Woody comments inappropriate, says State Dept. report
A State Department report on Jets owner Woody Johnson’s conduct as ambassador to the United Kingdom released on Wednesday concludes that Johnson “sometimes made inappropriate or insensitive comments on topics generally considered Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)sensitive, such as religion, sex, or color.”
Johnson denied the findings in the report and even went so far as to ask the State Department to not publish this section of the report, according to the New York Times.
The Office of the Inspector General report does not cover Johnson’s reported attempt to swing the British Open to a Donald Trump-owned golf course in Scotland, despite previous reporting that the OIG was aware of it. CNN reported Wednesday that the OIG is working on a separate report covering the Trump-Johnson British Open push.
In his response, also included in the report, Johnson says he watched a “video on workplace harassment.”
The OIG made 20 recommendations at the end of its 39-page report, including “a more thorough review” of the possibility that Johnson’s conduct violated employment laws. The embassy rejected any review of Johnson’s behavior.
“During my tenure as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom and indeed for the entirety of my professional life, I have respected both the law and the spirit of EEO principles and have ensured that all employees under my direction do the same,” Johnson wrote in a response that was dated May 2020. “If I have unintentionally offended anyone in the execution of my duties, I deeply regret that, but I do not accept that I have treated employees with disrespect or discriminated in any way.”
This exchange between Johnson and the OIG predated a late-July CNN report that detailed Johnson’s offensive comments. Among those reported at the time:
• Complaining that a crowd at a speech would be “a whole bunch of Black people”
• Calling Black fathers who left their families “the real challenge”
• Questioning if Black History Month needs to exist
• Johnson trying to get out of one “feminist event” and another because he’s “not a woman”
• Consistently discussing women’s looks, saying “There was a prettier crowd here a few days ago with the ladies in pink and the breast cancer people,” at a public talk
The New York Times also reported that Johnson asked a coworker if she was Jewish.