Another Trump Official Has Buckled Under The Mueller Investigation — Here's What You Need To Know
MAYBE HAD TOO MUCH LOYALTY
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Sam Clovis, a former Trump campaign official and current adviser who was nominated to a top spot in the USDA has withdrawn his name from consideration after multiple scandals placed him in the spotlight. Here's what you need to know.

Clovis Was Nominated To Be The Agriculture Department's Top Scientist, But Has No Scientific Experience

Same Clovis was nominated in the Spring to serve as the USDA's undersecretary for research — the top scientist in the department. On Thursday, The Washington Post revealed that by his own admission, Clovis has no academic credentials in science or agriculture, a qualification that was written into the 2008 bill that created the position:

The 2008 farm bill specifies that appointees to the position should be chosen "from among distinguished scientists with specialized training or significant experience in agricultural research, education, and economics," given that the official is "responsible for the coordination of the research, education, and extension activities of the Department."

[The Washington Post]

Clovis' previous work includes political science professor and talk radio host, but in a letter to the Senate committee overseeing his nomination, he justified his nomination to the scientific position with his experience running for office in Iowa. Clovis has degrees in political science, business and public administration. 

ProPublica reports that Clovis hasn't ever taken a graduate level science course.

He Withdrew After It Was Revealed That He Encouraged A Campaign Adviser To Meet With Russian Officials

On Monday, unsealed court documents revealed that Clovis, who was serving as Trump's campaign co-chairman at the time, urged foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos to meet with Russian officials. "Make the trip, if it is feasible," wrote Clovis. While the court filings didn't reveal Clovis' identity, they matched emails described to The Post in August. Clovis' attorney claimed that Clovis was "being polite" in his encouragement.

Clovis was close to the investigation in another way too, Politico reporting that Clovis recruited Carter Page to the Trump campaign. Page has a tangled web of financial and business ties to Russia, and has become one of the centers of special investigator Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference. 

On Thursday, Clovis withdrew his name from consideration of the USDA post, citing the political climate:

"The political climate inside Washington has made it impossible for me to receive balanced and fair consideration for this position… The relentless assaults on you and your team seem to be a blood sport that only increases with intensity each day."

[The Washington Post]

It's unclear if Clovis will remain in the White House as Trump's USDA adviser. 

He Has Made Controversial Statements About Climate Change, Race And Gay Rights

In August, CNN's KFile revealed that while he was a radio talk show host between 2012 and 2014, Clovis made multiple anti-gay statements, including the assertion that being gay was "a choice they make," and that LGBT people should not receive 14th Amendment protections, calling LGBT folks an "aberration." Clovis argued that if LGBT people receive 14th Amendment protections, left-handed people should too. He also questioned extending 14th Amendment protections to gay people by asking, "are we going to protect pedophilia?"

Clovis also argued in favor of the Birther conspiracy that President Obama was born in Kenya, suggesting he was "given a pass because he is black[.]" Clovis also called Obama a "race trader" and a "Maoist," and referred to Eric Holder as "a racist black" and Tom Perez as "a racist Latino."

Even more damning, for someone who was nominated to a scientific position, are Clovis' statements on climate change, which he questioned in 2013: "What we have to examine is how the language changes, and when you start to go away from 'global warming' to 'climate change,'… the implication is, is that somehow the progressives are going to figure out a way to create the ideal climate in all regions of the earth." In 2011, Clovis said American schools were indoctrinating kids with environmentalism, whose aim is the "destruction of capitalism."

<p>Benjamin Goggin is the News Editor at Digg.&nbsp;</p>

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