This Week: The First Rule Of Buying An Ambassadorship

The first rule of buying an ambassadorship is don’t write an email about it to the senator controlling your nomination. And yet, that’s just what Doug “Papa Doug” Manchester appears to have done, CBS News reports. Manchester — just like EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland — donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee and was nominated to be the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas in Trump’s early days. But the nomination stalled in the Senate. Then things picked back up: Trump praised Manchester in a Sept. 7 tweet for his relief efforts after Hurricane Dorian’s landfall. Then, three days later, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel asked Manchester for $500,000 “from your family,” per CBS News. Manchester responded in an email that his wife was donating $100,000, and then asked for a favor: Have Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) bring my nomination to the Senate floor. Manchester then appeared to suggest a donation could be contingent on his confirmation, writing to McDaniel,…