Biden to announce first Cabinet picks on Tuesday

Reuters | Wilmington

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

President-elect Joe Biden will announce the first of his Cabinet picks on Tuesday, aides said, including possibly for secretary of state, as he lays the foundation for his administration despite President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede.

Long-time aide and veteran diplomat Antony Blinken was the most likely candidate to head the State Department, one Biden source said on Sunday. Bloomberg News reported earlier that Blinken would be the choice. Blinken could not be reached for comment.

Biden said last week he had settled on a Treasury secretary. Former Fed Chair Janet Yellen is believed to be the top candidate in Democratic and monetary policy circles.

A spokesman for Biden’s transition declined to comment.

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.

Klain again urged that the Trump administration - specifically a federal agency called the General Services Administration (GSA) - formally recognize Biden’s victory in order to unlock resources for the transition process.

“I hope that the administrator of the GSA will do her job,” Klain added, referring to GSA chief Emily Murphy.

Biden is due to take office on January 20.

“A record number of Americans rejected the Trump presidency, and since then Donald Trump’s been rejecting democracy,” Klain told “This Week.”

Since Biden, a Democrat, was declared the winner of the November 3 election two weeks ago, the Republican president has launched a barrage of lawsuits and mounted a pressure campaign to try to prevent state officials from certifying their vote totals, suffering another emphatic legal setback on Saturday in Pennsylvania.

Biden received 6 million more votes nationwide than Trump and prevailed 306-232 in the state-by-state Electoral College system that determines the election’s victor.