John Kerry is resigning from the Biden administration.
"John Kerry, the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, will leave the administration later this winter," Axios reports.
Kerry, however, does not appear to be leaving President Joe Biden's side altogether.
Rather, Axios reports that Kerry "plans to help" with Biden's reelection campaign.
According to Axios, Kerry tendered his resignation on Wednesday during a meeting with Biden.
"Kerry met with Biden in the Oval Office on Wednesday to catch up after last month's historic COP28 climate summit in Dubai," the outlet reports.
It adds, "In the conversation, Kerry emphasized his gratitude for the assignment, his belief that Biden has amassed a trailblazing climate record at home and globally, and his excitement about the difference renewed U.S. leadership has made globally over the past three years, the source said."
Why exactly Kerry has chosen now to resign from his special climate envoy position is unclear. If you care as much about climate change as Kerry claims to, then why would you ever resign from a position that is supposedly making such a difference? We don't know.
Kerry, however, has managed to find a way to resign while also making it appear that it is for the good of climate change. How?
Axios reports, "Kerry, 80, thinks Biden's reelection is the 'single biggest' difference that can be made this year for climate progress at home and globally, a source close to the administration told Axios."
The question now is what Kerry can really bring to the table in terms of helping Biden to get reelected.
There is no doubt that Kerry will be able to appeal to voters who view climate change as an important political issue. As Politico reports, "Kerry, 80, has been a fixture in the United States’ climate diplomacy for decades — and before that, as a senator who unsuccessfully sponsored a major climate bill during the early Obama administration, pushing it with such fervor that one fellow Democrat told POLITICO in 2010 that it’s 'all climate, all the time with him.'"
More recently, Kerry has led the U.S. in U.N. climate summits, among other climate-related events.
Whether Kerry, however, will have much sway with voters who are not so climate-oriented is unclear.
In the short term, Kerry is expected to remain in his climate envoy position at least through the World Economic Forum, which is scheduled to take place next week.
