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Watchdog Group Goes After National Park Service Over RNC Participation

What will they think of next?

In an election as heated and wild as the one that we are currently enveloped by, there is no avenue of attack that’s off limits.  We’ve been conditioned for this by the mainstream media, who build up every one of these presidential contests as if it were a summer blockbuster movie, where good battles evil to the bitter end.

They seem to have forgotten that politicians of any ilk are actually just public servants who work for all of America.  Or, at least they used to be.

So, as we inch ever nearer to the 2020 contest’s inevitable end, every maneuver that either side makes will be more petty than the last.

For instance, this latest attack on the National Park Service.

The National Park Service (NPS) is in hot water with ethics watchdogs for a slickly produced video promoting President Trump along with its plans to host a fireworks spectacle after his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

Trump is slated to give his convention speech on Thursday from the White House South Lawn, followed by fireworks at the nearby Washington Monument on Park Service property. Those plans come on the heels of an NPS video publicly praising the president for his involvement in legislation providing more funding to parks.

The two instances are leading to allegations that federal employees are engaging in political activity while at work — a violation of the Hatch Act.

“Federal appropriations laws make it clear government dollars are meant to be used to serve the American public, not to help political office holders remain in power, and that appears to be what this video and what this event on the Mall is designed to do,” Donald Sherman, deputy director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), told The Hill.

Earlier this week, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows pushed back against the idea that Hatch Act violations could come into play, lamenting that no one “outside of The Beltway” is concerned with such frivolity.

 

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