I Cannot Believe This Racist Tweet

I cannot! Believe! This tweet!

The tweet related to a story about the Waldorf Astoria Hotel being owned by a company controlled by the Chinese government.

Before you think it, no, this man isn’t just one of those suspicious blue checkmark guys who don’t actually matter, like Eric Garland. Prior to this tweet, he was an “International Security Fellow” at New America, a real, and quite big and influential, think tank. He was also listed among Foreign Policy’s “100 Leading Global Thinkers” in 2016.

According to his extremely detailed bio at New America, his work “has been at the nexus of strategic and tactical threat analysis, technical mitigation support, and the formulation of United States national security policy”:

Smith’s work for members of Congress has been entered into the Congressional Record and used as a source document for national security legislation signed by President Barack Obama, titled The Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act of 2012. Most recently, Smith provided expert testimony during the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism’s October 2017 hearing focused on terrorists’ and Russia’s influence operations targeting prospective recruits in the United States and American voters.

The last thing Smith Two Racist Boogaloo did for New America, at least according to his bio page, was in January 2017.

At first, 2 Smith 2 Furious didn’t admit any wrongdoing:

But he ultimately relented, saying the tweet was “widely characterized” as the thing that it was:

Reached by email, New America said that it was done with Smith:

Michael S Smith II’s fellowship with New America has been terminated following his use of inappropriate language that is incongruous with New America’s values. New America does not tolerate or condone the use of racist language or racist conduct of any kind.