Credit: Official White House
photo by Pete Souza
Why He Matters
McDonough worked on foreign policy issues in Congress for more than 10 years.
He was a top foreign policy adviser to former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and to President Barack Obama when he was a senator. He also served as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank from which several Obama administration officials have hailed.
McDonough advises the president on foreign policy and helped craft his speeches as director of strategic communications for the National Security Council before taking over as the senior aide.
He was a key player in President Obama's decision to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan for what was dubbed a temporary surge; those troops are expected to start coming home in July 2011.
At a Glance
Current Position: Acting NSC Chief of Staff (since October 2009); Director of Strategic Communications, National Security Council (since January 2009)
Career History: Member of President Barack Obama's transition team (Nov. 2008 to Jan. 2009); Foreign Policy adviser to Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential campaign (2006 to 2008); Center for American Progress, Senior Fellow (2004 to 2006)
Birthday: Dec. 2, 1969
Hometown: Stillwater, Minn.
Alma Mater: St. John's University (Minnesota); Georgetown University, M.A.
Spouse: N/A
Religion: Catholic
Office: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Email N/A
Web site
Path to Power
McDonough was a staffer on the House International Relations Committee from 1996 through 1999. He then joined Daschle’s (D-S.D.) foreign policy team, where he worked until 2004, advising him on terrorism, AIDS and Middle East policy.
When Daschle lost his reelection bid, McDonough followed him to the Center for American Progress, a progressive think-tank founded by former Clinton Chief of Staff John D. Podesta. There he researched health-care policy as a senior fellow and adviser to Daschle.
McDonough joined Obama’s presidential campaign as a top foreign policy aide. He supervised a team of 300 experts who were divided into sets of 20 teams based on regions and issues. McDonough also sat in on the 13-person meetings of senior campaign advisers, and was the prime facilitator of dialogue between the foreign policy team and Obama. When Mark Lippert, who was then the campaign’s top foreign policy adviser, was called up to serve in Iraq, McDonough took over.
After Obama was elected, McDonough was named the NSC's head of strategic communications. When then-NSC chief of staff Lippert was once again called up to serve in Iraq, McDonough stepped in to serve as chief of staff.
The Issues
McDonough has argued for a common-good approach to foreign policy, saying that the U.S. must address problems like global warming and poverty by taking approaches that will benefit other countries as well as the United States. He has spoken in support of a cap-and-trade system and called on the U.S. to make a serious commitment to reducing greenhouse gases.
Iraq
McDonough opposed the Iraq war from the start and backs Obama’s efforts to withdraw troops slowly from the country.
He argues that Congress and the president failed to plan for the long-term impact of the Iraq war. He would like Obama’s administration to craft a thorough proposal that lays out what the U.S.’s specific role will be in Iraq over the next 10 years.
Intelligence Oversight
While at the Center for American Progress, McDonough lobbied for reform of congressional intelligence oversight. He argued that Congress must pursue vigorous oversight of the 17 disparate intelligence agencies because they operate in such secrecy, ensuring that the intelligence community is behaving constitutionally and lawfully while pursuing its aims effectively.
The Network
As a fellow at the Center for American Progress, McDonough has relationships with Obama transition co-chair and CAP head John Podesta, Neera Tanden and several other prominent Obama backers.
As a former chief of staff for Tom Daschle, McDonough is also a part of the growing list of Daschle alumnae that worked on the 2008 Obama campaign and White House. Obama’s Senate chief of staff, Pete Rouse, is a a senior White House adviser, and Mark Lippert, also worked for Daschle before becoming NSC chief of staff in the Obama administration.
McDonough was part of Obama’s inner foreign policy circle during the 2008 campaign along with Susan E. Rice, Gregory B. Craig, Anthony Lake, Richard Danzig and a few others.
