In May, Burns became the highest U.S. official to visit China since President Biden took office (Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman went there in July 2021). The secret mission, first reported by the Financial Times, came as Washington has looked to calm tensions with its most serious global rival.
U.S. officials who discussed the trip with news outlets took pains to emphasize Burns met with Chinese intelligence, not political leaders, and that he stayed in his lane. As CNN reported, one official “explained that the trip was an intelligence-to-intelligence engagement, not a diplomatic mission.” That concern was foremost in The Daily 202’s conversations with U.S. officials on this topic as well.
CIA directors travel overseas regularly and host their counterparts on U.S. soil. The agency does not preview his trips or comment on them on the record. Burns’s travel is consistent with that of some of his predecessors, according to an official familiar with his schedule.
“Intelligence is one more communications channel that the White House does leverage,” the official said on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly. That puts Burns in generally the same category as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, or national security adviser Jake Sullivan, all of whom have traveled extensively overseas.
The White House did not acknowledge an email asking what factors lead Biden to send Burns abroad rather than other members of his foreign policy or national security teams, and whether he reports back directly to the president upon his return.
Counterparts, but also world leaders
Burns came to the CIA after three decades as a career diplomat that saw him rise to the State Department’s upper echelons, including a very brief stint as acting secretary of state in 2009. Of note: He spent years in Moscow as an embassy staffer and later as ambassador, giving him a unique perspective on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
An inventory of his known overseas travel by The Daily 202 found more than a dozen destinations, starting with an April 2021 trip to Afghanistan. He returned there in August to meet the Taliban’s de facto leader, Abdul Ghani Baradar. (Sending a State Department official might have implicitly conferred political legitimacy on the Islamist militia’s government.)
- Burns has been to Israel and Palestinian territory (August 2021, January 2023); Germany and Ukraine (January 2022); met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the city of Jeddah (April 2022); back to Ukraine (November 2022); met his Russian counterpart in Turkey (November 2022); Libya (January 2023); Ukraine again (January 2023); Egypt (January 2023); Saudi Arabia (April 2023); and Greece (May 2023).
The New York Times recently reported Burns has taken three dozen trips overseas as CIA director.
His prominence in the administration hasn’t gone unnoticed overseas. Here’s the former French ambassador to the United States, Gérard Araud:
Burns, a seasoned diplomat, I know well, is playing a discreet and central role in this administration. He is one of the most balanced, realistic and constructive US diplomats I have ever met. https://t.co/k2mCLIdaBg
— Gérard Araud (@GerardAraud) June 2, 2023
Arguably his most high-profile, high-stakes trip took him to Russia in November 2021. He met with Yuri Ushakov, a former ambassador to the United States advising Putin on foreign policy, while the Russian president phoned into the gathering.
- The message: Russia would pay a huge price if it expanded its war in Ukraine. After that meeting and others, Burns reported back to Biden: “My level of concern has gone up, not down.”
In a February 2023 interview with CBS’ Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, Burns observed: “Even in the most deeply adversarial relationships, and that’s certainly what our relationship with Russia is today, it’s important to have those lines open, and the president believes that.”
We asked our colleague Shane Harris, who covers intelligence and national security, for his perspective.
- “As the CIA director, he reports directly, and only, to the president. That gives him a strong level of credibility with world officials.”
- “People know him and sometimes have worked with him in the places he travels … Burns has spent his career meeting with people, talking to them, listening to them, and when necessary delivering a message.”
- “That kind of work actually isn’t so different than what the intelligence officers at the CIA do. I think his experience has turned out to be well-suited to the job. Apparently the president thinks so.”
See an important political story that doesn’t quite fit traditional politics coverage? Flag it for us here.
CNN chief executive Chris Licht to leave network after weeks of criticism
“Embattled CNN chief executive Chris Licht is out at the cable network, capping weeks of tumult within the company following a highly criticized town hall with Donald Trump and a scathing article that portrayed Licht as all but failing at his job of barely a year. Staffers were notified on Wednesday morning by David Zaslav, chief executive of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery,” Elahe Izadi, Jeremy Barr and Will Sommer report.
Comer releases contempt resolution targeting FBI Director Wray
“House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) released a resolution Wednesday to hold FBI Director Christopher A. Wray in contempt of Congress for not fully complying with a subpoena. Comer said his panel would vote on the resolution Thursday,” John Wagner reports.
House GOP to examine D.C. election laws in latest hearing
“House Republicans will examine D.C. election laws Wednesday in their latest hearing digging into the city’s affairs, an opportunity for them to advocate for stricter voting laws in the deep-blue city,” Meagan Flynn reports.
Lunchtime reads from The Post
The fugitive heiress next door
“She’d been hiding in plain view for nearly a quarter-century, a fugitive from American justice, accused in a federal indictment, along with her then-husband, of not paying a servant they brought with them from Brazil, who lived under brutal and physically abusive conditions, essentially enslaved at their home in a Washington, D.C., suburb,” Manuel Roig-Franzia reports.
- “Prosecutors wanted to punish her for the crimes they were sure she committed. The FBI was on the chase. But Margarida Maria Vicente de Azevedo Bonetti got away. Now, after so many years, the questions about her have answers, and with those answers come a troubling notoriety. All of Brazil is obsessed with her.”
McKinsey’s little-known role in the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank
“McKinsey’s work for SVB in 2020 and 2021 — which has not been previously reported — was sharply criticized by the Federal Reserve in its sweeping report on what caused the second-largest U.S. bank collapse since 2008. The Fed found that McKinsey had “failed to design an effective program” for assessing SVB’s problems and produced a report filled with ‘weaknesses,’” Todd C. Frankel and Daniel Gilbert report.
