当苏珊·赖斯宣布支持乔·拜登竞选总统时，这位前总统国家安全顾问巴拉克·奥巴马共享了一张照片推特。
在照片中，拜登和赖斯拥抱在一起。她说，在她母亲2017年去世后的几天里，他安慰了她。这篇文章旨在展示拜登敏锐的能力，通过忍受自己的个人悲剧，同情他人，对他人有同情心，尤其是当他们悲伤的时候。
当拜登竞选团队关注8月初宣布的副总统人选时，这张照片也微妙地提醒人们，赖斯在白宫有经验，与拜登有着密切的工作关系。当拜登决定竞选搭档时，这一事实可能证明是至关重要的。
2015年4月14日，DC，美国总统巴拉克·奥巴马和伊拉克总理海德尔·阿巴迪在白宫椭圆形办公室向媒体简报时，乔·拜登和苏珊·赖斯进行了交谈。Getty Images
奥巴马的前高级顾问瓦莱丽·贾勒特(Valerie Jarrett)说:“他不仅在好的时候见过她，而且在非常艰难的日子里也见过她。”“他信任她。他会相信她的明智忠告。他知道，即使他不同意她，他也不必担心她是否是一个团队成员。她会的。”
赖斯拥有数十年的外交政策经验，不仅是作为国家安全顾问(被广泛认为是政府中最艰难的工作之一)，还是美国驻联合国大使。她还在比尔·克林顿总统领导下的国家安全委员会任职，并担任国务院非洲事务助理国务卿。
赖斯的代表说，她无法接受这篇文章的采访。在最近的一次采访中华盛顿邮报赖斯把她在让不同联邦机构合作方面的背景吹捧为使她特别适合这个职位的经验。
她说:“我们需要让政府为了共同的目标团结起来，了解预算、如何与国会合作，以及如何让企业和政府的组成部分朝着共同的目标发展。”“这就是我职业生涯的大部分时间里所做的事情。”
奥巴马政府的一名前高级官员表示:“你必须让所有这些机构及时解决问题，这样你才能放心地向总统提出建议。”“像她那样高效、彻底地运行这一流程是她真正的优势。”
“仅有好的想法或正确的解决方案是不够的。前美国驻联合国大使、赖斯在联合国任职期间的前幕僚长布鲁克·安德森(Brook Anderson)说:“如果你不了解如何在我们的政府中开展工作，让事情真正发生，你就无法完成工作。”
一些民主党人担心，选择赖斯作为第二号候选人可能会引发共和党人对美国驻利比亚班加西领事馆恐怖袭击处理方式的批评。
2019年9月18日，星期三，苏珊·赖斯在DC的家中为一幅肖像摆姿势。马特·麦克莱恩/华盛顿邮报
2012年袭击发生后，赖斯根据她当时掌握的情报，在几个周日的政治电视节目上说，袭击是该地区抗议活动后的“自发”行为。奥巴马政府后来认定这是一起有预谋的袭击。
许多由共和党领导的委员会进行的国会调查得出结论，赖斯没有用那些最初的声明误导公众。尽管如此，一些共和党人继续攻击她。本月早些时候，在接受采访时福克斯新闻国务卿迈克·庞贝指责赖斯“在周日的节目中撒谎。”
接受美国广播公司采访的前奥巴马政府官员称对赖斯的指控是不公平和不真实的。希拉里·克林顿的前高级顾问菲利普·赖因斯(Philippe Reines)说，援引班加西的情况来排除赖斯竞选副总统的可能性“没有任何意义。”
Reines说:“如果你真的相信它是有效的，你会去追求[乔拜登]，在它上面。”"利用班加西反对副总统人选有点奇怪."
其他人说赖斯忍受的攻击证明了她的韧性。
2019年10月8日，星期二，苏珊·赖斯在美国纽约接受彭博电视台采访。赖斯讨论了她的书“艰难的爱。”克里斯托弗·古德尼/彭博通过盖蒂图像
贾勒特说:“这并不容易，但她有一个伟大的游戏脸，她从来不想成为一个分心-她意识到公共服务真的很难，它不是为婴儿。”“她意识到这与她无关。我不认为她对这种批评有什么看法，我认为她意识到，任何与奥巴马总统关系密切的人都是共和党人试图滥用的公平游戏。”
赖斯的一名前助手说:“她有很多成为目标的经验，也有过背上目标的经历。”“她所做的就是专注于手头的工作，做她认为对我们国家合适的事情。”
据报道，拜登的竞选团队正在审查加州参议员卡马拉·哈里斯，伊丽莎白·沃伦马萨诸塞州和伊利诺伊州的谭美·达克沃斯，以及佛罗里达州的众议员瓦尔·戴明斯和加利福尼亚州的卡伦·巴斯。他在越来越大的压力下选择了有色人种的女人。
与许多被认为在考虑之列的女性相比，大多数都是通过选举产生的。大米没有。
普渡大学政治学教授、著有《州议会中的姐妹:黑人女性与立法决策》一书的纳迪亚·布朗(Nadia Brown)说:“拥有高管背景并不是做副总统的终极目标。”“然而，如果一个人没有我们所认为的现代历史版本的发射台进入副总裁的位置，那将是不典型的。”
赖斯的支持者指出，她在三次总统竞选中的工作是足够的经验，可以在选举日之前帮助拜登竞选。1988年，她是民主党迈克尔·杜卡基斯的外交政策助理，2004年她担任约翰·克里竞选顾问，2008年她担任巴拉克·奥巴马的代理人和顾问。
安德森说:“从她在总统竞选中的工作，她有深刻的经验，做的事情，你会做如果你是一个真正的副总统候选人。”
如果她被选中，那将是前所未有的——她将是11月份第一位获得主要政党提名的非洲裔美国女性——她将面临前所未有的审查。
贾勒特说:“这只是责任的一部分——我不认为她把它视为一个负担。”“她认为这是一个表现自己的机会，人们会说，‘第一位非洲裔美国女性是一位杰出的副总统’。”因为你是第一个，这会带来很多额外的阻力吗?确实如此。但她能胜任。"
Susan Rice has spent years in the White House. Could she make a return as vice president?
