Voice of America’s senior White House correspondent was demoted Monday night after he asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo what he refused to answer.
On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a speech at VOA and voiced the U.S. government media for not being willing to uncritically promote the government’s around the world. Afterwards, the VOA director, Robert Reilly, involved Pompeo in a question-and-answer session filled with softballs, only to have the cabinet member leave without experiencing any hard questions from the reporters in the audience.
Dissatisfied with what happened, the senior correspondent of the White House in VOA Patsy Widakuswara – who was in the audience – chased Pompeo as he left the VOA building in downtown Washington, DC. She asked what he plans to do to improve America’s reputation around the world, and whether he regrets saying in November that the presidential transition will run smoothly until a second term for President Donald Trump. Pompeo ignores her questions and leaves.
The country’s best diplomat @SecPompeo ignore my questions about what he is doing to restore the US reputation and whether he regrets having a second Trump administration. pic.twitter.com/8pcP9lRQ5a
– Patsy Widakuswara (@pwidakuswara) 11 January 2021
Widakuswara, who has been working as a journalist for more than 25 years, turns to track down Reilly and confronts him about how the session went. According to sources familiar with what happened, she asked Reilly why he did not ask Pompeo any of the questions VOA journalists asked in advance. After asking who she was, he said, “You do not know how to act.” He then said Widakuswara was ‘not authorized’ to ask questions and that she was ‘out of action’.
‘Reilly was visibly upset’ about the confrontation of Widakuswara, a source from VOA told me on condition of anonymity to prevent retaliation.
Elizabeth Robbins, deputy director of VOA, was with Reilly during the confrontation. Late Monday night, Widakuswara received a message from one of her bosses saying that the reporter would no longer be the White House senior correspondent, and would instead be re-appointed as a general assignment journalist. The order for the redistribution, according to various sources, comes from Robbins.
Some sources believe that Robbins, who joined the State Department at VOA in December, is very loyal to Pompeo. Robbins did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Widakuswara’s assignment was an unfortunate timing, just like his plans to be Washington Radio Radio’s press pool reporter on board Air Force One Tuesday during President Donald Trump’s trip to Alamo, Texas. Widakuswara was told that she could not fulfill that duty.
One source from the VOA said that the employees of the sales area, including some in the management, were ‘incensed’ about what had happened. “If you took down the White House battle, it immediately beats with political retaliation,” the person said.
Whatever the reason, few I have spoken to believe that one of VOA’s top reporters should be removed from her prominent post, mainly to interview Pompeo if she gets the chance. “Patsy was there for all of us, every VOA journalist who wanted to interview the secretary,” the same source said.
Widakuswara declined to comment.
America’s democracy is booming. This incident will not help anything.
Widakuswara’s assignment, which Vox first reported Monday night, comes at an inconvenient time for Pompeo.
The secretary will speak at the National Press Club on Tuesday morning, during which he is expected to accuse Iran of having close ties with al-Qaeda. After the Widakuswara incident, the place is inconvenient for the secretary because it is a professional and social club for journalists.
It also comes less than a week after an uprising at the Capitol, spurred on by Trump, prompted many people in the US and around the world to question the state of American democracy. Pompeo’s unwillingness to ask difficult questions does not help. One way the US indicates the health of its political system is through leaders who handle queries when asked.
Zeke Miller, the president of the White House Correspondents Association, said in a statement Tuesday that an assault on the first amendment was an assault.
Finally, this is not a good sign of how the Trump administration managed the US Global Media Agency, the VOA’s parent organization. Since an ally of Trump and Steve Bannon took over last year, the agency has been trying to purge those who do not show the government’s line. The attempt weakened the decades-long tradition of making politics work outside of VOA and its sister stores such as Radio Free Europe.
It’s a sad state of affairs. And instead of leaders like Pompeo paying the price, it is the journalists who ask him to answer for his mistakes that are reprimanded.