被美国多家主流媒体宣布为美国2020大选获胜者的民主党总统候选人拜登正在积极组建白宫班底。多名知情人士透露，安东尼·布林肯是拜登国务卿人选的“领跑者”。由于美国国务卿担任着外交使命，相关人选备受外界关注。
彭博社记者詹妮弗·爱泼斯坦的推文也显示，拜登将任命其长期助手布林肯为国务卿。此外她还表示，杰克·沙利文很可能被任命为国家安全顾问。
拜登过渡团队表示，他们将于当地时间11月24日宣布内阁成员名单。Antony Blinken is the leading contender to become Joe Biden's nominee for secretary of state, according to multiple people familiar with the Biden team's planning.Advisers to the projected president-elect's transition have said they'll make their first Cabinet announcements on Tuesday.
现年58岁的布林肯先后毕业于哈佛大学和哥伦比亚大学法学院，在克林顿政府和奥巴马政府均任过职，是民主党的一位“老兵”，长期从事外交政策相关工作。布林肯曾就职于克林顿政府的国家安全委员会以及参议院外交委员会。拜登当时是参议院外交委员会主席，自那时起，布林肯一直是拜登在外交事务上的臂膀。在奥巴马政府时期，布林肯重返国家安全委员会，担任时任副总统拜登的国家安全事务顾问，后又担任副国务卿。美媒指出，若布林肯成功当选国务卿，他将成为下届政府努力重塑美国与世界其他国家和地区间关系的主导力量。Blinken, 58, served as deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser during the Obama administration and has close ties with Biden. If nominated and confirmed, he would be a leading force in the incoming administration's bid to reframe the U.S. relationship with the rest of the world after four years in which President Donald Trump questioned longtime alliances.A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Law School and a longtime Democratic foreign policy presence, Blinken has aligned himself with numerous former senior national security officials who have called for a major reinvestment in American diplomacy and renewed emphasis on global engagement.He served on the National Security Council during the Clinton administration before becoming staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Biden was chair of the panel. In the early years of the Obama administration, Blinken returned to the NSC and was then-Vice President Biden's national security adviser before he moved to the State Department to serve as deputy to Secretary of State John Kerry.
据美媒分析，在组阁过程中，拜登可能会回避一些棘手的问题。美国前国家安全顾问苏珊·赖斯和特拉华州参议员克里斯·库恩斯也被视为国务卿的热门人选，为何布林肯是该职位的“领跑者”？这其中究竟有何考量？任命赖斯或将遭到共和党的强烈反对，还可能在参议院遭否决。2012年，美国驻利比亚班加西领事馆遭到恐怖分子袭击，赖斯一开始表示这是一次示威者的“即兴行为”，不是有预谋的恐怖袭击活动，但此后的情报显示赖斯的说法有误。随后，共和党人紧紧抓住这个把柄，对赖斯大肆攻击。库恩斯则是受到参议院权力平衡的影响。民主党希望“夺回”参议院，而美国两党对参议院控制权的争夺最终结果要到明年1月才能见分晓。在此前佐治亚州的参议院选举中，由于所有候选人均未超过50%的支持率，该州将在明年1月举行第二轮选举。In nominating Blinken, Biden would sidestep potentially thorny issues that could have affected Senate confirmation for two other candidates on his short list to be America's top diplomat: Susan Rice and Sen. Chris Coons.Rice would have faced significant GOP opposition and likely rejection in the Senate. She has long been a target of Republicans, including for statements she made after the deadly 2012 attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya.Coons' departure from the Senate would have come as other Democratic senators are being considered for administrative posts and the party is hoping to win back the Senate. Control hangs on the result of two runoff elections in Georgia in January.