“Time for a new ambassador,” Rep. Don Bacon posted on X, responding to Ambassador Tom Rose’s public break with Sejm Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty.
Rose made the move after Czarzasty refused to support a proposal to nominate the US president for the Nobel Peace Prize, accusing him of undermining international law and institutions.
Bacon, a retired general and frequent critic of Donald Trump’s foreign policy, is the first member of Congress to publicly call for Rose’s removal.
Former American diplomats also weighed in, criticizing Rose’s conduct.
“Speaking as a former U.S. ambassador, the Polish government should declare our so-called ambassador persona non grata and boot his sorry behind out of the country,” wrote Luis Moreno, former US ambassador to Jamaica.
Steven Pifer, former ambassador to Ukraine, said that if US diplomats refused to meet anyone not backing Trump for a Nobel Prize, “they’d have a lot of free time.”
“This is an entirely unnecessary spat that didn’t have to happen,” he told PAP, Poland’s state news agency.
Dan Shapiro, former ambassador to Israel, said: “When I was ambassador, had I threatened to cut off all Israeli politicians critical of Obama, the list would’ve been long. But I didn’t. Because talking to people you disagree with is called diplomacy.”
On Thursday, Rose said on X that "effective immediately, we will have no further dealings, contacts or communications" with Poland’s parliamentary Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty, after the Polish politician said earlier this week that he would not support efforts to nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk responded that “allies should respect, not lecture, each other,” to which Rose said that he was “assuming your thoughtful and well-articulated message was sent to me by mistake, because surely you intended it for the Speaker of the Sejm."
Rose also engaged with other users on X, and when one suggested he should "go home," he replied: "Should we take our soldiers and equipment too?"
He later deleted these posts.
The US State Department and White House have not commented.
(jh)
Source: PAP