A nominee chosen by President Donald Trump for a top position within the State Department has withdrawn consideration after Sen. John Curtis said he would oppose his candidacy, all but ensuring he would not be approved by the Senate.
Jeremy Carl, Trump’s pick to be the assistant secretary of state for International Organizations, made official on Tuesday he would withdraw his nomination, noting he did not have the support needed to be confirmed by the Senate. Curtis announced he would vote against Carl’s nomination in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Deseret News first reported, putting his nomination in peril as all Democrats on the panel were expected to unanimously oppose.
“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 post on 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.”
Curtis made his decision after grilling Carl in a high-profile nomination hearing last month, during which the Utah senator pressed him on past comments in which Carl suggested the U.S. “spends too much time” on Israel.
Curtis specifically pointed to a podcast interview in which Carl suggested Jewish people focus too much on the Holocaust and failed to push back against the host’s suggestions that they have claimed “special victim status” because of it.
“Now, that was the host. But this was your response: ‘Right, right. Yeah. No, I mean, I think that’s true,’” Curtis said. “So, given that, when asked by other diplomats who do come with these agendas that you referred to in your remarks, how do you push back on that when you didn’t push back on that moderator?”
“Senator, first of all, thank you for the question. And I would have to review the podcast in question that you mentioned,” Carl responded. “ do a lot of podcasts that I’m not familiar with…”
“I gave you your exact words,” Curtis interjected.
“I’m sure that they’re accurate,” Carl responded. ‘I’m sure that they’re accurate.”
“So then trust me,” Curtis said, “those diplomats also know your exact words.”
Carl has similarly been criticized by Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who have said they would oppose his nomination based on other comments he has made on social media that they deemed racist or antisemitic. Carl has since deleted nearly 5,000 social media posts since before his nomination, according to CNN.