在自由派活动人士和议员的新一轮批评声中，白宫周二为拜登总统提名拉姆·伊曼纽尔为美国驻日本大使的决定进行了辩护。
这位前国会议员和巴拉克·奥巴马总统的幕僚长曾面临这样的问题，即作为芝加哥市长，他如何处理2014年17岁的拉全·麦克唐纳被警方枪杀的事件。
伊曼纽尔周三面临参议院的确认听证会，这也是麦当劳被杀七周年纪念日，本周再次引发强烈抗议。
他是仍在确认过程中的几十名拜登大使提名者之一。拜登的几个大使提名人选被参议院确认为个位数，这使得外国首都和国务院最高层出现关键空缺，一些分析人士警告称，这些空缺对国家安全构成威胁。
华盛顿邮报/彭博通过盖蒂图像公司
参议员特德·克鲁兹在华盛顿参议院外交关系委员会听证会上发言...
共和党参议员，特别是得克萨斯州的特德·克鲁兹和密苏里州的乔什·霍利，搁置了几十名提名人，因为拜登拒绝批准俄罗斯管道“北溪2号”背后的德国公司。但参议院外交关系委员会主席、新泽西州参议员鲍勃·梅嫩德斯周二获得了33名提名人的确认，将他们送往参议院进行最后投票。
周二，白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基拒绝了拜登撤回伊曼纽尔提名的新呼吁。
她告诉记者:“总统提名拉姆·伊曼纽尔担任驻日本大使，因为他是一个有公共服务记录的人，无论是在国会，在白宫担任公职人员，当然也是芝加哥市长，他觉得自己是最能代表美国在日本的人。
没有民主党参议员公开反对伊曼纽尔的提名。相反，强大的民主党参议员，如参议院多数党党鞭、伊利诺伊州民主党人迪克·德宾，都支持他。杜宾今年8月在推特上回应称，伊曼纽尔“有一生的公共服务，为他代表美国说话做准备。...我将尽我所能帮助拉姆成为美国在日本的代言人。”
然而，一些众议院民主党人敦促白宫改变方向，尽管他们没有投票确认提名人。
“这个提名令人深感耻辱。...拜登政府试图授予伊曼纽尔大使职位，这是一种尴尬，也是对我们在国内和世界范围内寻求维护的价值观的背叛。我敦促参议院对他的确认投反对票，”纽约州众议员亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯在上个月的一份声明中说。
道格·米尔斯/通过盖蒂图像池
美国总统拜登和日本首相菅义伟举行新闻发布会.
本周，在伊曼纽尔的家乡伊利诺伊州竞选国会议员的民主党人基纳·柯林斯一直带头反对他。
这位社区组织者和活动家在推特上写道:“我们不能说黑人的命也是命和计划通过任命一个掩盖警察谋杀案的人担任大使的轻松工作来重建得更好——这个人完全没有资格担任这个工作。”他再次与民主党议员丹尼·戴维斯竞选，后者已经担任芝加哥选区的议员超过20年。
争论的焦点是指控伊曼纽尔，一个长期的民主党权力玩家，帮助掩盖了2014年杀害麦克唐纳的事件，麦克唐纳是一名黑人少年，被白人警察杰森·范·代克枪杀了16次。
芝加哥警方曾表示，麦克唐纳无视警告，走近警察，但13个月后，根据法官的命令发布的视频显示，在警察开枪打死他之前，麦克唐纳已经离开了范·代克。
该市与麦当劳家族达成和解，2018年10月，范·代克被判犯有二级谋杀罪和16项严重持枪殴打罪。
伊曼纽尔曾表示，由于司法部的调查，该市无法发布该视频，并表示他直到视频发布前不久才看到该视频，并否认有任何不当行为。该视频发布于2015年11月，即伊曼纽尔再次当选市长7个月后。
当被问及拜登和伊曼纽尔是否谈过话，包括关于麦当劳案时，普萨基告诉记者，“我没有任何记录表明他一定会在整个过程中与他交谈。...很明显，他是他熟悉的人。他知道自己在提名前的长期记录。总统已经就此案发表了自己的评论，我要向所有人指出这一点。”
据报道，伊曼纽尔曾是美国广播公司新闻的撰稿人，在去年冬天的过渡期间，他曾被考虑担任内阁秘书一职，但最终他没有被提名。经过几个月的猜测，白宫于8月20日宣布提名他为驻日本大使。
迄今为止，只有9名拜登大使人选得到参议院的确认，另外数十人因与白宫在外交政策上的分歧而被克鲁兹、霍利和其他人搁置，尤其是在“北溪2号”上。
普萨基周一表示:“参议院中有前所未有的拖延、阻挠和对共和党合格个人的搁置。“责任很明确。令人沮丧。这是我们希望能够更快推进的事情。”
然而，经过几个月的斗争，周二出现了突破，参议院外交关系委员会投票决定将33项提名提交参议院进行投票。
梅嫩德斯周二表示:“随着美国在世界舞台上面临前所未有的挑战，我们的安全、利益以及推进我们价值观和维护全球领导地位的能力不应受到那些迷恋用我们整个国家安全基础设施玩弄政治的人的阻挠。”。
委员会批准的候选人包括约翰·麦凯恩的遗孀辛迪·麦凯恩，她是美国驻罗马联合国机构的特使;直言不讳的特朗普批评者、前共和党参议员杰夫·弗雷克担任驻土耳其大使;著名飞行员切斯利·伯内特“萨利”苏伦伯格担任美国驻国际民用航空组织特使;和前特拉华州民主党州长杰克·马克尔担任美国驻巴黎经济合作与发展组织特使。
White House defends Rahm Emanuel's ambassadorial nomination against liberal backlash
Amid a fresh wave of criticism from liberal activists and lawmakers, the White House on Tuesday defended President Joe Biden's decision to nominate Rahm Emanuel for U.S. ambassador to Japan.
