By MARK LANDLER and MICHAEL D. SHEAR
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Mr. Crowley had been in a tenuous position for some time, several officials said, and was discussing another assignment with Mrs. Clinton and her chief of staff, Cheryl D. Mills, even before his Manning remarks. He did not travel on Mrs. Clinton’s plane, which is highly unusual for a spokesman and added to the perception that he did not have access to her inner circle.
Public statements from Mr. Crowley, a seasoned public affairs officer, raised hackles in the Pentagon and the White House several times. On Friday, in the wake of the earthquake in Japan, he sent out a message on ’
Twitter that said: “We’ve been watching a hopeful tsunami sweep across the Middle East. Now we’re seeing a tsunami of a different kind sweep across Japan.”
Other officials said the message was insensitive, and Mr. Crowley pulled it from Twitter.
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For the last few months, Mr. Crowley had devoted much of his time to dealing with the fallout from the release of State Department cables by WikiLeaks. Officials credited him with handling that difficult task well, and he has developed strong opinions about the role of the government and the news media through this episode, some of which he voiced in his M.I.T. talk.
Last month, Michael Hammer, a former spokesman for the National Security Council, became Mr. Crowley’s deputy — a move that was widely perceived as setting the stage for Mr. Crowley’s departure. Mrs. Clinton said that Mr. Hammer, a career diplomat, would serve as the chief spokesman on an acting basis, and officials said he was likely to become Mr. Crowley’s permanent replacement.
Interesting!
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