The White House isn’t backing down from using the phrase “MAGA” to tie congressional Republicans to former President Trump, even after a government watchdog agency told officials its use violates the Hatch Act.
In a memo sent out late Thursday, slamming the Republican Study Committee’s fiscal budget, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates described it as “an extreme MAGA plan.”
It’s the same language that got White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre into trouble earlier this week.
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates defended its use in an email to The Washington Times, pointing to remarks made earlier this week by Ms. Jean-Pierre.
On Tuesday, Ms. Jean-Pierre pointed out that the Trump administration used MAGA to describe “policies or official agendas” nearly 2,000 times.
“Congressional Republicans have also used ‘MAGA’ to refer to policies and official agenda frequently, for years now — even, clearly, before we entered the administration,” she said.
The Office of the Special Counsel accused Ms. Jean-Pierre of running afoul of the Hatch Act, which limits federal employees from engaging in political activities that may influence elections.
As the OSC sees it, Ms. Jean-Pierre violated the Hatch Act in November when she referred to “MAGA Republican officials who don’t believe in the rule of law” and made other remarks disparaging Republican candidates.
“Because Ms. Jean-Pierre made the statements while acting in her official capacity, she violated the Hatch Act prohibition against using her official authority to 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 a letter June 7.
The letter was issued in response to a Hatch Act complaint filed by Protect the Public’s Trust, a conservative watchdog group.
Ms. Jean-Pierre responded to the allegation by saying Tuesday that the White House didn’t know it had violated the Hatch Act.
“The opinion that was presented by OSC happened just last week, which is – it occurred months after the briefing where I made those comments. So, basically, it is retroactive,” she added.
“We did not know their opinion when we were given the green light to say the comments that I made,” she said at the daily press briefing.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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