A24 EZ RE K THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14 , 2019
PowerPost
INTELLIGENCE FOR LEADERS WASHINGTONPOST.COM/POWERPOSTTrump invited a foreign
government into domestic
affairs for his personal political
benefit.
This time, unlike in the
McCarthy era, State Department
officers are not the accused.
Video showing William B. Taylor
Jr., George Kent and Marie
Yovanovitch on Capitol Hill for
their closed-door testimony in
the Ukraine matter provided
images of proud, dedicated
federal employees caught up in a
political drama they cannot
escape.
Taylor and Kent testified
publicly Wednesday, and
Yovanovitch will on Friday,
regarding Trump’s plan to have
Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky embarrass Trump’s
political rival, former vice
president Joe Biden, by
investigating his son’s activities
in Ukraine.
This has plunged the
diplomats into a legal
predicament between the
Democratic-controlled House of
Representatives and the
Republican-controlled White
House, and it leaves the
association in unmapped
terrain.
“Our colleagues are findingthemselves in an unprecedented
situation where, in some cases at
least, they are caught between a
congressional subpoena, which
is a legally binding action, and
instructions from their
employer, the executive branch,
not to cooperate with the
Congress,” Rubin said. “And
that’s not a situation that anyone
wants to find themselves in. It’s
not a situation that any of our
colleagues has been in, in our
memory.”
They are witnesses, not
culprits, but they need lawyers.
AFSA is raising money for
attorneys and requesting free
assistance from law firms. The
organization is working with
about a dozen firms and has
raised “tens of thousands of
dollars” for legal fees, Rubin
said.
“We’ve never done a legal
defense effort of this magnitude
before,” said Rubin, a 34-year
career diplomat who has been
ambassador to Bulgaria and the
White House National Security
Council’s public affairs director,
among his postings.
Rubin’s “never” includes the
McCarthy period.
“Defending our colleagues ...
is something that did nothappen in the 1950s.... At that
time, AFSA did not step forward
to defend its members,” Rubin
said, vowing not to let that
happen now. “This is a
particularly important time for
us to stand up for our colleagues
to ensure that they know that
they have support.”
They need support — and
protection — as they defy
administration instructions to
withhold cooperation with the
impeachment inquiry and
contradict a president who
insists that his solicitation of
Zelensky was “perfect.”
The support of which Rubin
speaks has not been received
from Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo.
“I think it’s fair to say we
would like to see a little more
public support in terms of
statements, that’s true,” Rubin
said. “But, you know, so far in
this very difficult time, I think
we have a good relationship with
the State Department leadership
on this.”
He would not offer any
further comment on statements
or actions by the president or
other administration officials,
even when they directly affect
AFSA members. “AFSA is anonpartisan association,” he
said, “that supports its members
but does not take public
positions on political issues such
as the impeachment battle.”
Others in the Foreign Service
community do not see this “good
relationship” and have been
willing to rebut these attacks
against their colleagues:
Pompeo abetted
Yovanovitch’s ouster from her
post as U.S. ambassador in Kyiv.
Three times, Michael McKinley,
a former Pompeo top aide and
ambassador, requested,
unsuccessfully, that the
secretary issue a statement in
defense of Yovanovitch.
McKinley resigned from the
department because, he told
Congress, “of two overriding
concerns: the failure, in my view,
of the State Department to offer
support to Foreign Service
employees caught up in the
impeachment inquiry on
Ukraine.... And, second, by
what appears to be the
utilization of our ambassadors
overseas to advance a domestic
political objective.” Three dozen
former Foreign Service officers
complained in a letter that
Pompeo “failed to protect civil
servants from politicalretaliation.”
In a call with Zelensky,
Trump called Yovanovitch “bad
news” and said “she’s going to go
through some things.”
Mick Mulvaney, the acting
White House chief of staff,
demonstrated contempt for the
diplomats testifying before the
impeachment inquiry as “a
group of mostly career
bureaucrats who are saying: ‘You
know what? I don’t like
President Trump’s politics so I’m
going to participate in this witch
hunt that they’re undertaking on
the Hill.’ ”
A letter from more than 400
retirees of the U.S. Agency for
International Development said
“we are angered at the treatment
of dedicated, experienced, and
wise public servants like
Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch”
and was critical of the
administration’s treatment of
Foreign Service officers.
Rubin declined to comment
on these specific incidents. He
did ask “the State Department
leadership to do everything it
can to avoid dragging our
members, our career colleagues
into the political battles.”
Too late for that.
[email protected]As diplomats
prepared to
testify publicly at
House
impeachment
hearings, the
president of the
American Foreign
Service
Association
recalled another
perilous era in U.S. history.
