Joe Biden Names Susan Rice to Lead White House Domestic Policy Council
By: Andrew Restuccia and Eliza Collins (WSJ)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WASHINGTON—President-elect Joe Biden has chosen Susan Rice, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to lead the White House Domestic Policy Council, as he fills out his government with veterans of the Obama administration.
Ms. Rice served as U.N. ambassador at the beginning of the Obama administration and later became President Barack Obama's national security adviser. In that role, she worked closely with then-Vice President Biden, including during daily intelligence briefings.
Mr. Biden's transition team announced four other nominees on Thursday, two of them Obama administration veterans.
Mr. Biden will nominate former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to return to his role leading the federal agency and Denis McDonough, who served as White House chief of staff in the Obama administration, to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs.
He will also nominate Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Katherine Tai, the chief trade counsel for the Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, as U.S. Trade Representative. The Wall Street Journal had previously reported Mr. Vilsack, Ms. Fudge and Ms. Tai's new roles.
“This is the right team for this moment in history, and I know that each of these leaders will hit the ground running on day one to take on the interconnected crises families are facing today,” Mr. Biden said.
While Mr. Biden has announced many of the most high-profile Cabinet positions, he hasn’t yet unveiled his pick for attorney general. The leading contenders to serve in that role are outgoing Sen. Doug Jones (D., Ala.), former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, former deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person said that no decision had been made and one wasn’t expected this week.
The president-elect is expected to soon turn to filling several energy and environment-related positions, including the heads of the Energy Department, Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Biden is also expected to name a White House official focused on domestic climate change issues.
Other major jobs that Mr. Biden still has to fill include: Central Intelligence Agency director, commerce secretary, education secretary, labor secretary, transportation secretary and the head of the Small Business Administration.
Though Ms. Rice is known as a foreign-policy expert, Mr. Biden chose her because of their close relationship and because he believes her experience in government will translate to domestic policy, according to a person familiar with his thinking.
The president-elect wants the foreign-policy, economic and domestic-policy arms of the White House to work closely together, the person said. The person added that Ms. Rice already has a working relationship with Mr. Biden’s incoming National Economic Council director, Brian Deese, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Ms. Rice was under consideration to be Mr. Biden’s running mate and was also discussed as a potential secretary of state.
In her new role, Ms. Rice will be one of Mr. Biden’s top policy advisers. She will be responsible for coordinating with federal agencies and mapping out Mr. Biden’s domestic policy agenda. Among the issues in her portfolio: expanding the Affordable Care Act and implementing Mr. Biden’s infrastructure and climate change plans.
The Domestic Policy Council position doesn’t require Senate confirmation. Had she been nominated for a different role, Ms. Rice could have faced opposition from Senate Republicans for her role in foreign policy during the Obama administration.
Republicans have criticized Ms. Rice for initially characterizing the deadly 2012 attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya, as an episode of spontaneous protest hijacked by extremists instead of a premeditated terrorist attack. They have also accused her of spying on Michael Flynn , President Trump’s first national security adviser.
A 2014 House of Representatives report on the Libya incident found that while public statements by Ms. Rice and other U.S. officials were proven wrong, the inaccuracies stemmed from poor intelligence. Declassified records, meanwhile, have shown no evidence she improperly accessed information about Mr. Flynn.
After leaving the Obama administration, Ms. Rice joined the Netflix Inc. board of directors in May 2018. This August, as she was considered to be Mr. Biden’s running mate, Ms. Rice sold a significant portion of her Netflix shares .
Before Mr. McDonough was Mr. Obama’s chief of staff, he was deputy national security adviser and worked for the National Security Council. If confirmed, he would be the second non-veteran to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, after David Shulkin, a medical doctor who was secretary early in the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris ’s husband Doug Emhoff will join Georgetown Law as a faculty member, the university announced Thursday. Mr. Emhoff will teach law courses focused on media and entertainment. He previously announced he would be stepping down from his job as a partner with law firm DLA Piper.
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