Biden taps GOP former Sen. Jeff Flake for Turkey ambassador

President Joe Biden on Tuesday nominated former Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican lawmaker who endorsed his 2020 run for the White House, to serve as U.S. ambassador to Turkey.

Flake served in the U.S. Senate from Arizona from 2013 to 2019 and in the U.S. House from 2001 to 2013.

Flake retired from the Senate at the end of his term in 2019, saying he was out of step with the Republican Party in the era of former President Donald Trump. He later wrote a book, “Conscience of a Conservative,” that was a critique of Trump.

“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. “That is my belief as well, and my commitment.”

Flake was one of more than two dozen former Republican lawmakers to announce their support for “Republicans for Biden.”

Former Reps. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, Jim Greenwood of Pennsylvania and Jim Leach of Iowa and late Sen. John Warner of Virginia are among the former Republican lawmakers who also have endorsed Biden.

The White House also announced Tuesday that Biden is tapping career senior foreign service officer Kent Logsdon to serve as ambassador to Moldova.