It is against the law – the Hatch Act – for any federal employee to use their title, resources, or federal infrastructure to campaign on behalf of any candidate. The Trump administration has been repeatedly accused of violating the Hatch Act and it appears to have no intention of stopping.

According to The Hill, a complaint was filed by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and sent to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC). It calls for an investigation of Stephen Miller who launched a nakedly political attack on Joe Biden from the grounds of the White House.

Miller was giving an interview on Fox and Friends when Brian Kilmeade gently acknowledged the difficulty in asking Miller a question about Biden by saying “I know you are on the political side and not the campaign …”

But Miller answered just as a campaign person would, using his title and the White House as a backdrop:

“Well, as you know, Joe Biden is stuck in a basement somewhere, and he just emerges every now and again, and somebody hands him a notecard, and he says whatever his 23-year-old staffer tells him to say, and then he dutifully disappears to be seen a week later,” Miller said. “As for former President Obama, the reality is that for eight years he delivered nothing but failure and betrayal to the people of this country.”

One might say that is some very strong projection there.

The complaint stated:

“There is also no doubt that Miller’s statements were aimed at influencing the success or failure of a candidate in a partisan election,” CREW wrote. “Miller responded to a question specifically prefaced as ‘political’ in nature related to Biden by attacking the presumptive Democratic nominee for president as being stuck in the basement and taking direction from young staffers.”

Apparently Miller doesn’t realize that all of us – especially the elderly among us – who aren’t protected by a militarized bubble in the White House complex, are forced to “hide in our basements” while the epidemic runs rampant through the nation.

But that is beside the point. The point is that this isn’t supposed to happen. Does it happen? Yes. Near every administration walks that line. But the Trump administration has received numerous complaints and don’t seem to feel constrained by the law, which fits a larger pattern.

Senior Advisor Stephen Miller: Obama and Biden delivered "failure and betrayal" to the people of this country pic.twitter.com/2OtfBXa3MM

— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) July 31, 2020

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom