Who is Heather Nauert, Trump’s pick for U.N. ambassador

President Donald Trump announced Friday that he will nominate Heather Nauert to replace Nikki Haley as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

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Trump said he felt Nauert, the current State Department spokeswoman and a journalist before working at the State Department, was well qualified for the job.

“She’s very talented, very smart, very quick, and I think she’s going to be respected by all," Trump said of Nauert.

Nauert has limited experience in government and may be grilled about that when she faces the Senate confirmation hearings required for the position.

Here are a few things we know about Nauert:

  • She was born in Rockford, Illinois. Nauert, 48, earned her undergraduate degree from Mount Vernon College in Washington and a master's from Columbia University's School of Journalism.
  • She is the daughter of a prominent insurance executive.
  • She worked for Fox News from 1998 to 2005. She left Fox for ABC News, but returned to Fox as a reporter in 2007, later becoming a presenter for "Fox & Friends."
  • At Fox, she covered the President Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal and the 9/11 terror attacks as well as four presidential elections.
  • During the time she worked at ABC News she was nominated for an Emmy award for the ABC special series "13 Around the World."
  • She was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She was part a program that "allows younger members to interact with seasoned foreign policy experts and participate in a variety of events and trips designed especially for them," according to her State Department biography.
  • Prior to being named State Department spokeswoman, she served as acting under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs at the State Department.
  • She created some controversy in June near the anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Europe by Allied forces in 1944, when she suggested that that military action was the basis of a "strong relationship" with Germany.  "Tomorrow is the anniversary of the D-Day invasion," Nauert said. "We obviously have a very long history with the government of Germany, and we have a strong relationship with the government."

Credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File

Credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File

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