The Daily Signal - INTERVIEW | Tyler O’Neil on Lesson Biden Administration Should Take From Sam Brinton Fiasco

Episode Date: December 14, 2022

LGBT activist and Biden administration official Sam Brinton no longer is an employee of the Energy Department. The news came Monday after Brinton, who identifies as nonbinary and gender-fluid, was accused in recent days of stealing two suitcases—one each from airports in Las Vegas and Minneapolis-St. Paul.  It wasn't clear whether Brinton, 35, was fired or resigned from his position in the Biden administration, where he was deputy assistant Energy Department secretary for the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition.  Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., had tweeted Friday: “Sam Brinton, let's call it what it is: a person clearly unfit for a high-level national security role was hired because the [Biden] Admin prioritizes wokeness over competence.”  Tyler O’Neil, managing editor of The Daily Signal, joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss Brinton’s departure from the Energy Department and why the Biden administration should prioritize employees' competence over their sexual identities.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Wednesday, December 14th. I'm Virginia Allen. LGBTQ activist and Biden administration nuclear official Sam Britain is no longer an employee of the U.S. Department of Energy. This news comes after Britain was accused of stealing two suitcases from two different airports. The Daily Signal managing editor, Tyler O'Neill, joins us today to discuss what happened here and the lessons the Biden administration should learn from the situation. Stay tuned for my conversation with Tyler after this. At the Heritage Foundation, we believe that every single policy issue discussed in D.C. tells a story. So we want to tell it well.

On the Heritage Explains podcast, co-host Tim Decher and Michelle Cordero, take one policy issue a week, mix in a creative blend of clips, narration, and hard-hitting interviews to equip you on crucial issues in under 20 minutes. So get your story straight. Subscribe to Heritage Explains wherever you listen to podcasts. LGBTQ activist and Biden administration nuclear official Sam Britton is no longer an employee at the U.S. Department of Energy. News of Britain's departure broke Monday night and the Daily Signal's managing editor Tyler O'Neill has been following the charges against Britain and these latest updates. Tyler, thanks so much for being with us today. Thanks. Glad to be here, Virginia.

So let's start at the beginning. Who is Sam Britton and what do we know about his very abrupt departure from the Department of Energy? Yeah. So Sam Britton is an LGBT activist who will work for four years as vice president of advocacy and government affairs in the Trevor Project. And he also has this background in cleaning up nuclear waste. But he appears almost to have been hired at the Biden administration. as a pursuit of pushing some LGBT activist to the forefront almost as much as for his experience in dealing with nuclear waste, which was his technical job. We've seen throughout his time at the Biden administration many spreads in news outlets and magazines

showing him and his eclectic sexual experiences like quote-unquote puppy play, which involved some very weird bondage, sadomasochistic, and slightly, you know, pretending to be dogs in a sexual manner. So it's all this kind of stuff that he is known for. And of course, he goes by they, them pronouns, and identifies as non-binary wearing mostly women's fashion, but then sprouting his mustache.

So he's clearly just trying to get attention with these things. And the Biden administration seemed to be just going crazy for it. Yeah. Well, and you're not the only one who holds that opinion on December 9th, Senator Tom Cotton. He tweeted, Sam Britton, let's call it what it is. A person clearly unfit for a high-level national security role was hired because of the admin prioritizes whokeness over competence. Tyler, I mean, from what you just said, sounds like you would agree with that statement.

Do we know what exactly Britain was doing in his day-to-day role within the Department of Energy? Was he adding value to that department? It remains unclear exactly how much value he was adding, but he was a nuclear waste disposal official. And we don't have evidence that he never did anything along those lines. What we do have copious amounts of evidence for is that prioritizing wokeness aspect, however. So whether Britain is competent in nuclear waste disposal or not, I do not know. But I do know he is quite competent at being an LGBT activist, putting himself out there in these odd sexual ways and drawing attention to issues that the administration seems to be more focused on

than what they ostensibly hired him for. Well, and Tyler, on Monday night, you received an email from the Department of Energy stating Sam Britain is no longer a DOE employee. Now, this news comes after it became public that Britain is facing charges for allegedly stealing two pieces of luggage at two separate airports. What on earth is going on here? I mean, was the Department of Energy not paying Britain enough that he felt like he had to steal luggage? What is the deal here? Yeah, well, as for how much they were paying him, I'm not sure.

I imagine, though, he has quite a bit of money because for a long period of time, he did two jobs at once. He was with the Trevor Project as a vice president of advocacy and government affairs and a director of global political strategy for this Berkeley, California firm Deep Isolation, focused on nuclear waste disposal. So, you know, I wouldn't expect that he did that for the money. Lord knows why he decided, or allegedly, you know, nothing is proven yet. But he did get arrested and the Department of Energy separated ties from him. So, and they wouldn't say whether he was fired or pressured to resign.

