Some “beleaguered and battered” veteran foreign service members are urging President Biden to draw from the State Department’s ranks of career officers instead of leaning on well-connected politicos or donors to fill plum posts.
The White House billed Biden’s first visit to the department on Thursday as a morale booster to the country’s diplomats after four years under the Trump administration, which often criticized nonpartisan career staff derisively as a “deep state” working to undermine the then-president. Biden used his first major foreign policy address since taking office to vow to put diplomacy first, a break from former President Donald Trump’s often-muscular “America first” approach to the globe.
“I want the people who work in this building and our embassies and consulates around the world to know I value your expertise, and I respect you, and I will have your back,” Biden said on Thursday.
One former U.S. diplomat and Obama White House official, Brett Bruen, said while the country’s “beleaguered and battered diplomatic corps” welcomed Biden’s “pep talk” Thursday, they “wanted to hear more,” and pointed to positions Biden had filled with top political appointees who left the foreign service to enter the political realm.
Bruen, who left under Trump, and other Foreign Service officers said they are concerned the message conveyed is that in order to reach the senior-most positions, diplomats should leave and later return as a political appointee.
“That’s definitely not gone unnoticed,” one U.S. diplomat told ABC News. “It tells us [you] should’ve been working for Albright-Stonebridge rather than toiling away somewhere in Foggy Bottom.”
Albright-Stonebridge is the consulting firm led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, where several of Biden’s top picks have worked, including his nominee to be ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and his pick for deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman.
Bruen said this seemed the case to some “after watching all the top jobs at the State Department get handed out to political appointees for the first time in a quarter century.”
He called Biden’s remarks on Thursday “disappointing” and “short on specifics.”
“It may be early days, but he did not even throw them a bone or the bare bones of an idea [on] how the heck we are going to rebuild our diplomatic muscle?” Bruen said. “It is nice to say, ‘I’ve got your back.’ They appreciate that pat on the back. But what they really want is to get back to the big kids table and help shape high-level policy.”
The State Department has sought to allay critics, telling reporters Tuesday to expect new announcements for career staff.
“You will see a number of respected career officials assume some of the most senior positions in this building,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price. “There’s no doubt about that.”
And on Thursday, Biden announced a veteran diplomat as his special envoy for Yemen, Timothy Lenderking, an officer with deep experience in Gulf and Yemen affairs.
Dennis Jett, a retired ambassador, career foreign service officer, and professor, said Biden’s choices were “solid professionals who will value the institution.”
“Trump decimated the senior ranks of the foreign service,” he said.
One concern that the White House has yet to address is the donor-diplomat ambassadorship, a practice that one of Biden’s presidential primary opponents, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, pledged to end had she gone on to win the White House.
“Nobody likes to see ambassadorships sold,” said Jett, who wrote a book titled American Ambassadors.
“It’s a thinly veiled form of corruption that causes people to look at the swamp and wish it was green,” she added.
Bruen said he wished Biden had addressed the point on Thursday.
“Our diplomats would like to see fewer ambassadorships go to the wealthy and well connected,” he said. “None of those promises were made today.”
