DALLAS — Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, usually responds to reporter’s questions about the world’s most complicated crises right now, such as Ukraine, Taiwan and the Israel – Hamas war.
We had those questions ready, but we also wanted to know something else.
What keeps the top U.S. diplomat at the U.N. awake at night?
“It’s the next crisis. It’s a tough question. I’m already awake at night because of current crises, but we don’t know where the next one will be,” she explained.
President Joe Biden called Thomas-Greenfield out of retirement when he nominated her to the U.N. post.
She spent 35 years in the foreign service, mainly focused on Africa.
The fluid situation in Palestine is taking up a lot of her attention now.
On Monday, the militant Palestinian group called Hamas agreed to a ceasefire with Israel just before Israeli troops made good on a promise and entered Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, leaving thousands of civilians nowhere to flee.
“We continue to be hopeful, as I’ve said over and over again because we know this peace deal is what is necessary to get the hostages released [and] to get more humanitarian assistance into the people of Gaza,” she explained.
Thomas-Greenfield has felt the brunt of emotion surrounding the Israel-Hamas war. The University of Vermont canceled her commencement speech on May 18 after protesters blamed her for voting against the first few ceasefire resolutions at the U.N.
We asked the ambassador what message she had for college protesters.
“I spent part of my life when I was on that side of protests, and I ask myself now that I’m on this side – what would I want to hear from me? And what I want to hear is that I’m being heard. And I want the students to know that they are being heard,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
She led a U.S. Delegation to the 2024 U.S.-Africa Business Summit in Dallas this week, attended a dinner with former President George W. Bush and sat for an exclusive interview with WFAA.
Though she works for President Biden now, Thomas-Greenfield said she will never forget her first meeting with President George W. Bush in the Oval Office in 2008.
"The president of Liberia was coming for a meeting with the president, first woman elected on the continent of Africa, and [then U.S. Secretary of State] Condi Rice invited me in to brief the president. And when I walked in the door, he saluted,” she recalled with amazement. “It was a pinchable moment.”
President Bush later nominated Thomas-Greenfield to be U.S. Ambassador to Liberia.
With the world seemingly on her shoulders and trying to keep the peace, we were also curious how she unwinds at night.
“That’s a great question as well. I love to cook. When I was the Assistant Secretary [of State] for Africa, I would come home at 10:00 at night and put on a pot of red beans. And they take two hours to cook. And everybody is like you put on red beans at 10:00 at night? I like chopping onions. It really relaxes me. I would take them to work the next day,” said the ambassador, who’s originally from Baker, Louisiana, “So, cooking really relaxes me and really gives me a sense of being normal.”