Biden taps Vicki Kennedy and Comcast executive for ambassador posts

President Biden on Wednesday announced plans to nominate a Comcast executive and Democratic fundraiser as ambassador to Canada.

Biden will nominate David L. Cohen, who until 2020 worked as senior executive vice president of Comcast, for the top diplomatic job in Canada. The president will also tap Victoria Kennedy, widow of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), as ambassador to Austria, and he will nominate Jamie Harpootlian for ambassador to Slovenia.

Kennedy is a longtime friend of Biden’s, and the president was close with Ted Kennedy through their years serving together in the Senate. Kennedy has been an outspoken advocate of tougher gun laws and has worked with several gun control groups. She also chairs the Education Committee of the Board of Trustees at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Cohen, a longtime Comcast executive, held fundraising events for Biden during the 2020 election cycle. Prior to working at Comcast, Cohen was a chief of staff to Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell.

If confirmed by the Senate, Cohen would head to Canada as leaders in Ottawa and Washington, D.C., work through the reopening of the U.S.-Canadian border, which has been closed to non-essential travel since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Canada intends to reopen to vaccinated Americans next month, but the White House has yet to say when it will welcome Canadians over the border.

Jamie Harpootlian as an attorney from South Carolina and the wife of state lawmaker Dick Harpootlian, who was a Biden backer during the 2020 election cycle. The White House touted her legal experience and work on non-profit groups that support the environment and the arts.