President Barack Obama said Wednesday that American ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice would succeed Tom Donilon, who plans on resigning, as national security adviser.
Rice, 48, has been an outspoken diplomat and close political ally of Obama, according to the New York Times. The new positions puts her at the center of the Obama administration’s foreign policy team.
Samantha Power has been nominated to succeed Rice as United Nations ambassador, reports the Washington Post.
Obama said that Rice is a “fierce champion for justice and human dignity” and determined “to exercise our power wisely and deliberately,” according to Businessweek.
“They have deep moral commitments and they believe they are activists — both of them,” commented Michael Doyle, a former assistant secretary general of the United. “But they also have equally deep experience operating in the Washington bureaucracy — and know what’s possible, what’s not, what lever can be moved and which one can’t. That’s just as important.”
The appointment is an answer, of sorts, to Republican senators’ and representatives’ efforts last year in blocking Rice’s nomination to succeed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Rice was widely criticized for comments on the Benghazi attack that many called “misleading.”
Due to the backlash, Rice formally requested that she be removed from consideration for Secretary of State.
Image: WikiCommons
