Overview
- Iceland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs asked the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavík to verify reports that nominee Billy Long joked Iceland would become the 52nd state and he would be governor.
- Long told Arctic Today the comment was a joke among colleagues and issued an apology to anyone offended.
- A public petition urging Foreign Minister Katrín Gunnarsdóttir to reject Long has drawn roughly 4,000 signatures within days.
- Long’s nomination to be ambassador to Iceland has been submitted to the U.S. Senate but he has not been confirmed.
- The episode unfolded as U.S. rhetoric on acquiring Greenland escalated, including a new Republican bill proposing annexation and a path to statehood.