Racist Trump Appointee Resigns After Audio Emerges of Him Claiming 'Black Race' Has 'Lax' Morality
Carl Higbie, the chief of external affairs at the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal government's volunteer services organization, resigned Thursday after CNN reported that he had made racist, sexist and xenophobic comments. Higbie was an appointee of President Donald Trump.
The 2013 comments reported by CNN were made on-air, drawing the Trump administration's employment vetting processes into question. Among the jaw-droppingly racist comments include some that express blatant anti-black bigotry.
"Only one (black) person was actually cordial to me," Higbie said in a 2013Â radio appearance where he discussed giving away free firewood. "Every other black person was rude. They wanted me to either load the wood, completely split it for them or some sort of you know assistance in labor. Now, mind you the ad was for free firewood, come take it all you want. And I believe that this translates directly into the culture that is breeding this welfare and the high percentage of people on welfare in the black race. It's a lack of morality."
Higbie also said that black Americans who don't have citizenship in an African country can't be African American: "[Y]ou're not both. I don't care what you think."
His prejudice extended well beyond his views on black people. "I just don't like Muslim people," Higbie said in 2013. "You know, I don't like gay people. I just don't," he said the same year.
"Effective immediately, Carl Higbie has resigned as Chief of External Affairs at CNCS," Samantha Jo Warfield, a spokesperson for CNCS, said after the comments were reported.
Questions about how Higbie got the job after making hateful remarks in public remain unanswered.
