In the time since President-elect Joe Biden was announced the winner of the 2020 election, Donald Trump has hired two people with deep, documented connections to white nationalist organizations.
Darren J. Beattie was a speechwriter in the White House, but was terminated in 2018 after it was discovered he’d previously given a speech at a white nationalist conference.
President Trump hired him to serve on the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.
Trump also gave Jason Richwine a job in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Richwine worked previously at a conservative think tank, but his views on Mexican and Latino immigrants were too much for even them. He was terminated after writing that their IQs were lower than those of white people.
It’s common for presidents who are on their way out of office to give jobs to supporters to spruce up their resumes.
The question troubling many people is if these two will be employed in January after President-elect Biden is inaugurated.
The answer is complicated. Traditionally, government appointed employees submit resignations once a new administration takes office, according to Karen Hult, a political science professor at Virginia Tech.
Hult told The Huffington Post, “Although not all of these resignations are accepted, in [Richwine’s] case it seems clear it would be.”
For Beattie, it’s unclear if the transition of administrations would be enough to get him out of his position.
According to a job description by the Congressional Research Services, Beattie’s appointment to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad would be a three-year term, if everything is finalized.
The Commission, originally established in 1985, is charged with preserving Holocaust memorials in Europe.
It is not yet clear how the Biden transition team will handle the appointments.
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