Coming on the heels of Mike Pompeo’s confirmation as secretary of state, Grenell’s confirmation fills a position that has been vacant since January 2017 when Trump dismissed the political ambassadors appointed under President Barack Obama.

Grenell, a Republican and close political ally of Trump, has a background in communications and worked with incoming national security adviser John Bolton at the United Nations under President George W. Bush. He also worked briefly as a national security and foreign policy spokesman on Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012.

Trump had reportedly considered Grenell for the U.S. ambassadorship to the United Nations before nominating Nikki Haley, a former U.S. representative, for the position.

With his confirmation, Grenell becomes one of the most prominent openly gay Trump appointees. Grenell’s supporters include Stuart Milk, co-founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation and nephew of the late gay civil rights leader. Milk told The New York Times in March that he believed Grenell’s confirmation would “send an important message” to the LGBTQ community about their place in the Trump administration.

The Senate vote was delayed earlier this week over several Democrats’ concerns regarding Grenell’s past comments about women. Grenell has a reputation for launching sexist attacks through his Twitter account and disparaging women in media and politics.

On Monday, a spokeswoman for Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said in a statement to CNN that the senator was concerned about Grenell’s “significant history of making misogynistic and other incendiary statements online.”

She added that Grenell “has also been dismissive of the threat of Russia’s meddling in the US, a fact that is doubly concerning as Germany is one of our closest and most important allies in pushing back on Russian aggression on the world stage.”

The confirmation comes ahead of a visit to the White House by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is expected to push Trump not to abandon the Iran nuclear deal nor hit Europe with new U.S. tariffs. French President Emmanuel Macron made similar appeals to Trump during his three-day state visit this week. But where Trump and Macron have appeared to develop an easy rapport, relations have been notably chillier between Merkel and the U.S. president.

Germany has seen a rise in anti-American sentiment since Trump assumed office, and foreign policy experts have warned about the already tenuous transatlantic relationship.

“The liberal world order with its foundation in multilateralism, its global norms and values, its open societies and markets — is in danger,” wrote a group of 12 German foreign policy experts in an op-ed last year. “Donald Trump is the first U.S. president since World War II to fundamentally question the ideas and institutions of the liberal international order.”</s>Lawmakers voted 56 to 42 to approve Grenell, a former US spokesman at the United Nations and a longtime advisor for Republican political candidates.

Democrats had held up Grenell's nomination, which Trump had announced back in September.

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"The extreme partisanship displayed toward Mr. Grenell, a highly qualified nominee from President Trump, will be remembered," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said in a statement.

The confirmation is timely. German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits Washington on Friday for tough talk with Trump on transatlantic trade disputes and the Iran nuclear deal, and having the top US diplomatic post in Berlin empty a full 15 months into Trump's administration would have been an embarrassment.

Grenell is now among the most high-profile gay members of Trump's administration. In 2012 he worked for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, becoming the first openly gay spokesman for a Republican presidential candidate.

He was pressured to resign that post by social conservatives.</s>The Senate will vote Thursday afternoon on the nominations of CIA Director Mike Pompeo for secretary of state and Richard Grenell for U.S. Ambassador to Germany.

The vote for Pompeo will take place at noon, and the vote for Grenell will take place at 1:45 p.m., an aide to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN) announced.

Their confirmations will score a huge victory for President Trump. Pompeo is close to Trump and is believed to share his foreign policy views, particularly on the Iran nuclear deal.

Grenell is Trump’s first prominent openly gay nominee, will fill the important role of America’s representative in Germany, and is seen as a supporter of the president’s calls for reforming NATO. His confirmation has been stonewalled by Democrats, despite being supported by gay rights groups.

Although a confirmation vote for secretary of state has been uncontroversial in recent history, a number of Democratic leaders have lined up against Pompeo as part of a strategy of obstruction ahead of the 2018 mid-term elections.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) initially opposed Pompeo’s nomination, citing his support for U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and with Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) absence, it meant that Pompeo would be one short of the 50 needed to confirm him and would need at least one Democratic vote.

A number of Democratic leaders came out in opposition, jeopardizing the confirmation. However, last week, red state Democrats facing tough election fights — Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-MT), Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Joe Donnelly (D-IN) — stepped forward.

