Got everybody. Okay. Well, good afternoon, everyone. Today I am pleased to announce nominations and staff for critical foreign policy national security positions in my administration. It is a team that will keep our country and our people safe and secure and it's a team that reflects the fact that America is back ready to leave the world not retreat from it, once again sit at the head of the table ready to confront our adversaries and not reject their allies, ready to stand up for our values. In fact, in calls from world leaders that I have had about 18 of them or 20 so far, I'm not sure the exact number in the weeks since we won the election, I have been struck by how much they are looking forward to the United States reasserting its historic role as a global leader both in the Pacific as well as the Atlantic all across the world. The team meets this moment, this team behind me, they embodied my core beliefs that America is strongest when it works with its allies. Collectively this team has secured some of the most defining national security and diplomatic achievements in recent memory made possible through decades of experience working with our partners. That is how we truly keep America safe without engaging in needless military conflicts and our adversaries in check and terrorist at the and that is how we counterterrorism and extremism, control this pandemic and future ones, deal with the climate crisis, nuclear proliferation, cyber threats, and emerging technologies that spread authoritarianism and so much more. And while this team has unmatched experience and accomplishments they also reflect the idea that we cannot meet these challenges with old thinking and unchanged habits. For example, we are going to have the first woman lead in the intelligence community, the first Latino and immigrant to lead the Department of Homeland Security and a groundbreaking diplomat at the United Nations. We are going to have a principal on the National Security Council, whose full-time job is to fight climate change for the first time ever that will occur. And my national security team we coordinated by one of the youngest national security advisors in decades. Experience and leadership, fresh thinking and perspective and an unrelenting belief in the promise of America. I have long said that America leads not only by the example of our power but by the power of our example and I am proud to put forward this incredible team that will lead by example. As secretary of state I nominate Tony Blinken, he is one of the better prepared for this job, no one is better prepared in my view. He will be the secretary of state who previously served in top roles on Capitol Hill and the White House and in the State Department. He delivered for the American people in each place for example leading our diplomatic efforts in the fight against ISIS, strengthening America's alliance and position in the Asia-Pacific guiding our responses to their global refugee crisis with compassion and determination and he will rebuild morale and trust in the State Department where his career in government began. And he starts off with the kind of relationships around the world that many of his predecessors have had to build over the years. I know, I have seen him in action. Tony has been one of my closest and most trusted advisors. I know him and his family, immigrants and refugees, a Holocaust survivor who taught him to never take for granted the very idea of America as a place of possibilities -- possibilities. Tony is ready on day one. As secretary of your Homeland Security I nominate Alejandro Mayorkas. This is one of the hardest jobs in government, a gigantic agency, the DHS secretary needs to keep us safe from threats at home and from abroad and it's the job that plays a critical role in fixing our broken immigration system. After years of chaos, dysfunction, absolute cruelty at DHS I am proud to nominate an experienced leader who has been hailed by both Democrats and Republicans. Alej as he goes by is a former U.S. attorney, former director of U.S. Citizenship And Immigration Services and a former DHS -- DHS deputy secretary, helped implement DACA, prevented attacks on the homeland, enhance our cyber security help communities recover from natural disaster, combated Ebola and Zika and while DHS affects everyone given his critical role in immigration matters I am proud that for the first time ever the department will be led by an immigrant, a Latino who knows that we are a nation of laws and values. And one more thing, today is his birthday. Happy birthday, man. Happy birthday. He's 21. As a director of National Intelligence I nominate Avril Haines, the first woman ever to hold this post to lead our intelligence community I didn't pick a politician or a political figure, I picked a professional. She is eminently qualified former deputy director of the CIA, former deputy national security adviser to President Obama and the fierce advocate for telling the truth and leveling with her decisions -- with the decision-makers straight up. Nothing unnecessary. I know because I have worked with her for over a decade brilliant, humble, can talk literature and theoretical physics, fixing cars, flying planes, running a bookstore cafe, all in a single conversation because she's done all of that and above all she get word of a threat if she gets word of a threat coming to our shores like another pandemic or foreign interference in our election she will not stop raising the alarms until the right people take action. People will be able to take her word because she always calls it as she sees it. I believe we are safer with Avril on the watch. I think we - may I think she can make a great contribution. And