Political observers bashed Paul Ingrassia, a right-wing podcaster whom President Donald Trump nominated to lead the Office of the Special Counsel, after he withdrew his nomination on Tuesday.
Ingrassia has a long history of making incendiary statements, some of which recently came to light when Politico reported on a series of text messages he sent. In one message, Ingrassia called for the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to be "tossed to the 7th circle of hell." In another, he claimed to have a"Nazi streak" in him.
Ingrassia's lawyer has denied the authenticity of the texts. Even so, Ingrassia withdrew his nomination.
"I will be withdrawing myself from Thursday’s HSGAC hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because, unfortunately, I do not have enough Republican votes at this time," Ingrassia posted in a statement on X. "I appreciate the overwhelming support that I have received throughout this process and will continue to serve President Trump and this administration to Make America Great Again!"
Observers bashed Ingrassia's statement on social media.
"This isn’t anywhere near enough. Trump has to fire him immediately," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) posted on X.
"We're sure your mom is devastated :/," The Democrats wrote on X.
"Tough day for sons of boy moms," Marcus Robinson, senior spokesperson for The Democrats, posted on X.
"Given his long history of inflammatory/outrageous posts, a question: Did the administration not know about these statements when he was nominated, or did they know about them and nominate him anyway?" journalist Paul Farhi posted on X.
"I was looking forward to serving my country in this new role. Unfortunately I turned out to be a Nazi, according to me. So I'm bagging on the nomination hearing. Since I'm not good at writing sentences in English it's not clear whether I'm bagging the hearing or my nomination," Josh Marshall, founder of Talking Points Memo, posted on X.