Erroll Southers, President Obama’s pick to lead the Transportation Security Administration before withdrawing this week, said today that he withdrew his nomination because he “had become a political lightning rod for the unionization issue.”
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) had blocked Souther’s confirmation, delaying his appointment for months.
Southers said on CNN that he felt that he “was going to have to continue to take these attacks once confirmed, and then it would have been about me, and not the mission of keeping this country’s transportation system safe.”
Southers also responded to the specific nature of the attacks, which alleged that he would unionize the TSA: “I never said I intended to unionize. I never said I intended not to unionize. I said i wanted to look at the matter holistically, and come up with an intelligent response.”
When asked if he was pro-union, Southers said: “I am not pro-union. I am pro-mission.”
“They’re not incompatible, but I was not predisposed to move an agency that had not had collective bargaining since it’s inception, to collective bargaining.”
He also stated “I don’t feel the White House threw me under the bus,” but that “I felt I was going to be a distraction both during and post-confirmation.”
Southers also talked about his withdrawal on Rachel Maddow’s show last night. Watch it here.
