Heather Nauert Withdraws From Consideration For U.N. Ambassador

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Updated at 5:20 a.m. ET Monday

State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert withdrew herself from consideration on Saturday for the nomination of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

"I am grateful to President Trump and Secretary [of State Mike] Pompeo for the trust they placed in me for considering me for the position of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations," she said, according to a statement released by the State Department. "However, the past two months have been grueling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration."

The Washington Post reports that Nauert's nomination "faced complications" after it was revealed that she had "hired a foreign-born nanny about 10 years ago who didn't have the proper work visa and Nauert didn't pay proper taxes on time, according to two officials involved in her nomination process."

Trump picked the former Fox & Friends host to become the next ambassador to the U.N. in December. Had she been confirmed, Nauert would have replaced Nikki Haley, who resigned as ambassador in October.

But in the more than two months since her nomination was announced, Nauert's credentials for the position have been questioned.

Nauert had no government or foreign policy experience until she joined the Trump administration in 2017, NPR's Michele Kelemen reported, beyond overseas stints for ABC, including in Baghdad.

During her nearly two-year tenure in the State Department, Nauert has worked alongside former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and then Pompeo.

"Heather Nauert has performed her duties as a senior member of my team with unequalled excellence," Pompeo said in a statement. "Her personal decision today to withdraw her name from consideration to become the nominee for United States Ambassador to the United Nations is a decision for which I have great respect."

Her time at the State Department was not without controversy. As NPR's Kelemen noted following Nauert's nomination:

"She faced some criticism for a tourist-like Instagram post from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on a trip that was meant to focus on the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. "There have been other missteps, including the time when she cited D-Day — the Allied invasion of Normandy against the Nazis — as an example of America's strong relationship with Germany."

State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino says Trump will pick a new nominee for the position soon. Before nominating Nauert, Trump had considered former White House aide Dina Powell.

There had also been rumors that his daughter Ivanka Trump was under consideration. NPR's Laurel Wamsley reported that "the president was asked whether he was considering nominating Ivanka Trump for the U.N. post. Trump replied that she would be 'dynamite' in the job, but he was concerned about being accused of nepotism."</s>State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert withdrew herself from consideration on Saturday for the nomination of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

"I am grateful to President Trump and Secretary [of State Mike] Pompeo for the trust they placed in me for considering me for the position of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations," she said, according to a statement released by the State Department. "However, the past two months have been grueling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration."

President Trump picked the former Fox & Friends host to become the next ambassador to the U.N. in December. Had she been confirmed, Nauert would have replaced Nikki Haley, who resigned as ambassador in October.

But in the two months since her nomination was announced, Nauert's credentials for the position have been questioned.

Nauert had no government or foreign policy experience until she joined the Trump administration in 2017, NPR's Michelle Kelemen reported, beyond overseas stints for ABC, including in Baghdad.

During her nearly two-year tenure in the State Department, Nauert worked alongside former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and then Pompeo.

"Heather Nauert has performed her duties as a senior member of my team with unequalled excellence," Pomeo said in a statement. "Her personal decision today to withdraw her name from consideration to become the nominee for United States Ambassador to the United Nations is a decision for which I have great respect."

Her time at the State Department was not without controversy. As NPR's Kelemen noted following Nauert's nomination:

State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino says Trump will pick a new nominee for the position soon. Before Trump picked Nauert, Trump had considered former White House aide Dina Powell.

There had also been rumors that his daughter Ivanka Trump was under consideration. NPR's Laurel Wamsley reported, that "when the president was asked whether he was considering nominating Ivanka Trump for the U.N. post. Trump replied that she would be 'dynamite' in the job, but he was concerned about being accused of nepotism."</s>Former State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Saturday she's withdrawing from consideration for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

In a statement issued by the department, the former Fox News "Fox & Friends" anchor said the searing spotlight had been difficult.

"The past two months have been grueling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration," she said. "Serving in the Administration for the past two years has been one of the highest honors of my life."

