White House Defiantly Says ‘MAGA Republicans’ After Jean-Pierre Warned ‘MAGA Republicans’ Violates Hatch Act

The White House is defiantly continuing to say “MAGA Republicans” after White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was warned that the phrase constitutes a Hatch Act violation.

The independent Office of Special Counsel recently sent a letter saying that Jean-Pierre had violated the Hatch Act with reference to “mega MAGA Republican officials who don‘t believe in the rule of law” during a briefing in November.

The agency sent Jean-Pierre a warning letter, but declined to recommend any disciplinary action.

At Tuesday’s briefing, several reporters asked Jean-Pierre about the OSC warning, and KJP responded at length:

Q And then, lastly, the Office of Special Counsel has said that your use of “MAGA Republicans” violated the Hatch Act. What kind of guidance had you previously been given by the White House Counsel on that matter?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So let me just lay — lay this down. I’m really glad that you asked the question. I know there’s been many news reports on this.

So as — we’ve made very clear throughout our time in this administration that we do everything that we can to uphold, certainly, the Hatch Act and take the law very seriously.

A couple of things that I want to lay out here:

So, with — you know, many of you have mentioned, with friendly consternation, how often we take the — we take the Hatch Act and we follow the Hatch Act throughout these past two years.

We received a letter from the Office of Special Counsel, which is the independent agency that enforces the Hatch Act, as all of you know, and it communicated to us that — their opinion and — issuing a warning, but not taking further action. As you all know by reading the letter and the reports, the White House Counsel’s Office is reviewing their opinion and is going to respond to them.

So, certainly not going to get ahead of how the White House Counsel is going to respond or what’s going to come out from — from that action.

So, now, if you — if you look at the archived Trump White House website, it contains about 2,000 — nearly 2,000 uses of “MAGA” to describe policies and official agendas. Congressional Republicans have also used “MAGA” to refer to policies and official agenda frequently, for years now — even, clearly, before we entered the administration.

And what’s more, I also want to note that — that the opinion that you see that was presented by — by OSC happened just last week, which is — it occurred months after the briefing where I made those comments.

So, basically, it is retroactive, right? The actions were retroactive, after I had made the comments.

So, look, when — basically, what we’re seeing by me laying that out is that we did not know their opinion when we were able to use — to — we were be- — when we — when we were given the green light to actually say the comments that I made. So I just want to make that very clear.

But again, look, it’s going to be reviewed. That’s what the White House Counsel is going to do. They’re going to have a dialogue, a routine dialogue with a OC- — OSC. And so, I’ll just leave it there.

Q Thanks, Karine. But it sounds like you disagree with the findings. Is that true?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: No. What I’m saying is that this — we got this letter last week. And — and it was retroactive, right? The letter was retroactive. I — what I — the comments that I made was months prior. And so, we didn’t know that was the opinion months prior, when it was said.

So, what I will say now is that the White House Counsel is going to have a routine dialogue, like many administrations have in the past, with OSC. And certainly not going to get ahead of that. I’m going to let that process move forward.

Asked if she believed she violated the act, Jean-Pierre told CNN White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond:

At the time, I was given the sign-off — right? — to use that terminology. And — and I said this just moments ago: The letter that we received was from last week. We received that letter for something that I said months ago, so it was retroactive, if you will.

I’m just not going to get into giving my opinion or thoughts. I’m just going to lay out the facts for all of you. You all are going to report this and have reported it. And we’re going to have a routine conversation. Not — not myself, but clearly the White House Counsel is going to have a routine conversation with OSC to talk about this. I’m just going to leave that there.

The White House Counsel’s Office has apparently decided to ignore the OSC’s warning, as a new memo from White House Deputy Press Secretary and Senior Communications Adviser Andrew Bates indicates.

Entitled “Memo: House Republicans want to uproot President Biden’s successful middle class economics agenda with MAGA tax welfare for the rich,” the memo makes copious use of the forbidden term:

Memo

RE: House Republicans want to uproot President Biden’s successful middle class economics agenda with MAGA tax welfare for the rich

Date: 6/14/2023

From: Deputy Press Secretary and Senior Communications Adviser Andrew Bates

President Biden’s plan to grow the American economy by growing the American middle class is delivering.

Yesterday morning, we learned that inflation – which has hit every major global economy in the wake of COVID-19 – has reached its lowest level since early 2021.

At the same time, unemployment has stayed below 4 percent for the longest consecutive period in more than 50 years.

Gas prices have also fallen.

This comes as President Biden leads an historic manufacturing resurgence that is insourcing jobs from overseas, as Medicare takes unprecedented steps to negotiate lower drug prices, energy costs decline, and as America is rebuilt thanks to the biggest infrastructure investment since Eisenhower.

Unfortunately, congressional Republicans’ main economic agenda item is very different: MAGA tax welfare for the richest Americans and giant corporations, at the expense of continuing to grow our economy by investing in America.

Just this week, the House GOP released a plan to add hundreds of billions of dollars in debt – if their corporate tax cuts are made permanent.

They have announced they would follow that legislation with an even bigger proposed MAGA windfall for the rich, which would heap another more than $2.5 trillion onto our debt.

That’s not what middle class families want.

Nor do they want the manufacturing jobs that just arrived from overseas sent back – as House Republicans have proposed. Or their Medicare and Social Security benefits cuts – as House Republicans stated they intend to do with their commission.

Watch above via The White House.