U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday condemned an incident in which a swastika was carved into an elevator wall at the State Department's main headquarters.
Blinken said in a message sent to all department employees that the vandalism is a painful reminder that anti-Semitism remains an issue in the U.S. and around the world and must be combatted relentlessly.
"As this painfully reminds us, anti-Semitism isn't a relic of the past," Blinken said in the message. "It's still a force in the world, including close to home. And it's abhorrent. It has no place in the United States, at the State Department, or anywhere else. And we must be relentless in standing up and rejecting it."