Obama adviser resigns amid controversy

PRESIDENT Barack Obama’s environmental adviser Van Jones, who has been embroiled in a controversy over past inflammatory statements, has resigned his White House job after what he calls a “vicious smear campaign against me”.

The resignation came as Obama is working to regain his footing in the contentious health care debate.

Jones, an administration official specialising in environmentally friendly “green jobs” with the White House Council on Environmental Quality, signed a petition orts suggesting there may have been government involvement in the 2001 terror attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and has made derogatory comments about Republicans.

Jones issued an apology on Thursday for his past statements. When asked the next day whether Obama still had confidence in him, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs only said Jones “continues to work in the administration.”

The matter surfaced after news reports of a derogatory comment Jones made in the past about Republicans, and separately, of Jones’s name appearing on a petition connected to the events surrounding the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. That 2004 petition had asked for congressional hearings and other investigations into whether high-level government officials had allowed the attacks to occur.

“On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me,” Jones said in his resignation statement. “They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.” Jones said he has been “inundated with calls from across the political spectrum urging me to stay and fight.”

But he said he cannot in good conscience ask his colleagues to spend time and energy defending or explaining his past.

Jones said earlier he did not agree with the petition’s stand on the September 11 attacks and “it certainly does not reflect my views, now or ever.”

As for his other comments he made before joining Obama’s team, Jones said, “If I have offended anyone with statements I made in the past, I apologise.”

Despite his apologies, Republicans demanded Jones quit. Representative Mike Pence said: “His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate.” Missouri Senator Christopher Bond said Congress should investigate Jones’s fitness for the job.

Jones, well-known in the environmental movement, was a civil-rights activist in California before shifting his attention to environmental and energy issues.

He is known for laying out a vision of a green economy. Conservatives have harshly criticised him for having left-wing political views.

Nancy Sutley, chair of the council, said she accepts Jones resignation and thanked him for his service.