The State Department said in the same statement that President Trump would make an announcement regarding his next choice for U.N. envoy "soon."

Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo said, "Her personal decision today to withdraw her name from consideration to become the nominee for United States Ambassador to the United Nations is a decision for which I have great respect.

"I wish Heather nothing but the best in all of her future endeavors and know that she will continue to be a great representative of this nation in whatever role she finds herself," he said.

Trump chose Nauert for the position roughly two months after the surprising resignation of U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley Oct. 9.</s>State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert withdrew her name from consideration for the U.N. ambassador nomination, the department said Saturday.

“I am grateful to President Trump and Secretary [Mike] Pompeo for the trust they placed in me for considering me for the position of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations,” Nauer said in the statement. “However, the past two months have been grueling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration.

She went on to describe her time working in the administration as being “one of the highest honors of my life.”

A State Department source told Fox News that the process, on top of traveling around the world and between Washington D.C., and New York to see family, grew to be too much.

Trump — who picked Nauert to succeed Ambassador Nikki Haley in December — will make an announcement “soon” about a nominee for the position, the State Department said.

Before she worked at the State Department, Nauert worked as an anchor and correspondent at Fox News — including as a breaking news anchor on “Fox & Friends.” Before Fox, she was a reporter at ABC News. She moved to the State Department in April 2017.

Secretary of State Pompeo also addressed the decision in the statement, saying it was one he respected.

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“Heather Nauert has performed her duties as a senior member of my team with unequaled excellence,” he said. “I wish Heather nothing but the best in all of her future endeavors and know that she will continue to be a great representative of this nation in whatever role she finds herself.”

When Trump tapped Nauert for the U.N. role last year, he said she was “very talented.” His announcement came roughly two months after Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, abruptly resigned from the position.

Fox News’ Alexandra Pamias, Rich Edson, Adam Shaw and Kaitlyn Schallhorn contributed to this report.</s>US Department of State spokesperson Heather Nauert has withdrawn herself from consideration for the United Nations ambassador role due to family reasons, the department said on Saturday.

Nauert, 49, thanked President Donald Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for considering her for the ambassador's post.</s>(CNN) — State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Saturday she has withdrawn from consideration as UN ambassador.

President Donald Trump had previously announced he was picking Nauert, but the formal nomination had not been sent to the Senate.

“I am grateful to President Trump and Secretary Pompeo for the trust they placed in me for considering me for the position of US Ambassador to the United Nations. However, the past two months have been grueling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration. Serving in the Administration for the past two years has been one of the highest honors of my life and I will always be grateful to the President, the Secretary, and my colleagues at the State Department for their support,” Nauert said in a statement from the State Department.

The State Department said Trump will make an announcement about a new nominee soon.

Before she joined the State Department, Nauert employed a nanny who was in the United States legally but was not legally allowed to work, a source familiar with the matter and an administration official told CNN. The nanny wasn’t paying taxes while she worked, the sources said. This was not known when Nauert became the State Department spokeswoman, but she did tell officials when she was offered the United Nations ambassadorship, the sources said.

Nauert disclosed the nanny when she filled out the paperwork for the UN position, a source close to Nauert who was helping prepare her for the nomination told CNN’s Kylie Atwood. When it became apparent in the past week that it would be an issue, Nauert decided to step away because “she was not aware of how tough it was going to make it.”

Officials thought they could get through the controversy since the back taxes were paid, but in the end, Nauert agreed she should withdraw, the sources said.

CNN has reached out to Nauert regarding the nanny issue as well as generally about her withdrawal but has not heard back.

Trump also announced Nauert as his pick December 7, before the White House did a thorough vet of her, sources told CNN. Nauert’s Office of Government Ethics paperwork hadn’t even gotten through review until well after Trump tweeted that he would nominate her.

