Taking on a New Role Susan Rice is Asserting Herself

After serving as United Nations ambassador and national security adviser in the Obama administration, she has unexpectedly ended up helping oversee domestic policy in the Biden White House. WASHINGTON — When President Biden and his top advisers decided to bomb Iran-backed militias in Syria last week, Susan E. Rice was not in the room. Ms. Rice, who was national security adviser in the Obama administration and now runs the Domestic Policy Council for Mr. Biden, still has her security clearances. She could read the classified intelligence reports if she wanted to, but she admits she no longer has any need to know beyond her own gnawing curiosity. She acknowledges a sense of relief that she does not have to tackle the same national security problems she left behind four years ago, and that instead of Syria and Saudi Arabia, she is focused on an array of issues like health care, immigration and gun safety as well as instilling racial equity throughout the government. That relief, however, is coupled with some fear of missing out.“I kind of wish I had been in the room just to hear all the considerations,” Ms. Rice said Saturday during a Zoom interview, dressed in yoga pants and a white fleece, discussing the military action in Syria. “But I’ve got more to do than I’ve got hours of the day. It’s new terrain, so it’s fun.”On paper, the job of running the little-known Domestic Policy Council is a small role for someone who made the short list for vice president and later hoped for a top national security job. It is still too early to judge how much clout she will have in an administration well-stocked with domestic policy experts. And it is not clear what role she might play in working through matters that will require some buy-in from Republicans on Capitol Hill, given her self-described role as “recyclable boogeyman” of the right. But Ms. Rice, one of the few senior Black women officials in the West Wing, has been brought in with a mandate to elevate the council and to operate as part of a policy troika alongside Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, and Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council. And colleagues say Ms. Rice, well known for her sharp edges, is not shy about asserting herself.“She has made it so that she’s always going to have a seat at the table, or she’s going to break in the door,” said Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary. “People knew that when she came in.”This was not where she originally thought she would end up. But during the transition, when it was unclear whether Democrats would win control of the Senate, Ms. Rice’s conversations with the Biden team switched from cabinet positions, like defense secretary and secretary of state, to White House roles that would not require Senate confirmation. The inevitable relitigation by Republicans of Ms. All data is taken from the source: http://nytimes.com Article Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/us/politics/susan-rice-domestic-policy-council.html #rice #newscbs #newsblog #newsusalive #newsyearresolution #newsday #

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