Biden to name former Rep. Joe Kennedy III as Northern Ireland envoy Monday morning
Dec 19, 2022, 6:00 AM
US Representative for Massachusetts Joe Kennedy III, grandnephew of assassinated president John F. Kennedy, speaks to reporters outside a Savin Hill polling station during the Massachusetts State Primary Election in Boston on September 1, 2020. - A legendary American political dynasty is at stake September 1st with Joe Kennedy III, the grandnephew of assassinated president John F Kennedy, challenging a savvy political veteran for his seat in the US Senate. At 74, his rival Ed Markey is a generation apart, a progressive political workhorse who spent 37 years in the House before rising to the Senate in 2013. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
(Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
(CNN) — President Joe Biden will announce Monday morning that former Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III will serve as the US envoy to Northern Ireland, according to a source with knowledge.
CNN reported last week that Kennedy would be named to the post, which was has been vacant since former Trump White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney resigned in 2021.
Kennedy will be taking the post as the British government and the European Union clash over the Northern Ireland protocol, which dictates cross-border trade regulations between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
Biden has been an active follower of the discussions and has pressed London and Brussels to come to an agreement that would not threaten the hard-fought peace in Northern Ireland. He has pressed the matter with the last three British prime ministers, including the current leader Rishi Sunak, arguing that an agreement should be reached by the anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday agreement in April.
Kennedy is expected to focus primarily on economic matters, not political ones, though Northern Ireland has been without a fully functioning government for months.
Former President Bill Clinton appointed the first US special envoy to Northern Ireland, Sen. George Mitchell, to help broker the Good Friday agreement.
