Secretary of State John Kerry launched into a blistering critique of the Senate on Thursday, attacking the body for holding up approval of key State Department positions.
Kerry had been expected to mainly address North Korea’s latest nuclear test in today’s press conference in Washington, D.C., but his frustrations with the Senate seemed to take priority.
“As someone who served for more than a century, almost twenty-nine years in the United States Senate, I deeply respect the foreign policy prerogatives of the Congress,” Kerry said. “But at the same time. … It just doesn’t make sense, it hurts our country, to do what the Senate has allowed to happen. And that is to leave open, sometimes for more than year, vacant, important positions for our nation.”
“That is the primary reason I wanted to drop by here this afternoon,” Kerry added.
Kerry singled out many vacant positions, including the ambassador to Mexico. “One of our most significant bilateral relationships is with Mexico,” Kerry said.
He then highlighted the importance of the ambassador to Mexico’s role on the issue of border security, “which you hear presidential candidates chomping about.”
“It is disparaging to that country that we don’t have the respect to send the ambassador that that country needs, and deserves,” Kerry said.
Kerry also highlighted a vacancy in the position of the undersecretary of state for political affairs, “one of the most pivotal positions in this department” and “the very hub of our day-to-day diplomacy.”