That was Sen. Joseph
McCarthy’s reign of hysteria in
the early 1950s about supposed
communists in Hollywood and
the federal government —
especially the State Department.
“I think it’s fair to say in the
past 70 years, since the
McCarthy period, this is the
most fraught time and the most
difficult time for our members,”
said Eric Rubin, the president of
AFSA, the union representing
Foreign Service officers.
During McCarthyism, the
Republican from Wisconsin
wildly alleged that the State
Department was infested with
communists and chaired
hearings to root them out.
Now, House Democrats are
calling on diplomats to help
uncover the truth concerning
accusations that President
Federal
Insider
JOE
DAVIDSON
State Department faces its biggest crisis since McCarthy era
The country’s
already-strained
medical system
could lose tens of
thousands of
much-needed
workers if the Supreme Court
agrees to end the Obama-era
program shielding
from deportation undocumented
immigrants brought to the United
States as children.
Immigrants make up a
disproportionate share of nurses,
home health aides and health-care
facility workers — they include
many of the 700,000 immigrants
allowed to stay in the United
States under the Deferred Action
for Childhood Arrivals program.
About 27,000 of these
“dreamers,” as DACA enrollees are
known, work in health-care
provider and support occupations,
according to an analysis of census
data by the left-leaning Center for
American Progress. Another 200
dreamers are in medical school or
participating in residencies.
These immigrants — and others
— play an increasingly important
role as the demand for health-care
workers skyrockets.
Yet their status has
been threatened since President
Trump in 2017 sought to end the
program that allows participants
to work legally and renew their
two-year protection from
deportation. It’s open to those
who were brought into thecountry before age 16 and have
lived here at least five years. The
Trump administration defended
its move before the nine justices
Tuesday in oral arguments, during
which the court’s conservative
majority appeared sympathetic to
the case presented by Solicitor
General Noel Francisco, as The
Washington Post’s Robert Barnes
reported.
Francisco told the court the
administration has decided DACA
should end regardless of whether
it’s legal. He also disputed lower-
court opinions finding Trump’s
decision to terminate the program
was based on a faulty belief that
the program was legally and
constitutionally defective and that
the administration has failed to
provide sufficient justification for
ending it. “The Trump
administration, which usually
argues for broad executive power,
in this case is arguing that the
program is flawed and could not
be defended against challenges
from states that want to end it,”
Barnes writes. “In general, the
court’s liberals seemed highly
skeptical of the administration’s
actions, while the conservatives
seemed open to the idea that it
had the power to terminate the
program... The court’s decision is
likely to take months.”
In the meantime, health-care
jobs — particularly those
involving elder care — are
projected to grow exponentially incoming years as baby boomers
grow older. The Institute of
Medicine has projected that
3.5 million more health-care
workers will be needed by 2030.
The country could have a shortage
of as many as 122,000 physicians
by 2032.
The American Medical
Association noted the challenge in
a statement Tuesday supporting
DACA. “Our health care
workforce, including physicians,
nurses, physician assistants and
home health aides, is bolstered by
providers with DACA status,”
AMA President Patrice Harris
wrote. “During their careers, these
providers will care for and
improve the lives of millions of
Americans.”
The contribution of immigrants
is most pronounced in the area of
home health care, in which
employment of in-home aides and
personal care aides is projected to
grow 36 percent from 2018 to- Nearly 1 in 3 of these types of
workers are immigrants,
according to the Paraprofessional
Healthcare Institute.
Other medical groups have
spoken out as well. David J.
Skorton, president of the
Association of American Medical
Colleges, wrote in a Post op-ed last
week that he is “deeply
concerned” about the impact
Trump’s decision might have on
the country’s health.
[email protected]
U.S. to lose thousands of health-care
workers if ‘dreamers’ lose their shield
Health 202
PAIGE
WINFIELD
CUNNINGHAMposition on Turkey because
none of his advisers are aligned
with him on the issue, the
people present said,” according
to NBC’s Stephanie Ruhle and
Carol E. Lee. And if Trump is
reelected, Bolton told the
crowd, he “could go full
isolationist... and could
withdraw the U.S. from NATO
and other international
alliances.”
The industry, meanwhile, is
bracing for rougher treatment
from politicians as the
presidential campaign kicks
into gear. “The road to the
White House in 2020 may entail
a war against Wall Street and
wealth itself, as polling results
encourage more candidates to
cast a jaundiced eye toward the
financial world, Citi warned in
a note to clients,” Bloomberg
News’s Felice Maranz reports.