Some White House officials were surprised by her withdrawal. They had been pressed for why she had not been formally nominated, but several assumed it was just bureaucratic holdup. This was not expected — and one official noted she had been responding to emails in her official capacity as State Department spokesman recently.

Nauert is not expected to return to her State Department job, a source with knowledge of the matter told CNN’s Jamie Gangel.

Last month, CNN reported there was a lack of urgency on getting her quickly confirmed. That came from all stakeholders: the White House, Capitol Hill, and the United Nations. The White House initially blamed the slowdown of her formal nomination on the shutdown, but when the government re-opened, they would not say that getting her officially nominated was a priority.

Months after Trump’s announcement of his pick, the nomination still had not been made official and there were no dates set for a Senate confirmation hearing.

Multiple sources told CNN they felt that was a sign of trouble for her.

The President is already considering other candidates, the sources told CNN.

Some of those under consideration, who were also part of the original list of potential candidates, include Ric Grennell, the US ambassador to Germany; Jamie McCourt, the US ambassador to France; and Kelly Craft, the US ambassador to Canada, according to people familiar with the matter.

The plan was to degrade the position to one that fell under the secretary of state — meaning not being in cabinet-level meetings. It is unclear whether the White House will change its initial thinking on downgrading the prestige of the job.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement from the State Department, “Heather Nauert has performed her duties as a senior member of my team with unequalled excellence. Her personal decision today to withdraw her name from consideration to become the nominee for United States Ambassador to the United Nations is a decision for which I have great respect.

“I wish Heather nothing but the best in all of her future endeavors,” Pompeo continued, “and know that she will continue to be a great representative of this nation in whatever role she finds herself.”

There were concerns that Nauert would be face a difficult confirmation process, several sources familiar with the matter had told CNN.

“There have been predictions of a stormy ride in confirmation, with many on the Hill saying this was a job done‎ by Henry Cabot Lodge, Madeleine Albright, Daniel Moynihan, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Richard Holbrooke, Bill Richardson … and now a Fox News presenter?” a senior diplomatic source told CNN.

CNN’s KFile reported last week that Nauert once hosted a panel on unfounded conspiracy theories that Islamic fundamentalists are secretly trying to destroy America by imposing Sharia law. In 2009, Nauert hosted an hour-long Fox News special webcast titled “Terror from Within,” which featured anti-Muslim activists. Nauert at the time introduced the program as exploring “a school of thought that there is a stealthy jihad taking place within the US. And the theory is that some in our country want to destroy our America from within.”

They would destroy America, Nauert continued, “by using our own legal system against us, by undermining our financial system and even taking away our holidays. The fact that we are a PC, politically correct country, well, that will only be used against us.”</s>Former State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert has withdrawn her name for consideration to be the United States ambassador, the State Department said in a statement Saturday. President Trump will make an announcement with respect to a nominee soon, the statement said.

Nauert said in a statement that she is "grateful" for the opportunity, but the "past two months have been grueling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration."

A former Fox News anchor, Nauert joined the Trump administration in 2017.

The position of U.N. ambassador has to be approved by the Senate. Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley announced in October she would be leaving at the end of 2018.

"I wish Heather nothing but the best in all of her future endeavors and know that she will continue to be a great representative of this nation in whatever role she finds herself," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.</s>State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Saturday she has withdrawn from consideration as UN ambassador.

President Donald Trump had previously announced he was picking Nauert, but the formal nomination had not been sent to the Senate.

“I am grateful to President Trump and Secretary Pompeo for the trust they placed in me for considering me for the position of US Ambassador to the United Nations. However, the past two months have been grueling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration. Serving in the Administration for the past two years has been one of the highest honors of my life and I will always be grateful to the President, the Secretary, and my colleagues at the State Department for their support,” Nauert said in a statement from the State Department.

The State Department said Trump will make an announcement about a new nominee soon.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement from the State Department, “Heather Nauert has performed her duties as a senior member of my team with unequalled excellence. Her personal decision today to withdraw her name from consideration to become the nominee for United States Ambassador to the United Nations is a decision for which I have great respect.

