Latest news with #JakeSullivan
Bloomberg
4 days ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
‘It Weighs On Me Every Day.' President Biden's National Security Advisor on Oct. 7 and Gaza
Never miss an episode. Follow The Big Take daily podcast today. On today's Big Take podcast, host David Gura sits down with former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. In a wide-ranging conversation, they discuss Sullivan's tenure in the Biden White House, the consequences of President Trump's cuts to foreign assistance and government staff and what Sullivan sees as the most pressing foreign policy challenges facing the current administration. Listen and follow The Big Take on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Terminal clients: click here to subscribe. Here is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation:
Bloomberg
4 days ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Big Take: Biden's National Security Advisor on Trump
On today's Big Take podcast, host David Gura sits down with former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. In a wide-ranging conversation, they discuss Sullivan's tenure in the Biden White House, the consequences of President Trump's cuts to foreign assistance and government staff, and what Sullivan sees as the most pressing foreign policy challenges facing the current administration.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Biden's ex-chief reveals Hillary Clinton worried about his decline
Senior Democrats close to Joe Biden told his former chief of staff that the then-president was on the decline, a source revealed to Daily Mail. Ron Klain, who was Biden's chief of staff for the first two years of his presidency, told lawmakers on Capitol Hill how Hillary Clinton and Biden's former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told him that the president was not 'politically viable' in 2024, a source said. Klain, 63, sat for a transcribed interview on Thursday with the House Oversight Committee, as part of Chairman James Comer's probe into whether former Biden officials intentionally hid signs of the president's decline. A source familiar with the interview told the Daily Mail that Klain, in his testimony, said both Clinton and Sullivan raised concerns to him in 2023 and 2024 about Biden's political chances for a second term. 'Mr. Klain stated President Biden's memory got worse,' over the course of his presidency, the source said, adding the former chief of staff admitted that 'Biden was less energetic and more forgetful but he still had the acuity to govern.' Additionally, 'Sullivan told Klain that Joe Biden was less effective in 2024 compared to 2022.' Clinton did not serve in Biden's administration. But Sullivan was in near daily contact with the then-president in his role as Biden's principal foreign policy aide. A spokesperson for Clinton did not respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment but did not dispute Klain's account to CNN, telling the network Clinton was concerned with how the question of Biden's age was being handled politically in light of the attacks and questions he was facing. Biden dropped out of the race in July of last year after his disastrous debate with Donald Trump in June 2024, where he froze on stage and struggled to answer questions. A spokesperson for Sullivan pushed back on Klain's account of the timing of their conversation. 'Jake did not have a conversation with Ron about Joe Biden running for president before the debate,' Adrienne Watson, a representative for Sullivan, told Daily Mail. Klain, unlike other Biden staffers, did not plead the Fifth amendment and answered the lawmakers' questions in his appearance before the House Oversight committee. The interview took placed behind-closed doors. Despite leaving government service after two years in the White House, Klain had an up close view of Biden in the final years of his presidency and was considered a key outside adviser. He was among the aides who helped prepare Biden for that infamous debate, running 'debate camp' at Camp David. Biden's struggles during that debate supercharged questions about his health and mental well-being that had been circulating for months. Several Democratic leaders - including Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi - questioned his ability to remain as the party's nominee and moved to push him out of the race. Hunter Biden, the former president's son, told a podcast earlier this week that his father had been given the sleep aid Ambien ahead of the debate because of a harrowing travel schedule that preceded that contest. 'I know exactly what happened in that debate,' Hunter Biden told YouTube creator Andrew Callaghan on Monday. 'He (Joe Biden) flew around the world, basically the mileage he could have flown around the world three times. He's 81 years old.' 'They give him Ambien to be able to sleep. He gets up on the stage and he looks like he's a deer in the headlights,' the younger Biden added. But Klain said he was unaware whether Biden took Ambien the evening before the June 2024 presidential debate and relayed that 'the president appeared tired and ill before the debate.' There are more interviews with Biden's former staff on the docket as Republicans probe a possible coverup of the president's health and Comer has threatened to use a subpoena to entice testimony. Comer's witness list includes the most powerful figures in the Biden White House, such as aides with unfettered access to the residence where the president lived with Jill Biden and those who handled Biden's daily schedule.
