Click here for Robert Reich's March 4 article on Substack, entitled "The Stupidest, Saddest, Sleaziest of Spectacles," in which he laments how far his beloved Department of Labor has fallen (Reich was Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, from January 1993 to January 1997).
Two DoL officials, chief of staff Jihun Han and deputy secretary Rebecca Wright, were fired; Reich claims it's to shield the person who really should go, Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Reich says:
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.
Reich says further:
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.
When Biden became president, I thought that the administration's good will and competence would convince the American public that Trump was a disaster -- but Trump's lies and propaganda resulted in 77 million voting for him. Have they learned their lesson yet?
