Paul Ingrassia, President Donald Trump’s pick for a top watchdog position, announced Tuesday that he was withdrawing from consideration because he did not have enough Republican support to move forward toward confirmation.
“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,” he said.
Trump nominated Ingrassia to lead the OSC, an independent agency that protects federal employees from prohibited personnel practices, such as retaliation for whistleblowing.
Ingrassia has come under scrutiny in recent weeks after Politico reported that he was accused of sexual harassment by a colleague, citing three unnamed administration officials. In a new article Monday, Politico reported on a text chat in which Ingrassia allegedly sent messages saying he had a “Nazi streak” and that Martin Luther King Jr. Day should be “tossed in the seventh circle of hell.”
Ingrassia’s lawyer on Monday night pointed to a previous statement denying Ingrassia had “harassed any coworkers — female or otherwise, sexually or otherwise — in connection with any employment.” The lawyer, Edward Paltzik, suggested the text messages reported on Monday may not be authentic, and added that “even if the texts are authentic, they clearly read as self-deprecating and satirical humor.”
Ingrassia had faced growing backlash from Senate Republicans. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Monday told reporters that his nomination was “not going to pass” and that he thought the White House should pull it.
Asked by NBC News on Tuesday whether he thought the White House would pull the nomination, Thune said: “I think they’ll have something official to say about that, but you know, you know what we’ve said, and you’ll probably hear from them soon.”
Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla.; James Lankford, R-Okla.; and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., all told reporters they intend to vote against Ingrassia.
The possibility of Ingrassia’s withdrawal was also discussed during Trump’s lunch with Republican senators in the Rose Garden on Tuesday, according to two officials familiar with the discussion.
Lankford, in telling reporters Tuesday morning that he’s a “no” on Ingrassia’s nomination, said, “I think it’d be very difficult for a lot of federal employees to be able to say he’s impartial when he says things like, ‘Never trust an Indian,’ the comments he’s made about Jews.”
“They ought to withdraw him,” Johnson said Tuesday morning.
Another Republican senator on the committee, Joni Ernst of Iowa, declined to say how she would vote but said Monday that Ingrassia would have “an uphill battle.”
Ingrassia had a history of inflammatory comments even before this. The former podcaster came under fire for saying Jan. 6, 2021 — when rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election — should be declared a national holiday, calling it “a peaceful protest against a great injustice.” He had also called Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel a “psyop.”
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