Joe Biden nominates Charlie Crist for UN Ambassador role
Image via AP.

Charlie Crist and Joe Biden
It’s the first major news about Crist since his landslide loss in November to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

President Joe Biden is nominating former Congressman and Florida’s 44th Governor, Charlie Crist, as the next U.S. Ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations agency.

If confirmed by the Senate, Crist would serve as America’s representative on the ICAO Council, a 36-member body composed of electees from the ICAO’s 193 member states.

He’d replace famed pilot Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger, whose “miracle” landing on the Hudson River in 2009 was dramatized in a feature film seven years later. Sullenberger has served as ICAO ambassador since December 2021.

It’s the first major news about Crist since his landslide loss in November to Gov. Ron DeSantis. Crist resigned from Congress in late August.

Announcing the pending nomination Wednesday, the White House provided a brief but generous overview of Crist’s public service in Florida, which also includes stints as Attorney General and the last statewide elected Commissioner of Education.

“As Governor, Crist guided the state through challenging times, including the Great Recession and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill,” White House personnel wrote.

“Despite drastic budget shortfalls due to the economic crisis, he made public education top priority, steering federal stimulus funding to save thousands of teachers’ jobs. He is also a staunch environmental advocate, working at the federal and state levels to help secure billions in public and private aid to restore the Florida Everglades.”

Environmental concerns have been at the forefront of America’s agenda on the Montreal-headquartered ICAO, which for nearly 80 years has coordinated the principles, techniques, planning and development of international air transportation.

In November 2021, the U.S. set a goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emission from its domestic aviation sector by 2050. The White House said it was targeting 20% lower aviation emissions by 2030.

Less than a year later, the U.S. Department of Energy released a “Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge Roadmap” which included guidance for airlines on how to scale up new technologies to produce sustainable aviation fuel. Executives from Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and the trade association Airlines for America applauded the move.

Biden is also nominating Michael Colin Casey as the next director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, which — as its name suggests — leads counterintelligence operations for the U.S.

Casey, the current staff director of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, will replace Michael Orlando, who has served as deputy director of the agency since former Director Bill Evanina left at the end of the Donald Trump administration in January 2021.

Before taking on his present role in 2016, Casey worked for nine years as a staff member of the House Armed Services Committee and as the legislative director for former Arkansas Democratic U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder from 1997 to 2007.

Jesse Scheckner

Jesse Scheckner has covered South Florida with a focus on Miami-Dade County since 2012. His work has been recognized by the Hearst Foundation, Society of Professional Journalists, Florida Society of News Editors, Florida MMA Awards and Miami New Times. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @JesseScheckner.


7 comments

  • Earl Pitts American

    June 7, 2023 at 5:06 pm

    Well now America this Christ appointment is totally on par with the Buttigeg appointment.
    Idiots that know nothing about what they are appointed to oversee.
    Christ will be back in Florida looking for a job January 7th 2024.
    EPA

    • Elliott Offen

      June 7, 2023 at 7:22 pm

      You worship him so much that you’ve deemed him to be Christ?

  • Bill Pollard

    June 7, 2023 at 6:44 pm

    Charlie Crist was a good governor and a good member of Congress. I have no idea why Earl Pitts American is talking about appointing Christ to something or why he will be in Florida. I certainly hope we have the love and kindness of Jesus with us, but I doubt Jesus will serve in the government.

  • Ed Dot Com 👍

    June 7, 2023 at 7:25 pm

    Hopefully Biden will be reelected but that’s not gonna solve the Balkanization of America by the far right nut jobs, the 1000 red state Hitlers, and other so called conservatives whose only purpose in life is to make rich people more rich and put more people on their plantations.

  • Richard Bruce

    June 7, 2023 at 9:35 pm

    With Charlie Crist’s history of flip flopping, our planes will start flying upside down and backwards.

  • Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

    June 8, 2023 at 11:10 am

    A paycheck for Crist, finally. A political BS job for an unqualified appointee.

  • nail morse

    June 14, 2023 at 2:56 pm

    All Desantis appointees are getting arrested for stealing PPP funds, and DeSantis took showers with Jim Bridenstein. We in FL lost another insurance company. Only have 5 left. I’m sure when DeSantis handmaiden wife loses (she comes off as a snot) his pretend bid that he is failing and gets his white go go boots back here, he can scare them off also.
    Thanks to the Russian spy for anointing Crist the title of Christ. Your christ worship snakes but Crist does not.. Only MAGAts do that!

Comments are closed.


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