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President-Elect Biden Introduces First Cabinet Selections. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired November 24, 2020 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN RIGHT NOW: All right, Arlette, so many days, months ahead for them as they get ready. Arlette Saenz covering the Biden transition for us in Wilmington.

Now, we couldn't see a bigger contrast between 45 and 46 than in who they have chosen for their cabinets. Joe Biden so far is picking officials who are familiar faces in Washington. They have long careers in policymaking and diplomacy. Trump reveled in bringing in outsiders and smashing up what he called the deep state.

I want to discuss all of this with CNN's Political Director, David Chalian. David, Trump railed against the deep state, which is really just a lot of folks with institutional knowledge about the difficulties of running a government. Biden is turning to policy veterans. What is your interpretation of how we're seeing this change?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. I definitely think that, as Arlette was saying, well, Biden is putting on display here with these picks and investing in are people who worked in the trenches to develop expertise in the areas that they have now risen to the very top of these departments. That's not to say who President Trump appointed to his cabinet didn't have experience or had actually -- they might have had some outside experience.

I mean, just take a look at some of the comparisons in some of these key positions. If you look at who President Trump had put in his secretary of state slot over the course of the four years, first, it was Rex Tillerson, a complete outsider from the world of business that Donald Trump wanted to come in, as you were saying, Brianna, and shake things up, do it a bit differently, then, actually, he turned to his former CIA director and a former member of the House, Mike Pompeo, an elected official, somebody who actually was very much of Washington at that moment to continue. So he actually changed course from Tillerson there.

With Tony Blinken, you're getting somebody who has been a Biden adviser for decades and was deputy secretary of state, knows State Department. So it's just a different kind of appeal.

You see out there, Donald Trump actually relied if you look at some of these positions, whether it was Dan Coats for DNI or Nikki Haley at the U.S. ambassador to United Nations, relied on elected officials, people who had experience in politics and then, of course, he loved his generals. As you know, whether it was Mike Flynn initially as national security adviser, then McMaster, John Kelly, initially, Department of Homeland Security, and then onto become chief of staff.

That is not something again that we are seeing yet, not reliance on generals for this national security team, not reliance on former or current elected officials at the moment, John Kerry an exception there, of course. But you're going to see a team that is just steeped in these areas of expertise from, as you noted, working the government, doing the very work of government in these areas and now Joe Biden is elevating them.

KEILAR: Yes, very much so. David Chalian, thank you so much, very helpful comparison there.

So, we're awaiting right now President-elect Biden to introduce his cabinet picks. And CNN learned that Kash Patel, a staunch Trump loyalist, who was connected to efforts to spread conspiracy theories about Joe Biden, has actually been put in charge of the Pentagon's transition effort with the Biden/Harris administration.

I want get more now on this development with Barbara Starr, who is live for us from the Pentagon. Okay. Tell us what we know about Patel and why this is significant that he is the point person for the transition in this key post.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, Patel, as CNN has reported in the past, was widely connected to conspiracy theories about Biden dating all the way back when he worked with then Congressman Devin Nunez, and then he went over to the National Security Council. Patel, very well known in Trump loyalist circles, he came over here to the Pentagon just days ago as chief of staff to the acting secretary of defense, Chris Miller, and he was clearly, by all accounts, put in here as a Trump loyalist after Defense Secretary Mark Esper got fired by the president. So he's chief of staff to the acting secretary of defense here at the Pentagon.

That's a very important job. That's a lot about controlling the paper flow, what goes into the secretary's office, what gets looked out, what decisions are made, what comes out of the secretary's office. The chief of staff position in the past has been very involved in transition.

That may not be unusual. But because of Patel's background, we're already hearing from some people the real question about whether he really will be devoted to carrying out the transition to the letter of the law, making everything available to the Biden/Harris transition team as they come to the Pentagon and try to get up to speed.

Now, there is another person who is also heading up some of the more administrative facilitating parts, things like office space, communications and all of that.

[13:05:00] But make no mistake, the really critical question at the Pentagon is will the transition team get access to information, everything, from how COVID is going to the latest intelligence about adversaries, allies, Iran, Russia, China, North Korea, all these critical questions about whether these Trump loyalists will make that information available to the Biden transition team. Brianna?

KEILAR (voice over): Barbara, thank you so much.

I do want to head to Wilmington now. Let's listen in.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: Hi, everybody. Okay. Good afternoon, everyone.

Today, I am pleased to announce nominations and staff for critical foreign policy, national security positions in my administration. It is a team that will keep our country and our people safe and secure. It is a team that reflects the fact that America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it, once again, sit at the head of the table, ready to confront our adversaries and not reject our allies, ready to stand up for our values.

