Linda Thomas-Greenfield confirmed as UN ambassador

The Senate voted to confirm Linda Thomas-Greenfield for the position of ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday.

The veteran diplomat was confirmed 78-20. Thomas-Greenfield was former President Barack Obama’s assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 2013 to 2017 and former President George W. Bush’s ambassador to Liberia in 2008. She stayed in the latter role under Obama until 2012, when she became his director general of the foreign service, rising quickly through the State Department’s ranks.

BIDEN TO TAP LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD AS HIS UNITED NATIONS AMBASSADOR

While her nomination was not considered particularly controversial, she did have to contend with questions from Republicans over a paid speech she gave in 2019 before the Savannah State University branch of the Chinese state-funded Confucius Institute during her confirmation hearings, which she called “a huge mistake.”

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“Truthfully, I wish I had not accepted the specific invitation, and I came across from the experience frankly alarmed at the way the Confucius Institutes were engaging with the black community in Georgia,” she said. “It reminded me of what I’d seen in Africa: The Chinese government going after those in need with fewer resources.”

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