results, reports CNN.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Trump has failed to provide any evidence of fraud, that his legal team was in shambles and that it's time to put the country first. Mr. Trump has spent the last two weeks hunkered down in the White House, raging about a "stolen" election and refusing to accept the reality of his loss.
More Republican resistance
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he would allow several emergency Federal Reserve lending programs to expire, opening a divide with the central bank, which had pressed for an extension. As a result, on December 31, several novel Fed programs that have backed corporate credit and municipal-borrowing markets and have provided loans to small and midsize businesses and nonprofits during the coronavirus pandemic will end.
He also moved to claw back much of the money that supports them, hindering Mr. Biden's ability to use the central bank's vast powers to cushion the economic fallout from the virus.
In May, House Democrats passed a $3 trillion package that would have provided more direct payments to individuals and extended the $600-a-week federal unemployment assistance. McConnell has said he believes the relief legislation should be "narrowly targeted." The prospect of renewed negotiations comes against the backdrop of a startling rise in new coronavirus cases in virtually every U.S. state.
The U.S. economy
As President-elect Joe Biden prepares to enter the White House, he and his administration weigh several economic measures to take in the initial days and weeks.
According to a New York Times report, these are an extension of the moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures.
This should not come as a surprise to observers. The U.S. economy is showing signs of strain as Covid-19 infections surge. With the recent news of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine reports nearly 95 percent effective, several leading coronavirus vaccine stocks fell. The Biden Administration is reportedly bracing for a double-dip recession as states put in place more restrictions.
Democrats are likely to find themselves in control of the presidency and the House but not the Senate — meaning Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will be in a position to block any ambitious legislation from the new administration.