To be sure, presidents deserve secretaries of state who will carry out their agendas. But State Department employees should also know that secretaries of state will have their backs, especially in the face of groundless smears and attacks — even when they come from the president and his personal lawyer.

Pompeo failed his team when he yielded to demands from Trump and Rudolph W. Giuliani that U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, one of the finest diplomats in the Foreign Service, be removed. In her opening statement before the investigating House committees, Yovanovitch described her dismissal as based on “unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.”

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Asked about this, Pompeo implicitly acknowledged that he chose not to defend her: “Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president and when a president loses confidence in an ambassador, it’s not in that ambassador, the State Department or America’s best interest for them to continue to stay in their post.” By leaving her hanging, Pompeo further damaged already sagging morale inside the department. When he first took up the post, he boasted of restoring its “swagger” after the term of predecessor Rex Tillerson. In fact, the situation has deteriorated drastically during Pompeo’s stint in office.

Michael McKinley, a career diplomat with 37 years of service, resigned this month as senior adviser to Pompeo because of “what appears to be the utilization of our ambassadors overseas to advance domestic political objectives” and the failure to “offer support to Foreign Service employees caught up in the Impeachment Inquiry on Ukraine.”

Pompeo criticized McKinley for failing to raise with him Yovanovitch’s dismissal. “I never heard him say a single thing about his concerns with respect to the decision that was made” regarding Yovanovitch, Pompeo claimed.

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On Tuesday, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham issued a statement decrying “radical unelected bureaucrats waging war on the Constitution,” following the damning testimony of William B. Taylor Jr. before the House committees. Trump weighed in as well, disparaging Taylor as a “Never Trumper.” Pompeo had asked Taylor, a decorated Vietnam War veteran and longtime diplomat who had also served under George W. Bush, to return to the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, where Taylor had previously served as ambassador, to fill in after Yovanovitch’s unceremonious departure. Pompeo has said nothing to defend Taylor.

Pompeo has made matters worse by obsequiously siding with Trump and the White House in seeking to obstruct and delay the House impeachment inquiry by trying to block diplomats from appearing for depositions. And instead of staying above the political fray, Pompeo has declared that former vice president Joe Biden and his son should be investigated for their alleged actions in Ukraine.

The State Department and the people who work there need serious protection from the White House and Giuliani, who was running a shadow foreign policy. Did Pompeo know about Giuliani’s efforts? If so, why did he not object? If not, then he lost control over his portfolio. The State Department’s professional diplomats are right to feel the secretary does not have their backs.

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Sooner or later, Pompeo will be gone as secretary, and when he is, his successor should draw several lessons. First, don’t sacrifice ambassadors and other diplomats in the face of scurrilous attacks, even if those attacks come from the White House. The next secretary of state will need to re-instill a strong sense of ethics and integrity at the department and reinforce the importance of protecting whistleblowers. The department should establish a special channel for employees to report any signs of corruption or outside influence. Ethics training is already mandatory but should be expanded to include how to respond to inappropriate efforts to involve employees or embassies in U.S. domestic political matters; this training should also include the secretary. Embassies and bureaus at the State Department’s headquarters in Washington should be reassured that their work is not to be misused for any partisan political agendas.

Second, every ambassador should be told that combating foreign interference in U.S. elections is a top foreign policy priority. They should be reminded that helping other countries fight corruption while setting a good example is in the United States’ national interest.

Third, the State Department, in consultation with the Treasury Department, should produce an annual survey on corruption around the world to demonstrate that it takes this issue seriously. Congress might need to mandate such a report if the State Department resists. Congress should also hold regular hearings on the theme of corruption and insist on periodic briefings from the Inspector General and Foreign Service representatives to hear of any concerns.

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None of this would be necessary in a normal administration. The Trump administration is not normal. The damage to one of our most precious government institutions must end. It is time for Pompeo to go.