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A Republican Senate duo is trying to block President Joe Biden’s ambassador nominations, but new research suggests the concern with Biden’s ambassador appointments could run deeper than the duo’s ideological issues. Some appointees might be making up for a shortage of diplomatic experience with a history of campaign donations, according a Campaign Legal Center report.
Sens. J.D. Vance and Rand Paul are slowing down the confirmation process for Biden’s nominees, as The Wall Street Journal reports. Vance, an Ohio Republican, criticized one nominee for “progressive social policy,” though he said his opposition to the 30 nominees is particular to each individual rather than due to one broad reason.
Paul plans to hold up proceedings until the State Department releases records about U.S. government-funded virus research. The Kentucky Republican has alleged that the U.S. was involved with the origins of COVID-19.
Researchers from the CLC found different concerns about Biden’s ambassador picks. They detailed a “donor-to-ambassador pipeline” and facts that “create a perception that some nominations are a reward for political contributions” in their study of the Biden administration released in late May.
The president is responsible for nominating U.S. ambassadors, roles that normally go to career members of the foreign service, but they can go to non-career, “political” nominees when circumstances warrant it, according to federal law.
Vance and Paul have mostly targeted career nominees with experience in the foreign service. The CLC’s findings focus instead on Biden’s 61 political appointments.
Biden promised that “nobody, in fact, will be appointed by me based on anything they contributed,” while on the campaign trail in 2019.
The Biden White House’s press office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“Thirty percent to 40% of ambassadorships are not really given to career diplomats, from Reagan to Biden. It’s not a new practice. Of course, it’s a bipartisan practice. But we were hoping that given the campaign promises to stop these types of appointments that we’d see less in the Biden administration, and in fact, we haven’t,” Delaney Marsco, co-author of the CLC report, told MarketWatch.
On average, Biden’s political ambassadors contributed $409,291, either individually or with their spouse, to Democratic committees in the 10 years before their nomination. Many nominees or their spouses also “bundled” — or fundraised by collecting contributions from others which they delivered in bundles — at least $100,000 for Biden’s 2020 campaign.
The CLC, a nonpartisan watchdog group, highlighted 12 of Biden’s political ambassadors, how much they contributed to Democratic committees in the 10 years before their nomination, and whether they bundled for the Biden campaign. That’s shown below.
| Country | Ambassador | Amount Donated | Amount Bundled | Background |
| Switzerland and Liechtenstein | Scott Miller | $3,324,160.00 | $100,000+ | Investment banker |
| Iceland | Carrin Patman | $2,663,402.34 | $100,000+ | Attorney |
| Malta | Constance Milstein | $2,151,200 | N/A | Real estate executive |
| Canada | David L. Cohen | $1,350,361.13 | $100,000+ | Comcast executive |
| Greece | George Tsunis | $1,297,060 | N/A | Hotel company CEO |
| Kenya | Meg Whitman | $1,055,500.00 | N/A | CEO, eBay and HP, Republican politician |
| United Kingdom | Jane Hartley | $975,160.00 | $100,000+ | CEO of a political and economic advisory firm |
| Slovenia | Jamie Harpootlian | $949,566.00 | $100,000+ | Attorney |
| Denmark | Alan Leventhal | $920,950.00 | $100,000+ | Chairman and CEO of real estate corporation |
| Portugal | Randi Charno Levine | $862,331.60 | $100,000+ | Art curator |
| Argentina | Marc Stanley | $575,484.26 | $100,000+ | Attorney |
| Sweden | Erik Ramanthan | $181,756.60 | $100,000+ | Biotechnology executive |
Campaign contributions from political ambassadors are increasing as levels of qualifications for the role are decreasing, the CLC said.
U.S. law provides criteria for ambassador nominees, including “a useful knowledge of the principal language or dialect of the country in which the individual is to serve, and knowledge and understanding of the history, the culture, the economic and political institutions, and the interests of that country and its people.”
Twenty of Biden’s political ambassadors lack an understanding of the principal languages of the countries they serve, and nine of the 12 highlighted ambassadors have no demonstrated ties to the country they serve, the CLC report found.
The watchdog group said the facts do not suggest campaign money was donated in exchange for or because of promises of ambassador appointments, but co-author Marsco said the data “gives the appearance that these positions are for sale. And maybe that’s not the case, but just what the public can see. It certainly looks like that.”
Wealth or a history of donations does not mean a person is incompetent to serve as an ambassador, but “oftentimes these people turn out to be not the best fit for the job that they’re supposed to be performing,” Marsco said.
“Foreign policy runs through these ambassadors. When things go down in a foreign country, the ambassador is the person on the ground. In a crisis they’re doing negotiations or just kind of building goodwill with the government of the country that they’re appointed to serve. It’s important that we have skilled people in those positions,” Marsco said.
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