WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 24: Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill after announcing he will not seek re-election October 24, 2017 in Washington, DC. Flake announced that he will leave the Senate after his term ends in 14 months. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced that he is nominating former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona), a Republican who endorsed Biden during his presidential run last year, as the U.S. ambassador to Turkey.
Flake served as a senator representing Arizona from 2013 to 2019 and as the representative in the lower house from 2001 to 2013.
“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. U.S. foreign policy can and should be bipartisan,” Flake said in a statement following the announcement. “That is my belief as well and my commitment.”
Flake was one of several former GOP lawmakers to declare their endorsement for Biden.
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If Flake is confirmed officially, he will be heading to Turkey amid a trying time of the diplomatic relationship between the two countries.
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