Van Jones, who became ensnared in controversy over past inflammatory statements, has resigned as President Obama’s advisor on environmentally friendly “green jobs.”
Jones, who once called Republicans “ass holes” and described himself a communist, said he was the victim of a “vicious smear campaign.”
The resignation, announced early Sunday, came as Obama is working to regain public support in his battle for health care reform.
Jones in 2004 signed a petition calling for congressional and other hearings into whether the federal government was behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Republicans, led by Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, had attacked him as unsuitable for an appointment to the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
“On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me,” Jones said in his resignation statement. “They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.”
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