By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead a federal watchdog agency, Paul Ingrassia, withdrew on Tuesday following a report that Ingrassia described himself as having a “Nazi streak.”
Ingrassia said in a social media post that he was pulling out of a scheduled Thursday hearing before a Senate panel that was set to consider his nomination because “I do not have enough Republican votes at this time.”
“I appreciate the overwhelming support that I have received throughout this process,” Ingrassia said in a post on X.
The post came after Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Monday called for the White House to pull the nomination. Thune’s remarks marked a rare sign of opposition in a Republican-controlled Senate that has shown little interest in challenging Trump’s nominees and his agenda.
Ingrassia also denounced the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in private text messages, according to a report in Politico.
“He’s not going to pass,” Thune told reporters on Monday night, according to media reports. Thune’s office confirmed on Tuesday that he called for the White House to withdraw the nomination.
Another Republican senator, Rick Scott of Florida, told reporters on Monday he did not support Ingrassia.
A lawyer for Ingrassia, Edward Andrew Paltzik, said in a statement that the messages could have been manipulated, adding that if they were authentic, they “clearly read as self-deprecating and satirical humor.”
Ingrassia, 30, is a lawyer and former right-wing podcaster who supported Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and has served in roles in the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security in Trump’s second administration.
Trump nominated Ingrassia in May to head the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates claims of retaliation against government whistleblowers and also enforces limits on political participation by federal employees.
The opposition emerged after Politico reported on Monday that Ingrassia told Republican operatives and social media influencers in a text chat last year that the January holiday celebrating Black civil rights leader King “should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs.”
Ingrassia also called for an end to other holidays that celebrate Black culture in the U.S. including Juneteenth and Black History Month, according to the report.
In another message in the same chat, Ingrassia wrote “I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time,” Politico reported.
Politico said it obtained the text chain and confirmed the messages with two participants in the chat. Reuters has not independently verified the messages.
Senator Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, on Tuesday called the messages “foul and disqualifying.”
Republicans, who hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, have rarely resisted Trump’s nominees and offered little pushback as Trump has moved aggressively to expand executive power.
Former Representative Matt Gaetz, Trump’s first nominee for attorney general, and E.J. Antoni, Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are two other rare exceptions whose nominations were pulled before coming to a Senate vote.
Others, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel were confirmed despite some Republican opposition.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone, Nia Williams and Lisa Shumaker)
