Civil Rights Organizations Warn Senate Foreign Relations Committee Nominee with Extreme Racial Views Would Undermine US Credibility

NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 12, 2026)  — The appointment of a partisan operative with extreme racial views to a key international position would "undermine U.S. credibility and weaken our capacity to lead with moral authority on the world stage," the nation's legacy civil rights organizations warned in a letter to the chair and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urging them to reject the nomination.

Jeremy Carl's record "reflects views that are fundamentally incompatible with the responsibilities of this role and with the values the United States must uphold on the global stage," the organizations wrote to Chair James E. Risch and Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen. "This position requires a clear commitment to civil rights, non-discrimination obligations under international law, the protection of refugees, and the inherent dignity of all human beings without regard to race or national origin.” 

President Trump's nominee for Assistant Secretary for International Organizations, Carl has disparaged the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as an “anti-white weapon,” invoked the so-called “Great Replacement” theory, engaged in anti-Black racism, denied America’s identity as a nation of immigrants, and used violent rhetoric against political opponents while excusing the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"Mr. Carl’s portrayal of immigrants and communities of color as threats to the nation’s future is incompatible with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and with the principles of a multiracial democracy itself," the organizations wrote.

The letter was sent by National Urban League, National Action Network, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, NAACP,  Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights,  and National Council of Negro Women.