No, No Nanny
By: Terry Schwadron
Tags: Immigration, Politics, United Nations, Values, Taxes

Terry H. Schwadron

Feb.18, 2019

News that Heather Nauert has withdrawn from consideration to become the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations because she once had hired an nanny without paying taxes was momentarily startling, just because another nomination was running off the tracks.

Nauert, the State Department spokeswoman and former Fox News anchor, said defending herself in confirmation hearings would be “grueling for my family,” and it would be best to withdraw.

At first, the reports were that Nauert had hired someone lacking immigration documents, before that story gave way to the idea that the nanny was in the country legally, but that Nauert did not pay the required employer taxes. Once it had become known, Nauert paid the taxes late.

I realized I was asking myself questions: If hiring an undocumented worker is a bad thing, why did it take Nauert two months to remember — or worse, for the White House to come across this fact? Isn’t this part of the normal vetting process for Nauert’s current job? Indeed, is having done so, whether intentional or not, still really disqualifying?

And, of course, if doing so is disqualifying for Nauert, once again, why is this standard not mentioned about Donald Trump, whose properties in Bridgewater, N.J. seem to have undergone a specific campaign to hire people without proper immigration status and then tried to hide it.

Actually, The Washington Post found, Nauert voluntarily disclosed the nanny issue to investigatorsas well as to senior officials at the beginning of her vetting process. Her security investigation was delayed while the administration tried to figure out how to deal with the revelation. So, it the delay has been about how to best disguise the problem?

I’ll let you decide whether the practice of hiring undocumented workers is problematic, but naming a candidate for an elevated appointed office without first checking them out seems a reflection of sloppiness and lack of rigor that has marked this presidency. Or learning it, but then trying to paper it over makes the error more pronounced.

The Post said that the nanny issue wasn’t caught in her first security investigation when she became State Department spokeswoman in 2017, the officials said. This investigation process for a Senate-confirmed position is more rigorous and a U.N. ambassador needs a higher level of clearance, they said. But no one ever even produced Nauert’s paperwork for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, prompting suspicion in the Senate.

What makes it all weirder is another Post disclosure that “But according to a person familiar with Nauert’s situation, the nanny was in the country legally.She was a Jamaican national employed by Nauert and her husband 10 years ago. The Nauerts paid her salary in cash. When they discovered she was not paying taxes, they insisted the tax bill be paid, the person said.”

Politicoquoted a former White House official who said that “since Trump became president, several of his picks for top leadership posts have removed their names from consideration after already being tapped, including Andrew Puzder, Trump’s original choice for Labor secretary, and Ronny Jackson, Trump’s section to head the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

Nauert, the White House and the National Security Council had nothing more to say. It was unclear whether Nauert would return to the State Department.

Trump named Nauert for the job in December, following former ambassador Nikki Haley’s resignation announcement in October. At the time, it appeared odd to nominate a person whose work to date was as a Fox anchor and a public relations mouthpiece. There was nothing immediately apparent about her that would suggest that she would be a forceful and effective diplomat in the international waters of the United Nations.

Several other names floated for the job before Nauert was tapped included Dina Powell, a Goldman Sachs executive and former senior White House aide, Ambassador to Russia Jon Hunstman, Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, State Department official Brian Hook and Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and top adviser.

Wouldn’t you think making America great would include choosing people who play by the rules?

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