Aiding Trump's party while in government posts
Department of Labor Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito, left, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost, AP/Jacquelyn Martin
This election season, the Trump administration has stepped up its shady use of government appointees for partisan purposes. The immediate aim is to stave off the loss of the GOP majority in House elections to be held in three and a half months.
The most glaring recent example of a Cabinet member crossing the wavy line from governance to political fixing is Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s contacts with Libertarian Party candidates in Iowa. Both could siphon votes from GOP congressional contenders.
Kennedy visited the state in May, ostensibly to boost President Donald Trump's health agenda. On June 11 the secretary had a conversation with Rick Stewart, the Libertarian candidate in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District. Stewart recorded it and Kennedy indicated he wanted the third-party hopeful to drop out.
As reported by The Washington Post, which obtained the audio, Kennedy said he was acting as a "liaison" to the White House. A House turnover to Democrats would undermine the president's agenda, Kennedy said. He suggested Stewart could "make an agreement" that would accomplish more than a "symbolic run" for office.
"I can't go into specifics because there's legal prohibitions about that," Kennedy said. "If it's something that you want to talk about, you know, you and I can talk about specifics."
Perhaps this was one of those "perfect" phone calls that implied a murky quid pro quo.
In another phone call, to Libertarian House candidate Marco Battaglia in Iowa's CD3, Kennedy said, "If this seat flips, it'll make my life hell," according to published reports. Rep. Zach Nunn, the incumbent seeking reelection, also pushed Battaglia to drop out, reports said.
So far, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has blasted Kennedy's role by citing the Hatch Act of 1939 meant to keep federal employees away from politicking. Wyden also pointed to the Hatch Act in cautioning Long Islander Anthony D'Esposito during his confirmation last year for inspector general of the Labor Department when he hadn't yet committed to forgoing a run for his former CD4 seat.
Over the weekend, D'Esposito posted a photo on his personal LinkedIn page of himself alongside substitute GOP candidate Jeanine Driscoll surrounded by more than 30 others posed in front of the Island Park, Lido, Point Lookout Republican Club headquarters.
"Up early, beat the rain, and hit the doors with my friend Jeanine Driscoll," D'Esposito posted. And he alleged that Rep. Laura Gillen voted no on tax cuts, protecting girls' sports and public safety funding, writing, "#NY04 deserves better. #NY04 needs Jeanine."
Even the loose restrictions of the Hatch Act go unenforced under Trump. But Donald Sherman, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), notes extra requirements for impartiality in the rule book for inspectors general that should warn D'Esposito off campaigning.
The IGs' guidelines say: "The IG organization and its staff must be free from personal, external, and organizational impairments to ensure objective conclusions." As part of that, experts have said these legal and ethics enforcers are generally barred from active roles in political campaigns. IGs also aren't supposed to get their jobs through partisan connections.
But by now it's clear that impartial professionalism is far less a qualification for many top MAGA appointees than their political usefulness and reciting the company line — either for a Kennedy in Iowa or a D'Esposito on Long Island.
Columnist Dan Janison's opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
