Donald Trump continues his now-established tradition of selecting completely unqualified people for important institutions, this displaying his contempt for those institutions. He did so by signaling that his choice for Ambassador to the U.N. is best known as a Fox News personality.
Over the past seven decades, some of the biggest names in American history have represented the United States at the United Nations, the most influential global institution. The congressman George H. W. Bush, who became U.N. Ambassador in 1971, went on to be President. Adlai Stevenson had already been the governor of Illinois and a Presidential candidate before he went to the U.N. Arthur Goldberg had been a member of John Kennedy’s cabinet and a Supreme Court Justice. William Scranton had been the governor of Pennsylvania and a member of Congress. Tom Pickering had a storied diplomatic career as Ambassador to Israel, Jordan, El Salvador, and Nigeria before he went to the U.N., and, afterward, was Ambassador to Russia and India. Daniel Patrick Moynihan had held senior positions in the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford Administrations. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., had been the Ambassador to Germany and South Vietnam before the U.N.; he went on to be Richard Nixon’s Vice-Presidential running mate. Before Samantha Power became U.N. Ambassador, she was the founding director of Harvard’s Carr Center on Human Rights, and won the Pulitzer Prize for her book documenting U.S. foreign-policy responses to genocide. The legendary diplomat Richard Holbrooke had brokered a peace treaty to end the Bosnian war.
Now the United States is slated to be represented by Heather Nauert, a former Fox News anchor whose experience in American diplomacy is limited to nineteen months as the spokeswoman for the State Department. It was her first job in government. President Trump made the announcement as he prepared to board Marine One for a trip to Missouri on Friday morning. “She’s very talented, very smart, very quick, and I think she’s going to be respected by all,” he told reporters.
It’s hard to think of any American nominated for the lofty post who has had less experience in navigating existential issues of war and peace. Critics had cited the outgoing U.N. Ambassador, Nikki Haley, for her limited foreign-policy experience. But as a former governor of South Carolina who served three terms in the state legislature, she was nationally recognized as a major political player, even as a future Presidential contender. Nauert is an unknown beyond the wonky halls of the State Department. “However trusted and competent the candidate, the job is not one to throw in an inexperienced-in-foreign-policy nominee,” the former U.N. Ambassador Tom Pickering told me.
Nauert is better known for her sharp elbows, tart tongue, and flippant responses during briefings at the State Department. One correspondent described her as smart—with the aid of a binder loaded with talking points—but “snippy.” She took grief from the media for her comment in June that seemed to confuse the state of U.S.-German relations during the Second World War. “When you talk about Germany, we have a very strong relationship with the government of Germany,” she said at a briefing. “Tomorrow is the anniversary of the D-Day invasion. We obviously have a very long history with the government of Germany, and we have a strong relationship with the government.”
The appointment underscores Trump’s disdain for the world body. The position—which has had cabinet status—is also reportedly being downgraded. Nauert must be confirmed by the Senate, a process that is likely to be contentious given the widespread skepticism about her qualifications. Her past experience includes reading for a major role in a Robert De Niro movie. During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, she gained fame as one of the conservative “pundettes” who pontificated about President Clinton on television. She once told the Washington Post that, at the age of sixteen, she had known that she wanted to be on television. In a profile, from 2000, the Post questioned whether she deserved even that. “Who the heck is Heather Nauert? Why, other than looking like the younger sister of another Heather (Locklear), is she on TV at all?” the critic Paul Farhi wrote. “From what well of life-shaping experiences do our anointed dispensers of video wisdom draw their opinions?”
“Who the heck is Heather Nauert?”
Someone willing to pledge total loyalty to Trump and not the US Constitution and the rule of law.
Trump is sifting through land fills to find enough people that will pledge total loyalty to him and only him no matter what.
Like many people who voted for him, Trump does not respect education, experience, or institutional knowledge. He belittles all of it. He is primarily a TeeVee watcher, and she made an impression on him with her snarky manner and partisan views. It matches most of his appointments, including his clueless son-in-law who was going to fix the mideast crisis, his clueless head of the education department, his choice for the EPA, his recent pick for the Consumer Protection Agency who has absolutely no knowledge in the field – the list is endless. Disrespect for everyone and everything not Trump is his typical guiding principle.
Complain all we want about the president but it doesn’t matter.
The monitoring and complaints again and again should be “How will your Senator vote?”
They are complicit whenever they vote in line with the president.
Flood their phones and ask if they will automatically support another incompetent idiotic, uninformed action. (Ok, why they support the incompetent, idiotic, and uninformed president)*
To quote Broadcast News, “I say it here and it comes out there.” The president doesn’t just want loyalty oaths, he wants his words coming out of all the secretaries’ and ambassadors’ mouths. And the Senators do nothing.
*and, by the way… are the local newspapers asking the senators those questions? How many senators and representatives refuse to hold town hall meetings or any public meetings and decline interviews… and the media is not going after that?
Somewhat off-topic, but goes to all things Trump, have you seen this article? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/02/us/southwest-key-migrant-children.html?
There has to be a way to shut this place down. Profiting off a “charity” (ahem) should be illegal. It’s certainly immoral.
There’s a plump old grump named Trump
Whose brain’s but a small lump in his rump.
With his numbers in a slump
He should hump to the dump
And take a big jump. Thump.
Edd Doerr: I like that one. The picture of this is inspiring. Maybe he’ll be like Humpty Dumpty and crack.
Combine ignorance
With arrogance and — Voila!
“President” D.Trump
There was a VP named Pence
Who was really rather dense.
He would perch on a fence
His opinions to dispense
But few of them made any sense.
