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Jan 31, 2024

Where in the world is…CIA director Burns

Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in

Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1769, the Associated Press tells me, Daniel Boone first began to explore what is now Kentucky.

CIA Director William J. Burns has traveled the globe extensively since taking office, regularly meeting his foreign counterparts and some world leaders, bringing to bear the skills he honed as a respected career diplomat for decades on the mission of the intelligence chief he is today.

In May, Burns became the highest U.S. official to visit China since President Biden took office (Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman went there in July 2021). The secret mission, first reported by the Financial Times, came as Washington has looked to calm tensions with its most serious global rival.

U.S. officials who discussed the trip with news outlets took pains to emphasize Burns met with Chinese intelligence, not political leaders, and that he stayed in his lane. As CNN reported, one official "explained that the trip was an intelligence-to-intelligence engagement, not a diplomatic mission." That concern was foremost in The Daily 202's conversations with U.S. officials on this topic as well.

CIA directors travel overseas regularly and host their counterparts on U.S. soil. The agency does not preview his trips or comment on them on the record. Burns's travel is consistent with that of some of his predecessors, according to an official familiar with his schedule.

"Intelligence is one more communications channel that the White House does leverage," the official said on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly. That puts Burns in generally the same category as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, or national security adviser Jake Sullivan, all of whom have traveled extensively overseas.

The White House did not acknowledge an email asking what factors lead Biden to send Burns abroad rather than other members of his foreign policy or national security teams, and whether he reports back directly to the president upon his return.

Burns came to the CIA after three decades as a career diplomat that saw him rise to the State Department's upper echelons, including a very brief stint as acting secretary of state in 2009. Of note: He spent years in Moscow as an embassy staffer and later as ambassador, giving him a unique perspective on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

An inventory of his known overseas travel by The Daily 202 found more than a dozen destinations, starting with an April 2021 trip to Afghanistan. He returned there in August to meet the Taliban's de facto leader, Abdul Ghani Baradar. (Sending a State Department official might have implicitly conferred political legitimacy on the Islamist militia's government.)

The New York Times recently reported Burns has taken three dozen trips overseas as CIA director.

His prominence in the administration hasn't gone unnoticed overseas. Here's the former French ambassador to the United States, Gérard Araud:

Burns, a seasoned diplomat, I know well, is playing a discreet and central role in this administration. He is one of the most balanced, realistic and constructive US diplomats I have ever met. https://t.co/k2mCLIdaBg

Arguably his most high-profile, high-stakes trip took him to Russia in November 2021. He met with Yuri Ushakov, a former ambassador to the United States advising Putin on foreign policy, while the Russian president phoned into the gathering.

In a February 2023 interview with CBS’ Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, Burns observed: "Even in the most deeply adversarial relationships, and that's certainly what our relationship with Russia is today, it's important to have those lines open, and the president believes that."

We asked our colleague Shane Harris, who covers intelligence and national security, for his perspective.

See an important political story that doesn't quite fit traditional politics coverage? Flag it for us here.

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At 12:15 p.m., Biden and Vice President Harris will have lunch.

Smoke from #CanadaFires on approach to DC - just amazing. pic.twitter.com/IeahNu2oDx

Read more: Where wildfire smoke is hitting the U.S. the hardest — and when it will end

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