The Case for Susan Rice As Vice President
Photo Credit: The White House from Washington, DC / Public domain
By Logan Phillips
Date: August 5th
Joe Biden is on the verge of selecting his Vice-Presidential Candidate. As we await the unveiling, Race to the White House will assess the biggest strengths and weaknesses that each of the top contenders bring both to the White House and the campaign trail. We already looked at Elizabeth Warren, and next up is Susan Rice
Susan Rice
Pros:
1. Ready to Serve: The majority of Presidents over the last seventy years have made at least one a catastrophic foreign policy mistake early in their presidency, which they would forever regret. It is often the direct result of their inexperience with national security and foreign affairs. If tragedy strikes and Susan Rice had to step in as President, she would be far better prepared than most of her predecessors for this critically important part of the job. She has been in the crucible with President Obama as his national security advisor, and at his side during countless high stakes decisions in the Situation Room. She would begin her job with a full understanding of how the West Wing functions, and knowledge of all tools, whether military, diplomatic or economic, that the U.S. has at its disposal.
2. Raw Talent: Despite being new to the process of campaigning, Ambassador Rice has the type of skill set over which political consultants salivate. She is whip-smart and radiates strength and authenticity. Just as importantly, Rice is eminently watchable. She cuts through the noise and speaks directly to the heart of any issue at hand. Her skill is unusual, but valuable, reminiscent of Stacey Abrams, Pete Buttigieg, and even, of her former boss, President Barack Obama.
3. Affirmation and Commitment to Racial Progress: Great advancements in the expansion of Civil Rights rarely come from Presidential decree alone, but instead occur when a President aligns themselves with historic movements. The combination of people power and hard power can transform both history and daily lives. If Joe Biden wants to send a clear signal of his commitment to advancing the cause of Black Lives Matter towards lasting change, he’d be hard pressed to find a better partner in that effort, than selecting a black woman who is both a descendant of slaves, and of Jamaican immigrants, as his running mate.
Rice’s family history is quintessentially American, albeit not the Mayflower kind. Her Great Grandfather was born a slave in South Carolina, who fought for the Union in the Civil War. He ran and won office in the South during Reconstruction, earned a Doctorate in Divinity, and founded a boarding school for black children. Rice’s father was one of the revered Tuskegee Airmen in WWII, where he served amidst a segregated Air Force.
4. Close Relationship with Biden: Unlike other V.P. contenders, Susan Rice worked closely with Vice President Biden, during her White House tenure; there, they developed a strong personal relationship. As she wrote in her 2019 book, Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For:
“My favorite unannounced visitor was Vice President Joe Biden… He came to check on how we were doing, buck us up, tell a joke, shoot the breeze, or deliver a Bidenism- a family aphorism that never lost its value. In rare instances, the Vice President surprised me by barring his soul, sharing his agony over his son Beau’s cancer and later his tragic passing. Even when in pain, Biden was warm and generous, always leaving me feeling better then when he walked in.”
5. Believes America has a Moral Responsibility to Act: More than twenty-five years later, Rice remains haunted by what she witnessed firsthand in Rwanda, while serving in Clinton’s National Security Council. She visited the site of one of Rwanda’s many genocide massacres; the ground was littered with bodies of thousands of adults and children, slaughtered solely because of their ethnicity. This horrifying experience solidified her view that America has a responsibility to try to prevent genocides and mass atrocities.
Rice’s leadership would represent a sharp change from the Trump administration leadership, which withdrew American forces by request of the Turkish President. Trump ordered the withdrawal of our troops, aware that Turkey forces were primed to commit ethnic cleansing of our Kurdish allies, on Trump’s signal of U.S. departure from the region. The Kurds, whom Trump abandoned to their slaughter, were the same U.S. allies who had been fundamental to our efforts to liberate Syria and Iraq from ISIS’s tyranny.
Sometimes, even good intentions can backfire. The Obama administration intervened in Libya to prevent Dictator Muammar Gaddafi from slaughtering innocent civilians he described as “rats and cockroaches.” Experts still fiercely debate whether U.S. interventions in Libya, which Rice supported, prevented mass atrocities, or whether Gaddafi’s threats were more bluster then real. However, no one debates that Libya remains in terrible condition today.
Cons:
1. New Kid on the Block: Susan Rice has never before run for office; the Vice Presidency is quite an ambitious office in which to make one’s political debut. Rice can certainly handle the job of Vice President, but she has not dealt with the unique challenges and frustrations of being a high-profile political candidate. It is possible that her extensive interactions with the press, as Obama’s U.N. Ambassador, have taught her to avoid gaffes, handle scrutiny, and stay on message. Nonetheless, her political inexperience presents a genuine risk.
2. Benghazi ... Sort Of: In 2012, a radical militant group, advocating for the implementation of strict Sharia Law in Libya, attacked the US Embassy in Benghazi, murdering Ambassador Christopher Stevens as well as three other Americans. The CIA’s initial assessment was that the cause of the attack was a violent and spontaneous protest reaction to an anti-Islamic video. In her role as UN Ambassador, Rice told the press,
“Based on the best information we have to date… there was a violent protest outside of our embassy—sparked by this hateful video... and extremist elements joined in and escalated the violence.”
It was later established that the attack was a premeditated strike. Rice received withering criticism from the Right for playing politics with terrorism. However, as has been affirmed by a two-year Republican led House investigation, Rice was acting on the best intelligence that she had at the time.
Nonetheless, Rice remains a boogeyman for some on the Right, and a constant source of fodder for late night talk shows on Fox News. Will this history hurt a Biden-Rice ticket? Republicans often overplay their hand on Benghazi, even in 2012, to Mitt Romney’s detriment. There is some danger in selecting Rice, but it seems unlikely to sway voters not already committed to Trump second term. This is the type of vulnerability which partisans view as a lethal weakness, but really, just forces a campaign to waste precious time and resources.
3. Overlapping Strengths: Joe Biden has extensive foreign policy experience. He led the Obama administration’s response to Russian aggression in Ukraine and served as the Head of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee. Rice would undoubtedly provide a valuable contribution to global efforts, but she provides a complementary skill set, rather than helping Biden address an area of weakness. Unless Biden aims to make this a foreign policy election, there exists an argument for selecting a candidate with domestic focus.
