With lower than a month to go earlier than he leaves workplace, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is urgent his effort to get the U.S. Senate to verify his appointment as ambassador to India, a fraught marketing campaign sophisticated by a Republican senator whose workplace is making an attempt to resume doubts about whether or not the mayor and his workers mishandled sexual harassment allegations in opposition to a high aide.
It has been greater than 16 months since President Biden nominated Garcetti because the U.S. consultant to the world’s largest democracy. A vote on the appointment has by no means been scheduled, as Garcetti and his allies pressure to succeed in the 50 votes wanted for approval.
L.A.’s mayor has waited far longer for affirmation — almost 500 days — than all others whom Biden has designated to be ambassadors, in line with the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service.
“In some unspecified time in the future, they should get this resolved, as a result of our effectiveness on the world stage is being harmed,” mentioned Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service. “It’s a nasty sign to India in that it diminishes the sense of recognition of their significance.”
The White Home has continued to specific help for Garcetti, who backed the previous vice chairman when he appeared a protracted shot for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
Garcetti and his group have targeted on profitable some Republican votes, after a minimum of just a few Democratic senators, together with Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, indicated considerations in regards to the harassment allegations. In an interview final week, Garcetti mentioned his nomination has bipartisan help, although he declined to debate the senators he has spoken to.
“This India-U.S. relationship is vital,” Garcetti mentioned as he rode in a Veterans Day parade in Pacoima. “So I’m optimistic as a result of lots of people mentioned, ‘Wait until after the election.’ We are able to deal with it now and I’m optimistic we’ll get it scheduled and get it performed. I’m able to serve.”
The White Home and Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer will decide whether or not and when to name a vote on the India nomination. With a crush of extra urgent enterprise dealing with Congress — together with elevating the debt ceiling to maintain the federal government functioning — the Garcetti vote might be postpone till subsequent 12 months.
A Senate runoff election in Georgia may give the Democrats a 51st senator, probably offering yet another pro-Garcetti vote.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) has positioned a maintain on Garcetti’s nomination. In a short interview this week, she expressed doubt that the mayor would get confirmed within the lame-duck session. Requested if she believed that he would ever get confirmed, Ernst mentioned, “Perhaps not.”
A staffer for one Democratic senator agreed that Garcetti’s path to approval seems murky, together with his boss remaining on the fence in regards to the Garcetti nomination and never anxious for the matter to come back to a vote.
“It’s very analogous to when a home has been in the marketplace for 2 years. You say to your self, ‘There have to be one thing fallacious with this home,’ ” mentioned the staffer, who requested to stay nameless due to the sensitivity of the nomination course of. “I simply don’t see an upside for anybody, pushing this vote forward.”
However White Home Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre advised reporters in early November that the Biden administration would “proceed to hunt the expeditious affirmation of Mayor Garcetti,” including: “That’s essential to this president, a precedence to this president.”
Garcetti has been stymied, a minimum of partially, by Ernst’s fellow Iowa Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley, whose workers has targeted on allegations that the mayor ignored allegations {that a} former high aide, Rick Jacobs, sexually harassed others within the mayor’s workplace.
In a report it issued in Might, Grassley’s workplace contended that allegations of sexual harassment in opposition to Jacobs, a former deputy mayor, had been “pervasive, widespread and infamous.” It additionally concluded that it was “extra doubtless than not that Mayor Garcetti both had private information of the sexual harassment or ought to have been conscious of it.”
Grassley’s workers has continued to pursue details about the controversy. A spokesman for Grassley confirmed that the senator’s investigators obtained info final week about two new people who alleged inappropriate conduct by Jacobs.
One of many males, a longtime civic activist in L.A., mentioned in an interview with The Occasions that he spoke final week to 2 Grassley staffers, telling them that Jacobs greeted him on a minimum of eight events in an inappropriate approach — forcibly kissing him on the mouth whereas additionally normally grabbing his buttocks.
The activist mentioned the conduct occurred when he met with Jacobs on municipal enterprise and at vacation events that Jacobs held at his dwelling. Within the final of the situations, Jacobs “squeezed” his buttocks when he met the Garcetti aide at his Metropolis Corridor workplace.
