Carl Higbie with his former boss, Donald Trump. | Photo: Twitter @CarlHigbie
Carl Higbie, the chief of external affairs for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), resigned on Thursday (18 January) after CNN unearthed several offensive comments.
Higbie supported Donald Trump in 2016 during his campaign. Last year, Trump appointed him to the government position.
CNCS spokesperson Samantha Jo Warfield released the following statement: ‘Effective immediately, Carl Higbie has resigned as Chief of External Affairs at CNCS.’
The comments made by Higbie are extensive, ranging from Muslims to soldiers with PTSD and beyond. He made most of them on radio shows, as gathered by CNN.
As a warning, a lot of these comments contain offensive language.
‘So go over there, be gay’
In 2013, he explained his dislike of gay people on Sound of Freedom.
‘I talk about this in my book, you know, I was, I was molested by a gay guy when I was a young kid and that kind of set the precedence for me,’ he said. ‘So I, I just, I really don’t care for them. You know what, you want to be gay? Fine. Do it over in your own corner.’
He further stated if he was President he wouldn’t make laws against being gay as long as you ‘don’t throw it in my face’.
‘So go over there, be gay, don’t march down in the middle of the street and your drag outfit being fairies and things like that. Don’t make me like it because I don’t — do it on your own.’
‘They are screwed up in the head’
While talking about Muslims on Sound of Freedom again in 2013, he made more homophobic comments.
‘I just don’t like Muslim people. People always rip me a new one for that. Carl, you’re racist, you can’t, you’re sexist. I’m like Jesus Christ. I just don’t like Muslim people because their ideology sucks,’ he said. ‘Go back to your Muslim shithole and go crap in your hands and bang little boys on Thursday nights.’
He then compared Muslims to child molestors and being okay with gay sex.
‘People are like, “Well, you can’t hate somebody just for being Muslim,”‘ he explained. ‘It’s like, yeah, I can. Do you hate people who rape little boys? They say, “Oh, of course. They’re just terrible people.” Well, yeah, most Muslims believe that to have sex with men is OK, which I don’t like it all. But second off, it’s the ideology of a child molester. The ideology of a Muslim is what I don’t like. They are screwed up in the head and it pisses me off.’
An apology
Higbie took to Twitter Friday (19 January) morning and apologized.
I’m sorry. I’m not sorry that my words were published, I am sorry that I said them in 2013. Those words do not reflect who I am or what I stand for, I regret saying them. Last night I informed the WH that I was resigning so as not to distract from POTUS’ many success. #noexcuses
— Carl Higbie (@CarlHigbie) January 19, 2018
This is hardly the first time evidence has shown a Trump nominee is anti-LGBTI, nor the first time someone has resigned under Trump.
In July, press secreary Sean Spicer resigned. Sarah Huckabee Sanders replaced him.
One nominee said transgender children are evidence of Satan, while another compared protections for LGBTI people to protections for pedophiles.
Finally, members of the HIV/AIDS council resigned and then the rest were fired.
