(CNN) Sam Clovis, President Donald Trump's nominee to be the Department of Agriculture's chief scientist, maintained a now-defunct blog for years in which he accused progressives of "enslaving" minorities, called black leaders "race traders," and labeled former President Barack Obama a "Maoist" with "communist" roots.
Clovis, a long-time Iowa political activist and former economics professor, wrote the blog posts on the now-deleted website for his radio show "Impact with Clovis," which aired for several years on Sioux City KSCJ. Copies of the show are not available online, but the blog is archived on The Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Most of the available blog posts are from 2011 and 2012.
Trump's nomination of Clovis, a fervent supporter of Trump during the presidential campaign, has drawn criticism from Senate Democrats and climate activists, who have attacked his lack of scientific credentials and skepticism of climate science.
Clovis is currently serving as the senior White House adviser to the USDA, but as his old blog posts highlight, his background is strongly rooted in the politics of conservative talk radio. His nomination requires Senate confirmation.
Clovis did not respond to an email from CNN's KFile requesting comment. A spokesperson for the USDA said, "Dr. Clovis is a proud conservative and a proud American. All of his reporting either on the air or in writing over the course of his career has been based on solid research and data. He is after all an academic."
A spokesperson for the White House did not return a request for comment.
In his writings, Clovis directed most of his ire at then-President Obama and the progressive movement.
In a post from September 2011, Clovis wrote in reference to Obama, "He was brought up by socialists to be a socialist. His associations were socialists or worse, criminal dissidents who were bent on overthrowing the government of the United States. He has no experience at anything other than race baiting and race trading as a community organizer."
The month before, Clovis said the 2012 Republican primary candidates needed to call out progressives for what they were — "liars, race traders and race 'traitors.'"
At times, Clovis adopted a conspiratorial tone in his blog postings, openly pondering whether the Obama Administration would place conservative activists on a kill list that included terrorists like Anwar al-Awlaki and accusing Obama-era czars of using taxpayer money to buy the support of academics who would claim science was settled.
In one blog post in April 2011, Clovis contrasted the successful recovery efforts following the 2008 floods in Iowa with the chaos in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, attributing the difference to Iowa's culture "focused on family, community and the primacy of faith in life."
Clovis wrote in September 2011 that then-President Obama had "no experience at anything other than race baiting and race trading as a community organizer."
"The president, like the rest of us, is clearly a product of his upbringing, his associates, his education and his experience," wrote Clovis. "He was brought up by socialists to be a socialist. His associations were socialists or worse, criminal dissidents who were bent on overthrowing the government of the United States. He has no experience at anything other than race baiting and race trading as a community organizer. He has never run anything. Finally, his education at some of the best colleges in America was deeply influenced by socialists or worse on those campuses. He supposedly earned degrees in political science and law, but his actions reflect a shallow education and chronic underachievement in nearly every thing he has done."
In August 2011, Clovis wrote progressives were "liars, race traders, and race 'traitors.'"
"My caller was most concerned about the fact that our candidates seem to be afraid of taking on the race baiting," Clovis wrote. "I could not agree more. The current crop of candidates need to get that titanium spine we keep hearing about and call out the progressives for what they are -- liars, race traders and race 'traitors.'"
In the same blog post, Clovis said Democrats were attempting to keep minorities "enslaved" to the government. He said progressives wanted to eliminate people of color from America but saw government enslavement as a second option.
"We can go back 100 years and trace how the progressives, socialists and fellow travelers have done everything possible to keep minorities in this country enslaved to government. This is particularly true in the African-American community. The progressives have systematically attacked the individual, the black family unit, the black female and the black male to essentially eliminate people of color from the American landscape. Because elimination has become impractical, subservience to government is an acceptable second option.
In June 2011, Clovis wrote that civil rights icon W. E. B. Du Bois was "the first race-trader" for getting southern blacks to support Woodrow Wilson for President. (DuBois supported Wilson during the 1912 election, but later broke with him during his presidency.)
"After the Civil War, African-Americans voted almost en masse for Republicans," wrote Clovis. "That all changed in the election of 1912 when first term governor Woodrow Wilson was able to convince WEB(sic) DeBois to back his candidacy. That year, 60% of eligible African-Americans voted for Wilson. This loss of a small but homogeneous voting block to the other side hurt the Republicans and would continue to hurt them until the present day. DeBois was the first race-trader and did a magnificent job of convincing his fellow blacks to back a southern racist for president. What ever was the deal that would allow someone of DeBois's stature to side with such an incredibly flawed individual? To this day, I have not been able to find adequate scholarly work to explain this remarkable shift in allegiance. Wilson was a progressive and a racist. In my books, the two were, are, and will remain, synonomous(sic)."
Clovis said the minority community would some day "wake up" to their enslavement.
"Like putting the frog in the pot then turning up the heat, minorities have been enslaved by government operatives who care nothing for the nation and everything for power," wrote Clovis. "Someday, men and women of color will wake up to the incredible deception that has been visited on their communities. Someday, these wonderful, courageous Americans will rebuff collective dependency and will embrace individual accountability and the covenant we find in our Constitution.
In other blog posts, Clovis repeatedly argued that progressives were attempting to enslave citizens to the government.
"They want power for an elite group of individuals who want to perfect man through constant social engineering," Clovis wrote in July 2011. "These same people want to enslave people in a way of life that drains the very heart out of an individual, destroys the family, dismantles the efficacy of religion in our lives and destroys the fabric that holds our communities together. Through radical egalitarianism, progressives will take from those who produce and will give to those who will not--in turn enslaving both. There is nothing moral about slavery, and progressives want just that--total dependence on the state."
