President Joe Biden tapped former Sen. Jeff Flake to be U.S. ambassador to Turkey, the Arizona Republican announced on Tuesday.
“Given the strategic importance of the United States’ relationship with our long-time NATO Ally, the Republic of Turkey, I am honored and humbled by the trust President Biden has placed in me with this ambassadorial nomination,” Flake first revealed in a post on the blog site Medium. “This is a pivotal post at an important time for both of our countries.”
The White House later confirmed the ambassadorship pick in a news release.
Flake served six terms representing Arizona’s 6th Congressional District beginning in 2001. He was then elected to the Senate in 2012, in which he worked on the Foreign Relations Committee, and served one term alongside the late Arizona Sen. John McCain.
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“Having served in both the U.S. House and Senate, I understand and appreciate the role Congress plays in U.S. foreign policy, and I look forward to that partnership,” Flake wrote.
Following former President Donald Trump’s election in 2016, Flake established himself as a distinctly Trump-critical voice inside the GOP and frequently urged Republicans and Democrats to try harder at working together, something he reiterated Tuesday.
“With this nomination, the Biden Administration reaffirms the best tradition of American foreign policy and diplomacy: the credo that partisan politics should stop at the water’s edge,” he added. “U.S. foreign policy can and should be bipartisan. That is my belief as well, and my commitment.”
Flake, who is a current distinguished fellow at both Arizona State University and Brigham Young University, has continued his criticism of Trump beyond the expiration of his Senate term in 2019 and endorsed Biden in 2020, whom he called “more conservative” than Trump. He was subsequently censured by the Arizona GOP for throwing his support behind Biden.
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News of Flake’s nomination, which must be approved by the Senate, follows the recent nomination of another notable Arizonan, Cindy McCain, widow of John McCain, to be ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture. McCain also endorsed Biden, who was a close friend of her late husband and was also censured by the state party.