Okay, okay. Well, and we know that concerns have been raised about Britain in, in the, past, Dr. Joseph Nucosey. He's a psychotherapist, and he said publicly that he warned lawmakers and LGBT activist groups about Sam Britton's ever-changing story about abuse that he allegedly underwent in therapy because of his LGBT attractions. So Britain claims that when he came out to his parents as bisexual, when he was young, that then his parents put him in these extreme forms of therapy, but the story has changed, as Britain has told it several different times. Have any of those claims been proven?

Yeah, as of yet, it's hard to prove something when Britain refuses to name names or locations. And this is something that even an LGBT activist, Wayne Besson, who is no fan of what he calls conversion therapy, noted in LGBTQ Nation, you know, in other. an LGBT outlet. He said that Britain's story was too good to be true, and he faulted LGBT activist groups and the press for failing to verify it before championing his cause. Besson asked Britain for the identity of his conversion therapist and the facility in which the alleged quote-unquote therapy occurred, and Britain refused to answer. And Britain has repeatedly refused to answer and repeatedly refused to give details. And, you know, as Nicolosi pointed out to me, Britain has claimed at least

three different ages at which he supposedly was subjected to what he essentially describes as torture therapy. Britain claimed in a news release that he underwent conversion therapy at age 10, and then he wrote in the New York Times that he suffered it at age 12. And then, of course, when he was working at a National Center for Lesbian Rights event with donors, he said that he suffered it a couple years ago. At that point, he was 25? So, you know, was he 10? Was he 12?

Was he 22 or 23? It remains unclear. And the Department of Energy refused. You know, it was interesting. The Department of Energy separated ties with him. The very day that I sent the Department of Energy email out. asking, you know, what's the truth about these things? Has the Department of Energy verified these claims? And if not, why, you know, hire him? And later that day, you know, eight hours

after I raised these questions, suddenly he's out of a job. So ultimately, what do you think is the message that you hope the Biden administration, the Department of Energy takes from what's happened here from them hiring Britain who had already some questionable behavior and then the same individual who went on to steal luggage and continued to have questionable behavior. What do you hope that they walk away with from really a situation that has exploded in the news cycle? Yeah, no, I think the Biden administration needs to learn that it actually has to prioritize competence. And, you know, it's an interesting term to talk about, but bipartisanship, you know,

actual public concern for the fact that not everybody celebrates LGBT activism. You know, by touting these, you know, rather out there and very obvious LGBT figures, the Biden administration is essentially putting its thumb in the eye of conservative. of Christians and of those who disagree with these things. And that's a clear policy attack they have taken consistently through the administration from undermining religious liberty to repeatedly stigmatizing anyone who disagrees to prioritizing prosecuting pro-life protesters at abortion clinics over apparently going after those who've committed actual acts of violence against crisis pregnancy centers.

And this is something the Biden administration is telegraphing in all of its activities that, you know, there is, there are a good set of people and a bad set of people. And if you happen to fall, you know, if you happen to disagree with the LGBT narrative, you are a villain and we're going to be, you know, looking out for you and looking after you and treating you harshly. And, you know, this is exactly the opposite of what Joe Biden campaigned on in 2020, where he said he was going to restore the soul of America and bring Americans back together after a, you know, after a divisive Trump presidency. and Biden has failed on pretty much every level to deliver on that promise.

Yeah. Well, Tyler, on that very subject, you say that the Biden administration is putting their thumb in the eye of religious freedom of conservative Christians in America. I want to take just a moment to address President Biden signing the so-called Respect for Marriage Act on Tuesday afternoon. And we've covered this extensively here at the Daily Signal. And, you know, from speaking with so many different faith leaders, they have all warned that this piece of legislation, it's going to jeopardize religious freedom in America. Can you just briefly explain how? What are the concerns among Christians with the so-called respect for marriage act? Yeah.

So the act redefines marriage in federal law and enforces that every state has to. acknowledge, you know, same-sex marriage as the law of the land. And this actually doesn't advance the ball in terms of, quote-unquote, rights for LGBT couples. It doesn't really give them anything that hadn't been granted by the Supreme Court in the Obergefell decision. But what it does do is it's an act of Congress and a law signed by the president. that reshapes marriage law nationwide. And that's going to have downstream effects for those that are not specifically protected. Those who disagree with the idea that marriage is just two people regardless of biological sex.

