Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
State Dept. gets voice back in news briefing
Official: First event since Trump took office ‘feels good’
WASHINGTON — People arrived early and saved seats. Walls of camera operators elbowed for position.
After nearly a sevenweek hiatus, on Tuesday the State Department held its first news briefing since Donald Trump took office.
Unlike his high-profile predecessors, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has yet to grant any media interviews or hold his own news conference. He heads to Japan, South Korea and China next week and has refused to bring along any reporters, insisting the plane is too small.
His under-the-radar style has sent a message that he does not regard explaining the Trump administration’s foreign policy an important part of his job.
And so, the daily briefings were put on hold. Until now. “Feels good to be back up here,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner, a holdover from the Obama administration, said as he plopped a thick loose-leaf notebook on the lectern.
To highlight the long absence, Associated Press reporter Matthew Lee asked about scrutinizing aid for the Palestinians, an issue that was news back on Jan. 20, when Trump took office and the briefings were suspended.
Reporters’ questions covered deployment of U.S. defense systems in South Korea and ballistic missile launches by North Korea; the administration’s new travel ban against six mostly Muslim countries; and whether U.S. policy has changed on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the “one-China” doctrine that recognizes Beijing as the sole Chinese power.
U.S. policy in some cases has been muddied after Trump seemed to suggest reversing long-standing U.S. positions.
The U.S. view of “oneChina” remains intact, Toner said, while “we are evaluating where we stand” on Israeli policy.
Asked if the State Department’s voice had been muffled in an administration that has upended traditional conduct of foreign policy, Toner offered up a defense.
“I assure you, the State Department voice has been heard, loud and clear” at the White House and elsewhere, he said. He thanked journalists for patience as the administration “got its sea legs.”
Tillerson has yet to appoint a spokesperson, hence Toner’s continuation in the role. Scores of other highlevel jobs are still open, however. Trump vetoed Tillerson’s choice for deputy, the aide who normally would carry much of the bureaucratic burden.
“Take a deep breath,” Toner said in response to questions about the unfilled positions, saying officials were working to vet and hire as quickly as possible. He also batted back queries about the possibility of deep budget cuts that could cripple the institution.
Because the department handles so many issues that were priorities under the Obama administration, including climate change, human rights and women’s equality, many in the department fear those divisions will wither under Trump.
Secretaries of State normally fly on U.S. military aircraft or large chartered planes for overseas trips. Often a dozen or more journalists paid to go along.
Tillerson, however, brought only a handful of reporters on his first foreign trip last month, to the G-20 conference in Bonn, Germany, and took only two journalists on a trip to Mexico City.
He is taking no accredited media on this trip to Asia next week.
Media groups have protested, saying the North Korea’s recent missile launches and growing nuclear program makes coverage all the more important and nearly impossible to accomplish effectively without joining Tillerson’s entourage.