This week, the American people were introduced to a man who personifies the Biden administration: Tyler Cherry, the former Department of Interior official appointed to serve as the White House’s associate communications director.
Cherry has called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, compared America’s police with slave patrols, whined about “systemic racism,” embraced gender ideology, and opposed Israel. In other words, he embodies the Biden administration’s worst ideas and attitudes, including those that it tries to express more subtly to avoid alienating moderates.
Earlier this week, Fox News highlighted some of Cherry’s old X posts, prompting a backlash to the official’s past activism. Though White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told Fox that they’re “very proud to have Tyler on the team,” Cherry nonetheless deleted thousands of old social media posts, presumably to hide his other extreme positions from public view.
Cherry claims his work in the White House will be focused on climate. But his past positions—on Israel, particularly—remain concerning, given the Biden administration’s erratic messaging and policies on the Hamas-Israel War.
In 2017, Cherry expressed support for Linda Sarsour, the former head of the Women’s March who, among other views, said that Zionists couldn’t partake in the feminist movement. In 2014, Cherry seemed to endorse an end of U.S. arms sales to Israel, despite the latter’s being in the throes of a war with Hamas at the time.
The most revealing aspect about the Cherry saga isn’t necessarily that he harbors fringe positions but that the administration would elevate him to such an important role. His views were no mystery to Biden’s team. Fox News approached the White House last October about some of Cherry’s past comments, including one calling Baltimore “a capitalistic police state motivated by explicit and implicit racial biases.” No administration hoping to appeal to moderates would promote a known radical to such a senior role.
In response to the October exposé, a White House official, referring to Cherry’s sexuality, later told The Advocate that “No one should be targeted simply for being themselves.” People should, however, be held accountable for their views. While the Biden White House ought to be sobered by the Cherry saga, it’s doubtful that we’ve seen the last of such appointments.
Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for GLAAD