After criticizing Hillary Clinton relentlessly, the president has yet to nominate a State Department official charged with keeping diplomats safe.
President Donald Trump has yet to nominate the State Department official who oversees diplomatic security abroad — despite having made the 2012 Benghazi attacks a centerpiece of his campaign against Hillary Clinton.
Congressional Democrats say it’s a striking omission that shows Trump’s campaign rhetoric was just that. And even some Republicans are urging Trump to move faster to fill this and other key State Department posts.
“The State Department has security professionals who are up to the job, but we do need all hands on deck given the many evolving threats we face,” said Rep. Ed Royce of California, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “I hope a nominee for assistant secretary will be put forward soon.”
Royce’s Democratic counterpart on the Foreign Affairs panel, Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, said Trump’s failure to nominate an assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security shows the Republican focus on Benghazi was “a bunch of political cheap talk” designed to tarnish Clinton’s reputation.
Democrats attributed the lack of a nominee to two factors: the administration’s overall slow pace of making appointments for senior jobs at federal agencies, especially the State Department, and Trump’s decision to prioritize hiring at the Defense Department over State.
“Unfortunately,” Engel said, “I think it’s indicative of the low priority that Trump and the administration are placing on diplomacy or anything to do with the State Department.”
Trump has made just two nominations for senior management posts at the State Department, not including ambassadorships. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was confirmed by the Senate in February, and Trump tapped John Sullivan to be Tillerson’s deputy last week.
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Diplomatic security is so important that POTUS can't be bothered to hire anyone to lead it. https://t.co/a0FOtRlvnT
— John Schindler (@20committee) April 18, 2017
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