Senior State Department officials resign as Trump team enters
ASSOCIATED PRESS
State Department Undersecretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy testified, in Sept. 2011, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Kennedy, a top U.S. diplomat who played a prominent role in the Benghazi investigations and controversy over Hillary Clinton’s emails is resigning.
WASHINGTON >> A number of senior career diplomats are leaving the State Department after the Trump administration accepted their resignations from presidentially appointed positions.
The State Department said today that several senior management officials as well as a top arms control diplomat would be leaving. All had submitted their resignations prior to Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration as is required of officials holding jobs appointed by the president. They were not required to leave the foreign service but chose to retire or resign for personal reasons, the department said.
While none of the officials has linked his or her departure explicitly to Trump, many diplomats have privately expressed concern about serving in his administration given the unorthodox positions he’s taken on many foreign policy issues.
Turnover among senior leadership during presidential transitions is not unusual, although the career diplomats who are leaving the foreign service entirely had served under both Republican and Democratic presidents.
More resignations are expected to be accepted as Trump’s diplomatic team takes shape, according to the officials who were not authorized to discuss personnel matters publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The now vacant jobs will be filled by subordinates on an acting basis until their full-time appointments are named, the officials said.
Among those whose resignations have been accepted are Thomas Countryman, who had been serving as the acting undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. Others include Undersecretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy; two assistant secretaries, Joyce Barr and Michele Bond; and Gentry Smith, who directs the Office of Foreign Missions. They had been willing to remain at their posts but had no expectation of staying, according to several State Department officials familiar with the resignations.
Other senior career diplomats to have left the State Department since Trump’s election include Victoria Nuland, the former assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, and Gregory Starr, the assistant secretary for diplomatic security. Starr retired on Inauguration Day as did Lydia Muniz, a non-career political appointee who had run Overseas Building Operations.
Trump has yet to fill many top diplomatic jobs, including the deputy secretary roles. His nominee to be secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is expected to be confirmed by the Senate next week.
Kennedy was relied upon by both Democrats and Republicans. He was tapped for the undersecretary post in 2007 by President George W. Bush and stayed on throughout President Barack Obama’s term. His position oversees the department’s budget and finances, security, global facilities and consular services.
Kennedy, a diplomat since 1973, was criticized for the department’s insufficient security at the diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans were killed in 2012. In testy congressional hearings, Kennedy defended then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of the situation and insisted there was no “stand down” order to the U.S. military during the attack.
Bureau records also showed Kennedy asked for the FBI’s help in 2015 to change the classification level of an email from Clinton’s private server. The FBI ultimately rejected the request.
65 responses to “Senior State Department officials resign as Trump team enters”
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Good
Drainin the Swamp!
I understand that all of the former appointees wanted to spend more time with their families.
You can’t fire me…I quit!
Draining the swamp. It does work.
What do you know about the qualifications of any of those people?
The correct answer is absolutely nothing. Zero. Like always.
You don’t know anything as usual. Before you do battle you clear the deck. No loose cannons. Man, are you for real? Didn’t think so. With all the money you have you can’t buy brains.
All of those quitting worked for previous Republican presidents. They are career foreign service personnel, not political appointees. They just don’t want to work for a crazy person.
They did for the past eight years so why now.
Some people who post comments here really should check the news they read in the local Honolulu news paper…It’s fake news…The state department staff were Fired
Drbobvega, the people referred to in the story were not fired. You do not seem to know that the Secretary of State and top officials in the State Department are in positions filled by people appointed by the President. Some may have been career State Department employees, but they were elevated to upper management positions normally filled by the President. Collectively, they are known as “political appointees” who serve at the pleasure of the President who appointed them. Thus, when a new president is elected, it is customary for all political appointees to submit courtesy resignations to make room for people appointed by the incoming president. It is not unusual for an incoming president to reappoint some, but almost all of them go.
“…the Trump administration accepted their resignations from presidentially appointed positions.”
Many were appointed.
Let’s see you do better.
Finally, first drain the swamp and then discard the residue.
Glad to see them go. The State Dept has been a disaster first under Hillary and then under John (Heinz) Kerry.
Of course they could not have done so much damage without their sycophants who are now jumping ship like a bunch of rats off a sinking ship.
Right, much better under say Powell, you know the guy that called Trump a “national disgrace” Oh, and as noted, many of those quitting held posts under Bush as well. Even they can’t stand the disaster that is coming under this moron.
President Trump just doing what the people elected him to do. I really don’t think the excuse that because they served under Bush holds water. America is becoming better already. Build the wall and enforce the laws. It shall be done.
Gosh, I hate to agree with you, but you are correct that just because they served under Bush, that does not make them good at their job. My comment to fiveo was related to the fact that not everything a democrat does is bad, and a republican does is good.
But, I will say that the wall should be way down on the priority list.
If by “becoming better” you mean becoming a laughing stock, then you’re correct. You have no idea what the diplomatic corps does apparently. They carry out the policies determined by the president and the Secretary of State, like the Commanders of the Combatant Commands carry out the orders of the Secretary of Defense and the president. They are professionals not political appointees.
I think he has that big Raid fogger close at hand. Trump appears to have his sh#t together “big league.”
I believe the reason all the snowflakes and weirdos are so hysterical over Trump is exactly because they thought Hillary would push us over the final hurdle into an authoritarian socialist police state, completing this long term dream with “them” in charge.
We would be fighting in the streets and hiding GOLD right this minute had that occurred.
