USAID appointee with history of inflammatory rhetoric toward LGBTQ community and refugees exits agency
Merritt Corrigan, the deputy White House liaison at the US Agency for International Development, is no longer with the agency, a spokesperson for the agency said Monday.
Corrigan was first reported to have joined the agency in June, according to ProPublica, which noted at the time statements from her on social media bashing America's "homo-empire" for pushing a "tyrannical LGBT agenda."
CNN's KFile reported in June that Corrigan expressed hostility toward refugees and immigrants calling for their deportation and said, "America has no moral imperative to accept immigrants." In other comments from 2019 and 2020, she mocked same-sex marriage, called for establishing a "Christian patriarchy," and wrote it was wrong to "empower" girls and tell them they are "equal" to men.
Corrigan's departure was first reported by Politico.
USAID is the United States' key foreign aid and international development agency whose work includes global health and security efforts.
"Effective 3:00 P.M., on August 3, 2020, Ms. Merritt Corrigan is no longer an employee at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)," Pooja Jhunjhunwala, the acting USAID spokeswoman, told CNN in a statement.
Before her departure from the agency on Monday, Corrigan sent a series of tweets on her previously-locked Twitter account that attacked both Democrats and the media and accused USAID of having "rampant anti-Christian sentiment."
"For too long, I've remained silent as the media has attacked me for my Christian beliefs, which are shared by the majority of Americans. Let me clear: Gay marriage isn't marriage. Men aren't women. US-funded Tunisian LGBT soap operas aren't America First," she wrote in one tweets.
Jhunjhunwala, the USAID spokeswoman, responded to Corrigan's accusation, saying, "USAID takes any claim of discrimination seriously, and we will investigate any complaints of anti-Christian bias Ms. Corrigan has raised during her tenure at the Agency."
Corrigan said she was going to be having a Thursday press conference with a group co-founded by Jacob Wohl, a far-right Internet personality, to discuss her accusations.
Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee during a July budget request hearing pressed John Barsa, the agency's acting administrator, on why the agency continued to employ Corrigan.
The questioning came after the committee's chairman Eliot Engel and other committee Democrats sent a letter to Barsa, to demand the resignation of Corrigan.
Barsa told the committee that, "While someone is working for me, at USAID, regardless of hiring category -- civil service, foreign service officer or political appointee -- everyone is held to the same high moral, legal and ethical standards that have always existed."
By Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, CNN via The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2020 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
The Gayly. 8/5/2020 @ 6:14 p.m. CST.