(AURN News) — Another Trump nominee is out — this time over racist text messages. Paul Ingrassia, the president’s pick to lead the Office of Special Counsel, withdrew his nomination after a Politico report revealed messages in which he called Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday that should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs,” and described himself as having a “Nazi streak.”
The texts sparked outrage on Capitol Hill, with several Republican senators — including some of Trump’s closest allies — refusing to support him. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he would not advance the nomination, and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said, “It never should have got this far.”
Ingrassia, who currently serves as a White House liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, said the messages were meant as satirical humor and suggested that he might have been manipulated.
Still, Democrats are demanding that he be fired from his current role, calling his comments racist and disqualifying for public service.
Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.