Axios
6 days ago
- Business
- Axios
Exclusive: Jake Sullivan encourages Trump team to buy munitions in bulk
Years of industrial complacency, including not putting "enough energy or emphasis on munitions," has painted the U.S. into a corner, former national security adviser Jake Sullivan told Axios. Solving the problem, he said, requires a "generational project" spanning business interests and political affiliations. Why it matters: Today's defense news cycle is dominated by questions of American manufacturing might. The conversation is set against a backdrop of competition with Russia and China (and their growing symbiosis). The sudden shipbuilding obsession, including President Trump's own preoccupation, is a symptom of this. Driving the news: Sullivan spoke to Axios on the sidelines of the Reindustrialize conference in downtown Detroit, a city experiencing its own metropolitan rebirth. There's a pressing need, he said, "for the national security community — not just the economic policy community — in the United States to be focused on reconstituting our industrial base in critical sectors that are going to define the future." The status quo "was decades in the making," he added. "When I came in, I found just how weakened a state our defense-industrial base was in." State of play: Reams of studies, white papers, op-eds and surveys detail the fragility of the defense-industrial base (DIB). Govini's National Security Scorecard, published this summer, warned that China's "relentless three-decade military modernization — with an estimated $236 billion expenditure in 2024 — and Russia's industrial surge capacity — quintupling artillery shell production since 2022 — starkly contrast with the U.S. DIB." The Ronald Reagan Institute's National Security Innovation Base Report Card, shared in March, cautioned that the U.S. "struggles to manufacture and field new national security tech" at speeds and scales that matter. And the Commission on the National Defense Strategy concluded last July that the Pentagon's "business practices, byzantine research and development and procurement systems, reliance on decades-old military hardware, and culture of risk avoidance" reflect a bygone era. Yes, but: There's hope the ship can be righted. It will take time — meaning multiple administrations and, potentially, conflicts. Sullivan in conversation with Axios encouraged the Trump administration to pursue multiyear contracting for munitions. Such deals give defense contractors "the certainty to make the capital expenditures to build the factories, to supply the munitions, rather than make this a year-by-year thing." Multiyear munitions buys were also favored by the House China Committee. What they're saying: "The more you challenge the industrial base, you build the muscle, and it's like a flywheel," Darin DiTommaso, a GE Aerospace vice president, told Axios at the conference. "You actually enhance the capability of the supply base by putting more challenge on them, as opposed to starting and stopping programs, because that's when you lose people, and you lose skill sets," he said. "It's really hard to restart a production line once you've stopped it." By the numbers: The U.S. Air Force in 2024 inked a $3.2 billion multiyear contract with Lockheed Martin for Long Range Anti-Ship and Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff missiles. That same year, the Navy secured a bulk deal with HII for four amphibious warships, expected to save the service $1 billion. The bottom line: "A country without robust manufacturing is hardly a country at all," Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, said in a Reindustrialize speech.
ABC News
16-07-2025
- ABC News
Suspended army officer jailed for three years after raping an ADFA colleague in 2022
Suspended army officer cadet Jake Sullivan has been sentenced to more than three years in jail for raping a colleague from the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in Canberra in 2022. An ACT Supreme Court jury last year convicted Sullivan of two counts of rape and one of committing an act of indecency. Sullivan's lawyers today flagged a last ditch bid to keep him out of jail today, before abandoning an application to stay the sentence ahead of an appeal to be heard next month. In 2022, Sullivan had gone to the room of a fellow ADFA cadet after the pair had agreed to have sex. The two had originally met some time before on a Tinder date and maintained a casual relationship for a while before parting. They had reconnected earlier that year, and after meeting at Canberra nightclub Mooseheads where the victim had gone with some of her friends, the two returned to the academy. The victim said she had agreed to have sex with Sullivan, but withdrew her consent after she said he became aggressive and had hurt her. That included pulling her hair and grabbing and twisting her breast, leaving bruising. The woman told the court she said words to the effect of "ow" or "that really hurt". She said she had turned to go to sleep. The court heard Sullivan then said "you are the one who invited me here" and he continued. The woman said she froze. Justice Belinda Baker said the offender was much bigger than the victim and she was scared. Justice Baker noted the victim impact statement, in which the woman said she was raped in her own bed despite giving Sullivan more than one indication to stop. The victim said it had affected her mental health, her career and relationships and robbed her of her sense of safety. Justice Baker took particular aim at Sullivan's response when the woman reversed her consent, that she had invited him over. "That demonstrated a selfish entitlement towards her," Justice Baker said. "The offender prioritised his own sexual gratification over any consideration of the victim." Sullivan has maintained his innocence throughout. Sullivan has been sentenced to three years and three months in jail to be suspended after 15 months, meaning he will be eligible for parole late next year. His appeal against his conviction will be heard in August.