And this is something that Roger Severino has pointed out very well, just like with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, you know, that law did not explicitly revoke the tax-exempt status for religious schools that engaged in racial discrimination. But the IRS would go on to apply the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to do exactly that. And that's, you know, that's not to say that those specific situations were wrong, just that, When you have a law like this that defines marriage in one way and doesn't go out of its way to protect the conscience rights of those who disagree, that sets up a very dangerous situation. And, you know, the law does have some limits. It has this very, this exceedingly vague declaration that people with various views of marriage deserve respect. but it never says what that respect is, and it doesn't define who those people are.

And Senator Mike Lee had an amendment that would clarify this and that would protect those who conscientiously object to same-sex marriage, but that amendment failed. And what we've seen, you know, we've seen throughout the past 10 years, people like Jack Phillips, who gladly serve all sorts of people at his shop. You know, he's a baker.

He's, and you have Baronel Stutzman, who was a florist, who also faced accusations of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. She had gladly sold flowers to a gay man and his partner for years. But when the gay man asked for her to decorate a scene for his, for an event that he would say was his same-sex marriage, she declined, and it was very respectful. It was a situation where she's just like, look, I care about you,

but I can't, you know, as a Christian, as someone who believes that marriage is between one man and one woman, I can't be seen to celebrate or agree with the concept of a same-sex marriage. And luckily, there's a great case before the Supreme Court right now called 303 Creative, where the justices seem likely to defend a clear free speech position along these lines. But even if that case goes in the way of respecting free speech and religious freedom,

there's still a large array of potential challenges that conservative and Christian and, you know, also Jewish, Muslim organizations may face if they stand on marriage as between one man and one woman. And it's interesting the bill explicitly says it protects, I believe it protects churches, or it says that it protects churches. But it doesn't protect, you know, the large array of religious companies, religious firms that may find themselves. under fire in this. And we, Congress had multiple opportunities to correct that in both the House and the Senate. And each time those amendments were voted down. So it's, they're going to be very interesting and rather troubling legal battles as a result of this. And, you know, conservative Christians need to need to pay attention and push back. Yeah. Well, and tell

I think one of the interesting things about this whole process of the Respect for Marriage Act and its movement through Congress has been that Republicans have not been on the same page over this bill. And in fact, 39 House Republicans, they voted in support of the Respect for Marriage Act. why did so many Republicans support this bill and continue to claim that it won't harm religious organizations? Yeah, that's a very good question. I'd love to hear what they'd say when asked that. I think the reason why has more to do with their unwillingness to buck the growing trend. and they're thinking that they're going to be demonized and stigmatized if they don't vote for this. And this is something I've covered for a while that thanks to organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center,

which brands mainstream conservative and Christian groups, hate groups, and puts them on a list with the Ku Klux Klan and on a map with the Ku Klux Klan. There's this trend of Democrats. demonizing those who disagree with them, especially on these issues. And it used to be, you know, and LGBT people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender have obviously suffered in the past. And I think it's important for conservatives to acknowledge. But at the same time, that doesn't mean that conservatives and Christians who disagree with,

their lifestyles who think that these, especially treatments for transgenderism, quote-unquote treatments, which are experimental medical interventions, are somehow good and worth defending. You know, Christians who disagree need to be able to disagree in a civil society. We should have a free speech culture in which we can discuss these issues. Instead, what we're seeing over and over again is this immediate rush to judgment and stigmatization. demonizing those who dare to raise any sort of disagreement with the LGBT movement. And that's not good for our society. That's not good for our free speech culture.

And I think that's one of the major reasons why these Republicans decided to cave was they thought there was a fig leaf enough of protection of religious liberty in this bill that they could justify it. And they couldn't justify, you know, in some cases, there are personal connections that these people have with their staffers, with various other people. And I have personal connections, too. But that doesn't mean, you know, that doesn't mean you have to agree with different lifestyles. You can treat people with love and respect without endorsing what they claim to be their identities. That's a hard line to quack, but I think that's an important line that we need to clarify as we go forward into this period in American history where it is exceedingly difficult to be a convictional, you know, biblical Christian or, you know, a traditional Jew or Muslim who holds to the traditional view of marriage and an opposition to transgender. identity. Tyler O'Neill, managing editor at The Daily Signal. You can follow all of Tyler's

work at DailySignal.com or you can follow him on Twitter at Tyler, the new world two, O'Neill. Tyler, thanks so much for joining us today. Really appreciate your time. My pleasure. Thanks so much, Virginia. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for joining us here on the Daily Sital podcast. If you have not had the chance already, be sure to check out our evening show right here in your podcast feed where we bring you the top news of the day. Also, make sure to subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you get your podcast and help us reach even more listeners by leaving a five-star rating and review. We love hearing your feedback.

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