as United ambassador -- the United States ambassador to the United Nations I nominate Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a seasoned and distinguished diplomat with 35 years in the foreign service who never forgot where she came from growing up in segregated Louisiana, the eldest of eight. Her dad couldn't read or write but she says he was the smartest person she knew. The first in her family to go to -- to graduate from high school then college with the whole world literally ahead of her as her dad and mom told her to leave. Posts in Switzerland, Pakistan, Kenya, the Gambia, Nigeria, Jamaica, Liberia where she was known as the People's Ambassador. Willing to meet with anyone. Ambassadors, a student working people struggling to get by and always treating them with the same level of dignity and respect. She was our top State Department official in charge of African policy during the Ebola crisis. She received overwhelming support from her fellow career and foreign service officers and she will be a cabinet status because I want to hear her voice on all of the major foreign policy discussions we have. And my national security advisor I choose Jake Sullivan. He is a once in a generation intellect with experience in temperament for one of the toughest jobs in the world. When I was vice president he served as my national security advisor, he was a top adviser to Secretary of State Clinton, he helped lead the early negotiations that led to the Iran Nuclear Deal, he helped broker the Gaza cease-fire in 2012, played a key role in Asian-Pacific rebalance in our administration and in this campaign for presidency he served as one of my most trusted advisors on both foreign and domestic policy including helping develop our COVID-19 strategy. Jake understands my vision that economic security is national security and it helps steer what I call a foreign policy for the middle class for families like his growing up in Minnesota where he was raised by parents who were educators and taught him the values of hard work, decency, service, and respect. What that means is to win the competition for the future we need to keep us safe and secure and build back better than ever. We need to invest in our people, sharpen our innovative edge, unite the economic might of our democracies around the world to grow the middle class and reduce in equity and do things like counter predatory trade practices that our competitors -- of our competitors and adversaries. And before I talk about the final person today, let me talk about this new position. For the first time ever the United States will have a full-time climate leader who will participate in ministerial level meetings, and that is a fancy way of saying he will have a seat at every table around the world. For the first time ever he will be -- there will be a principal on the National Security Council who can make sure climate changes on the agenda in the situation room. For the first time ever we will have a presidential envoy climate. He will be matched with high level White House climate policy coordinator and policy making structure to be announced in December, and that will lead efforts here in the United States to combine combat the climate crisis with mobilized action to meet the existential threat that we face. Let me be clear. I don't for a minute underestimate the difficulties of meeting my bold commitments to fighting climate change. But at the same time, no one should underestimate for a minute my determination to do just that. And as for the man himself, if I had a former Secretary of State who helped negotiate the Paris Climate Accord or a former presidential nominee or a former leading Senate -- senator, or the head of a major climate organization for the job, I would show my -- that would show my commitment to the United States and the whole world. The fact that I picked that one person who is all of these things speaks unambiguously to my commitment. The world will know that one of my closest friends, John Kerry, he's speaking for America on one of the most pressing threats of our time. No one I trust more. To this team, I thank them for extending accepting this call to service and for their families. I thank you all for your sacrifice. You know, we could do that we could not do this without you, in my view. Together, these public servants will restore America globally, its global leadership, and its moral leadership. And we'll ensure that our service members, diplomats, and intelligence professionals can do their job free of politics. I'll not only repair, they also re imagine American foreign policy and national security for the next generation. And they will tell me what I need to know, not what I want to know, what I need to know. To the American people, this team will make us proud to be Americans. And as more states certify the results of this election, there's progress to wrap up our victory. You know, I'm pleased to have received the ascertainment from GSA to carry out a smooth and peaceful transition of power so our teams can prepare to meet the challenges at hand to control the pandemic, to build back better, and to protect the safety and security of the American people. And to the United States Senate, I hope these outstanding nominees received a prompt hearing and that we can work across the aisle in good faith to move forward for the country. Let's begin that work to heal and Unite, to heal and Unite America as well as the world. I want to thank you all. May God bless you and May God protect our troops. And now I turn this over to this new team starting with our next secretary of state, Tony Blinken. Get my mask here, Tony, so I don't get in trouble. And we're going to clean off the