A staffer for President Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security is praising the left-wing “May Day” protests. On Tuesday evening, Nate Snyder, the special adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for “Community Partnership and Strategic Engagement,” tweeted “Happy May Day! #solidarity.”
Snyder has his his current Homeland Security post since March 2011, according to his LinkedIn page. He was previously the department’s Deputy White House Liaison. Before joining the Obama administration, Snyder worked for the Service Employees International Union, and for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Happy May Day! #solidarity
— Nate Snyder (@NateSnyder) May 1, 2012
May Day is a day on which socialist party faithful and labor unions have traditionally held massive anti-capitalist protests, and on Tuesday some liberal organizers used the occasion to rekindle the Occupy Wall Street movement’s flames.
After a winter during which the Occupy movement appeared to have died off, organizers are trying to give it new life this spring by holding protests alongside traditional May Day protests.
This week Occupy organizers have been tied to sending letters containing white powder to executives at News Corporation — the parent company of Fox News and The Wall Street Journal — and Citicorp.
There have also been suspicions — despite vehement denials from movement leaders — that Occupy activists were involved in a failed plot to blow up a bridge in Cleveland, Ohio. FBI agents foiled the alleged plot by inserting an informant into the gang, and arrested five suspects on Tuesday.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz did not immediately respond when The Daily Caller asked him if the administration shares Snyder’s support for May Day, nor did two different DHS spokespersons.
Although he is a government official, Snyder qualified his comment — along with all his tweets — by posting at the top of his Twitter account: “Opinions expressed are my own.”