Van Jones, President Barack Obama’s adviser on “green jobs,” resigned his post overnight, after a series of controversial comments came to light triggering withering attacks from conservatives.
At midnight, the White House released Mr. Jones’ resignation letter from the White House Council on Environmental Quality reports the New York Times.
“On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide,” he wrote.
Within minutes, Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the council, released a second, more curt, statement accepting Mr. Jones’ resignation. “Over the last six months he has been a strong voice for creating 21st century jobs that improve energy efficiency and utilize renewable resources. We appreciate his hard work and wish him the best moving forward.”
Mr. Jones has been in the center of a maelstrom on conservative radio and television talk shows since a video surfaced last week showing him calling Republicans a vulgar epithet. Since then, other controversies have emerged, such as Mr. Jones saying black students would have never committed a massacre such as the one at Colorado’s Columbine High School. His name also appeared on a 2004 petition calling for the government to investigate its own culpability in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. None of those issues happened after Mr. Jones joined the administration.
Mr. Jones apologized for the epithet aimed at Republicans, but he said the Sept. 11 petition “certainly does not reflect my views, now or ever.”
Mr. Jones’ resignation, in the dead of night over Labor Day weekend, marks the first time one of the numerous conservative campaigns raging against the Obama administration has drawn decisive blood. Mr. Jones was one of the “czars” conservatives have been attacking as extra-constitutional appointments not subject to Senate confirmation. He was a relatively minor official — a special adviser for green jobs on the White House Council on Environmental Quality. But his best selling book, telegenic personality and frequent appearances as a motivational speaker made him an outsized figure in that post.
Read more here: Obama Adviser Resigns amid Controversy
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