President Trump’s pick to be chief scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) ripped progressives in a newly reported blog post from 2011, in which he called them “liars, race traders, and race ‘traitors.’”
CNN was the first to report Wednesday on the archived blog posts, which were originally available on the now-defunct website for his Sioux City radio program “Impact with Clovis.”
“The current crop of candidates needs to get that titanium spine we keep hearing about and call out the progressives for what they are – liars, race traders, and race ‘traitors,’” Clovis wrote.
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“They cannot tell the truth, mostly because they lack moral certitude, they cannot possibly reveal the fundamental fact that it is the progressives in America that are the real racists,” he continued.
Clovis declined to comment to The Hill about the newly revealed comments, referring questions to the USDA, which defended him on Wednesday.
“Dr. Clovis is a proud conservative and a proud American. All of his reporting either on the air or in writing over the course of his career has been based on solid research and data. He is after all an academic,” a USDA spokesperson told CNN.
Trump nominated Clovis, who was one of the president’s earliest campaign advisers, to the USDA’s top science position in July.
Clovis, who has challenged the notion that climate change is man-made, was tapped to serve as Agriculture’s undersecretary for research, education and economics.