Don't condemn white nationalists, Veterans Affairs' diversity chief was told after Charlottesville,

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Don’t condemn white nationalists, Veterans Affairs’ diversity chief was told after Charlottesville, emails show
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/dont-condemn-white-nationalists-veterans-affairs-diversity-chief-was-told-after-charlottesville-emails-show/2018/12/05/fbff66ce-f41d-11e8-aeea-b85fd44449f5_story.html
By Lisa Rein December 5 at 8:03 PM

A top White House appointee at the Department of Veterans Affairs sought to silence the agency’s chief diversity officer, who — in the aftermath of last year’s racially charged violence in Charlottesville — pushed for a forceful condemnation that was at odds with President Trump’s response, newly disclosed emails show.

The tense exchange between Georgia Coffey, a nationally recognized expert in workplace diversity and race relations, and John Ullyot, who remains VA’s chief communications official, occurred during a low point in Trump’s presidency: when he blamed “many sides” for the deadly clash in Charlottesville without singling out the white nationalists and neo-Nazis who rallied there.

VA’s secretary at the time, David Shulkin, made headlines that week when he appeared to break with Trump, telling reporters the violence in Charlottesville “outraged” him. Coffey, a career senior executive at VA, pressed the agency’s leaders to issue a statement making it clear that VA stood against such a “repugnant display of hate and bigotry by white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the Ku Klux Klan,” according to the emails.

The emails were provided to The Washington Post by the nonprofit watchdog group American Oversight, which obtained them via the Freedom of Information Act. The correspondence sheds new light on the politically delicate decisions federal agencies faced as officials sought to balance the need to address employee concerns with a desire not to upset the White House.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

1. There are no racists in a foxhole.