Biden Taps Victoria “F*ck the EU” Nuland For Key National Security Post

Politico reports Tuesday that President-elect Joe Biden is tapping former senior Obama administration foreign affairs officials to serve in his cabinet.

Most notably among them is neocon Victoria Nuland, who has just been tapped as Biden’s state department undersecretary for political affairs.

Writes Politico: “Another veteran diplomat, Victoria Nuland, will be nominated for the role of under secretary of State for political affairs, one of the people said. Nuland also previously served in the Obama administration, as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs.”

Recall that in this capacity she ran point for Obama’s regime change “democracy promotion” efforts in Ukraine. In 2014 leaked audio clip posted to YouTube caused deep embarrassment for the State Department amid accusations the US was coordinating coup efforts using the ongoing “Maidan Revolution” to oust then President Viktor Yanukovych.

In that leaked phone call Nuland told US ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt “F*ck the EU” – for which she was later forced to apologize. Here’s some of the audio for a little trip down memory lane.

She had also been instrumental in her prior postings at the State Department in Obama’s disastrous Libya intervention. After the Obama administration she’s been part of various think tanks, including the hawkish Brookings Institution, where she’s been a fierce critic of Trump’s supposed “appeasement” of Putin. She’s also argued for deeper military intervention in Syria. 

Politico in its description of the incoming Obama-era officials underscores they are hawks on Russia:

Nuland and [Wendy] Sherman, who entered academia and the think tank world after leaving the Obama administration, have been outspoken critics of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy — particularly his appeasement of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On the National Security Council, former State Department official Jon Finer will be named deputy national security adviser, the people said, reporting up to incoming national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Finer, a former journalist, joined the Obama White House as a fellow in 2009 and served in various roles throughout Obama’s tenure, including as a foreign policy speechwriter for Biden and a senior adviser to then-deputy national security adviser Blinken. Finer had been working in political risk and public policy at the private equity firm Warburg Pincus, which was co-founded by Blinken’s father, since leaving government in 2017.

The key NSC role of senior director for European Affairs will go to Amanda Sloat, a Brookings Institution fellow…

Neoconservative Victoria Nuland, who was responsible for Obama’s disastrous democracy promotion efforts in Ukraine and Russia, has just been tapped as Biden’s state department undersecretary for political affairs. https://t.co/P6QaYUTGXH pic.twitter.com/gZ1VCh3AJR

— Kelley B. Vlahos (@KelleyBVlahos) January 5, 2021

And then there’s this…

NEW: Victoria Nuland, who Biden will reportedly pick for a top State Dept post, played key role peddling the Steele dossier.

She also gave inconsistent statements about her involvement. https://t.co/1A023h2HMY

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) January 5, 2021

As is the unfortunate norm in the Washington beltway, the Liberal hawks under Obama simply went to who’s who of neocon think tanks like Brookings, and have now been called back in revolving door fashion for pretty much a return to Obama era foreign policy (and its disasters).