Clovis pushed this sentiment repeatedly.
Clovis also expressed a deep disdain for former President Obama, who he said hated American greatness and had an "anti-American mentality."
"These must be desparate (sic) times for the president as he seems to be recognizing that perhaps there are people out here who do not like his policies and have really stopped liking him as a person," Clovis wrote in September 2011. "He is clearly a progressive socialist who hates the greatness of this nation and is doing all he can to make permanent changes in the structure of the country before he leaves office."
"The President, as Chief Executive, is responsible for this the lawlessness of his administration," wrote Clovis in a May 2011 blog post. "What is perhaps most troubling is that the president clearly has disdain for the American people, American exceptionalism and the Constitution of this great nation. He is a threat to our domestic tranquility and must be voted out of office at the earliest opportunity."
In multiple posts in January 2012, Clovis refers to President Obama as "a Maoist" and "anti-colonist."
"Barack Obama is inherently dishonest, a pathological liar and a person who has surrounded himself with sycophantic, co-dependent people who are more clearly identified by their association with him than by their own accomplishments," wrote Clovis. "He is a Maoist, anti-colonialist who is also a pathological narcissist. This is a very dangerous combination."
He wrote a week later, "We need to make sure we have done everything we can to beat Barack Hussein Obama and his progressive, Maoist, anti-colonialist followers."
Clovis wrote in May 2011 that unions came out of the "Communist closet" to support socialist "Barack Hussein Obama" and wanted to seize the means of production.
"Though it comes as no surprise, headlines today reveal that the National Education Association, the largest union in the United States, public or private, has asked its rank and file to support the re-election of Barack Obama. Similarly, the Service Employees International Union came out of the communist closet over the weekend, letting the world know that they are fellow travelers in pursuit of seizing the means of production and irradicating(sic) personal property rights in our market system. When one examines the reach of unions in America, one is startled to find out that some 15 million foot soldiers stand ready to march into battle for the socialist we now know is Barack Hussein Obama."
Clovis speculated in an October 2011 post that the US might start putting pro-life, small government activists on the same terrorist kill list as Anwar al-Awlaki.
"Over the past three days on my radio show, we have been having a great discussion of the policies and consequences of the administration's latest actions in assassinating Anwar Al Awlaki. Along with Al Awlaki, Samir Khan, an American citizen as well, died in the Predator attack that killed Al Awlaki while he was in Yemen. What is not at issue is that Al Awlaki was a despicable human being who was bent on carrying out his jihad against America. He was likely the individual behind the underwear bomber and the Fort Hood shootings. Was he bad? No Question. However, he was an American citizen and he should have been extended his Constitutional protections. What is frightening is that a panel of mid-level bureaucrats is determining who gets killed and who doesn't. Are you comfortable with that? I am not, particularly when this administration wants to Mirandize enemy combatants on the battlefield and wants to try foreign-born, non-citizen terrorists in federal court with all the protections of our most sacred civil document. What am I missing here? This situation is not only indicative of being on a steep, slippery slope, but that we are sliding down this slope at breakneck speed. We already have documentation that this administration thinks that returning veterans, pro-life advocates and small government advocates are all potential terrorists. This is written down in Department of Homeland Security policy documents. Is it such a stretch to think that at some point that those who pose a threat to this administration might not move up the list generated by this secret panel? Possible? You bet. Probable? Who knows."
Clovis accused Obama-era czar's of buying academic support to say subjects of legislation were "settled science."
"As we continue this discussion of the amorality of the progressive movement in the country, we must include discussion of how this administration has circumvented the law and the Constitution by establishing over 40 'Czars' who have been charged with, among other things, ensuring support for administration positions by cooking the books," Clovis wrote in a June 2011 blog post. "The Czars are suspected of using taxpayer money to buy 'academic' support for controversial legislation. By coordinating responses to issues, the administration can create the perception that what they are suggesting is "mainstream" or "settled science" or "supported by rigorous studies." Of course, none of what is being advanced is even close to what is mainstream, settled or otherwise researched. By cooking the books and using taxpayer money to do it, this administration is conducting a nefarious, sinister propaganda campaign against the citizens they have sworn to protect. One can do a lot of things in politics, but deceiving the American people is not one of them. When the whole story of this is finally revealed, officials of this administration ought to be in jail."
Clovis wrote in April 2011 that a difference in culture is why people of Iowa reacted better to natural disasters than the people who faced Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
"Mapleton suffered the worst of the damage," Clovis wrote. "A large part of the town of 1200 was devastated by a F3 tornado that blew through about 7:30 pm. The little town was shut down by law enforcement until around 2:30 in the morning so that power lines could be restored and gas lines could be secured. By sunrise on Sunday morning, much of the situation had been contained and folks were already moving out into the little town to start the clean up. By the time the governor showed up--before noon--the streets were clear and people were out in force cleaning yards and policing up the debris around town. The power is back on but the gas lines will take a week or so to repair. Not to worry, this is Iowa. This type of resilience is so typical of this part of the country. From Texas to North Dakota and across the western part of the Midwest, the culture of this society is focused on family, community and the primacy of faith in life. Each episode like this seems to end the same way--neighbors helping neighbors get back to life as close to normal as possible. Thus, the difference in the reaction of the people in Iowa to the floods of 2008 to that of the nation during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita."