Van Jones Resigns|Van Jones|Van Jones Obama
Van Jones Resigns,Van Jones, Van Jones Obama:An adviser to Barack Obama has resigned in a row over past inflammatory statements, the White House said today.
Van Jones, who worked with the White House council on environmental quality, was linked to efforts suggesting a government role in the 2001 terror attacks and to derogatory comments about Republicans.
“On the eve of historic fights for healthcare 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.”
He said he had been “inundated with calls from across the political spectrum urging me to stay and fight”, but he said he could not in good conscience ask his colleagues to spend time and energy defending or explaining his past.
On Thursday Jones issued an apology on Thursday for his past statements. When asked the next day whether Obama still had confidence in him, the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said only that Jones “continues to work in the administration”.
Jones’s name reportedly appearing on a 2004 petition asking for congressional hearings and other investigations into whether high-level government officers had allowed the September 11 attacks to occur.
Jones said he did not agree with the petition’s stand and that “it certainly does not reflect my views, now or ever”. Of 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.
