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Biden taps ex-rival Pete Buttigieg to be transport chief
The 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is a rising star in the Democratic Party who raised his profile as a top-tier candidate in the presidential nomination race. If confirmed by the Senate, he will be the first openly gay Cabinet secretary, according to Biden's transition team.
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Democratic presidential candidate former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg speaks during the 100 Club Dinner at SNHIU on February 08, 2020 in Manchester, New Hampshire. The 2020 New Hampshire primary will take place on February 11, making it the second nominating contest for the Democratic Party in choosing their presidential candidate to face Donald Trump in the 2020 general election. (Via AFP/Scott Olson/Getty Images)
U
S President-elect Joe Biden said Tuesday that he plans to nominate Pete Buttigieg as transportation secretary, making him the first former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to be tapped for a Cabinet secretary post.
The 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is a rising star in the Democratic Party who raised his profile as a top-tier candidate in the presidential nomination race. If confirmed by the Senate, he will be the first openly gay Cabinet secretary, according to Biden's transition team.
Biden, the former vice president under the Barack Obama administration, is seeking to fill his Cabinet with people from diverse backgrounds.
He has nominated former Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen to become the first female treasury secretary and retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin to serve as the first African American defense secretary.
Buttigieg is a Harvard- and Oxford-educated Afghanistan war veteran. He served as mayor of his hometown of South Bend for two terms until January 2020, working to revitalize what was once called one of America's "dying cities."
Calling Buttigieg a "barrier-breaking public servant from the industrial Midwest" and a "problem-solver," Biden's team said the nominee is tasked to play a key role in pushing ahead with the president-elect's "Build Back Better" economic vision by improving infrastructure, creating jobs and addressing climate change issues.
Meanwhile, Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday publicly recognized Democrat Joe Biden as U.S. president-elect for the first time since the Nov. 3 election, distancing himself from President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his election loss.
"Many millions of us had hoped the presidential election would yield a different result. But our system of government has processes to determine who will be sworn in on Jan. 20," the influential Republican lawmaker told the Senate, referring to the electoral vote that affirmed the 78-year-old former vice president's win on Monday.
"The Electoral College has spoken. So today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden," he added.
McConnell also congratulated Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, a Senator from California, saying, "Beyond our differences, all Americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice president-elect for the very first time."
The Senate majority leader's speech comes as another blow to Trump, whose legal challenges to reverse his election loss are proving to be largely futile.
But the 74-year-old incumbent continued to make unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud on Tuesday.
"Tremendous evidence pouring in on voter fraud. There has never been anything like this in our Country!" he tweeted.
