Biden urges speedy confirmation for national security team as GOP grumbles

His choices, drawn heavily from the Democratic foreign policy establishment, brought swift condemnation from several Senate Republicans. And with Republicans intent on retaining control of the Senate with runoffs in Georgia, the stage is set for a bruising round of confirmation hearings.

Biden appeared amid the faded grandeur of the Queen theater in Wilmington on Tuesday to introduce key appointments, including former State Department officials Antony Blinken as secretary of state, Linda Thomas-Greenfield as United Nations ambassador, and former CIA official Avril Haines as director of national intelligence.

“To the United States Senate, I hope these outstanding nominees receive a prompt hearing and that we can work across the aisle in good faith — move forward as a country,” he said.

Biden has made a virtue of unshowy picks, largely veterans of the Obama administration and figures steeped in policy, as he seeks to draw a line under the unorthodox personnel moves of the Trump years. However, that has invited criticism that his team marks the return of a Washington establishment that was so roundly rejected in 2016.

Marco Rubio, who sits on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, tweeted that it marked a return to a “normal” that made the U.S. dependent on China.

“Biden’s cabinet picks went to Ivy League schools, have strong resumes, attend all the right conferences & will be polite & orderly caretakers of America’s decline,” he tweeted.

“I support American greatness.”

Sen. Tom Cotton in a tweet quoted 2014 criticism by Defense Secretary Robert Gates that Biden had been mistaken on “nearly every” major foreign policy issue. “Now he’s surrounding himself with panda huggers who will only reinforce his instincts to go soft on China,” he wrote.

Incoming presidents could usually expect the Senate to confirm most of their nominees. But that has changed in recent years.

Adding to the animosity is that Biden’s selections draw heavily from the Obama administration. His appointment of John Kerry to a climate change post on the National Security Council, to put the issue “on the agenda in the situation room,” is also sure to provoke the ire of Trump allies.

And in his remarks, the president-elect made clear he was drawing a line under President Trump’s America First policies, which were blamed for alienating allies and diluting Washington’s influence in the world.

“It’s a team that reflects the fact that America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it,” said Biden, flanked by six of his appointees, all in masks.

That theme was echoed by Blinken, who said America would proceed with a mix of humility and confidence.

“Humility because most of the world’s problems are not about us, even as they affect us. We cannot flip a switch to solve them,” he said. “We need to partner with others.”

Thomas-Greenfield said the problems facing the world were interconnected and unrelenting — but solvable with America in the lead.

“America is back. Multilateralism is back,” she said. “Diplomacy is back.”

James Carafano, vice president of foreign and defense policy at the Heritage Foundation, who served on Trump’s Homeland Security and State Department transition teams, said he believed Republicans would observe the usual conventions.

“You will get what you usually get,” he said. “There will be some pointed questions, getting things down on the record, with Republicans laying down their red lines on policy, the places in which they will push back.”

The Biden campaign said Republicans had already said they would not stand in the way of qualified nominees.

Adviser Jen Psaki told CNN: “We don’t need a fabricated crisis in the Senate, and I don’t think the American people are going to tolerate that if there’s a refusal to move forward with qualified nominees.”