When Susan Rice announced her endorsement of Joe Biden's presidential bid, the former National Security Adviser under PresidentBarack Obamashared a photo onTwitter.
In it, Biden and Rice are hugging. He comforted her, she said, in the days after her mother died in 2017. The post aimed to display Biden's keen ability, through enduring his own personal tragedies, to empathize with and be compassionate toward others, especially when they're grieving.
As the Biden campaign eyes an early August announcement of his pick for vice president, that photo also serves as a subtle reminder that Rice has experience in the White House and a close working relationship with Biden. It's a fact that could prove vital as Biden decides on a running mate.
"He's seen her not just in good times, but on really hard days," said Valerie Jarrett, a former senior adviser to Obama. "He trusts her. He would rely on her wise counsel. He would know that even if he disagreed with her he wouldn't have to worry about whether or not she's a team player. She would be."
Rice has foreign policy experience that spans decades, not only as a national security adviser, widely considered one of the toughest jobs in government, but also as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. She also served on the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton and as assistant secretary of state for African Affairs within the State Department.
Representatives for Rice said she was unavailable to be interviewed for this piece. In a recent interview with theWashington Post, Rice touted her background in getting different federal agencies to collaborate as experience that makes her uniquely suited for the office.
"One needs to bring the government together in common purpose, with an understanding of the budget, how to work with Congress and how to get business and the elements of government harnessed toward shared objectives," she said. "That's what I have done for the bulk of my career."
"You've got to take all of those agencies and work a problem in a timely fashion so that you feel comfortable making a recommendation to the president," said a former senior Obama administration official. "And running that process as efficiently and as thoroughly as she did is a real advantage that she has."
"It's not enough to have good ideas or to have the right solutions. If you don't understand how to work across our government to actually make things happen, you're not going to get things done," said Brook Anderson, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Rice's former chief of staff during her tenure at the U.N.
Some Democrats worry selecting Rice for the No. 2 spot could resurrect Republican criticism on the handling of the terror attack at the U.S consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Following the 2012 attack, Rice, based on intelligence she had at the time, went on several Sunday political television shows and said that the attack was "spontaneous" following protests in the area. The Obama administration later determined it was a premeditated attack.
Congressional investigations, many by Republican-led committees, concluded Rice did not mislead the public with those initial statements. Despite that, some Republicans continued to attack her. Earlier this month, in an interview withFox News, Secretary of StateMike Pompeoaccused Rice of "going on Sunday shows and lying."
Former Obama administration officials who spoke with ABC News characterized the accusations against Rice as unfair and untrue. Philippe Reines, a former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton, said invoking Benghazi to count Rice out of the running for vice president "doesn't make sense."
"If you really believed it was potent, you would go after [Joe Biden], on it," Reines said. "Using Benghazi is against the VP pick is sort of odd."
Others said the attacks Rice endured proved her resilience.
"It was not easy, but she does have a great game face, and she doesn't ever want to be a distraction -- and she realizes that public service is really hard and it's not for babies," Jarrett said. "She realizes it's not about her. I don't think she took that criticism personally, I think she realized that anybody who was close to President Obama was fair game for Republicans to try and abuse."
"She has a lot of experience in becoming a target and having a target put on her back," said a former Rice aide. "And what she does is, she focuses on the work at hand and doing what she thinks is right for our nation."
Biden's campaign is reportedly vetting, among others, Sens. Kamala Harris of California,Elizabeth Warrenof Massachusetts and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, along with Reps. Val Demings of Florida and Karen Bass of California. He's under increasing pressure to pick a woman of color.
In comparison to many of the women thought to be under consideration, most have held elected office. Rice has not.
"Having an executive background isn't the end-all or be-all to doing the job of vice president," said Nadia Brown, a political science professor at Purdue University and author of "Sisters in the Statehouse: Black Women and Legislative Decision Making." "However, it would be atypical for someone to come in without having the modern history version of what we think is the launchpad into the VP seat."
Rice's proponents point to her work on three presidential campaigns as sufficient experience to help the Biden campaign in the run up to Election Day. She was a foreign policy aide to Democrat Michael Dukakis in 1988, she served as an adviser to John Kerry's 2004 bid and worked as a surrogate and adviser to Barack Obama in 2008.
"From her work on presidential campaigns, she has deep experience doing the kinds of things that you would do if you were an actual vice presidential candidate," Anderson said.
If she were to be selected, it would be unprecedented -- she'd be the first African American woman on a major party ticket in November -- and she could face unprecedented scrutiny.
"That's just part of the responsibility -- I don't think she looks at it as a burden," Jarrett said." She looks at it as an opportunity to comport herself in a way where people would say, 'The first African American woman was an extraordinary vice president.' And does that come with a lot of additional headwinds because you're the first? Sure it does. But she's up to it."