podium. Good afternoon. Mr. President-Elect, Vice President-Elect Harris, thank you for your trust and your confidence. If confirmed by the United States Senate, I will do everything I can to earn it. Mr. President-Elect, working for you, having you as a mentor and friend has been the greatest privilege of my professional life. So many people have brought me to this day from college classmates to bandmates, my colleagues in the Clinton Obama administrations, in the Senate, and at the State Department. I thank them all and I ask forgiveness for my insatiable appetite for bad puns. Mostly, I'd like to think my family, sisters and sisters in law, brothers in law, nieces and nephews, my wonderful in laws the Ryan's, and especially my wife Evan Ryan and our children John and Lila. They are truly my greatest blessings. For my family, as for so many generations of Americans, America has literally been the last best hope on earth. My Grandfather, Maurice Blinken fled Pogroms in Russia and made a new life in America. His son, my father, Donald Blinken served in the United States Air Force during World War II and then as a United States ambassador. He is my role model and my hero. His wife, Vera Blinken fled communist Hungary as a young girl and helped future generations of refugees come to America. My mother, Judith Pyzar builds bridges between America and the world through arts and culture. She is my greatest champion. And my late stepfather, Samuel Pyzar, he was one of 900 children in his school in Bialystok Poland, but the only one to survive the Holocaust after four years in concentration camps. At the end of the war, he made a break from a death march into the woods in Bavaria. From his hiding place, he heard a deep rumbling sound. It was a tank. But instead of the iron cross, he saw painted on its side a five-pointed White Star. He ran to the tank. The hatch opened, an African American GI looked down at him. He got down on his knees and said the only three words that he knew in English that his mother taught him before the war. "God Bless America." That's who we are. That's what America represents to the world, however imperfectly. Now we have to proceed with equal measures of humility and confidence. Humility because, as the president elect said, we can't solve all the world's problems alone. We need to be working with other countries. We need their cooperation. We need their partnership. But also confidence because America at its best still has a greater ability than any other country on earth to bring others together to meet the challenges of our time. And that's where the men and women of the State Department, foreign service officers, civil service, that's where they come in. I've witnessed their passion, their energy, their courage up close. I've seen what they do to keep us safe, to make us more prosperous. I've seen them add luster to a word that deserves our respect, diplomacy. If confirmed, it will be the honor of my life to help guide them. And so thank you all and may God bless America. Good afternoon. Mr. President-Elect, Madam Vice President-Elect, thank you for placing your trust in me to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Thank you for the privilege of returning with the consent of the Senate to government service as a member of your administration. It is the honor of a lifetime. The Department of Homeland Security has a noble mission, to help keep us safe and to advance our proud history as a country of welcome. There are more than 240,000 career employees who selflessly dedicate their talent and energy to this mission. Many risk their lives in doing so. I would be honored to return to the department and support these dedicated public servants in fulfilling their responsibilities and realizing our country's greatest hopes all in partnership with the communities we serve. For 12 years, I had the privilege to stand in a federal courtroom and now announce "Alejandro Mayorkas on behalf of the United States of America." The words on behalf of the United States of America meant everything to me and to my parents, whom I think of today and every day. My father and mother brought me to this country to escape communism. They cherished our democracy and we're intensely proud to become United States citizens, as was I. I've carried that pride throughout my nearly 20 years of government service and throughout my life. My parents are not here to see this day. Mr. President-Elect, Madam Vice President-Elect, please know that I will work day and night in the service of our nation to ably lead the men and women of the United States Department of Homeland Security and to bring honor to my parents and to the trust you have placed in me to care carry your vision for our country forward. Thank you. Thank you. Great job. Mr. President-Elect, Madam Vice President-Elect, I am grateful and even more so humbled by the trust that you have placed in me for this role. I am especially honored to be standing not only by your side but also alongside some of the most talented and inspiring public servants this country has ever seen. I know Mr. President-Elect and Madam Vice President-Elect that you have selected us not to serve you but to serve on behalf of the American people, to help advance our security, our prosperity, our values, that the call to service in this role is what makes this nomination such a tremendous honor. If afforded the opportunity to do so I will never forget that my role on this team is unique. Rather than that of a policy advisor I will represent to you, Congress, and the American public the patriots who comprise our intelligence community. Mr. President-Elect, you know that I have never shied away from speaking truth to