More extreme than Obama: Webinar looks at Biden’s national security team

President-elect Joe Biden’s national security team is more radical than Obama’s was, with key members showing a lifetime of softness toward Communist China, Iran, radical Islamists, and Russia.

The Center’s J. Michael Waller and John Rossomando went down the list of Biden’s announced appointees in a January 13 webinar titled “More Extreme than Obama: Biden’s National Security team will Fundamentally Form American Sovereignty.” Here is some of what they discussed:

Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense-designate. The retired four-star general ran the US Central Command (CENTCOM) that covers the Middle East and North Africa lacks the fame and distinction as the previous general to run the Pentagon, James Mattis, and isn’t known as a military strategist. His brusque management style might complicate how he leads the Department of Defense.

Anthony Blinken, Secretary of State-designate. Blinken has a long relationship with Biden and former secretary of state John Kerry, dating to when they both were senators. When Biden was vice president, Blinken was his national security advisor. He played a big role in the Obama debacle in northern Iraq that gave birth to ISIS, and became in charge of Obama’s worldwide refugee program. He was also Managing Director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, which was founded by Communist China.

William Burns, CIA Director-designate was a secret back-channel for Obama to Iran during the Iran Deal.

Avril Haines, designated to be Director of National Intelligence, was legal counsel to the Obama National Security Council at a time when the Obama NSC was spying on American political rivals of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and during the framing of the debunked “Russian collusion” narrative. Biden’s transition team website makes a big deal of the fact that Haines is a woman.

Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security-designate. His first qualification, the Biden website says, is that if confirmed, Mayorkas “would be the first immigrant and Latino to lead the Department of Homeland Security.” Not once, but twice. Mayorkas ran immigration at the Obama DHS while Blinken was running the global refugee program at State. He is considered extremely weak on immigration and likely to pack immigrants into the United States once again, without regard to their impact on, or benefit to, American society.

Samantha Power, Administrator-designate, US Agency for International Development. A former NSC staffer to Obama, Power became a capable but controversial ambassador to the United Nations. She stresses large-scale funding and programs to change the cultures and values of traditional societies and earned the nickname “Unmasker-in-Chief” for being behind the exposure of the identities of Americans whose names were picked up in foreign intelligence collection. Power’s politically-motivated unmasking requests – considered very unusual for an ambassador to the UN – became pretexts for some of the most controversial abuses of the Obama-Biden administration.

An especially controversial if obscure Biden appointee, Thomas Zimmerman, reportedly is to become Special Assistant to the President for Personnel. Zimmerman is presently on the transition team vetting national security appointments. He brings some baggage with him to the White House, having held a position at the Shanghai Academy of Sciences, a Chinese Communist Party organization that the FBI has described as a “front group for Chinese intelligence collection and overseas spy recruitment.”

Waller and Rossomando discussed other Biden appointees, ending with one who will not be part of the national security team at all: Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, slated to become Secretary of Labor. Walsh drew notoriety last year by flying the Communist China flag at Boston City Hall.