Unqualified, Like Most of Trump’s Nominees
President Donald Trump will announce Callista Gingrich as his nominee to become Ambassador to the Vatican. Like most of Trump’s nominees, Gingrich is wildly unqualified for the role.
President Barack Obama’s first Ambassador to the Holy See, Miguel H. DÃaz, was a professor of theology and the first Hispanic U.S. Vatican Ambassador. His second, Ken Hackett, had been president of Catholic Relief Services, a humanitarian non-profit working in over 90 countries.
Callista Gingrich is the president of Gingrich productions, a historical and public policy multimedia production company. Her bio on the company’s website says she “is the author of the New York Times best-selling children’s series featuring Ellis the Elephant. Her children’s books include Sweet Land of Liberty, Land of the Pilgrims’ Pride, Yankee Doodle Dandy, From Sea to Shining Sea, Christmas in America, and her latest book, Hail to the Chief.”
“Callista is also the co-author of the third edition of the New York Timesbest seller, Rediscovering God in America, as well as Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny, a photographic collection inspired by Newt and Callista’s award-winning documentary film.”
She also served as a congressional aide in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“Ms. Gingrich, a member of the choir at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, played a critical role in Mr. [Newt] Gingrich’s conversion to Catholicism,” The New York Times reports. “But she also played a role in breaking up his second marriage, according to Mr. Gingrich’s ex-wife and former adviser, Marianne Gingrich. The couple divorced in 1999.”
She told ABC News, during Mr. Gingrich’s run for president in 2012, that her husband had sought an open marriage so that he could keep seeing Callista Bisek, then a congressional aide. (Mr. Gingrich denied the accusation at the time.)
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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC licenseÂ