Trump surrogate and former Navy SEAL resigns following newly discovered rants targeting people of color, the LGBT community, and veterans suffering from PTSD
- Carl Higbie, the chief of external affairs for a US government volunteer organization, has resigned, following newly discovered comments he made on several radio shows.
- Some of his comments were viewed as racist, sexist, anti-Muslim, and anti-LGBT.
Carl Higbie, the chief of external affairs for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) - a US federal organization that promotes volunteer services like AmeriCorps - has resigned, following backlash over previous comments he made on radio shows, according to a CNN investigation.
The remarks, which were made on various radio programs and spanned several years, targeted a number of groups, including veterans with PTSD, people of color, and the LGBT community.
When speaking about veterans diagnosed with PTSD, Higbie reportedly said, "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say, and a lot of people are going to disagree with this comment ... Severe PTSD where guys are bugging out and doing violent acts is a trait of a weak mind."
Higbie reportedly made those remarks during on the internet radio program, "The Sound of Freedom," a conservative radio show.
Higbie, a former Navy SEAL, qualified his comment by saying that in cases where PTSD-afflicted service members "were legitimately blown up," it was "completely understandable."
"But when someone performs an act of violence, that is a weak mind, that is a crazy person, and the fact that they're trying to hide it behind PTSD makes me want to vomit," Higbie said.
Another member of the panel took issue with the comment, after which Higbie continued to qualify his remark.
"People who perform violent acts and blame it on PTSD, you know, people who act crazily behind PTSD, is because they have a weaker mind," Higbie said. "And that mind has been weakened by that experience."
"I think it is a breakdown of the mind," Higbie continued. "I really do. It's not a individual hit on any one soldier, it's the fact that they're mind has been weakened by their traumatic experience, and it needs to be addressed."
According to the National Center for PTSD, 11-20% of veterans who served during Operation Iraqi or Enduring Freedom are afflicted with in a given year.
Critics also took exception to comments Higbie made that were seen as racist, including an anecdote based on an experience in which he put out an advertisement offering free firewood.
"Of the 25 or so white people that came by, not a single one asked me to help load the firewood in their car, to do anything for them, to split it for them, or anything," Higbie said. "So I was very happy."
"Now on the other hand, out of the 25 or so black people, only one, only one person, was actually cordial to me," Higbie claimed. "Every other black person was rude. They wanted me to either load the wood, completely split it for them, or some sort of assistance in labor," he said.
Higbie then cited long-debunked, baseless claims in which he suggested black people were morally inferior. He had similarly disparaging comments about Muslims and LGBT people according to CNN's report.
Higbie became a conservative ally during President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and made several cable news appearances, according to CNN. He was appointed to lead the CNCS in 2017.