Since you’re here, please check out our first fundraising since funding ran out in August 2020. We could use your help to keep the blog going. Please see GFM: https://gofund.me/32671a27
Sen. Ted Cruz announces he will put holds on Biden nominees Wendy Sherman and Brian McKeon pic.twitter.com/3RYVbb2EkG
— The Hill (@thehill) March 11, 2021
Ted Cruz is delaying William Burns’s confirmation as CIA director to demand that the Biden administration do more to halt the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline https://t.co/6OgeroEBuZ
— Bloomberg Politics (@bpolitics) March 5, 2021
Dan Diller and Auburn native Brian McKeon are members of different political parties. But as staffers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, they worked together. https://t.co/CpsABIeltM
— The_Citizen (@The_Citizen) March 2, 2021
Senate Foreign Relations Confirmation hearing: Wendy Sherman to be deputy secretary of State and Brian McKeon to be deputy secretary of State for management and resources – LIVE online here: https://t.co/gAyyKMBYL2 pic.twitter.com/gQsEWaTCjV
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 3, 2021
Wendy Sherman and Colin Kahl both face Senate confirmation hearings this week where they are expected to be grilled on their work negotiating the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and Biden’s approach to the United States’ top Middle Eastern rival.https://t.co/fdw6jhYWdL
— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) March 4, 2021
Amb. @wendyrsherman to @SenatorShaheen: "In everything I do at the @StateDept on behalf of the American people, I will make sure that women are included." #HistoricFirst#FirstButNotTheLast
Representation matters.— Dr. Tamara Cofman Wittes (@tcwittes) March 3, 2021
Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Sesame Street’s “Grover” to talk about refugees at the United Nations in New York City, New York on September 19, 2016. [State Department Photo/Public Domain]
If confirmed, three priorities will guide my time as Secretary.
First, I will work with you to reinvigorate the Department by investing in its greatest asset: the foreign service officers, civil servants, and locally employed staff who animate American diplomacy around the world.
I know from firsthand experience their passion, energy, and courage. Often far from home and away from loved ones, sometimes in dangerous conditions exacerbated by the global pandemic – they deserve our full support. If I am confirmed as Secretary, they will have it.
I am committed to advancing our security and prosperity by building a diplomatic corps that fully represents America in all its talent and diversity. Recruiting, retaining, and promoting officers with the skills to contend with 21st Century challenges and who look like the country we represent. Sparing no effort to ensure their safety and well-being. Demanding accountability – starting with the Secretary – for building a more diverse, inclusive and non-partisan workplace.
Second, working across government and with partners around the world, we will revitalize American diplomacy to take on the most pressing challenges of our time.
We’ll show up again, day-in, day-out whenever and wherever the safety and well-being of Americans is at stake. We’ll engage the world not as it was, but as it is. A world of rising nationalism, receding democracy, growing rivalry with China, Russia, and other authoritarian states, mounting threats to a stable and open international system, and a technological revolution that is reshaping every aspect of our lives, especially in cyberspace.
For all that has changed, some things remain constant.
American leadership still matters.
The reality is that the world doesn’t organize itself. When we’re not engaged, when we don’t lead, then one of two things happen: either some other country tries to take our place, but probably not in a way that advances our interests or values. Or no one does, and then you get chaos. Either way, that does not serve the American people
Humility and confidence should be the flip sides of America’s leadership coin.
Humility because we have a great deal of work to do at home to enhance our standing abroad. And humility because most of the world’s problems are not about us, even as they affect us. Not one of the big challenges we face can be met by one country acting alone – even one as powerful as the U.S.
But we’ll also act with confidence that America at its best still has a greater ability than any country on earth to mobilize others for the greater good.
Guided by those principles, we can overcome the COVID crisis – the greatest shared challenge since World War II.
We can outcompete China – and remind the world that a government of the people, by the people, can deliver for its people.
We can take on the existential threat posed by climate change.
We can revitalize our core alliances – force multipliers of our influence around the world. Together, we are far better positioned to counter threats posed by Russia, Iran, and North Korea and to stand up for democracy and human rights.
And in everything we do around the world, we can and we must ensure that our foreign policy delivers for American working families here at home.
Let me conclude with a word about this institution, whose resilience and determination was on full display in the aftermath of senseless and searing violence in these halls. Both the President-elect and I believe we must restore Congress’s traditional role as a partner in our foreign policy making.
In recent years, across administrations of both parties, Congress’s voice in foreign policy has been diluted and diminished.
That doesn’t make the executive branch stronger – it makes our country weaker.
