Senate confirms Cindy McCain, former GOP Sen. Jeff Flake to top diplomatic posts
WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed two Republicans nominated by President Joe Biden to prime diplomatic posts Tuesday.
Former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake was confirmed as U.S. ambassador to Turkey, and Cindy McCain, the widow of GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona, would be the nation’s consultant on the United Nations Companies for Meals and Agriculture.
Each Arizona Republicans endorsed Biden in the course of the 2020 presidential election. They had been confirmed Tuesday by voice vote.
Flake and John McCain, who died in August 2018, had been frequent targets of former President Donald Trump when he was in workplace.
Flake introduced in October 2017 that he wouldn’t search re-election, expressing dismay with Trump and the path of the Republican Celebration. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, then a Home member, gained Flake’s Senate seat the next yr, flipping it to the Democrats.
In 2020, Flake and Cindy McCain had been key Biden surrogates who sought to broaden the Democratic nominee’s attraction to voters, notably amongst Republicans. Biden later gained Arizona, which had not voted for a Democrat since 1996.
Flake wrote in a Medium submit in July that Biden’s choice to appoint him “reaffirms one of the best custom of American overseas coverage and diplomacy: the credo that partisan politics ought to cease on the water’s edge.”
“U.S. overseas coverage can and needs to be bipartisan,” he added. “That’s my perception as nicely, and my dedication.”
The Senate on Tuesday additionally confirmed Victoria Reggie Kennedy, the widow of the Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, to be U.S. ambassador to Austria, whereas former Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., was confirmed as ambassador to New Zealand.
