Biden considers Samantha Power for USAID: Report

close

Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for December 13

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com.

President-elect Joe Biden is reportedly considering former United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

First reported by Axios, the key Obama administration cabinet member would be at the helm of foreign aid and coronavirus relief efforts.

BIDEN HHS PICK BECERRA 'LOOKS FORWARD' TO WORKING 'IN GOOD FAITH' WITH REPUBLICANS, DEMOCRATS IF CONFIRMED

Although USAID is an independent agency, it essentially functions alongside the State Department and, though it's not a Cabinet position, the administrator appointee is installed by the Senate.

Power, now a professor at Harvard Kennedy School, is not the only candidate for the job.

Foreign Policy reported at the end of November that former U.N. World Food Program executive director Ertharin Cousin topped the list.

However, Axios noted that the former vice president had yet to make a final decision.

Power, who previously served on the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, recently penned a Foreign Affairs article in which she deemed President Trump "incompetent." 

"The Trump administration’s response to the most urgent problem in the world today -- the coronavirus pandemic -- has been worse than that of any other nation," she wrote.

"Yet the mishandling of the pandemic is just the latest in a string of lapses in basic competence that have called into question U.S. capabilities among both long-standing allies and countries whose partnership Washington may seek in the years to come," said Power.

It's not the first time the now 50-year-old has slammed the president's handling of the pandemic. Earlier this year, she condemned Trump's decision to cut funding to the World Health Organization, arguing that it was hypocritical and an attempt to deflect from the administration's failures.

During her tenure, notably supported designating a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi from killing some of his own people. 

Video

Before working for the U.S. government, Power began her career as a journalist, reporting from Bosnia, East Timor, Kosovo, Rwanda, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. She was also a columnist for TIME and a contributor to the Atlantic, the New Yorker, and the New York Review of Books. 

Power won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for her book “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide."

She was named one of Forbes' “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women,” one of  Foreign Policy’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers," and has been twice selected as one of TIME’s “100 Most Influential People.”

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

Power, an Irish immigrant, earned her Bachelor's Degree from Yale University before receiving a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School.

Fox News has reached out to the Biden Transition Team and is awaiting further confirmation.