When questioning a Trump-appointee who suggested Conway be fired for ethics law violations, Republicans appeared to repeatedly misinterpret the Hatch Act.
. Due to her repeated violations from an earlier warning in 2018 and because of her ignoring requests for compliance by OSC, Kerner recommended that Conway be terminated.
"If we're going to have the same standard, then let me tell you, there are ethical complaints about every single member of Congress that does some kind of TV hit here in the Capitol where they start to talk about [politics]—Mr. Swalwell, Mr. Schiff—If we're going to use the same standard, they are violating the very rules of this House," said Republican Mark Meadows.
Representative Thomas Massie, another Republican member of the Oversight Committee, suggested that because some of the interviews Conway gave and OSC cited as Hatch Act violations did not take place at the White House or during normal business hours, that she was a private citizen simply expressing her opinion.
"The issue isn't time. It all depends whether she's speaking on her own behalf or in her official capacity," Kerner explained."The issue is, is she talking about official administration matters? If she's representing what the president thinks, what the official position is, then she's bound by not getting involved in campaigns."
Miller also questioned whether Conway is allowed to describe former Vice President Joe Biden as"creepy," like Conway, Trump and many Republicans have done with the now-presidential candidate. Republicans and Democrats did have a shimmering moment of bipartisanship, when Meadows expressed willingness to work with Democratic Representatives Jamie Raskin and Ro Khanna to reform the Hatch Act in a way that"hopefully will stop this from being an ambiguous point going forward."
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