{"id":25368,"date":"2023-06-14T05:29:18","date_gmt":"2023-06-14T05:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news24feed.com\/?p=25368"},"modified":"2023-06-14T05:29:19","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T05:29:19","slug":"white-house-press-secretary-violated-rules-against-politics-at-work-watchdog-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news24feed.com\/?p=25368","title":{"rendered":"White House press secretary violated rules against politics at work, watchdog says"},"content":{"rendered":"

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WASHINGTON (AP) – Since assuming the role of White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre has become known for frequently dodging questions by citing the Hatch Act. The law prohibits officials from engaging in politics during their day jobs, and Jean-Pierre uses it to deflect campaign-related questions from reporters. <\/p>\n

But apparently he wasn’t careful enough. The Office of Special Counsel, a government enforcement agency the Hatch Act<\/a>said in a recent letter that Jean-Pierre violated the law before last year’s midterm elections.<\/p>\n

His offense: making frequent references to “MAGA Republicans” during White House briefings. <\/p>\n

According to a letter from the Office of Special Counsel, Jean-Pierre “made these references to generate opposition to Republican candidates” and “therefore, making the references constituted political activity.”<\/p>\n

The letter<\/a> was published online by The Washington Post. It was first reported by NBC News. <\/p>\n

Penalties for violations of the Hatch Act are rare, and the office did not recommend a fine or other punishment for Jean-Pierre.<\/p>\n

Violations were much more frequent under President Donald Trump. The Office of Special Counsel sent one “unprecedented”<\/a> 15 warning letters to senior Trump administration officials about Hatch Act violations, and even recommended the firing of top adviser Kellyanne Conway.<\/p>\n

Jean-Pierre faced scrutiny after a conservative organization called Protect the Public’s Trust filed a complaint. <\/p>\n

The organization said Jean-Pierre “was disparaging President Biden’s political opponents as ‘mega MAGA Republican officials who don’t believe in the law.'”<\/p>\n

Jean-Pierre said the White House counsel’s office was reviewing the letter, adding that “we do everything we can” to comply with the law and take it “very seriously.”<\/p>\n

“At the time, I was given permission to use that terminology,” he said. Jean-Pierre said the term was used “in the context of talking about their policies, when talking about their values.”<\/p>\n

She noted that some reporters often express “friendly dismay” about how often she cites the Hatch Act, and suggested she was confused by the violation. <\/p>\n

After all, he said, the Trump White House used the phrase “MAGA” about 2,000 times to describe his administration’s policies. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n

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WASHINGTON (AP) – Since assuming the role of White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre has become known for frequently dodging questions by citing the Hatch Act. The law prohibits officials from engaging in politics during their day jobs, and Jean-Pierre uses it to deflect campaign-related questions from reporters. But apparently he wasn’t careful enough. The Office of Special Counsel, a government enforcement agency the Hatch Actsaid in a recent letter that Jean-Pierre violated the law before last year’s midterm elections. His offense: making frequent references to “MAGA Republicans” during White House briefings. According to a letter from the Office of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news24feed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news24feed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news24feed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news24feed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news24feed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25368"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news24feed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25370,"href":"https:\/\/news24feed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25368\/revisions\/25370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news24feed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news24feed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news24feed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news24feed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}