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White House Tells Mediaite That It Had No Involvement With Shirley Sherrod Resignation

by Tommy Christopher | 4:09 pm, July 20th, 2010

» 8 comments

Former USDA official Shirley Sherrod has gone from racial villain to inspiration overnight, but the emerging context to the remarks that got her fired yesterday seem to make little or no difference to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. Despite the fact that Sherrod explained to her superiors that the full speech exonerated her of what was suggested in the edited clip, Vilsack stands by the firing. Additionally, a White House official tells Mediaite that this decision was Vilsack’s alone.

Here’s Vilsack’s statement:

Yesterday, I asked for and accepted Ms. Sherrod’s resignation for two reasons. First, for the past 18 months, we have been working to turn the page on the sordid civil rights record at USDA and this controversy could make it more difficult to move forward on correcting injustices. Second, state rural development directors make many decisions and are often called to use their discretion. The controversy surrounding her comments would create situations where her decisions, rightly or wrongly, would be called into question making it difficult for her to bring jobs to Georgia.

Our policy is clear. There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA and we strongly condemn any act of discrimination against any person. We have a duty to ensure that when we provide services to the American people we do so in an equitable manner. But equally important is our duty to instill confidence in the American people that we are fair service providers.

Contrary to what some are reporting, the White House was not involved in Sherrod’s dismissal. A White house official told Mediaite “We did not pressure her to resign. It was the Secretary’s decision.”

Andrew Breitbart, Big Government, morning joe, NAACP, Shirley Sherrod, Tom Vilsack

atreyue

That’s actually a perfectly valid reason for letting her go. I look forward to seeing the whole speech when/if it’s released.
Pablo

Contrary to what some are reporting, the White House was not involved in Sherrod’s dismissal.

And by “some” you mean Shirley Sherrod, right?
RazorsEdge

TC,

You do know that Ms. Sherrod herself stated she was pressured (she used the term ‘harassed’), right? You seem to not be aware of that or worse, left it out completely and made it vague with your “Contrary to what some are reporting” sentence. You’re a WH correspondent, I assume you would report the WH pressured Ms. Sherrod to resign if Ms. Sherrod told you she was.

Of course Ms. Sherrod could be wrong, but she still claimed it.

Here’s her claim: (1:30 mark)

Ms Sherrod WH Claim
TfT

RazorsEdge – yes, she claimed it. TC ignored her claim in this report — no surprises there. Tommy is a card carrying member of journolist (or the new instantiation of journolist, whatever it may be).
http://apostrophejones.com Apostrophe jones

We’ve got to have a fall guy . …Give them the gunsel . He actually did shoot Thursby , didn’t he ?
notsofast

Contrary to what some are reporting, the White House was not involved in Sherrod’s dismissal.”

Wrong! That’s what they are saying and what Mediaite is believing.
DeSicilian

So…either Sherrod’s lying or the WH is….my gut tells me she is a principled individual….we already know about how the WH acts….
VegasRudy

White House Tells Mediaite That It Had No Involvement With Shirley Sherrod Resignation

We know. It’s Bush’s fault.