power and that will be my charge as director of National Intelligence. I have worked for you for a long time and I accept this nomination knowing that you would never want me to do otherwise -- that you value the perspective of the intelligence community and that you will do so even when what I have to say may be inconvenient or difficult. And I assure you there will be those times. And finally to our intelligence professionals, the work you do often times under the most austere conditions unimaginable is just indispensable. It will become even more complex because you will be critical to helping this administration position in itself not only against threats such as cyber attacks or terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear biological or chemical weapons but also those challenges that will define the next generation -- from climate change to pandemics, and corruption. And it would be the honor of a lifetime to be able to work alongside you once again to take these challenges on together. Thank you so much. Good afternoon. Mr. President-Elect, Madam Vice President-Elect, I am humbled and honored by the trust that you have placed in me to become a member of your cabinet as ambassador to the United Nations. In the years that I have worked in government I am always struck by how only in America would be where we are today where life can be hard and cruel but there's hope in the struggle, there is promise in our dreams where you learn to believe in yourself and that anything is possible. Like both of you, I learned from my family. Mr. President-Elect, I'd like to thank you for those generous words that you said about me, my parents had very little back in Louisiana where I grew up but they gave me and my siblings everything they had and I know how proud they would be of this day. On this day I am also missing my mentor, Ambassador Ed Perkins who served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George H.W. Bush and President Clinton and who was also from Louisiana. He told me constantly, Linda, don't undersell yourself and he would always do everything possible to lift me up. He passed away last week but I know he is here with us today and on this day I am thinking about the American people, my fellow career diplomats and public servants around the world. I want to say to you America is back, multilateralism is back, diplomacy is back. Mr. President-Elect I have often heard you say how all politics is personal and that is how you build relationships of trust and bridge disagreements and find common ground. And in my 35 years in the foreign service across four continents I put a Cajun spin on it. I called it Gumbo diplomacy, wherever I was posted around the world I would invite people of different backgrounds and beliefs to help me make a rule and chop onions for the holy trinity and make homemade gumbo. It was my way of breaking down barriers, connecting with people and starting to see each other on a human level, a bit of lagniappe is what we say in Louisiana. That is the charge in front of us today. The challenges we face a global pandemic, a global economy, a global climate change crisis, mass migration and extreme poverty, social justice are unrelenting and interconnected but they are not unresolvable if America is leading the way. Thank you. Mr. President-Elect, Madam Vice President-Elect thank you. Mr. President-Elect, I am honored and humbled by the immense responsibility that you placed in me of being your national security advisor. I pledge to you and to the American people that I will work relentlessly in service of the mission you have given us to keep our country and our people safe, to advance our national interest and to defend our values. I pledge to the exceptional national security team you see behind me and to the brilliant and diverse career professionals across our government then I will manage a humane and rigorous decision-making process that honors their work and I pledge to my parents who taught my brothers, my sister and me to work hard, tell the truth and serve others that I will do my utmost to make you proud. Sir, we will be vigilant in the face of enduring threats from nuclear weapons to terrorism but you have also tasked us with reimagining our national security for the unprecedented combination of crises we face at home and abroad -- the pandemic, the economic crisis, the climate crisis, technological disruption, threats to democracy, racial injustice and any quality in all forms. The work of the team behind me today will contribute to progress across all of these fronts. You have also tasked us with putting people at the center of our foreign policy. You have told us that the alliances we have rebuilt, the institutions we lead, the agreements we sign all of them should be judged by a basic question, will this make life better, easier, safer for families across this country? Our foreign policy has to deliver for these families and perhaps most importantly you have tasked us with helping unite America as you said in your remarks through our work to pull people together to tackle big challenges. My wife Maggie, the love of my life and my partner in all things served as a senior advisor to Senator John McCain. She and I shared this commitment to common ground deep in our bones. To the American people, I had the honor as serving as Joe Biden's national security advisor when he was vice president. I learned a lot about a lot about diplomacy, about strategy, about policy but most importantly about human nature. I watched him pair strength and resolve with humanity and empathy. That is the person America elected and that is also America at its best. So Mr. President-Elect thank you for doing this kid from