It’s gotta take a lot for Walter Shaub, Obama’s ethics guy and a former CNN contributor, currently working at CREW, to completely lose it at Biden.
Walter Shaub, the director of the United States Office of Government Ethics under President Obama, said the Biden administration is sending a “f— you” to ethics experts by hiring so many relatives of senior White House officials.
“I’m sorry, I know some folks don’t like hearing any criticism of him. But this royally sucks. I’m disgusted,” Shaub wrote in a Twitter thread Friday, reacting to an article about the family ties of Biden officials.
“A lot of us worked hard to tee him up to restore ethics to government and believed the promises,” Shaub added, calling the string of family-related hires “a real ‘f*** you’ to us—and government ethics.”
“EVEN THE F-ING HEAD OF PRESIDENTIAL PERSONNEL, WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE KEEPING THEM HONEST, HAS A CHILD WHO’S A RECENT COLLEGE GRAD WORKING IN THE ADMINISTRATION. AND THE SPOUSE OF THE WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD,” Shaub added.
“This is ridiculous. What a f***ing failure.”
At issue was a WaPo report about the Biden administration being a family business.
Among those hired who have personal ties to the administration include two sons and a daughter of Biden’s counselor and longtime aide, Steve Ricchetti, as Axios previously reported.
Ricchetti was one of Biden’s more controversial people.
Steve Ricchetti, Biden’s former chief of staff, and longtime confidant, chaired Biden’s campaign. AT&T has been the only corporate client of the Ricchetti Consulting Group for nine years. Ricchetti has deep relationships with both AT&T and Biden. And if Biden were to take over the White House, AT&T would have its man on the inside to protect its economic interests.
Amazon brought his brother on board.
The brother of one of President-elect Joe Biden’s top advisers has recently secured a lobbying contract with the technology giant Amazon.
Jeff Ricchetti, the brother of Biden’s designated White House counselor Steve Ricchetti, registered to lobby for Amazon Web Services, the tech company’s cloud platform, on Nov. 13, according to a new lobbying disclosure report obtained by CNBC.
That’s just the tip of the crooked Bidenberg.
In the first few months of Biden’s presidency, at least five children of his top aides have secured coveted jobs in the new administration. They include two sons and a daughter of the White House counselor, the daughter of a deputy White House chief of staff and the daughter of the director of presidential personnel.
At least.
Steve Ricchetti’s daughter, Shannon Ricchetti, who graduated from college in 2016, is deputy associate director of the office of the White House social secretary… Steve Ricchetti’s son Daniel Ricchetti is a senior adviser in the office of the undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.
Nice work if you can get it.
But the Biden administration is very much a family business.
Cathy Russell, the director of presidential personnel in the White House, has a daughter, Sarah Donilon, who graduated college in 2019 and works in the White House National Security Council. Sarah Donilon’s uncle, Mike Donilon, is a senior adviser to Biden in the White House.
All one big happy family.
The White House press secretary’s sister, Stephanie Psaki, was appointed a senior adviser at the Health and Human Services Department in March. Klain’s wife, Monica Medina, was nominated for assistant secretary of state focused on oceans and the environment.
And then there’s
So does White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s wife, Maggie Goodlander, who works as counsel to Attorney General Merrick Garland, for whom she clerked when he was an appellate judge. Sullivan’s brother, Tom Sullivan, is a State Department official and Tom’s wife, Rose Sullivan, is an official at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Team Obama is all over social media insisting that any suggestion that these family members are not the best people for the job is an insult.
“In a country that had just come through a pandemic, how can these children of political appointees be the only people who are qualified for employment?” Shaub said.
Biden runs a family business. He always did.
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