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President Biden’s longtime aide rallied scores of nations to defend Ukraine but then became a villain to the many critics of U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
By Edward Wong and Michael Crowley
The two diplomatic correspondents have covered Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken for four years over dozens of trips abroad, including his final one across Asia and Europe last week.
Making his final trip as America’s top diplomat last week, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken arrived in Paris, his former hometown, to a hero’s welcome.
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, proclaimed Mr. Blinken “an eminent servant of peace” at a ceremony at the Élysée Palace before awarding him the country’s highest tribute, the Legion of Honor medal. With its red silk ribbon pinned to his jacket, Mr. Blinken called the medal “the honor of a lifetime.”
It was a very different scene back in Washington a few days later, when Mr. Blinken gave a final speech before a crowd of foreign policy experts.
“Secretary Blinken! Your legacy will be genocide! You will forever be known as ‘Bloody Blinken, Secretary of Genocide,’” shouted a protester who had infiltrated the Atlantic Council event. Security officers led her out of the room, as well as a man waving a sign that read “Blinken: War Criminal.”
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A similar drama punctured Mr. Blinken’s farewell news conference at the State Department two days later, as a journalist, shouting that Mr. Blinken belonged in The Hague, was carried from the room by security officers.
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