That’s because the ship is sinking. Only dam- foo-s would stay aboard especially when the captain is a major fu-k up.
Anyone left over from Odumbo and Killary for the last 8 years just get out. Your foreign polices will go down as some of the worst in the Hx of the Americas!
I would have not asked them to resign I would have thrown them out with a swift kick to boot.
Nice Try and Good Job to the FBI.Pat Kennedy “Tried” to reclassify Hillary Clinton’s Email server.
“Drain The Swamp”! Bring it ON!
This is a good thing that President Trump IS accepting their resignations,we don’t want any residual Saboteurs messing things up!
In my opinion, this is somewhat in line with why ACA is being repealed vs. tweaked. Tweaking ACA will just bog down the process to achieve the goal of a cost effective healthcare plan. Hence, repeal and replace however, there will still be some parts of the new healthcare plan that will resemble parts of the ACA.
Swamp starting to drain.
Big Swamp . Going to take a while , but the tide is headed out.
Career state dept people work with both Republican and Democratic Presidents and have valuable knowledge about the world that will apparently now be lost in the new regime. This unprecedented group resignation makes America, and the world, a far more dangerous place.
I agree. This is very bad for our country.
Or maybe its very good.
Correction: Career state dept people work with both Republican and Democratic Presidents and have valuable knowledge about the world that they utilize to shape their own goals and political agenda.
Good riddance.
Right, so the new appointees will not have their own goals or political agendas?
Yes the new ones will have goals and adjendas , but they will be America’s adjendas , not the Clinton Foundation’s. I don’t think it is bad for the country at all , on the contrary some new ideas and directions are badly needed.
And what goals and agendas would they have? And are you saying that all the Trump appointees will have America’s best interest at heart? What makes them any different than any other appointees in the history of the country?
What makes them different? They have no experience and probably no clue as to what they should be doing.
Just ask Gabbard, she has all the answers. Went on a junket paid for by Arab organization, AACCESS-Ohio.
It is not unprecedented. Why do you make that up?
Tutulois, I do not believe you understand the situation. The people who are leaving went from career diplomats to political appointees when they accepted Obama’s appointments. It is customary for political appointees to submit their resignations when a new president takes office. Since these particular presidential appointees had career status, they had retention rights and could have stayed within the State Department in other lower-level positions and instead decided to resign or retire.
They will move into the private lobbyist section of the swamp , but they’ll still get drained. Bye Bye.
Gee, than the entire Middle East on Fire under them?
Middle East under fire for decades.
In the Drumpfiverse there’s no such thing as institutional memory or continuity — only the capricious and volatile whims of the Imperium.
reminiscent of Obama – no doubt.
Appointees of prior administrations all submit “courtesy resignations” to the new administration. It is up to the new administration to decide if they want to retain or accept the resignations. The process is nothing new.
I’ve worked under situation where prior admin. people resigned and new administrators appointed and many times it was chaos with the newbies in charge.
Normal procedures as done everywhere in the USA.
ALOOOOOHA!
#DrainTheSwamp
Did they just realize that they won’t be plodding on with Obama’s old policies?
Name some of the policies you are speaking about…
Like America last. like America just another European Socialist State, like stupid deals where we give up capital and the other side gives nothing…on and on
Allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. The most worst foreign affairs decision perhaps in this century. Iran’s mullahs have no compunctions on using it.
I think they will stop funneling money to terrorists.
Well , they saw the work ethic of the Trump administration. Scared them . Honesty and production ! Can’t handle……
Obama administration of senior career diplomats are leaving the ‘gravy train’. They were not required to leave however probably would have been replaced eventually.
Drain the swamp of greasy-grimy gopher guts.
Not all the people was Obama’s they were appointed by other presidents.
“Senior Official” means they’ve been there way too long.
This would be good in HI too.
Appointees come and go but career workers are the heartbeat of any organization. These workers are the foundation of the state department. Four workers with more than 150 years of service represents a huge amount of experience and knowledge. I really feel sorry for Mr.Tillerson who is going into his job blind and the people with the answers to his questions are gone. I hope the janitor didn’t leave in case his toilet backs up.
Well said.
There will still be regular career civil service employees with a wealth of basic policy knowledge on how the office operate. The shift in strategy is another matter which requires in-place/on-the-ground knowledge in foreign posts.
Considering the performance of the state department under Clinton and Kerry, all appointees should expect to be let go.
No way….
they were not political appointees. Get a clue about who works in the diplomatic corps and what they do.
this is the democrats’ scorched earth strategy in dealing with triumph’s administration, the ends justifies the means.
obama could just as well have been the reincarnation of l. ron hubbard and the democrat party has morphed into the church of scientology.
The head*line is misleading.
“All had submitted their resignations prior to Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration AS IS REQUIRED of officials holding jobs appointed by the president.”
Same thing happened prior to NO-Bama’s time.
But… no misleading or even mentioning of it.
Bias reporting !
Yes, what about the 16 czars he appointed over all the civil service department heads in his administration? Did the hang-overs quietly resigned or accepted lesser roles in the respective departments. Especially the EPA department where the news has been centered.
It’s difficult to say whether this is good or bad.
These diplomats may be CYA and leaving now when there is no stigma. Time will tell. They should leave if they feel that they will not be able to contribute to Trump administration foreign policy. Better that than gum up the works.
No problem, recalled Russian diplomates can show the newbies how it’s done. Hail Mother Russia!!