President Joe Biden's recently confirmed ambassador to Bahrain, Steven Bondy, is being accused of using ethnic slurs against Arabs during his time at the State Department, Politico reported Monday.
The report cited several people Bondy works with before he was confirmed as the Bahraini ambassador by the Senate earlier this month.
One of the sources, a senior White House official during the administration of former President Donald Trump, told Politico that Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) told them that ''we are not a fan of Bondy'' because ''he treats his people like garbage.''
The prince's comments were made in 2018 during one of veteran State Department Bondy's deployments to the U.S. Embassy in the United Arab Emirates.
Other sources told the publication that he routinely made ''belittling'' comments about Arabs while in the UAE.
''I came forward after retirement upon hearing of his nomination,'' Brig. Gen. Miguel Correa told Politico in early December, nearly two months after Bondy appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his confirmation hearing.
''I wanted the facts to come out in the public for our leaders to see the entire picture. I would hear him say disparaging remarks about Arabs all the time,'' Correa said.
Another source who worked with Bondy in the UAE, Victoria Coates, said that she recalled an incident where he was ''dismissive of Middle Eastern staff.''
In a statement to the publication, Bondy denied the allegations.
''I vehemently and categorically deny these accusations,'' his statement to Politico said, refusing to comment further. ''I have dedicated my career to representing the United States and its interests in the Middle East. I have a deep and abiding respect for the peoples and cultures of the Middle East and harbor none of the prejudices attributed to me.''
Other State Department employees also defended Bondy.
''I never saw him speak derogatorily of our partners in the region, and that doesn't match with any of my experience with him,'' retired Gen. Joseph Votel, who hired Bondy to be his policy adviser when he was commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, told Politico. ''I found him to be very, very good, and he was a good and reliable adviser to me.''
There is also a backstory between Bondy and Correa, with Bondy removing him from his Abu Dhabi post, making his own set of allegations that Correa was a racist and 'an antisemite, the article said.
Correa went to work on Trump's National Security Council and then retired in October, while Bondy was appointed to the ambassador's post in April by Biden.
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