In fact, in calls from world leaders that I've had about 18 or 20 so far, I'm not sure of the exact number in weeks since we won the election, I have been struck by how much they're looking forward to the United States reassert its historic role as a global leader both in the Pacific as well as the Atlantic, all across the world.

The team meets this moment, this team behind me. They embody my core beliefs that America is strongest when it works with its allies. Collectively, this team has secured some of the most defining national security and diplomatic achievements in recent memory, made possible through decades of experience working with our partners.

That's how we truly keep America safe, without engaging in needless military conflicts and our adversaries in check and terrorists at bay. And that's how we counterterrorism and extremism. Control the pandemic and future ones, deal with climate crisis, nuclear proliferation, cyber threats and emerging technologies, and spread of foreign terrorism and so much more.

And while this team has unmatched experience and accomplishments, they also reflect the idea that we cannot meet these challenges with old thinking and unchanged habits. For example, we're going to have the first woman lead the intelligence community, the first Latino, an immigrant, to lead Department of Homeland Security, and a groundbreaking diplomat at the United Nations. We're going to have a principal on the National Security Council whose full-time job is to fight climate change. For the first time ever, that will occur.

And my national security team will be coordinated by one of the youngest national security advisers in decades. Experience in leadership, fresh thinking and perspective and an unrelenting belief in the promise of America.

I have long said America leads not only by the example of our power but by the power of our example. And I am proud to put forward this incredible team that will lead by example.

As secretary of state, I nominate Tony Blinken. He is one of the better prepared for this job. No one is better prepared in my view. He will be the secretary of state that previously served in top roles on Capitol Hill, in the White House, and in the State Department.

He delivered for the American people in each place. For example, leading diplomatic efforts in the fight against ISIS, strengthening America's alliance and position in the Asia-Pacific, guiding our responses to the global refugee crisis with compassion and determination, and he will rebuild morale and trust in the State Department where his career in government began.

And he starts off with the kind of relationships around the world that many of his predecessors have had to build over the years. I know. I have seen him in action. Tony has been one of my closest and most trusted advisers. I know him and his family, immigrants and refugees, a holocaust survivor who taught him to never take for granted the very idea of America as a place of possibilities, possibilities. Tony is ready on day one.

For secretary of Homeland Security, I nominate Alejandro Mayorkas. This is one of the hardest jobs in government, a gigantic agency. The DHS secretary needs to keep us safe from threats at home and from abroad.

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And it is the job that plays a critical role in fixing our broken immigration system. After years of chaos, dysfunction, absolute cruelty at DHS, I am proud to nominate an experienced leader who has been hailed by both Democrats and Republicans.

Ali, as he goes by, is a former U.S. attorney, former director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and a former DHS deputy secretary, helped implement DACA, prevented attacks on the home land, enhanced our cyber security, helped communities recover from natural disaster, combated Ebola and Zika. And while DHS affects everyone, given his critical role in immigration matters, I am proud that for the first time ever, the department will be led by an immigrant, a Latino, who knows that we are a nation of laws and values.

And one more thing, today is his birthday. Happy birthday, man. Happy birthday. He is 21.

As the director of National Intelligence, I nominate Avril Haines, the first woman ever to hold this post. To lead our intelligence community, I didn't pick a politician or political figure, I picked a professional. She's eminently qualified. Former deputy director of the CIA, former deputy national security adviser to President Obama, and a fierce advocate for telling the truth and leveling with her decisions with the decision-makers straight up, nothing unnecessary.

I know because I worked with her over a decade, brilliant, humble, can talk literature and theoretical physics, fixing cars, flying planes, running a bookstore cafe, all in a single conversation, because she has done all that.

And above all, she gets word, if she gets word of threat coming to our shores, like another pandemic or foreign interference in our elections, she will not stop raising alarms until the right people take action. People will be able to take her word because she always calls it as she sees it. I believe we are safer with Avril on the watch. I think she will make a great contribution.

Now, as United States ambassador to United Nations, I nominate Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a seasoned and distinguished diplomat with 35 years in foreign service, who never forgot where she came from, growing up in segregated Louisiana, the eldest of eight. Her dad couldn't read or write. And she says he was the smartest person she knew, first in her family to go to graduate from high school, then college. The whole world literally ahead of her as dad and mom taught her to believe.

Post in Switzerland, Pakistan, Kenya, The Gambia, Nigeria, Jamaica, Liberia, where she was known as the people's ambassador, willing to meet with anyone, an ambassador, a student, working people struggling to get by, and always treating them with the same level of dignity and respect.

She was our top state department official in charge of African policy during the Ebola crisis. She received overwhelming support from her fellow career foreign service officers and should be a cabinet status because I want to hear her voice on all the major foreign policy discussions we have.

