President Trump’s nominee for USDA chief scientist described black leaders as “race traders” and called President Obama a “Maoist” in blogs produced a few years ago in conjunction with a radio talk show aimed at conservatives, said CNN. Clovis was co-chair of Trump’s presidential campaign, Trump’s liaison with farm groups and, since January, the White House’s chief political operative at USDA.
There has been scattered criticism of the administration’s nomination of Clovis to be undersecretary for research, a post that doubles as USDA chief scientist. By statute, the job is reserved for “distinguished scientists with specialized or significant experience in agricultural research, education, and economics.” A former college professor, Clovis has degrees in political science, business administration and public administration, but never took a graduate course in science, says ProPublica. He is a climate change skeptic and suggested in an interview while running for the Senate that federal crop insurance is unconstitutional.
CNN said the blogs were posted on the website for Clovis’ talk show and no longer available online. It searched Internet archives to retrieve the material; most of the available posts came from 2011 and 2012. In a June 2011 blog, he said WEB Du Bois “was the first race trader,” bartering votes for political influence. In September 2011, he similarly said Obama “has no experience at anything other than race baiting and race trading.” A month earlier, Clovis said Republican candidates “need to get that titanium spine we keep hearing about and call out the progressives for what they are — liars, race traders and race ‘traitors.’”
“In multiple posts in January 2012, Clovis refers to President Obama as ‘a Maoist’ and ‘anti-colonist,” said CNN.
A USDA press aide told CNN, “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.”