Norm Eisen is blasting President Donald Trump’s Republican National Committee Convention speech – in fact, the entire Thursday evening event at the White House, for being at the White House, and violating federal law.
As the RNC convention drew to a close and cameras filmed the fireworks show over the National Mall literally spelling out “TRUMP 2020” in the night sky, Eisen took to Twitter to criticize what he says is an unlawful event.
No one could challenge Eisen’s credentials. He was the White House Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform under President Barack Obama. He is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the non-partisan Brookings Institution, which calls him an “expert on law, ethics, and anti-corruption.” Eisen was chosen as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee to assist in the impeachment of President Trump. He’s also the co-founder of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
“Even the fireworks are a violation,” Eisen tweeted. “Literally thousands of Hatch Act violations— one for every federal official who helped with or participated in this revolting display. The greatest mass Hatch Act transgression in US history.”
In a follow up tweet he notes Trump is “breaking the law.”
Just to be clear, the Hatch Act is federal law. And while the President and Vice President are not bound by it, every other executive branch employee is.
Perhaps just to prove how different the Obama White House was, Eisen also posts a story about when he “was in charge of the Hatch Act in the White House.”
“I walked into the office of a senior staffer who loved the Grateful Dead. They had an autographed an Obama campaign sign for him & he had hung it up. I made him take it down: politics in the federal workplace are illegal.”