Democrats in Congress called on President Trump to withdraw his nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) after a new report exposed text messages in which the nominee purportedly denounced the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and admitted to having a “Nazi streak in me from time to time.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson (Miss.) and Rep. Robert Garcia (Calif.) — the top Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, respectively — wrote a letter to the president on Monday urging him to dismiss Paul Ingrassia from federal service and to withdraw his nomination.

Ingrassia’s Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

The pair of high-ranking Democrats pointed to the “racist messages” reported by Politico on Monday, which included allegations about past ties between Ingrassia, a former podcast host, and white nationalist Nick Fuentes. They also pointed to past reporting indicating Ingrassia was the subject of a sexual harassment investigation at the Department of Homeland Security, where he serves as the White House liaison. The woman who filed the initial sexual harassment complaint later withdrew it, Politico reported.

© The Hill