Contempt for law
The Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities of 1939 was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to prevent government resources from being used for political campaigning. Never has it been violated quite so audaciously by an American president as it has during this week’s Republican National Convention.
President Trump has turned the White House and some federal employees — even Marine guards, most shamefully — into props for what is indisputably campaign programming to advance his reelection. His theatrical pardoning of a convicted bank robber as a symbol of rehabilitation and his naturalization ceremony for five immigrants were scheduled as segments in the Tuesday night telecast. First lady Melania Trump used the Rose Garden as a backdrop for her convention speech, and Trump plans to deliver his Thursday acceptance on the South Lawn.
Most hypocritically, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made his pitch for Trump’s reelection from Jerusalem, where he supposedly was traveling on official business on your taxpayer dollars. This is the same secretary of state who recently warned his charges around the world to not “improperly engage the Department of State in the political process” this election season. In modern history, secretaries of state have refrained from speaking at political conventions in order to maintain their standing as dignified American diplomats instead of partisan hacks.
Pompeo’s brazen blend of official duty and political activity drew the attention of House Democrats, who plan to have a hearing on the apparent violation.
The White House response to the allegations of lawbreaking was all too predictable: “Nobody outside the Beltway really cares,” said Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Perhaps he’s right. At a time when Americans’ mail is being delayed, with suspicions that it may be linked to Trump’s open hostility to expanded mailin voting, defiance of the Hatch Act rates decidedly lower on the outrage scale.
Sadly, Americans have yet another example of an administration respecting no boundaries of law or tradition to manipulate or exploit public resources for its political survival.