Opening His First Foreign Policy Speech with a Dad Joke, Uncle Joe Offers Battered State Staffers A Return to Normal Time 2/6/2021 Kimberly Dozier © Jim Lo Scalzo EPA/Bloomberg/Getty Images U.S. President Joe Biden wears a protective mask at the State Department in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 4, 2021.
President Joe Biden started out his speech laying a new vision for America’s place in the world with a dad joke or, rather, a granddad joke. He compared his own advanced age to that of Benjamin Franklin, the father of U.S. foreign policy, and namesake of the grand hall where the 78-year-old President was giving his first foreign policy address. Biden was appropriately sheepish in his delivery, and limited cameras meant no lingering shots to capture possible eye rolls from his staff.
U S ending support for Saudi-led war in Yemen as Biden shifts foreign policy priorities
washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images
By BEN GITTLESON and CONOR FINNEGAN, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) President Joe Biden will deliver his first major foreign policy speech in office Thursday during a visit to the State Department, where he is expected to talk about “reclaiming America’s role in the world” and restoring values to the center of U.S. foreign policy, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
Biden’s speech, alongside Secretary of State Antony Blinken, will outline his foreign policy vision and how he will put diplomacy at the center of it, a senior administration official told ABC News a point driven home by the fact that the State Department will be the first federal agency he visits as president. He is also expected to take a series of executive actions while there, the official said.
Blow Up the Donor-to-Ambassador Pipeline
Joe Biden has the chance to curtail a corrupt practice that official Washington has long ignored.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Would you like to become a U.S. ambassador to a foreign country? You have two options. You can join the State Department as a career officer in the Foreign Service and spend a couple of decades rising through the ranks as a diplomat. If you’re competent enough, a future president might nominate you for a Senate-confirmed ambassadorial posting. It will likely be somewhere that’s not in Europe or North America, but that doesn’t make it any less important. You may get posted somewhere dangerous or unstable, which would make your work all the more critical. In terms of perks, however, at least you get to be called “Ambassador So-and-So” for the rest of your life.
POLITICO
Antony Blinken s warm welcome at Foggy Bottom may be tested by career officials seeking recognition.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives to brief reporters at the State Department on Jan. 27. | Carlos Barria/Pool Photo via AP
Link Copied
The day before Antony Blinken was officially confirmed as secretary of State, at least one U.S. Embassy had already gone ahead and hung up his portrait.
It was probably just a mistake on the part of building management officials, a U.S. diplomat told POLITICO on condition that the specific embassy not be named. But even if inadvertent, the premature move captured how eagerly many in the State Department’s 75,000-person workforce were awaiting their new leader, after years of feeling marginalized and demeaned under former President Donald Trump.
vimarsana © 2020. All Rights Reserved.