Trump announces new impeachment legal team

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Biden's nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during her nomination hearing Wednesday. During the hearing, Thomas-Greenfield said her three key priories, if confirmed, would be leadership rooted in core values, reforms at the UN, and having a close relationship with lawmakers.

"I've learned that effective diplomacy means more than shaking hands and staging photo ops," Thomas-Greenfield said. "It means developing real robust relationships, it means finding common ground and managing points of differentiation, it means doing genuine old-fashioned, people-to-people diplomacy."

Over her 35-year career, Thomas-Greenfield has been posted Switzerland, Pakistan, Nigeria, Jamaica and elsewhere. Thomas-Greenfield grew up in segregated Baker, Louisiana. If confirmed, she will be only the second Black woman to ever hold the post.

"When we exert our influence in accordance to our values, the United Nations can be an indispensable institution for advancing peace, security and our collective well-being. If instead we walk away from the table and allow others to fill the void the global community suffers, and so do American interest," Thomas-Greenfield said.

New Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his wife, Evan Ryan, participated in a ceremonial swearing-in with Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday.

Although daily guidance said the ceremony would take place at the White House, it happened next door, inside the ornate office of the vice president at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. They stood in front of two American flags and two white State Department flags for the ceremony.

Blinken was confirmed by the Senate in a vote of 78-22 on Tuesday and officially sworn in by a senior career ambassador, Carol Perez, who is currently serving as acting under secretary for management. 

Blinken has advised Biden on foreign policy for almost two decades. Previously, he served as deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, and when serving as national security adviser to Biden, he was present in the Situation Room during the Osama bin Laden raid. Blinken was also a top staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when then-senator Biden was its chair.

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan

Jennifer Granholm, Biden's nominee for energy secretary, is testifying in front of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

In her opening statement, Granholm laid out that her main focuses as energy secretary would be on nuclear energy, supporting scientific resources at the Department of Energy's labs and facilities, and using that research to create jobs. Granholm also touted her experience as the former governor of Michigan and her efforts to get the state's s auto industry to pivot to manufacturing electric vehicles during recession.

"In talking with you -- Democrats and Republicans -- I know that you all share that belief," Granholm said, referring to the opportunity to create American jobs through efforts twoard clean energy. "And if confirmed, I look forward to working with you to bring good paying jobs to every state, and to make sure that no worker gets left behind."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, reporting for work at the State Department, told the agency's 70,000 employees around the world, "I will have your back."

"It’s a new day for America. It's a new day for the world," Blinken said in remarks shortly after entering the building, calling his return "like a homecoming."

Blinken recalled how his career began at the State Department 28 years ago as a special assistant. He last served in the department four years ago as its deputy secretary in the Obama administration and acknowledged the changes the agency and the world have undergone since.

"To date, the pandemic has claimed the lives of five State Department Americans and 42 locally employed staff around the world," Blinken said. "And outside our doors, our government buildings are surrounded by new barricades. We’ve never been in a moment quite like this before."

He went on to pledge to be an inclusive, transparent and morale-building boss, arguing, "We at State have a role to play in all of this."

Blinken also vowed to invest in building a diverse and inclusive agency that is "truly representative of the American people."

He said "the world is watching us intently right now" to see "if we can heal our nation," but, in a nod to the appeal of the Trump administration's more isolationist approach, Blinken noted that the department must work first for the American people, saying the public wants to see "that our foreign policy is about them and their lives."

"We will do right by them," he said. "Now let’s get to work."

-ABC News Conor Finnegan