Paul announced earlier this week that he had reversed his opposition after speaking multiple times with Trump and Pompeo, meaning Pompeo should have plenty of support, although not by historical standards.

Corker lamented the partisanship on Monday as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee considered the nomination.

“I understand the climate that we are in. I understand the polarization that we have as a nation. And I am hopeful that yet, this evening, that we are going to do something positive for our nation and handle ourselves in a manner that sends the right signal,” he said.</s>The Trump nominee is said to be the highest-ranking gay official ever in any Republican administration.

Shortly after approving Mike Pompeo as U.S. secretary of state, the U.S. Senate confirmed Richard Grenell as ambassador to Germany by a vote of 56 to 42.

Grenell was nominated back in September 2017 and re-nominated in 2018. German Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s impending visit to the White House tomorrow may have helped break the logjam in the Senate.

Richard Grenell received yes votes from all Republicans present in the chamber along with six Democrats, the Washington Blade reported. With a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard, Grenell was the longest-serving U.S. spokesman at the United Nations, holding that job from 2001 to 2008 in the George W. Bush administration, including working for John Bolton, now President Trump’s national security adviser, during that time.

He also briefly was Mitt Romney’s foreign policy spokesman during the 2012 presidential campaign but reportedly stepped down after complaints from social conservatives.

“Grenell is a foreign policy expert who has served in various roles as a public communications adviser and a Fox News commentator,” the Blade recalled.

Germany is the world’s fourth-largest economy, and Merkel is also the de facto head of the European Union, so the U.S. envoy job is an important one, regardless of who happens to be in the White House.

President Trump also considered Ric Grenell, 51, for the position of U.N.ambassador before selecting Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, for that high-profile post.

In today’s action, Grenell was unable to obtain the votes of the two senators from California where he lives (or lived, now that he is relocating to Berlin), however. Most Democrats apparently opposed Grenell’s nomination because of some (and subsequently deleted) controversial tweets he sent out several years ago, for which he apologized. During his confirmation hearing, Grenell told senators on the foreign relations committee that he meant the undiplomatic tweets to be humorous and that they don’t reflect how he would conduct himself as an ambassador, the Washington Post noted.

After the president reportedly encountered Ric Grenell and several other friends at Mar-a-Lago last weekend, “The dinner’s participants impressed upon Trump the importance of having Grenell confirmed ahead of Merkel’s visit Friday, sparking public and private pressure on McConnell,” the Daily Caller reported.

Trump called out Democrats for holding up the nomination in a tweet on Monday, and also mentioned it during his press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron the following day.

“Conservative activists and the White House mounted a months-long campaign to pressure Democrats to either drop their opposition to Grenell or have McConnell hold a vote on his nomination, which costs valuable debate time on the floor of the Senate,” the Caller added.

Under arcane U.S. Senate rules, lawmakers can use up to 30 hours of floor time to debate each presidential nominee after clearing the appropriate committee, and even if the votes are in hand for confirmation. Hundreds of Trump administration nominees still await a final vote.

Ric Grenell is a longtime member of the Log Cabin Republicans, “the nation’s largest organization representing LGBT conservatives and straight allies,” Fox News explained.

Richard Grenell is no fan of the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, that was reached during the Obama administration, the Washington Post reported, from which President Trump may pull out, in a decision due next month.

“Grenell worked on restrictions and sanctions against Iran over its nuclear ambitions as the long-serving spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration — where he worked with Bolton during his stint as U.N. ambassador. Since leaving the government, he has been openly critical of the Iran deal, calling it ‘a direct blow to the U.N.’s credibility’ and the negotiations that led to it ‘a colossal and dangerous waste of time.'”

Presumbly Richard Grenell will be sworn in as U.S. ambassador to Germany in the very near future, and sometime before Merkel arrives in Washington to visit with Trump. If the ceremony is public, check back with the Inquisitr for the footage.</s>The U.S. Senate confirmed Richard Grenell, former Mitt Romney campaign spokesman and communications director for John Bolton when he served as U.S. ambassador to the U.N., as U.S. ambassador to Germany Thursday.

The Senate voted 56 to 42 to confirm shortly after 2:00 p.m. Eastern time.

Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) crossed party lines Thursday morning, ensuring Grenell’s confirmation would not need a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Mike Pence. Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Claire McCaskill (D-MO), all facing reelection in “red” states, also joined a unanimous Republican caucus in supporting Grenell.

