A German lawmaker clashed with U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell on Tuesday, accusing him of acting “as if he were representing a hostile power.”
In a pair of tweets, Andreas Nick thanked numerous former U.S. ambassadors to Germany for their service, while conspicuously leaving Grenell out of his praise.
“For a generation, each and every US Ambassador I got to know personally – career dipomat or political appointee alike – used to leave his post as a highly respected figure and trusted friend of Germany. Now someone leaves issuing threats as if he were representing a hostile power,” wrote Nick, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party.
“A warm thank you to Richard Burt, Robert Kimmitt, Richard Holbrooke +, James Bindenagel, Dan Coats, John Kornblum, Phil Murphy, John Emerson, Kent Logsdon and many others for their lasting contribution to German-American friendship,” he continued.
Grenell fired back, quote-tweeting Nick and accusing the Bundestag member of pushing him to end public U.S. calls for Germany to fully fund contributions to NATO.
“You always wanted me to stop asking you publicly to pay your NATO obligations and calling for an end to Nord Stream 2. But these are US policies. And I work for the American people,” he tweeted.
The tweets come as Grenell, who is also serving as acting director of national intelligence (DNI), is set to step down from both positions. Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) set to replace him as DNI. News of his replacement as ambassador to Germany has yet to be announced.
Grenell’s tenure as ambassador was marked with calls for his resignation in 2018 after he told the right-wing news outlet Breitbart that he hoped to “empower other conservatives throughout Europe,” a remark that was swiftly criticized across the political spectrum in Germany.