And my national security adviser, I choose Jake Sullivan. He is once in a generation, intellect with experience and temperament for one of the toughest jobs in the world. When I was vice president, he served as my national security adviser. He was a top adviser to Secretary of State Clinton.

He helped lead early negotiations that led to the Iran nuclear deal. He helped broker the Gaza ceasefire in 2012, played a key role in Asia-Pacific rebalance in our administration. And in this campaign for the presidency, he served as one of my most trusted advisers on both foreign and domestic policy, including help me develop our COVID-19 strategy.

Jake understands my vision that economic security is national security. And he will help steer what I call foreign policy for the middle class, for families like his growing up in Minnesota where he was raised by parents who were educators and taught him values of hard work, decency, service and respect. What that means is to win competition for the future, we need to keep us safe and secure and build back better than ever.

We need to invest in our people, sharpen our innovative edge, unite the economic might of our democracies around the world to grow the middle class and reduce inequity, do things like counter predatory trade practices that our -- of our competitors and adversaries.

[13:15:07] And before I talk about the final person today, let me talk about this new position. For the first time ever, the United States will have a full-time climate leader to participate in ministerial level meetings, as a fancy way of saying we'll have a seat at every table around the world.

For the first time ever, there will be a principal on the National Security Council who can make sure climate change is on the agenda in the situation room. For the first time ever, we will have a presidential envoy on climate.

He will be matched with high level White House climate policy coordinator and policymaking structure to be announced in December. Now to lead efforts in the United States to combat the climate crisis, mobilize action to meet the existential threat we face.

Let me be clear. I don't, for a minute, underestimate difficulties of meeting my bold commitments to fighting climate change, but at the same time no one should underestimate for a minute my determination to do just that.

And as for the man himself, if I had a former secretary of state that helped negotiate Paris Climate Accord, or a former presidential nominee, or a former leading senator or the head of major climate organization for the job, I would show my commitment to the United States and the whole world.

The fact that I picked the one person who is all of these things speaks unambiguously to my commitment. The world will know that with one of my closest friends, John Kerry, he is speaking for America on one of the most pressing threats of our time, no one I trust more.

To this team, I thank them for accepting this call to service. And for their families, I thank you all for your sacrifice. You know, we cannot do this without you, in my view. Together, these public servants will restore America globally, its global leadership and its moral leadership.

And we will ensure that our service members, diplomats and intelligence professionals can do their job free of politics, not only repair but also re-imagine American foreign policy and national security for the next generation. And they'll tell me what I need to know, not what I want to know, what I need to know.

To the American people, this team will make us proud to be Americans. And as more states the certify results of the election, there's progress to wrap up our victory.

You know, I am pleased to have received the ascertainment from GSA to carry out a smooth and peaceful transition of power, so our teams can prepare to meet the challenges at hand, to control the pandemic, to build back better, and to protect safety and security of the American people.

And to the United States Senate, I hope these outstanding nominees received a prompt hearing and that we can work across the aisle in good faith to move forward for the country. Let's begin that work to heal and unite, to heal and unite America as well as the world.

I want to thank you all. May God bless you, may God protect our troops. I turn this over, this new team, starting with the next secretary of state, Tony Blinken.

I'll get my mask here, Tony, so I don't get in trouble, and clean off the podium.

ANTHONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE NOMINEE: Good afternoon. Mr. President-elect, Vice President elect Harris, thank you for your trust and your confidence. If confirmed by the United States Senate, I will do everything I can to earn it.

Mr. President elect, working for you, having you as a mentor and friend has been the greatest privilege of my professional life. So many people have brought me to this day, from college classmates to band mates, my colleagues in the Clinton and Obama administrations, in the Senate, and at the State Department. I thank them all and I ask forgiveness for my insatiable appetite for bad puns.

Mostly, I would like to thank my family, sisters and sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews, my wonderful in-laws, the Ryans, and especially my wife, Evan Ryan, and our children, John and Lila (ph).

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They are truly my greatest blessings.

For my family, as for so many generations of Americans, America has literally been the last best hope on earth. My grandfather, Maurice Blinken, fled pilgrims in Russia and made a new life in America.

His son, my father, Donald Blinken, served in the United States Air Force in World War II and then as a United States ambassador. He is my role model and my hero.

His wife, Vera Blinken, fled communist Hungary as a young girl and helped future generations refugees come to America

My mother, Judith Pisar, builds bridge between America and the world through arts and culture. She is my greatest champion.

And my late stepfather, Samuel Pisar, he was one of 900 children in his school in Bialystok, Poland, but the only one to survive the holocaust after four years in concentration camps. At the end of the war, he made a break from a death march into the woods in Bavaria.

