From the above article
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... a former Fox News host ... Nauert does not have lengthy diplomatic experience. She was previously a news reader for the Fox News morning broadcast "Fox and Friends" and was also a former ABC News correspondent.
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“[She] Won’t Add Gravitas to the Position”: As Heather Nauert Emerges as Nikki Haley’s Likely Successor, Diplomats Shred Her Résumé - “There is absolutely nothing that qualifies her for this post, aside from having delivered some talking points around foreign policy,” said one former administration official. But some wonder whether, after warring with Haley, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton wanted a more malleable figure at the U.N.Quote:
After news of Nikki Haley’s resignation as the United States ambassador to the United Nations broke last month, one foreign diplomat I spoke with hesitated to weigh in on the impact of her departure. “We should wait and see who comes after her before we can judge,” they told me. “Her successor could be worse.” When it was reported Thursday that Heather Nauert, a Fox News host turned State Department spokesperson, is Donald Trump’s top choice to replace Haley in Turtle Bay, the response from the diplomatic community, while not exactly apoplectic, had a decidedly negative cast. “Going up to New York, she is just going to face a whole different set of challenges that she has evidenced no capability to navigate, let alone to know even where to start,” Brett Bruen, a former diplomat and White House director of global engagement under the Obama administration, told me, reflecting the widespread skepticism that Nauert’s résumé qualifies her for a job once held by the likes of Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Jeane Kirkpatrick. “There is absolutely nothing that qualifies her for this post, aside from having delivered some talking points around foreign policy,” a former administration official told me. “It’s crazy to think people had misgivings about Nikki Haley’s qualifications. She was a foreign-policy pro compared to Nauert.” ...
In fact, Nauert’s lack of qualifications may be part of the plan. Three days after Haley tendered her resignation, Axios reported that National Security Adviser John Bolton, Chief of Staff John Kelly, and Pompeo didn’t want the next U.N. ambassador to hold Cabinet rank—a condition the former South Carolina governor insisted upon before she accepted the position. Notably, both Bolton and Kelly butted heads with Haley, who was known for her independent streak, a second former administration official told me. And as Richard Gowan, a senior fellow at the United Nations University, explained, this would send a clear message to U.N. ranks that Haley’s replacement “wields less clout.” Coupled with her lack of experience, the lack of Cabinet rank would leave Nauert in a subsidiary position. “From Pompeo and Bolton’s point of view, she is a good choice because she poses no substantive challenge to them. In past years, the U.S.U.N. Ambassador has had conflicts over policy approaches with [secretary of state] or N.S.C.,” the former State Department official explained. “Picking a far less experienced candidate, and one likely to defer to their authority, is likely something they’d be very happy with.” ...
Then, of course, there is the issue of whether Nauert can survive a Senate confirmation. Sources I spoke to on Capitol Hill stressed that any Haley replacement was always likely to face a contentious confirmation battle. (Dina Powell, the former deputy national security adviser who has maintained bipartisan support among lawmakers, could have been an exception to this, according to one Senate aide. But she quickly withdrew her name from consideration.) And Nauert’s flimsy diplomatic résumé will certainly be scrutinized in the upper chamber. In her role as acting undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Nauert was arguably provided the greatest opportunity to bolster her diplomatic skills, but sources I have spoken with say she has remained largely focused on serving as State Department spokesperson. One current State Department staffer familiar with the dynamics told me being spokesperson has remained her “first job” and that they “wouldn’t even think of her as an ‘R’”—the Foggy Bottom nomenclature for undersecretary. “She didn’t assume any of those responsibilities the same way others have,” they told me, but added, “No one could really be expected to do both” jobs effectively...
Moreover, in the Trump era, the position has become more complicated. “My real fear here is that, as demonstrated by [yesterday’s] vote in the U.N. general assembly, where all but Israel voted against us on Cuba, we are at a historic low when it comes to influence on the international stage,” Bruen said. “What is left to lose is the relationships, the confidence that America will return at some point to the traditions and to the allies that have counted on our leadership.”
03 Nov 2018, 5:01 am
