President-elect Joe Biden is likely to announce that he has selected Antony Blinken, a veteran diplomat and an Obama administration alumni, as Secretary of State.
Blinken, who served as Deputy Secretary of State and as deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration, is one of Biden's closest and longest-serving foreign policy advisers.
The announcement on Blinken's appointment was expected on Tuesday. Biden's transition team has not confirmed the pick.
A long-time ally of Biden, Blinken was the staff director for Biden while he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He played a prominent role in the Biden campaign and was his key policy advisors on foreign affairs.
Who is Antony Blinken?
Blinken, 58, practiced law briefly after graduating from Harvard before entering politics in the late 1980s. He joined Bill Clinton's White House as a speechwriter and became one of his national security aides. Later, he served as staff director for Biden while he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
He also worked alongside Biden as an adviser to his unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign.
In Obama-Biden administration, he served as Deputy Secretary of State and as deputy national security adviser. Blinken reportedly worked to limit most US combat deployments to small numbers of troops during Obama.
After 2016 elections, when Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton lost to President Donald Trump, Blinken co-founded WestExec Advisors, a geopolitical strategy firm, with Michele Flournoy.
Flournoy, who served in the Obama administration, is widely believed to be in contention to serve as Secretary of Defense in a Biden administration. If nominated, she would be the first woman to assume that role.
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