I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Wednesday,

November 25th. So how should we look at these Joe Biden nominees so far? Are they diverse in

ways that matter? Are they too old school in ways

that matter to the left or the right? Washington Post National Security Reporter John Hudson

has an article with an interesting headline. Biden's nominees have pushed policies that Trump

used to fuel his rise. So let's start there as John Hudson joins us, Washington Post National Security Reporter,

focusing on the State Department and diplomacy.

John, thanks for doing this.

Welcome to WNYC.

Hey, great to be with you.

So as you write, these nominees have in the past pushed trade deals,

aimed to sign international treaties,

and advocated for foreign wars, positions that forced Democrats to do a lot of soul-searching over how they misread voters after Trump won in 2016.

So considering who he's choosing here, did Biden not do much soul searching these last four years

if these folks are his picks?

Well, I think it's fair to say that Biden believes that he won and he won decisively,

and he separates his campaign from the campaigns of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, who were

pushing for a big, significant change. And he says, look, I want, I'm going to put the people

in that I wanted. And, you know, as we noted, a lot of those people, you know, the John Kerry,

you know, architect of the Iran nuclear deal, a Paris, you know, John Kerry, you know, architect of the Iran nuclear deal of Paris, you know, Paris Climate Accords.

These are things that Democrats are proud of.

And these are things that Trump, you know, attacked relentlessly.

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