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Mary Elizabeth Taylor

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Mary Elizabeth Taylor
32nd Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs
In office
October 12, 2018 – June 18, 2020
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byMary Kirtley Waters
Succeeded byNaz Durakoğlu
Personal details
BornWashington D.C., United States
Political partyRepublican
Alma materBryn Mawr College (BA)

Mary Elizabeth Taylor is an American political aide who served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs from 2018 to 2020. She resigned on June 18, 2020 in protest of the handling of the George Floyd protests by President Donald Trump. She previously served in the Trump White House as the Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs of Nominations.

Early life and education

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Taylor is a native of Washington, D.C. She earned a degree in political science from Bryn Mawr College and interned at Koch Industries as a college student.[1][2]

Career

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Taylor is sworn in by Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch as the Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on December 10, 2018.

Early political career

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Taylor began her career in Capitol Hill as an intern for the United States Senate in July 2006. She also worked in the Senate Republican cloakroom[3] as a Senior Cloakroom Assistant.[4][5] Taylor previously worked as an aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Trump administration

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Taylor served in the first Trump White House as Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs.[6][7] In March 2017, she gained social media attention for her presence at the confirmation hearings of Neil Gorsuch as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Taylor worked on Gorsuch's nomination team when he met with U.S. senators before the confirmation hearings.[3] In December 2018, Gorsuch officiated at Taylor's formal swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Department of State.[8]

In 2018, she was listed on the Forbes 30 under 30 list.[9]

Department of State

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In 2018, Taylor was nominated to serve as Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs.[10] Confirmed unanimously by the Senate in October 2018, Taylor became the first African-American woman and youngest to serve in this role, and the only African-American senior official in the State Department.

Trump-Ukraine Scandal
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In May 2019, members of Congress criticized President Trump's abrupt recall of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch from her post in Ukraine after Trump surrogates claimed that Yovanovitch, a career diplomat,[11] was impeding Trump's efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate his political rival Joe Biden.[12] Yovanovitch testified she had originally been asked in March 2019 to extend her tour in Ukraine through 2020 before her sudden recall in May.[13] But on June 11, 2019, Taylor misled federal lawmakers about the circumstances of Yovanovitch's recall, writing instead that Yovanovitch had been "due to complete her three-year diplomatic assignment in Kyiv this summer" and that the date she left her post "align[ed] with the presidential transition in Ukraine," despite the fact the State Department has no common practice of changing ambassadors based on transitions in foreign leadership.[13][14] Taylor also failed to mention that Yovanovitch had been previously asked to extend her post in Ukraine.

Resignation

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On June 18, 2020, Taylor submitted her resignation from the State Department in response to President Donald Trump's handling of protests following the murder of George Floyd.[15]

Government offices
Preceded by Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs
October 12, 2018 – June 18, 2020 		Succeeded by

References

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  1. ^ "Who's The Black Woman Sitting Behind Neil Gorsuch?". News One. March 22, 2017. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  2. ^ "Mary Elizabeth Taylor". United States Department of State. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
  3. ^ a b Edition, Inside (March 22, 2017). "Who is Mary Elizabeth Taylor? Social Media Loses It Over Woman at Gorsuch Hearing". Insideedition.com. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  4. ^ "Mary Elizabeth Taylor (Mary Elizabeth) - Congressional Staffer Salary Data". Legistorm.com. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  5. ^ Rucker, Philip (January 31, 2017). "Ayotte to lead White House team shepherding Supreme Court nominee". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
  6. ^ "Mary Elizabeth Taylor to be Knight-Hennessy Scholars Visiting Expert". Knight-Hennessy Scholars. Stanford University. September 22, 2020. Archived from the original on October 14, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2024.
  7. ^ "Annual Report to Congress on White House Office Personnel" (PDF). June 29, 2018.
  8. ^ "Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Gorsuch Officiates the Swearing-in Ceremony for Mary Elizabeth Taylor". Flickr.com. December 10, 2018. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
  9. ^ "Mary Elizabeth Taylor". Forbes. Retrieved November 15, 2017.
  10. ^ "PN2386 - Nomination of Mary Elizabeth Taylor for Department of State, 115th Congress (2017-2018)". www.congress.gov. October 11, 2018. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  11. ^ "Ousted U.S. diplomat could be crucial to impeachment inquiry". Los Angeles Times. September 30, 2019. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  12. ^ "Engel & Hoyer Statement on U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Masha Yovanovitch". House Foreign Affairs Committee. May 7, 2019. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  13. ^ a b Gramer, Robbie (November 25, 2019). "State Department Misled Congress on Ouster of Ukraine Ambassador". Foreign Policy. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  14. ^ Taylor, Mary Elizabeth (June 11, 2019). "Letter to Rep. Steny Hoyer Re: Amb. Marie Yovanovitch". www.documentcloud.org. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  15. ^ Verma, Pranshu (June 19, 2020). "Top State Department Aide Resigns Over Trump's Response to Racial Unrest". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
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