Conservative foreign policy experts are growing increasingly frustrated with the Trump administration's decision to stick with its choice of career State Department diplomat Joseph Macmanus to serve as ambassador to Colombia when cocaine production in the country is at a all-time high.
Macmanus's critics argue that he has little drug interdiction experience and is ill-prepared to press Bogota to crack down on cocaine growth and production, which President Trump has said is a top priority.
They are astounded that Macmanus's ties to the Benghazi scandal—and his responses about during his Senate hearing—have so far not prevented Secretary of State Pompeo from supporting him.
Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) has a Senate hold on Macmanus's nomination, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) has vocally opposed it.
A group of top Colombian officials are in Washington this week to try to argue that they still deserve membership to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international group that fosters free trade among its members, even though they have not fulfilled their commitments to U.S. businesses.
The United States is threatening to suspend some benefits of its free-trade agreement with Colombia if a truck-scrapping program is not terminated by the end of December. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer signed a side agreement with Colombia's trade minister in April saying that the United States would suspend some of the agreement's benefits if the truck-scrapping policy was not halted by Dec. 31.
Pompeo, while serving as House member, was one of the most vocal critics of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's handling of the Benghazi scandal that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Macmanus was serving as Clinton's executive assistant at the time of the attack.
When Rex Tillerson was secretary of State, President Trump nominated Macmanus, a 30-year career foreign-service officer who served as a top aide to Clinton and was one of her top inner circle of aides who learned the Benghazi attack was terrorism in the first hours after it occurred.
Macmanus never objected to the Obama administration's characterization of attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi as a result of an uprising reaction to a anti-Islamic video.
When he testified to the Senate during his confirmation, he said he believed the attack was terrorism in the first moments after learning about it but was not saying that it was the "legal" definition of terrorism. Conservatives slammed his legalistic explanation.
With Pompeo at the State Department helm, Macmanus' critics on the right hoped he would be replaced by a political appointee who has deep knowledge of Colombia's drug and trade problems, is committed to fighting for U.S. business interests, and has a direct line to State Department and White House leadership.
"The president is talking a big game on combating the war on drugs in Colombia, but his actions so far have not backed his rhetoric," one conservative foreign policy expert told the Washington Free Beacon. "The president's current nominee has no experience whatsoever in counter-drug matters and was a key figure in the Benghazi scandal at the State Department."
Critics argue that given the record amount of cocaine flowing into U.S. neighborhoods from Colombia, it "seems the State Department is not giving Colombia the attention it needs and is focused only on promoting career diplomats so as not to provoke a conflict with the foreign service association and other bureaucrats who have allowed Colombia's illicit drug production to hit record levels without any push back from the United States government."
If Trump is serious about dealing with Colombia's record cocaine exports and trade violations that hurt U.S. businesses, he would drop the Macmanus nomination and appoint a political ambassador, critics say.
David Shedd, a retired U.S. intelligence officer who served as the acting director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2014 to 2015, made similar points in a recent op-ed titled "Trump's Colombia Envoy Should Know Something about Drug Wars."
"President Trump's nominee, Joseph Macmanus, is not the man for the job," Shedd wrote.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in late June said cocaine production is at a record high and that Colombia is responsible for the bulk of the production, which has been on the rise in the last few years.
The increase in production in Colombia represents a challenge to the implementation of the accord forged between the government and rebels from the now defunct FARC, and "is bound to augment the power and wealth of trafficking groups," the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said in its annual report.
The State Department has defended Macmanus's qualifications for the ambassadorship. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the criticism on Monday.
Last year, Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert issued a statement to the Free Beacon, arguing that Macmanus has shown "exceptional leadership" during his career.
"Secretary Tillerson does not agree that career ambassadors lack the vision to solve tough problems," she said in an emailed statement. "Macmanus is highly respected for his leadership, collegiality, and professionalism. He has served his country in challenging posts across multiple administrations and has demonstrated his exceptional leadership."
"Macmanus was sworn into office under President Ronald Reagan," she added.
Update 4:15 p.m.: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Colombia wanted to gain entry into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Colombia is already a member of that organization.