Federal official protests with disruptive climate group against Biden outside DNC

EXCLUSIVE — A senior analyst at the largest office within the Executive Office of the President, the Office of Management and Budget, participated in a Friday rally against President Joe Biden led by a climate group behind extremist anti-oil protests.

Climate Defiance, an organization linked to a left-wing dark money network deploying unorthodox protest methods against fossil fuels, gathered on Friday morning outside the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., to demand Biden not run for reelection. In attendance at that same event was an eight-year veteran legislative analyst named Daniel Michelson-Horowitz at the powerful Office of Management and Budget, the Washington Examiner has confirmed.

The OMB analyst, a graduate of Georgetown University’s law school in 2013 who previously worked at the Food and Drug Administration, was as of Thursday part of a private group chat called “DNC Pass The Torch 7/19” to discuss logistics for the Friday rally. The Washington Examiner was able to confirm this because a Climate Defiance activist named Lauren McNair appears to have unwittingly added a Washington Examiner reporter to the group chat. McNair notably put out a statement in June recounting her experience facing arrest at the annual Congressional Baseball Game for running on the field at Nationals Park, along with other climate activists.

That Michelson-Horowitz is involved with Climate Defiance should be investigated by the OMB, according to William E. Trachman, a legal expert and former senior appointee in the Department of Education. It’s important for public employees to retain their First Amendment rights, though Climate Defiance is also a particularly problematic entity linked to apparent national security issues, Trachman said.

“Given the nature of this group and the fact that their members are getting arrested, I think it would be appropriate for OMB to at least confirm he’s doing this on private time,” Trachman said.

The OMB analyst’s involvement with the anti-Biden rally comes as Democrats increasingly urge the president to drop out of the 2024 race over concerns that he is not in a position to beat former President Donald Trump. Panic has set off in Democratic circles ever since Biden’s poor debate performance in late June against Trump — who survived an assassination attempt on July 13 at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Michelson-Horowitz told a Washington Examiner reporter at the Friday rally outside the DNC that he was “not here in that capacity” when asked about his role with the OMB. He declined to comment on if his superiors were aware of his involvement with Climate Defiance.

“I’m just not in a position to talk to the media,” said Michelson-Horowitz, a former intern for the Brennan Center for Justice, Department of Justice, and Obama White House. The OMB analyst earned a salary of more than $155,000 in 2023 and has made donations in the past to Biden and other Democrats, according to federal records.

At the DNC rally, protesters called for Biden to “pass the torch” and shouted chants such as “You can’t win Joe, pack it in” and “The youth can do it best, Biden give it a rest.” Climate Defiance Executive Director Michael Greenberg said in a speech to protesters Friday that DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison “spends his days writing long tweets about how he doesn’t believe all the pollsters,” signaling Biden may lose to Trump.

“The Examiner’s coverage is a little bit biased towards the Right, so, yeah, you’re totally welcome to hang out, but I’m going to pass on doing an interview,” Greenberg told the Washington Examiner, noting Climate Defiance is “staying neutral” on which candidate it would support for president should Biden drop out of the 2024 race.

Climate Defiance is one of several groups connected to Climate Emergency Fund, a nonprofit group bankrolled by Hollywood celebrities and left-wing foundations behind protests aiming to bring awareness to climate change featuring vandalism and the blocking of roads, among other activities. Activists with Just Stop Oil, another group backed by CEF, were sentenced on Thursday in England to as much as five years in prison for blocking traffic on a major highway in London.

Just Stop Oil activists have also in the past thrown tomato soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting, interrupted the 2023 Wimbledon tennis tournament, and, last month, sprayed orange paint on the historical Stonehenge landmark in Wiltshire, England.

In June, eight protesters were arrested at the Congressional Baseball Game for rushing the field mid-game. Climate Defiance, which is based in Washington, D.C., took credit for the protest and said the “Chevron-sponsored” game was “unconscionable.” Climate Defiance activists also, for instance, forced Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) off the stage in May of last year at an event for her new book — before its activists were escorted out by George Washington University campus police.

It’s unclear how long Michelson-Horowitz has been involved with Climate Defiance. The OMB declined to comment to the Washington Examiner. Climate Defiance touted in emails to supporters Friday how it “blockaded” the DNC and “will not back down.”

The situation is “hugely problematic all around,” according to Tom Jones, president of the conservative American Accountability Foundation watchdog group.

“Climate Defiance isn’t your normal, goofy left-wing environmental group,” Jones said. “They’re an aggressive, confrontational group of borderline domestic terrorists. The association of someone at OMB with this group is problematic. They should 100% investigate. And if the next administration is a different one, they should probably look at firing the guy as well.”