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These blog posts about Muslims and women cost Tim Kelly an Education Department nomination
Michigan Rep. Tim Kelly had his nomination for a Department of Education post pulled by the Trump administration for blog posts he wrote several years ago. (Image source: WKAR YouTube video screenshot)

These blog posts about Muslims and women cost Tim Kelly an Education Department nomination

President Donald Trump nominated Michigan State Representative Tim Kelly for a high-level career and technical education position in the Department of Education, but the administration pulled that nomination after some comments in Kelly's blog from years ago gained public attention.

"It became clear that Mr. Kelly had made a series of statements that were not reflective of the secretary's values," said an administration official.

The comments

From 2009, after a Nigerian man attempted to board a Detroit-bound plane with explosives in his underwear:

"Forget for a moment, that this young man from Nigeria purchased his one-way ticket with cash, had no luggage, or that his father had warned the authorities of his radicalism. He should have been on anybody's no-fly list because his name is UMAR FAROUK ABDULMUTALLAB! Zenaphobic [sic]? No, I'm being pragmatic ... Instead of assuming that all people are interested in, let alone capable of, blowing up Western, Christian, or Jewish things, let's assume all Muslims are."

Another, about women in STEM fields:

"Research shows that bias against women in the sciences is extremely weak. Studies point to data that indicate men and women simply have different tastes when it comes to areas of study. For instance, women may be underrepresented in the fields of engineering, but thrive in the areas of sociology and biology. ... For my money, this kind of ridiculousness in academia should not be rewarded and certainly not paid for by the American taxpayer."

From 2011, about low-income parents using federally funded early-childhood education programs:

"As I said, there have been a number of independent studies over the years that have concluded that these program children come to school with no more social or cognitive abilities than their non-program counterparts. So why then do we continue to pay for this failure? ... In other words, we pay the very same people, the parents of these children, who are often themselves academically and socially needy, to teach their own not to emulate the destructive and debilitating behavior and practices they witness everyday in their own homes and neighborhoods. Yeah, that's gonna work."

Kelly defends himself

Kelly blamed the "deep state" and Trump haters for digging up and leaking the questionable blog posts to sabotage his nomination.

"If people read the [blog] posts, people will think … this guy got a bad deal," Kelly said. "I’m appalled that people would take this out of context. … I wrote this blog several years ago. Someone from inside leaked this. I wasn’t ever hiding it. I was forthcoming with it from the get-go."

After having his nomination pulled, Kelly said he didn't think it would be good to work for the Trump administration anyway.

"I don't see why anybody with any sense wants to go there," Kelly said. "They take good people and ruin them."

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