They describe Rice as a highly capable government operator, the kind that can take charge of foreign policy when President Biden addresses the domestic crises of a pandemic and a ruined economy. Having a Republican son speaks to his outspoken mindset, these supporters say, further arguing that Benghazi is a worn-out issue that is not likely to rock votes.
Perhaps the most important thing? Rice has a long-standing, and by all accounts warm, relationship with Biden.
“He has seen her not only in good times, but on really difficult and challenging times,” said Valerie Jarrett, who served as senior adviser to former President Barack Obama. Jarrett emphasized that she is not endorsing any particular candidate over others, but also said of Rice: “There is a level and depth in her experience that would be a real asset.”
Biden’s campaign will not comment on his potential career partners. But after word got out that Rice is being examined, the buzz about the possibility has grown, sparking columns with titles like “The Case of Susan Rice.”
The conversation is strong enough that the allies of others who are looking for the vice presidency are increasingly concerned about Rice, especially because of her close ties to Biden, who, like Obama’s No. 2, had an office just a few steps from hers.
Privately, some in the world of California Senator Kamala Harris have indicated that Rice could be Harris’s most formidable rival for the vice presidential job. Harris is widely considered the candidate with the best shot at being Biden’s running mate: He passed by the press wringer when he faced him in the primary and has decent recognition of his name. Like Rice, she would represent the first black woman on a major party presidential ticket.
No one rules it out, but there is less speculation that Rice would run for the Oval Office the way Harris surely would post-Biden. That could give Rice an edge in veepstakes, especially if Biden, who has hinted that he can serve a term, doesn’t want to deal with the distraction of a ruling partner watching his work.
Still, Rice would be an unorthodox choice. It is not entirely certain who first suggested her as a possible vice president, although Jim Clyburn, the powerful congressman whose approval helps deliver South Carolina to Biden, praised Rice and noted in a brief interview that he promoted her as one of several options. Representative Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, co-chair of the Biden campaign, confirmed that Rice is being examined and said her consideration as a potential running mate is “absolutely serious.”
Rice has also drawn more attention in recent months because she published a memoir, the last pages of which are more like a call to political action than an insider account of Obama’s foreign policy. She has kept her name in the news with regular television hits and columns in The New York Times, sometimes tackling issues beyond national security, including race relations.
People close to Rice say she did not show up, but that she would be proud to serve if asked. “One of the things he is most passionate about is public service,” said Gayle Smith, a friend and colleague of Rice who headed the United States Agency for International Development under Obama.
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Several of the people who spoke to POLITICO worked directly with Rice during her time in the Obama administration, when she served as the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser.
Some confessed that they had serious policy differences with her, especially in matters related to Africa, but said that they generally respected her. Most spoke of it in brilliant terms, even those who were initially surprised by its harsh standards and the liberal use of the words curses.
“At first, I thought ‘Who is this crazy person?’ But in the end, I just developed one of the deepest senses of respect I have had for anyone in government, “said a former member of the National Security Council. “She did things. She is one of the most effective bureaucratic operators I’ve seen in government. ”
Rice, 55, was the type of boss who valued different opinions and constantly challenged his aides to test their arguments, former colleagues said. But they also praised her for deferring her subject matter experts to meetings. She is also very loyal and protective of the people who work for her, they said.
Meridith Webster described how, in 2009, after learning that her mother had stage 4 lung cancer, she continued to work as Rice’s deputy chief of staff at the United States Mission to the United Nations, even when she felt “sad and powerless”. Then one day Rice walked into Webster’s office, closed the door, and told him she had to go to her mother.
“She said, ‘Take all the time you want. When you come back, your work is here. If you don’t leave now, you will regret this for the rest of your life, ”recalled Webster, who took a leave of absence. “If she hadn’t told me to do that, I don’t think she would have known how to do it. It allowed me to have the end with my mother. It ended in a way that I have closure. Thanks to Susan, I don’t regret this horrible moment. ”
In her book, titled “Tough Love,” Rice makes relatively little mention of Biden, but when she describes him it is in friendly terms. She mentions how, in the 1990s, then-Senator Biden spoke in her favor when the Senate considered her and ultimately confirmed her for the role of undersecretary of state for African affairs.
“My favorite unannounced visitor was Joe Biden, whose office was just down the hall,” Rice wrote of her past years at the White House. “He came to see how we were doing, to cheer us up, to tell a joke, to blow the breeze or to deliver a bidenismo, a family aphorism that never lost its value.”
“On rare occasions,” he added, “the vice president surprised me by discovering his soul, sharing his agony over his son Beau’s cancer and then his tragic passing. Even when he suffered, Joe Biden was warm and generous, always leaving me better than when I entered ”.
Rice regularly briefed Biden and Obama on national security issues. “Biden obviously had her own national security staff, but she spent as much time with him as almost anyone who is not directly on her staff,” said a second former NSC official.
Biden and Rice did not always agree on the policy. As the Arab Spring revolutions rocked the Middle East in 2011, Biden urged Obama not to abandon Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, a man he had long known. Rice sided with protesters who wanted Mubarak to leave. His side won that discussion.
Rice, who was Obama’s ambassador to the UN at the time, favored US intervention in Libya to prevent dictator Moammar Gadhafi from eliminating residents of the city of Benghazi, a rebel stronghold. Rice, who had been a member of the NSC staff when the Rwandan genocide occurred, was determined to avoid another massive atrocity. But Biden and others argued against the intervention, saying the United States had no compelling national security interests in Libya.
The eventual US-led intervention may have prevented the mass killings in Benghazi. But it quickly turned into a larger battle against Qaddafi, who was eventually overthrown and killed. Libya today is a broken and violent country of militias in competition with various foreign powers that fuel the conflict.