He calls her “Mother,”
But she’s his wife, not his mom.
Pence — Oh, why bother.
——————— Edd Doerr
Is she that much worse than John Bolton?
She is not a replacement for Bolton. Bolton remains in the Cabinet. She won’t be.
That’s asking a lot Roy, being “much worse than John Bolton”. In my view he ranks almost as high on the worse human being scale as the Dick Cheney, Kissinger or the Bush family.
And I broke my personal rule about not commenting on purely political posts. Damn!!!
And we’re not even talking about her anti-Muslim comments, nor her ties to anti-Muslim groups. She’s going to be REAL popular in the UN when she spouts out crap like that. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/heather-nauert-un-ambassador-islamophobia_us_5c0ad2a4e4b0a606a9a889b3
Threatened Out West: This is just unbelievably horrible. We now have anti-Muslim people in high positions in government. Heather Nauret, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton all have a history of islamophobia. This country is sinking lower and lower and lower with biased, unqualified people. So much for Trump’s ‘great intuitive abilities’ and ‘high intelligence’.
Borowitz wrote a great one on this. (Sorry–don’t have the link.)
I’ve been on the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disneyland. I rode once when i was in the ninth grade. She went three times so she’s much more qualified than me to be Ambassador to the UN. i LOVE Borowitz!!
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Heather Nauert Says Visit to “It’s a Small World” Ride Qualifies Her For U.N. Job
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Pushing back against criticism of her lack of diplomatic experience, Donald J. Trump’s choice to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Heather Nauert, said on Friday that a memorable visit to the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disney World made her eminently qualified for the U.N. post.
“When people look at me, they think Heather Nauert, former Fox News anchor,” Nauert told reporters at the State Department. “What they don’t realize is I’m also Heather Nauert, who went on ‘It’s a Small World’ three times when she was nine.”…
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/heather-nauert-says-visit-to-its-a-small-world-ride-qualifies-her-for-un-job
OMG, I thought this was real until I saw unit was Borowitz.
Like Sarah Palin, who could see Russia from her porch.
It would kind of be worth it if Jonathan Pie did something similar to this (there will be one unexpected profane word for those easily offended):
Que bueno. Gracias por compartirlo.
I LOVE good news. Hopefully nobody will what the job of chief of staff. Only lowlife would enter into this mess. Get that Orange Dictator-in-Waiting who is working to destroy our democracy. We do not need continual chaos, back stabbing, name calling and unending lies any longer.
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Trump’s next chief of staff may be walking into a nightmare
Updated 6:06 AM ET, Mon December 10, 2018
…The long-expected departure of the current incumbent, John Kelly, announced by Trump on Saturday, comes at a time of instability and crisis that is remarkable even for this riotous administration where turbulence is the rule.
…the new chief of staff will also be faced with the likely hopeless task of trying to tame a President who appears to be deeply rattled by Mueller’s strides in recent days, despite his insistence that everything is sunny in the White House.
“The Trump Administration has accomplished more than any other U.S. Administration in its first two (not even) years of existence, & we are having a great time doing it!” Trump tweeted Sunday.
“All of this despite the Fake News Media, which has gone totally out of its mind – truly the Enemy of the People!”..
The job of chief staff is often thankless and exhausting even in a conventional administration. And whoever eventually decides to become Trump’s third chief will face more than the complications of dealing with a President who constantly torches the conventions of his office and who revels at being the epicenter of an atmosphere of chaos, backstabbing and recrimination.
He or she will also inherit a White House that is more deeply threatened by a criminal investigation and allegations of abuse of power than at any time since the Nixon administration. And every week, the situation gets darker with the President under threat from formidable prosecutors on two fronts — from Mueller who works under the supervision of the Justice Department and from the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York…
But the direction of Mueller’s investigation appears clear. He is getting closer and closer to the President and his inner circle.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/10/politics/trump-next-chief-of-staff/index.html
Trump is a pathological liar who can’t tell truth from his version. One truth about Trump is that he tells lies so often that he has made the WaPo bottomless Pinocchio club. Doubt he’ll brag about that. It’s all ‘false’ news. Poor Trump.
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Meet the Bottomless Pinocchio, a new odds for a repeated false claim over and over again
By drbyos – December 10, 2018
…Trump’s willingness to constantly repeat misrepresentations has posed a unique challenge to fact checkers. Most politicians quickly abandon a claim of the four Pinocchio, either by obligation of accuracy, or by the anxiety to think that the dissemination of false information could be politically damaging.
Not Trump. The president persists long after the facts are clear, in what appears to be a deliberate effort to replace the truth with his own, much more favorable, version of it. He does not just blunder or misreport, he deliberately injects false information into the national conversation.
To reflect this phenomenon, the Washington Post Fact Checker introduces a new category – the bottomless Pinocchio. This dubious distinction will be given to politicians who repeat a false claim so many times that they actually engage in misinformation campaigns…
The bottomless Pinocchio bar is high: claims must have received three or four Pinocchios from The Fact Checker and must have been repeated at least 20 times…
http://https://www.newsy-today.com/meet-the-bottomless-pinocchio-a-new-odds-for-a-repeated-false-claim-over-and-over-again/
It’s been quite a while since America had any respect for the UN. Witness our withholding dues when the UN did not behave as we demanded.
The main difference is that under Trump, the contempt is just out in the open.
Trump always picks good looking women. Other women mean nothing to the Pussy-Grabber-in-Chief.
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Video: Nauert’s Rise From ‘Fox & Friends’ to Trump’s U.N. Nominee
By Neeti Upadhye and Robin Lindsay