Sullivan can’t even think of anything he would have done differently in Gaza, nor can Blinken or McGurk. The closest thing to a mea culpa from team Biden came in an op-ed by Finer and top Harris national security adviser Phil Gordon that flatly declared Biden’s rationale for unconditional support for Israel’s government “became far less compelling over time.” They published this in September 2025 – months after the horrific Trump-endorsed famine in Gaza made mainstream Democrats comfortable criticizing the Israeli government – suggesting Finer and Gordon are in possession of more of a weathervane than a backbone.
The same goes double for Sullivan, who, around the same time, declared he supported conditioning future arms sales to Israel, with zero reexamination of his own refusal to do just that while he was in power. As Zeteo contributor Spencer Ackerman pointed out, Sullivan and Finer have run this playbook before, joining an open letter during Trump’s first term, decrying his escalation of the inhumane Yemen war they helped launch in the previous administration while downplaying their own culpability.
Belated post-mortems from Biden officials may occasionally tepidly pin blame on Biden, now conveniently a political non-entity, but never blame the other advisers who actually ran the sunsetting president’s Mideast policy, who are still very much in play. Once you notice these omissions, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the first priority of even the most remorseful Biden advisers is not repairing US foreign policy, it’s protecting the other offenders – and themselves.
That’s the charitable explanation for why a Biden alum would inject themself back into politics without trying to answer for the tens or hundreds of thousands of lives they destroyed or the millions of Americans they deliberately misled, but it also shows why they can’t be trusted to make the right calls if given a second chance.
Every member of Biden’s Gaza team, even those who voiced concerns after his term or – allegedly – during it, continues to make it abundantly clear their solidarity lies with their accomplices, not their victims.
If there’s any hope for justice for those victims, it’s that the excesses of the Trump administration have pushed a growing number of Democratic lawmakers to start talking about accountability. For now, it’s accountability for out-of-control ICE and border patrol agents, for generals who carry out Trump’s unlawful orders, and for Trump officials themselves. But a campaign for accountability can be neither credible nor effective if it applies only to members of one political party.
What would accountability for Blinken, Sullivan, et al, in addition to their Trump administration counterparts, look like? The Department of Justice could investigate them for violating federal laws governing arms transfers. Congress could ratify the Rome Statute, making them eligible for trials at The Hague, or pass laws making it easier for victims’ families to sue US officials. The US could even sign an extradition treaty with a future Palestinian state.
More realistic in the near term is political accountability. Politicians who solicit advice from Biden’s genocide squad deserve to be treated the same way as those who take money from AIPAC: Unworthy of our trust on issues of morality and national security and dangerously out of touch with Democratic voters.
Finally, it’s worth acknowledging the argument in favor of keeping the Biden bunch in rotation, which boils down to: lawmakers and donors already know them, and think they’re experienced and really smart. It’s tough to argue with someone who thinks experience facilitating a genocide is a valuable resume bullet, and the superior intelligence of this cohort is debatable – Blinken tried to simultaneously tut-tut and claim credit for Trump’s first strikes on Iran, and Harris adviser Ilan Goldenberg argued this January that Trump should threaten Iran with airstrikes.
But even if you believe in the powers of renowned superbrain Jake Sullivan, we should challenge the notion that the Biden Gaza team is irreplaceable. DC, in fact, has no shortage of talented people who understand government. Some even have principles. Democrats can craft policy and fully staff the National Security Council without an Operation Paperclip for Biden alums who belong at The Hague.
There is room for debate on the scope of accountability, but not on whether to pursue it. Accountability for DC’s genocide class is an imperative: To seek justice for their victims, to prove post-Trump that the United States is still a nation of laws, to keep the original architects of the Gaza genocide from worming their way back into positions where they can again inflict unspeakable harm, and to teach the next generation of national security officials that their careers are best served by preventing war crimes, not abetting them.
What does the world look like if we fail to hold the genocide class to account? You’re living in it.
Harrison Mann is a former US Army major and executive officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Middle East/Africa Regional Center who resigned in protest of his office’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza under the Biden administration.
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