Other Democratic caucusing senators like Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Angus King (I-ME), who had voted to confirm Mike Pompeo as secretary of state earlier in the day, refused to support Grenell.

President Donald Trump nominated Grenell to be the highest American diplomatic representative in Europe’s largest economy in September, but as with many of Trump’s top picks, Grenell’s confirmation process was fraught with delays and controversy. As recently as Monday, Senate Democrats were reportedly holding up Grenell’s vote, prompting a frustrated mention by the president in a tweet:

The latest delays followed months of Democratic agitation about Grenell’s alleged “misogyny,” apparently over now-deleted tweets in which he wrote things like that MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow “needs to take a breath and put on a necklace” and that “Hillary is starting to look like Madeleine Albright.”

“I cannot in good faith support a nominee who has a lengthy track record of tweets attacking both prominent Democratic and prominent Republican women,” Sen. Jeff Merkely (D-OR) said last month on the Senate floor, for example.

The campaign against Grenell, however, fits into a wider pattern of Democratic opposition to Trump’s nominees, including Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo, also confirmed today, and various judicial picks.

The Senate’s vote Thursday made Grenell the first openly gay U.S. ambassador to Germany and the most senior openly gay executive official in American history, bringing to a close a months-long campaign on his behalf by both conservatives and gay Republican activists. In the U.S. order of precedence, ambassadors rank significantly higher than other posts previously held by openly gay men, including President Barack Obama’s Army Secretary Eric Fanning. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama appointed a number of openly gay ambassadors – none, however, to as prominent postings as Germany, the world’s fourth largest economy.

The unity of voices of the Right behind him in 2018 stands in stark contrast to six years ago, when he was forced to resign from then-presumptive GOP presidential nominee Romney’s campaign after a public furor over his homosexuality and unrepudiated support for same-sex marriage. His former boss, Bolton, now Trump’s National Security Advisor, came to his defense at the time, telling radio host Aaron Klein:

I think it’s a loss to the campaign. I think it’s a loss for him. And it’s too bad that we live in the kind of environment where it’s hard to make purely professional judgements about people and have them participate in the campaign on that basis. The impression that some people are trying to give that somehow the Romney campaign bowed to pressure from social conservatives, or that reflects a bias against gays and lesbians is just absolutely wrong. But using a personal situation like this for those kinds of political purposes is I think an unfortunate aspect of contemporary American politics.

With Grenell’s confirmation, eight of the ambassadorships to the ten largest economies in the world are filled by Trump appointees. Peter Michael McKinley, the career diplomat appointed ambassador to Brazil by President Obama, remains in his post. Admiral Henry Harris is expected to get Trump’s nomination for ambassador to South Korea imminently.</s>Senate confirms Grenell as US ambassador to Germany

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed Richard Grenell as the U.S. ambassador to Germany on Thursday, filling the high-profile diplomatic position just in time for a White House visit this week by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The vote was 56-42 for the former spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations. A longtime Fox News Channel commentator, Grenell has been controversial over his outspoken views on Twitter. The drawn-out debate became one example of Trump's difficulties to get key positions confirmed.

Grenell served at the U.N. during the George W. Bush administration under four ambassadors — including John Bolton, now Trump's national security adviser.

He was the first openly gay ambassador nominated by Trump.</s>The United States Senate voted 56-42 to confirm Richard Grenell, largely along party lines, to become the US ambassador to Germany.

Grenell, 51, worked as the US spokesperson at the United Nations from 2001-2008, serving four ambassadors — including John Bolton, now US President Donald Trump's national security adviser.

Read more: Who is Richard Grenell?

The United States, whose embassy is near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, has not had an ambassador since John Emerson left the post in January 2017. Grenell's confirmation comes on the eve of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to the White House.

A longtime commentator on conservative broadcaster Fox News, Grenell was an early supporter of Trump's foreign policy.

Grenell became the first openly gay ambassador nominated by Trump when the US president put his nomination forward in September. But Grenell's nomination was delayed for months as opposition Democrats criticized his conservative positions.

The former UN spokesman has been strongly critical of the Iran nuclear deal, which Merkel and French President Emmanuel have called on Trump not to abandon. He, like the US president, is very active on Twitter, and he has pinned a tweet on his Twitter profile criticizing the Paris Climate Agreement.

