Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Thursday released an ad slamming politicians for rewarding big donors with ambassadorships, despite the fact that she supported the big donors former President Obama nominated, many of whom had no experience.
Warren answered a question about the ongoing partisan impeachment hearing during Wednesday evening’s Democrat debate and mentioned Ambassador Gordon Sondland – a key witness of the Democrats who testified that Trump told him, “I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo” – and contended he landed his position due to his status as a big donor.
She said:
But I want to add one more part based on today’s testimony, and that is, how did Ambassador Sondland get there? You know, this is not a man who had any qualifications, except one: He wrote a check for a million dollars. And that tells us about what’s happening in Washington, the corruption, how money buys its way into Washington. You know, I raised this months ago about the whole notion that donors think they’re going to get ambassadorships on the other side. And I’ve taken a pledge. Anyone who wants to give me a big donation, don’t ask to be an ambassador, because I’m not going to have that happen. I asked everyone who’s running for president to join me in that and not a single person has so far. I hope what we saw today during the testimony means lots of people will sign on and say we are not going to give away these ambassador posts to the highest bidder.
She also released an ad, reiterating the point she made during the debate. Warren states in the ad:
At the center of Donald Trump’s crimes and chaos is the millionaire donor he made an ambassador Republicans and Democrats have been rewarding big donors with cushy ambassadorships like this for years.
It’s Washington corruption at its worst. When I’m president, that stops. I’m the only candidate running who’s made this promise. I’ll never give ambassadorships to unqualified donors just because they wrote me fat checks.
However, Warren did not seem to take issue with the concept during Obama’s tenure, confirming his nominees who held no diplomatic experience. One of those nominees included Hollywood producer Colleen Bell, whose experience amounted to raising $2 million for Obama’s campaigns. Despite that, he nominated her to be the ambassador to Hungary.
“During her confirmation hearing, Bell failed to name a single strategic interest the United States has in Hungary,” as the Washington Free Beacon reported. Nevertheless, Warren confirmed her.
More via Free Beacon:
Warren was a senator, for example, when Obama nominated Noah Bryson Mamet to be U.S. ambassador to Argentina—Mamet was a political operative with no diplomatic experience who raised millions of dollars for Obama’s presidential campaigns. It was revealed during Mamet’s confirmation hearing that he had never been to Argentina.
Warren voted to confirm Mamet, who passed through the Senate with 50 votes and none from Republicans.
…
Warren also voted to confirm Crystal Nix-Hines, who wrote scripts for ABC’s Alias and raised over $1 million for Obama, to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
An analysis by the Center for Public Integrity found that Obama rewarded 31 of his campaign bundlers with ambassador posts during his second term. Another 39 ambassador nominees “either gave him campaign money or are known political allies.”
Warren has yet to publicly address the reasoning behind her previous votes that directly contradict the position she outlines in her presidential platform.
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