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Who is Antony Blinken's wife? How Joe Biden's secretary of state pick fell in love with Evan Ryan at White House
In 1995, Blinken met Ryan at the White House, where she was special assistant to Hillary Clinton's chief of staff
By Jyotsna Basotia
Updated On : 12:56 PST, Nov 25, 2020
Tags :Boston,New York
Tony Blinken, Evan Ryan and Paul Begala (Getty Images)
President-elect Joe Biden formally announced a few key cabinet picks for his national security and foreign policy teams and he has chosen Antony Blinken — one of his closest and longest-serving foreign policy advisers — as his choice for secretary of state.
When Biden was a senator, Blinken was his staff director on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before leaving to work on Biden's 2008 presidential campaign. He graduated from Harvard and from Columbia Law School. Blinken was promoted to deputy secretary of state under former president Barack Obama. Blinken co-founded WestExec Advisors, a political strategy firm, with a top Obama-era Pentagon official, Michele Flournoy. The New York Times report states that the 58-year-old Blinken started his career at the state department during the Clinton administration. He has been by Biden's side for almost 20 years.
Joe Biden and former deputy secretary of state Antony Blinken (Getty Images)
'Tony Blinken is a superstar'
From 2009 to 2013, he served as deputy assistant to the president and national security advisor to the vice-president. On November 7, 2014, Obama announced chose Blinken for the deputy secretary post replacing the retiring William Joseph Burns and he was confirmed in December by a vote of 55 to 38. Voicing his support for Obama on his 2011 decision to kill Osama bin Laden, Blinken said, "I've never seen a more courageous decision made by a leader." Amid the new announcement, here is a look at his personal life.
As per a Washington Post report, Biden once said, "Tony Blinken is a superstar and that's not hyperbole," adding, "the president [Obama] recognized that after four years with me and stole him." Blinken, he added, "could do any job, any job."
Jon Lovett, Jon Favreau, Evan Ryan and Tony Blinken (Getty Images)
Who is Antony Blinken's wife?
In 1995, Blinken met Evan Maureen Ryan at the White House, where she was a special assistant to Hillary Clinton's chief of staff while he was a special assistant to the president and the senior director for speechwriting. The two tied the knot after dating for seven years at Georgetown's Holy Trinity Church in a bi-denominational ceremony. He was 39 and she was his 30-year-old colleague from a DC-area middle-class, Irish Catholic family. As per The New York Times, Rev William J Byron, a Roman Catholic priest, performed the ceremony with Rabbi Harold White at the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church in Washington.
After the marriage, Ryan decided to keep her name. Delving deeper into her life, the same report reads: "She graduated from Boston College. Her father is a program manager at the Office of Personnel Management in Washington. Her mother, Donna Ryan, taught kindergarten at St Stephen's and St. Agnes School, an Episcopal school in Alexandria." A cherished teacher, Donna retired in 2019 after 35 years of service.
Evan Ryan, former deputy secretary of state Antony Blinken, Vera Blinken, 47th vice-president of the United States Joe Biden, and NCAFP Trustee and former US ambassador to Hungary Donald Blinken (Getty Images)
"At first his mother was quite skeptical about it," Rabbi Harold White, who co-officiated with a Catholic priest, told Washington Post. His reception was a politically charged affair as he thanked "the 40-odd million people who voted for Bill Clinton because without them I would never have met Evan at the White House" with Hillary Clinton in attendance.
Talking about their relationship and Blinken's life, the Washington Post report revealed that he shares a Dupont Circle home with Ryan. It also read: "He periodically dusts off his guitar to jam the blues and Beatles covers with White House press secretary Jay Carney and other Washington pals." In fact, writer and bandmate Dave McKenna once put a stamp on his crooning skills saying "he's a good singer".
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