Huntsman offffffffffffered job of ambassador to Russia
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has offffffffffffered former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman the position as U. S. ambassador to Russia, a high-profile and sensitive post amid investigations into the contacts between Russian offifficials and the Trump campaign.
Trump made the offffffffffffer to Huntsman earlier this week, according to a White House offifficial not authorized to discuss the move publicly until it is announced. Huntsman has indicated that he will accept the post, the offifficial said Wednesday. The former governor did not immediately return a request for comment.
H u n t s m a n h a s t w i c e before served as an ambassador. He was the nation’s top diplomat to Singapore under Pre s i de nt G e o r ge H.W. Bush and then served in that role in China under President Barack Obama. Huntsman, who ran for president in 2012, was also brieflflflflflfly under consideration to be Trump’s secretary of state.
The former governor, a Mormon, had an up-andd ow n r e l a t i o n s h i p wi t h Trump during last year’s campaign. He was slow to endorse any candidate for the Republican nomination though did back Trump once he became the presumptive nominee. But Huntsman then called for Trump to drop out after the October release of a 2005 video in which Trump was captured on a microphone making lewd comments about women.
He said then that the “campaign cycle has been nothi ng but a race to the bottom” and called for Trump’s running mate, then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, to top the GOP ticket.
Trump also went after Huntsman during his tenure as ambassador to Beijing. In a series of tweets in 2011 and 2012, the celebrity businessman called Huntsman a “light weight” and “weak” and claimed that China “did a major number on us” during his tenure.
If confifirmed, Huntsman will become one of the highest-profifile U. S. ambassadors.
Hunt s man woul d a l s o take the post amid ongoing investigations into contacts between Trump’s team and the Kremlin.
Trump’s fifirst national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was forced to resign after misleading Pence about the nature of his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United St ates. And Attorney General Jeffff Sessions has faced Democratic calls for his resignation after he failed to disclose in his Senate confirmation hearing that he had two conversations with that same ambassador.