Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has withdrawn the appointment of an Arkansas native to a top department job because of political objections.

He’d wanted to appoint Fort Smith native Anne Patterson as undersecretary for policy, but withdrew her name because of Republican Senate opposition, including from U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Objections were rooted in her work as ambassador to Egypt during the Obama administration, the Washington Post reports. Egyptian leadership then had ties to the Muslim brotherhood, a sore point for Cotton.

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Another report claims a change in a White House personnel office because of Mattiis’ unhappiness with objections a Trump loyalist had raised to people who couldn’t pass her political purity tests

Patterson is a career diplomat who joined the Foreign Service in 1973.

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