United States Republican Senator Chuck Grassley accused President Joe Biden's nominee for the country's ambassador to India Eric Garcetti of being engaged in "blatant sexual misconduct" and urged members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Monday to vote against him.
Taking to Twitter, Grassley said, "President Joe Biden's nomination Eric Garcetti to be ambassador to India is before foreign relations come this week I conducted a thorough investigation of the allegations against Garcetti irrespective of partisan politics."
"The evidence is clear that Jacobs (Garcetti's deputy chief of staff) engaged in blatant sexual misconduct and racist behaviour for years. The evidence is clear that Mayor Garcetti either had direct knowledge of it or chose willful ignorance as a defence," he added.
The influential Republican senator urged the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to vote against the nomination of Eric Garcetti and said, "The facts and the evidence compel me to oppose the Garcetti nomination and I hope my colleagues will join me in doing the same."
In the previous Congress, Grassley was primarily responsible for Garcetti's nomination not passing through the Senate as he placed a hold on it and then carried out his own investigations.
In the first week of January, Garcetti was re-nominated as US envoy to India. White House Press Secretary reiterated that the Democrats will continue to seek the confirmation of Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was unanimously and bipartisanly voted out of committee, to serve as Ambassador to India.
Last year, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmed the nomination of Garcetti to be the US Ambassador to India. However, the nomination needed to be confirmed by a majority of the US Senate.
Jean-Pierre also called the nomination of the Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti as well-qualified and meritorious to serve in the role.
"So we see this as he is well qualified, meritorious to serve in this vital role, and we're hopeful that the full Senate will confirm him properly. Again, he was voted out of committee and unanimously with strong bipartisan support," the White House Press Secretary said in a statement.
( With inputs from ANI )
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