According to Maranz: “Some
candidates are prioritizing
greater accountability for big
corporations while o
thers are concerned that
‘loosening the reins might
foment another financial
crisis,’ a Citi team led by
economist Dana Peterson
wrote. Still others believe
‘banks and their executives
were not sufficiently penalized
for the 2008-2009 crisis’ and
that big companies are anti-
competitive and ‘antagonistic
toward consumer protection.’ ”
[email protected]dynamics within the White
House and is interested mostly
in insights into Trump’s
approach to foreign policy and
trade. “Most — Haley,
McMaster, Kelly — don’t give
you anything insightful,” per
the consultant. “They’re
effectively saying nothing you
couldn’t read in the paper.”
The Washington Speakers
Bureau, which represents
Bolton, Priebus, Haley and
Mattis, did not respond to a
request for comment.
“I get a solicitation email
daily from the bureaus for these
guys,” said a source at a
financial services trade group
who is not authorized to talk to
the press. “We have not booked
any of them.... I have heard
that people are not interested
in the few who have left on
good terms, but are afraid of
booking speakers like [short-
time White House
communications director
Anthony Scaramucci], who are
no longer on good terms,
because it will be viewed as a
‘statement.’ ”
Bolton’s news-making speech
to the Morgan Stanley
conference, which included the
firm’s largest hedge fund
clients, suggests he could be
breaking the mold of ho-hum
talkers. The foreign policy hawk
said he “believes there is a
personal or business
relationship dictating Trump’sBut only a handful of Trump
alums are drawing offers for
lucrative speaking gigs from
Wall Street interests. That’s
largely because finance
industry heavies don’t want to
associate themselves with those
Trump figures they consider
broadly toxic.
“There is a small population
of former Trump
administration people —
[former chief of staff ] John
Kelly, [Bolton predecessor H.R.]
McMaster, [former U.N.
ambassador] Nikki Haley —
who have their own
accreditations in life and exited
more or less in one piece,” one
plugged-in Wall Street
consultant in Washington said.
Add former defense secretary
Jim Mattis to that list — and
possibly Trump’s first chief of
staff, Reince Priebus — and that
probably rounds out the roster
of former administration
officials still pulling in five- and
six-figure paydays to talk to
Wall-Streeters.
“What people are really
looking for, which is tough to
find, are people who can speak
to Trump in an honest,
authentic way,” the consultant
said in an interview. “Most of
the people who leave the
administration, even if not on
great terms, don’t want to face
the wrath of Trump.”
Plus, the industry has heard
enough by now about thebacked out of an appearance... at
an investors conference in
Colorado Springs, hours after
organizers sent an announcement
touting a speech from Patrick, a
Bain Capital managing director, a
former Mass governor, and
potentially a new presidential
candidate.”
While GOP presidential
candidate Donald Trump
slammed Hillary Clinton in the
2016 campaign for this practice —
accusing her of being under the
“total control” of Goldman Sachs
after receiving hefty speaking fees
from the bank — some of the
former top officials of his
presidential administration have
continued it.‘Morgan Stanley’s largest hedge
fund clients’ but refuses to
comply with a congressional
subpoena.”
And at least one politician
got spooked from a similar
appearance as the sector looks
primed again to become a
boogeyman in the presidential
election. Deval Patrick, the
former Massachusetts governor
eyeing jumping into the 2020
Democratic presidential race,
canceled a planned appearance
Wednesday at another
investment conference after the
event’s organizer advertised his
speech.
The Washington Post’s Matt
Viser tweeted: “Deval Patrick hasFormer national
security adviser
John Bolton is
taking fire
for sharing his
views on
President
Trump’s foreign
policy — exclusively with deep-
pocketed investors behind
closed doors.
Bolton, who has resisted a
congressional subpoena to
testify in the House’s
impeachment inquiry, is
drawing renewed scrutiny of
one of the financial industry’s
favored tools to
gather Washington intel while
impressing clients: showering
speaking fees on supposedly
connected operatives.
“Infuriating,” former Barack
Obama administration national
security official Ned Price
tweeted about Bolton’s speech
to a private audience at a
Morgan Stanley investment
conference last week. “Bolton
discussed Trump’s pattern of
placing his personal interests
ahead of the national interest in
return for presumably tens of
thousands of $ from Morgan
Stanley. But he flouted a
request from Congress to do the
same behind closed doors?”
Former George W. Bush
administration
official Christian Vanderbrouk
tweeted: “Something is deeply
wrong if Bolton will say this to
Bolton’s Wall Street talk shows new complications with lucrative speaking gigs
The
Finance
202
TORY
NEWMYER
JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST
Former national security adviser John Bolton has resisted a
subpoena to testify at the impeachment probe of President Trump.25
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