Why? Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we have to wait for an election, when we have a criminal president breaking more laws every day, and two mechanisms for removing such a president (assuming he can’t be pressured to resign)? Yesterday, the Hatch Act finally fell. It’s a dead letter.
With opening night of the 2020 RNC, Trump and the GOP have openly and blatantly violated the Hatch Act. One could argue that the president and vice president are exempt from the act, but not the spaces used. The William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building and the White House are Federal property, and in a normal world, campaigning activities in either space would be followed by a scathing Inspector General report, an investigation by the House Oversight Committee, and calls for the president to resign for tainting Federal property and abusing his power. But not this president. Not ever. Trump has killed the Hatch Act, and we let him do it.
Tonight, the violations become more blatant as we will see the sitting Secretary of State make a campaign speech on foreign soil, and we might see the first-ever campaign speech from the White House.