President Donald Trump’s pick for a senior State Department role, Jeremy Carl, withdrew his nomination Tuesday following a contentious Senate hearing in which he was accused of making racist comments.
“Unfortunately, for senior positions such as this one, the support of the President and Secretary of State is very important but not sufficient,” Carl said in a lengthy post to X. “We also needed the unanimous support of every GOP Senator on the Committee on Foreign Relations, given the unanimous opposition of Senate Democrats to my candidacy, and unfortunately, at this time this unanimous support was not forthcoming.”
Carl, a conservative political commentator who was being considered for the role of assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, faced a difficult Senate hearing last month. Members repeatedly pressed him for an explanation of previous comments in which he promoted policies to protect “white identity.”