Jacob Jeremiah “Jake” Sullivan is a prominent Democratic foreign policy professional. Sullivan held several positions in President Barack Obama’s administration, initially as deputy chief of staff to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and later as national security advisor to Vice President Joe Biden and director of policy planning at the State Department. ^[1]

Jake Sullivan played a key role as policy advisor to the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primaries and the 2016 elections and to Barack Obama in the 2008 general election. ^{[2] [3]} It was speculated that Sullivan would have been considered for the position of U.S. National Security Advisor had Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election. ^[4]

Sullivan is a vocal critic of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy. ^{[5] [6]}

National Security Action

After Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 Presidential election to Donald Trump, Sullivan co-founded and co-chairs National Security Action (NSA), a left-leaning policy advocacy group composed primarily of former Obama administration staffers.  Sullivan works with NSA to train 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidates on foreign policy^{[7] [8]} and oppose foreign policies of the Trump administration. ^[9]

National Security Action actively supports efforts to impeach President Trump. NSA created a website to promote impeachment and anti-Trump views^[10]and has been identified as funding television ads to pressure Republican U.S. Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) to support impeaching President Trump. ^[11]

National Security Action also sent a petition to Congress encouraging the impeachment of Trump. The petition was signed by over 300 former national security officials, most of whom had worked in the Obama administration. ^[12]

Foreign Policy Controversies

Iran Nuclear Deal

While working at the State Department, Sullivan played a key role in negotiating the controversial 2015 nuclear weapons development agreement between the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Unites States and five other world powers. ^[13] The agreement was intended to restrict Iranian development of nuclear weapons in exchange for removal of economic sanctions against Iran. It was harshly criticized by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as a threat to Israel’s security. ^[14] Criticism of the deal in the U.S. crossed traditional party lines,^[15] and many argued it would fail to stop Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, instead bolstering Iran’s economic ability to build such weapons. ^[16]

President Trump removed the United States from the agreement in 2018, an action Sullivan has criticized. ^[17]

Benghazi Attacks and Clinton Email Scandal

At the time of the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans, Sullivan was a State Department official under then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In 2015, he was called to testify before the U.S. House Select Committee on Benghazi. ^[18]  Sullivan’s testimony became part of the Committee’s final report that concluded Clinton and Sullivan may have sent highly classified information using unsecured private emails rather than through secure government servers. ^{[19] [20]}An FBI investigation into the matter recommended no criminal charges. ^[21]

Domestic Policy Views

Sullivan is left-leaning on domestic policy as well as foreign policy. In 2018, Sullivan argued the American public was increasingly receptive to a bigger, more active role for government in economic and social affairs. He called for the Democratic Party to promote increased power for labor unions, higher taxes, increased regulation of private business, taxpayer-paid child care, and taxpayer-paid higher education. ^[22]

Personal

Jake Sullivan married Maggie Goodlander in 2015. Goodlander previously worked as a national security and foreign affairs adviser to former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT). ^[23]