Penned by Sputnik

Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden has now been called the “president-elect” by major US outlets, despite pending legal challenges from the Trump campaign disputing US election results. Biden is already setting up a transition team, though – and some of his potential picks for the new administration are highly familiar to all Americans.

Ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could become the Biden administration’s ambassador to the United Nations, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with the deliberation.

According to the report, the candidacy of Bill Clinton’s wife is currently “being discussed” to head the US delegation to the international body, but remains far from certain. However, Biden’s team reportedly believes that adding Clinton, who infamously lost to Donald Trump in 2016 and has remained a harsh critic ever since, could increase America’s prestige in the eyes of international community after her challenger’s presidency. Donald Trump is not that eager to leave the White House though.

While Joe Biden is already taking congratulatory calls from potential colleagues, including French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Trump campaign is filing legal challenges all across the United States to dispute the results of vote counting in the key swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

Nevertheless, his Democratic opponent has now been setting up a transition team, with reports suggesting that one of the high-profile roles in his new office could be grabbed by none other than the ex-US President, Barack Obama, who may soon head to the United Kingdom as US Ambassador.

The Washington Post also claimed that former National Security Adviser Ton Donilon, ex-Delaware Senator Ted Kaufman and ex-chief of staff Steve Richetti could all assume roles as Biden’s senior advisors if he indeed takes his place in the White House at the end of all the election drama.

According to James Fetzer, professor emeritus at University of Minnesota, the 2020 presidential election has represented an “attempted coup” by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), mainstream media and the tech giants, “using their control of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram as means for depriving the public of crucial information about Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who have engaged in corrupt business activities in Ukraine, Russia, Iraq and China, vitiating his declarations that he has never been involved in his son’s business activities or taken a cent from a foreign source”.

“The fact that Biden moves to make appointments before the election has been called, contradicts his declaration during the first debate that he would not declare victory or concede the race until all of the state votes had been certified. Since Trump has filed lawsuits in seven states — Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania — their votes have not been certified and the winner has yet to be determined; indeed, those states represent 94 electoral votes, the majority of which appear to be going to Trump, who will emerge victorious”, Fetzer says.

Biden Says He Is ‘Back’

This week Obama’s former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes revealed that Biden has already been discussing the “agenda” of his potential administration with foreign leaders, the news that have hit a nerve of Republican congressmen who saw a lot of hypocrisy in this behaviour, citing a scandalous case of Michael Flynn.

Trump’s former National Security Advisor Flynn was accused by Democrats of breaching the 1799 Logan Act with his calls to the Russian ambassador to US during the transition period in December 2016 for potentially negotiating disputes with foreign governments without authorisation while still a “private citizen”. He was not incriminated in relation to this piece of centuries-old legislation in the end, but many saw the attacks on the decorated army general as “political prosecution”.  

“Ask yourself, why is it always one rule for the Democrats, one for the rest of us?”, Fox News host Sean Hannity said on Wednesday night, while commenting on the news about Biden’s conversations with foreign leaders.

Speaking in Delaware on Tuesday, Biden sent a hint to the crowd that his was eager to change the US’ standing in the world, boldly proclaiming: “I’m letting them know that America is back. We’re going to be back in the game.”

Hillary Clinton, Ex-Secretary of State and Twice-Failed Presidential Candidate

The former first lady of the United States, Mrs. Clinton served as the US Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 under President Barack Obama. She ran for presidency twice, both unsuccessfully, in 2008 losing the Democratic nomination to her future boss Obama and then, in 2016, conceding the election to Donald Trump despite winning the popular vote, due to Electoral College rules.

During the 2016 election campaign, it was revealed that Clinton extensively used her personal email accounts to send classified information during her tenure as secretary of state. The inspector general of the State Department eventually found hundreds of violations of security procedures, but concluded that they were neither “systematic” nor “deliberate”. This topic received major coverage during Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Following her loss to Trump, Clinton has consistently maintained that her failure should be attributed to Russia’s “interference” in the US election through a disinformation campaign and alleged hack of the Democratic National Committee emails, allegations that have found no evidence in the course of a two-year-long investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.