Curtis Ried, a career foreign service officer and veteran of the National Security staff for two presidents, has been named as the NSC’s new chief of staff, officials tell NBC News.
Ried will be the first openly LGBTQ member of the NSC’s senior leadership team, the White House says, and replaces Yohannes Abraham, who was confirmed by the Senate in August to be ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
“We are excited to have Curtis take on this critical leadership role for our team. I’m confident he will bring to it his trademark smarts, skills, and collegiality, sharpened across his nearly 20 years as a Foreign Service Officer and multiple tours at the NSC,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.
Ried currently serves as the NSC’s senior director for multilateral affairs, a role that has connected him the entire national security apparatus. He has traveled regularly with President Biden at home and abroad, another key factor in his selection.
Following an administration that followed an “America First” mantra and preferred to engage in one-on-one diplomatic engagements, the Biden foreign policy has worked to put the U.S. back at the head of a collective global response to key challenges and threats, from responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the Covid pandemic and climate change. Ried in particular played a key role in working with the United Nations and rebuilding the refugee admissions program.
“Curtis has been a trusted partner to me and many senior leaders across the President’s cabinet, and he is an excellent choice for this important role,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the UN.
Ried’s is just the latest personnel move within the NSC after a particularly consequential period that also saw the U.S. ending its 20-year war in Afghanistan. Shehzi Khan also joins the NSC as deputy senior director for Intelligence, and Shanthi Sethi, a U.S. Navy Captain, is coming on for a new position focused on personnel recruitment. Christina Segal Knowles also joins as senior director for International Economics.
Abraham, who served in a number of domestic policy and political roles for all eight years of the Obama administration, became NSC chief of staff after serving as executive director of the Biden-Harris transition team, helping “lay a strong foundation for the entire administration,” Sullivan said. Biden has worked to cultivate relationships with ASEAN nations as part of the administration’s strategy with China. Abraham will be sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris Monday night.
What a DNC down payment looks like
On Friday NBC News reported on how, despite questions about President Biden’s political future, his top advisers have been building a potential re-election effort in plain sight.
And, by committing from an early stage to make substantial, targeted investments in the national party organization at an early stage, Biden recognized a convenient political reality — that the states that would matter most for retaining control of the Senate and key governorships in 2022 are going to be equally important two years later.
As the story noted, more than 250 full-time, paid DNC staff have been deployed to eight key states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. That number doesn’t include so-called DNC “fellows” and other part time staff who are engaged in some of the key party efforts, especially voter registration. Another 200 full time staff have been funded by the DNC for coordinated campaigns since Biden took office, including 120 in New Jersey and Virginia, which had gubernatorial and state legislative races in 2021.
A party official gave a deeper dive into what those numbers look like now, what areas the staff are focused on and why the Biden team might stand to benefit from their work in the future. In each of the eight states,…
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