During Grenell's confirmation hearing, Senate Democrats cited his history of making statements insulting to women politicians, both on the internet and during his television appearances.

"Will he insult, via his Twitter account, the female chancellor of Germany? I don't know. I hope not," Senator Robert Menendez, a top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a speech opposing Grenell.

During his confirmation hearing, Grenell claimed he was trying to be funny, not insulting, and would not have made such statements while serving as a US official.</s>Richard Grenell, former spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, has been confirmed by the Senate in a 56-42 vote as ambassador to Germany. Grenell is now the highest-ranking openly gay appointee of the Trump administration.

Last year it was thought that Trump would pick Grenell as ambassador to NATO.

“Mr. Grenell, a foreign policy writer and commentator, founded the international consulting firm Capitol Media Partners in 2010. For nearly two decades, he has served as the primary communications adviser for public officials at the local, state, Federal, and international levels, as well as for a Fortune 200 ranked company. Mr. Grenell is the longest serving United States spokesman at the United Nations (2001-2008) having served four United States Ambassadors. He earned a B.A. from Evangel University and an MPA from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.”

Grenell’s confirmation had been blocked due to Grenell’s sexist statements, the Washington Blade notes:

The primary reason for the hold on Grenell purportedly was comments he made years ago on Twitter about the appearance of women, including Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Callista Gingrich and Rachel Maddow. Although Grenell years ago apologized and deleted those tweets, they stand out in the context of the #MeToo movement in which women are coming forward with allegations of sexual misconduct.

One 2011 tweet directed at Maddow, a lesbian news anchor on MSNBC, said she “needs to take a breath and put on a necklace” and another compared her look to that of pop singer Justin Bieber. One tweet directed at Gingrich questioned whether she “snaps on” her hair. At around the same time, Grenell tweeted “Hillary is starting to look like Madeleine Albright.”

Grenell served as an advisor to Mitt Romney during his 2012 campaign for president but was forced to resign two weeks into the job after a campaign by social conservatives over his sexual orientation forced him out.

The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer was among those leading the charge.

Argued Fischer in a CNN appearance: “Well, the point here is that personnel is policy. Everybody in D.C. says that. Personnel is policy. When Governor Romney picks somebody who is an activist homosexual and puts him in a prominent position, he’s sending a shout out, it seems to me, to the homosexual lobby.</s>Though it took nearly seven months to be realized, the confirmation of President Trump’s inspired pick of Richard “Ric” Grenell to serve as the U. S. ambassador to Germany is now a fait accompli, and deservedly so.

After a delay seemingly as interminable as the fruitless Russia probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, obstreperous Democrats finally folded Thursday when the Senate voted 56-42 to make Grenell our ambassador to Germany.

Grenell has proven himself more than up to the task of his present charge. He has worked for four U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations, including a distinguished tenure working alongside current National Security Adviser John Bolton.

Grenell also happens to be gay, and a longtime member and supporter of Log Cabin Republicans. His confirmation marks a major milestone: Grenell has now become the highest ranking openly gay official in any Republican administration in American history.

Log Cabin Republicans – the nation’s largest organization representing LGBT conservatives and straight allies, where I serve as president – led the charge for months pushing for Grenell’s confirmation.

The vote happened not a moment too soon, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to visit the White House Friday. A rudderless U.S. Embassy in Germany would have been a national embarrassment. But the fact that Grenell’s confirmation was allowed to languish this long is a national embarrassment unto itself.

In his confirmation hearing, Grenell emphasized issues of importance to the Trump administration such as strengthening security, addressing trade imbalances and boosting investment in the United States. Furthermore, he exhibited his willingness to strike a balance between the priorities of the Trump administration and constructive engagement with Germany.

In supporting Grenell’s nomination, Log Cabin Republicans were joined by prominent conservative voices. They included talk show host Hugh Hewitt the president’s son Donald Trump, Jr. journalist Greta Van Susteren American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah; former George W. Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleisher Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist and Independent Women’s Forum Chairwoman Heather Higgins

With the exception of Stuart Milk, co-founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation, the only LGBT advocacy organization that stepped up in support of Grenell’s nomination was Log Cabin Republicans.

Whatever on Earth could be the reason for the silence of the LGBT left on what by all accounts is a landmark moment in gay history?

