This is going to get down and dirty this week. The House Oversight Committee calling Kellyanne Conway to testify isn’t just about whether Conway gets to violate the Hatch Act with impunity. The larger issue is whether Trump’s minions get to recklessly use their government positions to further Trump’s aims, in disregard of government rules and regulations, and in doing so, put themselves, and Trump above the law.
Cummings: “We cannot have people disobeying the law. The president is not above the law and nor is Ms Conway above the law. And there are many many federal employees who are obedient with regard to the hatch act.“
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 24, 2019
Conway is of course, claiming on the one hand she didn’t violate the Hatch Act and on the other hand that if she did, then the First Amendment should protect her — oh, and that the Hatch Act doesn’t apply to assistants to the president. In the era of Trump, when in doubt, you just make up a new legal doctrine that encompasses your argument. What was it that Hope Hicks was claiming, “total immunity?” Something like that.
Kellyanne Conway dismisses Office of Special Counsel accusing her of repeatedly violating the Hatch Act — a law intended to bar federal employees from engaging in political activities while on the job.
"They want to silence me … our position is I haven't violated it." pic.twitter.com/U7XOBS8SMG
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 24, 2019
“They want to silence me” is one position, “I haven’t violated it” is another. Which is it, might we know? Beyond the obligatory rambling for sixty seconds so that Fox News has some audio fodder.
This will be an interesting next few days. The Hatch Act is basic. It says that government employees may not engage in political activity, such as campaigning, while on the job. Now the total irony in Conway’s case, is that she has no other function in Trump’s administration other than to get on television and do pro-Trump propaganda. That is her job. So a Kellyanne Conway obeying the letter of the Hatch Act would be a very different person indeed, from the one we’re used to hearing. She may have to discuss presidential policies, if she wasn’t busy campaigning for Trump. At least she can always get that information from Sarah Huckabee Sanders…oh, wait.
It’s a remarkable day when a presidential assistant would rather risk being in contempt of Congress than adhere to a simple and basic rule, which is applicable to all government employees. But that’s where we are. Conway doesn’t want to stand down, the Oversight Committee doesn’t want to fold. And the Office of Special Counsel, the watchdog group at whose behest all of this got started, is making it’s points solidly: Conway has repeatedly violated the Hatch Act and she should be fired.
For the moment, this story is eclipsing near-war in Iran, Jared Kushner’s fumbling and bumbling in the Mid East, and even Trump’s latest rape charge. How jaded we’ve all become in such a short time.
Didn’t she get fired recently? Or was that just her associates in polling?
Because laws *do* apply to WH employees, as well as to private citizens – like hicks and Flynn and Manafort.
She won’t show up.
I’m pretty sure Ursula, that the Hatch Act is just as pure and simple as your statement … “The Hatch Act is basic. It says that government employees may not engage in political activity, such as campaigning, while on the job.”
I know there are probably several hundred Republicans, that cannot decipher language so simple, and directly connect a person’s very public actions with that statement, think dumbo Donald as the GREATEST promoter of obstruction, it’s his desperation to survive without going out with a ton of crap about his flaccid performance in the WH, hanging over his hairball head … and anyway, in that simple Hatch statement, I don’t see one word that says anyone is exempt from that rule ….
The narcissism’s scream to be incredible in every way, makes DJT at this moment, the most dangerous man, (shitgibbon), in the world … I suggest he just needs to STFUP about IRAN, let people that really know stuff, (not the Bolton idiot), make decisions about war in meetings with Congress ….
Damn, the repainting crews at the WH, after dick face leaves, will have to use lots of putty and crack fillers before painting, simply too deep and so many claw marks on the walls … along with dents from flying furniture and TV screens, that used to show FOX news ….
Urusla, I was more under the impression that Conway’s violation(s) of the Hatch Act had to do with her getting involved in the AL special Senate election. While a President or Vice-President (even the dastardly duo of Trump and Pence) can legally endorse or denounce candidates as part of their official job (both offices are understood to be partisan and the holders of the offices are considered to be the primary faces of their party), Conway is NOT an elected official (which would offer her some legal immunity on the Hatch Act issue) but, rather, an EMPLOYEE of the Federal government. Even though her job is an aide to Trump and is technically answerable only to Trump, she should understand she doesn’t enjoy the same immunities that her boss enjoys.
It’s small of me, I know, but I want to see this smug, arrogant, know-it-all hag brought down hard. She deserves to have a miserable rest-of-her-life, given the snotty, nasty things she’s said and done in service to the miserable windbag she ‘works’ for. Jeez, I really hate this group of people.
It’s not small at all, it’s an entirely natural human response.