A bipartisan plan to punish global climate laggards: Tax them
“In a rare example of a bipartisan climate policy, momentum is growing on Capitol Hill for a plan to tax imports from China and other countries with looser environmental standards,” Maxine Joselow reports.
- “Sens. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) on Wednesday will introduce a bill that would lay the groundwork for America’s first carbon border tax, according to legislative text shared with The Washington Post before its broader release. The senators’ goal is to impose fees on iron, steel and other imports from countries that are not significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
Appeals court weighs nationwide freeze of Obamacare’s coverage mandate
“A federal appeals court panel appeared skeptical on Tuesday of calls to impose a nationwide freeze on Obamacare’s rules for no-cost coverage of preventive care while litigation continues — a move the Biden administration warned would threaten access to a range of services for millions of people on employer-sponsored insurance and Obamacare’s individual market,” Politico’s Alice Miranda Ollstein reports.
New U.S. spy satellites to track Chinese, Russian threats in orbit
“The US Space Force is set to launch a constellation of satellites this summer to track Chinese or Russian space vehicles that can potentially disable or damage orbiting objects, the latest step in the burgeoning extra-terrestrial contest between superpowers,” Bloomberg’s Anthony Capaccio reports.
- “Dubbed ‘Silent Barker,’ the network would be the first of its kind to complement ground-based sensors and low-earth orbit satellites, according to the Space Force and analysts. The satellites will be placed about 22,000 miles (35,400 kilometers) above the Earth and at the same speed it rotates, known as geosynchronous orbit.”
Climate crisis is on track to push one-third of humanity out of its most livable environment
“Climate change is remapping where humans can exist on the planet. As optimum conditions shift away from the equator and toward the poles, more than 600 million people have already been stranded outside of a crucial environmental niche that scientists say best supports life,” ProPublica’s Abrahm Lustgarten reports.
- “By late this century, according to a study published last month in the journal Nature Sustainability, 3 to 6 billion people, or between a third and a half of humanity, could be trapped outside of that zone, facing extreme heat, food scarcity and higher death rates, unless emissions are sharply curtailed or mass migration is accommodated.”
Biden administration sending $115 million to address Jackson, Miss., water crisis
“President Biden on Tuesday announced his administration was sending $115 million in funding to repair the water infrastructure in Jackson, Miss., where long-standing issues in the system have plagued the city for years and left residents last summer without running water for days,” Amy B Wang reports.
Biden rolls out 2 new red-state judicial picks
“Biden’s two nominees are both set to fill judicial vacancies in Louisiana: Jerry Edwards, Jr. is a top federal prosecutor in the state, according to a forthcoming White House announcement that POLITICO reviewed, while Brandon Scott Long is a former deputy chief of staff to FBI Director Chris Wray,” Politico’s Betsy Woodruff Swan reports.
Zients calls for any Cabinet resignations ASAP
“White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients has been quietly calling members of President Biden’s Cabinet to deliver a subtle message: If you plan to leave, please do so in the next few months,” Axios’s Hans Nichols reports.
- “Why it matters: Biden’s Cabinet will play a key role in his re-election campaign, as he contrasts his accomplishments with what’s likely to be a nasty fight among GOP contenders. Republicans will be eager to tweak the White House, so Biden’s team wants to avoid any confirmation battles in an election year.”
How the damaged Kakhovka dam hurts both Ukraine and Russia, visualized
“Significant damage to the dam and hydroelectric power plant on Ukraine’s front line early Tuesday poses strategic challenges for both sides ahead of Ukraine’s much-anticipated counteroffensive,” Samuel Granados and Ruby Mellen report.
Opinion: CNN’s Chris Licht showed the problem with anti-woke centrism
“All of the harsh criticism is a bit unfair to Licht. In particular, his skepticism of left-wing causes, and his view that people who don’t agree with the left are constantly attacked and shamed, isn’t some outlier stance. These ideas are regularly expressed in many of the nation’s most prominent news outlets. If you spend a lot of time talking to White men in Democratic politics, as I do, you have to nod along as comments like Licht’s are made, even if you don’t agree with them, to signal that you are a reasonable person worth talking to,” columnist Perry Bacon Jr. writes.
- “Licht’s comments embody an anti-woke centrism that is increasingly prominent in American media and politics today, particularly among powerful White men who live on the coasts and don’t identify as Republicans or conservatives. It’s deeply flawed, and it’s pushing some important U.S. institutions to make bad decisions.”
Hard-right Republicans, still angry over debt ceiling, foil McCarthy on vote
“Hard-right Republicans, still angry with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s handling of the debt ceiling bill last week, sank a GOP procedural vote Tuesday in a show of strength in a razor-thin majority,” Marianna Sotomayor, Leigh Ann Caldwell, Amy B Wang and Paul Kane report.
- “In a surprise rebuke for McCarthy (R-Calif.) and the rest of GOP leadership, the Republican-led House failed to pass the rule for consideration of several bills this week. Eleven Republicans broke with their party to vote with Democrats, and the rule fell short on a 206-220 vote — the first rule vote to fail since November 2002.”
At 12:15 p.m., Biden and Vice President Harris will have lunch.
Stay inside if you can, D.C.!
Read more: Where wildfire smoke is hitting the U.S. the hardest — and when it will end
Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.