A former White House ethics chief has called for the Biden administration to fire any officials who continue to use the politically charged term “MAGA.”
Richard Painter, formerly an ethics chief in President George W. Bush’s administration and a one-time Democrat Senate candidate, made the remarks to Fox News.
He initially said it’s “a terrible, terrible idea” for White House officials to keep using the term, especially after press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was recently found to have been in violation of the Hatch Act as per her own usage of the term.
“I think that’s critically important that they stop doing it. If the Office of Special Counsel says they need to stop doing it, that means they need to stop doing it, and we can’t have them flipping the bird at this. They’ve got to comply with the Office of Special Counsel’s interpretation of the Hatch Act,” he continued.
WH spox KJP violated Hatch Act with ‘mega MAGA Republicans’ smear; no disciplinary action taken https://t.co/7o63xHBAzX via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) June 13, 2023
As previously reported, Jean-Pierre violated the Hatch Act when she repeatedly used the term “mega MAGA Republicans” in the run-up to the 2022 midterms.
In a letter shared with NBC News, last week the Office of Special Counsel said the president’s spokesperson violated the law intended to prevent federal employees from using their offices to influence elections when she repeatedly used the term to refer to GOP candidates, stating that this was “an inappropriate attempt to influence the vote.”
“Because Ms. Jean‐Pierre made the statements while acting in her official capacity, she violated the Hatch Act prohibition against using her official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election,” Ana Galindo‐Marrone, who leads the agency’s Hatch Act Unit, wrote in the letter.
However, despite the violation, the office “decided to close this matter without further action” and instead just issue Jean-Pierre a warning letter.
And so not surprisingly, White House officials continued to use the term, including deputy press secretary Andrew Bates.
“On Wednesday, the White House released a statement … that continued to use ‘MAGA.’ Deputy press secretary Andrew Bates wrote in a memo that Republicans’ ‘main economic agenda item’ is ‘MAGA tax welfare for the richest Americans and giant corporations, at the expense of continuing to grow our economy by investing in America,'” according to Axios.
Scoop: The White House will continue to use the term “MAGA” a week after the WH Office of Special Counsel declared it a violation of the Hatch Act.
Deputy Press Sec Andrew Bates pens a new memo hitting R’s on “MAGA windfall” and “MAGA tax welfare”https://t.co/hF1l4r9ixF pic.twitter.com/s56Mb7oyol— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) June 14, 2023
Even Jean-Pierre continued to use the term.
“The hardcore MAGA budget just released by the Republican Study Committee – which represents a majority of House Republicans – amounts to a devastating attack on Medicare, Social Security, and Americans’ access to health coverage and prescription drugs,” she said in a statement that, ironically enough, was shared by Bates.
.@PressSec: “The hardcore MAGA budget just released by @RepublicanStudy – which represents a majority of House Republicans – amounts to a devastating attack on Medicare, Social Security, and Americans’ access to health coverage and prescription drugs.” https://t.co/lHz4FcOuUz
— Andrew Bates (@AndrewJBates46) June 14, 2023
Responding to this continued use of the term, Painter suggested that anyone who keeps repeating using it — like, say, the press secretary, should be “dismissed from federal service.”
“If someone keeps doing it when they’re told not to do it, they should get fired. Or if they engage in a serious act of the Hatch Act one time, they should be fired,” he said.
“I mean, that’s the presumptive penalty for either a serious violation of the Hatch Act or repeated violations when you’ve been told not to do it is get fired. Once the Office of Special Counsel says, ‘Don’t use MAGA, that’s a campaign slogan,’ and somebody keeps doing it and anybody else does it when they’ve been told not to, then boom, they should be gone,” he added.
Out of fairness, he also said that the Trump administration should have never used the term as well.
Recall that in 2018, the OSC “found six Trump Administration officials guilty of violating the Hatch Act, a 1939 law prohibiting government employees from engaging in political activity while on the job,” as reported at the time by Rolling Stone.
“At the heart of several of the violations are accusations of tweeting or retweeting messages containing the hashtag #MAGA,” the magazine added.
That being said, Painter did make an exception for “build the wall,” given as this particular set of terms is at least linked to an official policy proposal.
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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