Rep. Mike Pence is the House GOP Conference Chair who led the charge to smear Van Jones.

Pence is an extreme right-wing Christian, who has taken lots of money from Blackwater’s owner, Erik Prince, a man who a former employee said “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe.”

Jeremy Scahill has more details:

On Friday, Pence, who describes himself as “Christian, Conservative, Republican, in that order,” said Jones’s “extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate.” Beyond the obvious here (the hate-filled rhetoric we see every day from racist, right-wing wackos, including those in public office), it is an interesting comment considering that Pence is an extremist right-wing evangelical Christian who has taken thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Blackwater’s owner, Erik Prince. Prince has also donated to Pence’s Political Action Committee “Principles Exalt a Nation.”

In December 2007, three months after Blackwater operatives gunned down 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, Pence and his Republican Study Committee, which serves “the purpose of advancing a conservative social and economic agenda in the House of Representatives,” organized a gathering to welcome Prince to Washington. “Not only has Mr. Prince personally been targeted by partisan warfare repeatedly over the past months, but the use of contracting throughout the government has been under attack by this Congress,” Pence’s committee’s statement said.

Erik Prince is an extremist, and if Rep. Mike Pence continues to associate with him, he has no place in public office.