Questions Emerge About Buttigieg’s Rhode Island Foreign Policy Expert
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
On Monday, Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg rolled out the names of more than two hundred foreign policy and national security experts across the country and one of them is Rhode Islander Nick Autiello.
According to the signature page of the four-page letter, “Nick Autiello, Former Special Advisor to Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo.”
The Buttigieg campaign forwarded a copy of Autiello’s resume as stating, “OFFICE OF GOVERNOR GINA M. RAIMONDO Providence, RI January 2016 – June 2018, December 2018 - present Special Advisor, Executive Office of Commerce.”
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According to the office of Governor Gina Raimondo, Autiello never worked on the Governor's staff. State salary records show he was never paid by the executive office.
Staff at Commerce Rhode Island said Autiello was a mid-level staffer at the quasi-public agency.
Autiello did run in the Democratic primary in Senate District 5 in 2018, but finished a distant third. Sam Bell took 46 percent of the vote to 37 percent for Paul Jabour and 17 percent for Nick Autiello. Autiello appeared twice on GoLocal LIVE and did not reference working Raimondo, but did discuss his economic development experience.
Earlier in his career, Autiello was a Republican and in 2008 he supported the GOP's Rudy Guliani for President.
Buttigieg's Campaign Explantation
The questions from GoLocal seem to send the Buttigieg campaign scrambling.
Buttigieg’s national press secretary Chris Meagher told GoLocal that the list of experts was developed by third-party volunteer group and not the campaign.
"Looping you with Doug and Ned, who organized the group, not the campaign," wrote Meagher.
The letter said, in part, "We believe in America’s international leadership, and in the values that underpin its capability to bring about collective security and prosperity, as well as change for the greater good. So we cannot stand by and continue to watch all that we have stood and worked for tweeted away." READ THE FULL LETTER BELOW
Douglas Wilson, one of the organizers of the letter told GoLocal that those experts that signed the letter received a varying degree of review. “Yes, all went through a short vetting process. Those involved in specific policy areas went through a deeper vetting process,” said Wilson, who signed the letter and served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs by President Barack Obama in 2010.
Today, Wilson serves on the board of advisors for the Truman Center.
The other organizer of the group was Ned Price, Former National Security Council spokesperson and senior director, and special assistant to President Obama. Today, he is a fellow at George Washington University.
GoLocal repeatedly reached out to Autiello for comment, he emailed on Monday night, "I’ve published academic work on foreign policy in a top journal. At Commerce, I worked on global economic and trade issues. I’m also a member of the Mayor’s volunteer foreign policy team. This was an opt-in list."
When asked in a follow-up call if his resume stating that he worked for Raimondo was misleading, Autiello said no, adding "I was assigned to the executive office. That is the same thing."
Autiello received an undergraduate degree in International Relations from Florida International University and earned a master’s degree from London School of Economics. Autiello said he wrote his graduate dissertation on foreign relations issues. Autiello's dissertation was titled, "Taming the Wild Dragon: John F. Kennedy and the Republic of China, 1961-1963."
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