The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
In vice president search, Biden has a known quantity in Susan Rice
WASHINGTON — As thenVice President Joe Biden left the West Wing each evening to head home, he often popped his head into national security adviser Susan Rice’s nearby suite of offices to check in — sometimes on pressing foreign policy matters, sometimes just to shoot the breeze.
“My favorite unannounced visitor was Vice President Joe Biden,” Rice wrote in her book “Tough Love.”
In those casual visits, as well as in daily national security briefings, Biden and Rice forged an easy working relationship, according to people who worked alongside them during their eight years in the Obama administration. It’s that personal relationship, and Biden’s firsthand knowledge of how Rice would operate in close proximity to a president, that are now seen as among her strongest attributes as Biden considers her to be his running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket.
Rice was initially seen as a surprise candidate for the role. The 55-year-old has a long pedigree in foreign policy, but has never held elected office. She is close to former President Barack Obama and his network of policy and political advisers, but has a lower public profile than other women Biden is considering. She has also been a lightning rod for criticism from Republicans, who contend she put politics ahead of national security.
Yet Rice has quietly gained support among some Democrats in recent weeks as Biden’s advisers grapple with the enormity of what he would inherit if he defeats President Donald Trump in November. Rice is seen as a No. 2 who could shoulder much of the early workload on foreign policy while Biden focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and reviving the economy.
But it’s the close working relationship Rice forged with Biden during the Obama administration that is seen as a key intangible that other contenders simply don’t have.
Biden is in the final stages of selecting his running mate, and is believed to soon be holding in-person conversations with a short list of contenders. He’s said his running mate will be a woman, and is considering several women of color. Rice, who is Black, is among them.
Rice spent the first four years of the Obama administration as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. She commuted to Washington on weekends to be with her family, and sometimes offered the luxury apartment set aside for the U.N. ambassador to Biden and his wife, Jill, when they were in New York.