Shirley Sherrod: I'm Not Sure I Want my Job Back
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said early Wednesday morning he may consider reversing Shirley Sherrod's dismissal, but the former USDA official, fired because of out-of-context remarks about race, says she may not want her job back.
"Because of all the publicity surrounding what happened...how would I be treated once I'm back there? I just don't know," Sherrod said this morning on ABC's "Good Morning America." "I would have to be reassured on that."
The USDA asked Sherrod to resign on Monday after a conservative blog released an edited video of remarks she gave at an NAACP conference that gave the impression she discriminated against a white farmer. Her full remarks, however, made clear she was relating a story from two decades ago -- long before she joined the USDA -- and that she ultimately learned an important lesson to disregard race. The wife of the farmer in question stated yesterday that Sherrod is a "friend for life" who helped save their family farm.
Sherrod said yesterday that the USDA, at the behest of the White House, pressed her to resign without listening to her side of the story or taking the time to review the remarks she gave to the NAACP. Before Vilsack said this morning he would reconsider his decision, he said he was holding his ground. The White House said it played no part in Vilsack's decision but that it stood by it.
"For them all day yesterday to say they were standing by their decision and now at this late hour to be saying they're now willing to look at the facts, it's hard to take at this point," Sherrod said this morning on NBC's "Today Show."
Sherrod said on ABC that no one from the USDA has attempted to contact her since she was asked to resign, nor has she communicated directly with the White House. She said she still supports President Obama.
"I'm a bit disappointed that things happened in the way that they happened. It doesn't take away my support for the administration," she said. "When I accepted the position at rural development, always in the back of my mind was doing the very best that I could to have that be a good reflection on [Obama] and what he was trying to do."
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Watch the Remarks
