Kamlager-Dove Leads 43 Lawmakers in Calling on Secretary Rubio to Fire Racist Trump Appointee Darren Beattie

WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37) led 43 lawmakers in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, calling on him to immediately remove Darren Beattie, a white nationalist and Uyghur genocide denier, from the State Department. Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove serves as Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South Central Asia, which has oversight jurisdiction over the office that Darren Beattie leads.

Darren Beattie serves as the Acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs at the State Department, a position he could retain for months before the Under Secretary nominee is confirmed by the Senate. Beattie also served in the previous Trump Administration, from which he was fired for attending a white nationalist event. 

“Darren Beattie persistently traffics in white nationalist ideology that is actively hostile to Jewish Americans, women, and people of color. For a senior American diplomat to espouse these reprehensible, fringe views in representing the United States on the world stage would be categorically destructive to U.S. global standing,” wrote the lawmakers.

They continued, “Beattie has repeatedly glorified China and Russia’s authoritarian systems and repressive policies as superior to American democracy. Installing someone into the top leadership of our diplomatic corps who publicly and vocally lauds our competitors, denigrates other countries, and discounts democratic values is fundamentally incompatible with the mission of public diplomacy.” 

“As Members who understand the dangers of extremism, white nationalism, and PRC disinformation, we urge you to dismiss Darren Beattie from the State Department. Beattie’s racist and pro-CCP worldview disqualifies him outright for any U.S. public diplomacy job. His opposition to U.S. global leadership and glorification of U.S. adversaries make him actively dangerous to U.S. interests,” the lawmakers concluded.

Read the full letter here.

The letter was signed by House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory W. Meeks and Reps. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Madeleine Dean, Dina Titus, James P. McGovern, Gerald E. Connolly, Jonathan L. Jackson, William R. Keating, Jerrold Nadler, Bradley Scott Schneider, Ami Bera, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Jim Costa, Hank Johnson, Jill Tokuda, Julie Johnson, Greg Landsman, Dan Goldman, Nikema Williams, Ilhan Omar, Sarah McBride, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Brad Sherman, Haley M. Stevens, Josh Gottheimer, John B. Larson, Steve Cohen, Emanuel Cleaver, Seth Moulton, George Latimer, André Carson, Gabe Amo, Ritchie Torres, Joaquin Castro, Mike Levin, Seth Magaziner, Ted W. Lieu, Sean Casten, Kweisi Mfume, Thomas R. Suozzi, Jared Huffman, Lloyd Doggett, and Jennifer L. McClellan. 

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