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Who is Antony Blinken? Former national security adviser to Joe Biden most likely to be chosen Secretary of State

Reportedly, Biden's White House chief of staff Ron Klain said that the president-elect would be making his initial cabinet announcements on Tuesday, November 24

Even though President Donald Trump has not conceded and is taking the legal route to challenge the election results, president-elect Joe Biden seems to be going ahead and working towards building his probable administrative team. He has already announced Ron Klain as his White House chief of staff.

According to Bloomberg News, Biden is most likely to name his longtime adviser Antony Blinken as secretary of state, according to three people who are familiar with the matter. As per the report, on Sunday, November 22, Klain had said that the president-elect would be making his initial cabinet announcements on Tuesday, November 24, but did not specify which positions would be filled first. The people familiar with Biden’s selections chose to be anonymous because he hasn’t made the announcements yet.

Who is Antony Blinken?

The Bloomberg News report states that Blinken has been viewed as one of the leading candidates to run the State Department. He had served Biden, the vice-president at that time, as national security adviser and later he was promoted to deputy secretary of state under former president Barack Obama. When Biden was a senator, Blinken was his staff director on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before leaving to work on Biden’s 2008 presidential campaign. He graduated from Harvard and from Columbia Law School.

As per the report, Blinken co-founded WestExec Advisors, a political strategy firm, with a top Obama-era Pentagon official, Michele Flournoy. The New York Times report states that the 58-year-old Blinken started his career at the State Department during the Clinton administration. He has been by Biden’s side for almost 20 years. The NYT article notes that during his time as then VP Biden’s national security adviser, he helped develop the American response to political turmoil and ensuing uncertainty across the Middle East, with mixed results in Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Libya.

Even though no official announcement was made, people on Twitter started discussing the probable appointment of Blinken. A user tweeted, “The BEST thing about Tony Blinken being picked by Joe Biden as his Secretary of State is that he is a competent, experienced individual picked by a competent, experienced individual. Congratulations, America!” Another said, “Tony Blinken, Biden’s Secretary of State choice, was Deputy Secretary of State during the Obama Administration and is approximately 1000x more qualified for the role than Pompeo and Tillerson combined.”

A user commented, “For those wondering who Tony Blinken is, here’s a picture of him in one of the seminal moments of the Obama presidency. Tons of experience, smarts and, above all, decency.” A user shared, “So President Elect Biden, former VP is nominating Blinken, another person who has also worked for the government before?? Normalcy- welcome back!” Another said, “It's reassuring to hear this about nominees like Blinken whose names I don't immediately recognize...it's reassuring that the US will have competent, professional representation on the world stage.” One opined, “Although Blinken might be better than Mike Pompeo and has experience in foreign policy but I still think Susan Rice (@AmbRice44) is a better choice.”

These remarks were made by the Internet and individual organizations, MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and nor does it support these claims being made on the Internet.