Reports that the State Department is holding “therapy sessions” for staff members who were “upset” over Republican nominee Donald Trump’s election victory put US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in the crosshairs.
According to information obtained by Knewz.com, Republican California Representative Darrell Issa recently wrote to Blinken with inquiries about the issue.
Following a Washington Free Beacon report that mentioned two in-house therapy sessions conducted at the Department of State, Issa wrote a letter to Blinken.
Titled “Managing stress during change,” the therapy sessions were led by “a licensed clinical provider,” and the report states that they were scheduled for November 11 and 13.
An internal Department of State email announcing the “post-Trump win” therapy sessions said:
Although change is a constant in our lives, it frequently causes anxiety and uncertainty. Join us for a thought-provoking webinar where we explore practical stress-reduction strategies to support you during these trying times. Tips and useful techniques for stress management and preserving your wellbeing will be covered in this workshop.
Issa, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, recently wrote to Secretary of State Blinken, stating that it was “unacceptable that the Department accommodates this behavior and subsidizes it with taxpayer dollars.”
“I am concerned that the Department is catering to federal employees who are personally devastated by the normal functioning of American democracy through the provision of government-funded mental health counseling because Kamala Harris was not elected President of the United States,” Issa wrote in a letter to Blinken.
“It is disturbing that ostensibly nonpartisan government officials would suffer a personal meltdown over the results of a free and fair election, something the United States champions around the world,” he said.
The “mere fact that the Department is hosting these sessions raises significant questions about the willingness of its personnel to implement the lawful policy priorities that the American people elected President Trump to pursue and implement,” the Republican Representative from California added.
“The mental health of our foreign service personnel is important, but The Department has no obligation to indulge and promote the leftist political predilections of its employees and soothe their frayed nerves because of the good-faith votes of and at the personal expense of the American taxpayers,” Issa wrote in the letter.
He further recommended that if “foreign service officers cannot follow through on the American people’s preferences, they should resign and seek a political appointment in the next Democrat administration.”
Issa also included a list of questions he wanted addressed during the briefing and requested “a briefing with the appropriate officials” by November 22 in the letter.
1. How many meetings have already taken place and how many more are scheduled? 2. What was the agenda for the session and what resources were used? 3. How much did the Department have to pay for these sessions? 4. Are these meetings taking place abroad? 5. Has the Department previously convened such meetings, and if yes, what circumstances led to them?
According to reports, under the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration, a U.S. official who was aware of the “therapy sessions” said there was “an overemphasis on people’s feelings, often with a college campus-like fervor.”
According to the official, this conduct frequently took precedence over the administration’s “work of advancing America’s interests.”
It is important to remember that many people were alarmed by Trump’s “shock win” in the 2024 elections because of his vows to carry out the largest “mass deportation” in American history, his threats of a “vengeance-filled” second term as president, and his recommendations to use the National Guard and the country’s military to deal with “inside threats,” which presumably refers to his political rivals and dissenters.
Additionally, prominent figures from past Republican administrations have cautioned about Trump’s “fascist” tendencies, asserting that the president-elect is approaching his second term in office with a purportedly autocratic mentality.
Notably, experts have expressed strong resistance to Trump’s recent Cabinet nominations, including the selection of Fox News anchor Pete Hegset as Defense Secretary, RFK Jr. as Health Secretary, and other candidates.
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