President Donald Trump’s pick to oversee U.S. relations with the United Nations has abruptly withdrawn his nomination after a bruising Senate confirmation process that exposed a trail of controversial remarks about Jews, Israel and race.

Jeremy Carl, a senior fellow at the conservative Claremont Institute, conceded that his path to confirmation had collapsed after he failed to secure the unified Republican support needed to move forward in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Trump had nominated Carl in January to serve as assistant secretary of state for international organizations — a high-profile role responsible for managing U.S. policy toward the United Nations and its sprawling network of agencies.

But Carl’s nomination quickly ran into turbulence during a tense confirmation hearing in February, when senators confronted him with a series of past inflammatory comments.

Under intense questioning, Carl acknowledged that he had made deeply problematic remarks in the past, including statements that appeared to downplay the significance of the Holocaust.

“Sometimes, I take an idea too far,” Carl admitted during the hearing. “I made some comments in interviews about minimizing the effect of the Holocaust that were absolutely wrong.”

Lawmakers also pressed him about other statements he had made over the years, including claims that a “genocide” against white Americans is underway and criticism suggesting that the United States spends too much “time and energy” on Israel.

Carl, who is Jewish but converted to Christianity, attempted to distance himself from some of those remarks during the hearing. But the damage to his nomination appeared to be done.

A decisive blow came from Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, who publicly announced that he would not support Carl’s nomination — a signal that the Republican unity needed to advance the nomination simply was not there.

Without unanimous Republican backing on the committee, Carl’s confirmation prospects effectively evaporated.

Rather than force the Trump administration into a prolonged political fight over a nomination that had become increasingly controversial, Carl stepped aside.

The collapse of the nomination leaves the administration searching once again for a candidate to fill a critical diplomatic post at a time when the United States’ relationship with international institutions — particularly the United Nations — remains a central point of debate in Washington.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)