Senate votes 96-4 to confirm Haley as UN representative

Nikki Haley, South Carolina’s governor, succeeds Samantha Power as the U.S. representative. She passed in an easy 96-4 vote that was foreshadowed earlier Tuesday in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where just two Democrats voted against her.

In the final vote, the only “no” votes came from Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Tom Udall, D-N.M.

Haley escaped the Russia-related controversy that threatened to stall Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson’s bid to lead the State Department, by saying that the United States shouldn’t trust Russian President Vladimir Putin, who she said has authorized war crimes against civilians in support of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

Haley, who oversaw the removal of the Confederate flag from state capitol grounds after a white supremacist killed nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, invoked her gubernatorial record to establish her credentials as a voice for human rights.

“I don’t claim that I know everything, or that leadership at the U.N. is the same as leading South Carolina,” Haley said during her confirmation hearing. “But diplomacy itself is not new to me. In fact, I would suggest there is nothing more important to a governor’s success than her ability to unite those with different backgrounds, viewpoints and objectives behind a common purpose. For six years that has been my work, day after day, in times of celebration and in times of great tragedy.”

Some Senate Democrats were not satisfied that she has the experience to joust with adversaries at the U.N. Security Council.

“She did not convince me that she understands and embraces the foreign policy principles that the United States has championed over the past seventy years to serve effectively as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said Tuesday. “The position of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations requires a high level of expertise on international affairs, not someone who will be learning on the job.”

Haley earned bipartisan support by promising to push back against some of Trump’s more idiosyncratic foreign policy views and opposing GOP efforts to cut funding for the United Nations in retaliation for a U.N. Security Council resolution that condemned the construction of Israeli settlements in disputed territory. She did, however, denounce the resolution as “a kick in the gut.”

“Once the president-elect gets to hear from his national security team, I think what he says after that will be most important,” Haley said during her confirmation hearing. “And I think those are the focuses that we’re going to have with the National Security Council in making sure that we educate and inform him of what we know, inform him of strategies, and go along with whatever decision he decides to make.”

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., was particularly pleased that she broke with Trump on the issue of retaliatory U.N. funding cuts.

“I know Gov. Haley recognizes the important national security and humanitarian implications of a strong U.S. presence on this international stage,” Murphy said Tuesday. “However, I continue to be concerned by the vast discrepancies between President Trump and his nominees, including Gov. Haley, on issues like torture, discrimination, and support for our critical alliances around the world. I voted for Gov. Haley today in the hope that she will stand up to President Trump whenever necessary.”