A top foreign policy aide to President Joe Biden is joining Kamala Harris’s office, adding firepower to the vice president’s team as pressing national security issues command increasing attention inside the White House.
Rebecca Lissner will start as Harris’s deputy national security adviser in the coming weeks, according to Politico. Lissner is currently the acting senior director of the National Security Council’s strategic planning directorate and an expert on U.S. policy toward Russia who has closely advised the administration on the long-term implications of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. She has also overseen Biden’s still-to-come National Security Strategy, according to the outlet.
Harris, who joined Biden’s presidential ticket with little foreign policy experience, has worked to build relationships with foreign leaders since taking office as well as boost her profile on the world stage. But she has faced questions over her role in the administration’s major national security decisions.
The addition of a top Biden national security official to Harris’s staff will likely draw it closer to the West Wing.
“Rebecca has been a tremendous member of the team and her promotion is well-earned. I’m very glad that we will continue to work together in her new capacity,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told Politico in a statement.
Harris’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The move comes at a time of increased scrutiny over the administration’s national security decision-making. The White House has sent billions of dollars of aid to support Kyiv as the war rages while pressing trans-Atlantic allies to impose punishing costs on Russia for the war.
While the extent of Harris’s input into the decisions isn’t clear, the vice president has spent time advocating the administration’s priorities in meetings with allies and other leaders since before the start of the war.
She met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Munich in the days ahead of Moscow’s invasion and with Polish leaders during a dispute with Washington over sending fighter planes to Kyiv. Last year, Harris said she played a key role in Biden’s plan to withdraw from Afghanistan, telling CNN at the time that she was the last person in the room before Biden made the decision. She has also met with dozens of heads of state and senior foreign officials, smoothing out differences and forging her own ties.
Still, Harris’s office has been rocked by a string of departures in recent months as top officials head for the exits. Harris’s national security adviser, Nancy McEldowney, announced in March that she would soon be leaving, which was followed by the news that the vice president’s deputy chief of staff, Michael Fuchs, would depart in May. Fuchs, a senior state department official under former President Barack Obama, has advised Harris on a range of domestic and international issues.
Last month, Harris announced that deputy national security adviser Philip Gordon, a veteran of past Democratic administrations, would replace McEldowney. Former State Department and National Security Council strategic communications official Dean Lieberman also recently joined Harris’s team as a special adviser and speechwriter.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Replacing Lissner on the NSC is Thomas Wright, a foreign policy scholar at the Brookings Institution. Wright will be special assistant to the president and senior director for strategic planning, according to Politico.