The question, of course, is rhetorical. With Grenell’s confirmation, the left loses yet another arrow in their quiver to assail President Trump with their tired accusations of anti-gay animus.

The president’s pick of Grenell was not accidental: Germany is well-known for a more egalitarian approach in today’s pluralistic society. It legalized marriage equality last October and has seen increasing numbers of high-ranking German politicians openly declaring their sexual orientation.

As a conservative Christian who happens to be gay, Grenell’s position as ambassador to Germany could well serve to bridge the divide between depressingly polarized LGBT and religious communities – in both Germany and the United States.

Democratic obstructionists in the Senate centered their obstinate blockade of Grenell’s confirmation on a picayune fixation with past impolitic tweets by Grenell for which he has atoned. Even if their motivations in that regard were sincere, it would mark a new low in political pettiness from Democrats who have now shown that their support of the LGBT community does not apply if you are a gay Republican in the good graces of President Trump.

My tenure as the head of Log Cabin Republicans began in the midst of a campaign calling President Obama’s Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to account for his opposition to the nomination of a gay ambassador to Luxembourg while serving in the Senate. History will be a harsh judge of the Democrats who made the same mistake standing in the way of Grenell’s confirmation as ambassador to Germany.

The long-overdue confirmation of Ric Grenell also represents another milestone: For the first time in history, an openly gay ambassador was not confirmed “in spite of” Republicans, or simply “with Republican support.” Grenell is now our ambassador to Germany because of Republican support.</s>Senate Republicans flipped the script on gay rights Thursday by confirming Richard Grenell as U.S. ambassador to Germany after months of Democratic opposition and virtually no support from liberal LGBT groups.

The Senate voted 56-42 to confirm President Trump’s nomination of Mr. Grenell, an openly gay conservative who headed the communications office for four ambassadors to the United Nations, including National Security Adviser John R. Bolton.

A handful of Democrats joined all Senate Republicans in voting to confirm Mr. Grenell, whose confirmation was described as a gay rights milestone.

“Ric Grenell’s confirmation is historic for two reasons: He has now officially become the highest ranking openly gay official ever in a Republican administration,” said Log Cabin Republicans President Gregory T. Angelo in a Thursday statement.

“Second: Despite the interminable delays of Democrats hell-bent on standing on the wrong side of history, today the United States Senate confirmed a gay nominee not ‘in spite of’ Republicans, or ‘with Republican support,’ but because of Republican support,” he said.

Democrats had held up the nomination for seven months over objections to Mr. Grenell’s now-deleted snarky tweets about the appearance of several prominent women, including Hillary Clinton, Madeline Albright, Rachel Maddow and Calista Gingrich.

In 2011, for example, he tweeted that MSNBC’s Ms. Maddow “needs to take a breath and put on a necklace,” and that “Hillary is starting to look like Madeline Albright.”

“I cannot in good faith support a nominee who has a lengthy track record of tweets attacking both prominent Democratic and prominent Republican women,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley, Oregon Democrat, who blocked the confirmation vote last month.

Mr. Angelo wasn’t buying it, accusing Democrats of only supporting gay rights when it suits their political objectives and slamming the “roaring silence from LGBT advocacy organizations who did nothing to achieve this tremendous milestone in LGBT history.”

“Even if their motivations in that regard were sincere, it would mark a new low in political pettiness from Democrats who have now shown that their support of the LGBT community does not apply if you are a gay Republican in the good graces of President Trump,” said Mr. Angelo in a Thursday op-ed for Fox.

Senate Democrats who voted to confirm Mr. Grenell were Joe Donnelly of Indiana; Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester of Montana, and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, according to the Washington Blade.

Mr. Angelo said the only liberal, gay rights supporter was Stuart Milk, co-founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation.

Mr. Grenell’s supporters on the right included talk-show host Hugh Hewitt, American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, American Commitment President Phil Karpen, and Independent Women’s Voice CEO Heather Higgins.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, tweeted that the “extreme partisanship displayed toward Mr. Grenell, a highly qualified nominee from President Trump, will be remembered.”

Mr. Hewitt cheered Mr. Grenell for “hanging in there for a year” and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for “moving the new ambassador and throwing down on D obstructionism.”
Richard Grenell is confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to Germany.