Safer at Home: Senate Lacks Votes to Confirm Eric Garcetti, Report Says

Outgoing Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti lacks the votes on the Senate floor to be confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to India, according to a report Sunday by Axios, which says Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has conceded defeat.

Garcetti was considered a long shot for the Cabinet after Black Lives Matter activists staged protests outside his home in Los Angeles after the 2020 election, demanding President-elect Joe Biden not include him among senior administration members.

The Black Lives Matter movement has long targeted Garcetti as a symbol of authority, though he has often gone to extremes to appease them, infamously cutting $150 million from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) during the 2020 riots.

At one point, when Garcetti was repeating Democratic Party rhetoric about “systemic racism” in the U.S., Breitbart News asked him to define the term. Garcetti’s tautological response was: “Systemic racism is racism that’s built into systems.”

Garcetti was re-elected by an overwhelming margin in 2017, despite public disapproval over his handling of the ongoing crisis of homelessness in the city. Crime has surged in the last few years; an ambassadorship offered a dignified exit.

But while Garcetti’s nomination sailed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he stumbled when Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) asked to place a hold on his nomination over allegations he overlooked sexual misconduct in his office.

His fellow Iowan, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, followed suit. The allegations concern former Garcetti aide Rick Jacobs, who has been accused of sexual harassment. Garcetti has said he did not know anything about it, but some victims disagree.

Axios.com reported Sunday in an article titled “Schumer admits defeat on Garcetti as India ambassador” (original emphasis):

Chuck Schumer’s team is privately acknowledging to Senate Democrats that Eric Garcetti doesn’t currently have 50 votes within their caucus to be confirmed as ambassador to India, congressional aides tell Axios.

Why it matters: The comments by the Senate majority leader’s office, delivered Wednesday through his legislative director during a call with other LDs, mean the Los Angeles mayor is unlikely to receive a floor vote any time soon. Garcetti was formally nominated eight months ago.

…

The comments were made before Axios reported Thursday that Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) had “concerns” about the allegations.

“Safer at home” was Garcetti’s slogan during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, when Los Angeles imposed severe lockdowns on local residents and businesses. It turned out that Garcetti, too, may be “safer at home” than in India, after all.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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