VOA White Home reporter reassigned after asking Pompeo about Capitol riot

Voice of America’s senior White Home correspondent was demoted on Monday night simply hours after asking Secretary of State Mike Pompeo questions he refused to reply, demonstrating that even US government-funded journalists face retaliation for confronting prime Trump administration officers.

On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a speech at VOA, lambasting the US government-run media outlet for its unwillingness to uncritically promote the administration’s line world wide. Afterward, VOA director Robert Reilly engaged Pompeo in a question-and-answer session crammed with softballs, solely to let the Cupboard member go away with out going through any hard-hitting queries from the outlet’s reporters within the viewers.

Sad with what transpired, VOA’s White Home senior correspondent Patsy Widakuswara — who was within the viewers — pursued Pompeo as he left VOA’s constructing in downtown Washington, DC. She requested what he deliberate to do to enhance America’s repute world wide and if he regretted saying in November that the presidential transition would proceed easily right into a second time period for President Donald Trump. Pompeo ignored her questions and left.

Widakuswara, who has labored as a journalist for greater than 25 years, then rotated to search out Reilly and confronted him on how the session had gone. In line with sources accustomed to what transpired, she requested Reilly why he didn’t ask Pompeo any of the questions that VOA journalists had submitted beforehand. After asking who she was, he then stated, “You don’t know how you can behave.” He then stated Widakuswara was “not approved” to ask questions and that she was “out of order.”

“Reilly was visibly perturbed” by Widakuswara’s confrontation, a VOA supply instructed me, talking on situation of anonymity to keep away from retaliation.

Elizabeth Robbins, VOA’s deputy director, was alongside Reilly throughout the confrontation. Late Monday night, Widakuswara obtained a message from considered one of her bosses saying the reporter would now not be the outlet’s senior White Home correspondent, and would as a substitute be reassigned as a basic task journalist. The order for the reassignment, per a number of sources, got here from Robbins.

Some sources imagine that Robbins, who joined VOA from the State Division in December, is fiercely loyal to Pompeo. Robbins didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Widakuswara’s reassignment was unlucky timing, as she was scheduled to be the pool reporter for the Washington press corps aboard Air Power One on Tuesday throughout President Donald Trump’s journey to Alamo, Texas. Widakuswara was instructed she couldn’t fulfill that responsibility.

One VOA supply stated the outlet’s staff, together with some in administration, are “incensed” by what has transpired. “Being taken off the White Home beat, this instantly smacks of political retaliation,” that particular person stated.

Whatever the cause, few I spoke with imagine considered one of VOA’s prime reporters must be faraway from her outstanding posting primarily for questioning Pompeo when given the prospect. “Patsy was there representing all of us, each VOA journalist attempting to query the secretary,” the identical supply stated.

Widakuswara declined to remark.

America’s democracy is reeling. This incident gained’t assist it.

Widakuswara’s reassignment, first reported by Vox on Monday evening, comes at an inopportune time for Pompeo.

The secretary is scheduled to talk on the Nationwide Press Membership on Tuesday morning, throughout which he’s anticipated to accuse of Iran of getting shut ties to al-Qaeda. After the Widakuswara incident, the placement of the occasion is awkward for the secretary, because it’s knowledgeable and social membership for journalists.

It additionally comes lower than per week after an rebel on the Capitol, incited by Trump, has left many within the US and world wide questioning the state of American democracy. Pompeo’s unwillingness to take powerful questions doesn’t assist that trigger, as a technique the US indicators the well being of its political system is by leaders dealing with queries when posed to them.

Lastly, it’s not an important signal of how the Trump administration has run the US Company for International Media, VOA’s mother or father group. Ever since a Trump and Steve Bannon ally took over final yr, the company has sought to purge those that don’t toe the administration’s line. That effort has eroded the decades-long custom of preserving politics out of the best way VOA and its sister shops like Radio Free Europe function.

It’s a tragic state of affairs. And as a substitute of leaders like Pompeo paying the worth, it’s the journalists asking him to reply for his errors who get reprimanded.