US President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday tapped Susan Rice to lead the White House Domestic Policy Council, CNN reported.
Rice, 56, served as former President Barack Obama's ambassador to the United Nations and later his national security adviser. She is set to join a list of prominent presidential advisers, including Democrat Leon Panetta and Republican James Baker, to work in both prominent foreign policy and domestic roles.
Rice had been considered as Biden's vice presidential running mate before he chose Kamala Harris, and later for secretary of state.
She infamously came under fire in 2012 when she claimed the attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, was a “spontaneous reaction” to the “Innocence of Muslims” film, which depicted the Muslim prophet Mohammad as a buffoon and pedophile. Her remarks were later proven to be wrong when it was revealed that Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists were behind the attack.
At the time, Rice had been Obama’s leading candidate to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, but she withdrew from consideration over the criticism of her Benghazi remarks.
In 2018 she criticized US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran, claiming the deal worked and withdrawing from it would be disastrous.
Rice was also critical of Trump’s meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.