It was on October 9, 2018, that President Donald Trump made the announcement that ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley was resigning from her post at the end of the year. Two months later, in early December, it seemed that the president had made a decision as to who would replace her. The name being thrown around was that of State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert.
Even two months on from that, and with Haley firmly out of the way, there has been no official nomination of Nauert, and no date set for it to happen anytime soon either. CNN reports that not only does nothing seem to be happening on the administration’s side, but Nauert herself also seems to have disappeared from the public eye.
This disappearance extends to her not fulfilling her role as spokesperson for U.S. foreign policy, a position she still holds. But even there she has not been seen speaking from behind the podium since November.
At the moment it doesn’t appear as if there is any opposition to her nomination, so the lack of urgency is perplexing. This despite the fact that she’s an unusual person for the job given that she is lacking somewhat in diplomatic experience.
After nearly 2 months, there’s no sign of urgency to confirm President Trump’s pick to replace Nikki Haley as the next US ambassador to the United Nations https://t.co/eBPq0OBddY
— CNN (@CNN) January 29, 2019
According to officials in the know, Nauert’s sudden disappearance from public life is due to her “working hard prepping for her confirmation hearing.”
At the time her name was first floated for the position, Democrats questioned where she would be able to do the job with zero diplomatic experience.
“I’ll be happy to hear why she thinks she’s qualified,” said Senator Bob Menendez, ranking member at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “She has no foreign policy experience that I can deduce, and being a spokesperson is different than being the chief diplomat of the United States at a world body like the UN.”
Prior to her position as the State Department spokesperson, Nauert was a news anchor at Fox News. She only started working in government in 2017. She has held her role in the State Department for a year and a half prior to Trump touting her for the role of ambassador to the UN.
Despite the concerns over her inexperience, many of her supporters spoke of her “practice in messaging the administration’s foreign policy for nearly two years under Secretary Rex Tillerson and now Mike Pompeo” as a reason she is worthy of the job.
