Outside the Beltway

Matthew Whitaker as NATO Ambassador

Stop me if you have heard this before, but he is unqualified for the job.

Steven L. Taylor · Wednesday, November 20, 2024 · 3 comments

Via Reuters: Trump picks former acting AG Matthew Whitaker as nominee for NATO ambassador.

President-elect Donald Trump chose lawyer Matthew Whitaker on Wednesday to be U.S. ambassador to NATO, selecting a loyalist with little foreign policy experience for what may be one of the highest-profile ambassadorships during Trump’s second administration.

[…]

Whitaker, who served as acting attorney general for three months during Trump’s 2017-2021 term, has been actively involved with the America First Policy Institute, a right-leaning think tank that has been working to shape policy for Trump’s second term.

Whitaker was known as one of the most outspoken critics of a special counsel investigation into contacts between Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign and Russian officials.

The best I can say about him is that he is more qualified to be AG than Gaetz is, but that is what we call in the trade, “damning with faint praise.”

More on his background from NPR:

Whitaker, 55, has no experience in foreign or military affairs, but he did work in the Justice Department during Trump’s first term in office, initially as chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and then briefly as acting attorney general after Sessions was pushed out in 2018.

He also served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa during the George W. Bush administration. Whitaker has deep roots in Iowa; he grew up there and played football at the University of Iowa.

Everyone will be relieved to know that he did have a brief stint on CNN in 2017, so the TV box has been checked yet again. The loyalty box should be obvious.

Of course, the main thing I remember from his stint as interim AG, apart from his thin resume, is this (via Vanity Fair):

Whitaker appeared in multiple promotional videos for the company’s products, offerings that included a toilet for “well-endowed men” and “theoretical time-travel commodity tied directly to price of bitcoin.”

I did not recall this part:

He also reportedly used his prior work as a federal prosecutor to intimidate people who complained the company was a scam. According to e-mails filed by the F.T.C, in August 2015 Whitaker allegedly responded to a customer who had complained about World Patent Marketing to the Better Business Bureau by telling them, “I am assuming you understand that there could be serious civil and criminal consequences for you. Understand that we take threats like this quite seriously.” Another victim who tried to get a refund received an e-mail from a company lawyer who told her, “Since you used e-mail to make your threats, you would be subject to a federal extortion charge, which carries a term of imprisonment of up to two years and potential criminal fines. See 18 U.S.C. ii 875(d).” In other incredible correspondences, customers were threatened with a “World Patent Marketing Security Team” comprised of “ex-Israeli Special Ops” who are “trained to knockout first and ask questions later.”

So, you know, only the best.