Garcetti Confirmed, Heading to India as Ambassador

By a vote of 52 to 42 this afternoon, former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was confirmed as the new ambassador to India.

This was only made possible by seven Republican senators crossing the aisle and voting yes on Garcetti’s nomination.  Without those seven votes, Garcetti’s nomination would have failed.

Those senators are: Todd Young of Indiana, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Steve Daines of Montana, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.  Clearly, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made no effort to block the nomination by keeping Republicans “in line.”

Reportedly, much of the reason the seven voted “aye” was that the position had been vacant for about two years.  While this is not an actual reason to vote for Garcetti – the job was left open for so long specifically because of Garcetti’s coating of slime and Biden’s addled intransigence – it supports the idea that the votes were mere political expediencies and not based on any thoughtful consideration.

Graham’s hypocrisy is especially noteworthy as he was one of the sponsors of a law signed by Biden in December called “The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act,” which prevents perpetrators from being able to push survivors of sexual harassment and sexual assault into the “secretive, and often biased process of forced arbitration.”

His Democratic co-sponsor of the bill, which passed out of the Senate last year by unanimous consent, was New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand.  Gillibrand also voted to confirm Garcetti.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has in the past claimed to be a victim of sexual harassment herself, also voted in favor of Garcetti.

While bushels of politically-expedient hypocrisy were on display on the Senate floor, three Democrats did defy Biden’s wishes and vote against Garcetti’s nomination – Mark Kelly of Arizona, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii.

The vote was taken without any floor debate after a “cloture” motion was passed prior to the actual nomination vote being taken.  Clearly expecting a victory, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said “and now we have an ambassador to India” after the cloture vote.

Those who have fought to hold Garcetti accountable for his actions – or inactions – regarding the indiscriminate, physical, and aggressive sexual harassment by Rick Jacobs, his political fixer, were not at all pleased by the Senate vote.

“It’s heartbreaking not just for me and the other whistleblowers and victims in this case, but also for those who are living through sexual harassment and abuse right now and look to our political leaders to protect them if they come forward with credible evidence,” said Naomi Seligman, Garcetti’s former communications director, life-long Democrat, and spearhead of the movement to block Garcetti’s confirmation.

“To see this behavior rewarded at the highest level makes a mockery of purported bipartisan support of the #metoo movement. Senators cannot subject their values to political expediency,” Seligman said.  “Remember, predators persist in their abuse only if enablers in positions of power allow them to.  Thank you to those Senators who resisted the pressure and did the right thing.”

“Today’s confirmation flies in the face of what 19 courageous whistleblowers, victims and witnesses came forward to bear witness to the Senate: that Eric Garcetti enabled, tolerated and covered up years of sexual abuse his top aide at Los Angeles City Hall,” said Liddy Liu of Whistleblower Aid, a DC-based group that helped fight the nomination. “This will have a chilling effect on future attempts to hold enablers and perpetrators to account and cause victims and witnesses to think twice about the risks they are taking in coming forward.  The Senate has voted against its own values, against the truth, and against the interests of our relationship with the world’s largest democracy. We must do better.”

For background, the political fixer Jacobs has been credibly accused by a number of other former Garcetti staffers of aggressive fondling, unwanted kissing, and racist comments (for a deeper dive into the details, see here).  

Despite this being public knowledge, Biden nominated Garcetti for the post, though he did, reportedly, pass him over for other administration spots.

In addition to Garcetti’s appalling behavior in relation to the Jacobs issue, he presided over one of the most corrupt City Hall’s in decades, and he has also taken vast sums of money from groups with possible ties to the Chinese intelligence services, a particular potential disqualifier from being ambassador to India as China and India have a very frosty relationship.

The Globe has reached out to the officers of the seven senators for comment and/or some attempt at justifying their vote and will update this story if and when they reply.

If you yourself wish to reach out to the senators, here are the email addresses for each’s press officer:

Matt_Lahr@young.senate.gov

julia_hahn@hagerty.senate.gov

Molly_Block@cassidy.senate.gov

Blake_Kernen@daines.senate.gov

annie_clark@collins.senate.gov

kevin_bishop@lgraham.senate.gov

William_Bensur@Marshall.Senate.Gov