President Trump’s nominee for the role of United Nations ambassador once played herself in three episodes of espionage drama “24″ that featured counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer.
But skeptics of former Fox News host and current State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert’s qualifications for the job might want to refer to her response 18 years ago when she was asked why anyone should care what she said: “My belief is, honey, let me show you what I can do.”
Nauert, 48, continued her rapid ascent in the world of foreign policy Friday by being named by President Trump as a successor to Nikki Haley at Turtle Bay, just 20 months after she left broadcast television for the Trump administration.
Now that she is poised to represent the U.S. government at the U.N., Democrats criticized Trump for advancing someone with too little experience and said it was a gift to a loyal official, not a pick that reflects her ability to do the job.
“Her experience as a TV personality in no way equips her to be U.N. ambassador during such serious times,” tweeted New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, a senior Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Heritage Foundation Vice President James Jay Carafano, who advised Trump’s transition team for the State Department, begged to differ, saying she was well-equipped for a position that was chiefly advocating for, rather than shaping, U.S. foreign policy.
“Speaking on a big public stage, nobody can argue that Heather can’t do that,” he said, invoking her TV and State Department experience. “I think that’s probably a good part of the reason why she got the job: She’s a good spokeswoman; she understands the issues.”
Arguably, he said, she was better fitted for the role than Haley, who had been governor of South Carolina and became, in the view of many conservatives, one of the stars of the Trump administration. “She’s been in the belly of the beast in the State Department for two years,” Carafano said. “Let’s be honest: She’s had more background and preparation than Nikki Haley had for that.”
Michael McFaul, who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia under then-President Barack Obama, hailed her tenure at the State Department: “Heather Nauert has been a spokeswoman,” McFaul tweeted. “That job is to read talking points and explain policy. UN Ambassador, however, is very different job, usually requiring foreign policy and/or diplomatic expertise.”
Nauert has confronted skepticism about her qualifications throughout her career. “Who the heck is Heather Nauert?” The Washington Post asked in May 2000. “Why, other than looking like the younger sister of another Heather [Locklear], is she on TV at all? From what well of life-shaping experiences do our anointed dispensers of video wisdom draw their opinions?”
Nauert defended herself: “It’s more interesting to see a young person talking about issues than a big old fat white guy.”
Tony Snow, one of her mentors who, a host of Fox News Sunday and later a White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, said he had warned her that, in the “blonde wasteland” of cable news, “there are a lot of gorgeous people with only one thing to say who vanish from the scene.”
That wasn’t Nauert’s fate. She made her first foray into the television industry as a country music show host while interning in 1992. In 1995, she landed a spot on a talk show on the now-defunct conservative cable network National Empowerment TV and distinguished herself for “speak[ing] to a variety of issues passionately” without alienating adversaries, as her boss at the time put it.
“She wasn’t so strident that she turned people away,” Brian Jones, general manager of the network, told the Post in 2000. “A lot of people on TV are just yellers and screamers. She’s able to hold a conversation.”
Nauert became a frequent presence on Fox News during the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal that blew up in 1998. “When I first saw her, I thought Heather was our demographic, that she could bring in younger people,” Bill Shine, the Fox News executive producer who hired her and now works as the communications director in Trump’s White House, said at the time.
She earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University while working at Fox, then left in 2005 to take a reporting position at ABC News. She returned to Fox in 2007 to co-anchor a series of shows — in addition to playing herself in “24” in 2010 — culminating in a position as a news presenter for “Fox & Friends.” Now she’s one of the few original members of the Trump administration’s State Department team to remain in the government.
Nauert is sure to be grilled by the Senate Democrats who oversee the State Department. “Unquestioned loyalty to President Trump and experience as an anchor on President Trump’s favorite cable news network are — clearly — not sufficient qualifications,” Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said Friday.
“Ms. Nauert will have to answer questions about whether her background is the right one for this job, one that requires tough negotiations and speaking truth to power both in front of the camera and in closed rooms.”
When Haley went through the confirmation process, she secured 96 votes. A senior Trump administration official suggested Nauert should command similar respect. “[She’s gone to] 26 countries — North Korea, three times, China twice, Israel twice,” the official said. “She spars with State Department press corps twice a week and is very adept at communicating the presidents foreign policy message.”
