CNN Chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, likened the looting to the scene of an estate sale. One by one, people are removing possessions from the People’s House in what appears to be a mass give-away.
It’s like an estate sale over here. https://t.co/MbBD6O5u0n
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 14, 2021
That one gets a pass since no First Family or White House curator is going to want that photograph in the collection. But the bust of a former President is an entirely different matter. It’s an antique and if not part of the official White House collection, it’s on loan from a museum as every administration has the privilege of borrowing museum pieces.
Jim Acosta fears Trump aides are looting the White House: ‘Not souvenirs you can take home’https://t.co/dffZSDlAHt
— ??? ??? ?? ??????????, ???☯️ (@Starscream35) January 14, 2021
Artist Jane Altshuler explains how she can tell this is looting, not authorised removals.
Museum professionals would never move these things in this condition. They would be properly wrapped. Also there would be no reason to move anything before the inauguration. These things are being stolen.
— Jane Ellen Altshuler (@AltshulerJane) January 14, 2021
It isn’t clear whether or not the pictured woman is loading into her vehicle the boxes and packages on the trolley as well or if she’s just taking off with the stuffed pheasant.
It appears that some of what is being taken may be authorized removals but not all, as Jim Acosta tells Brooke Baldwin in a CNN News report.
“People need to know that the items inside the White House are not giveaways, they’re not souvenirs you can take home. This is not an estate sale or Antiques Roadshow, but yet you’re seeing some White House staffers taking mementos with them as they go,” he reported. “And so it is a strange sort of surreal look at the end days of the Trump presidency, but that’s what we’re in the midst of right now.”
I hope someone has called the FBI.
Start scanning ebay for “Buy it Now” treasures.
Oh yeah! Good point!
But not theft once pardoned. And gee, see this hand but avoid the other. A distraction for some other more heinous stuff.
Even if he pardons them – and I don’t think he’s in the mood to pardon anyone but himself now – they’ll still have to hand everything back.
I don’t think stealing from the People is pardonable. I could make an argument with a straight face.
I thought that the WH building staff kept an eye on this stuff – they know what belongs to the building.
I’m thinking Trump ordered them out of the way. I hope someone is taking notes as to who is taking what and that it’s all on the White House security cameras.
i imagine that’s exactly what permanent WH staff have been doing. Making notes of who took what and when. “Important” people don’t notice all those staffers that tend to the building and it’s artifacts but they see just about everything and they know who everyone is. Even if all of a sudden they decide to wear a mask, pretending it’s because of Covid but in reality thinking that anyone seeing them won’t be able to identify them. As for pardons, if they aren’t giving that stuff to Trump or promising to cut him in on any money they make selling it they are kidding themselves if they think they’ll get a pardon. In fact, reports are almost everyone is AVOIDING him, and he’s increasingly furious about it. His vindictiveness knows no bounds so again, pardons are nothing but a pipe dream for these criminals. Given the value of some of those items we are talking felony level theft, and judges in DC likely won’t be inclined to be merciful no matter what sentencing guidelines say regarding first offenders. I think many if not most of these people can expect to do at least some time in not the Trump Hotel but the “iron bar motel.”
I was nodding my head all the way through your comment. They are not going to get away with this.
Someone said it is all government property. It should be numbered and inventoried.
It will, surely, all be inventoried. And it won’t be difficult for law enforcement to locate the thieves.
locating the thieves is one thing, the inventory always seems to still vanish into thin air! Take names anyway!
They are welcome to take the following;
All the leftover of Goya beans,
The long red ties and Ivanka made in China purses,
the “gold” toilet,
the couch Kellyan used to sit on
The garish red trees
Any urinated mattresses
The tanning spray booth
Any unused Clorox filled hypodermic needles
Any flag stained with drool or KFC grease
Their sense of decency (typo there wasn’t any)
Plus the new soon to be occupants and friends might still remember what things looked like four years ago.
Thieving creeps to the bitter end.
Exactly what we were all expecting.
The Trompador will also need to be searched – any artifacts given to him during a visit to another country actually belong to the US and are not ‘personal gifts’ – the medallion and sword from Saudi Arabia are two examples
He’s not familiar with the difference between state gifts and personal gifts. He’s a toddler who thinks all the shiny things are his.
God, even on their way out, they remain grifting POSes.
Tis genetics. Royal POSes or POSs?
Yep – and both!
I hate to think what the Trumps have put in their suitcases and packing boxes. Trump will want anything that’s gold.
The White House has an Art Curator, currently Lydia Tederick (if she wasn’t fired by Trump or his feckless family). The objects in the White House are considered to be museum pieces, some with priceless value. The video record of the looting will be used to charge these thieves with Grand Larceny which carries very serious penalties. The first hope is that the stolen art isn’t damaged, and the second is that these selfish, classless looters are punished to the greatest extent of the law.
Absolutely. How clueless are these thieves to not realise these aren’t mementos?!
Acosta seemed to be saying too that it was Larry Kudlow who was carrying away the bust. I checked photos of Kudlow and it could be him. But I would’ve thought he’d know better.
Do you recall about a month ago seeing a moving van in front of the White House? I thought at the time that Melania may have suddenly grown a conscience but it could very well have been an escape for pieces that will soon be discovered “missing.” We also must face the possibility that some pieces may have been on loan from other museums and their employees may be the ones taking them back. One way or the other, we do want explanations.
This is so depressing.
They just don’t let up, do they. ?
Until you mentioned it, I’d forgotten about that moving van a month ago. It fits with the psychopathy of this thieving family and their criminal cabal to steal from the White House.
Totally agree with your conclusion: one way or the other we definitely do want explanations, for every piece that is removed.
I have to say while watching the insurrection I was praying not only for those who work in the building but for the priceless art everywhere. “It’s my America” rang pretty damn hollow screamed by those destroying it before our eyes.
[email protected]
There IS an INVENTORY, you know. The WH Staff, the real staff not the trumpests, WILL be looking to go after anything stolen! It belongs to the People.
Talk about STOP THE STEAL . . . I hope the government has an inventory and can prosecute these people.
THE ART OF THE STEAL.
The poor FBI. If they already don’t have enough on their plate with the upcoming inauguration, protecting all 50 state capitals and arresting everyone from January 6. As well as investigating who helped these domestic terrorists on January 5. Now they have to deal with the outgoing kleptomaniacs of the last administration? Hopefully they will be hiring more agents after January 20. Maybe they can give some jobs to recently graduated Art Historians.
They will be needing more agents – rehiring those who left because of the Trump administration would be a good start and your hiring suggestion is excellent!
It’s the title of tRUMP’s new book, THE ART OF THE STEAL.
I cannot believe and yet believe these people have no morals. They are greedy and simply feel that they people owe them.
Since most of these items are valuable, possibly irreplaceable, shouldn’t this rise to a felony level?
I believe it’s grand larceny so yeah, definitely a felony.
It’s what you get with lowlifes. Have no respect for other people’s property.
That’s it in a nutshell: no respect for other people or their property.
They are welcome to take the following;
All the leftover of Goya beans,
The long red ties and Ivanka made in China purses,
the “gold” toilet,
the couch Kellyan used to sit on
The garish red trees
Any urinated mattresses
The tanning spray booth
Any unused Clorox filled hypodermic needles
Any flag stained with drool or KFC grease
Their sense of decency (typo there wasn’t any)
WE DID!!!