“She has no experience as a diplomat. She has no meaningful experience in the government.”
Are we headed for a confirmation battle here? Probably not, but when the news broke last night that Nauert was Trump’s pick it occurred to me that she’d be DOA in a Democratic-run Senate. Not so Bill Barr (I think). He’d be put through the wringer during his confirmation hearing over Russiagate and his views of executive power but he’s well-regarded as a lawyer and former AG and would be able to point to his Bush 41 pedigree as evidence of his independence from Trump. I think he’d be confirmed even by Schumer’s caucus.
Nauert would not be. Lack of diplomatic experience is bad but maybe not fatal. Nikki Haley had no diplomatic experience when she got the job, remember. Lack of any government experience beyond a spokesman role, which she’s had for all of 18 months at State, is worse. But maybe that wouldn’t have been fatal either. In a populist age, a thin resume in public service isn’t disqualifying; Trump got elected without it, Rex Tillerson got confirmed as Secretary of State without it. Tillerson, though, had traveled widely and met with the highest foreign officials in his role as head of Exxon. Nauert doesn’t have anything like that to her record. She doesn’t even have the sort of academic/think-tank credentials that the Susan Rices and Samantha Powers of the world can point to as proof that they, ahem, know what they’re talking about on foreign policy.
That’s a thin resume even by the standards of thin resumes. And to top it off, Nauert is known to the public mainly for the years she’s spent at the left’s least favorite media organization, a network that now devotes most of its time to cheerleading for their least favorite politician.
