Source: Zero Hedge
President Joe Biden’s top advisor on science and technology policy – two areas that have become extremely important to the White House over the past two years – has just been fired for demeaning and mistreating his subordinates following an internal White House probe.
Recordings and documents obtained by Politico exposed how Eric Lander bullied his former general counsel, and how he spoke to White House Office of Science and Technology Policy staff in “a disrespectful or demeaning way,” which he acknowledged in his apology.
“I am devastated that I caused hurt to past and present colleagues by the way in which I have spoken to them,” Lander wrote in a resignation letter to his boss. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday night that the president had accepted Lander’s resignation from his cabinet-level position (which technically put him in the line of succession)
This could create serious problems for the president as he tries to shift the public’s attention to his cancer moonshot. Biden appeared alongside Dr. Lander during an event last week where the White House re-launched an initiative to cut the death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years. The president said Dr. Lander would take a lead role in implementing the initiative. Dr. Lander had already recused himself from all COVID vaccine-related issues, but he has still played an important role in shaping the White House’s response to the pandemic.
Dr. Lander
Biden now finds himself in a difficult spot: he has repeatedly promised to fire anybody in his administration who “talks down to someone…on the spot”.
One former subordinate of Dr. Lander’s complained that his behavior was downright “shocking”.
Rachel Wallace, a career civil servant who works at OSTP, filed a complaint about Dr. Lander’s behavior to the White House, according to people familiar with the matter. A person who has spoken to OSTP staff said other people who worked in the office had similar concerns about Dr. Lander’s behavior.
“Dr. Lander’s behavior is shocking, to say the least, and I’m concerned that this kind of misconduct may adversely affect science policy,” said David Seide, senior counsel at the Government Accountability Project, which is representing Ms. Wallace.
However, Lander’s transgressions are much bigger than all that. While his behavior offered a convenient excuse for the White House to get rid of him, Lander has an employment record fraught with potential controversies. For one: before joining the White House, he was the founding director of the Broad Institute, a biotech outfit whose genomics work has touched upon eugenics – specifically the role that genetics plays in same-sex attraction, the development of PTSD and other issues, according to a report from the Organic Consumers Association.
Lander also helped cover up evidence showing that “gain-of-function” research financed in part by the US had helped a team of Chinese scientists create the highly infectious SARS-CoV-2, before the virus escaped from the lab and set off the global pandemic
Here’s more on that from the OCA:
In January 2020, when scientists examined the genome of SARS-CoV-2 it was immediately clear that the unique feature that made it “100 to 1,000 times” more infectious than the first SARS was something that couldn’t have been achieved through natural recombination. In fact, the virus’s genetic code bore a tell-tale sign that it had been engineered in the lab. This was obvious to every scientist who looked at the virus, even those who later published articles claiming the virus wasn’t engineered.
The US government engaged in a coordinated cover-up that has been revealed in emails obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, but one aspect of the cover-up hasn’t been explored before now: A January 2020 analysis conducted by Eric Lander’s Broad Institute for the Director of National Intelligence that falsely claimed that the virus wasn’t genetically engineered.
Fortunately for Lander, he doesn’t even need this job: He is already among the richest members of President Biden’s cabinet, with a personal net worth of $45 million.
The top Democrat and Republican on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee demanded that the White House turn over its report on Landers’ behavior – for which he issued a formal apology to staffers on Friday – as soon as possible.
