On Wednesday, former LA
Mayor Eric Garcetti won confirmation in the
Senate as US Envoy to India by a vote of 52-42. The confirmation took 20 long
months.
Garcetti is a close ally of Joe Biden and even co-chaired his 2020
‘presidential campaign’, yet his appointment was held up following accusations
that he ignored serious accusations of sexual harassment against
his friend and adviser, Rick Jacobs when he was LA Mayor.
Garcetti, repeatedly and
vehemently denied the allegations while Jacobs branded the accusations
against him “pure fiction.”
Last
May, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released a report that
cited "numerous credible allegations from multiple whistle-blowers"
which concluded Garcetti “likely knew or should have known” about Jacobs
sexually harassing city employees.
According
to New York Magazine, four people who worked with both Garcetti and Jacobs claimed
that the mayor was aware of Jacobs' behavior.
Naomi
Seligman, Garcetti’s former communications director in the LA Mayor's
office, said on
Monday that Garcia turned a blind eye to sexual harassment and hence he “is
unfit to become an ambassador or really to hold public office anywhere in this
country or this world.”
There
was photo evidence as well.
In
November 2020, The LA Times published a group
photo that shows Jacobs placing his hand over a man’s crotch while Garcetti is
smiling with a thumbs-up sign separated by one person. It is
impossible that Garcetti didn’t notice this.
https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1633309790683402240?s=20
Journalist
Yashar Ali also accused Jacobs of unwanted advances and claimed that other victims
were harassed in front of Garcetti but he didn’t act against his confidante.
Garcetti’s
confirmation took so long that his nomination expired in January 2023,
Biden immediately renominated Garcetti
when could have picked another more suitable individual on moral grounds.
Biden,
like most Democrats, placed personal friendship over propriety.
In
the UK, Boris Johnson was forced to resign for doing something similar.
There
were many surprises during Garcetti’s confirmation voting.
Democrats
such as Mark Kelly of Arizona, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Mazie Hirono of
Hawaii broke party discipline to vote against him.
Surprisingly
or perhaps unsurprisingly seven Republican Senators voted to confirm Garcetti’s
appointment.
The
names of these Senators are:
· Bill Cassidy of Louisiana,
· Roger Marshall of Kansas,
· Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina,
· Steve Daines of Montana,
· Bill Hagerty of Tennessee,
· Todd Young of Indiana,
· Susan Collins of Maine.
This
more than compensated for the Democrat breakaways and enabled Biden to a victory.
The
allegations that Garcetti overlooked sexual harassment of his subordinates by an
ally raise serious concerns.
It shows
a lack of empathy toward the sufferings of another human being. It is
considerably worse if an individual looking the other way is in a position of
power and the victims are subordinates.
In
such situations, people of character don’t even hesitate to confront their
superiors to protect the vulnerable.
It is
true that self-serving politicians have no empathy toward those lower than them
on the hierarchical ladder. But this display is too blatant to be ignored.
In a
strange way, those who voted to confirm Garcetti may have done exactly what
Garcetti was accused of doing i.e. ignoring serious misconduct.
This
also displays Garcetti’s ‘club’ mentality - where insiders or cronies suffer no
consequences for unspeakable acts of cruelty while outsiders are severely
punished for accidentally taking a drawing pin home.
How
can such an individual be trusted to lead an important of the US Government
12000 kilometers away from D.C. in New Delhi, India?
Will
Garcetti confront corruption and wrongdoings by others at the US Embassy in
Delhi or will he join the club?
There
are other concerns as well.
The
Washington Free Beacon reported that Garcetti previously served
on the board of directors for an affiliate of the Asia Society, a nonprofit
group with links to Chinese companies and organizations that have pushed
Beijing-backed propaganda.
According
to a Daily Caller investigation, “a
mayoral fund set up by Garcetti nearly a decade ago received well over $1
million in donations during Garcetti’s tenure from two wealthy individuals tied
to alleged CCP influence and intelligence fronts.”
India
shares a border with China and there are frequent reports of Chinese incursion
over the Indo-Chinese border.
How can
Garcetti be trusted to be tough on China?
It is
also what Garcetti said during his confirmation that should have been disqualified.
Senator
Cardin (D-MD) cited a
Freedom House categorizing India as
Partly Free in 2023 to make claims of human rights being violated in India.
Freedom
House is the same organization that claimed “Trump
and Allies Tried to Subvert Democratic Elections on January 6th and
that accountability was needed”, clearly their claims do not need to be taken
seriously.
Cardin
added that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) enacted in India targeted
India’s Muslim population and asked Garcetti how he planned to handle it.
https://twitter.com/MeghUpdates/status/1635600639119220737
The CAA Act allows the fast-tracking
of Indian citizenship for Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, etc. from
Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.
Far-left
‘human rights’ groups claimed that this was discriminatory against Indian Muslims
and the NYT and WaPo amplified
these lies. There were violent demonstrations across India which the NYT
called protests. The violence continued during President Trump’s visit to India
in 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YtH0XT3trA
The CAA
act has no relation to existing Indian citizens, it merely allows the
fast-tracking of citizenship for persecuted non-Muslims from neighboring
Muslim-majority nations.
Muslims
are not included in these groups because they are a majority in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan and hence have
no reason to flee.
For
rare persecuted Muslims fleeing Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan there are
other ways to seek asylum and citizenship later.
Anybody
such as Garcetti who intends to become US Envoy to India should have known
these elementary facts and should have corrected Cardin’s false claim
But
instead, he not only accepted the premise and made some troubling pledges.
Garcetti
said that “there are groups that are actively fighting for the human rights of
people on the ground in India that will get direct engagement from me.”
Most
of these are far-left groups with links to political parties in India. Did
Garcetti realize that his engagement could be seen as interference in India’s
internal politics and national elections to be held in May 2024?
This
is the equivalent of an India Envoy being asked about ‘systemic racism’ in the
US during the tenure of a Republican President and the envoy pledging to engage
with ‘civil rights groups’ in the US a year prior to a Presidential election.
The
current group of Democrats wants to outlaw political opposition and are targeting citizens,
there is no reason to support them in any matter.
Garcetti’s
alleged conduct as LA Mayor and his support of spurious narratives against India
where he going to be based make him unworthy of confirmation.
It
was so bad that even fellow Democrats rejected him.
But
thanks to GOP Senators, Garcetti, and Biden secures a victory from the jaw of
certain defeat.
These GOP Senators have once again proven to be unreliable, untrustworthy, and unworthy allies to their base which is often worse than a sworn enemy
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