PM mute on if she backs Liddell for OECD job
NZ Trump official has hat in ring for top role but Jacinda Ardern isn’t commenting
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is not say if she supports is Donald Trump’s New Zealand-born deputy chief of staff to take charge of the OECD.
Kiwi Chris Liddell, one of Trump’s close advisers, will be out of a White House job on Thursday when power transfers from Trump to presidentelect Joe Biden.
He was nominated for the OECD Secretary-General job by Trump. Both National and Act have withdrawn their previously pledged support for Liddell.
In a statement to the Herald, a spokesperson for Ardern said the Prime Minister “won’t be commenting publicly on the OECD Secretary-General selection process”.
This is a different position she held in October last year, when one of her spokespeople said: “The Government is yet to make a decision on which candidate it will be supporting”.
In a mid-November press conference last year, Ardern said that Cabinet hadn’t yet made the final decision as to who it would be supporting for the nomination of the OECD’s Secretary-General.
“[There are a] number of things that we want to take into account, and what I would say is that we have a wide range of considerations; citizenship is not the only one.”
Liddell’s candidacy for the Secretary-General role came into stark focus after the US Capitol riots, which claimed the lives of five people. The US Congress voted to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the violence — the Senate has not yet voted. A number of key Trump officials and members of his Cabinet resigned in the wake of the riots. Liddell, however, said he was staying on until Trump leaves office.
Although she won’t say if she’s supporting Liddell’s bid, Ardern did condemn the storming of the Capitol Building. “Democracy — the right of people to exercise a vote, have their voice heard and then have that decision upheld peacefully should
[The Prime Minister] won’t be commenting publicly on the OECD Secretary-General selection process. Spokesperson for Ardern
never be undone by a mob. Our thoughts are with everyone who is as devastated as we are by the events of today. I have no doubt democracy will prevail,” she said in a tweet at the time.
National had previously supported Liddell’s selection, but leader Judith Collins last week said the party had changed its mind after the riots. “The rioting that took place in the US Capitol was a disgraceful attack on democracy that has rightly tarnished those who incited and enabled the violence,” Collins said.
“Mr Liddell’s ties to the Trump Administration cannot be overlooked here, making it difficult to see how he would be suitable to uphold the OECD’s strong commitment to democracy.”
After the insurrection, Liddell told the Herald he was “horrified, like everyone else,” by the storming.