“Fox News Darren J. Beattie, who was fired as a White House speechwriter after speaking at a white nationalist conference, announced Wednesday that Trump had appointed him to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. Since losing his reelection bid earlier this month, President Donald Trump has appointed two men with well-documented white nationalist ties to government roles, raising urgent questions about whether they’ll still have jobs under Democratic President-elect Joe Biden. Darren J. Beattie, a former White House speechwriter fired in 2018 after it was revealed he’d spoken at a white nationalist conference, announced Wednesday that Trump had appointed him to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. On Nov. 13, the Trump administration also appointed Jason Richwine — a policy analyst pushed out of a conservative think tank for writing that Mexican and other Latino immigrants have lower IQs than white people — to a senior position at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). “The U.S. government should not be giving posts to people with ties to white nationalists, end of story,” Lecia Brooks, chief of staff at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told HuffPost in a statement. “Under the leadership of the Trump administration, our government has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to work with or amplify voices from the far-right racist fringe, and they appear willing to do so until the bitter end of the president’s term in office.” But will Beattie and Richwine still have these jobs once Biden is inaugurated in January? The answer illuminates the sometimes complicated and confusing process by which transitions between White House administrations occur. Karen Hult, a professor of political science at Virginia Tech and board member of the White House Transition Project, told HuffPost that most political appointees are expected to submit a resignation letter after a new president takes office. This is the likely scenario for Richwine, she said. “Although not all of these resignations are accepted, in this case it seems clear it would be,” Hult said. Richwine, 38, resigned from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, in 2013 after co-authoring a widely mocked report about immigrants being a drain on the economy. His resignation came after media scrutiny of his past racist writings, most notably his Harvard dissertation, in which he stated that Latinos and Mexican immigrants had lower IQs than whites and that “the difference is likely to persist over several generations.” The U.S., Richwine argued, should select only high-IQ immigrants in order to prevent “underclass behavior.” Richwine also wrote two stories for Alternativeright.com, the website founded by white supremacist figurehead Richard Spencer. More recently, as noted by Science magazine, Richwine has co-authored reports for the Center for Immigration Studies, which the SPLC deems a white nationalist organization. Despite this history of white nationalism, Hult said, “Dr. Richwine can add being deputy undersecretary of commerce for standards and technology to his résumé” — even if he’ll only be in the position for a couple months. Lame-duck presidents often make appointments to pad the résumés of friends and loyalists. “These sorts of things not infrequently take place at the end of administrations,” Hult said. “They can be short-term résumé builders for some or longer-term, mostly ceremonial appointments for others. Of greater concern for many is when political appointees ‘burrow in’ to career service jobs.” This is the concern about Beattie, whose appointment to the Commission for the Preservation of American Heritage Abroad drew sharp criticism from Jewish groups this week. The commission, whose website isn’t currently working, is devoted in part to preserving Holocaust memorials and other sites associated with the genocide in Europe. If Beattie’s appointment is finalized, according to a Congressional Research Services description of his new role, he’d serve a three-year term on the commission. “Though a President Biden could not remove him, the president or allies might request that he step down,” Hult told HuffPost, but Beattie could refuse to do so. A spokesman for Biden’s transition team didn’t respond to a HuffPost request for comment on how it might address Beattie’s appointment. Beattie, who is Jewish, has extremely deep ties to white nationalists and anti-Semites. He served as a speechwriter in the Trump administration until 2018. He was dismissed after revelations that he’d spoken at the 2016 gathering of the H.L. Mencken Club, an annual conference that routinely attracts prominent white nationalists. He had appeared on a panel at the conference alongside Peter Brimelow, founder of the white nationalist and anti-immigrant website VDare. Beattie has since become a frequent booster and ally of Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist who rallied alongside neo-Nazis at 2017’s deadly “Unite the Right” demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia. Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via Getty Images Nick Fuentes, the leader of the white nationalist America First, or Groypers, movement, in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 4. Fuentes is a leading figure in the America First, or Groyper, movement, one of the more recent incarnations of the explicitly racist and anti-Semitic alt-right. Fuentes hosts a live-stream show in which he has promoted Holocaust denial and called for law enforcement to kill anti-racism protesters. “I want to Roman salute my president so bad,” Fuentes once said of Trump, referring to the fascist arm gesture most commonly associated with the Nazis. Fuentes also once explained that the only reason he doesn’t call himself a white nationalist is for branding purposes, “not because I don’t see the necessity for white people to have a homeland and for white people to have a country.” Beattie has frequently retweeted Fuentes and promoted his work. Fuentes, in turn, has called Beattie “brilliant” and “honorable.” This from the guy who is friendly with the Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, and who works for the congressman who brought a different Holocaust denier to SOTU ‘18…….https://t.co/AlsSW5tpJ7 https://t.co/JpZf7lv7zO pic.twitter.com/1Wj5FRRQMl— Sophie #DefundNYPD Ellman-Golan (@EgSophie) August 25, 2020 Earlier this year, Beattie issued a white nationalist call to arms on Twitter, writing, “If white people are targeted as a group, they must learn to defend themselves as a group.” He has also promoted the fascist, misogynistic and anti-Semitic self-help manifesto Bronze Age Mindset. Beattie did not respond to a HuffPost request for comment on his new role on the commission or about his well-documented white nationalism. Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, expressed dismay over Beattie’s appointment. “Even as we cross the grim milestone of a quarter-million Americans dying from COVID, with Trump’s administration failing to protect Americans or provide desperately needed economic relief, Trump is using his final weeks in office to spread fear and lies and promote white nationalists and neo-fascists like Darren Beattie,” Cotler said. Cotler added that the “ties between government, the Republican Party and hate groups have become so commonplace” that Beattie’s appointment was, sadly, not surprising. A series of reports in recent years have identified multiple government officials as being linked to the white nationalist movement, including White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, White House deputy communications director Julia Hahn and State Department official Matthew Q. Gebert.
Report From Katie Porter Shows 1 In 5 Women Have Left Workforce Since Pandemic
71 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) is calling out how the COVID-19 pandemic and its related economic crisis have disproportionately pushed women out of the workforce. About 22% — or over 1 in 5 — women in the U.S. have l...
White Evangelical Leaders Pledge Seminaries Will Not Teach Key Theory On Systemic Racism
426 Views0 Comments1 Likes
["The presidents of all six Southern Baptist seminaries have roundly condemned a key method that scholars have developed to examine how systemic racism persists in America. The leaders, whose seminaries educate the ne...
Trump Loves Winning But Keeps Losing His Election Lawsuits
146 Views0 Comments1 Likes
["For a man obsessed with winning, President Donald Trump is losing a lot. He’s managed to lose not just once to Democrat Joe Biden at the ballot box but over and over again in courts across the country in a futile at...
I’m Mixed-Race And Have White Parents. Here’s What My Hair Taught Me About My Culture.
118 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["MAT LO I used to only let my hair down on the weekends. Dangling upside down, I giggle as my mother swings me gently by my ankles. I can see my curls bouncing freely as she flips me right side up. She gives me a ki...
Gloria Estefan Reveals She Caught COVID-19, But Has Since Recovered
85 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["MIAMI (AP) — Singer and businesswoman Gloria Estefan said on Wednesday that she spent much of November in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, days after dining outdoors at a Miami-area restaurant. Estefan...
Kayleigh McEnany Defends White House Holiday Parties Amid COVID Surge
0 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["Coronavirus infections and hospitalizations are surging to record highs, but President Donald Trump will carry on with White House holiday gatherings as usual, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday. Her co...
Former Stanford Colleagues Cheer Scott Atlas Leaving White House Task Force
0 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["Dr. Scott Atlas resigned from the White House coronavirus task force on Monday after months of advocating against social distancing policies and disputing the medical consensus around COVID-19. A frequent Fox News g...
Trump Has Raised Up To $170 Million Since Election Day: Reports
0 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["President Donald Trump has raised between $150 million and $170 million since Election Day amid ongoing appeals to supporters as part of his effort to undercut results of the race that saw him lose by millions of vo...