USAID Administrator Samantha Power's visibility in Washington has prompted speculation that she has her eyes on a bigger job
A State Department official complained that Power is so prolific that public relations staffers there at times wonder if their USAID counterparts will release a Power statement before Blinken comments on an issue. Congressional aides said they’d heard similar grumbling from State.
In a separate statement, Blinken said the Biden team was lucky to include Power because of her “unique experience, broad expertise and deep passion.” United States Agency for International Development administrator Mark Green speaks to members of the press during a briefing at the Munich Security conference in Munich, Germany, Friday, Feb. 14, 2020. | Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Pool Photo via AP
“There was a culture of blame fostered,” the former staffer recalled. “There was working people all hours of the night. Making meeting after meeting after meeting. It cuts into your ability to work. There was real burnout.” Power has recruited an array of people for various positions, including bringing in some highly loyal aides who worked for her at the United Nations. Perhaps the most high-profile figure nominated to work for Power at USAID isand New Yorker writer. If confirmed, he’ll serve as the assistant administrator of USAID’s global health bureau.
Take Ethiopia, where a war between federal forces and fighters aligned with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front has led to atrocities and starvation. The senior USAID official said that, in an early brainstorming session with staffers, Power asked about ways to embarrass the Ethiopian government given its role in the unfolding catastrophe in the Tigray region and beyond..
But Power’s celebrity status, as well as her reputation as a genocide scholar and interventionist, can inflame tensions, others warn. She is not, after all, the typical, often-little-known figure atop America’s main overseas aid agency. For much of August, she focused on other issues, especially the U.S. response to an earthquake in Haiti, for which Biden gave her a lead role. It wasn’t until Aug. 18, after the Taliban had taken the Afghan capital and prompted a chaotic evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies, that Power issued a short Twitter thread on the situation.is heartbroken by the scenes we’re seeing in Afghanistan and the dangers confronting the Afghan people,” she wrote.
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