On the Record from Spokesperson Ned Price: Haiti

September 23, 2021
Press Corps Colleagues,

The following is attributable to Spokesperson Ned Price:

“There have been multiple senior-level policy conversations on Haiti, where all proposals, including those led by Special Envoy Foote, were fully considered in a rigorous and transparent policy process. Some of those proposals were determined to be harmful to our commitment to the promotion of democracy in Haiti and were rejected during the policy process. For him to say his proposals were ignored is simply false.

I’m not going to parse the contents of his resignation letter, but I do want to emphasize that we have active policy debates in this administration on a number of issues. The role of the President’s cabinet and his advisors is to provide the President with the best advice possible. No ideas are ignored, but not all ideas are good ideas.

This is a challenging moment that requires leadership.  It is unfortunate that, instead of participating in a solutions-oriented policy process, Special Envoy Foote has both resigned and mischaracterized the circumstances of his resignation. He failed to take advantage of ample opportunity to raise concerns about migration during his tenure and chose to resign instead.”

Regards,
State Department Press Office