Senate confirms Kelly Craft as new US UN envoy

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The Senate on Wednesday narrowly confirmed former U.S. ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft as America’s new UN ambassador.

The 56-34 vote saw five Democrats break ranks with their party in support of Craft, who will replace former UN envoy Nikki Haley following her resignation at the end of 2018.

Most Democrats withheld their support over concerns of her limited foreign affairs experience and potential conflicts of interest stemming from her husband's career as a coal mining executive. Also at issue was a series of absences from Ottawa while she was serving as Washington's ambassador to Canada.

Craft and her husband Joe are major Republican funders, and she is reportedly the first such person to be confirmed to the U.S.'s top UN post.

Senator Bob Menendez, who is the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued an eight-page report in the run-up to Wednesday's vote raising concerns over her then-looming confirmation, referring in particular to what he previously said were 300 days in which Craft was not in Ottawa while serving as the U.S. envoy there from October 2017 until the middle of last month.

"She doesn’t have the necessary experience to stand up for American values and promote our national security, and because during her limited diplomatic tenure, her unacceptable absences in Canada were nothing less than a dereliction of duty," Menendez said in a statement. "Never in our nation’s history have we nominated such a underqualified person to this critical post.”