VOA White House reporter transferred after asking Pompeo about the Capitol riot

Voice of America’s senior correspondent in the White House was downgraded on Monday night, just hours after asking Secretary of State Mike Pompeo questions that he refused to answer, demonstrating that even US government-funded journalists face retaliation for confront senior Trump administration officials.

On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a speech at VOA, criticizing the media administered by the US government for its reluctance to uncritically promote the government line around the world. After that, VOA director Robert Reilly engaged Pompeo in a question and answer session filled with softballs, just to allow the Cabinet member to leave without facing any hard questions from the vehicle’s reporters in the audience.

Dissatisfied with what happened, VOA senior correspondent at the White House Patsy Widakuswara – who was in the audience – chased Pompeo when he left the VOA building in downtown Washington, DC. She asked what he planned to do to improve America’s reputation around the world and whether he regretted saying in November that the presidential transition would go smoothly in a second term for President Donald Trump. Pompeo ignored his questions and left.

Widakuswara, who worked as a journalist for over 25 years, then turned to find Reilly and confronted him about what the session had been like. According to sources familiar with what happened, she asked Reilly why he did not ask Pompeo any of the questions that VOA journalists had asked before. After asking who she was, he said, “You don’t know how to behave.” He then said that Widakuswara “was not authorized” to ask questions and that he was “out of service”.

“Reilly was visibly disturbed” by Widakuswara’s confrontation, a VOA source told me, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation.

Elizabeth Robbins, deputy director of VOA, was at Reilly’s side during the confrontation. Late on Monday night, Widakuswara received a message from one of his bosses saying that the reporter would no longer be the senior correspondent in the White House of the vehicle and would instead be transferred as a general mission journalist. The request for reallocation, by various sources, came from Robbins.

Some sources believe that Robbins, who joined VOA from the State Department in December, is fiercely loyal to Pompeo. Robbins did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The reallocation of Widakuswara occurred at an unfortunate moment, as she scheduled to be the radio reporter for the Washington press team aboard Air Force One on Tuesday during President Donald Trump’s trip to Alamo, Texas. Widakuswara was told that she could not fulfill this duty.

A VOA source said employees at the outlet, including some from management, are “outraged” by what happened. “Being pulled out of the White House round, it immediately reeks of political retaliation,” said the person.

Regardless of the reason, few with whom I spoke believe that one of VOA’s top reporters should be removed from his prominent position mainly by questioning Pompeo when he gets the chance. “Patsy was there representing all of us, each VOA journalist trying to question the secretary,” said the same source.

Widakuswara declined to comment.

America’s democracy is reeling. This incident is not going to help anything.

The transfer of Widakuswara, first reported by Vox on Monday night, comes at an inopportune time for Pompeo.

The secretary is due to speak at the National Press Club on Tuesday morning, during which he is expected to accuse Iran of having close ties to al-Qaeda. After the Widakuswara incident, the location of the event is strange for the secretary, as it is a professional and social club for journalists.

It also occurs less than a week after a Capitol insurrection, prompted by Trump, which left many in the United States and around the world questioning the state of American democracy. Pompeo’s reluctance to answer difficult questions does not help this cause, as one of the ways in which the US signals the health of its political system is by leaders dealing with questions when asked of them.

Zeke Miller, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, called what happened “an attack on the First Amendment” in a statement on Tuesday.

Finally, it’s not a big sign of how the Trump administration ran the United States Agency for Global Media, VOA’s parent organization. Since an ally of Trump and Steve Bannon took over last year, the agency has sought to eliminate those who do not follow the government line. This effort has eroded the decades-old tradition of keeping politics out of the way VOA and its sister agencies, such as Rádio Europa Livre, operate.

It is a sad situation. And instead of leaders like Pompeo paying the price, it is the journalists who ask him to answer for his mistakes that are scolded.