“The American people are going to sleep soundly with him as our next CIA director,” Biden said in a statement.
If confirmed, Burns would become the first leader in the history of the CIA whose life experience comes from the State Department.
“Bill Burns is an exemplary diplomat with decades of experience on the world stage in keeping our people and our country protected and protected,” said Biden. “He shares my deep conviction that intelligence must be non-political and that the dedicated intelligence professionals who serve our nation deserve our gratitude and respect.”
Biden was attracted to Burns because of his diplomatic experience and his perceived ability to restore the intelligence agency’s credibility in the post-Trump era, people familiar with the matter said, along with his experience in Russia. His selection would bypass other candidates with more formal experience in the intelligence field.
Burns, who is known as Bill, is president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a renowned study group on international affairs in Washington. He served as undersecretary of state in the Obama administration after working for more than three decades in positions in the foreign service, where he joined in 1982.
He also served under five American, Democratic and Republican presidents, and ten secretaries of state in a variety of positions, including as ambassador to Jordan under the Clinton administration and Russia under George W. Bush.
“If he loses, I doubt that he suddenly embraces the traditional bipartisan commitment with effective transitions. At best, he will be consumed by efforts to rationalize his defeat and paint the election as fraudulent; at worst, he will try to contest or undermine the outcome” , wrote Burns. “Like so many other characteristics of the Trump era, the transition would bear little resemblance to any previous one, or any of the many for which I served as a career diplomat. The costs of confusion, mixed signals and bureaucratic turmoil can be very high.”
Burns also has a long history at the center of peace negotiations in the Middle East and has worked closely with the Obama administration on the nuclear deal with Iran. He has limited experience in China, but other than that, he has a broad portfolio of work in major regions of the world. world.
While all of Biden’s nominees face an easier route to confirmation in a Democratic-controlled Senate, Burns’ role in Benghazi’s investigation could also be revised. He testified at a House hearing in 2012, after then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was unable to because of a concussion.
“We learned very difficult and painful lessons in Benghazi,” said Burns. “We are already acting on them. We have to do better. We owe it to our colleagues who lost their lives in Benghazi.”
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, a member of the Intelligence Committee, criticized Morell as an “apologist for torture” for his earlier suggestions that the “intensified interrogation” of terrorists was effective and moral.
Burns, who is respected by Democrats and Republicans in the foreign policy arena, should receive confirmation much easier. The position of director of the CIA is not expected to be a formal member of Biden’s cabinet, which represents a change from the Trump administration, but a return to the status he had in the Obama administration.
“Everyone always wanted to send their memos to Bill,” said Haines to the audience.
Although Burns was initially mentioned as a secretary of state appointed to Biden, a longtime CIA analyst defended his choice to lead the CIA on a blog at the end of last year.
“Many of the CIA’s difficulties over the past 40 years can be attributed to mediocre leadership. The CIA would be the main beneficiary of an exemplary nomination for an institution that has become very insular and parochial.”