Trump State Dept Nominee Withdraws After ‘White Culture’ Comments

President Donald Trump’s nominee for a senior State Department post withdrew his candidacy Tuesday after mounting opposition from lawmakers threatened to derail his confirmation.

Earlier today, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Jeremy Carl, Trump’s nominee to serve as assistant secretary of state for international organizations, of having “a long history of racist, white supremacist, and antisemitic views,” saying that these perspectives disqualify him from serving at the State Department. Carl withdrew from consideration following weeks of scrutiny over past remarks about white identity and American culture, even though he said the remarks he made had been misunderstood.

“I wanted to announce that I am withdrawing my nomination for consideration as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs. I am tremendously grateful to President Trump for nominating me and then (upon expiration of my original nomination) renominating me for this role, and I am also grateful to Secretary Rubio and his team for their continued support throughout this long and time-consuming process,” Carl wrote.

“Unfortunately, for senior positions such as this one, the support of the President and Secretary of State is very important but not sufficient. We also needed the unanimous support of every GOP Senator on the Committee on Foreign Relations, given the unanimous opposition of Senate Democrats to my candidacy, and unfortunately, at this time this unanimous support was not forthcoming.”

Carl said his comments had been misunderstood, explaining that although he has occasionally referred to “white culture” in speeches and writings, his primary concern is preserving what he described as a shared American civic culture. He added that the term referred broadly to cultural traditions shared by most Americans prior to the 1965 Hart-Celler Immigration Act and argued that people of all backgrounds can participate in and contribute to that culture.