We knew that former unlawfully appointed acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Chad Wolf was corruptly campaigning for the insurrectionist president while on the taxpayer dime, dispatched to campaign stops in states including Arizona and Texas before the 2020 election. DHS basically operated as the former president’s taxpayer-funded super PAC, and Unlawful Chad ran it.
What we didn’t know was exactly how much taxpayers were forking over for Unlawful Chad’s coiffed rear to get shuttled around in government aircraft to lie and tout that stupid border wall. The latter was just five days before Election Day, by the way. But we do have a number now, thanks to watchdog organization American Oversight: nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
“Four trips taken by Wolf to the battleground states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, and Texas cost $223,652, roughly $221,300 of which was spent on government planes, according to the documents, which were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act,” TIME reports. The outlet notes that a video posted to DHS social media accounts touting the wall “was indistinguishable from a campaign ad.”
The Washington Post noted at the time that Unlawful Chad intentionally didn’t say then-candidate Joe Biden’s name during that southern border visit, like that somehow didn’t make it a campaign stop. Oh, but it was exactly that—and it wasn’t the only time, either.
It was just this past November when the Office of Special Counsel named Unlawful Chad among the at least 13 former officials who violated the Hatch Act, “illegally mixing campaign and government events,” Daily Kos’ Mark Sumner reported. Remember how Unlawful Chad held that horrific naturalization stunt during the RNC? The administration had been warned repeatedly that such an event would be unlawful. The stunt went on anyway.
American Oversight had also previously reported that another political visit by Unlawful Chad, to Portland in summer 2020, may have cost taxpayers more than $90,000.
“It wasn’t just DHS,” TIME reporter Vera Bergengruen tweeted. “Education Sec. Betsy DeVos hosted a ‘Moms for Trump’ event in Michigan. Agriculture Sec. Sonny Perdue’s speech in NC led the crowd to chant ‘four more years.’ Sec Mike Pompeo gave a speech from Israel to the RNC while on a diplomatic trip.” Bergengruen noted a Pennsylvania stop by acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Tony Pham touting taxpayer-funded billboards demonizing immigrants.
“A reminder that the Nazis would publish lists of ‘Criminal Jews’ as part of their attempts to smear entire population groups as evil and worthy of state oppression,” American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin-Melnick tweeted at the time.
So what happens to Unlawful Chad? The same thing that’s happened to top former officials with that administration so far: nothing (but I would love to be proved wrong in the future). He’ll continue to spew anti-immigrant rhetoric in Heritage Foundation blog posts calling Black and Latino asylum-seekers “illegal” despite the fact that asylum is legal immigration. He’s continued baselessly accusing asylum-seekers of being lawbreakers, despite the fact that his claim to national fame, heading DHS, was itself unlawful. It’s always, always projection with these guys.
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