Eric Garcetti ‘Unfit’ To Become US Ambassador To India, Ex-Employee Seligman Says Ahead Of Senate Vote

In an interview to CNN, Naomi Seligman, Garcetti's former director of communications, said White House has put 'undue pressure' on Democrats to vote for him to confirm his nomination as next India envoy to India.

New Delhi: Just hours before the US Senate floor voting that may see the confirmation of Eric Garcetti, the former Mayor of Los Angeles, coming to India as the next US envoy, his former communications director Naomi Seligman said he is “unfit” to become ambassador or hold any public office. In a tell-all interview to CNN that was aired Monday, Seligman said the White House had put “undue pressure” on the Democrats to vote for Garcetti in order to confirm his nomination as the US’ next envoy to New Delhi.

US President Joe Biden had announced Garcetti’s name as the next Ambassador to India in July 2021. Garcetti is supposed to succeed former US envoy Kenneth Juster, who left the role in January 2021.

“Predators can only continue to abuse when you have a powerful enabler. And Eric Garcetti is a very powerful enabler. And he is about to become more powerful. We have a situation where he would oversee 2,000 or more employees and he has not shown the judgment. He is unfit to become Ambassador or really to hold public office anywhere in this country or this world. I am scared for the people that will be under him and around him,” Seligman told CNN’s Jake Tapper on his show ‘The Lead’.

She later tweeted: “Sexual abuse enablers do not belong in public office. Senators, please vote your values.” 

Not only was Garcetti’s nomination as the Ambassador to India been stuck since July 2021, he also failed to make it to Biden’s cabinet owing to an ongoing sexual harassment case against one of his former aides and top advisor Rick Jacobs that stalled his ambassadorial post also. 

Talking about her time while working for Garcetti, Seligman said: “We were in a work environment where sexual harassment and abuse was tolerated, enabled and ubiquitous. It was as common as checking your texts ... It was a very hard, disappointing and toxic environment where Mayor Garcetti enabled, tolerated and at times laughed about the abuse by his top aide and confidant, Rick Jacobs.”

In January 2023, the Biden administration re-nominated Garcetti — considered to be the US President’s close aides — as Washington’s envoy to New Delhi. Last week, the US Senate’s foreign relations committee voted in his favour making it easier for him to assume the new role.

"Unfortunately the White House has put undue pressure on Democrats to vote for Eric Garcetti because Eric Garcetti has been a very, very loyal person to President Biden. And that’s unfortunate because these senators that purport to support me too cannot just do it when it’s politically expedient. They have to do it when it matters, even if it’s your own political party,” said Seligman.

Garcetti has already denied all allegations. He has even told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he never saw Jacobs sexually harass people. Garcetti will now have to secure 51 votes on the US Senate floor this Wednesday, out of the 100 members there, to confirm his position.

Meanwhile, after assuming office in January 2021, the Biden administration has appointed six Chargé d’Affaires for its Embassy in India — Don Heflin, Edgard Kagan, Daniel Smith, Atul Keshap, Patricia A. Lacina and Elizabeth Jones (present) — who have been effectively handling all difficult issues from the pandemic to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war while also bolstering India-US bilateral ties.