Trump's new jobs nominee had a secret account that spread explicit images of Kamala Harris
"You can't run a race on your knees," wrote E.J. Antoni on a secret Twitter account that bashed former Vice President Kamala Harris with a sexually explicit image doctored from a campaign poster.
Antoni, a Heritage Foundation economist, has long been opposed to the non-partisan nature of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but President Donald Trump appointed him to run the department anyway, CNN's K-File reported on Friday.
His "digital trail reveals a pattern of incendiary rhetoric that veered frequently into conspiracy theories and misogyny," the report said.
In a different NBC News report, Antoni was confirmed as one of the "bystanders" present at the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol; however, he never went inside the building.
"Antoni also referred to Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, as 'Miss Piggy.' In February 2020, he retweeted a post titled 'Advice For Women: How To Land a Great Guy,' which instructed women to 'be in shape,' 'grow your hair long,' 'be sweet,' 'learn to cook,' and 'don’t be annoying,'" CNN reported.
That post also included the comment, “Angry feminists and simps will try to sabotage you in the comments. Don’t listen to them. Listen to me.”
Another post trashed the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), saying, “I like a senator who doesn’t die."
WIRED first uncovered the account last week, however, the posts it found dealt primarily with COVID-19 conspiracy theories and the 2020 election lies. Some referenced weapons that were used in Nazi Germany during World War II.
A right-wing podcaster and Antoni's cousin defended the posts on social media by claiming that their family had a grandfather who fought in WWII and that they were proud of his service.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers defended Antoni, ignoring the controversial statements and saying that he was nominated to "fix the issues at the BLS and restore trust in the jobs reports. Dr. Antoni has the experience and credentials needed to restore solution-oriented leadership at the BLS — solutions that will prioritize increasing survey response rates and modernizing data collection methods to improve the BLS’s accuracy."
The Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025" calls on the BLS to be merged with the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census Bureau to make the groups "a more manageable, focused, and efficient statistical agency."
Antoni, who has a Ph.D. in economics, co-wrote a report last year that claimed “the American economy has actually been in recession since 2022."
CNN noted that economists of both parties have criticized the claim.
To make it through confirmation, Antoni must be approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, on which Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Susan Collins (ME) serve.