Van Jones resigned his post in the Obama administration in the midst of controversy,an administration official specializing in environmentally friendly "green jobs,"
White House environmental adviser Van Jones resigned late Saturday after weeks of pressure from the right over his past activism.
"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones, special adviser for green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a statement announcing his resignation just after midnight Saturday. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."
He continued: "I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future."
Van Jones, an administration official specializing in environmentally friendly "green jobs" with the was linked to efforts suggesting a government role in the 2001 terror attacks and to derogatory comments about Republicans.The matter surfaced after news reports of a derogatory comment Jones made in the past about Republicans, and separately, of Jones' name appearing on a petition connected to the events surrounding the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. That 2004 petition had asked for congressional hearings and other investigations into whether high-level government officers had allowed the attacks to occur.
Jones issued two public apologies in recent days, one for signing a petition that questioned whether Bush administration officials "may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war" and the other for using a crude term to describe Republicans in a speech he gave before joining the administration.
Jones flatly said in an earlier statement that he did not agree with the petition's stand on the 9/11 attacks and that "it certainly does not reflect my views, now or ever."As for his other comments he made before joining Obama's team, Jones said, "If I have offended anyone with statements I made in the past, I apologize."His apologies did little to quiet Republican demands that the resign called for Jones to quit, saying in a statement, "His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate."Congress to investigate Jones's fitness for his White House position.
Joint chairperson of the council, said in a statement released early Sunday that she accepts Jones resignation and thanked him for his service.
"Over the last six months, he had been a strong voice for creating jobs that improve energy efficiency and utilize renewable resources," she said. "We appreciate his hard work and wish him the best moving forward."
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