Biden Will Nominate LA Mayor Eric Garcetti as Ambassador to India

Biden Will Nominate LA Mayor Eric Garcetti as Ambassador to India

The last few times the Legal Insurrection team covered Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, we called for his resignation over the appalling homelessness crisis and reviewed his harsh COVOD-restrictions.

However, incompetence and thuggish behaviors are Democratic Party qualifications. This could explain why Biden wants Garcetti to serve as ambassador to India, one of our foremost allies.

Garcetti, a close Biden ally who served as co-chair for the president’s 2020 campaign, had been considered for a cabinet position, but a sexual harassment lawsuit against one of his aides may have lessened his chances, Axios reported Tuesday.

In December, Garcetti said he turned down a potential position at the White House because of the coronavirus crisis.

“As the administration reached out to me about serving,” he said, “I let them know early this week that my city needs me now, and that I want to be here, and that I need to be here.”

Perhaps this is India’s punishment for its explicit support for President Donald Trump?

The Senate would have to approve Garcetti’s appointment. The mayor had previously indicated that he had no interest in a position within the administration.

If needed, the City Council would temporarily fill Garcetti’s seat through an appointment.

Garcetti’s departure could set off a special election or the Los Angeles City Council could appoint someone to temporarily fill the seat. His term runs until December 2022.

Five months ago, Garcetti announced that he had decided not to take an unspecified job in the Biden administration, saying there was “no task more urgent” than remaining as mayor during the peak of the pandemic.

Now, he hasn’t publicly ruled out the idea of going to India.

Garcetti was elected mayor in 2013 and reelected in 2017. He is serving a longer second term — of 5½ years, as opposed to four — because voters in 2015 backed a one-time change in the city’s election dates.

Political analysts speculate that Garcetti will make the move so he can jump-start a more national-level career upon his return. He has a track record that is full of fail.

If confirmed, Garcetti, 50, will be leaving behind a thorny legacy in a megacity facing a confluence of challenges: a warming climate, congestion and air pollution, a housing crisis, gentrification battles and some of the worst economic inequality in America.

…“LA is facing some serious problems, and I think he understands that this isn’t a record that he is going to want for the rest of his career,” said Jessica Levinson, a Loyola law professor. “It is hard to run for higher office when your most recent resume line is mayor of LA. He’s made the calculation that … he has to enter the national or international stage before he comes back home to try [to] move up the political ladder.”

Garcetti, the son of a former LA district attorney, served as a city councilman before being elected mayor in 2013 on a “back to basics” platform of increasing jobs and fixing city streets. He had initially considered a 2020 White House run and later joined the Biden campaign as a co-chair. When it was rumored last year that he was under consideration for a cabinet position (possibly transportation or housing secretary), Black Lives Matter LA and other activist groups began holding loud, daily protests outside Getty House, the mayor’s residence, urging Biden not to pick a “self-seeking mayor for a cabinet position in which he is completely unqualified”.

I continue to pray most earnestly that India begins recovering from its COVID-19 surge. Fortunately, the good news is the case numbers there are now plunging.

Now I have another reason to pray for that nation.

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