{"id":12856,"date":"2020-09-09T22:09:43","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T22:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/09\/09\/nominee-for-opm-head-faces-criticism-over-past-comments\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:33:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:33:44","slug":"nominee-for-opm-head-faces-criticism-over-past-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/management\/leadership\/2020\/09\/09\/nominee-for-opm-head-faces-criticism-over-past-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"Nominee for OPM head faces criticism over past comments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s nominee for Office of Personnel Management head John Gibbs<\/a> faced scrutiny from lawmakers of both parties at a Sept. 9 Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs hearing for tweets and public statements he had made years prior, which were described as anti-Semitic, anti-Islamic and conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, characterized the tweets \u2014 which included claims that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta participated in satanic rituals \u2014 as \u201cextreme,\u201d \u201cbizarre\u201d and \u201cnonsensical.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Gibbs did not address the contents of the tweets specifically, he pointed to past experiences of both himself and his family which made discrimination \u201cabsolutely unacceptable to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI regret that it has unfortunately become an issue,\u201d said Gibbs, adding that he has always led in a non-partisan manner, which the approximately 700 employees that reported to him in his position at the Department of Housing and Urban Development could attest to.<\/p>\n\n\n\t