WASHINGTON — Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, testifying Tuesday before a congressional panel weighing his nomination to be U.S. ambassador to India, told lawmakers he never witnessed the misconduct alleged by a former police bodyguard who claims in a lawsuit that one of the mayor’s advisers sexually harassed him.
“I want to say unequivocally that I never witnessed, nor was it brought to my attention, the behavior that’s been alleged, and I also want to assure you if it had been, I would have immediately taken action to stop that,” Garcetti said during testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., pressed the mayor about the sexual harassment claims, asking about accusations that he failed to intervene as his former aide, Rick Jacobs, allegedly harassed others, including an LAPD officer who served for seven years as Garcetti’s bodyguard. In a lawsuit filed last year, the officer alleged that Garcetti witnessed some of the inappropriate behavior but did not stop it.
Shaheen acknowledged in her question that India “is a democracy where the rights of women and sexual assault and sexual harassment against women has been rampant over the years,” and said she wanted to give Garcetti an opportunity to respond because “I think it’s very important that we model the behavior that we want to see in our allies.”
Garcetti was not on the hot seat for long. The hearing, which lasted under two hours, was lightly attended by committee members, with only a handful of Democrats and two Republicans showing up to ask questions. Garcetti testified alongside two other nominees for diplomatic posts: Donald Armin Blome, who has been nominated to lead the embassy in Pakistan, and Amy Gutmann, the president’s pick for ambassador to Germany.
Biden in July nominated the 50-year-old Garcetti to be the ambassador to India, a critical position in an administration seeking to build alliances in the Indo-Pacific as a bulwark against China. Garcetti’s nomination has dragged on amid a broader effort by Republican senators that has slowed the confirmation process of dozens of would-be diplomats.
In his opening statement to the Senate panel, Garcetti described India as one of the nations most “vital to the future of American security and prosperity” and vowed to build on the work of his predecessors “to elevate our partnership to new heights,” if confirmed.
Garcetti, who studied Hindi and Indian cultural and religious history in college, said the “idea of a U.S.-India strategic partnership would have been deemed laughable” at the time of his graduation nearly 30 years ago.
Garcetti’s nomination requires a simple majority vote in the evenly divided Senate, which is narrowly controlled by Democrats due to Vice President Kamala Harris’ role casting tie-breaking votes as president of the Senate.
Garcetti’s nomination and dozens of others have been held up by Republican senators protesting some of the Biden administration’s national security policies and decisions. Foremost among those blocking nominees is Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is seeking to pressure Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken to penalize all international firms and individuals involved in the construction of a Russian natural gas pipeline to Germany.
