The U.S. Coast Guard will remove language from its new workplace harassment policy that downgraded the definition of swastikas and nooses from overt hate symbols to “potentially divisive,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said Thursday, an abrupt turnaround after the more lenient interpretation took effect this week despite objections from Congress.
In a statement posted to social media, Noem said that “pages of superseded and outdated policy will be completely removed from the record,” though her post does not specify whether those pages will be replaced and, if so, what the new language will say. Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard did not immediately address questions seeking clarity on what will happen next.
Noem’s announcement appears to cap a tumultuous few weeks within the Coast Guard following Washington Post reports detailing the service’s plan to include the incendiary language within its new workplace harassment manual, its vow to reverse course in the face of widespread criticism, and the policy’s implementation earlier this week.
In response to The Post’s initial reporting in late November, Adm. Kevin Lunday, the Coast Guard’s acting commandant, issued an order condemning and categorically prohibiting swastikas and nooses. In a memo to all Coast Guard personnel, he said then that his directive would supersede any other policy language. But for reasons that remain unclear, Lunday’s order was never incorporated in the policy manual that took effect Monday.
Two people familiar with the policy manual overhaul told The Post this week that the Coast Guard, which is overseen by Noem and DHS, wanted to strike the “potentially divisive” language from the document but was unable to do so. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the contentious situation.
Neither agency has addressed questions seeking to understand whether Lunday, as acting commandant, was empowered to change the manual’s wording on his own or if DHS leadership had to approve it.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) said on social media that he was informed Thursday that “this vicious and antisemitic policy will be reversed.”
“That’s the right decision and it’s shameful that this happened in the first place,” he wrote. “When it comes to neo-Nazism and antisemitism, there is no room for ambiguity.”
The lack of action, particularly amid a rise in antisemitism, incensed Republicans and Democrats in Congress, who said Lunday had pledged to them that the “potentially divisive” wording would be removed from the policy manual before it went into effect.
Several expressed anger at the existence of an official U.S. government document defining swastikas, inseparable from the extermination of millions of Jews in World War II, and nooses, a symbol of racial hatred, as “potentially divisive.”
Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) was among those who registered disapproval with what his office called the Coast Guard’s “conflicting policies.” A GOP aide said Lankford took his concerns directly to the Trump administration and urged officials to change the manual.
Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) went further. Both have placed holds on Lunday’s nomination to become the service’s full-time commandant. The Senate was expected to hold his confirmation vote this week.
Noem said in her social media post that “the politicized holdup” of Lunday’s nomination “needs to end.”
“He has given nearly 39 years of distinguished service to the Coast Guard, this country, and the American people,” her statement says. “He should be confirmed without delay.”
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