White House environmental adviser Van Jones resigned on Saturday following several weeks of controversy surrounding his past activism.
Van Jones was the White House special assistant for “Green Jobs”, a position formerly known as “Color of Change” . A few weeks ago, “Color of Change ” campaigned against Glenn Beck. They, in fact, led a boycott against the Glenn Beck show that wound up being quite successful.
The Obama Administration then chose to distance themselves from Van Jones after Glenn Beck initiated a media campaign of his own, exposing some questionable political views that Van Jones publicly acknowledged.
“On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me,” Jones said in a statement announcing his decision to resign. “They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.”
He continued: “I have been inundated with calls — from across the political spectrum — urging me to ‘stay and fight.’ But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future.”
Jones made two public apologies recently…one for signing a petition that questioned whether Bush administration officials “may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war.” The other was for using derogatory language when referring to Republicans in a speech he gave before joining the Obama administration.
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