As RedState reported, former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was finally confirmed to the position of Ambassador to India after a contentious battle in the US Senate. In an inexplicable move, seven Republican senators, including the likes of Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy, pushed Garcetti over the finish line, voting to confirm him.
Their move was especially egregious given that the failed mayor would not have had the votes otherwise, since three Democrat senators voted against him. Now, we are learning about the backroom pressure campaign that went on, and it’s not just a bad look for Republicans. It’s a bad look for the White House as well.
According to Punchbowl News (a DC insider outlet), Biden pursued a relentless campaign to strong-arm female senators into voting for Garcetti, who was recently caught up in a scandal involving his enabling of sexual abuse. Here’s RedState’s Jennifer Van Laar laying out the background on that situation.
Then we have at least five documented sexual assaults (yes, assault, as in unwanted sexual touching) by his Deputy Mayor, Rick Jacobs, against staffers in the LA mayor’s office, with lawsuits ongoing. Then, there’s the retaliation against people who finally called him and Rick Jacobs out, and the perjury Garcetti committed during an earlier Senate hearing when he said he knew nothing about Jacobs’ ongoing sexual assaults — after 19 (yes, 19!) whistleblowers testified.
That apparently didn’t bother Biden, though. The president was fully onboard with Garcetti’s nomination, and he was willing to boot the entire #metoo movement off a cliff to make it happen. So much for the “empathizer-in-chief” nonsense.
Much analysis on how Garcetti was finally confirmed.
Turns out @potus browbeat female senators to vote for a sexual abuse enabler.
Dem leaders pressured its members to support a guy who kept a predator in power for yrs and then tried to cover it all up.
Got it. @PunchbowlNews pic.twitter.com/uAkoTNBPDM
— Naomi Seligman (@naomiseligman) March 16, 2023
As bad as that looks, the question that no one seems to be asking is why Biden wanted Garcetti in that position so badly. We aren’t talking about a major cabinet position here, where you would expect a president to tie himself to a sexual abuse scandal. Ambassadorships are a dime a dozen and who fills those roles is largely irrelevant. How many names of ambassadors can you list? Not many, right? It is highly unusual for a president to go this hard for a troubled nominee for an ambassadorship, yet that’s what Biden did.
Again, why did he do that? We know that Garcetti’s wealthy family hired lobbyists to secure him the nomination. What did those lobbyists promise Biden in return for his unwavering support? The answer has to be something because otherwise none of this makes sense. That’s the big scandal here, that no one is talking about. Nothing is free in Washington.
Regardless, it is incredible to see the hypocrisy shown by Biden and the Democratic Party as a whole when it comes to those caught up in sexual abuse scandals. When it’s politically convenient, they’ll shout from the rooftops about believing all women and throw whoever is necessary under the bus. But when it’s not politically convenient, they’ll completely ignore all the facts on the ground and pretend like their past proclamations never happened.
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