According to Politico, a "person close to Biden" is defending Vilsack's civil rights record by claiming that discrimination complaints went down at USDA under Vilsack "according to USDA's own data." This is unequivocally not true: they went up.

This is not a minor claim. Vilsack has made it repeatedly, often touting it as one of his primary civil rights accomplishments. This excerpt, from his 2017 exit memo, is typical.

USDA civil rights employees had long disputed this claim. In 2015, for example, a union official representing USDA civil rights employees sent a letter showing this claim to be false to her members and Vilsack.

As I and others have documented elsewhere, USDA's civil rights statistics are NOT reliable. But as the letter above points out, even if you take them at face value, Vilsack's claim to have received the fewest complaints ever is incorrect.

I've confirmed these data through documents I've received through Freedom of Information Act requests and sources at USDA. I'd be happy to share them with any journalists looking into Vilsack's record.

In 2019, I asked Tom Vilsack and his civil rights chief, Joe Leonard, for any evidence they might have to support their claim USDA had "the fewest complaints" on record. Here's the question I sent Dr. Leonard.

He responded by sending a completely irrelevant talking point, which you can see below. When I pressed him on it, he ignored me. As will all of these materials, I'd be happy to share the whole conversation with any journalist or member of the Biden transition team.

When I asked Vilsack for evidence to support the "fewest ever" claim, via email, he did two things.

1. He said they settled thousands of outstanding complaints (not true but irrelevant). 2. He insisted that the data they "relied on" were correct without sharing any of that data with me or telling me where I might find it (which is what I had repeatedly requested).

If this were a minor talking point, you might forgive this, but remember: this claim is critical to Vilsack's defense of his civil rights record. And it's completely made up.