On Sunday evening, BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith announced that The Heritage Foundation has dropped out of the BuzzFeed Brews immigration summit taking place this Tuesday. Heritage’s Derrick Morgan, the only immigration reform critic among the various participants, is replaced by the Daily Caller’s Mickey Kaus.
Heritage faced an onslaught of criticism this past week regarding Dr. Jason Richwine, the Heritage senior policy analyst who co-authored Heritage’s new study on the immigration bill’s fiscal costs, over statements in his doctoral thesis regarding Hispanics’ IQ. On Friday, Richwine resigned from Heritage.
BuzzFeed is also under fire, however, for the lopsided nature of the event, tilted heavily with immigration reform supporters.
Kaus, replacing Heritage’s Derrick Morgan, has written extensively against the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill. The event remains skewed, however, with Kaus serving as the sole immigration reform skeptic among the seven participants.
UPDATE: When contacted by Breitbart News for comment on his inclusion in the summit, Mickey Kaus responded: “I’m happy to participate. Ben Smith seems to actually want to mix it up. We’ll see what happens.”