President-elect Joe Biden
Joe Biden: Capitol police chief accuses House and Senate security officials of thwarting efforts to convene the National Guard: WaPo PGA announces plans to move the 2022 championship to Trump’s property. early Monday announced former Secretary of State William Burns as his candidate for CIA director.
Biden’s transition team noted that Burns, a career diplomat who retired in 2014 after serving in the U.S. Foreign Service for 33 years, has held various national security positions in five Democratic and Republican administrations. Burns was U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008 and was U.S. Ambassador to Jordan from 1998 to 2001.
Biden’s team called Burns a “consummate and complete professional of integrity who will bring the facts and independence our national security demands.”
“Bill Burns is an exemplary diplomat with decades of experience on the world stage keeping our people and our country safe,” Biden said in a statement.
“I share my deep belief that intelligence must be apolitical and that the intelligence professionals who serve our nation deserve our gratitude and respect. Ambassador Burns will bring knowledge, judgment and perspective. that we need to prevent and address threats before they can reach our shores. ”Biden added. “The American people will sleep soundly with him as the next director of the CIA.”
Burns currently serves as chair of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank.
A longtime critic of Trump-era foreign policy, Burns wrote an essay for The Atlantic last August that has been recirculated as President Trump
Donald Trump Capitol police chief who has just denounced accuses House and Senate security officials of thwarting efforts to convene the National Guard: WaPo PGA announces plans to move 2022 championship to Trump property . he refuses to accept the results of the presidential election.
In the play, Burns wrote that Trump “at best … would be consumed by efforts to rationalize his defeat and paint the election as manipulated; at worst, he will try to challenge or undermine the outcome.”
–Zack Budryk contributed to this report, which was last updated at 7:12 am