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Bad Blood at State

Anger and resentment is exploding in Foggy Bottom after Kurt Campbell, a close friend of Tony Blinken, was nominated for deputy secretary of state over the agency’s more experienced acting No. 2, Victoria Nuland.

Victoria Nuland arrives for a press conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on February 01, 2023.
There is a lot of anger, both at Foggy Bottom and places adjacent to it, that the current acting No. 2, Victoria Nuland, was passed over for the job. Photo: NurPhoto/Contributor
Julia Ioffe
December 13, 2023

Last Friday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing for the nomination of Kurt Campbell for deputy secretary of state. Campbell, who is an Asia hand, has been running the Asia desk on the N.S.C. until now. Campbell is the former C.E.O. and co-founder of the Asia Group, a political consultancy, and was Obama’s assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, so his nomination makes sense for an administration that is still pursuing that elusive pivot to Asia. Still, Campbell’s nomination for the No. 2 job at State is not without rancor.