As more than 1,300 State Department employees received notices about their positions being abolished Friday, dozens of their former colleagues and even one former ambassador stood outside the Washington office to protest their dismissal.
Robert Blake, who served as a U.S. ambassador under Bush and Obama administrations, said he came out to support his peers at a very “unjust time” for foreign and civil servants.
“I have a lot of friends who served very loyally and with distinction and who are being fired for nothing to do with their performance,” Blake said. He added, “I want to tell them there is life after the State Department but this is still a sad day.”
Tom Countryman, who was organizing the rally outside State, told AP he knows all too well how his former colleagues feel Friday as he was among those fired from the State Department during Trump’s first term in office. The only difference, he said, is that he was ready to retire in 2017.
“For people in the middle of their career, who still have the passion and the energy to serve this country, to be suddenly told they’re no longer needed, is much more traumatic.”