The Senate enthusiastically confirmed Antony Blinken, a veteran foreign relations expert and longtime aide and adviser to Joe Biden, as Secretary of State on Tuesday.
In a show of bipartisan agreement, the vote in the evenly split Senate was 78 to 22.
Blinken becomes America’s top diplomat “as the world confronts a confluence of threats: the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change” and competition with China on “trade, technology and other issues,” says USA Today.
Blinken is also likely to play a major role in Biden’s bid to restore portions of the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal that was rescinded by Trump and is disliked by many Republicans, reports the New York Daily News, which characterizes Blinken as “a firm believer in interventionism.”
Blinken is the fourth member of the new president’s Cabinet to win confirmation in less than a week — a rapid rate explained in part by senators’ haste to clear the decks before opening Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial the week of Feb. 8.
“Blinken served as deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration and is one of Biden’s closest and longest-serving foreign policy advisers,” reports the Washington Post.
In his confirmation hearing last week, Blinken vowed to “revitalize” U.S. diplomacy after four years of Trump’s neglect.
When the United States is “not engaged, when we aren’t leading, then one of two things will probably happen,” Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“Either some other country tries to take our place, but not in a way that advances our interests or values — or, maybe just as bad, no one does, and then you get chaos.”