The Foreign Service Journal, December 2019

12 DECEMBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL TALKING POINTS State Department Under Fire O ctober was a tumultuous month for the State Department, as several top diplomats were called before House com- mittees in connection with the impeach- ment inquiry of President Donald Trump over his dealings with Ukraine. At issue are allegations that the presi- dent withheld military aid, and a meeting with that nation’s new president, Volody- myr Zelensky, in order to get the Ukrai- nian government to say it would inves- tigate political rival Joe Biden and his son’s dealings in that country, as well as conspiracy theories of alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has taken heat from many quarters for not speaking out publicly in defense of State Department diplomats who have come under attack from the White House. When former career diplomat Marie Yovanovitch was abruptly pulled from her post as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine in May for alleged political reasons, Secre- tary Pompeo did not prevent the removal. (Amb. Yovanovitch testified before House committees on Oct. 11.) Secretary Pompeo’s alleged silence on the matter prompted Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and 10 of his Democratic colleagues, to send a letter on Oct. 10 asking the Sec- retary for answers. “You have not made a single remark defending Ambassador Yovanovitch or heralding her more than three decades of service to the American people,” they wrote. Other diplomats have taken flak from the Trump administration, as well. In remarks to reporters gathered on the White House lawn Oct. 25, President Trump criticized Ambassador William Taylor, the chargé d’affaires at Embassy Kyiv who testified before congressio- nal committees Oct. 22. “Here’s the problem, he’s a ‘Never Trumper’ and his lawyer’s a ‘Never Trumper,’” the president said. (Amb. Taylor has served under each Republican and Democratic administration since 1985. After retir- ing from the State Department, he was brought back by Secretary Pompeo to serve in Kyiv.) Vice President Mike Pence chimed in, too. “An awful lot of the swamp has been caught up in the State Department bureaucracy, and we’re just going to keep fighting it,” he told Fox News per- sonality Laura Ingraham on Oct. 22. White House Press Secretary Stepha- nie Grisham released a statement Oct. 23 that said, in part: “President Trump has done nothing wrong—this is a coordinated smear campaign from far- left lawmakers and radical unelected bureaucrats waging war on the Consti- tution.” “‘Radical unelected bureaucrats.’ That is what the White House called Ambassadors Bill Taylor, Mike McKin- ley, Masha Yovanovitch and Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent. Secre- tary Mike Pompeo must repudiate this statement. That’s what a leader would do,” tweeted Career Ambassador (ret.) Nicholas Burns, former under secretary of State for political affairs under Presi- dent George W. Bush. Today we begin the formal process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. The U.S. is proud of our record as a world leader in reducing all emissions, fostering resilience, growing our economy, and ensuring energy for our citizens. Ours is a realistic and pragmatic model. —Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, @SecPompeo, Nov. 4. Contemporary Tweet President of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass called Ms. Grisham’s statement “an outrage.” Diplo- mats “swore to defend the Constitution, and they’re doing just that. Long since time for @SecPompeo to defend his troops,” he tweeted. In media interviews, Secretary Pom- peo has declined to discuss in detail Amb. Yovanovitch’s removal from Ukraine or attacks by the White House against other U.S. diplomats. But in an Oct. 11 inter- view with The Tennessean , he attacked the impeachment inquiry as unfair. “I protect every single State Department employee,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons that we asked the House of Representatives to stop their abusive prosecutions, where they won’t let State Department lawyers sit with our employees.” The State Department initially refused to provide documents to the House com- mittees, even after being subpoenaed, but by the end of October had agreed to cooperate on document collection. The department directed its employees not to appear before the House committees, but officials have been appearing in response to subpoenas. We see daily media stories on dwindling morale at the State Depart- ment. These include an Oct. 16 article in The Washington Post titled “Testimony Exposes Deepening Discontent with Pompeo at State Department,” and an