All the opposite unwelcome greetings occurred earlier than Jacobs joined the mayor’s workplace, the person mentioned. He mentioned he didn’t recall an occasion when Garcetti witnessed the conduct. He mentioned he advised his spouse in regards to the encounters, and he or she confirmed in a separate interview with The Occasions that her husband had complained about Jacobs.
The person, who can be a Democratic Celebration operative, mentioned he didn’t wish to be recognized as a result of he feared Garcetti or his allies may disparage him in L.A.’s insular political circles. He mentioned he by no means complained to Garcetti or his aides for a similar purpose, and since he apprehensive that he would seem homophobic.
When Grassley’s workplace contacted him final week, the person mentioned he agreed to inform his story as a result of he believed that Jacobs’ conduct appeared so brazen and routine that he thought Garcetti should have identified about it.
Grassley’s staffers additionally confirmed that they’re reviewing the deposition of one other man who complained about Jacobs. In testimony given final month and reviewed by The Occasions, Paul Kadzielski, a former member of the mayor’s communications group, mentioned Jacobs hugged him and infrequently touched or massaged his shoulders over a interval of a number of years.
The deposition was taken as a part of a lawsuit introduced in opposition to the town by Matt Garza, an LAPD officer who alleges that Jacobs touched him and made crude remarks, generally in entrance of Garcetti.
Kadzielski complained that Jacobs advised him he regarded “robust” or “good-looking.” He additionally testified that Jacobs additionally made racially inappropriate and sexually inappropriate feedback — conduct so widespread that it was an everyday matter of dialog amongst Garcetti’s communications group.
Kadzielski, who labored in Garcetti’s workplace from 2015 to 2020, testified that Jacobs stopped repeatedly touching him after Kadzielski advised him that his conduct made him really feel uncomfortable.
Requested if Jacobs ever hugged or massaged him in entrance of Garcetti, Kadzielski testified, “I can’t recall a selected occasion.”
Kadzielski didn’t reply to a request for remark from The Occasions.
Just like some others who’ve testified, Kadzielski mentioned he had handed on his considerations about Jacobs to superiors within the mayor’s workplace, however that nothing occurred. Garcetti’s representatives have used the brand new testimony to argue the mayor couldn’t have fastened what he was not advised about. Others have rejected that notion, saying Jacobs’ misbehavior was so routine the mayor needed to know.
Jacobs has denied harassing anybody however mentioned in deposition testimony that he could have hugged the officer. He additionally has mentioned he could have made sexual jokes in entrance of the mayor’s safety element.
An lawyer for Jacobs didn’t reply to requests for remark in regards to the two new claims of inappropriate conduct.
Garcetti mentioned the topic of the sexual harassment allegations has not dominated his many Zoom, cellphone and in-person conferences with senators.
“I’ve been clear, I feel, and I feel that the proof is crystal clear too,” Garcetti mentioned, that he didn’t find out about Jacobs’ purported misbehavior. “The conversations [with senators] actually revolve round India and the strategic second that we’re residing by and my {qualifications}. I haven’t had a single dialog that hasn’t ended positively.”
Garcetti owed his optimism partly to Biden’s persevering with loyalty. “The president spoke to me personally,” Garcetti mentioned. “He mentioned, ‘Let’s get this performed. Let’s get you over there.’ ”
Taylor Foy, a consultant for Grassley, mentioned this week that the 2 further accounts of Jacobs’ conduct “increase extra questions” in regards to the accuracy of a report — commissioned by the town lawyer’s workplace and accomplished by lawyer Leslie Ellis — that discovered Garcetti, Jacobs and others had performed nothing fallacious.
Grassley intends to vote in opposition to Garcetti’s nomination if it involves a vote within the full Senate, Foy mentioned.
The White Home has portrayed Grassley’s report on Jacobs as a “hit job” and said that the claims “have already been conclusively debunked” by the Ellis report and different info.
Garcetti’s dad and mom, Gil and Sukey Garcetti, proceed to pay a lobbying agency to push their son’s nomination. The agency, McGuireWoods, has reported receiving $60,000 for the work, which the mayor mentioned he accepts, perceiving it as an indication of his dad and mom’ love.
Requested if he has a backup plan in case the Senate doesn’t approve his transfer to Delhi, Garcetti smiled and replied: “No. I plan on getting confirmed.”
Occasions workers author Nolan McCaskill, in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
