Biden USAID Nominee Lavished Praise on Saudi Arabia—Until It Stopped Funding Her Think Tank

Biden Administration

• Tamara Cofman Wittes, a longtime fellow at the Brookings Institution, is seeking Senate confirmation for her nomination as assistant administrator at USAID
• During her time at the think tank Brookings in 2018, Wittes received as much as $499,999 from Saudi Arabia
• Brookings told the Washington Post the Saudi grant was intended to fund an analysis of the "Saudi think tank sector," which is relatively small compared to other countries in the region
• Wittes visited Saudi Arabia in February of that year, posting a slideshow on the Brookings website that highlighted an alleged increase in women's freedom and a growing tourism industry.
• After Brookings terminated the Saudi funding in response to Khashoggi’s assassination Wittes gave a much bleaker assessment of the country's leadership, criticizing the leadership and calling for the United States to take a tougher stance against Saudi Arabia

Wittes also posted articles on Twitter decrying the Abraham Accords, Israel's normalization agreement with the United Arab Emirates, as misogynistic, a "new Naksa", and a "triumph for authoritarianism."

• Wittes denied that she opposed the accords, telling Cruz that she was "skeptical that other Arab states would join them, and I was proven wrong."

Wittes wouldn't be the first Biden administration official who received funding from the Qataris

• Robert Malley, the special envoy for Iran and Biden's point man for the nuclear negotiations, ran the International Crisis Group when it took in $4 million from the Qatari government

 

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/biden-usaid-nominee-lavished-praise-on-saudi-arabia-until-it-stopped-funding-her-think-tank/