Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) says he is going into a Wednesday meeting with Kari Lake with an “open mind” as he weighs whether to sink her nomination as ambassador to Jamaica.Curtis has previously expressed reservations about Lake, a GOP firebrand who embraced President Donald Trump’s stolen election claims as a candidate for governor and then Senate in Arizona. She later led a crusade to shutter the Voice of America, a government-funded broadcaster, before a federal judge ruled that the president improperly elevated her as its de facto leader.“I’m anxious to hear what she has to say,” Curtis told the Washington Examiner. “I try to approach things with an open mind, and I think I’ll have some hard questions about how she represents us over there, but I’ll be open-minded.”
Curtis is not the only Republican concerned about the ambassadorship. The Washington Examiner previously reported that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) plans to oppose Lake’s nomination if it reaches the Senate floor.
But Curtis’s role as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee gives him outsize sway. If he votes “no” and all Democrats join him, the vote deadlocks and her nomination effectively fails.
Curtis has also been willing to wield his influence as a swing vote on the committee. Back in February, he opposed Jeremy Carl, a nominee for the State Department, over his comments on race and “white identity.” Carl eventually dropped out of the running after a bruising confirmation hearing.
