Senate confirms Biden confidant Antony Blinken as secretary of state
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The Senate approved President Biden’s choice to lead the State Department, Antony Blinken, in a fast-tracked vote to round out the top ranks of the new president’s national security team.
Blinken is expected to begin work immediately as the new administration faces several global challenges, including an Iran that has shown signs of moving ahead with its nuclear arms program while causing trouble in the Middle East, an increasingly aggressive and defiant China, and a Russian president in Vladimir Putin who has shown continued willingness to attack the United States through cyberspace and protesters at home with police batons or self-ordered prison sentences. But the list does not end there, and Biden's top diplomat will be his point man around the world as the president tries to bring about the "unity" he says is needed at home while also trying to enact his ambitious left-leaning agenda.