The former congressman and chief of staff to President Barack Obama has faced questions over how, as mayor of Chicago, he handled the fatal police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014.
Emanuel faces his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, which is also the seventh anniversary of McDonald's killing -- prompting renewed outcry this week.
He's one of dozens of Biden ambassadorial nominees still stuck in the confirmation process. Biden has seen a single-digit handful of his ambassadorial nominees confirmed by the Senate, leaving key vacancies in foreign capitals and at the highest ranks of the State Department that some analysts warn pose a national security threat.
Republican senators, especially Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, have put holds on dozens of nominees over Biden's refusal to sanction the German company behind Russia's pipeline, Nord Stream 2. But the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., secured confirmation for 33 nominees on Tuesday, sending them to the Senate floor for a final vote.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki pushed back against new calls for Biden to withdraw Emanuel's nomination on Tuesday.
"The president nominated Rahm Emanuel to serve as ambassador to Japan because he's somebody who has a record of public service, both in Congress, serving as a public official in the White House, and certainly also as the mayor of Chicago, and he felt he was somebody who could best represent the United States in Japan," she told reporters.
No Democratic senators have spoken out against Emanuel's nomination. Instead, powerful Democratic senators like Dick Durbin, the Senate Majority Whip and a fellow Illinois Democrat, have backed him. Durbin tweeted back in August that Emanuel "has a lifetime of public service preparing him to speak for America. ... I will do all I can to help Rahm become America's voice in Japan."
Some House Democrats, however, have urged the White House to reverse course, although they do not vote to confirm nominees.
"This nomination is deeply shameful. ... That the Biden administration seeks to reward Emanuel with an ambassadorship is an embarrassment and betrayal of the values we seek to uphold both within our nation and around the world. I urge the Senate to vote NO on his confirmation," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said in a statement last month.
This week, Kina Collins, a Democrat running for Congress in Emanuel's home state of Illinois, has been leading advocacy against him.
"We can't say Black Lives Matter and plan to build back better by appointing the man who covered up a police murder to a cushy job as an ambassador -- a job the man is completely unqualified to hold," tweeted the community organizer and activist, running again against Democratic lawmaker Danny Davis, who has held the Chicago district's seat for over two decades.
At issue is the accusation that Emanuel, a longtime Democratic power player, helped cover up the 2014 killing of McDonald, a black teenager shot 16 times by Jason Van Dyke, a white policer officer.
Chicago police had said McDonald ignored warnings and approached the officers, but video, released 13 months later by a judge's order, showed McDonald veering away from Van Dyke before the officer shot him.
The city reached a settlement with McDonald's family, and in October 2018, Van Dyke was found guilty of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm.
Emanuel had said the city could not release the video because of a Justice Department investigation, said he did not see the video until shortly before its release, and has denied any wrongdoing. The video was released in Nov. 2015, seven months after Emanuel won reelection as mayor.
Asked whether Biden and Emanuel have spoken, including about the McDonald case, Psaki told reporters, "I don't have any record of him speaking with him necessarily through the process. ... Obviously, he's somebody who he was familiar with. He knew his record of long standing prior to the nomination. And the president has made his own comments about that case, which I would point everyone to."
Emanuel, a former ABC News contributor, was reportedly under consideration for a Cabinet secretary position during the transition last winter, but ultimately, he was not nominated for a role. The White House announced his nomination for ambassador to Japan on Aug. 20 after months of speculation.
To date, only nine Biden ambassador picks have been confirmed by the Senate, with dozens of others held up by Cruz, Hawley, and others over foreign policy disagreements with the White House, especially on Nord Stream 2.
"There have been unprecedented delays, obstruction, holds on qualified individuals from Republicans in the Senate," Psaki said Monday. "The blame is clear. It is frustrating. It is something that we wish would move forward more quickly."
After months of battle, however, there was a breakthrough Tuesday, with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voting to send 33 nominations to the Senate floor for a vote.
"As the United States faces an unprecedented confluence of challenges on the world stage, our security, interests, and ability to advance our values and assert global leadership should not be imperiled by the obstructionism of those infatuated with playing politics with our entire national security infrastructure," Menendez said Tuesday.
Among those approved by the committee are Cindy McCain, John McCain's widow, for U.S. envoy to the United Nations agencies in Rome; former Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, an outspoken Trump critic, as ambassador to Turkey; famed pilot Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger as U.S. envoy to the International Civil Aviation Organization; and former Delaware Democratic Gov. Jack Markell as U.S. envoy to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.
