An environmental adviser to US President Barack Obama has resigned amid controversy over past inflammatory statements, the White House said early yesterday.
Van Jones, an administration official specializing in environmentally friendly “green jobs” with the White House Council on Environmental Quality was linked to efforts suggesting a government role in the 2001 terror attacks and to derogatory comments about Republicans.
The resignation comes as Obama is working to regain his footing in the contentious debate over his plan to bring comprehensive healthcare coverage to the US, the only industrialized nation to lack such a program.
Jones issued an apology on Thursday for his past statements. When asked the next day whether Obama still had confidence in him, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said only that Jones “continues to work in the administration.”
The matter surfaced after news reports of a derogatory comment Jones made in the past about Republicans, and separately, of Jones’ name appearing on a petition connected to the events surrounding the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. That 2004 petition had asked for congressional hearings and other investigations into whether high-level government officers had allowed the attacks to occur.
“On the eve of historic fights for healthcare and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me,” Jones said in his resignation statement. “They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.”
Jones said he has been “inundated with calls from across the political spectrum urging me to stay and fight.”
He said, however, he could not in good conscience ask his colleagues to spend time and energy defending or explaining his past.
Jones flatly said in an earlier statement that he did not agree with the petition’s stand on the attacks and that “it certainly does not reflect my views, now or ever.”
As for his other comments he made before joining Obama’s team, Jones said: “If I have offended anyone with statements I made in the past, I apologize.”
His apologies had done little to quiet Republican demands that he resign.
Nancy Sutley, chair of the council, said in a statement that she had accepted Jones’ resignation and thanked him for his services.
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