President Biden on Tuesday nominated former Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican who endorsed his 2020 run for the White House, to serve as US ambassador to Turkey. Flake served in the US Senate from Arizona from 2013 to 2019 and in the House from 2001 to 2013. Flake retired from the Senate at the end of his term in 2019, saying he was out of step with the Republican Party in the era of former President Trump. He later wrote a book, Conscience of a Conservative, that was a critique of Trump, the AP reports. "With this nomination, the Biden Administration reaffirms the best tradition of American foreign policy and diplomacy: the credo that partisan politics should stop at the water's edge. US foreign policy can and should be bipartisan," Flake said in a statement.
The post, which is subject to Senate confirmation, is a high-profile one, especially with relations between the US and Turkey tense. The Biden administration is in the middle of vetting candidates for other major ambassadorships, per CNN. Flake was one of more than two dozen former Republican lawmakers to announce their support for Biden's candidacy, which didn't go over well in the Arizona party. After leaving the Senate, Flake became a distinguished fellow at Arizona State University, lecturing and leading seminars, per the Arizona Republic. He is also a distinguished fellow at Brigham Young University's Sorensen Center for Moral and Ethical Leadership.
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