WASHINGTON—The United States’ top diplomat is accusing a Republican senator of obstruction following refusals to confirm dozens of diplomatic appointments.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has been requesting documents related to COVID-19 for years over concerns that U.S.-funded “gain of function” experiments in Wuhan, China, might have contributed to the creation of the virus that causes the disease.
Those confirmation delays are unnecessarily creating a national security crisis, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“These delays are weakening our national security, and they’re weakening our ability to deliver for the American people,” Mr. Blinken said during a July 17 press briefing.
The secretary said that the confirmation of 62 nominees was stalled in the Senate, with 38 actively awaiting confirmation on the floor, 35 of whom are career foreign service officers.
That’s a problem, Mr. Blinken said, as several nations will soon be without U.S. ambassadors to pursue U.S. interests abroad.
“That number is going to keep going up. By the end of this summer, we expect Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon will all be without confirmed U.S. ambassadors,” he said.
State Department Denies It Has COVID Documents
Both Mr. Blinken and State Department spokesman Matthew Miller claimed that Mr. Paul is withholding diplomatic nominations for reasons unrelated to State Department business and out of the department’s control.“Unfortunately, [Senator Paul] continues to block all of our nominees,” Mr. Blinken said.
Mr. Miller added that the State Department has provided the records in its possession that had been requested but said most of Mr. Paul’s requests were for documents that aren’t and never have been in the department’s possession.
“We will continue to provide documents that [are] responsive to [Paul’s] requests,” Mr. Miller said. “But he is asking us for documents that are not State Department documents and are documents that we cannot provide because they are not in our possession, but he continues to use that as an excuse to hold up State Department nominees.
A Worldwide Issue
While Mr. Blinken appeared to suggest that Mr. Paul is responsible for the soon-to-be vacant ambassadorships in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon, Mr. Miller confirmed that the White House hasn’t actually nominated diplomats for all those posts, including the position of the ambassador for Israel.Nevertheless, Mr. Miller said, any nominations the administration puts forward are likely to be postponed indefinitely until Mr. Paul chooses to stop his apparent protest.
“If you look at the situation as it exists currently, all the nominees that start today are still backlogged based on what’s happening on the floor,” Mr. Miller said.
Mr. Blinken said that only five nominees for the foreign service have been confirmed during the Biden administration, all of whom were pushed through by Democrats via time-consuming floor votes rather than simple majority roll calls.
The lack of high-profile diplomats, Mr. Blinken said, harms the interests of U.S. companies working in those countries, of U.S. citizens living abroad, and of tourists.
Moreover, he said, the issue is a worldwide one.
“Ambassadorships are open in Asia, in Europe, in Latin America, as nominees await confirmation,” Mr. Blinken said.
“Not having an ambassador in a given country makes us less effective at advancing our policy priorities.”
Mr. Blinken added that he believes that U.S. adversaries would be the only ones to profit from the current situation and urged Mr. Paul not to let it “become the new normal.”
“No one is questioning the qualifications of these career diplomats. They’re being blocked as leverage for other unrelated issues,” Mr. Blinken said.
“It’s [irresponsible], and it’s doing harm to our national security.”
Mr. Paul didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
