At a little-noticed House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in March 2021, headlined “Policy Recommendations on Haiti for the Biden Administration,” a former ambassador to Haiti recommended that the way to deal with troublesome President Jovenel Moïse was to “put him aside” and embrace something she called “the prime minister option.”

The U.S. was unsatisfied with Moïse and, as new elections approached amid a deteriorating on-the-ground situation, wanted a faster transition.

“It would be nice if he would step down, but I do not think that is going to happen,” said former Ambassador Pamela White at the hearing, under questioning from Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla. White was a foreign service officer in Haiti from 1985 to 1990, and served as ambassador from 2012 to 2015. “So I think if we sort of put him aside, you know, in the best of all worlds, and we have a prime minister appointed that is noncorrupt, that is not from the political sector, is not from the private sector — there are several really good candidates. I am not going to name them, but there are several.”

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