Top State Department officials are apparently so unhappy with Trump that they decided to take their knowledge and stompy-foot their way out of the State Department before Trump’s nominee, Rex Tillerson, even gets confirmed:
IBI TIMES – Four top and long-standing State Department officials who have served both Democrat and Republican administrations resigned Wednesday, the Washington Post reported. The reason behind the sweeping resignations is a “matter of dispute” within the department according to the report.
As of yet unconfirmed Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson, who’s faced criticism for his ties to Russia while heading up Exxon Mobil, was at the department’s headquarters in the Washington neighborhood Foggy Bottom and taking meetings while the resignations occurred.
“It’s the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember, and that’s incredibly difficult to replicate,” David Wade, former chief of staff to now-ex-Secretary of State John Kerry, told the Post. “Department expertise in security, management, administrative and consular positions in particular are very difficult to replicate and particularly difficult to find in the private sector.”
Though he was hoping to keep the position while President Donald Trump transitioned to the White House, now former State Department undersecretary for management Patrick Kennedy headlined the group of departures, state officials told the Post. He had served in that role for the nine years but is expected to retire from foreign service at the end of the month.
On top of Kennedy, Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Ann Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond and director of the Office of Foreign Missions and Ambassador Gentry O. Smith also left the department.
The loss of such top and experienced officials could be more than cumbersome when it comes to managing the country’s vast foreign relations network, no matter if Tillerson is confirmed by the Senate or not.
You know this actually makes me pretty happy, especially knowing how some of these people, like Patrick Kennedy, worked hard to protect Hillary Clinton despite her blatant criminality and corruption.
I’m sure they took vital knowledge with them, as the article suggests, but I feel sure Trump’s team in the State Department can figure it out and make it work before too long.
I’m not worried one iota.
UPDATE: Turns out Trump told them to leave:
Two senior administration officials said Thursday that the Trump administration told four top State Department management officials that their services were no longer needed as part of an effort to “clean house” at Foggy Bottom.
Patrick Kennedy, who served for nine years as the undersecretary for management, Assistant Secretaries for Administration and Consular Affairs Joyce Anne Barr and Michele Bond, and Ambassador Gentry Smith, director of the Office for Foreign Missions, were sent letters by the White House that their service was no longer required, the sources told CNN.
All four, career officers serving in positions appointed by the President, submitted letters of resignation per tradition at the beginning of a new administration.
Well good on him for trying to clean house. Still very glad to see them go.