World

Blonde 'n' Hard-Working: What Propelled Ex-Fox Nauert to UN Role?

US President Donald Trump has opted for State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the new US Envoy to the United Nations, replacing outgoing UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who abruptly announced her resignation in early October, citing "no personal reasons" behind the decision.
Sputnik

Here are the top facts that could provide an exhaustive look at the US president’s pick for the top UN role, largely seen as a stepping stone to assuming more senior roles in government. And the pick for the high-profile US policy megaphone, seems more than justified, at least at first glance.

  • With her vast expertise in TV journalism, including eight years at Fox News and at least three at ABC, Ms Nauert certainly knows how to behave in public and deliver neat and well-targeted speeches. Even more so if the skill is coupled with a wide, snow-white smile, precisely like Nauert’s. 
US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert arrives for the release of the 2017 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom on May 29, 2018, in the Press Briefing Room at the US Department of State in Washington, DC. Mandel Ngan

And it’s obviously not for nothing that she was nominated for an Emmy Award during her years in journalism, for authoring the special series 13 Around the World.

Importantly enough, she seems poised to never let down her compatriots… since
  • As a Fox News host, Nauert once declared that she would buy Trump’s daughter Ivanka’s products after the chain of luxury department stores Nordstrom announced that it was closing down the line.
  • Nauert assumed the new high-profile role after holding just one position in government, that of State Department spokesperson, which she held from late April 2017 until now, but this was apparently more than outweighed by her extensive journalistic experience.
And like any human being, she is no alien to awkward blunders, with a year or so at the State Department being more than enough to sport a couple of gaffes:
  • In particular, she raised eyebrows in July 2018 when she cited allied troops’ storming the beaches of Normandy as evidence of strong ties between the United States and Germany, precisely on the anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
However, the newly-minted envoy appears to have already marked a place for herself in history books due to her inimitable industriousness. 
  • The 48-year-old native of Illinois is deemed by State Department colleagues as “hard-working” and “well in over her head at an understaffed agency”, reports by USA Today and Wbir suggest.
And, last but not least, no one would deny Nauert’s attractiveness, which seems crucial in the noble role of being the “US face” and White House policy mouthpiece abroad, doesn’t it?

Spokesperson Heather Nauert (L) speaks as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dialogues with reporters in his plane while flying from Panama to Mexico, October 18, 2018

Ms Nauert’s perfectly young looks, good shape and the dazzling smile have long won her a fair bit of fame, even long before the blonde member of the Council of Foreign Relations and proud holder of a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University was readying to enter the White House in the role of State Department spokeswoman.

“While I’m not denying her credentials or abilities to hold this new position I will say that sexual harassment is about to become an even bigger issue in the White House”, Nathaniel Berman wrote in an op-ed for TV Over Mind.

  • Nauert is notably not the first TV newsperson to become UN ambassador. There was one man back in the 1970s, John Scali, a former ABC correspondent, who had previously played a lauded role in resolving the Cuban missile crisis under President John F. Kennedy.


Discuss