Rubio Puts Hold on Biden’s Ambassador Picks for China, Spain

(Bloomberg) -- Republican Senator Marco Rubio placed holds on President Joe Biden’s ambassador picks for China and Spain, a procedural move that will add to the delays the White House has faced getting its envoys to embassies around the world.

Nicholas Burns, Biden’s nominee to be ambassador to Beijing, doesn’t understand the threat posed by China’s leaders, Rubio said in a statement on Tuesday. “The last thing we need is another caretaker of American decline in the room with the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.

The Florida lawmaker said Julissa Reynoso Pantaleon, Biden’s nominee for Spain and First Lady Jill Biden’s chief of staff, is an apologist of the former Castro regime in Cuba and “has absolutely no business being in our government.” He added that he was confident she wouldn’t pressure authoritarian regimes in Nicaragua or Venezuela.

Biden has seen his nominees for several national security posts, including ambassadors and assistant secretary nominees at the State and Treasury Departments, snagged by such procedural moves from Senate Republicans. But until Rubio’s holds, Burns had seemed headed for a quick confirmation because Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who has stalled several nominees, said filling the China post was too important to delay.

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