The Stupidest, Saddest, Sleaziest of Spectacles

Friends,

Trump says he’s not responsible for what happens next in Iran. “It’s up to the Iranians.”

He acts as if he’s not even responsible for what’s happening in his own government. After federal agents murdered two people in Minneapolis and Border Patrol head Greg Bovino was sacked, Trump lamely explained, “Bovino is very good, but he’s a pretty out there kind of a guy. It some cases that’s good, maybe it wasn’t good here.”

Yesterday the White House quietly removed Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s two top aides at the Labor Department because, well, they were pretty out there, too.

To paraphrase Daniel Webster when speaking to the Supreme Court about Dartmouth College in 1819, the DOL is a small department, but there are those who love it.

I loved it from the moment I entered the Frances Perkins Building on Constitution Avenue as secretary of labor in January 1992.

I loved its mission: to protect and raise the standard of living of working Americans.

I loved its history. The first secretary of labor, Frances Perkins — appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 — was also America’s first female Cabinet secretary. She was the guiding light behind the creation of Social Security, the 40-hour workweek, the National Labor Relations Act, and much more.

Her painting hung behind my desk in my huge second-floor office. Whenever I felt discouraged, I looked at her, and she bucked me up. (Although I’m Jewish, I called her Saint Frances.)

I admired the Department of Labor’s career staff, who were dedicated to helping American workers. I was deeply impressed by the assistant secretaries, the deputy secretary, the chief of staff, and other appointees with whom I toiled, often six or seven days a week from early morning to late at night.

Never before or since have I had the privilege of working with such talented people who cared so much about what they were accomplishing for the American people, and who made such a positive impact on so many lives.

We raised the minimum wage for the first time in many years, even under a Republican-controlled Congress. We implemented the Family and Medical Leave Act. We fought against sweatshops. We took on big corporations that were cheating their employees. We kept workers safe. We … well, I could go on and on. (And I have, in my book Locked in the Cabinet, which you can also find here, but please don’t order from here.)

Why am I telling you all this? Because I’m heartbroken. The wonderful department I once loved is being turned to shit.

I blame Trump. He’s the one who nominated Chavez-DeRemer to be his labor secretary.

Is it inappropriate for a former labor secretary to criticize a current one? Maybe, but I don’t care. She deserves it.

As I’ve noted, the White House yesterday told her two top aides — chief of staff Jihun Han and deputy secretary Rebecca Wright — to resign or be fired.

Investigators say the pair created a “toxic” work environment. Allegedly, they verbally abused staffers, silenced critics within the department, and concocted taxpayer-funded pleasure trips for Chavez-DeRemer by seeking out conferences or speaking engagements where she could make an appearance and then duck out.

I think Han and Wright are taking the rap for Chavez-DeRemer, who’s still facing allegations of drinking during the workday from a “stash” of alcohol in her office, taking subordinates to an Oregon strip club while on an official trip, and having an affair with a member of her security team.

In January, unnamed sources described Chavez-DeRemer as the “boss from hell,” saying she demanded staffers run personal errands for her or perform other menial tasks unrelated to their government jobs.

Meanwhile, her husband has been barred from the Frances Perkins Building after female staff accused him of unwanted sexual advances. His lawyer says the accusers are in cahoots with department employees to force Chavez-DeRemer out of office.

More than two dozen department employees from across the political spectrum describe in interviews with The New York Times a toxic workplace characterized by an absentee secretary, hostile aides, and a deeply demoralized staff.

It’s a fucking mess.

From what I hear, other departments are nearly as bad. Pete Hegseth’s Department of “War” suffers ongoing turmoil. Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security is in shambles. Pam Bondi’s Justice Department is a wreck.

Almost every department and agency of the federal government has become a back-stabbing rat’s nest. Total pandemonium. Career staff against political appointees and vice versa, political appointees against other political appointees. Blatant misuses of taxpayer dollars, self-dealing, conflicts of interest, sexual predation, abuses of lower-level employees.

This is what you get when you have a president and White House staff who don’t give a rat’s ass about who they appoint to positions of power except for their loyalty to Trump and how they look on television. Along with Republicans in Congress who don’t oversee these departments because they couldn’t care less.

The only reason the White House booted Chavez-DeRemer’s deputy and chief of staff yesterday was to protect her ass, in order to protect Trump.

Trump and his White House assistants are fine with his appointees wrecking our government because they don’t care about government. Hell, they came to government to wreck it. If the public loses confidence in, say, the Department of Labor, that’s perfectly fine. If Congress slashes its funding, so much the better.

It infuriates me because I’ve seen government work for the people. I’ve witnessed public servants who care deeply and bust their asses in service to this country. I know how important government can be if it’s doing the job it should be doing.

I loved the Department of Labor because it has improved the lives of millions of Americans. I worked like hell as secretary of labor because I believed in what we were doing. That it’s now being treated like crap is an insult to generations of hardworking DOL employees, to American workers, to America.

The least we can all do is flip Congress in November, so senators and representatives who care about this country can oversee these departments and try to remedy some of the wreckage that Trump and his appointees have wrought.

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