From his hiding place, he heard a deep rumbling sound. It was a tank. But instead of the iron cross, he saw painted on its side a five pointed white star. He ran to the tank. The hatch opened. An African- American G.I. looked down at him. He got down on his knees and said the only three words he knew in English that his mother taught him before the war. God bless America.

That's who we are. That's what America represents to the world, however imperfectly. Now, we have to proceed with equal measures of humility and confidence. Humility because, as the president-elect said, we can't solve all of the world's problems alone, we need to be working with other countries, we need their cooperation, we need their partnership, but also confidence, because America at its best still has greater ability than any other country on earth to bring others together to meet challenges of our time.

And that's where men and women of the state department, foreign service officers, civil servants, that's where they come in. I have witnessed their passion, their energy, their courage up close. I have seen what they do to keep us safe, to make us more prosperous. I've seen them add luster to a world that deserves respect, diplomacy. If confirmed, it will be the honor of my life to help guide them.

And so thank you all and may God bless America.

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY NOMINEE: Good afternoon. Mr. President-elect, Madam Vice President-elect, thank you for placing your trust in me to lead Department of Homeland Security. Thank you for the privilege of returning with a consent of the Senate to government service as a member of your administration. It is the honor of a lifetime.

The Department of Homeland Security has a noble mission, to help keep us safe and to advance our proud history as a country of welcome. There are more than 240,000 career employees who selflessly dedicate their talent and energy to this mission.

Many risk their lives in doing so. I would be honored to return to the department and support these dedicated public servants in fulfilling their responsibilities and realizing our country's greatest hopes, all in partnership with the communities we serve.

For 12 years, I had the privilege to stand in a federal courtroom and announce Alejandro Mayorkas on behalf of the United States of America. The words on behalf of the United States of America meant everything to me and to my parents whom I think of today and every day. My father and mother brought me to this country to escape communism. They cherished our democracy and were intensely proud to become United States citizens, as was I. I have carried that pride throughout my nearly 20 years of government service and throughout my life.

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My parents are not here to see this day.

Mr. President-elect, Madam Vice President-elect, please know I will workday and night in the service of our nation to ably lead men and women of the United States Department of Homeland Security and to bring honor to my parents and of the trust you have placed in me to carry your vision for our country forward. Thank you.

AVRIL HAINES, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE NOMINEE: Mr. President-elect, Madam Vice President-elect, I am grateful and even more so humbled by the trust that you placed in me for this role. I am especially honored to be standing not only by your side but also alongside some of the most talented and inspiring public servants this country has ever seen.

I know, Mr. President-elect and Madam Vice President-elect, that you have selected us not to serve you but to serve on behalf of the American people, to help advance our security, our prosperity, our values, that the call to service in this role is what makes this nomination such a tremendous honor.

If afforded the opportunities to do so, I will never forget my role on this team is unique. Better than that of a policy adviser, I will represent to you, Congress, and the American public, the patriots who comprise our intelligence community.

Mr. President-elect, you know that I have never shied away from speaking truth to power and that will be my charge as director of National Intelligence. I worked for you for a long time and I accept this nomination knowing that you would never want me to do otherwise and that you value the perspective of the intelligence community and that you will do so even when what I have to say may be inconvenient or difficult, and I assure you, there will be those times.

And, finally, to our intelligence professionals, the work you do often times under the most austere conditions imaginable is just indispensable. It will become even more complex, because you will be critical to helping this administration position itself not only against threats such as cyber attacks or terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, but also those challenges that will define the next generation, from climate change to pandemics and corruption. And it would be the honor of a lifetime to work alongside you once again to take these challenges on together.

Thank you so much.

LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.N. AMBASSADOR NOMINEE: Good afternoon. Mr. President-elect, Madam Vice President-elect, I am humbled and honored by the trust that you have placed in me to become a member of your cabinet as ambassador to the United Nations.

In the years that I've worked in government, I am always struck by how only in America would we be where we are today, where life can be hard and cruel, but there's hope in the struggle, there's promise in our dreams, where you learn to believe in yourself and that anything is possible.

Like both of you, I learned from my family. Mr. President-elect, thank you for those generous words that you said about me. My parents had very little back in Louisiana where I grew up, but they gave me and my siblings everything they had, and I know how proud they would be of this day.

On this day, I'm also missing my mentor, Ambassador Ed Perkins, who served as the U.S. ambassador to United Nations under President George H.W. Bush and President Clinton, and who was also from Louisiana. He told me constantly, Linda, don't undersell yourself. And he would always do everything possible to lift me up.

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He passed away last week, but I know he's here with us today.