By Jack Beyrer
A top foreign-policy adviser joining the Biden State Department has argued that white diplomats are
often too protective of the United States, a statement potentially in violation of new department guidelines.
Desirée Cormier Smith, a newly minted senior adviser in the Bureau of International Organizations, said in a podcast interview that white diplomats often treated visa applicants with hostility because of their ownership over the visas during her experience as a foreign-service officer. It seemed like many of our white colleagues approached the visa applicants with so much ownership over these visas. They were so protective of the United States, and they didn t want anybody who could sully the image of the United States because it s this perfect shining city on a hill, she told the