EPA administrator is under scrutiny for ‘liking’ racist post

EPA Acting WASHINGTON — Administrator Andrew Wheeler used his private social media accounts to interact with incendiary content online, including “liking” a racist image of former President Barack Obama and posts from conservative provocateurs.

Wheeler’s social media activity — going back years — stands in sharp contrast to his public profile as a politically savvy, humble Washington lawyer capable of avoiding the missteps that led to the ouster of Scott Pruitt, his predecessor at the Environmental Protection Agency.

In one case, Wheeler used his personal Facebook account to “like” an image of Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, depicting them as ogling a banana.

“It doesn’t take an expert in far-right extremism to identify that as a blatantly racist image,” Keegan Hankes, a senior research analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in an interview.

Wheeler’s posts are part of his private Twitter and Facebook accounts, which he has maintained since taking over the top job at the EPA. As of Tuesday afternoon, the social media posts and activity were still visible.

The social media activity was previously reported by HuffPost, which credited the Democratic political action committee American Bridge 21st Century for first uncovering them.

In another case, Wheeler “liked” a Twitter post questioning assertions by California college professor Christine Blasey Ford, who accused newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a 1982 house party. The original tweet came from Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative firebrand.

“Even if she told her psychiatrist exactly the same thing — which she did not — one cannot corroborate one’s own story,” D’Souza had said on Twitter, in the post Wheeler liked. “That requires independent evidence entirely missing in this case.”

Wheeler cast the activity as part of his frequent use of social media and said he did not recall interacting with the image of the Obamas.