Garcetti sworn in as ambassador to India after two-year battle

Eric Garcetti is officially the U.S. ambassador to India.

The former mayor of Los Angeles was sworn in on Friday by Vice President Kamala Harris, a fellow Californian. The ceremony capped Garcetti’s dramatic, nearly two-year fight to fill one of Washington’s most crucial diplomatic posts.

Grinning, Garcetti raised his right hand while Harris performed the ceremony. Family members cheered when the two longtime friends shook hands.

“It feels great. Can’t wait to serve,” the newly minted ambassador said, flashing two thumbs up after the ceremony in Harris’ ceremonial office, located in a building next to the White House. “I’m so honored the vice president did this today.”

The Senate voted 52 to 42 to confirm Garcetti earlier this month after his nomination had stalled for nearly two years over concerns about whether the former mayor knew, or should have known, about sexual harassment allegations against a former top aide.

In an unexpected plot twist, seven Republicans crossed the aisle to help Garcetti secure the post, while three Democrats opposed him.

President Biden, a close political ally of the former mayor, first nominated him in July 2021. Garcetti cleared his first Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in late 2021 by a unanimous vote, but his pathway was soon blocked by the allegations against the former aide, Rick Jacobs. Garcetti has denied any knowledge of the alleged misconduct.

Biden refused to name a new nominee, and renominated Garcetti on the first day of the new Congress in January, sending an unmistakable message that he was sticking with his choice.

Garcetti sought to convince skeptical senators. The former mayor’s parents — former L.A. County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti and Sukey Garcetti — hired lobbyists

to help secure his confirmation, spending $90,000 in 2022 alone, according to federal filings.

“I checked in with [the president] to make sure he still wanted me,” Garcetti told The Times after he was confirmed. “I can tell you, unequivocally, he said, ‘Eric, I’m still 100% behind you.’”

The U.S. has been without an ambassador to India since January 2021.

Biden has sought to bolster economic ties with India as he looks to counter China’s growing influence in the region and shore up support for Ukraine against continued Russian aggression.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not explicitly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has continued to buy cheap gas from Moscow, shrugging off U.S. and European sanctions aimed at cutting off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ability to fund the war.

The ceremony in Harris’ office on Friday also marked a personal moment between two politicians who ascended the California political world together. Harris and Garcetti’s relationship spans more than 15 years, during which she served as California’s attorney general and later as a U.S. senator for the state.

During Biden’s successful run for president, Garcetti, as the Biden campaign’s national co-chair, recalled trudging through the Iowa snow with Harris in 2008 to knock on doors for then-Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

He has also spoken about their bond over their mixed heritage: Harris is of Indian and Jamaican descent and Garcetti is Jewish and Mexican American.

Garcetti’s parents, his wife, Amy Wakeland, and Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, stood next to the former mayor to mark the occasion. Garcetti’s daughter, Maya, held the historic Hebrew Bible on loan from the Library of Congress for the ceremony.

Asked when he plans to travel to India, Garcetti said: “Hopefully as soon as I can.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.