- President Joe Biden’s close aide, the former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti won confirmation as the nation’s next ambassador to India.
- White House spokesperson said Mr. Biden “believes that we have a crucial and consequential partnership with India and that Mayor Garcetti will make a strong and effective ambassador.”
- The nomination, first announced in July 2021, cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January 2022 but was not considered by the full Senate.
- The nomination had been freighted with questions about what the former mayor knew, and when, about sexual harassment allegations.
- Mr. Garcetti considered a 2020 White House run but later became part of Biden’s inner circle, emerging as a widely discussed possibility to join the Cabinet but he took himself out of the run.
President Joe Biden’s close aide, the former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti won confirmation as the nation’s next ambassador to India, more than a year and a half after he was first nominated by the President and after weathering doubts about his truthfulness in a sexual harassment scandal involving a City Hall adviser. The 52-42 vote gave the administration a long-sought victory with several Republicans breaking party discipline for the vote that they said was critical to fill one of the country’s highest-profile diplomatic posts.
“It’s a national security imperative to immediately have an ambassador in place in India. We can’t afford to wait any longer,” said Indiana Sen.The day began with uncertain prospects for Mr. Garcetti, a two-term, progressive Democrat first nominated to the diplomatic post by President Biden in July 2021. With several Democrats defecting, Mr. Garcetti’s fate rested with Republican senators in a chamber often divided along partisan lines. He secured seven GOP votes, more than enough to make up for the Democratic breakaways.
At the White House, spokesperson Olivia Dalton said Mr. Biden “believes that we have a crucial and consequential partnership with India and that Mayor Garcetti will make a strong and effective ambassador.” The vacancy in the ambassadorship had left a significant diplomatic gap for the administration at a time of rising global tensions, including China’s increasingly assertive presence in the Pacific region and Russia’s war with Ukraine.
The nomination had been freighted with questions about what the former mayor knew, and when, about sexual harassment allegations against his friend and once-close adviser, Rick Jacobs. A lawsuit alleges that Jacobs frequently harassed one of the then-mayor’s police bodyguards while Mr. Garcetti ignored the abuse or laughed it off. Mr. Garcetti, the son of former Los Angeles district attorney Gil Garcetti, has repeatedly denied the claims. Jacobs has called the allegations against him “pure fiction.” The case is scheduled to go to trial later this year.
The nomination, first announced in July 2021, cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January 2022 but was not considered by the full Senate. Mr. Biden renominated Mr. Garcetti early this year, and the White House has defended him as a well-qualified candidate. On a politically divided vote, the committee again advanced the nomination to the full Senate early this month.
Mr. Garcetti’s confirmation follows a contentious tenure at Los Angeles City Hall framed by rising homelessness, the pandemic and high crime rates as well as sexual harassment and corruption scandals. The Los Angeles area, once known for boundless growth, has seen its population decline.
Mr. Garcetti took office in 2013 with a “back to basics” agenda that centered on fixing L.A. ‘s notoriously cratered streets and sidewalks. But those early ambitions faded as out-of-control homeless encampments transformed the city and then the government shuttered businesses, restaurants and schoolrooms — and shed hundreds of thousands of jobs — in the depths of the pandemic.
Mr. Garcetti considered a 2020 White House run but later became part of Biden’s inner circle, emerging as a widely discussed possibility to join the Cabinet. He took himself out of the running after many of the plum jobs had been filled, saying the coronavirus crisis at the time made it impossible for him to step away from City Hall.
