(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) It has become all too often seen lately that privileged groups in America are exempt from the normal laws that the rest of mere citizens must follow.
This time President Joe Biden’s Chief of Staff Ron Klain has violated the Hatch Act, the Washington Examiner reported.
Klain’s failure to follow the law was exposed by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, who said that Biden’s chief of staff was guilty of participation in political activity while acting in his official administrative capacity.
The Special Counsel, however, simply issued a warning, and did not follow up with further punishment. The particular violation of which Klain is guilty is a tweet in which he promoted political propaganda.
“Operation Fly Formula delivers 70,000 pounds of infant formula for American mothers and their infants. Thank you @POTUS,” the tweet read, adding, “Get your Democrats Deliver merch today!” He linked in products with the message: “Democrats Deliver.”
Yet according to the Hatch Act, employees in the executive branch are barred from using their official status for political activity, including using social media as a means of “liking, sharing, or retweeting a post that solicits political contributions.”
The Office of Special Counsel noted that Klain’s Twitter activity was directly partisan.
“Strike PAC is a partisan political group, and according to its website, it ‘supports campaign finance reform and will help elect Democrats who support these vital policies.’ It also has a ‘nationalized strategy’ aimed at promoting the Democratic Party by ‘tell[ing] stories of how Democrats deliver on their promises to improve the lives of voters,'” the letter notes.
“By retweeting this message, Mr. Klain used his official Twitter account to promote a partisan political group’s interests and, therefore, OSC has concluded that he violated the Hatch Act’s use of official authority prohibition.”
