EPA chief liked a racist meme about the Obamas
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency liked a racist post about the Obamas a few years ago and engaged with prominent far-right conspiracy theorists on social media, according to screenshots published online Tuesday.
Andrew Wheeler, who has been the agency’s acting administrator since Scott Pruitt resigned in July, liked a racist meme that showed Barack and Michelle Obama staring at a banana, sometime after it was published by the page in January 2013, according to a screenshot posted online by HuffPost.
In a statement provided by spokesman James Hewitt, Wheeler did not dispute that he had liked the post, but said that he did not remember it. Other posts unearthed by Huffpost included incidences where Wheeler retweeted prominent right-wing conspiracy theorists.
“Over the years, I have been a prolific social media user and liked and inadvertently liked countless social media posts,” the statement said. “As for some of the other posts, I agreed with the content and was unaware of the sources.”
The image was no longer publicly accessible Tuesday night on the Facebook page of the Italian meme group that posted it, Mia mamma è vergine (My mother is a virgin). The page had also posted other images comparing the Obamas to apes.
The White House did not return a request for comment about whether it planned to take any action about the disclosure.