“I wish Heather nothing but the best in all of her future endeavors,” Pompeo continued, “and know that she will continue to be a great representative of this nation in whatever role she finds herself.”

CNN reported last month there appeared to be no urgency from the White House or Republicans to confirm Nauert, a former Fox News anchor who started working at the State Department in 2017. Trump made the announcement he was picking Nauert in a tweet in early December, and months later the nomination still had not been made official and there were no dates set for a Senate confirmation hearing.

Multiple sources told CNN they felt that was a sign of trouble for her.

There were concerns that Nauert would be face a difficult confirmation process, several sources familiar with the matter had told CNN.

“There have been predictions of a stormy ride in confirmation, with many on the Hill saying this was a job done‎ by Henry Cabot Lodge, Madeleine Albright, Daniel Moynihan, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Richard Holbrooke, Bill Richardson … and now a Fox News presenter?”a senior diplomatic source told CNN.

CNN’s KFile reported last week that Nauert once hosted a panel on unfounded conspiracy theories that Islamic fundamentalists are secretly trying to destroy America by imposing Sharia law. In 2009, Nauert hosted an hour-long Fox News special webcast titled “Terror from Within,” which featured anti-Muslim activists. Nauert at the time introduced the program as exploring “a school of thought that there is a stealthy jihad taking place within the US. And the theory is that some in our country want to destroy our America from within.”

They would destroy America, Nauert continued, “by using our own legal system against us, by undermining our financial system and even taking away our holidays. The fact that we are a PC, politically correct country, well, that will only be used against us.”</s>Heather Nauert, U.S. President Donald Trump's choice to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has withdrawn from consideration, the State Department says."The past two months have been grueling for my family and thereforeon February 16.She had not yet officially been nominated for the post, and her potential confirmation by the Senate had not been assured.Many critics had questioned the 49-year-old Nauert's nomination, asserting that she did not have foreign diplomatic or policy-making experience and was not qualified for the high-profile position.The undersecretary role ended in October.She would have succeeded Nikki Haley, who announced in October that she would leave the UN post at the end of 2018. Trump made the announcement of Nauert's nomination to be UN ambassador on December 7."She's very talented, very smart, very quick and I think she is going to be respected by all," Trump said of Nauert at the time. "She's excellent. She's been with us for a very long time. She's been a supporter for a long time," Trump told reporters on December 1 when he first said he was considering naming Nauert to succeed Haley.The State Department said the president would announce a nominee for the position "soon."</s>WASHINGTON — Heather Nauert, picked by President Donald Trump to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations but never officially nominated, has withdrawn from consideration, the State Department said.

Nauert, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement that "the past two months have been grueling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration."

She was a Fox News Channel reporter with little foreign policy experience when she joined the State Department as spokeswoman almost two years ago when Rex Tillerson was secretary of state. Nauert rose to the upper echelons of the department's hierarchy after Trump fired Tillerson in March 2018 and Mike Pompeo replaced him.

In a statement, Pompeo said he respected Nauert's decision on the U.N. job and that she performed her duties as a senior member of his team "with unequalled excellence."

"Serving in the Administration for the past two years has been one of the highest honors of my life and I will always be grateful to the President, the Secretary, and my colleagues at the State Department for their support," Nauert said in the statement provided by the department.

Before coming to the State Department, Nauert was a breaking news anchor on Trump's favorite television show, "Fox & Friends." With a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, she had moved to Fox from ABC News, where she was a general assignment reporter.

Nauert, who did not have a good relationship with Tillerson and had considered leaving the department, was appointed acting undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs after his departure. The appointment ended in October.

The State Department said Trump would announce a nominee for the U.N position “soon.”

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State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert withdraws from consideration for the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations nomination. Jonathan Cohen has been serving in that position since January 1, 2019, following Nikki Haley's resignation.