From the first day of the Trump administration, Sam Clovis was the White House liaison to the USDA. Although he is keeping that job, he is abandoning a divisive bid to become USDA chief scientist. Withdrawal of the nomination highlights the startlingly slow pace of the administration in providing an executive team to help Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue put Trump policies into play.
Only three of the eight executives are at work. One nominee is bottled up in the Senate in a dispute over biofuels. Four undersecretary positions – overseeing public nutrition, meat safety, national forests, and agricultural research – are vacant with no nominee in sight.
A co-chair of President Trump’s campaign, Clovis withdrew his nomination for the dual post of chief scientist and undersecretary for research in a defiant blast at “the political climate in Washington.” Opponents argued loudly for months that Clovis lacked the qualifications for the USDA job.
At the start of this week, a court document indicated Clovis, as a campaign supervisor, encouraged foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos to make an off-the-record trip to Russia to meet government officials. Papadopoulos had said for weeks that Russians had “dirt” on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The trip never occurred. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the contacts.
“The relentless assaults on you and your team seem to be a blood sport that only increases in intensity each day,” wrote Clovis to Trump. “The political climate in Washington has made it impossible for me to receive fair and balanced consideration for this position.”
A USDA spokesman said, “Dr. Clovis will be staying on as Senior White House Advisor at USDA.” Clovis was leader of the administration’s “beach head” team that arrived at USDA on inauguration day. Clovis, often the face of the Trump campaign in farm country, has been the top political operative at USDA ever since. The environmental group Climate Hawks Vote said Clovis “must step down” from the USDA job too.
The senior Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, said Clovis’ withdrawal “is a victory for science and our farmers who rely on agricultural research.” Stabenow was an early opponent of the nomination and called for its withdrawal weeks ago. Clovis has a doctorate in public administration while the post of USDA chief scientist is reserved for “distinguished scientists with specialized or significant experience in agricultural research, education and economics.”
“After months of needless delay, the White House and Senate must now select and confirm a candidate with the appropriate background, training and judgment for the job,” said Ricardo Salvador of the Union of Concerned Scientists, which scored Clovis for “his lack of scientific qualifications, embrace of conspiracy theories, and racist and homophobic views.” In blogs several years ago, Clovis described President Obama as a Maoist and black leaders as “race traders,” CNN reported in late summer. Clovis was a college professor in Iowa, host of a political talk show on Sioux City radio and a candidate for the Republican nomination for Senate.
Another opponent, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the Clovis nomination “neatly illustrated how science has been subordinated to politicis in the Trump administration…It is our hope that the Trump administration will nominate a qualified scientist—not a campaign political operative—to serve in this important role.”
Perdue and the White House stood by Clovis until the end. Two dozen leading farm groups signed a letter in support of Clovis during the summer, saying USDA’s research agencies would gain a forceful advocate in Clovis and that his lack of a record in science did not mattter: Clovis would be a manager, not a researcher, if confirmed.
So far, the Senate has confirmed Deputy Secretary Steve Censky, Ted McKinney as undersercretary for trade, and Gregory Ibach as undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs. The Senate Agriculture Committee approved Bill Northey to be the undersecretary in charge of the farm program. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has blocked a vote on Northey in retaliation for Midwestern defense of ethanol and biodiesel.