(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Last month, Kellyanne Conway ground the heel of her stylish yet economical Ivanka Trump pump into the remains of the Hatch Act, saying, “Blahblahblah … let me know when the jail sentence starts.” Because laws are for the little people.
Unfortunately Special Counsel Henry Kerner never got that memo, so on June 13, he sent a letter to Donald Trump documenting 10 occasions when Conway violated the act’s ban on senior White House officials using their position to influence elections and calling for her dismissal. From her endorsement of alleged pedophile Roy Moore, to her use of Twitter account to criticize “creepy Joe Biden,” to her repeated television appearances slagging Democratic presidential candidates, Conway has shown utter disdain for the statute. George Washington Law must be so proud of its famous alum!
Donald Trump cordially invited Kerner to eat dirt, and that would have been the end of it except congressional Democrats refused to let the matter drop. Conway was apparently too busy honing her impressive New Jersey accent to appear before the House Oversight Committee. But White House Counsel Pat Cipollone blithely asserted on her behalf that “the President’s immediate advisors are absolutely immune from congressional testimonial process.” Which is … not how we remember it going down in previous administrations.
Conway did have time to appear on Fox News Channel, though, where she admitted that “[t]he Hatch Act means that you can’t advocate for or against the election of an individual.” On its face, urging voters to vote for Roy Moore in the Alabama senate race might appear to be just such an activity, but Conway was quick to explain that she was just “quoting what some of the candidates say about the other candidates, I’m just repeating the news to you as I read it that day.” Which was good enough for the Curvy Couch Crew.
“They want to put a big roll of masking tape over my mouth because I helped as a campaign manager for the successful part of the campaign.” Conway continued, “They want to chill free speech because they don’t know how to beat [Trump] at the ballot box.” No one at Fox suggested that Ms. Conway consider taking a position with the Trump 2020 campaign if she wished to continue her advocacy rather than using a microphone subsidized by American taxpayers. Nor did they ask her how she would be silenced by being invited to speak to Congress. Maybe it came up during a commercial break.
Yesterday’s Oversight Committee hearing was a predictable circus, with Congressmen Meadows and Jordan yammering about plots against the president and inveighing against the real villain here: Michael Cohen. Obviously. Here’s Congressman Clay Higgins, a former law enforcement officer who resigned rather than face discipline for excessive use of force, discussing nailing Michael Cohen to the cross.
Which is all very blahblahblah, let me know when the jail sentence starts. But Republicans had one more trick up their sleeves, and it was to paint Special Counsel Henry Kerner, a Trump appointee and lifelong Republican, as a man scorned by Kellyanne Conway. In their version of events, Kerner is trying to get Conway fired because she ignored him and wouldn’t meet with his office to discuss her repeated violations of the law he is charged with policing.
“Mr. Chairman, the report from the Office of the Special Counsel is outrageous. It is unprecedented. It is unfair. And it is just flat out wrong. The reason we’re here today is because Mr. Kerner got his feelings hurt,” said Congressman Jordan. He went on to mischaracterize the brief notice Kerner gave the White House before sending his letter as giving her only “16 hours to respond” and accused the Special Counsel of caving to Democratic pressure, before returning to his theme of a federal official scorned, saying, “Mr. Kerner felt slighted. Miss Conway didn’t pay enough attention to him in his office.”
How could such a spineless liberal get appointed in the Trump administration? Is he some kind of Democratic holdover? Where did they find this guy?
Oh, he was a Republican staffer on the very same House Oversight Committee grilling him yesterday? And he worked for John McCain on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations? So, not from the ACLU via Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Black Lives Matter? Go figure!
Here’s a video of House Oversight voting to issue a subpoena for Kellyanne Conway at the end of yesterday’s three-ring circus. Luckily, she’s immune to that sort of thing.
Kellyanne Conway and the Hatch Act [C-SPAN]
House Panel Votes to Subpoena Trump Adviser Conway on Hatch Act [Reuters]
Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.