the heartland an extraordinary opportunity to serve the country I love. Mr. President-Elect, Vice President-Elect Harris, thank you, Mr. President-Elect, for your generous words and most of all thank you for the trust and the responsibility of this appointment. I will do all in my power to live up to your expectations and to this moment for our country and for though world and I begin by thanking my family for empowering me and encouraging me to take this task on. Secretary-designate Blinken, we've worked together for many years on the Foreign Relations Committee and in Foggy Bottom, and it will be a huge pleasure to partner with you again. You will be a terrific secretary. Mr. President-Elect, you've put forward a bold, transformative climate plan, but you've also underscored that no country alone can solve this challenge. Even the United States, for all of our industrial strength, is responsible for only 13 percent of global emissions. In this crisis, the whole world must come together. You're right to rejoin Paris on day one, and you're right to recognize that Paris alone is not enough. At the global meeting in Glasgow one year from now, all nations must raise ambition together or we will all fail together. And failure is not an option. Succeeding together means tapping into the best of American ingenuity and creativity and diplomacy from brainpower to alternative energy power, using every tool we have to get where we have to go. No one should doubt the determination of this president and vice president. They shouldn't doubt the determination of the country that went to the moon, cured supposedly incurable diseases, and beat back global tyranny to beat world war -- to win World War II. This kind of crisis demands that kind of leadership again, and President Biden will provide it. The road ahead is exciting, actually. It means creating millions of middle-class jobs. It means less pollution in our air, ocean. It means making life healthier for citizens across the world, and it means we will strengthen the security of every nation in the world. In addressing the climate crisis, President-Elect Joe Biden is determined to seize the future now and leave the healing planet to future generations. 57 years ago this week, Joe Biden and I were college kids when we lost the president who inspired both of us to try to make a difference, a president who reminded us that here on earth God's work must truly be our own. President Joe Biden will trust in God and he will also trust in science to guide our work on earth to protect God's creation. Mr. President-Elect and Vice President-Elect Harris, I look forward to getting to work. Thank you. Thank you, Secretary Kerry. And congratulations, Mr. President-Elect, on bringing together this extraordinary team. I have always believed in the nobility of public service, and these Americans embody it. Their lives and careers are a testament to the dedication, sacrifice, and commitment to civic responsibility that have strengthened our democracy and kept America's promise alive for more than 200 years. President-Elect Biden and I have long known that when we were elected we would inherit a series of unprecedented challenges upon walking into the White House. Addressing these challenges starts with getting this pandemic under control, opening our economy responsibly, and making sure it works for working people. And we also know that our challenges will require us here at home to overcome those issues that block our ability to proceed. Our challenge here is a necessary foundation for restoring and advancing our leadership around the world, and we are ready for that work. We will need to reassemble and renew America's alliances, rebuild and strengthen the national security and foreign policy institutions that keep us safe and advance our nation's interests, and confront and combat the existential threat of climate change that endangers us all. I take these issues very seriously. My whole career has been about keeping people safe, from serving as district attorney to California's attorney general to the United States Senate, where I have served on the Intelligence and Homeland Security committees. I have come to know firsthand the gravity of the challenges and threats facing the United States. And over the past few months, I have also come to know the sound judgment, expertise, and character of the people on this stage. I can say with confidence that they are, to a person, the right women and men for these critical positions, and I look forward to working alongside them on behalf of the American people and on behalf of the president who will ask tough questions, demand that we be guided by facts, and expect our team to speak the truth no matter what, a president who will be focused on one thing and one thing only, doing what is best for the people of the United States of America. When Joe asked me to be his running mate, he told me about his commitment to making sure we selected a cabinet that looks like America, that reflects the best of our nation, and that's what we have done. Today's nominees and appointees come from different places. They bring a range of different life and professional experiences and perspectives. And they also share something else in common, an unwavering belief in America's ideals and unshakable commitment to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. And they understand the indispensable role of America's leadership in the world. These women and men are patriots and public servants to their core. And they are leaders, the leaders we need to meet the challenges of this moment and those that lie ahead. Thank you. Thank all of you for accepting. We appreciate it. All right. Thank you, folks.