Welcome to the ticket. I'm Isaac Dauphaire. You know back at the beginning of the year

we changed the title of the show to the ticket thinking I'd be out on the road talking

to politicians and also because we knew it would be focused on

what the two parties were putting together ahead of the election, what the

ticket would be. Instead I've been recording in Washington via Zoom and

this conversation is a remote Zoom recording between two people both sitting in DC.

But for the last interview before the Democratic ticket is finalized, we're talking to someone who may be on that ticket.

And we're expecting that decision any day now. We know Joe Biden's going to pick a woman, and likely a woman of color.

Kamala Harris has long been seen as the frontrunner, but another contender stock has risen recently, even though she's not as well known outside of the usual

Washington circles. In fact, by the time you're listening to this, my guest may be the next

Democratic nominee for Vice President of the United States.

Susan Rice was United Nations Ambassador and then National Security Advisor for the Obama White House. She spent all eight years in the administration working on global and security issues.

You've probably heard about the

Pandemic Response Office, the Trump White House closed two years ago, or the

Pandemic Playbook they shelved. Rice was the advisor in charge of both those

efforts. She's the rare government official to have weathered

intense national political exposure without ever running for office. Most people

first became aware of her after the tragedy in Benghazi and the political circus

that followed. Before Hillary Clinton was beat up over it,

Susan Rice was the main target of congressional Republicans.

She wrote about her experiences last year

in an autobiography called Tough Love.

...