Denis McDonough: Five things worth knowing
The White House’s fall round of musical chairs continued Friday as President Obama promoted Denis McDonough to the post of Deputy National Security Adviser. He’s managed to not leave much of a paper trail outside of his policy papers, speeches and remarks. Still, here are five things worth knowing about him:
1) He is extremely close to and protective of the president. In one of the few in depth profiles written on him, Helene Cooper of the New York Times described him in July: “Forget Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton or Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. When it comes to national security, Mr. Obama’s inner circle is so tight it largely consists of Mr. McDonough, a 40-year-old from Minnesota who is unknown to most Americans but who is so close to the president that his colleagues — including his superiors — often will not make a move on big issues without checking with him first.”
She also reveled that he likes to dispute articles with reporters. From the same profile, which he declined to be interviewed for: “Mr. McDonough is intensively protective of the president, and is well known for picking up the phone — or his BlackBerry — to take people to task, from reporters to Washington talking heads to other Obama officials who go off message. He spent the entirety of his bike ride home to Takoma Park, Md., from the White House late one recent night arguing on the cellphone with a reporter who he believed had mischaracterized an internal administration debate over Iraq policy.”
2) He has also been described by IrishCentral.com as “the Irish American closest to the president.” His 1996 Georgetown University master’s thesis focused, in part, on the Northern Troubles. He is one of 11 siblings and descends from immigrants from Galway and Cork, via South Boston. He grew up in Minnesota.
3) McDonough was the member of the president’s staff who told him about the devastating earthquake in Haiti in January 2010. McDonough had spent a great deal of time in Haiti during the mid-90s as a House International Relations Committee staffer focused on Latin America and was deeply involved with overseeing post-earthquake planning.
4) The formal resume: McDonough was a senior advisor on foreign policy issues on the Presidential Transition Team and Obama campaign, and also a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. Previously, he had worked as a foreign policy adviser for Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (S.D.) and the legislative director for Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.). He was a staffer on the House International Relations Committee from 1996 through 1999. He graduated from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn.
McDonough joined the Obama White House as the NSC’s head of strategic communications, later becoming chief of staff when the position came open.
5) At the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank run by Obama transition chief John Podesta, McDonough was “instrumental in launching,” along with Mara Rudman, the Middle East Progress initiative. He also co-authored a report with her and Peter Rundlet in 2006, “No Mere Oversight: Congressional Oversight of Intelligence is Broken.”
“Congress must ensure the U.S. Intelligence Community has the resources it needs to identify terrorist threats at home and abroad while also ensuring that intelligence operations are conducted consistent with the law and the Constitution. Alas, Congress today has been negligent on both scores — with profound implications for the safety and security of America,” they wrote.
Photo credit: Foreign policy advisors for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Ben Rhodes, from left, Denis McDonough, and Jim Steinberg arrive in Amman, Jordan, Monday, July 21. 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)