America is back, says Joe Biden as he unveils his Cabinet

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Joe Biden, the US president-elect, on Tuesday introduced veteran diplomats and policymakers who will make up his national security and foreign policy team, saying: “America is back, ready to lead the world.”

Mr Biden, 78, at an event in his home town of Wilmington, Delaware, presented his choices for secretary of state, national security adviser, homeland security secretary, intelligence chief, UN ambassador and climate change envoy.

“It is a team that will keep our country and our people safe and secure,” Mr Biden said as the six men and women stood behind him wearing face-masks on the stage of the Queen Theatre.

“It is a team that reflects the fact that America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it.”

Mr Biden said that after he is inaugurated on January 20, and Donald Trump leaves the White House, the US will “once again sit at the head of the table, ready to confront our adversaries and not reject our allies”.

“These public servants will restore America’s global leadership and moral leadership,” the former vice president said in a jab at Mr Trump’s go-it-alone “America First” policies.

Mr Biden’s remarks came shortly after Mr Trump suffered further setbacks in his unprecedented effort to overturn the results of an American presidential election with unsubstantiated claims of fraud.

Pennsylvania and Nevada certified the November 3 election results on Tuesday, a day after the state of Michigan did so, a move which triggered the General Services Administration to launch the transition process.

As more members of his Republican Party came out demanding an end to the impasse, Mr Trump signed off on the GSA move, effectively admitting defeat but still refusing to concede.

“The GSA does not determine who the next President of the United States will be,” the president tweeted on Tuesday along with a picture of himself in the Oval Office with the caption: “I concede NOTHING!!!!!”

Mr Trump, 74, who has made few public appearances since his defeat, later attended a traditional Thanksgiving turkey-pardoning event at the White House, touting the Dow breaking 30,000 points and thanking hospital workers battling the Covid-19 pandemic.