As RedState reported on Monday, the independent Office of Special Counsel determined that White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has made repeated violations of the Hatch Act.
Jean-Pierre did so by using the phrase “MAGA Republicans” and its various iterations during press briefings and in press statements. Because MAGA is the slogan of a political campaign, its use is considered “political activity” and is prohibited for those in official government positions (except for elected officials like the president himself). Naturally, the OSC decided to simply administer a warning.
In response, you’d think the White House would institute some new policies to ensure such violations of the law don’t happen again. Oh, who am I kidding? You didn’t think that, and that’s not what’s happening. Instead, the White House has announced that it’ll keep blatantly breaking the law without a care in the world.
To be clear, the Hatch Act is dumb. It’s one of those antiquated laws from a simpler time when you could expect government officials to not be flaming hacks. That’s not the world we live in any longer, and any real legal challenge of the Hatch Act would probably succeed on First Amendment grounds.
With that said, the fact that the Biden administration isn’t even attempting to keep up appearances is notable. The OSC puts out its opinion and issues a warning for the violations, and Jean-Pierre’s press office, within days, goes right back to “MAGA” this and “MAGA” that. You almost have to respect the hustle.
Besides, why wouldn’t they? What do they have to fear? The current White House is the most brazenly unaccountable in modern history (a disclaimer I use only due to the constraints of historical record) so it’s just par for the course for them to flaunt the law. Heck, I’d wonder if something scary was going on if they didn’t continue to break the law. It’s who they are. It’s part of their very being.
For those interested in Jean-Pierre’s excuse, she claims that Republicans use the term “MAGA” to describe official policy agenda items, thus making it not necessarily a political description but a technical one. Of course, that’s just not true. While Fox News or some individual representatives in Congress might refer to a piece of legislation as “MAGA” in its intentions, that’s not a term used in any official capacity by Republicans when it comes to legislation or policy. In other words, Jean-Pierre is lying, which again, is par for the course.
At the end of the day, is a violation of the Hatch Act even making the list of the worst things the Biden administration has done? Probably not, but it is another example of the lack of accountability that exists. The rules don’t apply to the elites, and they aren’t shy about letting you know that they know the rules don’t apply to them. The possession of shame used to prevent that kind of thing from being flouted so publicly, but that’s something in very short supply in Washington these days.