The notion of using food as a weapon is a cliche, but telling voters to support President Trump at an event to promote the Farmers to Families Food Box Program is a violation of the Hatch Act, the Hill reports in USDA's Perdue fined for violating Hatch Act while promoting food boxes:
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue was found to have violated the Hatch Act in August by encouraging voters to support President Trump at an event to promote the Farmers to Families Food Box Program.
In a Thursday letter from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, Perdue was ordered to reimburse the government for a trip to Mills River, N.C., where he was set to promote the new initiative, which used coronavirus aid to deliver food to low income people as farmers’ markets were disrupted.
At the event, which was attended by Trump, Perdue said people lined up along the motorcade route were “part of those forgotten people that voted for you for 2016.”
And I’ve got better news for you: They and many others are going to vote for you for four more years in 2020. Because they understand, under your administration, they’ve not been forgotten. And this [Farmers to Families Food Box Program] is a great example of that.”
Purdue called the food boxes a program of “compassion” and said “that’s what’s going to continue to happen — four more years — if America gets out and votes for this man, Donald J. Trump.”
The Hatch Act bars federal employees — even Cabinet members — from engaging in political activity while at work.
“Taken as a whole, Secretary Perdue’s comments during the August 24 event encouraged those present, and those watching remotely, to vote for President Trump’s reelection. His first words were not about USDA, but about the president’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns,” wrote Ana Galindo-Marrone, chief of the counsel’s Hatch Act unit, adding that Perdue used a campaign pledge to help the “forgotten” to segue into a discussion of the program, “in which many of those in the audience had a vested interest.”
The Agriculture Department did not immediately respond to request for comment and did not provide an estimate for the cost of the trip Perdue must now reimburse.
The Trump administration’s politicization of the food box program did not end with Perdue’s comments.
Politico reported earlier this month that Trump required the boxes, which are distributed by local nonprofits, include a letter bearing his signature, similar to his order to sign the stimulus checks distributed in April. . . .
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which filed the Hatch Act complaint against Perdue, said the case was the latest example of an administration that has shown a “lack of concern about these anti-democratic abuses.”
“Even in an administration that has racked up a record number of Hatch Act violations, it is still shocking to see a Cabinet secretary violate the law in such an egregious manner,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a release. “Misusing the federal government to help keep the president in power seriously undermines democracy.”
Here's the letter to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington:
HA 20 000394 Closure Letter to CREW by uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd
ProPublica reported on September 1 Now in Government Food Aid Boxes: A Letter From Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, McClatchy DC's Don Sweeney reported in Food banks across US remove Trump letter from meal boxes, calling it ‘outrageous’:
Food banks across the United States are intercepting and removing a signed letter from President Donald Trump included in federal food aid.
In the letters, in English and Spanish on a White House letterhead, Trump gives himself credit for providing the enclosed food, Politico reported. . . .
They are included in U.S. Department of Agriculture coronavirus food aid to be distributed to hungry families from local food banks. But charities from Boston to San Francisco are pulling the letters out before delivering the food, despite USDA orders to the contrary.
Joel Berg, chief executive of Hunger Free America, a nationwide anti-hunger nonprofit organization, called the letters “absolutely outrageous,” The Washington Post reported. . . .
The East Idaho News of Idaho Falls reports Thursday Local food bank facing backlash after removing Trump letter from food boxes.
Photo: Ivanka Trump and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue at a North Carolina event amid food boxes. Via Modern Farmer's USDA Chief Under Fire for Alleged Hatch Act Violations.
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