Tim Kaine Confronts Trump's Nominee To Be Ambassador To Belgium About Social Media Posts

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During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) asked Bill White, President Trump's nominee to be Ambassador to Belgium about his social media posts, some of which included reposts of Belgian Politician Dries Van Langenhove, who was convicted in Belgium of Holocaust denial.

Transcript

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.

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