00:00I'll start with Mr. White. You know, one of the issues that we grapple with in the committee is
00:04sort of judgment and ability to be a diplomat. And we always look at folks' social media accounts,
00:10so I want to ask you about some. Apparently, it looks to be in July of 2024, you posted,
00:18it's high time now to legitimately prosecute Georgia Secretary of State and Governor Kemp.
00:24That was less than, well, about exactly a year ago. About two weeks later, August 8, 2024,
00:35you reposted somebody else's tweet about Secretary Kemp, and here it is, and it's all in caps,
00:41lock Georgia Secretary of State this mother effer up. I didn't edit it, I just read the tweet.
00:51And then in a tweet that I see about one of our colleagues, Senator Graham, from May of 2023,
00:59you say, Graham is a snake. Okay, so convince me first how somebody who falls for conspiracy theories
01:09that most fourth graders would find unbelievable, but also who uses language like that about elected
01:15officials in Georgia and a Senate colleague, convince me that you've got the judgment to be an ambassador.
01:20Thank you, Senator, very much. I was very proud to support you when you were running for vice
01:26president, and it was great spending time with you on the campaign trail and with Secretary Clinton
01:32way back. And I would like to say I don't recall either of those two tweets being mine, but I will
01:41say that I was in Georgia in 2020 during the presidential election. I was on the ground in Georgia,
01:48and there were substantial irregularities. So do you still believe that... Well, I think there were
01:53irregularities. You still believe that the governor of Georgia, Governor Kemp, and the Secretary of State
01:58should be criminally prosecuted? No, I don't. Okay, well, I'm going to... I would like to submit those
02:03tweets for the record. Again, they're less than a year old. Do you know who Dries van Lagenhove is?
02:09No, sir. Okay. Dries van Lagenhove is a far-right Belgian who leads a Flemish nationalist movement
02:18and was convicted on charges of hatred, racism, Holocaust denial, and breaching local gun laws
02:25within the last year. And you have been tagged on tweets retweeting his content.
02:32Do you know why you would have been tagged on tweets retweeting his content? Oh, sure. Thank you,
02:39Senator, for the question. I appreciate that. Again, text out of context could be taken out of
02:45context. But I am very good friends with an attorney who fights for social justice in countries around
02:51the world. Who is that? I'd rather not say his name. But why is that relevant? No, just because he was
02:58working on a case in Georgia to help President Trump when he was being prosecuted. And I think
03:04there are two sides to every story. Setting aside the Georgia one, because I asked you about that,
03:09but why would you be showing up re-tagged on tweets amplifying anti-Holocaust denialism
03:17from a Belgian who has been criminally convicted within the last year? I understand the question,
03:23and I appreciate the question. And when my team told me about some of the various things that
03:28he may have been involved with or not, I am not sure of the things, all of the things he has been
03:33involved in or not, the tweet was removed. Okay, well, I'd like to introduce that for the record
03:37as well, Mr. Chair. Let me come to you, Mr. Evans. I really enjoyed our conversation the other day.
03:46You know, I think living in Virginia, so many State Department and USAID folks live in Virginia,
03:51and the rifts have hit them pretty hard. And also, we have an awful lot of people in Virginia who
03:56haven't been rift but are sharing deep concerns about morale and the State Department. You'd play
04:00a critical role in that. They want to be assured that they'll be viewed as professionals, they'll be
04:06judged based on their professional accomplishments and not based on political loyalty. So should you
04:11be confirmed with your 20-plus years of experience as a Foreign Service Officer, what can you do
04:16in your management role to try to make clear throughout the organization that folks are going to be judged
04:23based upon their performance and not on political considerations?
04:27Well, thank you for the question, Senator. I did have friends that were involved in the rifts a
04:32couple weeks ago, so it did hit me personally as well. It's a very important issue that we maintain
04:37morale throughout the State Department. We depend on people to come in and give their best. And if
04:43they're worried about whether or not they're going to have a job tomorrow, they can't do that.
04:46So I'm going to take a very close look about how we can sort of repair the damage that was done
04:53through the rifts last week. I believe that the adjustments were necessary, but now we have to
05:00sort of realign and reset and put the people where they need to be and refocus and get back to work.
05:08I appreciate that you acknowledging that damage was done because I haven't heard that
05:12acknowledgement before. And I do think the repair work is significant and I appreciate your answer.
05:16Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator Cain. Senator Ricketts.
05:22Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, thank you all for wanting to serve our great nation.
05:26Really appreciate it. And also for your families as well, because you will spend time away.
