Senate confirms Eric Garcetti to be ambassador to India
By Clare Foran, Lauren Fox, Ali Zaslav and Ted Barrett, CNN
The Senate on Wednesday confirmed President Joe Biden’s nomination of Eric Garcetti to be ambassador to India after he had faced pushback from some Democrats.
The final vote was 52 to 42. Seven Republicans voted in favor of the nomination: Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Susan Collins of Maine, Steve Daines of Montana, Todd Young of Indiana, Roger Marshall of Kansas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. Three Democrats voted in opposition: Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Mark Kelly of Arizona.
The chamber voted earlier in the day to break a filibuster on the former Los Angeles mayor’s nomination, advancing it to a final confirmation vote.
CNN reported last year that a number of Senate Democrats had privately expressed concerns over the nomination, which faced headwinds as a result of accusations that he had ignored alleged sexual harassment and bullying by one of his former senior aides. Garcetti has repeatedly denied the allegations that he ignored the alleged harassment.
As some Democrats signaled they needed more time to vet the nomination and reach a determination on whether to support it, the nomination stalled. Biden originally announced his intent to nominate Garcetti to the post in 2021.
But in a sign of forward momentum, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted last week to advance the nomination. The vote was 13-8 and two Republicans — Sens. Todd Young of Indiana and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee — voted with Democrats to support the nominee.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat who had been seen as a key holdout on the nomination, told CNN last Thursday that she will back Garcetti. Gillibrand said she is confident in the review by the Foreign Relations Committee.
Democratic senators explain their votes
Hirono said she voted against Garcetti’s confirmation to be ambassador to India after being provided “credible information given to me in confidence” this week related to him.
Asked repeatedly if it dealt with accusations Garcetti did not properly handle allegations of sexual harassment made against a former aide, Hirono would not say yes or no.
Another Democratic senator who voted against the nominee was Brown, who is up for reelection in Ohio.
He said his concerns were not related to the accusations over sexual harassment, but complained the former Los Angeles mayor didn’t have the right diplomatic credentials for the important post.
“I think there are better nominees that had more experience and expertise in a country set to be the biggest democracy in the world, so I just thought we could have done better,” Brown said, adding his staff was “unanimous” in their concerns about Garcetti’s “qualifications.”
One Republican who voted to put Garcetti in the post was Graham, who said he looked into the workplace issue and believes Garcetti’s denial of claims that he knew something happened.
“I’m confident about him not being involved, not knowing,” Graham said.
Senate Foreign Relations committee chairman Bob Menendez, a Democrat, told CNN’s Manu Raju that he is satisfied with Garcetti’s denials.
“There’s a lot of review of his file, reviews of witnesses, and the bottom line, not only does he deny it, but other witnesses deny that in fact he had any knowledge,” said Menendez.
“We take it seriously, we did a lot of vetting, and at the end of the day, it’s a question as to how do you determine the veracity of the complaint. And when you weigh it all, the committee, on a bipartisan vote, voted” to advance his nomination.
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.
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CNN’s Kristin Wilson, Manu Raju and Nicky Robertson contributed to this report.
