When Mike Pompeo took the helm at the Department of State in April 2018, American diplomats, aka foreign service officers, held some hope that all might be well again at Foggy Bottom.
The diplomatic corps – the unsung and little understood civilian army that builds foreign relations, assists Americans abroad, and tries to keep us out of wars – had taken some hits from the bully pulpit of our president.
Pompeo, many of us believed, would restore diplomacy’s footing, or “swagger,” as he liked to call it, and help keep the president from acting on his most churlish and childish instincts.
We were wrong. Pompeo devolved quickly into a sycophant, exhibiting undemocratic behavior that has put the department – and America – at serious risk.
His failure to protect diplomats from political pressure and his failure to champion freedom of the press has wounded America’s standing, weakened global democracy, and strengthened our enemies. By ignoring congressional subpoenas in the impeachment inquiry, Pompeo has shredded his oath of office to defend the Constitution.
To me, none of this comes as a surprise. I saw warning signs almost from the get-go of a man who did not have our nation’s best interests foremost in his mind.
Exhibit A: Russia
In the aftermath of the Kremlin’s attacks on our 2016 elections, and the overwhelming evidence that it helped the president’s campaign, we never expected help from the White House in pushing back against Russia. The president has done little more than coddle Russia, whose military adventures and other malign activity pose an existential threat to the United States and our allies.
For a while, we could count on high-ranking officials in the administration, notably from within the department, to call out Russia’s bad behavior. That began to unravel within a few months of Pompeo’s taking the helm as secretary.
Except for his criticism of Russia’s failure to comply with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, Pompeo can rarely be found condemning Russia, despite the Kremlin’s numerous misdeeds, including continued aggression in Ukraine. The task of pushing back on Russia fell to ambassadors, special envoys, assistant secretaries, and deputy assistant secretaries.
In July 2018, a month after Trump’s strange and secretive meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Pompeo killed the annual statement the department had prepared to mark the fourth anniversary of the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, in which Russia played a role.
Exhibit B: The truth
Pompeo’s recent lack of candor and his manipulation of the facts surrounding the assassination of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani came hot on the heels of his misleading statements about the Ukraine affair.
Pompeo has yet to come clean about his relationship with Rudy Giuliani, who led the Russia-backed smear campaign against highly respected Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. He also has helped perpetuate the mother of all geopolitical lies that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind the 2016 election interference.
Pompeo’s detachment from truth is further evidenced in his office’s handling of the Jessikka Aro case. Aro is the Finnish journalist at the vanguard of exposing Russian disinformation in Europe, including the troll factory in St. Petersburg. She consequently became the target of attacks by Kremlin-backed operatives.
The U.S. embassy in Helsinki nominated Aro for the department’s prestigious annual Women of Courage Award in last year. The nomination was approved by the European Bureau and the secretary’s office. Aro was set to travel to Washington last March when she was uninvited by Pompeo’s office. Pompeo has never revealed the reasons for rescinding the award. Was it because she had been critical of Russia? Or the president?
Then there is the case of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered and dismembered in Turkey by Saudi operatives. Despite overwhelming evidence that the crown prince is culpable, Pompeo has offered instead exculpatory statements with no factual basis.
Pompeo’s shameful leadership and behavior have led to an exodus of foreign service officers. Under his tenure, employee regard for senior leadership has plummeted 14 percent.
Mike Pompeo has seriously eroded democracy, at home and abroad. He is a threat to national security. He should apologize to the diplomatic corps and to the American people. Then he should resign.
Brent Israelsen, a former news editor at The Salt Lake Tribune, was a U.S. foreign service officer from 2009 to 2019, completing tours in Italy, Moldova, El Salvador and the Department of State’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. He currently freelances from northern Virginia.