President-elect Biden believes – and I share his conviction – that no foreign policy can be sustained without the informed consent of the American people. You are the representatives of the American people. You provide that advice and consent. We can only tackle the most urgent problems our country faces if we work together, and I am dedicated to doing that.
If confirmed, I will work as a partner to each of you on behalf of all Americans.
“We are extremely alarmed by a report in Brazilian newspaper O Globo yesterday which stated that while lobbying your counterparts on reducing ethanol tariffs, you raised “the importance for the Bolsonaro government of maintaining Donald Trump as U.S. President.” The article further stated, “Iowa is the largest ethanol producer in the United States…and could be a key player in Trump’s election. Hence the importance – according to Chapman – for the Bolsonaro government to do the U.S. a favor.”
These statements are completely inappropriate for a U.S. ambassador to make, and if true, would be a potential violation of the Hatch Act of 1939. We ask that you respond in writing by 5:00 p.m. EST on August 4th as to whether the allegations in the aforementioned article (attached to this correspondence) are true. Specifically, please provide us with a complete description of all conversations that you have had with Brazilian government officials in the executive and legislative branches with regard to ethanol tariffs and the U.S. presidential election. If you deny these allegations, please provide complete and unredacted copies of any and all documents referring or related to any discussions you have had with Brazilian government officials in the executive and legislative branches with regard to ethanol tariffs, to reassure Congress and the American people that our Ambassador to Brazil is truly representing the interests of the United States and not the narrow, political interests of President Trump.
Chairs @RepEliotEngel & @RepSires seek answers regarding a press report that U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Todd Chapman used his position to benefit President Trump’s political campaign.
⬇️ The lawmakers asked for further information about the report. ⬇️https://t.co/E2aWGmTSAL
— House Foreign Affairs Committee (@HouseForeign) August 1, 2020
Members of House Foreign Affairs Committee said Friday they were “extremely alarmed” by assertions that the American ambassador in Brazil had signaled to Brazilian officials they could help get President Trump re-elected by changing their trade policies. https://t.co/sX6a3Tqm2y
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) August 1, 2020
The U.S. State Department denied reports that Ambassador Todd Chapman asked Brazil to cut its ethanol tariff as a favor to President Trump. https://t.co/OHKmitTQ50
— DM Register Business (@DMRbiz) August 3, 2020
Ambassador Chapman lobbied for a reduction on the country’s import tariffs on American ethanol by claiming that this policy change would benefit Bolsonaro's government by assisting Trump’s re-election.
We filed a complaint.https://t.co/zMVniXdnvw
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) August 7, 2020
The budding friendship between the presidents of the U.S. and Brazil faces a new test as negotiators for both countries come head-to-head over the politically sensitive issue of ethanol tariffs. https://t.co/frIczhuN8S
— Agri-Pulse Communications (@agripulse) August 5, 2020
The 20% Brazilian import tax on U.S. ethanol expires in August. Media reports say U.S. govt asked BZL govt to not renew it, something that could help Trump's reelection campaign. Brazil sugar & ethanol industry wants the renewal, particularly due to the weak fuel market
— Marcelo Teixeira (@tx_marcelo) August 3, 2020
Parlamentar brasileiro confirma que embaixador dos EUA no Brasil fez lobby por livre comércio de etanol para ajudar reeleição de Trump https://t.co/cZOGiTZ7SA
— O Globo | Mundo (@OGlobo_Mundo) August 2, 2020
A revelação foi feita por @laurojardim na quinta-feira https://t.co/9bnUKY4wah
— O Globo | Mundo (@OGlobo_Mundo) August 1, 2020
NEW from me & @KFILE: Trump's pick to become the US ambassador to Germany, retired Col. Douglas Macgregor, demonized refugees in Germany as "unwanted Muslim invaders." He advocated to enact martial law on the US-Mexico border and "shoot people" as needed.https://t.co/b3rDQIxP9U
— em steck (@emsteck) August 4, 2020
Trump has announced "his intent to nominate" retired Army colonel Douglas Macgregor as the next US ambassador to Germany. One of Macgregor's qualifications: He's a frequent Fox News guest… https://t.co/IttvXVBeKK
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 27, 2020
US President Donald Trump named retired army colonel Douglas Macgregor as ambassador to Germany. https://t.co/F1L39TnHNf
— DW News (@dwnews) July 28, 2020
What does the President’s nominee for Berlin think? Interesting interview with Colonel Douglas Macgregor on Two Failed Wars and Why He Supports Ron Paul for President | The Daily Bell https://t.co/kj5KXZ1z5z
— Wolfgang Ischinger (@ischinger) July 27, 2020