New Delhi: US President Joe Biden is considering Los Angeles mayor and a former co-chair of his presidential campaign Eric Garcetti as ambassador to India, said a report.
Garcetti, 50, completes two terms as LA mayor in 2022 and cannot seek a third. He had once mulled a presidential run himself and then opted out. Axios news publication reported the possibility of Garcetti being sent to India, citing people familiar with the matter.
Biden is expected to start rolling out his nominees for ambassadorships later this month. Presidents tend to pick political and campaign donors and allies, along with career foreign service officers. Ken Juster, who was the last US ambassador to India, was a political appointee.
Among other names that have figured in the speculation is former Congressman Joe Crowley, a one-time star of the Democratic party with a lock on the speakership of the House of Representative, to succeed Nancy Pelosi. But he was unexpectedly defeated in 2018 by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a rising star.
