Politics

Report: Biden staffers fired for past marijuana use after being told it would be ‘overlooked’

Published

2 years ago

March 19, 2021

A number of young White House staffers have been suspended, asked to resign, or placed in a remote work program due to past marijuana use, despite being told the past transgressions would be “overlooked,” The Daily Beast has reported.

Incoming staffers were initially told by the Biden administration that recreational use of cannabis would be “overlooked” and they were still encouraged to apply for the positions, sources told Daily Beast.

The staffers were fired because they revealed past marijuana use in an official document they filled out as part of the background check for a position in the Biden White House.

Many of the ex-staffers lived in one of the 14 U.S. states where marijuana use is legal.

“It’s exclusively targeting younger staff and staff who came from states where it was legal,” a former staffer said.

The staffer added that “nothing was ever explained” while on firing calls led by Anne Filipic, the House director of management and administration.

“The policies were never explained, the threshold for what was excusable and what was inexcusable was never explained,” the staffer said.

When asked about the White House’s policy on marijuana and its effect on the administration’s staffing, a WH spokesperson disputed the number of affected staff and said the Biden administration is “committed to bringing the best people into government—especially the young people whose commitment to public service can deepen in these positions.” The spokesperson noted that the White House’s approach to past marijuana use is “much more flexible” than previous administrations, the Daily Beat reported.

“The White House’s policy will maintain the absolute highest standards for service in government that the president expects from his administration, while acknowledging the reality that state and local marijuana laws have changed significantly across the country in recent years,” the spokesperson added. “This decision was made following intensive consultation with career security officials and will effectively protect our national security while modernizing policies to ensure that talented and otherwise well-qualified applicants with limited marijuana use will not be barred from serving the American people.”

The firings come after the Biden administration officially updated its guidelines earlier this year to allow for “limited” use of the drug in the past.

“I find it absurd that, in 2021, marijuana use is still part of a security clearance background check,” Tommy Vietor, former spokesperson for President Obama and the United States National Security Council, said Thursday. “To me, marijuana use is completely irrelevant when you’re trying to decide whether an individual should be trusted with national security information.”

While marijuana has been legalized in a growing number of states, in the eyes of the federal government, the drug remains illegal — making it difficult for staffers to get security clearances if they’ve used the drug before.

The president remains the final authority on who can receive a clearance.

Follow Annaliese Levy on Twitter @AnnalieseLevy

Featured

Run Gen Z founder: Conservatives must win back America’s youth

Published

16 hours ago

January 26, 2023

Alexander Carter

Run GenZ founder Joe Mitchell joined The Sara Carter Show podcast to discuss how America’s youth have been hijacked by the radical left and what can be done to win them back.

Mitchell, who was the youngest person to be elected to the Iowa House at 21, admitted that many of the people he attended college with considered themselves to be radically progressive socialists. He added that for many of those students the radicalization didn’t occur at home but on campus. If parents aren’t teaching their children, most of that conversion for the Gen Z generation (known as Zoomers) will then take place on college campuses, and in many cases as far back as elementary school.

“I believe that has happened within our school systems and universities, we’ve seen this progression toward Marxism,” Carter agreed, but noted that like Mitchell, there is a growing movement of young conservative activists as well.

However, it won’t be easy. A recent Morning Consult poll found that only 16% of Gen Z were proud to live in America. It’s an abysmal number, said Mitchell.

Mitchell found that post-college he was able to connect with many young professionals who are a part of a small but growing Gen Z generation. Moreover, he said groups such as Turning Point USA and CPAC, allow younger conservative adults the ability to make connections and network with similar people. It was part of the reason why he founded Run Gen Z, which is an organization that “empowers and mentors young conservatives to run for office.

In fact, Mitchell , was elected at the age of 21, when he first Iowa’s 84th House
District which is located in the southeast region of the state.

The biggest battle for Mitchell is how radicalization of the youth and young adults, he said.

“Even just trying to get them to the middle of the aisle” is difficult, he told Carter.

The issues confronted by the youth in current American culture is that they have -for the most part – been radicalized by the left, he said. There are exceptions to this but it’s a rarity, Mitchell said. He described of his good friends is a leftist and easy to have discussions with.

Mitchell was asked by his friend about the bans on CRT and LGBTQ+ in the school systems and said, “Don’t you think its crazy that you guys voted for that?”

Mitchell responded with, “Think about when you were in elementary, when you were in middle and high school. I went to school in a small town with maybe two people of color in a small class of 30.” Mitchell continued to say, “We learned about the terrible things of what we did to folks that were in slavery, the reconstruction era and the Jim Crow era.”

Mitchell goes on to tell his friend that that wasn’t what they were banning in Iowa in regards to CRT they are banning the “radicalized agenda” that CRT has. Mitchell stated that the curriculum in the USA is “written by people who hate America.”

Sara responded with, “It’s normalizing systemic racism… It driving a wedge between our children, between our family. Its almost as if there is an effort to break down our culture, our nation and our principles.”

To hear more you can find The Sara Carter show podcast on Itunes, Spotify, and Radio First America. You can also find full episodes of The Sara Carter Show podcast on her youtube page.

The hyperlink attached till take you straight there, make sure you hit that like, subscribe and follow button to keep up to date with Sara’s latest podcasts and more! Also make sure to check you go give her socials a follow to, @Scarterdc for instagram and @saracarterdc for her twitter.