Democrat Sen. Chris Coons pledged to press for a floor vote for German Ambassador nominee Richard Grenell and other nominees to 25 critical nations that have languished for months without a confirmation vote.
Former U.S. spokesman to the United Nations Grenell was nominated in September for the German ambassadorship, but the Senate has deliberately blocked many of Trump’s nominees even though they are needed for crucial diplomacy in many cases.
“The vacancy in Germany has gone on just far too long,” Coons said on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show. “I’ll be glad to press for Grenell to get a vote, because we shouldn’t have a country as significant as Germany, we shouldn’t have any country without an ambassador, but that’s a major European power.”
Having recently traveled overseas, Coons said he saw firsthand the difference an ambassador can make in a diplomatic relationship.
“The world of diplomacy is one that really follows sort of rank order, chain of command — and in the absence of an ambassador, some places in the world, we really can’t have the impact we need to,” Coons told Hewitt.
The White House has been highlighting a different ambassador that has not been confirmed before every press briefing in recent days, and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said 43 percent of Trump’s nominees have not been confirmed, a full 102 fewer than any previous administration.
Grenell has cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is widely supported by Republicans.
After a report that Germany is becoming more anti-Israel and considering selling chemical weapons technology to Iran, Trump supporters were alarmed and began attempts to get #ConfirmGrenell trending on Twitter, according to The Gateway Pundit.
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